About to go HD... (1 Viewer)

[Jack Gilvey]

Right, no downmixing/conversion involved. All the receiver is doing is "unzipping" to the original PCM.

 

[Adam Sanchez]

Hey all. After a VERY busy day I am home now with my new Panny player. Barely going to have time to hook it up and play a movie but I can't resist. The small downside is I don't have 2 HDMI cables, so I'm going to have to use my cable for video directly to the TV...unless... what picture res will the player pass through Component? I recall something about HD video being limited to HDMI... maybe I'm wrong.

Going to order a new cable right now. Worse case scenario I use HDMI for video and Optical for sound. I'm sure it will do till the cable comes.

One VERY important question to ask. What's the best place to get Blu-ray discs? Online or otherwise. I gotta find a way to combat these prices. Holy moly!

Thanks for all the advice in this thread. It was nice to talk into a store and know exactly what I wanted. Got it at Circuit City on sale for $480.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

HD disks are HD over component, SD are not (if copy protected - most are). I get my disks at Amazon, most are 1/3 off at all times.

 

[Adam Sanchez]

Hey Jeff.

Thanks for the recommendation of the Panasonic. I definately like it though I hardly had any time at all last night with it. Tonight will definately be movie night when I get home. The movie I really wanted to be my first in HD I got, Ratatouille so looking forward to seeing it tonight.

I wanted to ask you (Or anyone) about the resume function the player has according to the manual. Unless I'm off, resume play seems to be disc controlled too. I tested in the case of Ratatouille, getting the movie started, then stopping it. Upon pressing play, the movie starts back at the promos. Then back to the menus. After a bit of playing around, I started the movie from the menu again, but THEN i jumped back to the stop I left it.

However it seemed if I turned the power off all together, the saved spot was lost. Is this normal resume for a BD player? I am new to all this of course. Do any players simply resume from a stop like SD DVDs, without going to the menus or anything?

My old DVD Player resumes from the last 5 discs...even if you remove them. I'm gonna miss that. But gotta love my BD.

This thing is going to really shine when we get our planned XBR4 soon. All depends on how much wedding money we get. Just about a week to go.

EDIT: BTW I love the pack in discs, including the Pirate movies. I told my fiancee I wasn't going to be replacing all my DVDs with HDs except for maybe a SELECT few. I had heard the Pirate movies are exceptional examples of BD, so quite nice to get them free. The other 3 movies, I don't own at all, and Crash I have not even seen. So that's rather nice.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Resume is something that most HDM players are lacking, due to the firmware needing a reliable way of resuming the advanced content. HD DVD players (1st, 2nd gen, don't know about 3rd) don't do it at all and I've personally never gotten the Panny to work, so you are one ahead of me.

I know it is possible by implementing it on the disk itself, because HD DVD allows one button bookmarks for disks, but only a couple studios include this. It's a great feature, you just hit "B" before stopping and it saves a bookmark forever. But like I said, it's a disk function, not a player function.

I rather liked Crash. I'd heard bad things about it politics-wise, but it was a good story, cleverly told, excellently acted and wasn't preachy at all. Not Best Picture IMHO, but a good, well crafted film.

 

[Adam Sanchez]

Aw well, guess no resume isn't the end of the world. Wish it could do it better though. The no resume was why I didn't want the Sony's, but then again this one still has more decoding.

Nice to know that maybe a firmware update could make it possible.

I wont be rushing to watch Crash anytime soon, probably watch The Pirate movies first, but it was free.

I'm already fighting the urge to replace a DVD on Blu-Ray. Kingdom of Heaven. They had that side by side comparison going on a TV at Bestbuy. Doh, I shouldn't of looked.

I barely bought the DC of KoH a few months ago, matter of fact, we got so busy we never finished it. I bought it sight unseen, never even seeing the original either. Loved the movie so far though, so I know i would like the HD version.

My friend wants the DC and doesn't like special editions. Maybe I can sell him the 2 SD discs of the movie. Ha ha.

Must...not...replace...all...movies...on...blu-ray....

Ordered my HDMI cables. Looking forward to hearing the uncompressed sound soon. Though I swear the sound now through Optical is pretty damn good.

Speaking of sound, what do I do with that speaker setting in the Players menu? All my speakers are set through my reciever. Seems kind of redundant. Not to mention having picture controls on the player. Eesh!

Ratatouille doesn't have direct access to the audio options. But the player/Reciever seem to know to play Dolby Digital for my current setup...least it sounded like it.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

The speaker controls are only for the analog outs and only if your receiver does no level/delay/bass management on the analog ins. They do nothing to the HDMI or SPDIF.

As far as the picture goes, I set mine to 'theater' since my display is calibrated to neutral. Seems the best choice for my darkened room.

 

[RickER]

My Sony 300 will resume, and it does so with Blu-ray discs as well. I know it does it, cause i did it last night. Of course if you shut it off, leave the disc in, and start again later it will start from the beginning.

 

[Shane Martin]

We all said that early on

 

[Adam Sanchez]

Really though, replacing all my VHS was one thing, but Standard DVDs do honestly look really GOOD to me, especially upscaled. SOME movies I definately believe will warrant a repurchase, but not most I own.

Blu-Ray is meant for movies from this point on for me.

Really.

Why are you all looking at me like that?

 

[Adam Barratt]

Whether you can resume play or not is a function of the Blu-ray disc itself. If the disc was authored in Basic mode (as all early discs were) then you can resume without any problems. If the disc was authored in Advanced mode (newer titles with fancy Java such as Spider-Man 3, POTC, Cars and Ratatouille) then you can't. It can be quite a frustrating issue, but Sony has started including a 'bookmark' feature to get around this annoyance (as used in their Spider-Man discs), which has also been used by HD DVD from its earliest titles.

Adam

 

[RickER]

Thanks Adam, i didnt know that!

 

[Adam Sanchez]

Got to sit down and watch a movie last night.

Started wondering, should I recalibrate my TV settings for HD? It's been set from a disc, though not anything like Avia for DVDs but now that I have HD, do I need to redo it?

My TV isn't the newest, it's a 32 Inch Sony KDL series from just over 2 years ago. 1080i is the highest it goes. But I have Blu-Ray set to 720p, since I believe that is closer to the TVs native, 1360 x 768.

I didn't mess with the color much on the TV but I noticed I had NR on medium. Should that be lower, or off? My movies don't seem as bright as ones I see in stores, or have that HD film grain look that I've grown accustom to on HD theater on TV.

Eh maybe it's just my display, The Blu-Rays still look nice, though admittedly they don't seem THAT much better than upconverted DVDs, and that worries me. Still glad I went HD though for future movies I buy.

Going to be getting a new LCD soon, 52 inches possibly. Sony XBR3 or 4. I gosh darn better notice the difference then.

 

[Cees Alons]

Adam,

Although this may differ between different TV sets, the rule-of-thumb is to present the highest resolution the TV will accept and let it convert the image itself.

In some cases the converting ciruits of the TV set are inferior, in most cases this will result in the best possible picture on your system.

Give it a try, I'd say.


Cees

 

[Adam Sanchez]

You mean let it output to 1080i?

I've always had my DVD player (My upconverting one) set to 70p, in my own logic just thinking 720 constant lines are better than 1080 alternating lines. I realize the 1080i or 720p is an old debate. I don't even want to go there.

Just wanted to see if I could find out if my TV should be recalibrated. Some of my Blu-ray discs have a setup feature, maybe I should start there, as a beginning.

Found my Tv Model. It's a Sony KLV-S32A10.

I don't even know my TVs native resolution. :-/

 

[Patrick Sun]

Have you read the CNet review of your TV set?

 

[Adam Sanchez]

I probably didn't back then, but I have now.

 

[Cees Alons]

Your wish..., etc. but at least try the setting, please, to make certain you choose the best one for your set.


Cees

 

[Adam Sanchez]

I'll definately experiment, not at all opposed to doing so.

Matter of fact, while my Upconverting DVD player (Now my BD player) I have always had set to 720p, my HD Comcast cable Box I've always had set to 1080i.

I have no real good answer as to why I do it like that.

Uh... *quietly asks* someone want to point me to some 1080i vs 720p threads?

 

[Dave Moritz]

I own a Sony BDP-S300 and for the money it has worked out nicely. The only disc I had problems playing recently was Fantastic 4: Rise Of The Silver Surfer. All I had to do was download the firmware update and it played fine. This player will send out uncompressed PCM and it will play the legacy core of DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby True HD. I am not sure yet if the player will bitstream Master Audio and True HD to an external decoder. But IMHO the player was worth what I paid for it, granted I did not get it at your discount Adam. If you want a nicer Blu-ray player and do not mind spending the extra cash, look at the Pioneer Elite BDP-95FD for $999 that will bitsteam Master Audio and True HD via HDMI 1.3a.