Maurice Verploegen
Stunt Coordinator
- Joined
- May 29, 1999
- Messages
- 104
Alright, here it finally is. My ever first experience with Blue-Ray. Thanks to the nice folks at HTF for letting me being part of EMA last summer and the great experience overall.
As I am sure you all know by now, we got very spoiled. We all received a free DMP-BD10A player (among other things), and I also picked the Toshiba HD-XA2 HD-DVD player for $299. While I was very happy to have received all of these great "goodies". It also made me realize that it was time for me to upgrade my current HD Home Theater gear. And I am finally getting everything in and set up correctly. So I decided to give the Panasonic player first bits and try out some of those BD title's that I have bought over the past few months.
My new display is a Sony KDS-60A3000 which I set up a few weeks ago. It replaced on of the ever first HD-Displays on the market. The big and very heavy 38" RCA direct view set. It only had one component input. I felt to do BD and HD-DVD justice I want a display with HDMI inputs. I am still waiting for my Onkyo TX-SR805. So, I am sorry, but I can't give you any feedback on the sound yet.
OK enough about the intro.
Setting up the Panasonic was well.....a breeze. Again, I am still waiting for my new Onkyo to arrive. So right now, one single "blue" HDMI cable (also a gift at EMA) from the Panasonic to the Sony, select input and done! It took the player about 1 minute for the HDMI handshake and that was really it. Wow, I'm already in love with HDMI and haven't even seen the picture yet. I put in Casino Royal since I am a big Bond fan and could't wait to get some glimpse of what BD is all about. Loading time was a little slower then regular DVD players. But I was already aware of this from reading up on a lot of reviews. So I was waiting with patience. And there is was, in full glory. WOW. I skipped to a scene that I still remembered from seeing this film in the theater. OH WOW! This is truly amazing. Colors were jumping off to screen into my face. Everything was so detailed! Amazing. I was watching the scene with the snake fighting the other animal. Lost of people, lots of panoramic shots, lots of day light. Again, amazing!
I did notice a few jitter spots on the film. Mostly on buildings with the wide panoramic shots. My Sony is capable of displaying 24p/s. And I was under the impression that all BD players would do this as well. But looking at the owners manual and on-line I found out that this player can't display in 24p/s. To bad, because I think I would have cleaned that up. But I also need to play a little bit more with the Sony settings to see if I can clean it up a little more through it.
Again, a very minor observation from a otherwise very cool player. I love how you have to open the front cover to open the disc tray. Very solid, very sexy style. The first full movie we watched was believe it or not "National Lampoon Christmas Vacation" in Blue Ray. My all time favorite Christmas flick. Wow, this movie never looked so good. So much detail. Here is one of my wife's comments: "I don't like Blue-Ray, to much detail, to much picture information. You can really see their flaws on their skin & faces". I loved that she said that. In other words, she was very impressed by this Blue-Ray experience as well.
So I am in love with Blue Ray. What an experience! Pretty soon I will hook up my XA-2 HD-DVD player as well and will write another review.
To everybody that was part of EMA and giving me and my family this great experience I would like to say one more time "Thank you". This is what Home Theater is all about.
As I am sure you all know by now, we got very spoiled. We all received a free DMP-BD10A player (among other things), and I also picked the Toshiba HD-XA2 HD-DVD player for $299. While I was very happy to have received all of these great "goodies". It also made me realize that it was time for me to upgrade my current HD Home Theater gear. And I am finally getting everything in and set up correctly. So I decided to give the Panasonic player first bits and try out some of those BD title's that I have bought over the past few months.
My new display is a Sony KDS-60A3000 which I set up a few weeks ago. It replaced on of the ever first HD-Displays on the market. The big and very heavy 38" RCA direct view set. It only had one component input. I felt to do BD and HD-DVD justice I want a display with HDMI inputs. I am still waiting for my Onkyo TX-SR805. So, I am sorry, but I can't give you any feedback on the sound yet.
OK enough about the intro.
Setting up the Panasonic was well.....a breeze. Again, I am still waiting for my new Onkyo to arrive. So right now, one single "blue" HDMI cable (also a gift at EMA) from the Panasonic to the Sony, select input and done! It took the player about 1 minute for the HDMI handshake and that was really it. Wow, I'm already in love with HDMI and haven't even seen the picture yet. I put in Casino Royal since I am a big Bond fan and could't wait to get some glimpse of what BD is all about. Loading time was a little slower then regular DVD players. But I was already aware of this from reading up on a lot of reviews. So I was waiting with patience. And there is was, in full glory. WOW. I skipped to a scene that I still remembered from seeing this film in the theater. OH WOW! This is truly amazing. Colors were jumping off to screen into my face. Everything was so detailed! Amazing. I was watching the scene with the snake fighting the other animal. Lost of people, lots of panoramic shots, lots of day light. Again, amazing!
I did notice a few jitter spots on the film. Mostly on buildings with the wide panoramic shots. My Sony is capable of displaying 24p/s. And I was under the impression that all BD players would do this as well. But looking at the owners manual and on-line I found out that this player can't display in 24p/s. To bad, because I think I would have cleaned that up. But I also need to play a little bit more with the Sony settings to see if I can clean it up a little more through it.
Again, a very minor observation from a otherwise very cool player. I love how you have to open the front cover to open the disc tray. Very solid, very sexy style. The first full movie we watched was believe it or not "National Lampoon Christmas Vacation" in Blue Ray. My all time favorite Christmas flick. Wow, this movie never looked so good. So much detail. Here is one of my wife's comments: "I don't like Blue-Ray, to much detail, to much picture information. You can really see their flaws on their skin & faces". I loved that she said that. In other words, she was very impressed by this Blue-Ray experience as well.
So I am in love with Blue Ray. What an experience! Pretty soon I will hook up my XA-2 HD-DVD player as well and will write another review.
To everybody that was part of EMA and giving me and my family this great experience I would like to say one more time "Thank you". This is what Home Theater is all about.
