HD Has Revitalized My Interest in Home Theater!!! (1 Viewer)

[Chris Maynard]

In the last two evenings I have actually sat down and watched three movies and spent that time grinning from ear to ear.

Rewind 10 years.

I was a very early adopter of DVD. March of 1997 to be exact. I had owned laserdisc but this new media was exciting and offered such vast improvements in picture quality. LD already had fantastic sound so that really didn't make any difference on DVD.

I collected movies, I watched movies, I wrote briefly for websites like the Digital Bits and Obi's Reviews. I loved Home Theater!

Somewhere in the early parts of this decade my interest started to wane. There were no real serious improvements in technology. Sure, televisions got a bit better as did DVD players in each new release but nothing ground-breaking. HDTV got my attention but other than some occasional fantastic picture quality there wasn't much out there that a good DVD couldn't come close or equal to in presentation.


Then comes the arrival of HD DVD & Blu-Ray. I picked up an HD DVD player and a PS3. Picture quality was fantastic! My interest pilot-light was re-lit but the burner simply had not ignited yet.

I knew there was something missing. After talking with some of my "in-the-know" friends I decided it was time to retire my Denon 5800 that had served me so well for 7 years and replace it with the new Denon 4308.

Fast forward to last night......

What a difference in audio performance! Watching Cars and Ratatouille with the uncompressed audio turned up had me so enthralled that my lovely wife had to comment that I looked like a little kid.

Hey, anything to make me look younger now that I am pushing 40 is a good thing!

I really had no idea that it could sound as good as it looks. The HD formats now available to us is hands-down the best experience ever available to us.

I find myself looking forward to the next time I can sit down and watch a movie.

****I will be doing a write up on the 4308 sometime in the next week after I get some additional couch time with it********

 

[Dave>h]

"I knew there was something missing. After talking with some of my "in-the-know" friends I decided it was time to retire my Denon 5800 that had served me so well for 7 years and replace it with the new Denon 4308."

Hi,

I am curious about this statement.

Were you using the player internal decoders previously? That is, did you hook up via the 5.1 analog to your 5800 or were you using toslink and bitstream?

I am curious if you are saying that the new amplifer technolgy, presumably using HDMI to connect, sounds much better than the internally processed sound you were getting from the HD or BR players or if the new Denon is better than the old Denon.

You did not mention upgrading speakers and you say you have had both players for a while so changing amplifiers has made that much of a difference to your listening enjoyment? What do you accredit this to? Better processors, better quality components in the new amp (if I recall correctly, the 5800 was top of the Denon line) what exactly?

The reason I ask is that I have an older Yamaha amp (DSP-A1) and rely on the 5.1 analog for the sound from my HD A1 (if I am listening to Dolby True HD) and I am curious if a new amp might kick things up a notch.

Thanks for clarifying.

Dave

 

[Patrick Sun]

Since Chris was using the PS3 as a Blu-ray player to play Cars and Ratatouille on blu-ray, he had to pipe the audio through HDMI to the receiver to get the full uncompressed audio tracks on those blu-ray discs. Otherwise, using the optical audio output from the PS3 would involve sending the compressed audio tracks to the receiver.

PS3 doesn't have the 5.1 analog audio outputs like other certain blu-ray player models.

 

[Chris Maynard]

Hey Dave!

Patrick did a great job of explaining the BRD side of things!

My speakers have been the same for the last 2+ years. Definitive Technology all the way around.

What do I attribute the sound difference really?

Well I don't believe it is the amplifiers. The 5800 has fantastic amps for a receiver and while I am not sure, most likely every bit as good as the 4308.

I replaced my DSP-A1 with the 5800.

I think the drastic improvement I am hearing is most likely the ability to play uncompressed audio, much improved surround processing and improved system setup using Audyssey.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Chris,
I know what you mean, I have a pile of HDM discs so tall there aren't enough hours in a day for me to make a dent into it.





Crawdaddy

 

[Robert George]

Yep, and the last piece of the HD puzzle fell into place in the past couple of days.

High resolution video is really only half of that delicious recipe we call "HDM". Just as George Lucas told us that sound was 50% of the movie experience back in the heyday of THX, HD DVD and Blu-ray are now able to deliver an aural experience to match the visual feast that is high quality 1080p HD.

HD DVD evolved into the Toshiba HD-A35 several weeks ago putting native 24 frame rate video with the best audio the format has to offer in native bitstream output taking advantage of the best the technology has to offer when paired with one of the incredible new AV receivers now available, such as Chris' Denon 4308. All in a sleek, affordable package. Blu-ray finally stepped up to the technology plate this week with the introduction of the Panasonic DMP-BD30 (yes, you now have a new machine to buy ).

The new BD30 finally gets is all right with perfect 24 frame rate video, bitstream support for all advanced audio codecs, and Java support that finally offers near-PS3 disc load and compatibility performance in a dedicated standalone player.

We already have software that offers truly cinema quality sound and pictures. Now we have relatively affordable hardware that can bring all of that capability to the home theater without the maddening glitches, hiccups, and missing features that have come to believe would be "normal" for HD media. The film experience in the home has reached its zenith, and I for one cannot wait for more great movies to light up my home theater screen.

 

[Jim_K]

Yeah watching movies on HDM is a lot of fun these days much like the early years of DVD.

Equally as fun in the early years of DVD used to be reading and chatting with fellow movie/HT enthusiasts on HT sites like this but unfortunately due to the "format war" and all the bickering and rhetoric associated with it, reading about and discussing HDM on the internet is ofttimes a joyless experience.

 

[Bryan^H]

Well said Chris. I know what you mean about s-dvd, because as an early dvd enthusiast, I too started losing interest in buying dvd's around 2003. HD-dvd has renewed my interest in films(especially older titles) and for the first time in a long while, I'm excited about collecting something.

 

[Chris Maynard]

Wow! So many familiar names and friends.

Robert G. - Thank you so much for all your help. I just tried calling you. This new setup is fantastic and your hours of help and advice are greatly appreciated!

Crawdaddy - Get watching!


Jim K - Why aren't we talking more about these things? I have no interest in listening to people gripe about formats. Just give me beautiful HD audio and video. I don't care if it comes in the format of a raw steak labeled by LG.

 

[Jim_K]

Amen brother, I'm with you.

 

[Dave Moritz]

I feel the same way about HD. While I enjoyed laser discs and was jazed about DTS surround on the LD releases. Along came DVD and I purchased plenty of DVD's but the format was far from perfect on the video side. There have been plenty of DVD releases that looked really good for what they are. But now that HD is here, all I can say is that I am hooked. I was not this excited about DVD when it came out. But now I am willing to purchase older movies because how great they look in HD. The audio with Dolby True HD, DTS-HD Master Audio and Uncompressed PCM is very impressive. I own both HD players and enjoy titles on both formats! HD can also look great on cable and satalite as well and it has never been a better time to own a home theater. There are alot of great titles coming out the next few months and I am dying to own them in HD! Hell after purchasing Spiderman 3 on Blu-ray because I did not know that the trilogy was out. I love HD so much that I went out and purchased the trilogy and now own Spiderman 3 twice. Titles like Pirates Of The Caribbean, The Matrix, Cars, Spiderman and Batman Begins are some of the really good titles out in HD. And if it was not for HD I would most likely not be upgrading my 10 yr old Yamaha to a new HDMI 1.3 receiver that decodes Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio. I will be upgrading my current HD players, upgrading my HDTV to a 1080p HDTV and upgrading my speakers. So HD has actually made me want to upgrade my HT so that I can get the full benafit of the HD platform.

So when someone asks if I love HD, I don't just say YES. I say HELL YES!

 

[Reginald Trent]

Chris I might be wrong but weren't you a mod at the old digital theater website? Or was it administrator? Just curious.

 

[Chris Maynard]

I was an Adminstrator right here on HTF.