HTF HD-DVD Review: Transformers (Highly Recommended) (1 Viewer)

[RobertR]

Interesting. Your experience is directly contradicted by "Filmmixer" on AVS, who says there is no difference between 1.5 Mbps DD+ and the film master. Were your comparisons done double blind and properly level matched? People often hear what they expect to hear, which is wny the blind comparison is a necessity.

 

[ReggieW]

It sounds like you may definitely have a problem with your setup somewhere. You appear to be having a completely opposite experience than reviewers and owners of this disc have reported.

I know the 5800 isn't HDMI equipped, so are you using the analog outs on your XA2 and running them to your 5800?

 

[ReggieW]

There already is a second disc.

By all accounts, it appears that you ARE getting what you pay for: A reference quality track. Have you actually heard it yet? You simply can't make blanket comments based on the audio format and claim you're being ripped off without having heard the master OR the disc itself.

 

[Brian L]

I too was underwhelmed with the sound, but I am slumming it with an A2, connected via optical, which means that my player decodes to Dolby, then re-encodes to DTS. I can't see how there could NOT be a loss of fidelity doing so.

It was not bad of course, but it just failed to rock my world as I would have expected given the reviews. To date, the best sound I have heard in my room is the uncompressed PCM tracks on 5th Element.

In any event, I am looking to upgrade to a XA2 or maybe an A35, that way I can use the 5.1 analogs. I look forward to hearing this again without my player having to do a dance on the soundtrack.

The PQ however, we quite good...better in fact than the DLP projection I saw of the film when it was in the theater. There was something amiss about that presentation, as there was severe grain in a few places around the half-way point of the film. The HD-DVD was, on my set, completely clear and grain free. The contrast and color saturation seemed to be very faithful to the film as I remember it, lack or grain not withstanding.

Brian

 

[Brian L]

I missed your post before I posted....

That's it completely...it seems that things were a bit rolled off on the top. No one likes a soundtrack that is overly bright, but this one seems to have gone a bit in the opposite direction.

I see though that you have played it with the 5.1 analogs....so much for my thought that maybe the Dolby to DTS decode/encode was taking something away.

Brian

 

[don monteith]

I know my experience is totally the opposite up to this point. I do have it plugged in via 5.1 analog. I actually just went and tried it on every setting I have on my Denon and it just isn't what I expected. I have a lot of HD and BR titles and I know how this should sound but as someone else put it, it just didn't rock my world. maybe I am expecting too much.

 

[Ron-P]

I picked this up this morning at Target and just spun about 15 minutes. WOW! This is one most impressive DD+ track, the best I've heard todate, from low to high end it is awesome, and that video, it's damn near (if not) perfect).

It's going to be one hell-of-a movie night tonight, 5 people coming over, none of which have been in my HT or seen the film.

 

[don monteith]

OK, now I know something is wrong. Yet another post about how great this movie sounds. I did some more checking on my system and noticed that when I have it on 5.1 analog my sub does very little. But, when I put it on DTS it rocks. I have a tech coming over today. Hopefully he will figure out was is going on and I will be able to hear this movie like everyone else.

 

[Brian L]

Low LFE is pretty common on the analogs of some of these players. I have no experience with the XA2 (yet!), but IIRC, there was a firmware update that supposedly fixed it.

You can download the updates from this link:

http://tacp.toshiba.com/tacpassets-i...ngfirmware.asp

You might also have a look over at AVS....there are several threads relating to your player.

Brian

 

[Adam Gregorich]

If you have the analogs hooked up, verify that all the cables are tight and the sub out is going to your analog sub in. Go through the Denon setup again to verify speaker levels.

 

[don monteith]

I did all that. I ran the test tone and checked all the levels. I just had my tech out hear and he said the same thing. The sound is just weak on 5.1. He seems to think that it may be my XA2. I checked the firmware and it says that it is up to date. I am going to rent the regular version and put it in my BR player and see what that sounds like.

Thanks for the suggestions,

Don

 

[Mike Flanagan]

Just took it for a spin last night and WOW. Best sound I've heard coming from my slum xbox 360 add-on. I selected DTS to pass 1.5 out to my receiver. Nice bass and the dialog is actually discernible without having to fiddle with the remote.

PQ was excellent even tho Micheal Bay movies seem to pump the contrast a bit. Night time shots were excellent as the blacks and colors stood in stark contrast.

My new reference!

 

[Douglas Monce]

Wow thats interesting because I would defiantly say that this film is NOT grain free. I'm seeing plenty of natural film grain, and that is not a bad thing at all. But it surely not grain free.

Doug

 

[Brian L]

Well, I won't argue that, but it was at a level where I did not notice it.

Having been literally shocked by how bad some sections of the Theatrical DPL presentation looked, I was very curious to see if the HD-DVD looked the same, and in comparison to the DPL presentation I saw, the HD-DVD looked much better.

Brian

 

[Douglas Monce]

Oh okay got ya.

Doug

 

[RobertSiegel]

We were not told which soundtrack was playing first, so it was a blind test, of all the source material. If DD+ were the same as the master, there wouldn't be Dolby True

 

[DavidJ]

Man, I can't wait to join in on this discussion. My copy probably won't arrive until tomorrow and I don't know when I'll get to listen to it LOUD. Keeping the volume reasonable is one of the sacrifices I have to make with a 20 month old sleeping in another part of the house and this is a movie that begs to have it cranked.

Don, have you tried changing the XA2 to PCM from bitstream when playing out over the analogs? Yes, I know the setting should have nothing to do with the analog out, but on evidently it does on the XA2.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

I don't know if you've done this yet, but set all of your speakers to 'LARGE' in the XA2's setup. This effectively disables the XA2's bass processing, and lets your reciever do the dirty work.

 

[Bryant Trew]

I also thought the top end was a bit low when compared to the regular DVD. I'm using a Toshiba AX2 running coax to my processor.

 

[don monteith]

I have it set ti PCM but I don't have the speakers all set to large. That is a good idea. I did find an issue with my sub's cable. I replaced it and it sounded better. Then I changed my Denon to DTS and then I was blown away. Talk about rearranging your internal organs acoustically!!!! I will go and change the speaker setting now and see if that works.

Thanks,

Don