Harold_T

Movie DVD's

Can anyone tell me what the best movie DVD's performance characteristics are, i.e. High Definition equilvalent, 420P, 720P, 1080i or ?.
Are the movie DVD's HD at all? The reason Iam interested, Iam curious what is the driving requirement for the video DAC requirements (108Mhz, 12Bit) in the DVD players?
What is the performance really required for a DVD player to display best video from a movie DVD?
Thanks, Sid

Joe Szott

Harold,

Right now DVDs can do 480i or 480p, not 720p, 1080i, or 1080p. Any DVD player that is Prgressive scan does 480p, otherwise they do 480i.

Bob McElfresh

Now that we are in the third-fourth generation of DVD players, the differences are becoming slimmer.

A faster DAC/CPU gives the programmers more time to do artifact-reduction/detection. In the first "Secrets of Home Theater - Progressive Scan Player Shootout", the guys found the players with the slower speeds showed more artifacts that the units with the faster DAC/CPU's.

I remember 2 scenes that were considered 'problem areas' were used to test this:

- Opening scenes in "The Fifth Element" a pulled-back shot of the stairs leading up to the temple. The fine, horizontal lines would blur/rainbow/morea on the slower CPU units.

- The scenes in "Twister" with Bill's houndstooth jacket - the small patterns would rainbow on the slower machines.

These slower machines had CPU's in the 15-30 Mhz range. Last I looked, most PS DVD players are in the 54 Mhz range.

My advice: if all else is equal between two units, the nod would go to the unit with the faster CPU. But dont make this the your most important buying point. There are other factors that go into video qualty, and you just have to read the posts over the last month or so to pick out why some units are 'hot' over others.