Carlo Medina

Question about quality of Frame Forward/Back on HD players

I will probably be in the market for either next-gen HD disc formats in the new year (post-holiday gift to myself). One thing that concerned me when playing around with the new Sony BluRay player at Best Buy was the quality of the picture when I hit pause, and then pressed Frame Forward or Frame Backward. Even in non-fast moving scenes, the frame forward/backward was of dubious quality. The picture looked streaked/smeared. And this player was connected via HDMI to a Sony XBR2 flat panel (the $2999 40" one), so it wasn't because of poor hookup or poor output.

This reminds me of when DVD first came out and the progressive aspect hadn't quite been worked out. But within a couple of years of DVD's release, the quality of frame forward/back increased dramatically.

Now it could be that the disc being played wasn't flagged properly (it was a demo disc with movie scenes). So if anyone who has an HD-DVD or BluRay player could chime in about the quality of frame forward/backward on production discs, and how they compare to the DVD performance of the same function, that would be appreciated. If the first gen players are not good at it, I may wait until the 2nd generation of players before buying.

Thanks!

Carlo Medina

Re: Question about quality of Frame Forward/Back on HD players

No owners have any thoughts or experiences they'd like to share regarding frame stepping (forward and backward) quality?

I wonder if what i saw is a limitation of the Sony player, the demo disc, the technology, or if next-gen discs aren't flagged properly yet (as it took a while for DVDs to have good frame stepping quality).

Thanks again.

Cees Alons

Re: Question about quality of Frame Forward/Back on HD players

Carlo,

I moved this thread to the HD DVD owners subforum (where it is now) and then copied it to the BD owners area.

Perhaps it attracts their attention more readily that way....


Cees

Carlo Medina

Re: Question about quality of Frame Forward/Back on HD players

Much obliged, Cees!

What I'm hoping to get an answer for is just how the pause and frame forward/backward looks on both HD-DVD and BD players with production (sold through stores) discs. Is it a relatively clean frame (a la newer, well flagged DVDs on good DVD players) or is it the streaky/smeary mess that I saw on the demo disc on display at Best Buy.


Thanks!

Carlo Medina

Re: Question about quality of Frame Forward/Back on HD players

To answer my own question (for those interested), on my PS3 and production BD discs, frame fwd/back works very well, just like properly flagged DVDs (except with the higher quality pic of BD).

Those Best Buy demo discs must be pretty bad quality.