RANT: This HDMI vrs. Component Crap!!!

Scooter · 01-26-2008, 09:54 AM

So last night I decide I wanna watch BTTF3 on my Toshiba A2. The projector and player are set at 1080I and thus far, has played fine. This is my first attempt at watching an SD on it. I know that via component, the best it will do is 480, but que sera...it is what it is.

So I pop in the disc, and the screen is ALL over the place!!! Rolling picture, top of image tearing...yadda yadda. So I start changing the settings on the projector but to no avail. So, I go to the player and suddenly NO PICTURE!!! Not stopping there, I try the Panny BD and get same result. And the Panny had been a complete pain in the ass to begin with to be able to watch BD, I decided not to screw around with it.

I wound up having to connect the composite (S-Video would have been a REAL pain to connect) so I can set the player to 480I. It doesn't simply default to 480 when an SD is played.

The whole obsession Holywood has with piracy is nonsense. Anyone who spends 10 seconds doing a Google search can see that not only has the copy prevention and region coding on SD been decimated, but to a large degree, so have protections on HD-DVD and BD as well!!! The only ones punished are those seeking to play their store bought, studio produced DVD's without performing a dance with the player's menu to be able to watch. If I had stayed in school and gotten my law degree...I would certainly be considering a court ordered remedy application by now.

I watched a backed up copy of an SD via the Tosh a month or so ago and not only did it simply...play...but upconverted as well!!! Thus...copying or downloading pirated SD's is rewarded, as is creating "dummy load" adapters to fool a player's sense of an HDMI connection. Being legit is punished, plain and simple!

So now, to make things as simple as possible, I am going to have to put my Philipps player back in my system to watch any SD in my collection or rip to a DVDR any movie I want to be able to simply put in and play.

Nonsense..........

ErichH · 01-26-2008, 12:55 PM

Nice

I agree with the rant for the most part. I find myself thinking WTF on many occasions. 1st few attempts with HDMI were futile compared to component. C was better for scaling older films, and more compatible with 05-06 displays here.

Now it's on to a very good 1080p set up with BD. Upscale is excellent with many SD disks, but completely screwed with many older disks. Basically killing a number of films in the collection that have no chance of being released on BD, nor would I buy them again if they did.

Some early BDs have no previews or logos, some have up to 9-10 chapters of BS to pass through. Makes me want to burn my own, but I don't. I could.

The dog and pony show on some of these disks will either piss you off or you're acclimated to it. I curse the screen and hit forward if possible. Newer players offer less and less ability to deal with the disk formats.. Pain in the .....

Joseph Bolus · 01-26-2008, 01:39 PM

I have to say that I agree with you that at this point in time SD-DVD upscaling via component should be allowed on every HD-DVD and/or Blu-ray player. It's an absolute affront to the Home Theater community that it's not allowed. Adding further insult to injury is the fact that if you back up your SD-DVD then you can usually upscale the transfer via component. So this is a restriction which no longer makes any sense whatsover.

What kills me is that we recently purchased one of those new inexpensive Vizio 32" LCD HDTV's for the bedroom. It comes with *two* HDMI inputs, which allows for easy upconversion of SD-DVDs. So we can easily upscale SD-DVD's on our smaller bedroom display but not on our main home theater display.

Asahikasei · 01-26-2008, 03:25 PM

I agree it would be so much easier if they just allowed 1080p through component.

Scooter · 01-26-2008, 03:25 PM

That's another part of things...I have a WONDERFUL Sony FP in my main theater that looks like a million damn dollars, despite being 10 years old. Actually exceeds 1080 with 1125 lines of rez.

HDMI offers nothing but a viral pair of handcuffs. Even Sony's projectors for theaters use Component. So if I win the lottery, or someone REALLY loves me for my birthday and get one of these babys...

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I won't be able to upscale SD!

And to add frost to my tips....having to reconfigure the play using SVHS/Composite so I can see what I am doing. Regards that, could I be doing something wrong?

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Michael Reuben · 01-26-2008, 04:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scooter

I watched a backed up copy of an SD via the Tosh a month or so ago and not only did it simply...play...but upconverted as well!!! Thus...copying or downloading pirated SD's is rewarded, as is creating "dummy load" adapters to fool a player's sense of an HDMI connection. Being legit is punished, plain and simple!

So now, to make things as simple as possible, I am going to have to put my Philipps player back in my system to watch any SD in my collection or rip to a DVDR any movie I want to be able to simply put in and play.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joseph Bolus

Adding further insult to injury is the fact that if you back up your SD-DVD then you can usually upscale the transfer via component. So this is a restriction which no longer makes any sense whatsover.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ErichH

Makes me want to burn my own, but I don't. I could.

Gentlemen --

While I appreciate your frustration, please remember that ripping copy-protected DVDs to another format is a topic that is prohibited here at HTF, in any form. Thank you for your cooperation.

M.



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