Thank-you HD DVD and Toshiba (1 Viewer)

[Cees Alons]

I'm still rooting for a combo player too!


Cees

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Jeremy,

the Panny BD50 is on the way. It won't hit the $200 price point :frowning: but it will provide a full featureset along with internal decoding of all advanced audio, bitstreaming over HDMI 1.3, and 7.1 analog outputs. Not bad. I'd expect it to be around $400 by this holiday season regardless of how much it streets for when it debuts. I paid $400 for my first progressive-scan DVD player in 2001. It's not a shock for me to let Panny make a little bit of return on their full-profile BD player for at least a short time before the market gets commoditized and manufacturers lose their profit margins.

As for Combo players... I would imagine that *when* Toshiba releases their first blu-ray player (it will happen), it will be a combo-player.

 

[JeremyR]

I've been keeping my eye on the developments of that BD50 as it appears to have all of the features that I want and Panasonic is a company that I trust. Unfortunately, my TV is only 720P/1080i, and is 32 inches, as my room is not particularly big, and because of how I have to have it set up, I sit fairly close to the TV. I'm one of the few that believe, although the PQ is very important, the audio quality is what makes a truly immersive experience for me. But that Panasonic will put my Onkyo TX-SR805 to good use allowing my receiver to decode TrueHD and DTS-HD MA across HDMI. I also know that people had problems with the .1 on previous Panasonics across HDMI so I am hoping they get that resolved. I would assume, however, that if your receiver does the high-res decoding, that kind of renders the problems with the Panasonic a moot point. I wonder what kind of price we'll be looking at come Christmas for that BD50. I have a kiddo on the way in just a few weeks (WOOHOOO), and the wifey might kind of sneer at anything much above $300. That Onkyo was going to be one of my last bigger purchases, at least for a while, and then Toshiba had to go and lose.

 

[Douglas Monce]

Have they got a street date on the bd50 yet???


Doug

 

[DaViD Boulet]

EDIT... my bad... crossed posts.

I think that the BD50 is supposed to come out early/mid-summer but I'm not sure. Anyone have any good info? I know that Sony is waiting to give the BD50 a few months on the market before bringing the 2.0 profile and DTS-HD MA decoding firmware updates to the PS3.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

I'm with you Jeremy. Lots of us with golden ears love movies too. I see nothing wrong with enjoying the audio-transparency of Blu-ray before upgrading your video chain.

When you finally get full 5.1/7.1 lossless, you won't believe your ears. It's incredible, and it's like "lifting the veil" that's muddled the fidelity of your DVDs for all these years.

BTW, be sure to pick up the Dave Matthews music Blu-ray... the 24/96 Dolby TrueHD track is beyond belief.

 

[JeremyR]

So the PS3 WILL be doing DTS-HD MA decoding internally and not the core only? I didn't think it had the hardware for that.

I'm still not going to buy it, primarily because I don't want the temptation of another gaming system, I already have enough trouble keeping up with games on my 360, and here in a few weeks the 360 will be lucky to tear me away from my drooling, poop-making machine

And i want a standalone player. Maybe Pioneer will make something outstanding that doesn't cost so damn much.

 

[JeremyR]

Oh, I've already enjoyed lossless 7.1 on my HD DVD player with TrueHD movies like the Bourne Ultimatum sent PCM across HDMI. But, as a personal preference, I just would prefer my receiver do the decoding. I'm fairly certain the burr-brown decoders in my receiver will be superior to the ones in the player.

 

[Paul.S]

David, I noticed you removed your reference to "the Transformers BD appearing in the Circuit City database" being "the real-deal."

I don't see it at their Website; is this just something a contact has mentioned to you?

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Yes. A blu-ray insider (a trusted source with good reliability) has confirmed that it's real and in the pipeline. He also confirmed that the high-bit-rate AVC video encode is superior to that used for the HD DVD. It will be interesting to see if anyone can see a difference on a revealing 1080p display.

I had removed that post bcs I had responded to Doug's question about the "BD50" at first thinking he meant the BD50 for Transormers... then I re-read his question and realized he was talking about the *Panny* BD50...

 

[Carlo_M]

The PCM track ain't too shabby either.

 

[Paul.S]

Here's to enjoying both and right soon!

 

[Reagan]

About Panasonic's BD players...

I know the BD50 is coming, but if you're like me and don't give a rat's patooie about internet based "extras", and if you have an HDMI 1.3 receiver, then the current BD30 has everything you'll ever want. And it's a fast loader.

-Reagan

 

[JeremyR]

My bad.. you are correct. I forget, I'm still fairly new to this 7.1 thing. I'm using THX Ultra Cinema 2 in my Onkyo to matrix to 7.1 the PCM 5.1 signal it's receiving from my HD-A2.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

You know. I didn't really want to buy Transformers before (since it's not quite my cup of tea as a grown-up ), but if the BD will make the ultimate reference disc (like it sounds), maybe I'll do it partly because of that. It'd be nice to have something like that to show off to friends and family so they can clearly see how much better BD can be over DVD -- and my grade school son really wants to have it at home anyhow.

Of course, I do also have the Planet Earth BD set now, and that is one stunning set to show off BD (and HDTV in general). IMHO, every enthusiast should run out and buy that set to use to evangelize their friends and families.

And oh, yes, again, I quite agree about thanking Toshiba for helping raise the bar for HDM in general and for helping drive prices lower. I would've prefered that no format war of this sort was actually fought in public, but in the end, it did serve some good purposes. Hopefully, things will start taking off real soon now that there's just one single HDM format going forward...

_Man_

 

[Douglas Monce]

To be honest I don't know at this point what cool internet features may come down the pipe in the future. I think the feature where you could watch an HD DVD with friends from across the country was a really innovative idea and I wouldn't want to miss out on something else cool that comes along. I want a machine that will be able to handle it no matter what it is.

Doug

 

[john a hunter]

Toshiba's announcement coincided with the arrival of my PS3 purchased on ebay in the States so I could play region a discs and have sacd support, so it was well timed.I fully agree with your sentiments David.I certainly don't regret my investment in HDDVD .

 

[DavidJ]

Oh, I'm sure someone will see a difference whether they can see a difference or not. And who knows, there may even be a difference. I am also sure that there will be plenty of threads at HT sites talking about how the lossless audio is a vast improvement over the "transparent" compressed encode on the HD DVD. I started bracing myself for it as soon as I saw your post about Transformers on Blu-ray. Of course, I would be interested in a scientific, double-blind comparison of some type (which would be widely refuted regardless of the outcome ).

Still, I am actually glad to know that it is on the way for my Blu-brethren and for Michael Bay of course . I may even rent the Blu version to run my own "tests."

 

[DaViD Boulet]

DavidJ,

do us the honor and compare the two side-by-side when the new disc comes out. Have someone switch between them without your knowledge of which is which and report back what you see/hear.

It's not 100% double-blind, but what I usually do if I have both lossless and lossy on the same disc is set up my remote to toggle between the audio, close my eyes, and press multiple times until I lose track of which sountrack option I'm listening to. Then I guage my perceptions and open my eyes to see if my impressions are having any corrleation (showing a reliable difference) versus the lossy/lossless options.

With the 640 kbps DD on BD it's a no-brainer that lossless is always *noticably* better. Many at AVS have already reported hearing improvements with lossless over DD+ at 1500 kbps on other titles, but I'd be especially curious with transformers... it wasn't really until Transformers hit without it that suddenly we started hearing reports from "experts" telling us that DD+ was transparent.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Same here. I'd much rather shell out for a Toshi combo player than a BD standalone or a PS3