- Joined
- Jul 3, 1997
- Messages
- 66,780
- Real Name
- Ronald Epstein
Well, the day I had long awaited for finally came. I have
become the proud owner of my first Blu-Ray player and have
officially joined the ranks of the Blu members that occupy this forum.
I now own the Panasonic DMP-BD10A.
Being a HD-DVD owner for the past year, I was able to come
up with some initial impressions.
Hookup and setup is exactly the same as the Toshiba HD-DVD
players I have owned. Turn the player on, and you go through a
few initial easy steps to set up proper aspect ratio.
Not exactly sure, but the loading time on the Blu-Ray player seemed
slightly faster than the HD-DVD players I have come to wait on. I
don't think there is a need to investigate actual loading times between
the two format players as they seem close enough. After all, we are
all aware that there is a slight waiting time involved from power ON
to initial playback.
One of the small things that bother me about this Panasonic is the
need for a LOADING box to appear as the disc goes from STARTUP
to FBI LOGO to MENU. Perhaps I may be overexaggerating this effect,
but I have never seen a text box that says LOADING on an HD-DVD
player.
Another troublesome spot was that the Panasonic tends to clip
the very first few seconds off of footage when, for example, jumping
to the supplemental area. This could very well be an HDMI
handshaking problem that delays the information from reaching my
screen.
Take all the above complaints with a grain of salt. They are mere
observations of things I never experienced on the HD-DVD side.
What I am certain everyone REALLY wants to know is how much I
enjoyed the Blu-Ray experience itself.
I had the opportunity to watch two titles this afternoon. First up
was Bram Stoker's Dracula, which is my favorite Dracula
film of them all. Though there was a noticeable amount of
natural film grain evident, I thought the picture looked as good
as any other HD title I have seen.
Next up was another favorite, The Patriot, which I
thought looked fantastic! I was delighted to see deep black levels
that contributed to a very rich and colorful presentation.
I am not particularly fond of the menus on the Sony titles compared
to those that I saw on the Universal and Warner HD-DVD titles.
Since I have been very limited with what I have seen, I am not sure
if Blu-Ray players replicate the really cool, more elaborate sliding
menus that I see on HD-DVD. I also didn't hear any sound effects
(clicking and whooshing) as I navigated through the title menu.
When it boils right down to it, one format looks nor sounds any
better than the other. As I stated previously, the Blu-Ray experience
could have very well been the HD-DVD experience and I would have
not been able to tell a difference.
What is really nice about owning a Blu-Ray player is that now I
have access to a library of films from the "other" studios.
So, there you have it and here I am! Though I still proclaim
neutrality in this format war, I am proud to finally be a Blu-Ray
supporter.
become the proud owner of my first Blu-Ray player and have
officially joined the ranks of the Blu members that occupy this forum.
I now own the Panasonic DMP-BD10A.
Being a HD-DVD owner for the past year, I was able to come
up with some initial impressions.
Hookup and setup is exactly the same as the Toshiba HD-DVD
players I have owned. Turn the player on, and you go through a
few initial easy steps to set up proper aspect ratio.
Not exactly sure, but the loading time on the Blu-Ray player seemed
slightly faster than the HD-DVD players I have come to wait on. I
don't think there is a need to investigate actual loading times between
the two format players as they seem close enough. After all, we are
all aware that there is a slight waiting time involved from power ON
to initial playback.
One of the small things that bother me about this Panasonic is the
need for a LOADING box to appear as the disc goes from STARTUP
to FBI LOGO to MENU. Perhaps I may be overexaggerating this effect,
but I have never seen a text box that says LOADING on an HD-DVD
player.
Another troublesome spot was that the Panasonic tends to clip
the very first few seconds off of footage when, for example, jumping
to the supplemental area. This could very well be an HDMI
handshaking problem that delays the information from reaching my
screen.
Take all the above complaints with a grain of salt. They are mere
observations of things I never experienced on the HD-DVD side.
What I am certain everyone REALLY wants to know is how much I
enjoyed the Blu-Ray experience itself.
I had the opportunity to watch two titles this afternoon. First up
was Bram Stoker's Dracula, which is my favorite Dracula
film of them all. Though there was a noticeable amount of
natural film grain evident, I thought the picture looked as good
as any other HD title I have seen.
Next up was another favorite, The Patriot, which I
thought looked fantastic! I was delighted to see deep black levels
that contributed to a very rich and colorful presentation.
I am not particularly fond of the menus on the Sony titles compared
to those that I saw on the Universal and Warner HD-DVD titles.
Since I have been very limited with what I have seen, I am not sure
if Blu-Ray players replicate the really cool, more elaborate sliding
menus that I see on HD-DVD. I also didn't hear any sound effects
(clicking and whooshing) as I navigated through the title menu.
When it boils right down to it, one format looks nor sounds any
better than the other. As I stated previously, the Blu-Ray experience
could have very well been the HD-DVD experience and I would have
not been able to tell a difference.
What is really nice about owning a Blu-Ray player is that now I
have access to a library of films from the "other" studios.
So, there you have it and here I am! Though I still proclaim
neutrality in this format war, I am proud to finally be a Blu-Ray
supporter.
