Blu-Ray Demos in Colorado (1 Viewer)

[Steve Tannehill]

Sure, I watched Cinderella Man and Serenity this weekend in high-definition. How about you?

- Steve

 

[Paul_Scott]

If DaViD were here, he may point out as I saw him do elsewhere- that you are confusing a format with a player.

also-nobody who has used it, seems to have any issues with the HD DVD format. The discs themselves appear to be providing stellar Video presentations (audio is more complex due to issues of mastering on the first titles, as well as issues of advanced audio formats, etc...but then again Bd is going to have its own 'issues' here so we'll just chalk this up as a wash for now).
The point is, the HD DVD is not providing a deficent experience due to its 36Mbps top bit rates. In fact, I have not seen anyone who hasn't said it's superior to dish and cable based HD and I have seen several people say it is superior to the mpeg2 based D-VHS.
We will have to see whether 54Mbps makes a practical difference, or if it is merely neccessary when a less efficent codec is being used.

 

[PeterTHX]

You assume I'd want to. Cinderella Man, while a very good film, doesn't lend itself to multiple viewings, and don't get me started on the overrated Serenity, I'm sure there are fans equally passionate about The Fifth Element.

I've been watching HD on cable for quite a while now, and you D-VHS. I'm waiting a month a half longer and getting something with the same (at worst) and much more potential in the long run. You could say parents were right when they caught us about to scarf down some junk food: it would spoil the much better meal if I waited just a short while more. So, grab the cheap greasy burger, or wait for the juicy prime rib?

 

[Walter Kittel]

Well, you know there's always xXx to look foward to. The reality is that both formats will (subjectively) have films that viewers will like and dislike and everyone will have plenty of material to view over the long run.

Right now, Bd enthusiasts have to hear HD-DVD owners talk about how great Apollo 13, Serenity, etc. looks on our systems; but $1000.00 later and around five weeks from now, Bd owners can brag about how great The Fifth Element, House of Flying Daggers, etc. look on their displays.

I loves me them burgers.

- Walter.

 

[Vincent_P]

No I will not "get off your ass", David- you posted that you found Blu-Ray to be superior based on a highly spurious so-called comparison of the two formats. My questions re: your so-called comparison are entirely justified.

Vincent

 

[Larry Sutliff]

You really think that 25gbs of MPEG2 on a thousand dollar machine equals "juicy prime rib"? You must eat at a lot of really overhyped and overpriced restaurants.

 

[RobertR]

I haven't read anywhere that 54 Mbps would have any practical benefit with advanced codecs. What is your basis for saying it would?

 

[PeterTHX]

Sony's releases and a couple others will be MPEG2. The rest will be VC1 and H264. (Where's a Napoleon Dynamite "Duh! Gosh!" when you need it)

$1000 buys me a PLAYER. Not a modified laptop that can't even pass the core Dolby Plus/TrueHD/DTS-HD codecs or a 1080p signal.

 

[David Brown Eyes]

Your question is justified your attitude is not nore is it appreciated.

I made a judgement call on what I saw, you might see it differently. I look at it this way. Someone put a Big Mac "HD-DVD" and a Whopper "Blu-Ray" in front of me and said you get one bite "a demo" shall we say.

I took my one bite of the Big Mac and it was pretty good, I would eat the rest of it.

I took my one bite of Whopper and it "to me" tasted better than the Big Mac.

That is all it is Vincent "My Impressions" Now the day you live in my body and see what I see can you also get on my ass. My value judgements on what was better was not a generalised statement in any way, they were my opinions on very small amounts of data. Unlike you I do not think so much of myself as to hold my opinions as fact.

From what I have seen, and yea it is very limited, I would much rather have a Blu-Ray player in my home than an HD-DVD. Is if definatively better? Please show me where I said anything even close to definative statements Vince. All I said is that right now with limited information I like blu-ray better.

You are asking me to justify statements I never made. I made no pretenses of being an expert just basic viseral responses to what I have seen. Nothing more. I do not have the equipment, or knowledge or access to get the hard facts. I looked at is as an average consumer. YOu wana stay on my ass that is fine but you are trying to squeeze blood out of a turnip and pissing me off for no reason.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

The "modified laptop" is doing a nice job for me with not only HD DVD's, but also in upconverting SD DVD's. I watched the X-MEN 1.5 disc today, and I haven't seen the film look this nice since seeing it theatrically. The HD A1 has really nice sound, too.

But to each his own, I guess. I'll probably buy a Blu-Ray player as well, though I'll probably wait to see how members of this forum and AVS feel the picture and sound compare to HD DVD before spending a grand. I may wait for the second gen on those(or go with the PS3).

 

[Rachael B]

To play the devil's advocate here, would Blu-way require the whole 50 gig-gles to supply advance sound the way it's set up using mpeg 2 video? Or, can it offer say, True HD, DD+, or somethin' else possibly and stay at 25 gee's?

 

[Dave Moritz]

I would have to totally agree with Peter on this. Toshiba was in such a rush to beat Sony to market that they basically used a modified laptop for a player. The main part of the Toshiba HD-DVD player consist of a Intel P4 processor, 1 Gig of PC memory and a HD-DVD pc drive. This machine is known for having to be restarted at least once to twice a day at retailers. becuase the machine locks up and also has a problem of the pc drive not ejecting the disc.

While both formats may look similar on a 40" HDTV. Larger displays that are capible of displaying a 1080p picture should look better with Blu-ray. And for the few that are using front projection with 100" - 120" screens Blu-rays 1080p picture should really excel. And while HD-DVD discs are encoded at 1080p it makes no sence for the player to limit them to 1080i. Sony has at least pushed back the release of Blu-ray to address any problems. Toshiba just wanted to make it to market first hoping that consumers would choose HD-DVD instead of waiting for Blu-ray.

I too was impressed with how good the Apollo 13 looked but that is not enough to outway the players problems. Blu-ray has to many advantages over HD-DVD and because of that and because it has more space movie studios will be able to offer more features, longer movies and more audio options. The format with the most flexability and the one with more room to evolve, Blu-ray is the logical choice.

I can't wait for Blu-ray to come out. By the time I save up the money the 2nd generation machine may be out so it should be a win win situation.

 

[Ryan-G]

Makes me wonder two things.

1. How are they getting this below $500? I can't imagine those components are cheap.

2. Do they realize that with the components they've used, odds are very good that they may have opened the door for the DRM to be broken easily? In using commonplace computer components it should be possible in theory to dump the firmware and rom chips and use it to trojan HD-DVD drives, allowing even DRM protected media to be pirated.

That's just a huge black mark for HD-DVD for studios, they've opened the door for an enourmous problem. All the time, energy, and effort gone into DRM is in danger because of Toshiba's desire to rush to market.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Sony had no qualms about demonstrating Blu-ray on a laptop system.

- Walter.

 

[PeterTHX]

You neglected to mention they were demonstrating a Blu-ray drive for a laptop, not one masquerading as a set top player.

 

[Marko Berg]

In the near future, we'll all be able to play back HD DVD and Blu-ray movies on computers whose hardware components and operating systems support HDCP and AACS.

In light of this, I'm not sure it matters that Toshiba is using PC components and a specifically tailored version of Linux (?) for their first set-top player implementations. If this opens the door for hacking the firmware and DRM, it was only a matter of time until those protections were broken anyway. All it possibly enables hackers to do is get a crack at the protections a few months early.

I'm also not convinced Microsoft's Vista will be any more secure or less vulnerable in that regard than what Toshiba is offering now.

 

[Lew Crippen]

1.There are a very great many who believe that Toshiba is taking a loss on each unit sold. That in fact, they are not getting the cost below the price.
2.In the end, for any unit that is successful, the components will become commonplace for any hrdware that is successful.

I don’t really understand the shots at Toshiba for releasing a player that is a modified laptop. After all DVD players are really just specialized computers and that has not kept them from being successful.

I’m more impressed with criticisms that focus on poor remotes, slow load time and the players locking up, than ones that imply the player is deficient because it is a modified computer.

So long as a modified computer delivers the video and sound, why would one care?

I agree with Marko, that in the end we will all be able (if we choose) to use our computers to play the HD formats—just as we do with DVDs today.

 

[Walter Kittel]

The point was that Sony was demonstrating the capability of Blu-ray film playback using a laptop which implies that DRM issues related to PC playback aren't concerning them either.

Regarding the merits of general CPU usage for HD playback vs. dedicated players, I would expect 2nd or 3rd generation ASIC players will probably perform better (which remains to be seen), but in the near term I am extremely pleased with my Toshiba HD-A1 player. In addition to providing superb image quality on HD material, it also upscales SD DVD extremely well.

- Walter.

 

[Rachael B]

Toshiba may not be losing money on every unit as has been often speculated. I remember a news bit from a year, or so, ago that they were looking for bargain factories in China to produce the parts and units.

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

I agree completely, great post Lew!