blu-ray player for discs ? (1 Viewer)

[jimmyjet]

i may not be using the correct wording. perhaps pixelization fits ?

you know when you got too close to the big screen at the movie theater, you saw all sorts of "flicker" ?

that is what i am talking about.

on the tv shows, the first couple of seasons of leave it to beaver had it. the htf's said it was on the indoor scenes.

but i am finding out one thing. it seems like the newer movies do not have anywhere near as much of it.

i just watched courage under fire and sleeping with the enemy tonight. both are in the 90s, but i think they are still on film. and harry met sally yesterday.

is it that the type of film is better ? or simply because it is a lot newer, and not as much degradation has occurred ?

in any case, i am still thrilled to see these movies with so much clarity. i had never seen courage or sleeping until tonight.

 

[Mark-P]

That clears it up, Jimmy. What you are seeing is film grain. The first two seasons of Leave it to Beaver had heavy film grain in the interior scenes do to the film stock and the way they were shot.

Film grain is a natural phenomena that has always been around in varying degrees, and there is quite a bit of controversy as to how it should be handled in he Blu-ray format. Some prefer that it remain intact while others feel that it should be reduced, and many people like yourself would prefer that it be eliminated altogether through digital filtering. Everyone has their own preference!

 

[jimmyjet]

okay, i will try to remember to just refer to it as graininess or film grain.

i am now aware that something called dnr reduces the grain, but you pay a cost with lost color, and possibly some lost detail.

 

[FoxyMulder]

okay, i will try to remember to just refer to it as graininess or film grain.

i am now aware that something called dnr reduces the grain, but you pay a cost with lost color, and possibly some lost detail.

Lost colour isn't the problem, the colour differences in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly were not due to the use of DNR, I prefer to think of excessive DNRed titles as "shot in bluravision" but i have to tell you it causes more problems such as frozen grain which can look odd, waxy looking faces which can look odder and smearing on camera pans and shots with motion in them, quite a bit of detail can be lost from the process.

Another issue with excessive DNR is that all too often they think adding edge enhancement sharpening will cure the problem of lost detail, it adds a fake effect to the image and on small screens makes things look sharper, its not real detail and on larger screens you notice how edgy and unnatural the image is, you get halo's around people and objects, usually noticeable when there is a dark object or dark suited person against a light background, of course just like DNR a light touch of sharpening is fine it's excessive use that produces poor results.

Film grain is the correct terminology for you to use in future posts, of course that's assuming it's film grain and not noise you are seeing, some titles have noise, some of the Italian Dario Argento titles as an example due to using a CRT scanner for the film scans and the one used has issues.

 

[jimmyjet]

halos around people - now that takes me back !!!

we always saw that on the old tvs.

 

[jimmyjet]

i just finished fiddler on the roof. watched the first scene in dvd and then watched the entire blu-ray.

first, the show - gosh, just has to be one of the best movies ever made. such a serious look into the human situation, and at the same time a lot of chuckles.

marvelous acting. made me cry and laugh. it goes to show that name actors are not needed for good acting to occur.

i did not recall a young starsky being in the show !!

the dvd resolution is good and very satisfying to me. there is a noticeable difference with blu-ray, such that i will continue to build up my library as they go on sale.

but no rush to do so.

 

[jimmyjet]

hi all,

i had completely forgotten about this post and forum - i guess mostly cuz i have had no problems with my player.

so far, i have not had to do any updates to view any of the disks that i bought.

as i think about it, that may be somewhat common on a new purchase.

the problem may be more apt to occur with disks that are made after the player is manufactured.

 

[jimmyjet]

boy, my sony can sure be noisy at times. i sit a few feet back from the tv. and from there, i cant tell if it is noise from the tv or from the player. it is that loud.

but when i put my ear up to the player, it is definitely the drive mechanism.

when i push down on the player, the noise subsides quite a bit. but placing a phone book on it does not accomplish much.

i think i only paid about 85 for it. and it plays the disk fine.

 

[Johnny Angell]

$30 of the 85 was for the name Sony. Which leaves only $55 for the player itself. Of course that's all IMHO.

 

[jimmyjet]

yea, it probably is not that good.

the noise is not constant.

i did not want to invest a lot to start, cuz i wanted to experiment with blu-ray, and get my feet wet.

i have a much better perspective on it, now.

it has nowhere near the stout build that my pioneer dvd player has. but then i think i paid more for the dvd player than the blu-ray player.

when it conks out, i will probably look to getting something better.

 

[jimmyjet]

i also only use it for blu-rays. i dont want to use up valuable hours playing dvds on it, when i already have a good dvd player, that may outlast me !!

 

[Johnny Angell]

Is your DVD player an up converting player? If not, your blu-ray player probably is and you should be using it for your DVDs.

 

[jimmyjet]

yes, my dvd player is upconverting. when i bought it, it said upscaling. i assume the 2 are the same thing ?

http://www.pioneer.eu/uk/products/archive/DV-610AV-K/page.html

 

[schan1269]

I could answer that if I weren't blocked

 

[Johnny Angell]

yes, my dvd player is upconverting. when i bought it, it said upscaling. i assume the 2 are the same thing ? http://www.pioneer.eu/uk/products/archive/DV-610AV-K/page.html

Yes, same thing.

 

[jimmyjet]

hi johnny,

one thing i did do when i first got the sony - was to play a dvd in both drives.

i dont know if there was a lot of difference, but the sony was definitely not better than the pioneer. and i think the pioneer was better, if i recall. i just figured at the time that the pioneer was probably better at upscaling than the sony was, giving it a bit better picture ?

i recall seeing lots of bad reviews with the more common blu-ray players at amazon.

i know all you guys like oppo the best. and i dont think i looked at them at amazon, because of the price differential.

but i am not unhappy with the sony - it was an inexpensive way to get my feet wet.

 

[Brian McHale]

Is your DVD player an up converting player? If not, your blu-ray player probably is and you should be using it for your DVDs.

I know the OP already indicated his DVD player does upconverting, but still thought I should address this...

It's not necessarily true that you're better off using a Blu-ray player than a non-upconverting DVD player to play DVDs. If you use a player that doesn't upconvert, the TV will do the upconversion. Then the question becomes: which piece of hardware upconverts better, the DVD player or the TV? This can vary quite a bit from device to device.

In general, I would guess that most Blu-ray players will do a better job of upconverting than most TVs, but I don't think you can make a blanket statement that that is always true.

 

[jimmyjet]

thanks brian,

i was not aware that tvs did such.

my tv is not expensive, and is 3 years old or so - an insignia model.

is there any chance that it does not upscale ?

 

[jcroy]

It's not necessarily true that you're better off using a Blu-ray player than a non-upconverting DVD player to play DVDs. If you use a player that doesn't upconvert, the TV will do the upconversion. Then the question becomes: which piece of hardware upconverts better, the DVD player or the TV? This can vary quite a bit from device to device.

In general, I would guess that most Blu-ray players will do a better job of upconverting than most TVs, but I don't think you can make a blanket statement that that is always true.

(This is strictly my own personal experience).

So far I've found that the best upscaling I've come across, is playing ripped dvd files on the computer using "media player classic" with the MadVR renderer and LAV video decoder with some tweaking. (The computer is connected to my large flatscreen tv, via hdmi on the video card).

Much better than the upscalers on my bluray and dvd players.

 

[Brian McHale]

thanks brian,

i was not aware that tvs did such.

my tv is not expensive, and is 3 years old or so - an insignia model.

is there any chance that it does not upscale ?

All flat panel TVs (LCD, LED-LCD, plasma) scale any input signal that does not match the native resolution of the panel. So, if you have a 1080p TV, any input that is not 1080 will be scaled to 1080 for display.