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Author Topic: Anyone consuming HD or Blu-ray? Scott Jentsch Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1061 From: New Berlin, WI, USA Registered: Apr 2003 posted 12-18-2007 10:33 AM                        If money is no object, I think it's important to go with the native resolution whenever possible. Every commercial movie I'm aware of that's been released on HD DVD and Blu-ray is encoded at 1920x1080p. That said, however, there is some logic to evaluating whether that extra resolution can be appreciated at the normal viewing distance in your situation. According to many in the industry, displays 50" and below at normal viewing distances cannot provide a visible benefit between 1080p and 720p. Here is a graph to illustrate the point: http://www.carltonbale.com/2006/11/1080p-does-matter/ quote: What the chart shows is that, for a 50-inch screen, the benefits of 720p vs. 480p start to become apparent at viewing distances closer than 14.6 feet and become fully apparent at 9.8 feet. For the same screen size, the benefits of 1080p vs. 720p start to become apparent when closer than 9.8 feet and become full apparent at 6.5 feet. In my situation, my viewing distance is 9-12' from a 50" diagonal display. If one is to believe the assertions of the author above, that is (just at the limit or) too far away for a person with 20/20 vision to resolve the detail of a 1080p display. There is also the pragmatic issue of cost. When I bought my 50" DLP Samsung in April, going to 1080p would have cost an extra $400 - $600, which represented a 40-60% premium over the 720p unit I purchased. That difference was too great (and still is) for what is a secondary display in my home. If I'm going to spend some money on 1080p it will be on replacing my 720p Sony front projector in my home theater. But even in the home theater, on a 99" wide screen (113" diagonal), I'm very happy with HD DVD projected at 720p. Could it be better? Yes, I realize that it could be, and I'm looking forward to the day when I can make that upgrade. But I'm certainly not unhappy with the quality of the image that is being projected right now. In most situations, a 720p image is going to be very high quality and anyone with such a display should not feel like they are missing the boat when it comes to HD quality. Anyone looking to purchase a display should see the difference between 720p and 1080p for themselves at the viewing distance they'll be using and the screen size they're looking to buy, and decide for themselves if they can see the difference and how much they would have to pay for that difference. There's a danger in getting too wrapped up in the specs and not using real-world observations to temper the numbers and the marketing campaigns of the manufacturers who really want us to spend that extra money on "True 1080p" HD.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 12-18-2007 11:10 AM                     The functions of the HDTV monitor must also be considered. If all you're doing with it is just watching movies and TV broadcasts, then 720p may indeed be good enough for some people. It isn't for me. I would much rather have my own eye sight and viewing distance be a moving target of limiting factors rather than have a lower limit built into the hardware itself. I also intend to use the HDTV I buy for more than just entertainment purposes. It will also pull double duty as a really large computer monitor. The user interfaces in any operating system are fixed in resolution. Applications like Adobe Photoshop and After Effects demand high resolution displays. The various palettes, tool bars, docking panels and more take up a lot of pixel real estate. In a 1280 X 720 desktop too much of your work would be getting covered up by all the aspects of the application's interface. A 1920 X 1080 desktop would at least give you much more work space to leave more tool bars and such displayed yet not have that stuff cover up your work. Console-based gaming and computer-based gaming can be affected by some of the same issues. If your opponent has his display set to the equivalent of 720p and yours is set at the equivalent of 1080p you're going to have a clear advantage in things like sniping. Years ago when I was into playing shooters like Quake2, I'd have my game set up at 1600 X 1200 on my 21" monitor while others I knew played at settings of only 800 X 600 or 1024 X 768. I'd be standing out in the open pegging them with the rail gun and they couldn't even see me in the distance. It was really pretty funny.  |  IP: Logged Larry Myers Master Film Handler Posts: 371 From: Herndon, VA, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 12-18-2007 03:05 PM                 My only concern for my project is Video Projection on a 3 by 7.5 ft slightly curved screen viewed at 10 ft. At least for my purpose, a $1200 Panasonic PT-AX100U video projector hooked up to a $150 800 watt Sony 5.1 sound system and a $300 Blu-ray player running 720p seems to do the trick. The Sony sound system is connected to some good Altec's so the sound is really not all that bad. If I was running a laptop I am sure I would do this differently. Since I purchased a 12 ft optical sound cable, I am going to try an HD DVD unit shortly. Maybe I will keep both or maybe I will take one back. Time will tell.  |  IP: Logged Larry Myers Master Film Handler Posts: 371 From: Herndon, VA, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 12-19-2007 09:38 PM                 I just purchased a Tosheba A3 HD DVD player at Curcuit City for $235. I got it hooked up with the 12 ft optical cable and it seems to play great. I also found out the optical hookup on the Samsung 1400 Blu-ray is not working. I like the controls on the Tosheba better anyway. I think I am going to return the Samsung Blu ray within the next 48 hours.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 12-20-2007 02:18 AM                     (Hmmm..the Bugatti Veyron 16-4...can you see yourself buzzing up to your girlfriend's house in this thing .. let alone coming home with this after trading in your LR to impress your wife?) (Can you see this quad turbocharged, 1001bhp,W16 motor that powers that expensive beast above making a 'Vette' L-88 block look like a motor in mom's 1982 Chevy Impala?) -Monte  |  IP: Logged Scott Jentsch Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1061 From: New Berlin, WI, USA Registered: Apr 2003 posted 12-20-2007 10:02 AM                        If you're going to be using a display as a computer monitor, then by all means, it should be as high a resolution as possible. I've never tried to hook up my laptop to either display, but 1280x720 isn't much of a usable desktop for anything serious. I've never been that impressed with the so-called supercars -- being more of a musclecar person myself. I like a little throaty rumble to my exhaust, not a high-pitched whine like so many of the exotics produce. My boss had a 1970 Boss 302 Mustang that he took on the track that would produce a growl so fierce, it would make a Ferrari wet its oil pan! Speaking of Chevy Impala's... the fastest I've ever gone on the open road was in a 1975 Chevy Impala 4-door I had in high school. It had a 120mph speedometer, and I buried the needle so far (it had the old-style horizontal speedometer), I think it took a mile of coasting before I saw it again! I would estimate that I was doing about 140mph if the speedo was linear and anywhere near accurate at the top end. I've never taken my Mustang over 100mph in the 12 years I've had it. I must really be getting old...  |  IP: Logged Larry Myers Master Film Handler Posts: 371 From: Herndon, VA, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 12-20-2007 11:35 AM                 The Samsung 1400 went back to Circuit City this morning and no questions asked. Actually they didn't even what to know why I was bring it back.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-20-2007 05:38 PM                     Larry... Sams Club... Blew Ray $277.00 with 5 free disks. Still no where near my limit of $99.00 yet. Mark  |  IP: Logged Larry Myers Master Film Handler Posts: 371 From: Herndon, VA, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 12-20-2007 09:55 PM                 Circut City is now selling the Sony 300 Blu ray for $269 with 5 free disc. Now it seems that both the HD and Blu Ray machines can be had for less then the cost of a combo machine. I need to get my self down to Big Lots and purchase a small stand so I can have a bank of DVD players. The Toshiba HD A3 is working great at 720p and I like the controls located on the machine. With the Samsung, you must use the hand controller to operate the machine. No controls are on the machine itself. I just might purchase the Sony Blu-ray after Christmas.  |  IP: Logged Mike Heenan Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1896 From: Scottsdale, AZ, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 12-20-2007 10:37 PM                     Mark is that the standard 5 free mail in deal or 5 free discs in the store?  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-21-2007 07:37 AM                     Five free via mail in. It took 4 months to get my 5 free HDDVD disks!! Mark  |  IP: Logged Mark J. Marshall Film God Posts: 3188 From: New Castle, DE, USA Registered: Aug 2002 posted 12-21-2007 03:40 PM                    I just received my HP5 disk. I've never seen so many languages on one disk... English PCM English 5.1 DD French (Parisian) 5.1 DD French (Quebec) 5.1 DD Spanish 5.1 DD Japanese 5.1 DD Danish 5.1 DD Dutch 5.1 DD German 5.1 DD Italian 5.1 DD Swedish 5.1 DD Flemish 5.1 DD Catalan 5.1 DD And the subtitles are equally impressive: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish & Catalan. There may be more impressive disks out there, but this is the most impressive one I have seen. Even though Blu-ray disks cost more to manufacture, I wonder how much studios will be saving by being able to have one single inventory physical disk that can be played anywhere in any language. (Setting aside the region encoding problem.) Is it possible to set up multiple menus in different languages and have the player automatically play the correct one?  |  IP: Logged Jesse Skeen Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1517 From: Sacramento, CA Registered: Aug 2000 posted 12-22-2007 07:14 AM                     Regular DVDs can have menus in different languages- in the player's Setup menu, there should be an option that lets you select the disc's menu language (not the player's onscreen display language.) On Universal titles the FBI warning displays in French or Spanish if you change the menu language, and a number of Sony and Warner discs have menus in French, Spanish, and/or Japanese. A lot of their 'catalog' titles are multi-region as well, usually regions 1, 3 and 4- if you have a player that is region-switchable, you get a different copyright warning relevant to the country it thinks you're in. Interesting the Blew-Ray Harry Potter disc has that many languages on it, I have the HD-DVD combo disc (can only play the regular DVD side right now) and it just has Spanish and Canadian French. I saw the new Blade Runner disc has both Quebec and Parisian French on it, that would be kind of interesting to compare. I've learned a bit of Canadian French from the North American DVDs that include it.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-22-2007 10:54 AM                        quote: It took 4 months to get my 5 free HDDVD disks!! Jeez, by that time there could be another three or four new formats!  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 12-22-2007 11:15 AM                     Yep! If they did make two or three more formats you guys could go on here indefinately while I enjoy watching mine whilst eating a great steak that I had just cooked out on the grill.  |  IP: Logged

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