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Topic: Anyone consuming HD or Blu-ray?

Monte L Fullmer
Film God

Posts: 8367
From: Nampa, Idaho, USA
Registered: Nov 2004

posted 03-20-2008 03:23 AM

now the buzz with PS3's being capable of downloading the 2.0 upgrade to do the Blu-Ray live thingey ....

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 03-20-2008 09:05 AM

This PS3 news is a little surprising when one considers version 2.17 of the PS3 system software was released only a few days ago. I wasn't expecting the BD Profile 2.0 firmware update to happen until sometime late Spring or even early Summer (mainly to give Sony's new standalone BD players some time to get sold).

According to details posted on the Blu-ray.com website, the upcoming firmware update "due later this month" will include the following:

quote: Blu-ray.com
* BD-Live (Profile v2.0) Upgrade

* "Resume play" will enable PS3 system to start playing a Blu-ray disc and DVD at the point it was stopped, even if the disc had been removed. (*1)

* "Audio Output Device" will be a new Remote Play setting, enabling PSP to serve as a remote control for music played through PS3.

* PS3 system's Internet browser will be enhanced: Video files directly linked from a Web page will be able to be streamed, and the browser's view speed will be improved.

* DivX and WMV format videos that are larger than 2GB will be playable.

* "Mosquito Noise Reduction" will be added as an AV setting in the control panel of the DVD/BD player for improved movie playback. (*2)

*1 BD-J format disc is not supported.
*2 BD discs recorded with BDMV format are not supported.

Incidentally, this firmware update will make the Playstation 3 the first BD Profile 2.0 capable device on the market, beating the Panasonic DMP-BD50 for that title. The Panasonic player may arrive on store shelves as early as April 1.

The report also says 2 soon to be released BD titles from Sony, The 6th Day and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story will have BD Live features accessible with the firmware update. Lionsgate's recent BD releases of War and Saw IV already have some BD Live features included.

One notable thing still missing in this firmware update: internal decoding of DTS-HD. According to some "insiders" Sony intends to add that feature. Just don't know when exactly.

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Scott Jentsch
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1061
From: New Berlin, WI, USA
Registered: Apr 2003

posted 03-20-2008 10:11 AM

I misspoke earlier about BD-Live discs being unplayable in pre-Profile 2.0 players. I did mean that the BD-Live content would be unplayable. I would expect that the movie itself would play just fine.

I put in my Blu-ray of Cars yesterday as I was tweaking my projector, and noticed the warning screen that comes up that warns people that it may take some time to load due to advanced features, or some such text. Luckily, the PS3 is built like a Cray, and it didn't take very long at all. [Smile]

Reviews of Blu-ray players should come with benchmarks for how long it takes to load the longest-loading disc available. I remember seeing a video on YouTube about a guy popping in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies into a BDP-S1 and it took a couple of minutes to fire up. That was probably before some firmware updates, but load time is probably the biggest detrimental factor on my HD DVD players. It's nice to have the PS3 fire up so quickly.

Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio can be output via multi-channel outputs, but these outputs are pretty uncommon on Blu-ray players. I think the Panasonic DMP-BD30 is the only player in the sub-$500 range to have those outputs. With Yamaha's new receivers coming out, it's almost cheaper to upgrade the receiver than it is to buy a player that has multi-channel outputs!

In terms of remotes, I have two. The living room has a Harmony 670 and the basement home theater has a Pronto 3500. Both are great for their tasks and both are IR-only. Bluetooth is great in concept, but rare in execution. To my knowledge, there are no Bluetooth universal remotes. Doing the remote-shuffle in order to get things turned on and/or switched around is not acceptable.

I purchased the Blu-wave IR remote adaptor for the PS3, but I'm having trouble with it repeating the commands received from the Pronto. An up-arrow actually goes up twice, which makes menu navigation a little interesting. I need to do some more work on the Pronto to see if I can fix that issue. A hassle that wouldn't be necessary if Sony had just parked a small IR receiver in the front of the unit for the couple of cents it would have cost them. It's crap like that that annoys people and creates a barrier to entry.

I would be amazed if BD-Live came before DTS HD decoding for the PS3. The latter is an issue now, and the former won't be an issue until the first BD-Live releases, which aren't for a while yet.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 03-20-2008 11:49 AM

So if I'm not mistaken, DTS-HDMA can still be played on a PS3 as long as it is output via HDMI and the receiver does the decoding, correct?

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 03-20-2008 12:29 PM

No. The PS3 cannot output Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD bit streams to external decoders. I don't know why, but it's reportedly due to some chip set limitation.

Currently Playstation 3 only decodes and outputs standard DTS. If a DTS-HD track is selected, the PS3 will only output the 1509kb/s lossy DTS core.

Internal DTS-HD decoding is expected to arrive on the PS3 in an upcoming firmware update. Once that happens, DTS-HD audio will be internally decoded and output as LPCM over HDMI connections -just like what the PS3 now does with Dolby TrueHD audio tracks.

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Anslem Rayburn
Master Film Handler

Posts: 476
From: Yuma, AZ, USA
Registered: May 2002

posted 03-20-2008 05:58 PM

According to the online trade-in site for Best Buy, they aren't giving very much for HD-DVD players.

HD-A3 in excellent condition fetches $36 store credit.

The HD-A30, which they still sell for $129.99, only gets you $39.

Where is Best Buy re-selling the stuff that comes in via their trade in program? There clearance racks always have open-box items, but they only knock off about $10 from the original price. I'd hate to imagine they were selling trade-in stuff at those rates.

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Joe Redifer
You need a beating today

Posts: 12859
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: May 99

posted 03-20-2008 06:05 PM

quote: Bobby Henderson
Internal DTS-HD decoding is expected to arrive on the PS3 in an upcoming firmware update. Once that happens, DTS-HD audio will be internally decoded and output as LPCM over HDMI connections -just like what the PS3 now does with Dolby TrueHD audio tracks.

So what this all basically means is that I only need a receiver with discrete 7.1 linear PCM via HDMI capabilities and not one that supports Dolby TrueHD or DTSHDMA, thus lowering the amount I must spend on such a receiver.

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Mike Schindler
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1039
From: Oak Park, IL, USA
Registered: Jun 2002

posted 03-20-2008 06:18 PM

quote: Anslem Rayburn
According to the online trade-in site for Best Buy, they aren't giving very much for HD-DVD players.

HD-A3 in excellent condition fetches $36 store credit.

The HD-A30, which they still sell for $129.99, only gets you $39.

I saw that too, but their website says that the trade-in program starts tomorrow. So I'm guessing that the amount of store credit they're giving will increase.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 03-20-2008 06:18 PM

quote: Joe Redifer
So what this all basically means is that I only need a receiver with discrete 7.1 linear PCM via HDMI capabilities and not one that supports Dolby TrueHD or DTSHDMA, thus lowering the amount I must spend on such a receiver.

That's right. Yes.

quote: Mike Schindler
So I'm guessing that the amount of store credit they're giving will increase.

I think that's a bad guess. Odds are very slim to none you'll get anywhere near $500 for a 1st generation HD-DVD player.

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Chris Slycord
Film God

Posts: 2986
From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea
Registered: Mar 2007

posted 03-20-2008 08:31 PM

Other than rumors put up by random fanboys and anonymous people who claim to be "insiders", what do we have to indicate that DTSHDMA support is even in the works for the PS3?

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Mike Schindler
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1039
From: Oak Park, IL, USA
Registered: Jun 2002

posted 03-20-2008 09:02 PM

quote: Bobby Henderson
I think that's a bad guess. Odds are very slim to none you'll get anywhere near $500 for a 1st generation HD-DVD player.

You're probably right about that, but since the website says that this program starts tomorrow, don't you think it will change somehow? I guess we'll find out in a matter of hours.

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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."

Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 03-20-2008 09:49 PM

quote: Chris Slycord
Other than rumors put up by random fanboys and anonymous people who claim to be "insiders", what do we have to indicate that DTSHDMA support is even in the works for the PS3?

Sony hasn't made any official public announcements about it. One "insider" who goes by "Penton-Man" is one of 11 people who have their own continuing sticky threads in the Insider Discussion area at Blu-Ray.com ("Club Penton" in this case) and he has stated Sony is working on the DTS-HD thing for PS3. Other folks like Bill Hunt from The Digital Bits and film restoration expert Robert Harris are among other "insiders" represented there. "Penton Man" has mentioned other Blu-ray developments in advance that have come to pass. He probably wouldn't be putting out the DTS-HD comments if there wasn't some truth to it.

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Mike Schindler
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1039
From: Oak Park, IL, USA
Registered: Jun 2002

posted 03-21-2008 09:25 AM

As of right now, Best Buy's website still lists the trade-in value of the HD DVD players at around $40. I guess if you take the $50 gift card into account, that's not terrible, but I don't know why anyone would trade their player in for such a low amount.

Also, check out this picture which is on a shirt The Digital Bits is selling:

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Larry Myers
Master Film Handler

Posts: 371
From: Herndon, VA, USA
Registered: Jan 2001

posted 03-21-2008 11:53 AM

I agree. They work fine in upgrade mode with standard DVD's. It also works fine for what I am using it for. If fact, if I see a new one for $50, I will buy it.

[ 03-21-2008, 03:26 PM: Message edited by: Larry Myers ]

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Jennifer Pan
THE JEN!

Posts: 1219
From: Denver, Colorado
Registered: Nov 2003

posted 03-21-2008 12:30 PM

I want that shirt. It's off the chain.

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