High Definition Media & Technology Thread

[bandit29]

The first season Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles on Blu-ray in August

here

[David Hingtgen]

I've had my TV for just over a week now, comments:

1. Despite how much I complained about them over the past few months, to the point of almost buying a Sony because of it----I never ever notice the glossy black bezel at all while watching. Gets linty in an instant, but I never notice reflections etc.

2. My TV seems flawless. No dead/stuck pixels. No clouds, flashlights, etc. Part of the reason I bought the TV I did is due to it seeming to have the lowest "issue" rate of any LCD TV ever.

3. The more I watch, the more I notice. My only HD source is my 360, and I've still only played Mass Effect on it---but I see new stuff in textures almost every time. It's not merely "this texture is slightly more detailed", it's "I always thought this was just an untextured plain yellow polygon, but now I see it's 3-dimensional ribbed fabric with a distinct pattern".

4. 32in at 4ft viewing distance is SLIGHTLY too close at times, I've had it around 4.5ft for most of the last week. Going to move it back up to around 4ft soon just to make sure, as I'm more used to such a large screen now. (The first day, it seemed gigantic).

5. Speakers much better than I thought, despite being hidden/downwards-facing. Of course, my last TV's were 3W...

5.5. Matte (or semi-matte) screens rock IMHO. I could "see myself" far too often reflected in my CRT screen when the lighting was right. The duller screen "breaks up" reflections, making it much harder to notice any reflected images since they're indistinct. Light itself spreads over a bit wider area, but it's a small price to pay---a larger generalized "glow" of light is FAR less annoying than the clear outline of my bedroom door (or me) appearing on screen.

6. General comment: A CRT's ability to "make" black is over-rated. Every CRT I've seen when OFF isn't black, they're dark grey. And they don't get any darker when turned on. POTC 3 in the theaters, the 30 sec pure black scene? Theater screen's grey, not black. Happened with Iron Man, too. Even a professional movie theater screen can't show pure black, so don't try to compare to (or strive for) PURE black. Off, my LCD's screen is distinctly "blacker" than any CRT I know of. On, in normal lighting, you can just barely tell it got brighter.

Now, in pure darkness you can certainly tell my TV showing an "all black" screen is brighter/greyer than a CRT. But it's not a ton, and a big point of LCD's is their raw "power" allows them to be comfortably viewed in normal lighting. Theaters and CRT's are often watched "in the dark" because that's the only way to get the whites etc bright enough. But an LCD even at minimum power can still burn your eyeballs out with whiteness. I almost never watch "in the dark" now---there's no need, I can see everything fine in daylight due to how the LCD behaves overall. The "apparent" blackness of the screen in dark scenes/areas is 99% as black as the bezel, and in that measurement far exceeds my CRT in the same condition. Contrast ratio can (partly) compensate for black level--the brighter the whites, the darker the blacks appear.

In summary: watching movies on my LCD, the letterboxing strips above and below are much more apparently black (compared to the bezel, etc) than with my old CRT.

Yes, an LCD doesn't do that well in "light emission levels" compared to a CRT in the "totally dark room showing a pure black screen" test. But what's the point of that, when even a movie theater doesn't do that great in that condition? Showing an actual movie in normal lighting (a much more useful test IMHO) makes the LCD look superior to my eye.

[Gaijin]

I've had my TV for just over a week now, comments:

1. Despite how much I complained about them over the past few months, to the point of almost buying a Sony because of it----I never ever notice the glossy black bezel at all while watching. Gets linty in an instant, but I never notice reflections etc.

2. My TV seems flawless. No dead/stuck pixels. No clouds, flashlights, etc. Part of the reason I bought the TV I did is due to it seeming to have the lowest "issue" rate of any LCD TV ever.

3. The more I watch, the more I notice. My only HD source is my 360, and I've still only played Mass Effect on it---but I see new stuff in textures almost every time. It's not merely "this texture is slightly more detailed", it's "I always thought this was just an untextured plain yellow polygon, but now I see it's 3-dimensional ribbed fabric with a distinct pattern".

4. 32in at 4ft viewing distance is SLIGHTLY too close at times, I've had it around 4.5ft for most of the last week. Going to move it back up to around 4ft soon just to make sure, as I'm more used to such a large screen now. (The first day, it seemed gigantic).

5. Speakers much better than I thought, despite being hidden/downwards-facing. Of course, my last TV's were 3W...

5.5. Matte (or semi-matte) screens rock IMHO. I could "see myself" far too often reflected in my CRT screen when the lighting was right. The duller screen "breaks up" reflections, making it much harder to notice any reflected images since they're indistinct. Light itself spreads over a bit wider area, but it's a small price to pay---a larger generalized "glow" of light is FAR less annoying than the clear outline of my bedroom door (or me) appearing on screen.

6. General comment: A CRT's ability to "make" black is over-rated. Every CRT I've seen when OFF isn't black, they're dark grey. And they don't get any darker when turned on. POTC 3 in the theaters, the 30 sec pure black scene? Theater screen's grey, not black. Happened with Iron Man, too. Even a professional movie theater screen can't show pure black, so don't try to compare to (or strive for) PURE black. Off, my LCD's screen is distinctly "blacker" than any CRT I know of. On, in normal lighting, you can just barely tell it got brighter.

Now, in pure darkness you can certainly tell my TV showing an "all black" screen is brighter/greyer than a CRT. But it's not a ton, and a big point of LCD's is their raw "power" allows them to be comfortably viewed in normal lighting. Theaters and CRT's are often watched "in the dark" because that's the only way to get the whites etc bright enough. But an LCD even at minimum power can still burn your eyeballs out with whiteness. I almost never watch "in the dark" now---there's no need, I can see everything fine in daylight due to how the LCD behaves overall. The "apparent" blackness of the screen in dark scenes/areas is 99% as black as the bezel, and in that measurement far exceeds my CRT in the same condition. Contrast ratio can (partly) compensate for black level--the brighter the whites, the darker the blacks appear.

In summary: watching movies on my LCD, the letterboxing strips above and below are much more apparently black (compared to the bezel, etc) than with my old CRT.

Yes, an LCD doesn't do that well in "light emission levels" compared to a CRT in the "totally dark room showing a pure black screen" test. But what's the point of that, when even a movie theater doesn't do that great in that condition? Showing an actual movie in normal lighting (a much more useful test IMHO) makes the LCD look superior to my eye.

Told ya you'd be happy.

[eugimon]

Wow... samsung's customer support sucks.

So my tv, an ln-t4665F started having problems resolving the right border of the screen. It took me 2 seperate calls to arrange for a service technician to come out and fix the issue. And the service took two tries. The first time they didn't bring the right part and the second time, they replaced the whole screen.

Now, I have a new problem, the NEW screen has a brown line of dead pixels running from top to bottom down the middle of the screen. The service company didnt' want to service the TV again so I had to wait nearly 2 weeks while they submitted an exchange request to Samsung. At the end of last month, I was told that they didn't have my model in stock and they were going to replace it with this year's model ln-46a550. Great, new TV, better specs ... I was miffed this new TV cost about 800 bucks less than what I paid for mine last year and I asked samsung to give me an equivalently PRICED tv.. no go, but that was fine, I was still getting a new TV.

The exchange department told me 2-3 weeks on April 30th... so here we are, 3 weeks later, I call back trying to find out where my TV is... oh, now I get to wait till June 6th for them to even have it in stock. So I asked the guy why I wasn't told of the scheduling change... and he tells me, "well, we're really busy."

[David Hingtgen]

Problem is, all customer service support sucks AFAIK, though Samsung's seems even lower than average from what I've read. I don't know of anyone who's had an issue with a TV of any brand that was quickly and easily fixed. Basic scenario is "wait a few months for them to try to fix it a dozen times, then wait a few more for them to replace it".

[eugimon]

Well, my ire is compounded by the fact that we're in the process of buying a house and I don't know when the deal will go through (or if) since it's a short sale and we're waiting for the lenders approval. The last thing I want is for them to ship the TV without telling me and it ending up at the doorstep of someone not me.

I understand that schedules shift and what not... lord knows, i worked for a place where we imported hand made german pumps and that schedule was constantly shipping.. I'm frustrated that I wasn't notified when all it would have taken was an email.

Edited May 20, 2008 by eugimon

[CoryHolmes]

It seemed HUGE when I first got it in my room (seemed so much smaller when I measured things, actually being there in 3D makes a big difference) but it seems more "normal" now.

I ran into that exact problem. When I picked up my XBR2 the only display model Best Buy had was the 40". Because I'm one of the "bigger is better" crowd when it comes to AV, I naturally went for the 46". I didn't get a real idea of how huge it was until they delivered the box the next morning. It myself and my brother a half hour just to get the frickin' thing out of the box and styrofoam and be damned if it dwarfed the TV stand!

[Wes]

Wow... samsung's customer support sucks.

So my tv, an ln-t4665F started having problems resolving the right border of the screen. It took me 2 seperate calls to arrange for a service technician to come out and fix the issue. And the service took two tries. The first time they didn't bring the right part and the second time, they replaced the whole screen.

Now, I have a new problem, the NEW screen has a brown line of dead pixels running from top to bottom down the middle of the screen. The service company didnt' want to service the TV again so I had to wait nearly 2 weeks while they submitted an exchange request to Samsung. At the end of last month, I was told that they didn't have my model in stock and they were going to replace it with this year's model ln-46a550. Great, new TV, better specs ... I was miffed this new TV cost about 800 bucks less than what I paid for mine last year and I asked samsung to give me an equivalently PRICED tv.. no go, but that was fine, I was still getting a new TV.

The exchange department told me 2-3 weeks on April 30th... so here we are, 3 weeks later, I call back trying to find out where my TV is... oh, now I get to wait till June 6th for them to even have it in stock. So I asked the guy why I wasn't told of the scheduling change... and he tells me, "well, we're really busy."

You think that's pain, try AT&T with a DSL-only account

[David Hingtgen]

Wal-Mart is trying to delay the introduction of HD or something. Or at least, confuddle the masses even more so than they already are.

Last week, I saw they had gotten in a bunch of "2009-ready" digital ATSC tuner-equipped, 20in CRT's. Yup. Cheap, old-school TV's, with built-in digital tuners. "With 480i!!!!" on the box... They're also flat-screens. Well, as flat-screen as CRT's get, which we all know means there's a flat pane of a glass up front, with a normally-curved CRT screen about an inch back behind that... Also, the picture itself just sucks. I doubt it can even do 480i, the sheer number of phosphors is about the lowest I've seen in many years on a CRT that size.

Now, this week---same thing, but also in 13in! With built-in DVD player. Sigh.

For everyone who will only be dragged into HD/digital kicking and screaming, Wal-Mart's got TV's for you. If you want a SD, digital flat-screen---they've got it. I doubt they even have S-video connections, much less component. But you can imagine how many people are going to think they're watching HD, now that they've got a "digital flat-screen" TV, and they'll brag how they only paid a hundred bucks for it...

[ruskiiVFaussie]

So i'm thinking of buying a PS3 soon, and buying up the Blueray Macross Frontier, can my Australian PS3 play it?

Any fellow aussie's after the same thing? I asked about jap games beforehand, but now i'm considering readying my macross

Frontier watching. I've been waiting for them to release the official Blueray, now it has, i'll consider the machine to play it.

I am still confused about this supposebly regoin free thing, only for blueray? only standard dvds? >_<

Edited May 25, 2008 by ruskiiVFaussie

[transfan52]

My TV is a first generation 32" HDTV Samsung tube, it can only go up to 1080I, ive been reading the posts about a buzzing noise coming out of the audio with HDMI cables plugged.

Ive had a similar thing happen to me with the component cables... it turns out one of the component connectors for the cables on my tv is damaged and it keeps making an annoying buzzing noise... My warranty already expired by the time that happened though so I just switched to the HDMI port for my PS3 and now it works fine. Just my 2 cents

[Uxi]

Buzzing noises are ground loops and should only happen with analog connections (component, composite, etc) but not HDMI.

I read about all sorts of HDMI issues, compounded by the 3 different versions in wide circulation but am happy to report to that I've never really experienced them. Sony SXRD, Denon 4306, and PS3 are all fine, as is my on-again, off-again STB (if Charter could pull their head out and stop being so intransigent against the CableCARD, which is a great kit... when it works - whenever they do an upgrade I lose it and they send out techs on 2 or 3 occassions who don't know their ass from their elbow).

[Roy Focker]

Okay is cable HD TV really HDTV.

I'm already having issues with the price of my service. Today for an hour I played, what channels do I get without using cable. I heard people complain the some of cable's channels or HD program aren't true HD or Cable messes it up. Today I saw for myself. An HDTV PBS puppet show at 1080i. Good nice detail and colors that automatically filled up my TV's screen. I flip to watch the same program through my Cable. The image was smashed to a letter box format. It was slightly fuzzy. When I increase the picture size it got a little more fuzzy.

[Wes]

Okay is cable HD TV really HDTV.

I'm already having issues with the price of my service. Today for an hour I played, what channels do I get without using cable. I heard people complain the some of cable's channels or HD program aren't true HD or Cable messes it up. Today I saw for myself. An HDTV PBS puppet show at 1080i. Good nice detail and colors that automatically filled up my TV's screen. I flip to watch the same program through my Cable. The image was smashed to a letter box format. It was slightly fuzzy. When I increase the picture size it got a little more fuzzy.

Depends on the show. Some they'll actually put it out otherwise it's upscaling, usually something funky. Mine seem to give out DD sound as well.

[eugimon]

part of the problem is that cable/sat providers try to put too many channels for their bandwidth so you end up with lots of compression, so in some markets, over the air HD gives people a far better image than comcrap or other providers.

[David Hingtgen]

A LOT of cable HD isn't HD, it's simply "upscaled". And even if it really is filmed in HD---most companies squeeze a zillion channels into just a bit of bandwidth, causing lots of image/compression problems. All just depends.

Unless you're using a Blu-Ray player or a PS3 or a 360, you're probably not getting full, pure, uncompressed HD. Unless you're lucky.

[Roy Focker]

Well the program (when viewed not through cable) was at 1080i. On cable they sure did reduced the quality.

[eugimon]

A LOT of cable HD isn't HD, it's simply "upscaled". And even if it really is filmed in HD---most companies squeeze a zillion channels into just a bit of bandwidth, causing lots of image/compression problems. All just depends.

Unless you're using a Blu-Ray player or a PS3 or a 360, you're probably not getting full, pure, uncompressed HD. Unless you're lucky.

all HD is compressed as a rule, even blu-ray, HD-DVD is a compressed version of the master. But as it relates to this discussion, even Verizons much vaunted FIOS is still compressed. All sat and cable providers compress their signals. And for you sports fans, live shows are double compressed, compressed when they beam the feed to wherever and compressed again when they pipe it to your home.

And yeah, a lot of movies and shows are just upscaled and sometimes stretched... which is just hilarious. When TNT does those HD LOTR marathons, those are just upscaled, they look identical to what I see when I watch the DVDs on my PS3.

[Roy Focker]

So are cable companies ripping customers off by not delivering actual HD programming? When you pay for HDTV what are you really getting?

This sounds like ordering a double patty hamburger. Instead of getting two actual panties they cut one patty down the center and make it two. Or could it be more like timming the sides of patty off to fit on a smaller bun?

[David Hingtgen]

I mean compressed, as in compressed so much there's a notable quality loss. Like a 99% vs 60% JPG.

[Dangard Ace]

Yay! Transformers on BD in September! Let us see if all the extras are still there and if the sound for the Blackout scene is back.

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=1317

[JsARCLIGHT]

And lets also see if Michael Bay will shut the f up about it finally.

[Roy Focker]

Boy cable sure is compressing HDTV. Just watched some prime time HD programming. Flipped back from Std to HDTV to Cable Std to Cable HDTV. Found myself watching normal HDTV most of the time. Std looks the same on cable or off it. Cable HDTV reduces the size of the image. Looks crisp as long I keep the image small. There is also a static line running along the top of the cable's HDTV picture. Why have 40 inch set if I have to watch something at smaller size? When I expand the image ends up looking like a standard tv. HDTV without cable gave the best image. Channels watched were Fox, ABC & NBC. It looked as good as the demo sets in the stores. Cable HDTV is pointless. The quality is reduced to such a degree where it is no longer HD.

[transfan52]

Paying for HD cable seems like a scam to me... if most channels image quality is almost that of regular cable then why bother? In fact my roomate has HD cable and on his tv I can see alot of graininess on most channels that claim to be hd. It looks really bad IMO.

[eugimon]

Yeah, i've seen a lot of OTAHD that looks better than cable. When BSG ends its run, I'm going to be hard pressed to justify sending comcast a check every month.

[Ratchet]

It must suck to be poor

[ruskiiVFaussie]

So i been reading up a little more... -

Recordable Media

Blu-ray Disc™ offers a recordable format with unsurpassed storage capacity to store your digital world: photographs, home videos, music libraries and data, as well as games and movies

Can i record stuff on my dvd like from TV? Even record scenes from my blue-ray and soring it on the ps3' hardrive??

That would be ideal. But atleast the ability to record tv..

Can someone please confirm this for me? Also i still would like to know if I can purchase Jap region (2?) and play it on my Australian PAL PS3...

[azrael]

Can i record stuff on my dvd like from TV? Even record scenes from my blue-ray and soring it on the ps3' hardrive??

I'm sure there will be Blu-ray TV recorders just like there are DVD TV recorders.

Can someone please confirm this for me? Also i still would like to know if I can purchase Jap region (2?) and play it on my Australian PAL PS3...

Japan Blu-Ray disc will not work on Australian Blu-Ray (unless you modify it). Japan = Region A. Australia = Region B.

[Uxi]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=...ocId=1000233361

amazon up to 50% off Blu-ray.

[Alpha OTS]

Whoa.....good titles and kind of cheap too....what gives? Am I missing the fine print?

[ruskiiVFaussie]

I'm sure there will be Blu-ray TV recorders just like there are DVD TV recorders.

Japan Blu-Ray disc will not work on Australian Blu-Ray (unless you modify it). Japan = Region A. Australia = Region B.

Great thanks for letting me know about the region difference! :-)

Um, If one was to mod it so i could play Jap Blue-Ray, would there be problems with quality?

If it's been modded can i still play normal Pal region blue-rays as well then?

[Gaijin]

Whoa.....good titles and kind of cheap too....what gives? Am I missing the fine print?

Told you guys the sales were coming.

[eugimon]

Yay! Transformers on BD in September! Let us see if all the extras are still there and if the sound for the Blackout scene is back.

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=1317

TrueHD and Uncompressed PCM confirmed.

[cantaperme]

I’m looking to get a new surround sound set up. I’m currently using a Bose Lifestyle system, but my receiver has no HDMI outputs/inputs (the system is a few years old). I’m looking to get a 7.1 system either as a package or by buying the receiver and speakers separately. I’m looking to spend around $1000, any suggestions? Thanks

[Gaijin]

Separates are always better...but pricier.