luismanrara
12-19-07, 03:25 PM
Let me start by saying that I choose to post on the format neutral forum because I believe that here what I have to say will not ( I hope) cause suicidal attempts from any group. I also would like to clarify that I am not a "COMPANY MAN", I don't give a hoot if Sony wins and Toshiba looses or vice versa. My sole purpose to write down how I feel is out of disappointment, and not any wishes on my part to choose one format over the other, but to look for solutions that could work for me based on the experience I had.
My system consists of the Panasonic AE2000 projecting a 138" screen, a Toshiba HD-AX2 HD-dvd, and the Samsung 1400 blu-ray player, all connected via HDMI. Both players were set to P/24. The Samsung player's firmware is the original one that does P/24 correctly.
I will not discuss audio differences, as both the Toshiba and the Samsung players sound very good.
I bought the Samsung player last Thursday, and it wasn't until Sunday that I had the chance to connect everything and do some movie watching. The Samsung takes more or less the same time as the Toshiba does from powering up to opening the disc drawer, I am a patient man, and it doesn't bother me too much. The Samsung takes longer than the Toshiba for pretty much everything after the disc has been inserted, specially access to menu, etc, Even though it bothers me, I knew what I was getting into based on the reports on this forum.
After watching 4 movies on the samsung, and 4 movies on the Toshiba for the last couple of days, this is how I feel.
The first movie I played on the Samsung was Ratatouille from Disney..WOW, I loved the picture, depth, color, excellent in every visual aspect that I could think of, great start.
I put in Pirates of the Caribbean " At World's End " it looks good, but certain scenes just don't pop out as great HD but more as very clean, smooth presentation that sometimes looks too thin, or should I say a picture with less depth to it.
My third blu ray disc was Fantastic4 " Rise of the Silver surfer " I think this movie looked better than Pirates, The movie had a very clean flawless look to it, but it looked like a cartoon and not like film, I am asking myself, Is this movie supposed to look like this? I felt that Ratatouille had more depth compare to this cartoon like looking movie.
The last blu ray movie I played was Harry Potter and the "Order Of The Phoenix". My reaction was the same as Pirates, sometimes it looked very good, but it never gave me goose bumps, I even saw some scenes with softness in the picture.
I went back to the Toshiba and played KING KONG, Elizabeth, Transformers and AeonFlux. The picture quality was simply better, the depth factor, contrast, and film like experience was all there. Elizabeth was to me the best of the bunch, it was simply breathtaking, I did not come away feeling this way with any of the blu ray movies, with the exception of Ratatouille which looked rich and the way I expected blu ray to look across the board.
What should I do?... To begin I will return the Samsung for the Sony 300 which is on sale right now, if this does not change the results I had with the Samsung I will get the Panasonic which I hear is as good or better than the Pioneer Elite picture wise.
I do not know if the results I had were influenced by my set up or if this is an inherent difference between the 2 formats, I wish it isn't, because blu ray has the cool factor, and it looks like it might at the end win this war after all.
I must confess that I respect the Toshiba player's performance much more today than I did 3 days ago, and wonder what would some of the blu ray format supporters reaction be if they could experience the Toshiba player in their set up?
I will get the Sony tonight, and report back. maybe the top of the line players from each format is what makes the difference, and there's no difference between the two formats themselves.
My system consists of the Panasonic AE2000 projecting a 138" screen, a Toshiba HD-AX2 HD-dvd, and the Samsung 1400 blu-ray player, all connected via HDMI. Both players were set to P/24. The Samsung player's firmware is the original one that does P/24 correctly.
I will not discuss audio differences, as both the Toshiba and the Samsung players sound very good.
I bought the Samsung player last Thursday, and it wasn't until Sunday that I had the chance to connect everything and do some movie watching. The Samsung takes more or less the same time as the Toshiba does from powering up to opening the disc drawer, I am a patient man, and it doesn't bother me too much. The Samsung takes longer than the Toshiba for pretty much everything after the disc has been inserted, specially access to menu, etc, Even though it bothers me, I knew what I was getting into based on the reports on this forum.
After watching 4 movies on the samsung, and 4 movies on the Toshiba for the last couple of days, this is how I feel.
The first movie I played on the Samsung was Ratatouille from Disney..WOW, I loved the picture, depth, color, excellent in every visual aspect that I could think of, great start.
I put in Pirates of the Caribbean " At World's End " it looks good, but certain scenes just don't pop out as great HD but more as very clean, smooth presentation that sometimes looks too thin, or should I say a picture with less depth to it.
My third blu ray disc was Fantastic4 " Rise of the Silver surfer " I think this movie looked better than Pirates, The movie had a very clean flawless look to it, but it looked like a cartoon and not like film, I am asking myself, Is this movie supposed to look like this? I felt that Ratatouille had more depth compare to this cartoon like looking movie.
The last blu ray movie I played was Harry Potter and the "Order Of The Phoenix". My reaction was the same as Pirates, sometimes it looked very good, but it never gave me goose bumps, I even saw some scenes with softness in the picture.
I went back to the Toshiba and played KING KONG, Elizabeth, Transformers and AeonFlux. The picture quality was simply better, the depth factor, contrast, and film like experience was all there. Elizabeth was to me the best of the bunch, it was simply breathtaking, I did not come away feeling this way with any of the blu ray movies, with the exception of Ratatouille which looked rich and the way I expected blu ray to look across the board.
What should I do?... To begin I will return the Samsung for the Sony 300 which is on sale right now, if this does not change the results I had with the Samsung I will get the Panasonic which I hear is as good or better than the Pioneer Elite picture wise.
I do not know if the results I had were influenced by my set up or if this is an inherent difference between the 2 formats, I wish it isn't, because blu ray has the cool factor, and it looks like it might at the end win this war after all.
I must confess that I respect the Toshiba player's performance much more today than I did 3 days ago, and wonder what would some of the blu ray format supporters reaction be if they could experience the Toshiba player in their set up?
I will get the Sony tonight, and report back. maybe the top of the line players from each format is what makes the difference, and there's no difference between the two formats themselves.