[DRS]

I have been watching a lot of HD lately, and now the only DVD's that look remotely good are the reference titles--sigh... There are a couple of things still going for DVD though, the ones that stick out for me are; I can play them when I want and the the sound quality is better.


I guess after re-reading this post it sounds like a big 'duh' but it's not really. The thing is I have always been happy with DVD (actually thrilled). So this is sort of a warning, if you are happy with DVD don't go watching lots of HD

 

[jlb]

Actually, rather than warn people to not go HDTV, we should say, go watch HDNet, HBO HD, HD Locals, etc., love it, live it, and then clamor for a "good" standard for HD-DVD.


And then when all is said and done and, say, 2010 rolls around, we can get on George Lucas to finally release the original trilogy, and in HD-DVD too, unless he holds out to do something "special" for the fans......

 

[Jerry G]

Quote:

Originally posted by DRS I have been watching a lot of HD lately, and now the only DVD's that look remotely good are the reference titles--sigh...

What display are you using?

 

[DRS]

I know where you are going, it's a 51" 16:9 RPTV "tweaked"

 

[Chris Williams]

I know how it is. My wife Vickie and I watched a PBS nature show in HD, then after it was over, I switched to one of her favorite DVDs "Moulin Rouge". She said "What's wrong with the DVD player? It looks horrible!" I explained that I hadn't changed a thing, that it looked exactly the same as it always had. I showed her the same DVD the next night, without seeing any HD beforehand, and she agreed. We have a new rule about showings in our home theater - NO DVDs after HD. DVD followed by HD is OK.


(HTPC with HiPix card, PowerDVD, Radeon card)

 

[Glade]

The same caveat applies to those of us still using LD in addition to DVD and HD.


Try showing friends HD material on a 126" diag screen and then switch to that movie everyone wanted to watch that is only available on LD and see if you don't all get a severe case of resolution whiplash.


_____

Glade

 

[XFactor]

I'm surprised by your comment that the audio is better on DVDs. In my experience, the audio has been indistinguishable between DTheater, HBO-HD and and DVD.

 

[DRS]

I should have clarified. Most HD programming is still 2.0 for me. On HBO it has the potential for 5.1 but not DD-EX or DTS I believe.

 

[Glade]

Quote:

Originally posted by XFactor I'm surprised by your comment that the audio is better on DVDs. In my experience, the audio has been indistinguishable between DTheater, HBO-HD and and DVD.

Strange, I notice a significant difference on DVD 5.1 verses DSS delivered HBO-HD 5.1 just as I also notice a difference on 2-channel CD verses DSS delivered 2-channel music (despite the marketing that it is "CD quality"). I don't have a technical background but I would have thought that the digital audio information being feed to the prepro from a DVD/CD is not identical to that from a DSS or cable receiver for a given source.


Does anyone know?


______

Glade

 

[Salmoneous]

Quote:

Originally posted by Glade (despite the marketing that it is "CD quality

Has there ever been anything marketed as "CD quality" that didn't sound like crap? My most recent example - I got satellite radio. Now don't get me wrong - I LOVE it - it's the greatest thing for the car, ever. But man do they compress the heck out of the signal on some of the channels, and it sounds like it

 

[Art Sonneborn]

Quote:

Originally posted by Chris Williams I know how it is. My wife Vickie and I watched a PBS nature show in HD, then after it was over, I switched to one of her favorite DVDs "Moulin Rouge". She said "What's wrong with the DVD player? It looks horrible!" I explained that I hadn't changed a thing, that it looked exactly the same as it always had. I showed her the same DVD the next night, without seeing any HD beforehand, and she agreed. We have a new rule about showings in our home theater - NO DVDs after . DVD followed by HD is OK.

Chris,

You are so right! An interesting phenomenon indeed and one I learned the hard way. I had a room full of adult guests to see a DTheater tape so I could show them " how great High Definition looks". We agreed on Fight Club but my 30K unit died and we went to the DVD.This is a good DVD in it's own right but the comment was" why does it look blurry" If I demo my theater I never show HD till the end


Art

 

[Chris Williams]

Yeah, you could show it off in steps of increaseing quality; EP speed VHS, SP speed VHS, Beta II, S-VHS, Laserdisc, DVD...then, only when they've been fully primed, break out the HD material...then threaten anyone who is not stunned with the EP speed VHS tape.


One of the really nice bits about using a HTPC is bringing better quality together on the same screen. I did this with Amadeus VHS pan'n'scan vs. DVD widescreen. I synced 'em up, and our guest sold herself.


BTW, if I didn't make it clear...the rule about no HD before DVD was Vickie's rule (I'm so proud of her!)

 

[Ollie W. Holmes]

The scary (or awesome) thing about HD is not that it looks better than dvd. 98% of the people in this forum agree with that premise. Rather, it is the economic impact that HD will make on the huge dvd collections some people already have. Even if I replace only 1000 titles, that will cost me over $25,000 at estimated street prices. Due to the questionable longevity of d-theater tapes and decks, that also means replacing around 30 of those titles. I wonder if it's worth it to buy Basic Instinct (d-theater) just to see a clearer view of Sharon Stone's bush. I need this like I need a tax increase. Sheeez.

 

[KennyG]

That is exactly why I haven't gone to HD tape, and will not. I don't have money to waste on tape, then waste again when we do get HD-DVD.

I'll buy HD once, and it'll be in the format that's going to stick around.

 

[robtec88]

One question:


What type of source material are the 'HBO-HD' and 'D-Theater' companies using? Obviously it's not DVD's as their source. Is this type of high resolution recordings available to the general public? (Sorry, that's a second question).


Thanks,


Robert N.

 

[Chris Williams]

Quote:

Originally posted by robtec88 One question: What type of source material are the 'HBO-HD' and 'D-Theater' companies using? Obviously it's not DVD's as their source. Is this type of high resolution recordings available to the general public?

Usually something like the Panasonic AJ-HD2700 D5 format mastering recorder . This little beauty lists for $64,500.00. A 124 minute blank tape will run you $291.00!


As for the second part, in a word, no. They would sooner sell you their children than part with a digital master tape. The D-Theater demos at the offices of Widescreen Review featured a comparison to a D5 master, and the person responsible for the tape never got very far from it.

 

[Josh Z]

Quote:

Originally posted by robtec88 What type of source material are the 'HBO-HD' and 'D-Theater' companies using? Obviously it's not DVD's as their source.

These days, when movies are transferred from film to video they are stored on high-definition master tapes (two transfers are usually done, one widescreen and one pan&scan). The master tapes are then down-converted to DVD or VHS resolution for their home video releases. D-Theater products come from the same home video master but at a resolution closer to the original.


HBO, on the other hand, often commissions new film-to-video transfers for the movies they air on their HD channel, because they have a policy of cropping all movies to 16:9 regardless of original aspect ratio. Therefore a 2.35:1 movie cannot be taken from the home video master tape.

 

[robtec88]

Thanks Chris and Josh. Now I understand and here I thought 'tape' was dead - I guess just VHS!


Just one more question (if you don't mind):


Are movie theaters still using 'reel film' these days or do they use these digital, high-resolution tapes now?


Thanks,


Robert N.

 

[ckolchak]

Quote:

Originally posted by Ollie W. Holmes The scary (or awesome) thing about HD is not that it looks better than dvd. 98% of the people in this forum agree with that premise.

what about when the dvds are upscaled to 720p within the digital domain of the player and feed via dvi?


it seems to me, like in the case of the Dvhs titles i've seen demo'd, that yes, they are finer, but we are only talking about 60 extra lines 480p vs 540p (1080i)...thats a 1/8 increase in res. no?


i realize you are not getting anymore info when upscaling that 480p to 720p, but you should still see some noticeable benefits shouldn't you?

 

[FredProgGH]

Quote:

Originally posted by robtec88 Are movie theaters still using 'reel film' these days or do they use these digital, high-resolution tapes now?

There are at least a handful of theaters in the US that are ready to show all digital presentations, such as the last Star Wars movie. I don't think they use tape though. It's my understanding that they have or are putting a system in place that will allow such theaters to download movies via satellite and store them on a hard drive for presentation. (I would think such a system would be ripe for hacking, but the files involved would be staggeringly big.) Some others here probably know more about it, or a websearch could turn up more info.