[Carey P]

Yes, they do exist! This past weekend, CCLAY was gracious enough to let me hold one in my very own hands (heavy little sucker!), and gave me a very impressive demo using his G11.


Of course, the G11 by itself makes an amazing picture. I was amazed at the pixel fill factor and the ability to sit up close without the worry of screen door. Sliding the Panamorph 1/2 way into view, you could easily see the 30% increase in brightness on the split screen. The contrast and colors seem to improve as well. I can imagine it making an even greater impression on an LCD projector image. If it looked this good in a semi-dark room with a home-made screen, this certainly says a lot.


There is quite an offset of the image from lens center, when adjusted for 1.78:1, but if the screen is placed in the image location and the projector is level (with no added internal offset), there is virtually no barrel distortion to worry about. Even with an offset setup as we had, due to the temporary screen, the distortion couldn't have been more then a 1/2 inch or so at the centers. This would easily absorb into a screens black borders. The reduction of spillover light was another nice benefit. There may have been some non-linear focus problems, but they did not seem evident while watching movies. Of course, I was only there a couple hours, but I was quite pleased.


And then there was HDTV! Something I never imagined could look that good. In some ways it looked better than DVD. I just may have to break down and get my own satellite setup. It's really sad there is such little programming available.


At least the Panamorph is not a hoax. It's real. I have faith now that someday one will show up at my door. For such a simple looking instrument to provide all those advantages, I really can't see it just going away. Shawn, wherever he is, may actually pull through some day. I can only hope anyway . Otherwise, someone will take over the operation and pull through for him. Either way, let's face it, this thing just has too much potential to simply die out altogether.


And gee, tomorrow is the last shipping day for my group according to the latest schedule

Anyway, thanks again Chris for the great demo. You're welcome to stop by here anytime you come this way. Just let me know. BTW, get one of those Superbit versions for the ultimate picture on an ultimate system. Even on my LCD I can't see a flaw anywhere (granted, I can't get as close as you). The detail is astonishing on TFE .


Carey

 

[Mark Hunter]

Sounds like a great demo!


Carey - Are you getting a Panamorph as well?

 

[Morbius]

Thanks for the review.

Quote:

Originally posted by Carey P And then there was HDTV! Something I never imagined could look that good. In some ways it looked better than DVD.

HDTV *should* look better than DVD. DVD is "natively" 480p, while the most popular of the

myriad of HDTV formats are 720p and 1080i.


Greg

 

[Carey P]

Greg,


A well tweaked HTPC/DVD player can come extremely close to HDTV quality. This was the first time I could really notice the slight edge that HDTV had (barring interlacing effects and jumping in the image) because I could compare the two on such a good system. Up until now, all the HDTV demos I've seen (around here anyway) could not come close to what I can get with a DVD on my system. This is why I haven't given HDTV much thought until now.


Mark,

Quote:

Carey - Are you getting a Panamorph as well?

That's the question that a lot of people are asking. I placed my order Aug 31, 2000, so possibly by next summer?


Carey

 

[Michael Grant]

Quote:

A well tweaked HTPC/DVD player can come extremely close to HDTV quality.

Ahh, perhaps---but the best HTPC/DVD combo will not be close to to the best HDTV setup. Compared to a DTC-100 running through an imperfect scaler, perhaps.

 

[CCLAY]

Hi Carey.


It was nice having you and your wife visit. Thanks for giving me an excuse to take a half of a Friday off. Did you leave Laughlin with any money?


Very nice take on the Panamorph. I couldn't have said it better myself.


And as I mentioned that day, the more time you spend watching material through it, the more you pick little bits and pieces here and there that you notice to be quite an improvement over the non Pannied image.


For those who are interested, we watched various DVDs and HD material from HDNet and HBOHD via my DTC100.


The HBO was Stuart Little and the Ireland demo bit was on HDNet.


Stuart was very good but nothing compares to the best demo stuff on HDNet. The Ireland bit is ok but some of the other demo material I've seen is much better. The scuba demo scenes, for example, are unbeatable IMO.


The grass in the Ireland scenes compared to the grass shots in the baseball scenes are night and day. In the baseball scenes, you can actually see the individual blades of grass with moths and bugs dancing in and out.


I wish Carey could have seen some of that.


Anyway, yes, the Pannie is real and well worth the wait. The non existence of light spill above(or below) the screen with 16:9(or especially 2.35) material is worth the price of admission alone.


Credit must go where credit is due. That would be to Mark Hunter for his work in Dilard. My G11 is tweaked to it's current potential with the Dilard Wizards.


Even though new horizons are in store for us with the coming of Dilard 2.2 and Coloracts and/or the Colorimeter(prompt for Mark? ), the current Dilard software has given me substantial improvements in picture quality. Thanks Mark.


Chris

 

[Carey P]

Hi Chris,


Yeah, I left with some money I still had left . Seems the machines were set pretty tight, trying to recover from lack of business lately, and the dealers were all in bad moods. They won't get any more of my business for a while.


At least your demo made the trip worthwhile. I hope that Shawn's statement tomorrow doesn't spell doom for the rest of us. It just wouldn't seem fair for such a simple device with so many benefits to not get out to more people. Heck, if he'd just send me a kit of parts, I'd build it myself! I'd do anything to get my hands on one, now that I've seen it in action. Better take good care of yours .


Carey

 

[luvmytivo]

Quote:

Originally posted by Morbius Thanks for the review. HDTV *should* look better than DVD. DVD is "natively" 480p, while the most popular of the myriad of HDTV formats are 720p and 1080i. Greg

Silly nit-picking here, but DVDs are 480i...

 

[JoeFloyd]

Using the 2:3 telecine technique and with proper care during the film conversion and later during the digital editing / compression stages it's possible to place tags in the MPEG stream that indicate the sequence of fields and how to reconstruct the progressive frames. Some progressive video players and most software players are capable of reconstructing the progressive frames from the interlaced video.


So, DVD can be a true progressive format since it's possible to fully reconstruct the progressive frames.