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The other night Angela and I had a wonderful opportunity to have dinner with Jeff ( thebland) and his wife after VDAMatthew's home theater meet had wrapped up. I had provided most of the software used at the meet earlier , so I had a big bag of goodies ( literally I had my gym bag full of good DVDs DVHS and DTheater).
First off, before I get into comments and comparisons I want to let Jeff know that this was a very gracious thing for him to have done.
What I did was select titles which were very good tests of what I felt were possible deficiencies of the platform. This was necessary because I know Sony doesn't show this type of material in their demos. Jeff had the Qualia in the high CR mode for the evening. I'm going to discuss what I saw a little out of order, however, to allow me to express this most effectively.
Darin had asked me to look at a specific scene in Road to Perdition ,which I have a copy of in HD. This was the scene where Tom Hanks mows everyone down in the rain at night. Here I fully expected there to be some glaring black level issues.... there were not. This, although apparently a very very dark scene , had really a mixed aspect to it. Just beautiful and certainly had no deficiencies to the look.
We also did a few others from this film which had what I told Jeff were classic low APL scenes. One of these the two sons are in bed one reading a book with a flashlight the other scenes one of them was hiding under the seat in Hanks' car. In these the elevated black level was more obvious. In these scenes there were times when a face was lit but there was almost no other information in the frame. In these on my stack those areas essentially match the screen frame with the Qualia they were gray. Another was in the DTheater version of Butch Cassidy. There is long scene of their attempts to escape the bounty hunters who were hiding on horseback in a train. It culminates in a night scene. Here there are times when all that is visible in my system are torches in the distance lighting some surfaces and very very little else( the background essentially matches the velvet screen border). On mine this is black all the way to the floor but with the Qualia the whole screen was gray with the brighter torches .
With my low APL torture tests my summary would be that I saw what I expected almost exactly as I expected except in the mixed night scene material which was just stunning in it's beauty. The last few clicks in black level simply were either invisible or unnecessary in the first place to render that scene so well.
Jeff had a copy of Shrek in HD. I had seen bits of this on my Runco stack before and I had seen the fabulous DVD many times. He put this in and certainly this should be able to allow us to see what this device could do with a wide range of things. I hope everyone will forgive me with this part of my post since here is where I have the deficiencies , I simply have an insufficient vocabulary for this part.This was the most beautiful,stunningly clear and clean images I have ever seen anywhere. I told Jeff later that I had left something in his theater ,I asked that if he found it would he return it to me, I believe I left it in the front row....... my jaw !!!
The color gradations, the absolutely incredible detail were, well ,.........incredible! I told him that I was sitting there with this sensation that this is it this is display heaven. This is no exaggeration !
Even the fuzz on Fiona's velvet dress ( a third or fourth order detail )was visible.( this was over and above shading, texture and color). The reds and therefore the other colors like the sort of purple color of the dragon were unbelievable. I have never seen red anywhere that could compete with what this device can do. This was evident in watching the Dtheater version of Daredevil and the boxing scenes. Details in backgrounds such as fine cracks in the ash they were standing in were rendered such that even in Jeff's front row they were displaying things which were at or near the limit of my corrected vision. By the way Jeff, these cracks are visible on my G90s but not like that. I'll have to see if this can be further tweeked to pull that out better but I doubt it.
My expectations regarding CR and blacks were pretty close to what I expected, I was prepared for that. What I wasn't prepared for, and what is now etched upon my mind, is seeing how much better it does those things it does well , so much better than I expected. Sony did this right. Congratulation Jeff on making the right decision and Chris Collins for making that Ferrari purr.
Thanks again Jeff for a very very enjoyable evening ,one I'll never forget.
Art
First off, before I get into comments and comparisons I want to let Jeff know that this was a very gracious thing for him to have done.
What I did was select titles which were very good tests of what I felt were possible deficiencies of the platform. This was necessary because I know Sony doesn't show this type of material in their demos. Jeff had the Qualia in the high CR mode for the evening. I'm going to discuss what I saw a little out of order, however, to allow me to express this most effectively.
Darin had asked me to look at a specific scene in Road to Perdition ,which I have a copy of in HD. This was the scene where Tom Hanks mows everyone down in the rain at night. Here I fully expected there to be some glaring black level issues.... there were not. This, although apparently a very very dark scene , had really a mixed aspect to it. Just beautiful and certainly had no deficiencies to the look.
We also did a few others from this film which had what I told Jeff were classic low APL scenes. One of these the two sons are in bed one reading a book with a flashlight the other scenes one of them was hiding under the seat in Hanks' car. In these the elevated black level was more obvious. In these scenes there were times when a face was lit but there was almost no other information in the frame. In these on my stack those areas essentially match the screen frame with the Qualia they were gray. Another was in the DTheater version of Butch Cassidy. There is long scene of their attempts to escape the bounty hunters who were hiding on horseback in a train. It culminates in a night scene. Here there are times when all that is visible in my system are torches in the distance lighting some surfaces and very very little else( the background essentially matches the velvet screen border). On mine this is black all the way to the floor but with the Qualia the whole screen was gray with the brighter torches .
With my low APL torture tests my summary would be that I saw what I expected almost exactly as I expected except in the mixed night scene material which was just stunning in it's beauty. The last few clicks in black level simply were either invisible or unnecessary in the first place to render that scene so well.
Jeff had a copy of Shrek in HD. I had seen bits of this on my Runco stack before and I had seen the fabulous DVD many times. He put this in and certainly this should be able to allow us to see what this device could do with a wide range of things. I hope everyone will forgive me with this part of my post since here is where I have the deficiencies , I simply have an insufficient vocabulary for this part.This was the most beautiful,stunningly clear and clean images I have ever seen anywhere. I told Jeff later that I had left something in his theater ,I asked that if he found it would he return it to me, I believe I left it in the front row....... my jaw !!!
The color gradations, the absolutely incredible detail were, well ,.........incredible! I told him that I was sitting there with this sensation that this is it this is display heaven. This is no exaggeration !Even the fuzz on Fiona's velvet dress ( a third or fourth order detail )was visible.( this was over and above shading, texture and color). The reds and therefore the other colors like the sort of purple color of the dragon were unbelievable. I have never seen red anywhere that could compete with what this device can do. This was evident in watching the Dtheater version of Daredevil and the boxing scenes. Details in backgrounds such as fine cracks in the ash they were standing in were rendered such that even in Jeff's front row they were displaying things which were at or near the limit of my corrected vision. By the way Jeff, these cracks are visible on my G90s but not like that. I'll have to see if this can be further tweeked to pull that out better but I doubt it.
My expectations regarding CR and blacks were pretty close to what I expected, I was prepared for that. What I wasn't prepared for, and what is now etched upon my mind, is seeing how much better it does those things it does well , so much better than I expected. Sony did this right. Congratulation Jeff on making the right decision and Chris Collins for making that Ferrari purr.
Thanks again Jeff for a very very enjoyable evening ,one I'll never forget.
Art
