Quote:
Originally Posted by Bauer83 /forum/post/0
So to have the sound compressed for dolby digital plus tracks is a major piss off. For now, I will only watch HD DVD's that have Tru HD soundtracks, as I am a sound guy. The picture is stunning, and there is no doubt about that. But when it sounds like TV speakers for an Apollo 13 launch ( a little exaggeration of course), I am not impressed.
So the end of the rant is, what was stated above, you can't trust Home Theater's reviews. Once Microsoft fixes the sound issues, shoot this player up into the 90's as it is one heck of a bargain.
I actually start to ask myself, if the sound bug is a sound bug at all? A bug is something that you don't want in your program - it is an accident if there is a bug in your program.
Is this bug really an accident? Or is this maybe more a strategic "bug" which means it was planned and intended, so the xbox with addon would produce a sound inferior to SD DVD and thereby does not threaten the business of the Toshiba standalones?
Think about it. We see what happens with the BD standalone players - they rest in peace on the shop shelves because of the PS3. Would Toshiba like their players to collect dust in the shelves? Probably not. So maybe this "sound bug" is nothing else than a deal between Microsoft and Toshiba. I mean we are talking about a Toshiba drive as addon that would be direct competition to Toshiba players - it does make sense that they made a deal, right?
What brings me to this idea is the weird behaviour of Microsoft.
The bug is obviously just a wrong parameter in the dynamic compression setting. Even a cheap $40 SD DVD player allows you to adjust the dynamic compression in the menu - its no magic it is a simple parameter in the codec. So it will be a simple parameter in the DD+ codec as well. On the addon the parameter is set to a certain value. Obviously to the wrong value. The developer of the xbox software could change the parameter probably in 15 minutes.
Why don't they do it? Ah, I see... the DTS update.
But isn't it kind of weird, that they shift the attention of the customer from an easy to solve bug to something very complex that probably takes a loooooong time to get done? What surely everybody understands. So we wait for the DTS update... but hey, we are missing something... there was something before they shifted the focus of our thoughts... yeah - why isn't the bug fixed in the DD version before the faaaar, faaaar away DTS update will come?
Any reason? Tell me one! Ah, I see... the dashboard update... so complex and everything... can't do that for a simple soundbug fix. O.k. - but wasn't there a dashboard update a couple days ago? I mean come on? What is Microsoft trying to pull here?
Why don't they really acknowledge the problem? You ask them about the compression bug fix, they talk about DTS. You ask them if the DTS update fixes the compression bug - they do not answer clearly. They give you vague answers and you still don't know if this DTS update fixes the compression bug. Particular because there does not seem to be a problem with ENcoding, more with DEcoding so one wonders what help a new ENcoder can be.
Where it really starts to feel like the x-files is when several people call on several days their hotline and complain about the compression bug. They always tell, that they have never heard of this bug before....
And can you really believe that Microsoft made this bug by accident? I mean hey, the HD-DVD player seems to be a very, very complex thing. The fact that we enjoy stellar picture quality without any hickups shows that Microsoft really knows what they are doing - and than they are missing on a point that is like stoneage technology? Get out of here! Your kidding. Its like you manage to build a plane and in the end you find out: whoops, we forgot to build the wings! Hey but it still rolls fine on the ground and the seats are so comfortable...
...well maybe - and I really hope so - it is just my imagination that is running away with me and these ideas are maybe all wrong and Microsoft is just behaving weird.
