blu ray or hidef dvd?

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Hi, Is it becoming clearer which format is coming out on top? Does my two year old Yamaha amp handle hi def dts or do I need a new one? thanks Jimmy
 

Andrew Everard

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[quote user="kefyamman"]
Hi, Is it becoming clearer which format is coming out on top?

[/quote]

Nope, 'fraid not yet...

[quote user="kefyamman"]

Does my two year old Yamaha amp handle hi def dts or
do I need a new one?
[/quote]
If it has multichannel analogue inputs and you buy a player with internal decoding and suitable multichannel analogue outputs, yes it will. But current players are a bit patchy as to which formats they'll decode, so we'd say wait, even if you are prepared to pick a winner now.

Otherwise, to get DTS HD/DTS HD Master Audio (or indeed the Dolby HD formats) straight into your amp for decoding there, you'll need a new amp.
 

Clare Newsome

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FYI, we're working on a huge HD DVD and Blu-ray test for our October issue, out August 23rd, where we hope to include every HD player currently available, including the new Sony.

In the meantime, our September issue - in shops next week, or winging its way to subscribers for this weekend - has a review of the best Blu-ray player we've yet seen....
 
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Anonymous

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Not wanting to predict and outcome of this 'war' my criteria will be cost of the device. I am due to upgrade my £100 / 5 year old DVD player with a 1080p upscaling one. As far as I can see it the there are quite a few around, but the keenest priced with WHSV 5 stars seems to be the Toshiba XE1, which happens to also play HD-DVD. I can have this for £400 now. I understand that there a few good films out on Blue-Ray and not HD-DVD but SD DVD will be around for a while now and I have a few of them in my library. Worst case scenario I buy a very good upscaling player that also plays HD-DVD and best case would be that all the Blue-Ray films I like come out on HD-DVD. On the other hand who says that there won't be some clever kids around developing a decoder that lets you 'transfer' from Blue-Ray to a HD-DVD writer. You can only hope.
 
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Anonymous

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ok here are a few basic theads of information i think anyone considering a HD-DVD player should consider

Blu-ray has greater disc capacity. 25GB discs vs. 15 GB discs or dual layer 50GB discs vs. dual layer 30GB discs. Blu-ray also has greater bandwidth 40Mb/s for the video alone and 8Mb/s for the audio alone vs. a little over 30Mb/s COMBINED for the audio and video for HD-DVD. Regardless of what some HD-DVD supporters may tell you, this limited capacity and bandwidth can have a negative effect on picture quality and sound quality, especially with longer movies such as Lord of the Rings Extended Editions, etc. Also, who knows what things may come down the road that can take advantage of the the extra space and bandwidth Blu-ray has to offer?

STUDIOS: Disney/Columbia TriStar Sony/MGM/Fox/LionsGate/Anchor-Bay Starz and some others films are exclusive to Blu-ray

Universal and Weinstein films are exclusive to HD DVD

Warner and Paramount publish in both

and Blu-ray is currently outselling HD-DVD 2-1

Now, the real killer. These are all titles from studios exclusive to Blu-ray (some of them have already been released on Blu-ray):

Die Hard Quadrilogy
James Bond
Finding Nemo
Cars
Ratatouille
The Simpsons
24
Lost
FireFly
The X-Files
Prison Break
Spider Man Trilogy
Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy
Fantastic Four
Surf's Up
Lawrence of Arabia
Toy Story
Sleeping Beauty
Cinderella
Fantasia
Wargames
Halloween
Planet of the Apes (original and remake)
The Poseidon Adventure
Night at the Museum
X-Men
Ice Age
The Pursuit of Happyness
Borat
The Devil Wears Prada
Open Season
Gone with the Wind
Rain Man
The Incredibles
The Lion King
The Sixth Sense
Monsters, Inc.
Ghostbusters
The Da Vinci Code
Men in Black
Tootsie
Crash
Hostel
Fahrenheit 9/11
Saw
Day of the Dead
Dawn of the Dead
Full Metal Alchemist

wow this was an exausting first post but as a fan of HD and months of research i thought these facts should be shared. i look forward to what hi-fi's article!

thanks for reading,

-Lewis

p.s

With this being an investment in which you don't want to choose the wrong side, read this: http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articl...oap060107.html

It is a very well-written article from a DVD guru about why he picked Blu-ray as the better of the two formats. He was spurred to write this because someone wrote why they picked HD DVD (he links to that story, then picks apart the inaccuracies in it).
 
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Anonymous

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Some good technical points made by Lewis, but those will be irrelevant to your day-to-day viewing. Quality of both formats will depend on the source material and the equipment used to record and transfer it and not some minor technical differences of the storage technology. Yes Blue-ray drives might have greater bandwidth but that'll also make the hardware twice as expensive with no dicernable advantage in PQ!

And again my main point is that studios will follow the hardware eventually. "New Line is last major studio to support HD". Many other studios support both, i.e. they sit on the fence! And IMHO low prices will get customers wallets out! Blue-Ray had an easy start with the massive PS3 sales but the mass market is with folk just looking for a cheap DVD player. With their hardware advantage Blue-Ray should be selling much better. The fact they they are no just shows that people buy PS3s to play games.

HD will blow you away, whatever the disk! Even off the VM cable or Sky with 1080i from BBC HD!

Tha article from that "DVD Guru" is just full of opinions, heavily biased - just as I am - but I am not making out to be some unbiased guru!

A quick list of HD-DVD releases from a polular DVD site

01 Flags Of Our Fathers (HD DVD)
02 Blood Diamond (HD DVD)
03 The Prestige (HD DVD)
04 Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire (HD DVD)
05 King Kong (HD DVD)
06 HDScape HD DVD Sampler (HD DVD)
07 Batman Begins (HD DVD)
08 Digital Video Essentials HD (HD DVD)
09 Serenity (HD DVD)
10 The Thing (1982) (HD DVD)
11 The Chronicles Of Riddick: The Director's Cut (HD DVD)
12 Brotherhood Of The Wolf (aka: Le Pacte Des Loups) (HD DVD)
13 Total Recall (HD DVD)
14 The Mummy Returns: Uncut (HD DVD)
15 Children Of Men (HD DVD)
16 The Mummy: Uncut (1999) (HD DVD)
17 Van Helsing (HD DVD)
18 Apollo 13 (HD DVD)
19 Exotic Saltwater Aquarium (HD DVD)
20 Constantine (HD DVD)
21 The Bourne Supremacy (HD DVD)
22 The Last Samurai (2003) (HD DVD)
23 V For Vendetta (HD DVD)
24 Deer Hunter (HD DVD)
25 The Hulk (HD DVD)
26 Antartica Dreaming: Wildlife On Ice (HD DVD)
27 16 Blocks (HD DVD)
28 Full Metal Jacket (HD DVD)
29 Miami Vice (2006) (HD DVD)
30 Poseidon (2006) (HD DVD)
31 Rambo: First Blood (HD DVD)
32 Swordfish (HD DVD)
33 An American Werewolf In London (HD DVD)
34 The Fast And The Furious (HD DVD)
35 Visions Of The Sea: Explorations (HD DVD)
36 Smokin' Aces (HD DVD)
37 Superman Returns (HD DVD)
38 Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (HD DVD)
39 Goodfellas (HD DVD)
40 Backdraft (HD DVD)
41 Mission Impossible: 1 - 3 Box Set (4 Discs) (HD DVD)
42 Blazing Saddles (HD DVD)
43 Firewall (HD DVD)
44 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) (HD DVD)
45 Rambo: First Blood Part 2 (HD DVD)
46 Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (HD DVD)
47 Syriana (HD DVD)
48 The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift (HD DVD)
49 The Fog (HD DVD)
50 Training Day (HD DVD)
51 Troy (HD DVD)
52 Doom (HD DVD)
53 Ray (2004) (HD DVD)
54 Babel (HD DVD)
55 Dreamgirls (HD DVD)
56 Norbit (HD DVD)
57 World Trade Center (Centre) (HD DVD)
58 Enter The Dragon (HD DVD)
59 House Of Wax (2005) (HD DVD)
60 Lethal Weapon (HD DVD)
61 Polar Express (HD DVD)
62 Superman: The Movie (HD DVD)
63 The Elephant Man (HD DVD)
64 The Holiday (2006) (HD DVD)
65 The Searchers (HD DVD)
66 Unforgiven (HD DVD)
67 2 Fast 2 Furious (HD DVD)
68 FIFA World Cup: All The Goals Of Germany 2006 (HD DVD)
69 La Haine (HD DVD)
70 The Pianist (HD DVD)
71 Toto: Live In Amsterdam (HD DVD)
72 Mission Impossible 3 (M:I-3) (HD DVD)
73 Basic Instinct (HD DVD)
74 Beerfest (Uncut) (HD DVD)
75 Dukes Of Hazzard: Unseen Edition (HD DVD)
76 King Kong (1976) (HD DVD)
77 Lady In The Water (HD DVD)
78 Lake House (HD DVD)
79 March Of The Penguins (HD DVD)
80 Music And Lyrics (HD DVD)
81 National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (HD DVD)
82 Rumour Has It (HD DVD)
83 Space Cowboys (HD DVD)
84 The Fugitive (HD DVD)
85 Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (HD DVD)
86 Dante's Peak (HD DVD)
87 Jarhead (HD DVD)
88 Mulholland Drive (HD DVD)
89 Pat Metheny Group: The Way Up - Live (HD DVD)
90 Ran (aka: Chaos) (HD DVD)
91 Red Dragon (HD DVD)
92 Yes: Live At Montreux 2003 (HD DVD)
93 Alice Cooper: Live At Montreux 2005 (HD DVD)
94 Fireplace: Visions Of Tranqulity (HD DVD)
95 Great Southwest: HD Window (HD DVD)
96 Hawaii: HD Window (HD DVD)
97 Serenity: Southern Seas (HD DVD)

Coming SoonHot Fuzz (HD DVD)
Letters From Iwo Jima (HD DVD)
Terminator 2: Judgement Day (HD DVD)
Shaun Of The Dead (HD DVD)
The Island (HD DVD)
Planet Earth Box Set (5 Discs) (HD DVD)
Heroes: Season 1 (7 Discs) (HD DVD)
Mr Bean's Holiday (HD DVD)
Shooter (HD DVD)
Leaving Las Vegas (HD DVD)
 
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Anonymous

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i disagree that the technical spec will not have an impact on day to day viewng, the studios who support both formats (i.e warner) are well known for there below average transfers. this is nothing to do with the source material holding them back it is the fact that they are making encodes to the lowest common denominator which is HD-DVD with its 30GB capacity, and i would hardly call 20GB more space on Blu-ray minor!

Also the bandwidth, (which is a quick explanation would be the amount of data transferred over a given amount of time)
put simply the higher the bandwidth the better the picture/audio. To me the whole point of HD is to have the best possible pictiure quality and audio quality availible, why would anyone want mediocre tranfers when Bluray offer so much more?

the PS3 has just had a £50 price slash too making it £375. cheaper than the HD-DVD player you are looking at, and it upscales dvds. and PS2 games. and is also regarded as the best HD player to date!

But this is just my opinion, as a home cinema enthusiast i have researched both and come to the conclusion Blu-ray is the better fomat over months following. But if HD-DVD wins then fine but who could honestly say that given basic maths they would want it to?
 
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Anonymous

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Its hard to say who will win although I prefer the theory that both formats will co-exist for a long time. The take up of HD is not startlingly fast and I believe that there is a lot of life in DVD (SD) yet. Agood upscaler makes a great job of DVD and there are some pretty poor conversions to HD out there.

As an aside, get a c64 over a spectrum 48k any day and my SNES will trounce your megadrive EEEAAASSSYYYYYY !!!
 

D.J.KRIME

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All this talk of the PS3 being your choice as a blu-ray player as blu-ray is better than HD-DVD makes me think that you are slightly missing the point some what. The advantages of HD if it be via blu-ray or HD-DVD are simply not only down to the picture but also about the new sound formats and this is where your beloved PS3 falls flat on its face as it is not able to output any of these sound formats via its optical output so it simply downmixes it to good old standard 5.1.
IMHO no serious cunsumer who regards movies highly would ever use a games console as their choice of player within their home cinema set-up as your existing dvd colection will not look as good as it would via a £200 Denon 1930, not to mention the fact the PS3 will only play region 2 disks.
There are pros and cons for both HD format and a big con for blu-ray is good old regional coding as where HD-dvd is region free leaving the cunsumer free to chose where they get their software from.
Personally I am going to wait for a decent machine to come along that will play both HD formats which will happen sooner than most people think.
And as for the fact blu-ray will win because it has better specs you must have a short memory, which was the technicall superior of betamax and vhs/ and which won hands down? Blu-ray vs HD-dvd- possibly more egg on Sony's face? we will see......
 
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Anonymous

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Suggest you hold buying any Blu-Ray Players for the time being. I have read that the new BD Profile 1.1 specification will become mandatory for all Blu Ray players from this October 2007 and then you will need a few months after to see the new what the new generation of players are like before deciding on what one to buy.
 
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Anonymous

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[quote user="D.J.KRIME"]this is where your beloved PS3 falls flat on its face as it is not able to
output any of these sound formats via its optical output so it simply downmixes
it to good old standard 5.1.[/quote]

why would i want to use optical output when i can use HDMI for LPCM 7.1?

[quote user="D.J.KRIME"]no serious cunsumer who regards movies highly would ever use a games console as
their choice of player within their home cinema set-up[/quote]

times change. The PS3 is much more than a games console, and it has been reviewed by multiple magazines along side stand-alone players and still come out top.

[quote user="D.J.KRIME"]not to mention the fact the PS3 will only play region 2 disks. There are pros
and cons for both HD format and a big con for blu-ray is good old regional
coding as where HD-dvd is region free leaving the cunsumer free to chose where they get their software from[/quote]

you are right, the PS3 will only play region B discs but hardly any studios use region coding. all the discs i have bought so far are american. it is up to the individual studio if they choose to code a disc, and all copys produced after the first year of release must be region free

[quote user="D.J.KRIME"]And as for the fact blu-ray will win because it has better specs you must have a
short memory, which was the technicall superior of betamax and vhs/ and which
won hands down? Blu-ray vs HD-dvd- possibly more egg on Sony's face? we will
see......[/quote]

i never said Blu-ray will win because of a better spec. I said why would anyone want a lower spec format to win?

i don't expect the PS3 to be the best blu-player forever and i'm sure i'll get a stand alone player when the finished spec is out and prices are lower ;)
 

D.J.KRIME

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I think that ((LEWIS)) must be a Sony fan boy! And as for why use the optical out for sound when you can use the HDMI, well maybe because the PS3 does not output uncompressed pcm via its HDMI and also that there are no amps out as of yet as far as I know (maybe the new onkyo ones do?) that are capible of recieveing uncompressed pcm this way.
And as magazines saying that the PS3 is the best Blu-Ray unit thus far that hardly paints a rosy picture for the format does it? The PS3 is a games console and simply to date the best of a bad bunch when it comes to Blu-Ray players.
Now for me the reason I would chose either HD format will be decided by the choice of films on which ever format I opt for and not buy the spec of the disc itself and as far as I can see for the forseeible future neithr format offers me personally anything I can not enjoy on dvd as I am into more underground and 70's/80's horror movies most of which I doubt will ever see the light of day on any HD format.
And as for the fact that more movie studios have opted to go with Blu-Ray over HD-DVD I think you might just find this is because the studios in question are either owned solely or in part by Sony or have very strong aliances to Sony and not down to if they believe Blu-Ray to be the better of the 2 formats.
 
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Anonymous

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i couldn't care less about a brandname,and am not interested in petty arguments and name calling so if you want to talk about something else that would be great and more constructive of my time especialy as the PS3 does output uncompressed 7.1 pcm via its HDMI.

i too am a HUGE fan of horror/splatter/grindhouse movies e.g maniac, street trash,the candy snatchers, the new york ripper and torso being a few choice cuts but i also love the classics like halloween, evil dead, friday the 13th etc. i agree that a format should have the movies you want on it otherwise whats the point? 'Stars' (which was formaly anchor bay and has the rights to halloween and evil dead 2) put out some tof the best horror dvds availible and have gone blu-ray exclusive as have tartan who also put out a lot of horror which is a huge reason for me like blu-ray!

what underground horror movies do you like/recommend?
 
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Anonymous

Guest
I'm sorry Lewis, but I think you do care about brand names. Pumping out a list of Blu Ray titles doesn't take much effort and D.J Krime has voiced some very pertinent points, which I would hardly describe as petty. Calling you a fanboy is hardly name-calling either, and to be honest you do sound like a Sony rep. Blu Ray is like LCD; designed by computer geeks for computer geeks.

Hey, there's nowt wrong with that but extolling Blu Ray over HD DVD is at best meretricious, at worst stupid. Speaking as a serious cineaste with a pretty serious A/V set-up, who has no interest whatsoever in gaming, I, like many other sensible people am not investing in either of the HD formats.

Incidentally, Anchor Bay sold out a long time ago when they decided to interlace all their transfers so seeing they've gone Blu Ray exclusive is no surprise. Anchor Bay have gone mainstream so if you're talking about Grindhouse / Euro Horror / Exploitation / Transgressive cinema, that Anchor Bay argument falls flat on its face (hell even Blue Underground is now churning out directly ported transfers of old Anchor Bay titles, some of which aren't even out of print, yet).

So are you asking what underground films D.J Krime likes or recommends to get into a point-scoring contest or are you genuinely interested? Calling out a few Grindhouse flicks (incidentally, the same old ones everyone cites during these types of conversations) does not solidify your case. In short, anyone who's spent the last seven or eight years investing in DVDs and understands what's happening with high-definition isn't panicking that their film libraries are becoming worthless. Far from it.

Upscaling DVD players have vastly improved DVD playback and as far as the film industry and high-definition war is concerned, the smart money is sitting it out patiently to see whether HD DVD and Blu Ray become the equivalent of Laserdisc in terms of success, and judging by the way things are panning out, that's a strong likelihood.

If you're really interested in underground films, I suggest you check out SUBCONSCIOUS CRUELTY, SINGAPORE SLING, AUGUST UNDERGROUND, FANTACIDE, CUTTING MOMENTS, AFTERMATH, LAST HOUSE ON DEAD END STREET. none of these, not to mention a cornucopia of other titles are coming to an HD disc anytime soon.
 
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Anonymous

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wow. i guess you guys just have me all wrong. i asked out of genuinely interest. i am not into arguments over the net or scoring points about what films i like or how underground i am... if someone asks a question i will answer if i know any facts. i dont spread rumours or claim something if it is untrue. The 'Anchor Bay argument' is not an argument, it is just some information that might not have been known. As for the brand name thing.... well you're welcome to your opinion, i just use products that i find to be of a high quaility and meet my needs.
 
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Anonymous

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You know, the reality is that the vast majority of average punters like me will give both formats a miss until one falls over. I've got a long memory and there's no way I'll be putting money down on something which may become obsolete ala Betamax, MiniDisc, DCC, Laserdisc etc etc. The other issue is that the specifications keep cahnging both for the players, HDMI and the HD sound formats... I think either both or just one of these formats has a long way to yet. For now I'll be investing in a nice new CD player and sticking with the DVD player I already have. The new Denon Blu-ray player does look awfully nice though ; )
 

D.J.KRIME

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[quote user="Damien Buckley"]The other issue is that the specifications keep cahnging both for the players,
HDMI and the HD sound formats... [/quote]
This is only the case with Blu-Ray as the full spec for both HD-DVD players and disc was finalised befer a single Retail unit hit the high st. as with Blu-Ray where the final spec has only just been finalised and as to date there is not a player upto that spec.
I too will sit it out until the fight is over as buy then the price of the player would have come down and more importantly the quality of the player would have improved. And even tho both the upcoming Denon and the recent Pioneer units look very nice the price of these players is far to high and personally I have chosen to put my money into a nice new Denon dvd3930 to get the most out of my dvd collection on my nice new 50"" Plazma (lcd sucks!!!). Did dvd suddenly look like vhs over night?
 

Alsone

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Price is the problem more than anything with these formats.

Everytime anything new comes out the manufacturers want to make their development costs back up front. A nice idea but one that totally screws the market for a few years.

There would be far more guarantee for a format suceeding and thus paying back development costs if they brought it out cheaply at a level that guaranteed huge sales.

You only have to look at the success of DVD to see how much hunger there is in the market for better formats at the right price. A player that plays existing DVD's and one / both of the new formats at a low price would break the market wide open, in my opinion.
 

Andrew Everard

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But bear in mind that the early DVD players were around £500 or so, and it wasn't until Tesco/Wharfedale brought the price down through the £200 mark that things really took off here in the UK.
 

D.J.KRIME

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I first dipped my toe into dvd some 10 years ago and got the then fantastic Pioneer dv717 which I then paid around £600 then further costs to have it multi-region. But Andrew is correct in that it was when Tesco et'al started stocking budjet models that dvd sales went through the roof.
The same may well happen with the HD formats but not for the forseeible future as more so with blu-ray units the production costs are far higher than that of hd-dvd and miles higher than that of dvd, but what you must rember as with all things in life you only get what you paid for and as where your £30 tesco special dvd player may well play the disc the image it produces as not anyway near that of my Denon dvd3930 nor would I expect them to be, but I am in the minority of a few who are prepaird to pay serious money for a quality product.
I will be interested to see what price the Samsung blu-ray/hd-dvd combo player actually hits the high st. at as if it is cheap enough it may well give the whole HD format a kick up the backside andplace some confidence in the public as with a combo player you are safe which ever if either hd format wins the fight. My only worry as with the LG dual format player will be the build quality and image/sound of this forthcoming Samsung as their original blu-ray unit was pants.
Another isue with these players is most of them dont do a very good job with dvd playback or as far as I am aware are multi-region on the dvd side of things, or do a half decent job with cd's. Who really has room in their system rack for a seperate dvd,hd and cd player?
 
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Anonymous

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Lewis, my point about Anchor Bay stands; they are now a mainstream film label, so in the context that you referred to them, coming back and saying it's just some information that might not have been known, could potentially mislead those interested in the genre of films brought into this discussion to think they're still a label of note for those interested in such films when they're not. In fairness, Anchor Bay never was 'underground' in the first place; they always stood on the periphery between mainstream and exploitation, and in the early days of DVD they started with horror slowly expanding their roster with Euro horror / exploitation titles. Underground they were not.

Incidentally, I'm not interested in how underground you might or might not be - you were the one that asked, sir. I don't mean to offend you, so please don't take it the wrong way, but I know more about underground film than you could ever hope to but that's a different site and forum.

You say you use products you find to be high quality and I see you have the Denon DVD-1930. You are aware it's only Denon by virtue of its badge? The inside of it isn't anything to do with Denon. It's only when you get to the 2930 you're getting the full and real Denon deal. And this is the whole point about upscaling because there's a world of difference between a £450 and a £1,000 plus player. Start looking at £7,000 players from the likes of Krell, and again, it's a whole other ball game.

Denon is one of my favourite companies when it comes to DVD players. For the past few years they have been delivering outstanding quality and performance across a good majority of their price points and set the bar for what I feel a DVD player should be. Take a player like the 3930, which is my current player. Its internal design is very impressive with a power supply section of just the audio board, which is better than most DVD players costing several times as much. In fact, it appears almost like a receiver than a DVD player when you look inside. All its analogue connectors are top quality. The DVD-3930 incorporates the full feature set of the Realta HQV chipset, including their keystone correction (which allows you to place a projector at extreme angles to a screen and do keystone correction from a higher quality scaler than what is typically found in most projectors). The HQV chip passes all the stringent bench tests you'd expect of a player in this class with striking ease and represents one of the best de-interlacing solutions on the market today.

Nobody, but nobody with an ounce of sense would contemplate buying a Blu Ray deck at this point in time and those that have are going to be extremely disappointed when they realise the player they've bought will be rendered effectively obsolete by the end of this year. While those who've invested in a Blu Ray player will still be able to spin their Blu Ray discs, the simple fact is they won't be able to enjoy the full benefits of what the format is offering. This is due to a small little thing: current Blu Ray players don't conform to BD Profile 1.1 (aka the Final Standard profile). Surprisingly, even the PlayStation 3 is unable to offer full BD Java and there's certainly no dedicated player available to access BD Live (aka Profile 2) - the as yet unrealised online interactive option theoretically possible with the format. Players like the Samsung DB-P1000 and Panasonic DMP-BD10A, both Profile 1 machines, can have their firmware updated via CD-ROM, however, that is not enough to elevate them to Profile 1.1.

D.J. Krime is absolutely right; HD DVD came to the market fully-formed with a finalised specification and uniform compatibility. Reason enough for anyone too impatient to wait for the end of the format war to ensure they choose HD DVD. As far as watching films on a big screen goes, D.J. Krime is also right about LCD screens - they suck (check out www.plasma-lcd-facts.co.uk for more on that).

While Andrew's comment that the early days of DVD saw players available only at the £500 mark, I would argue that is wasn't solely Tesco's trend of introducing low-priced players and bringing down the cost that made DVD take off in the UK. Really, it was a simple case of supply and demand. Sales of DVD players and DVDs have rocketed like no other consumer product in history and it was inevitable that players would get cheaper, regardless of who started offering players for low prices as soon as every electrical manufacturer under the sun got in on the game and jumped on the bandwagon offering cheap as chips rubbish. You only have scan back issues of DVD forum sites for a reminder that as far back as 2002 sales of DVD had already showed an incredibly huge number of sales for a format still in its infancy. Moreover, let's not forget there are still some extremely expensive players out there, which it seems only the discerning DVD aficionado is investing in as more people become curious about high definition and worry unnecessarily that their DVD collections will be rendered obsolete. As for those who complain about the quality of DVD, I'd wager they're predominantly the ones who've spent £40 on a player from ASDA and hooked it up via scart or composite. Well of course that's going to look inferior! You get what you pay for, so don't expect to be blown away by a £300 DVD player even if it does upscale. Any serious cineaste with a decent level of disposable income will tell you £300 was the cost of their Co-axial cable.

This isn't to knock the budget end of the market - we've all got to start somewhere right, and I'm sure the owners of £40 budget players would recoil in horror at the thought of parting with the cash for the cost of a Blu Ray or HD DVD player. Horses for courses.

I don't really see combo players taking off. I mean come on, who really wants to build a library of Blu Ray and HD DVD discs? Maybe I'm wrong on this one but I for one would rather stick with DVD for as long as it takes before all the chicanery and nonsense ends. Meanwhile, Sony remain pusillanimous and downright arrogant with their regard for the public. It seems Joe Public is answering back too... just look at PS3 sales. Ha ha ha!

Final thoughts: I'm sure I'm a voice in the wilderness, here, and don't read on if you love Blu Ray because I don't want to offend you. In my opinion, as long as people refuse to properly educate themselves about the products they're buying, and I do mean educate themselves, not merely to take the word of that idiot in Dixons who's telling you to forsake plasma for LCD and HD DVD for Blu Ray (he's on commission remember, plus he's far from educated about the crap he's peddling) there is no foreseeable end in sight to the Blu Ray vs. HD DVD war and I think both formats will end up falling flat on their faces as a new one steps into the fray rendering them both obsolete. HD DVD and Blu Ray seem to me to be the modern day equivalent of Laserdisc. Only the most supremely confident (and that confidence is misplaced) or those with more money than sense are investing in Blu Ray. At this point in time, I feel Blu Ray (read Sony) have been brash, arrogant, dishonest and conned us all and my mantra is "Death to Blu Ray" - leave it to the gamers; let it be their preferred format.
 
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Anonymous

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[quote user="Andrew Everard"]But bear in mind that the early DVD players were around £500 or so, and it wasn't until Tesco/Wharfedale brought the price down through the £200 mark that things really took off here in the UK.[/quote]

Also, with DVD, there was no competing format.
 
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Anonymous

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forsake plasma for LCD

Actually, show me either plasma or lcd which can match crt for picture quality and I'll buy it. OK if you want a huge wall-hanging, its the way to go but if you want real, un-pixelated, non-motion-blurred, real black, pictures, I'm sorry to say that for my opinion at least, both plasma and lcd at the current state of technology, just dont cut it.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Damian, this is going off topic a little as I didn't mention CRT TVs, though now you've brought it up I have to chip-in with my tuppence worth. It's true there are aspects of CRT that are favourable to many of the currently available flat screens but plasma technology has now at least equalled CRT and this is an area with lots of angles. I'd argue that an HD DVD disc with a top transfer (and even a handful of standard definition DVD transfers) hooked up via some good component leads or better yet, HDMI, would look better than any CRT image.

Also, if we're talking about what's actually available now, an important aspect that hasn't entered this discussion is the difference between HD and Full HD. Full HD is still some way from becoming the standard and there a few reasons for that. Firstly, your average punter doesn't have a clue what 1080 actually means let alone 1080i or 1080p. Secondly, there are 'respectable' dealers shamelessly advertising and selling flat screens as being the Full HD deal when they're not. A true Full HD screen has a resolution of 1080 x 1920 lines and there are screens being advertised and sold as being capable of delivering 1080p pictures when in fact they only have 720 horizontal lines of resolution (see the advertising bumph for Panasonic's last lot of plasma screens). Thirdly, television itself is a problem as no one seems willing or able to transmit images in 1080p.

You say that if you want unpixellated, non-motion-blurred, real black, pictures, that both plasma and LCD at the current state of technology just don't cut it. Sorry, but that's just wrong. What plasma screens have you been viewing and what hardware and leads have they been hooked-up with? I'd concur had your comment been aimed solely at LCD but saying plasma isn't capable of delivering true black is simply wrong. An aspect vastly overlooked by those buying new screens is contrast ratio as well as a host of other technical specifications. If the contrast ratio doesn't meet a specific criteria (many screens currently on the market do not) then of course blacks won't be rendered truly and if you choose an £800 screen over a £4,000 screen then of course you'll see motion blurring. There are plenty of plasma screens capable of delivering true black as well being more than capable of providing full enjoyment for every moment of action movies and sports without a blur or misplaced pixel in sight. I don't mean to be argumentative, but I'd humbly suggest you visit the website I put up a post ago and maybe do some of your own research into plasma to discover exactly what it's capable of delivering.

There are too many contributing factors to consider before making the comment you just made and I'm sorry, but I just don't feel you've considered them. Again, I don't mean to be argumentative, but a few posts back you made the remark that there is an issue that the specifications HD DVD and Blu Ray keep changing, when the fact of the matter is, HD DVD entered the market finalised and its specs haven't changed. I've dedicated a great deal of my spare time over the last fifteen years watching and following the progression of audio visual equipment. We have reached a stage where the market is over saturated with a cornucopia of choice and it becomes harder finding the right set-up for your individual needs because most people don't have the time and money or are willing to make the effort to educate themselves with the research that is indispensable for making the decision they will be happy with. Idiot salesmen whose only interest is their commission fee serve only to exacerbate the problem by filling the public's heads with ill-informed opinions and oftentimes pure rubbish.
 

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