strapped for cash said:
Hi Max,
The thing is, we go round in circles with this debate. I can't prove, scientifically, that there are differences because I don't have detailed knowledge of how every single component in assorted Blu-ray players work. In fact, I can't offer a detailed technical account of the how the individual components of any single player function and interact (and with respect, neither can you).
It comes down to a simple question: is there any alteration (or corruption, as you put it) of data at any stage of the chain between source and reproduction? This same question applies to digital cables, since they're also part of the same chain.
My broader point was that we don't gain anything by arguing this point on forums. As a non engineer, I don't know how any degree of alteration to data could be measured, but I'd like to see the results of objective testing in this respect.
In the meantime, I've been reluctant to spend a lot of money on a Blu-ray player or cables, but I was prepared to take a punt on an older (second hand) high-end player as an experiment.
If I state that the image and sound produced by the 2500BT is better than the S-370, I'm only inviting responses to the contrary (and then we go round in circles again).
hi strapped, i know these debates go round in circles sometimes, so i'll try and put a different slant on things..
i have a satelite dish, it picks up the various airbourne digital signal transmissions, this digital data is then fed into my humax, it then sends it via hdmi to my tv which shows a picture and sound, i'm not sure if there is a codec in the humax, probably, either way a codec be it in the humax or the tv decodes the data.
so you have source, in this case the transmission data, codec, and pic on digital tv.
in the case of hd material every pixel of the tv's screen is given instructions, ie what colour, brightness etc it should be at any one time.
the instructions are given by the codec/s, which decodes the 1s and 0's, now i'm not sure if this is done by the humax and then reconverted to digital before being sent to the tv then re-decoded by the tv's codec.
but either way i cannot see how anything can be added, i haven't heard anyone saying that one tv receiver is better than another with 1080i content, and if nothing is added then the only thing that can happen is data is loss, why would blu-ray players be any different?
but digital data transfer is flawless, there is no data loss, so imo anything that is decoded from a digital source, blu-rays, digital tv, cd's, music files etc, will be reproduced flawlessly, whether the chain includes hdmi cables, the airwaves or whatever, least that's how i see it.