The Ultimate Guide to Blu-ray: have your say!

[professorhat]

lesmor:Thanks for the reply prof , good suggestion I have the Sony bluetooth remote for my PS3 so will have to check it out unfortunately it is not backlit and as I have a projector I view in the dark.

Okay, good news, the PS3 remote has the Audio button directly under the Eject button so it should be easy to find even in the dark. I just tried it myself with Batman Begins, pressing Audio once changed to the Dolby TrueHD soundtrack (confirmed by pressing Select before I did this to watch Dolby Digital change to Dolby TrueHD in the top corner assuming you are using the old "fat" PS3).

lesmor:Must admit I have recently changed my floorstanders to small @ 80HZ and set my sub to 120HZ as recommended somewhere so that might be the culprit and have only viewed "I am Legend" since then

Mind you the bass wasn't impressive on "Batman Begins" either ,all of my system has been calibrated to 75db inc sub and speaker positions measured with a tape haven't set up with the Yamaha YAPQ at all though

I might have been lacking in volume and find that volume varies enormously from disc to disc , had to really cut back when listening to "Hellboy2" a while back, my system has never made metal to metal crashes sound metallic if that makes sense?

I would definitely have your floorstanders set to Large speakers as they almost certainly can handle the low end stuff and if the bass is not impressive on Batman Begins (which along with The Dark Knight has buckets of low end!) then it certainly sounds like you could do with it. What speaker setup do you have out of interest?

I just re-watched a couple of scenes on my PS3 to ensure it's not just because I'm using the Sony BDP-S550 as my normal player these days and I can verify it's still sounds pretty damn fantastic to me! Watching the scene where Batman races Rachel back to the Batcave - my subwoofer rumbles the whole room as the Batmobile starts up! Also, the scene on the train at the end is thrilling sound wise and has left me wanting to watch the whole film again!

As you say though, the volume seems to be low - I did have to crank the soundtrack up to a very high volume level on my amp (about -3.5 dB as opposed to -10 dB to -15 dB which I use on most soundtracks when watching through my Sony), so this is worth doing as well to really appreciate the dynamics of the soundtrack.

 

[Anonymous]

professorhat:

lesmor:Thanks for the reply prof , good suggestion I have the Sony bluetooth remote for my PS3 so will have to check it out unfortunately it is not back lit and as I have a projector I view in the dark.

Okay, good news, the PS3 remote has the Audio button directly under the Eject button so it should be easy to find even in the dark. I just tried it myself with Batman Begins, pressing Audio once changed to the Dolby TrueHD soundtrack (confirmed by pressing Select before I did this to watch Dolby Digital change to Dolby TrueHD in the top corner assuming you are using the old "fat" PS3).

lesmor:Must admit I have recently changed my floorstanders to small @ 80HZ and set my sub to 120HZ as recommended somewhere so that might be the culprit and have only viewed "I am Legend" since then

Mind you the bass wasn't impressive on "Batman Begins" either ,all of my system has been calibrated to 75db inc sub and speaker positions measured with a tape haven't set up with the Yamaha YAPQ at all though

I might have been lacking in volume and find that volume varies enormously from disc to disc , had to really cut back when listening to "Hellboy2" a while back, my system has never made metal to metal crashes sound metallic if that makes sense?

I would definitely have your floorstanders set to Large speakers as they almost certainly can handle the low end stuff and if the bass is not impressive on Batman Begins (which along with The Dark Knight has buckets of low end!) then it certainly sounds like you could do with it. What speaker setup do you have out of interest?

I just re-watched a couple of scenes on my PS3 to ensure it's not just because I'm using the Sony BDP-S550 as my normal player these days and I can verify it's still sounds pretty damn fantastic to me! Watching the scene where Batman races Rachel back to the Batcave - my subwoofer rumbles the whole room as the Batmobile starts up! Also, the scene on the train at the end is thrilling sound wise and has left me wanting to watch the whole film again!

As you say though, the volume seems to be low - I did have to crank the soundtrack up to a very high volume level on my amp (about -3.5 dB as opposed to -10 dB to -15 dB which I use on most soundtracks when watching through my Sony), so this is worth doing as well to really appreciate the dynamics of the soundtrack.

Prof your a star how kind of you to take the time and test the disc and remote with your system

I will reset my speakers back to full range , should I have the sub at 120 or 80HZ do you think ?

I think you are also correct with the volume I have mine set to always default to -15db and in this instance was probably too low.

I wonder how many other people listen to the wrong audio track not realising it is hidden in the language settings, this is one of the downfalls of the PS3 decoding in PCM you have to open the menu to see what you are listening to.

Many thanks again much appreciated

 

[professorhat]

No probs at all. I have my sub set at 80Hz, so it's worth having a listen at this setting and then see which you prefer I reckon.

 

[nads]

As much as i love the HD experience I hate getting to it.

and I think that maybe why i have some unplayed discs, its such a drag not being able to just Play the movie.

 

[professorhat]

Huh?

 

[Anonymous]

John_S:Hi all,
Right, then - we're about to start work on the new issue of the Ultimate Guide to Blu-ray. So, it's time you lot had your say for the 'Why Buy?' feature at the front of the mag.
How would you sell Blu-ray to someone with both feet firmly planted in the standard-definition camp? What is it about the format that makes it so much better than DVD? And now, with HD projectors on the affordable side, is there even any need to go to the pictures any more?
Tell us about your first experience of watching a film in Full HD, on a proper, grown-up system, complete with uncompressed multichannel sound....
As ever, we'll pick the best quotes and print them in the feature. The mag hits the shelves on October 22nd.
We're looking forward to hearing about your experiences!

Simple, it's better than DVD.

 

[c.honda]

I got a blu ray player because I needed a new tv (to replace my 21" crt 4:3 ratio)and I didn't want to by an hd tv unless I could use it with hd content. I wanted to be able to see what the tv was capable of and thought whats the point of getting an hd tv if i'm going to watch standard def all the time. Of course the only tv's on the market were hd tv's but I still felt I had to get an hd source. I bought the TV and BD player on the same day.

The first film I watched was 21, the scenes at night time in Las Vegas looked stunning, so sharp and vibrant, I couldn't wait to rent more blu rays.

 

[Anonymous]

Messiah:tigerpin:
I must admit that I am still one of the blue ray doubters that is perfectly happy with their DVD collection and pioneer LX50 player for upscaling. In my mind the new format discs are not the dramatic leap that VHS -> DVD was. The films are still too expensive and the players too slow to load.

I certainly agree with this. I have not been that impressed with Blu-Ray to be honest. Whilst I have bought a few BD titles I cannot see myself buying many more. To be fair though I can only really judge it on picture quality. As for sound, the only time I heard a HD soundtrack was in the What Hifi demo in Bristol last year. Was it good? Yes. Was I blown away? Nope.....shame really but then it has saved me some money.

Still not really the response that was being looked for....
Agreed!! Although I have some BD's I am also very happy with the DVD quality being upscaled {some of them look every bit as good as blu ray}