Picture quality difference?

Earfull

Earfull

Junior Audioholic
Present set-up:

- Panasonic AE900 projector.
- Panasonic S77 DVD player.
- Denon 3805 Rec.
- HDMI cable.
- Dedicated HT room, no windows. (DARK!)
- Screen is home-made utilizing a sheet of white Gatorboard as is (no paint) and 3" black felt border. 92" (diag) viewed from 12' PJ is 15' from screen.

Question: Would there be a noticable improvement in picture quality with my particular setup if I switched to a BlueRay player (and BR disc)?

Additional question: Is a PS3 as good a player as a non-gaming BR player?

Thanks
 
R

rnatalli

Audioholic Ninja
As a recent adopter of Bluray, I can say with confidence that you'll notice a difference.
 
J

jaysonbarnett

Audioholic Intern
the ps3 does not do a good job of upscaling standard dvds. I would go for a stand alone player like the sony or panasonic. The difference in the two formats is like night and day at least on my optoma hd70 projector.
 
Earfull

Earfull

Junior Audioholic
Thanks for that. Which model Sony or Panasonic (or other) would presently be the best pick?
 
A

allargon

Audioholic General
Thanks for that. Which model Sony or Panasonic (or other) would presently be the best pick?
Actually the Samsung 25xx would blow away both the Sony and the Panasonic on DVD upconversion. However, there's some discrepancy as to whether or not internal DTS-HD MA decoding will be added to the 25xx.

BTW, the PS3 is not a bad upconverter at all. It's just not in the league of any standalone possessing an Anchor Bay (Oppo/Toshiba HD-A20/30/A35), Marvell (LG BH200, Pioneer?) or Silicon Optix (Denon, Samsung BD-P1200, BD-P25xx, BD-UP5k, Onkyo HD-DV805, Toshiba HD-XA2, etc.) scaler/video processor.
 
J

jaysonbarnett

Audioholic Intern
panasonic DMP-BD50k or the one i have sony-BDP-350 both can be found for about 200.00 on ebay.
 
Earfull

Earfull

Junior Audioholic
BTW: Will my present 2-3 yr old HDMI cable work with a new BR player, or will I need a new one to get full performance?

It's a 35' HDMI cable (from Monoprice). DVD player to PJ.

I forget the guage, but it's a fatty, 7/16" dia.
 
E

EJ1

Audioholic Chief
BTW: Will my present 2-3 yr old HDMI cable work with a new BR player, or will I need a new one to get full performance?

It's a 35' HDMI cable (from Monoprice). DVD player to PJ.

I forget the guage, but it's a fatty, 7/16" dia.
Should be fine.
 
Earfull

Earfull

Junior Audioholic
(See my post #3189)

A friend just loaned me his PS3 and Spiderman 3 Blue Ray. I also rented the non BR DVD of same movie and played it in my old Panny S77.

I was able to watch particular scenes, and go back & forth by just switching the HDMI cable.

There was a slight improvement in picture quality with the BR, but it was indeed slight. I sense that this has to do with one (or both) of the following reasons:

1) The S77 player was a pretty good unit, and does upconverting with HDMI

http://www.panasonic.ca/English/audiovideo/DVDVCR/player/DVDS77.asp

2) There may be some limitation with my home-made screen made of straight-up Gatorboard (no paint), as opposed to a "real" screen.


I bet that a more dramatic improvement would be noticed on an LCD screen, Plasma, etc.
 
aberkowitz

aberkowitz

Audioholic Field Marshall
the ps3 does not do a good job of upscaling standard dvds. I would go for a stand alone player like the sony or panasonic. The difference in the two formats is like night and day at least on my optoma hd70 projector.
I gotta disagree with you there. I think the ps3 does quite fine when it comes to upscaling SD movies. To the OP... this is definitely something that's a matter of personal preference.
 
J

jaysonbarnett

Audioholic Intern
the only reason i say that the PS3 does not do a good job is because it failed all the test in this months home theater magizine test. they tested all the new blueray players and the PS3 failed at a few of the tests.
 
aberkowitz

aberkowitz

Audioholic Field Marshall
the only reason i say that the PS3 does not do a good job is because it failed all the test in this months home theater magizine test. they tested all the new blueray players and the PS3 failed at a few of the tests.
Can you post a link to the test? What were the criteria?

I put very little credence in many of the tests magazines post as opposed to what I see/hear with my own eyes & ears. In my experiences watching movies with my PS3, the upscaling looks great.

In your opinion and experiences as an owner of a PS3 and a Sony, which one do you think does a better job and why?
 
J

jaysonbarnett

Audioholic Intern
this article is in the december issue of home theater. Inside the issue is an article called HT's blu-ray video tests. according to them they say the scaling for the PS3 is because "this player does not support 1080i to1080p deinterlacing, and simply passes the 1080i signal on the disc to the end display. Also the PS3 also has issues with holding High detail with vertical resolution wedges during dvd playback" THis article explains alot i would see if you can pick it up somewhere. I have both and have tried both and can barely tell a differnece unless i use my projector. With the projector i can see a differnece in quality.
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
If you have a good S77, then I would keep it in place as it is one of the best upconverting DVD players that was released. But, it is still not in the same league as Blu-ray. If you have the inputs available on your receiver to support an additional HDMI source, or are willing to use an outboard HDMI switcher, like the one from Monoprice, then you are really good to go.

Pick a player... any player. I would likely go with a Panasonic... but the PS3 is still a bang for the buck overall leader for both quality and versatility.

Will you notice a difference? HANDS DOWN YES! I have tried several movies on DVD & Blu-ray directly and the difference is significant on my 540p projector. The higher resolution projectors will only enhance this difference more.
 
Nemo128

Nemo128

Audioholic Field Marshall
BD players have been on sale a couple times lately for <$180. The PS3 might not be the price/performance leader for long, and for someone who doesn't play a single game, it's a non-issue.

Sorry but I don't play discs at all. =)
 
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