Are All Blu-ray Players Created Equal?

[j_garcia]

HoFD wasn't as bad as they say IMO, but it isn't much better than the DVD. Sleepy Hollow actually looks worse than the SD in some scenes, but better in others. The soundtrack on SH is quite good though, with the 1509K dts track.

 

[ClinicaTerra]

if i had a keyboard that could type in other languages ... i'd try those too

Ummmmm....okay...and after his post, I posted this trying to clear up the distinction between the two threads:

Yes, Clouds -- actually, this topic has gone a bit off the rails...

The issue I'm asking about here is if Blu-ray players are all created equal in that are those $2000 Denons really going to deliver a better picture than the $500 Panasonics?

 

[ClinicaTerra]

ID4's theatrical release was in 98', just four years after Fifth Element. Fifth Element was a big budget flick as well. Since they remastered Fifth Element it's no longer a big issue. The original version of Fifth Element on Blu-ray was featured on a single layer (25GB) disk that used MPEG-2 compression (the same compression method DVD uses). The remastered Blu-ray uses a dual layer 50GB disk and the AVC compression method. Dramatically better picture was immediately noticable.

Wasn't ID4 released in '96?

 

[ClinicaTerra]

I've noticed films encoded in AVC usually look vastly superior to those using MPEG-2. Another example is Spiderman 3 it looks awesome, though it may be a very medicore film.

Indeed; I haven't been looking at the encoding algorithms much on the rear of the boxes; I noticed Fox uses he AVC technique, though, right?

You know, regarding Spider Man 3, I originally thought it looked decent in high def, but rewatching it a few times I clearly see it's one of the better modern transfers. The red of his suit is clearly stunning especially in the scene where he flies in to get the key to the city...

 

[ClinicaTerra]

Go to www.highdefdigest.com and check out some of the titles listed as having 5 star picture quality. Pick one or two of them up and that should quickly tell you if you have simply been watching poorly mastered discs or if something is not up to par in the hardware.

I'll do that Garcia.

Still curious though if each BD player has quality differences between their playback standards....

 

[ClinicaTerra]

Thanks, Meat...

I agree with nearly everything in this thread so far. Transfers are everything. Ok, almost everything...

my Pana BD-30 was rated #4 in the recent PC World, after a Phillips, PS3, and a Sharp, IIRC. Well, I wonder how good #1 looks, because my Pana seems to do more than an adequate job!!

So then THERE ARE discernable differences between players, picture-wise?

Re your SXRD. I agree its a great pic and size for the money. I use lcos technology in my PJ.

It was suggested by someone in here that they "bet my screen is not ideally suited for seeing all high def can offer" or some such language...it made me wonder...

Anyways, I doubt "standard" is the ideal setting, perhaps something like "cinema" or "movie" will give you more accurate colors.

My set does not have Cinema or Movie mode, only Vivid, Standard and Custom -- and colors are not the problem with my set. High def just doesn't...I don't know...look like high def; it's missing that dimensional "larger than lifeness" that you see on demos in stores...

At any rate, do you suggest recalibrating in Custom mode? If so, there are a bevvy of "Advanced Settings" that open up in this mode and I'm not sure what the best settings for them are...these include:

Black Corrector
Edge Enhancement
Detail Enhancer
Live Color
Gamma
White Balance

I also would not willingly set DNR to on anywhere. DNR is probably the easiest flaw for me to pick out as a noobie-videophile, and tends to makes faces anywhere from waxier to a bland looking sorta topographical infra-red map of the cheeks.

I have left Noise Reduction on the DISPLAY set to "Low" just for a safe, conservative setting...now, on my Panasonic '10A PLAYER, I leave the DNR ON for DVDs and have been doing so with Blu-rays too, but it seems, after watching 30 Days of Night last night and leaving the DNR OFF, something MAY have gotten a bit crisper -- so I am assuming DNR really does nothing for high definition sources; probably better to leave it OFF for BD playback...

as others have said, try some top-rated PQ titles first. Then come back and give us your impressions.

Will try and do that; thanks very much for your assistance and input.

 

[Seth=L]

Wasn't ID4 released in '96?

Sorry, I guessed. You are proabably right. In that case it's all the closer to Fifth Element's 94' release.