Suggestion for Display Reviews

[perato]

In the future, could Audioholics use 1080p files downloaded from the internet in the testing of displays? Typically, you use CSI:Miami, DiscoveryHD, etc., which is fine, but adding something like MariposaHD would be nice.

Is WMVHD poor video quality? According to Windows Media Player's statistics, a 1080p file from MariposaHD is 8192 kbps.

 

[Audioholics]

It's a good suggestion. The key is the logistics involved in sending the media file to the display - currently I have given up on HTPCs, so my office machine is the key. I do not have a laptop capable of handling 1080p without stuttering.

 

[perato]

From your Reference System 2 equipment list and your review of the Optoma HD80, it appears you have both an Xbox 360 and a PS3. Using TVersity, you can play 1080p files that you download on your Xbox 360 or PS3. WMV files, such as those found on mariposaHD, should be playable directly on an Xbox 360. You can use TVersity to transfer those files to your Xbox 360 or, if you have a fast home network, use TVersity's Media Server to play the files directly from your computer's hard drive.

I have personally used a PS3 to play mariposaHD files by using TVersity to copy the files onto my PS3's hard drive. However, using a PS3 does require recoding the WMV file into an MP4/H.264 file. For the recoding, I used SUPER. The only problem I had is that the perimeter of the image is cropped out so I do not get the entire image to show on the screen. This problem is likely due to a problem with either the PS3 and/or the TV since my TV has an unusual resolution of 1366 by 768

Since you have an Xbox 360, a PS3, and televisions cable of 1920 by 1080p, you should be able to play 1080p files downloaded from the internet. IMHO, the internet HD files, particularly mariposaHD, are better than most, if not all, OTA HDTV. The image quality of Blu-ray and HDVD is subject to a lot of debate so I think internet HD files and OTA HDTV are the best currently available HD content.

mariposaHD records their content using HD cameras. You can find more information on their website. I think mariposa HD records 1440 by 1080p but their pixels are not square pixels so the image ends up being 1920 by 1080p. It is true that mariposaHD is somewhat of a shill for certain companies but you can ignore that and focus on the image quality.

Please at least try using some HD content freely available on the internet. So far, the best I have encountered is mariposaHD but there are other files available as well. If you choose mariposaHD, unless you want to view night scenes, I would recommend avoiding Episode 6, which is the weakest episode content-wise.

Whatever your test content ends up being, please continue the detailed reviews Audioholics is known for.