The HD News & Technology Thread!

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 26 Jan 2007, 15:46

Today Sony Computer Entertainment Europe have announced that Playstation 3 will be launched in the PAL territories including the United Kingdom on 23rd March 2007 at a price of £425. As expected this will buy you the 60GB model, which for now will be the only version available as SCEE “responds to retail and consumer demand”.
An expected one million PS3 units will be made available during the initial launch period to all SCEE territories.

We’re reporting on this because the PS3 does of course come equipped as standard with a Blu-ray Disc drive (and is reportedly an excellent quality player) along with HDMI 1.3 output and full support for Dolby TrueHD. There is however no HDMI cable or Blu-ray Disc Remote Control included (though you can use the wireless game pad) in the box, with the official versions of those accessories set to retail at £17.99 each.
Blu-ray Disc playback will be set to Region B (Europe, Africa, Middle East, Australia and New Zealand).
(source)

You don't need a stepdown transformer. Just a UK kettle plug lead (the type you use on a PC) as it has a Universal PSU.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 26 Jan 2007, 20:17

EvaUnit02 wrote:You don't need a stepdown transformer. Just a UK kettle plug lead (the type you use on a PC) as it has a Universal PSU.

As all versions including the Japanese version do. The Japanese version at least also has a multi-voltage power supply.

Some colleagues at work imported one. It looks physically really nice. I didn't see it plugged in.

You'll need an Amp with HDMI 1.3 to make use of Uncompressed PCM, Dolby True-HD and DTS-HD Master Audio at their full bit-rates (i.e - higher than down converted 1.5Mbps, which happens to be the same as Full-rate DTS).

It also support SACD so if your amp has either Stereo Phono inputs (red/white RCAs which ALL amps have) you can take advantage of SACD Stereo or SACD 5.1 too though HDMI.

SACD is best thought of as "HD Audio CD" (along with DVD-Audio). The War of the Worlds SACD (the Jeff Wayne not film soundtrack sounds nothing short of outstanding. It easily trumps anything DTS can give us.

Check out: http://www.sa-cd.net/, to see all the thousands of SACDs released. SACD is a Sony thing.

Some early SACDs were High Resolution Stereo only but all are Stereo or 5.1 now.

Most early SACDs were single layer discs which only work on SACD players but all are now Hybrid discs meaning they work on SACDs and CDs (they're not dual sided though, one layer is SACD and another CD).

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 27 Mar 2007, 18:47

Blu-ray hits key milestone faster than Standrd-Definition DVD:

http://www.bluray.highdefdigest.com/new ... estone/544

gojensen · Post by **gojensen** » 28 Mar 2007, 08:27

Lourdes wrote:
bradavon wrote:You'd think MS would provide HD-DVD support in Vista. What a massive oversight.
They don't provide an MPEG2 decoder in XP/WMP, why would they provie an MPEG2/AVC one in Vista?

MPEG2 costs money, that's the only reason Microsoft didn't support it... I reckong AVC has licensing costs as well (though I think MS has a piece of that cake). They could include their own VC1 codec though, which "most" HD-DVD discs use... Then again, they don't own the rights to any of the audio codecs - which wouldn't be a problem with BRD since they've so far used PCM - but HD-DVD had DD/DTS from the get go I believe.

And yes BluRay is outselling HD-DVD which is kinda expected seeing as the film back-catalogue is a lot bigger on BluRay than on HD. I just wish this competition/war would go away...

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 29 Mar 2007, 01:37

gojensen wrote:And yes BluRay is outselling HD-DVD which is kinda expected seeing as the film back-catalogue is a lot bigger on BluRay than on HD. I just wish this competition/war would go away...

Glad to see that you aren't a totally blind Sony fanboy for everything. Competing formats is great for game consoles, not for movie formats.

gojensen · Post by **gojensen** » 06 Apr 2007, 22:38

I'm a Sony Fanboy?

However, I'm not sure it's good for game consoles either really... and I think we will over the next couple of years see less and less of exclusive games.

Which of course means nothing will look better than the other - sadly. (Just take a look at games co-developed for the Xbox and PS2 - most use the same graphics for both, and since the PS2 is weaker than the Xbox the games look identical - either that or the PS2 is one hell of a machine to match the much newer Xbox in terms of graphics

)

I got an Xbox for XBMC... I got the PS2 for my kid to play on... Because... there's more games for him on the PS2, and even where the same game was out on Xbox it was "always" localized on the PS2 while only English (or maybe French, German or Italian) on the Xbox...

Does anyone else think that Mel looks like a young Saddam btw?!

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 07 Apr 2007, 12:23

I heard the current batch of PS3 games don't use the full cability of the PS3. It's harder is much higher than the Xbox 360 so in theory they should look better, no?

Whose Mel?

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 07 Apr 2007, 13:59

bradavon wrote:I heard the current batch of PS3 games don't use the full cability of the PS3. It's harder is much higher than the Xbox 360 so in theory they should look better, no?

Whose Mel?

You dont know much about consoles do you?

NO game can use the full capabilities of a console on release, even in 5 years time they will still be trying to get all of the power out of it. It takes years for them to make anything look like it should, by then most consoles have got to the end of their life.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 07 Apr 2007, 14:29

bradavon wrote:I heard the current batch of PS3 games don't use the full cability of the PS3. It's harder is much higher than the Xbox 360 so in theory they should look better, no?

Actually, the 360 has the better GPU. PS3 has the better CPU - IBM's Cell.

PS3 has a Geforce 7800GTX, a high-end final generation DirectX 9.0c card. 360 has a custom ATI built on the unified architecture concept introduced with DX10.

Cell has 9 cores, but is reportedly difficult to program for. 360 has a triple-core PowerPC CPU and is much easier to program for.

For this generation, multiplatform games will be built for 360 and then ported to PS3.

Nintendo is not even bothering to compete with 360 and PS3 this generation. The Wii isn't even HD and is really just the next evolution of last gen's Gamecube console that is not much more powerful than the original Xbox. Nintendo are relying solely on attracting the non-gaming mainstream audience, including children and girls with their gimmicky controller. They're aiming for same market as Singstar, Buzz and Eyetoy.

Whose Mel?

Gibson I presume. The viking was referencing my avatar I think.

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 07 Apr 2007, 17:18

The Wii for me si the biggest joke ever, never seen such a piece of shit in my life. Sad its selling so many when its about as good as a PS1.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 18 Jun 2007, 12:08

I am ready to face the ugly truth.
Blu-Ray has won:

Seen on Play.com

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 18 Jun 2007, 13:17

LOL @ 23.99 Pounds.

I'm so waiting until I upgrade hard and software to HD/BR.

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 18 Jun 2007, 17:21

Oldboy, well I couldnt think of a film less worthy of a HD transfer

most overated film of the 00's, by a million miles.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 18 Jun 2007, 20:21

Great news, thanks Tom.

thelostdragon wrote:LOL @ 23.99 Pounds.

They're going for £26-30 in my local HMV. I'd stick with the USA HD discs where they average £13-17. Due to the high cost of HD Discs (£6-8 DVDs anyone?) I'd end up just buying less films a month, until the price went down. It's not like I can find the time to watch films barely any more anyway.

Blockbuster to focus on Blu-ray only: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6762621.stm

I do think it's only a matter of time now but when that time will be? I'd say at least another year. The Matrix has just come out on HD-DVD only.

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 18 Jun 2007, 22:53

I wonder if it'll have a different transfer to the Japanese HD-DVD.

Toge · Post by **Toge** » 28 Jun 2007, 21:44

Ran came out on HD DVD in france. Kurosawa's Ran.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 28 Jun 2007, 21:54

Yep. I know.

Studio Canal's HD-DVDs are supposed to be supremely good.

Ran's got a wonderful 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track.
The DVD's original 2.0 track is not included, though (not that I'd care. Remixes rulez !

)

I am *this* close to buying a Toshiba player. Just waiting for the cheap one to get under the 300€ mark.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 28 Jun 2007, 22:01

I didn't think you were a remix man Tom. Studio Canal's Mullholland Drive HD-DVD is flawed.

Interesting Tartan are going with Blu-ray.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 28 Jun 2007, 22:16

Brad wrote:Studio Canal's Mullholland Drive HD-DVD is flawed.

Ah. Didn't know that.
Flawed in what way ?

Brad wrote:I didn't think you were a remix man Tom.

I hate additional foley effects.
But a mono/stereo track remixed into 5.1... that's another story.
Gives a whole new dimension to the film.

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 28 Jun 2007, 22:29

Studio Canal's HD-DVD releases seem to have a higher pitch than they should.

I've bought a PS3 now, and my 42" Toshiba Regza is arriving next week, yay! I have ordered on Blu-ray: A Scanner Darkly, Babel, and Silent Hill, and I will be getting Casino Royale for free due to registering my PS3, I can't wait!!!

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 28 Jun 2007, 23:34

Sweet, nice on Gasteropod.

Black Hawk Down and Kingdom of Heaven: DC along with Casino Royale are high on my two buy BD list. Sadly the KOH BD only has the trailer from the 4-Disc DVD set, BHD loses extras too but is still stacked.

I'll be picking up the Australian BD of Casino Royale as it's the only English cover uncut version out there (English cover being a bonus).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry I presumed you'd read it Tom, plus I couldn't remember what was wrong with it:

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=65118

"HD-DVD review of Frenchie Mulholland Dr. WTF is up with the lack of pitch correction? Lazy cheese eating fucks."

https://www.bulletsnbabesdvd.com/forums/ ... &start=160

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 29 Jun 2007, 10:24

affected titles, despite playing back at the proper speed (24 fps), feature audio tracks that have been sourced from sped-up (25 fps) masters.

RRAAHHHH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :shock:
:x

PAL speed-up ?! FUCKING PAL speed-up ?!
I thought this evil thing would die with the arrival of HD.
I had no idea.

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » 29 Jun 2007, 13:24

Ran has DTS-HD but it's not DTS-HD MA.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 29 Jun 2007, 15:22

Sorry 'bout that.
That's what I read in a review.

Most reviewers don't know a thing re: HD, it seems.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 29 Jun 2007, 17:43

I'm kinda interested in the Wii, though you're right Eva its not that powerful (a souped up Cube as you say).