The HD News & Technology Thread!

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 06 May 2008, 18:25

First European BD Live Title Announced:

http://www.dvdactive.com/news/industry/ ... unced.html

I think this will be the third BD Live enabled disc:

1. Walk Hard - Only USA BD
2. Sixth Day - Only USA BD
3. Men in Black - I wonder if it's USA too?
4. Alien Vs. Predator SE - Coming later this year. This looks technically anyway to be a corker.

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 06 May 2008, 18:47

4 shit films Yipeee!

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 06 May 2008, 18:57

Yep but it's the technology not films that is the news.

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 15 May 2008, 14:04

cheap blu-ray players going on sale in the States

http://www.videobusiness.com/index.asp? ... c=topstory

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 15 May 2008, 14:20

Hey Salty,
Is the Disney Euro BD of Starship Troopers any good, or would one be better off waiting for the US BD from Sony?

EDIT: It doesn't have the director's commentary from the 1997 DVD, WTF?! Bugger that release, we'll see what Sony gives us.

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 15 May 2008, 15:10

Troopers looked mighty fine but agreed,hang on and see what Sony come up with.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 15 May 2008, 15:11

I imagine the Sony BD will be stacked with extras. I'd wait.

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 15 May 2008, 15:49

lucky i'm not really interested in extras.i really don't have time to watch them these days,literally.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 15 May 2008, 15:51

Me either in particular but I like to have them if they're available but I wouldn't now re-buy a perfectly good disc just for extras. I do like them though so I can watch the odd one after the film.

I never watch all of them and never get into those 3Hr documentaries any more, except in rare cases like the History channel one on Black Hawk Down interests me.

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 15 May 2008, 17:18

Starship Troppers is one of the rare quality extras dvds, the 2 commentaries alone are pretty damn amazing. It needs a serious beefy documentary on the film as damn its 10 year on, I want a better semection of quality extras. Most on the old dvds were shit to be honest.

The Blu Ray from Sony already blows the UK disc away spec wise, hope Starship Troopers 3 is worth getting the same day

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 21 May 2008, 05:50

Scroll to the bottom (after all the titles) for some interesting American Blu-ray stats:

http://www.blu-raystats.com/stats.php

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 31 May 2008, 07:00

Sky HD EPG overhaul:

http://blog.homecinemachoice.com/page/h ... g_unveiled

It's about time. The Sky EPG sucks compared to many Freeview EPGs. My Humax PVR (for instance) is much better.

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11 New Chinese Blu-ray licences given:

http://blog.homecinemachoice.com/page/h ... ay_licence

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 07 Jun 2008, 01:03

First Blu-ray recorders go on sale outside of Japan:

http://blog.homecinemachoice.com/page/h ... corders_go

Australia is the first territory outside of Japan to be offered Blu-ray recorders. In Japan, Blu-ray recorders dominate the BD market.

I cannot see it happening in The UK until Freesat takes off, presuming it does take off. Sky and Cable are just too propriatory to be considered. Until Freesat comes along there's not much point in one in The UK.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 07 Jun 2008, 01:34

Recorders? They haven't even mastered the Players yet...

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 07 Jun 2008, 01:54

Profiles and price aside yes they have.

Panasonic's Profile 2.0 BD Player is out soon (maybe now) and not only is it Profile 2.0 but I hear it can Bitstream or On-board decode all HD audio formats too. Not even the PS3 can do that, everything is on-board with it. In other words it looks like a very decent player, at a price.

The profile issue is overrated. Don't get me wrong I would definitely want Profile 1.1 or 2.0 but in reality it's not exactly important, especially Profile 2.0.

Many of the Players have had several firmware upgrades by now making them much better, but of course all you hear about is the problems. You also only hear about the handful of problem discs not the hundreds/thousands that work fine.

It is a pity the first Australian BD Recorder will be only Profile 1.0 though, it should really be Profile 1.1 as a minimum.

And ultimately don't forget Japan is years ahead of us. Their BD Players are likely to be generations ahead too.

Personally I see next summer being the time to get into HD, if you're no rush. More Profile 2.0 BD Players will be out by then and prices should be much better. The industry hasn't fully recovered from the damage two formats did.

Hopefully we'll see cheaper prices at Xmas this year and the January sales too. Ultimately things aren't going to take off until sub £200 BD Players are released though. People will then start to get into HD more, to go with their HD TV. Before then most are more than happy with DVD.

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 25 Jun 2008, 04:34

article about grain on blu-ray here

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/ ... 62408.html

Godzooki · Post by **Godzooki** » 25 Jun 2008, 22:41

bradavon wrote:Sky HD EPG overhaul:

http://blog.homecinemachoice.com/page/h ... g_unveiled

It's about time. The Sky EPG sucks compared to many Freeview EPGs. My Humax PVR (for instance) is much better.

Yeah one of many overhauls on the SKY HD front, cant say any more though!

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 26 Jun 2008, 19:02

I cannot stand digital cameras that remove all the grain. It always results in a really plastic like image. That's not too say I want an image full of grain, which my camera suffers from a bit if I put the ISO too high.

It's THE reason why I held off getting a digital camera for so many years. Every image I saw look liked shop dummies. Not one of my friends of family ever saw what I was talking about. Thankfully my Ricoh generally creates realistic images with grain where appropriate.

saltysam wrote:article about grain on blu-ray here: http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/ ... 62408.html

Thanks for the link Salty, it's an interesting article. It's a shame it's formatted so poorly. Interestingly Patton received top marks here: http://avplay.avforums.com/index.php?sh ... eview=9334

Can someone tell me what's the difference between Noise and Grain? Cheers.

If you really have to use DNR and EE to cater to the lowest common denominators… put them on the players.

My LG BH200 has an EE setting, called sharpness. When you set it to Low it's okay but on Normal or High the EE goes through the roof. I've left it off.

Tigercage wrote:Yeah one of many overhauls on the SKY HD front, cant say any more though!

Why not? Do you work for Sky? Cheers.

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 26 Jun 2008, 19:26

Brad, I think you're confused about what grain is, because why on Earth would any digital camera have grain on its pictures?! Grain is an unintentional side effect of using celluloid to film on. Anything you could be mistaking grain for on a digital image is simply compression artefacting.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 26 Jun 2008, 19:31

Digital cameras produce grain also. That article even mentions it. Compression artefacting looks completely different.

When my Ricoh is set to 800/1600 ISO it's grain hell. Many digital camera reviews mention it too. I'm sure Romero can explain it better than me.

Shingster · Post by **Shingster** » 27 Jun 2008, 01:46

bradavon wrote:Can someone tell me what's the difference between Noise and Grain? Cheers.

There are so many ways to answer that question because people use the terms to describe a plethora of things, but if you want the basic definition of noise, then it is anything in a recording that is extraneous or "added" in the recording/processing method. Basically, noise encapsulates all artefacts, ie macroblocking is a form of compression noise or digital noise, whereas film grain and pops and scratches are forms of film noise.

Film grain is the texture of photographic film. When you say your Digital Camera exhibits grain, what you really mean is it exhibits random flecks of colour (most likely) that give the image a "grainy" appearance. It is not the same thing as film grain, because obviously you're not recording on to photographic film.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 27 Jun 2008, 12:10

Thanks Shingster.

I guess I was saying digital camera grain, not film grain. Grain and Noise seem to be used for so many different meanings, it can get so confusing. People also seem to use them, in a haphazard fashion.

Do they look different to the naked eye? Are there any captures online comparing the two?

It is not the same thing as film grain, because obviously you're not recording on to photographic film.

What about 35mm and APS cameras?

Shingster · Post by **Shingster** » 28 Jun 2008, 16:27

bradavon wrote:Do they look different to the naked eye? Are there any captures online comparing the two?

They look different, there's a good example of DV noise on wikipedia here. It's not as easy to find good examples of film grain online as I thought it would be, but you could compare the digital noise grabs with this grab from the r2j DVD release of After Life, which was shot on 16mm and has a lovely grainy texture to the image: here.

What about 35mm and APS cameras?

They use photographic film. I'm not the best person to be talking about the various camera formats as i've never been much of a photo taker.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 28 Jun 2008, 17:15

Cheers Shingster.

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 02 Jul 2008, 22:59

Region A & B blu-ray sony player from a uk stockist

http://www.mrmdvd.com/catalog/product_i ... cts_id=793