Exploding Video Myths!
There are a lot of half truths floating
High Definition TV, Digital Broadcast
Video Myths
Ok maybe they are not myths but the tenor of the times seems to be to over blow catch phrases and over simplify new technologies with a view to selling the latest gadget.
Over the 40 years or so that we have been in this business, we have become increasingly cautious about “new and revolutionary” technology and advertising that trumpets the latest “breakthrough”.
We have seen many approaches that are not really breakthroughs come and go and other technologies that have value, such as high definition television, put on the market before they are really ready. That approach forces early adaptors to fight with incompatibilities, an endless string of updates and often new versions of the technology that are not compatible with the old and to which the old cannot be updated.
We are not and do not advise early adoption. We are client centered. We want our clients to be really pleased with what they buy from us. We do our best to take care of our clients after the sale so we are very sensitive to unproven technology.
Blu-ray
What is Blu-ray? Essentially it is a format like DVD intended to store video (or data) but Blu-ray has higher capacity due to the higher frequency laser employed (blue, {actually violet} rather than red). Thus, to simplify the issue, it can store video at high resolution, up to 1080 lines at a frame rate of (about) 60 frames per second (1080P). The P stands for progressive meaning 60 frames per second rather than 30 achieved by interlacing lines. The DVD format is 480 lines interlaced (480i) by 720 lines horizontal. The horizontal resolution of Blu-ray 1920. This may be the pixel rate but may not be the achieved differentiable rate. To summarize Blu-ray is capable of storing video data at the highest resolution and frame rate prescribed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC). The actual result (optical resolution) depends on the source being recorded on the disc master and how the transfer is achieved.
One concern about the media is that the discs because of the small pit size and the fact that the recorded layer is closer to the surface could make the disc more delicate. Originally there was consideration that the discs would be in and not removable from a case which would be inserted into a machine to be played. This was theoretically obviated by technology developed to make the discs more robust. Still they may be more delicate than conventional DVDs or CDs.
Blu-ray won over HD-DVD. But what did it win? Will Blu-ray replace DVD? No! Ok, well we think it may not. Why not? There is too big an established base of DVD players and DVDs (450-500 million DVD players VS. 6 million Blu-ray players including game consoles. Eventually it might (5 to 10 years) but long before that, download will win the day. As internet speeds increase, and they will, downloading movies from the internet will become shorter and more reliable. Already the accessibility is getting better by leaps and bounds and high-definition downloads will expand rapidly. Movie downloads are now often available simultaneously with DVD release. High definition download will become increasingly available. Storage media is becoming larger and less expensive with terabyte drives readily available. Blu-ray then, in our estimation, has only a two or three year window in which to prosper.
The manufacturers who have invested tens of millions of dollars in developing and promoting this technology are understandably anxious for it to succeed and to sell everyone a new Blu-ray player to replace their DVD player. This sales war will be played out at the very bottom of the market. A recent article opined that sales of Blu-ray players would not take off until prices dropped below $200. For contrast you can buy a DVD player for $50. They are not really worth owning but they are available. The least expensive DVD player that we have found that meets our standards for quality, reliability and serviceability sells for $300 and the improvement in quality as you spend more is obvious to the eye.
So far about 600 Blu-ray titles have been released. Perhaps a thousand if you count TV show packages compared to tens of thousands of DVD titles. Are people really going to be willing to pay the premium asked for a Blu-Ray version of a disc rather than a regular DVD? For instance take the title “No Country for Old Men” will people buy the Blu-ray version for $22.95 for instance as opposed to the DVD version for $15.99. Other Blu-ray titles range from about $18.50 to $27.95 or more (recent Amazon prices).
Sure if you want the best perhaps you will pay more but do you get the best? Maybe, maybe not. It depends, among other things, on the transfer quality to the Blu-ray disc. It also depends on the quality of the Blu-ray player and of the DVD player you might otherwise have and the overall quality of your display and the quality of the scan rate conversion in the DVD player, video processor or display whichever one is called upon to do the job in your system.
At The Sound Environment, by the way, we painstakingly select which component will do that job within the capabilities of your system. We would be happy to go into that issue but that would take pages so better to leave that for later and as we said it depends on your system.
There are many other factors such as the quality and length of the HDMI 1.3 cable you are using to transmit the 1080P output of the Blu-ray player to your switcher or display. The quality of the switcher will also have an effect.
Oh yes and if you connect an S video or Component cable to feed the signal from the current Blu-ray players to a less capable display to our amazement the HDMI 1.3 output is degraded as well. Manufacturers may fix this but don’t seem to have yet.
Don’t be hasty. There are other issues. If you have other DVD players or if you want to take that movie with you on your travels you probably have to buy the DVD version anyway. Also some Blu-ray discs are not very good. We have tried several on our state of the art projection system with a 120” screen. The best Blu-ray titles are animation because there are no dark scenes. Black levels are generally crushed on Blu-ray (so far) so as a movie scene gets dark, after a point, you tend to see… nothing.
Some rereleases are not even from high definition masters and the players, well most are not very good, yet. Among other things they are very slow to start up. Remember DVD players have been under development for years and the best ones cost thousands of dollars. Blu-ray has a long ways to go. Some discs may not play on some players unless the players have been updated with the latest firmware.
Do you remember DVD-Audio or SACD, introduced in 1999? Both were supposed to overtake and replace CD but now they are essentially non-existent.
Can we get you a Blu-ray player? Of course. Do we have one you can see a picture from? Yes, in Omaha, but it is far from the sensation its advertisers have made it out to be. In addition more and more movies are available for purchase or rental through online download. That is the future.
Our short advice is don’t be in a hurry to buy a Blu-ray player or Blu-ray discs. Hang on to what you’ve got or consider buying a better DVD-CD player. By the way some Blu-ray players don’t play CDs or do so very poorly.
High Definition TVs.
OK the buzz is 1080P. Is this display capable of 1080 lines progressive display you ask? Well even if it is most of your sources today are not 1080P. So that fabulous 1080P TV is busy trying to up-sample the 480i regular TV signal or your old VCR tapes or your DVDs. Even when digital broadcast is mandated up-sampling will still be required as most sources will not be 1080P.
High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) version 1.3 was release in June, 2006. Manufacturers are still trying to implement it properly. Since we want our customers to be happy we constantly have to test new models to see if one will really talk to the other on HDMI 1.3. Sometimes they won’t or won’t very effectively.
Can up-sampling be done successfully? Yes, if the equipment is really good, otherwise artifacts can be visible. What about your 27” TV? It doesn’t matter. In our big theater in Omaha the first row of seats is 14 feet from our 120” wide screen. Will you sit 3 feet from your 27” TV? Probably not. So it doesn’t matter whether the processor is very good or not or for that matter whether the display is 1080P or not. It is only when the display is big relative to the viewing distance that it matters. Then all aspects of quality become important not just the scan rate. For instance if we are talking about a projector does it have good gray scale, does it have good black levels, does it have good optics, how is the color fidelity? Ah, so many things are so important. It is not just about “high definition”, it is about the whole experience unless of course you are just someone hawking the latest buzz word technology.
Digital Broadcast
Digital TV broadcast is coming! Are we all ready? What does it take to get ready? If your TV source is cable, at this point it takes nothing. Eventually High Definition will be mandated on cable but the go dark day for broadcast (February 17th 2009) does not apply to cable or satellite. Oh yes if you are receiving TV over air with an antenna you can get a $40 coupon from the federal government towards the purchase of a converter box which will sell for $40-$70 but wait you also need a new digital antenna to connect to that box and over air digital transmission has its own set of difficulties to deal with.
We really don’t want to be negative about all this, just cautious and careful in what we recommend and how it is implemented. In a few years when all this is sorted out high definition video and the lossless audio that can go with it Dolby Digital Plus (DD+), Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD Master Audio will definitely improve the movie experience at home.
Stay tuned for more on these subjects or come into one of our locations to experience what can be done now.
