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Has everyone seen their compressed HDTV? WOW. We may not like Microsoft, but they have a nice bit of code there.

You can buy a very cheap player for about $50. But why not spend a little more. For just a little more you can buy a decent progressive output DVD player. Check out this DVD Benchmark test which seems to be more thorough than most DVD tests. They recommend several players that retail for only $230 (street price is a lot less).

Other things to look for:

• If you care about audio at all, you may want to get a universal player, one that plays DVD-Audio and SACD discs as well. Before the /. drones comment, I will mention that those formats are copy protected. Two caveats to the copy protection: (1) there isn't a single disc that is exclusive to SACD/DVD-Audio. Each release is also available in CD format; (2) the sound quality improvement is supposed to be substantial.
• You may want to look at how you're connecting the DVD player. Generally speaking, the best connector for most is component video, followed by S-Video, composite video, and finally the dreaded RF-converter box. However, there is now a player on the market that is supposedly even better quality connection, the DVI connection (same as the connector to a computer LCD monitor). The first player to have such an output is the Bravo D1 player, only available on-line. Be careful though. The reviews say that the picture quality is near High Definition quality, but some have had quality control issues with the player. It retails for $200.

Does any one know how it ranks on progressive DVD benchmarks?

This benchmark has lots of screen shots of correct and bad behavior: DVD Benchmark

Quote (hometheaterhifi.com)

It takes both standard 24 fps IMAX features as well as 48 fps IMAX-HD® features (which run at a wicked speed of 673.2 feet per minute).

Dish Network's PVR921 which has DVI output, dual tuners, ethernet support, and HDTV recording won the "Best of Show" at CES

Moxi has announced an HDTV PVR that will be integrated with Cable, the Moxi Media Center. Charter Communications is testing this box right now in St. Louis.

On a related note, I am happy with DVI's winning the interface war for HDTV output, mainly because it does not restrict the signal to MPEG2, which Firewire does. This means when HD-DVDs come out, they can use whatever technology makes more sense (blue laser), and my TV does not have to assume it's MPEG2.

Other links of interest where you could dig up more info on HDTV, or audio/video in general:

• HomeTheaterHiFi.com
• AVS Forum
• DTV Max

Wait.

Don't spend the big bucks now; stick with the resolution you have. The industry is in chaos and your solution might not work so well with mandated encryption for broadcast TV. According to this article, it'll be illegal to decrypt broadcast video (unless at STV resolution, or output thru DVI using HDCP encryption) anywhere but inside the display device:

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_9_1/feature- article-digital-home-video-2-2002.html

here's the license pdf from the makers of hdcp

sections 3.3/3.4 clearly state that it's not legal to have a dvi/hdcp receiver with any analog outputs (save 16/48 audio).

not having dvi on your set (or not having a mitsubishi 'promise') is nigh a death knell for future hdtv compliance.

here is an excellent writeup on the present situation

> but NTSC pixels are not square. They are 1:1.33 rectangles

Yeah, Jukka Aho's A Quick Guide to Digital Video Resolution and Aspect Ratio Conversions page goes into this.

And then there is this gem, which shows what anamorphic really looks like.

Cheers

I mostly know this stuff from reading about DVD deinterlacing for my own homebrew (on which I've made almost no progress).

Use Google or look here

If you want to get your TV perfectly calibrated, hire a professional. Second best thing to do is pick up Avia's Video Essentials. I would definitely take this "guide" with a grain of salt. They gloss over one of the most important issues of video calibration, which is that you have to calibrate it with the amount of ambient light that would normally be present with normal usage.

Also, they could HEAR the difference between two different TOSLINK cables? Gimme a break. Sounds like a sponsored ad for Monster cable, whom audiophiles know is a rip-off anyways.

Oh, and they are an Internet sale only company - you buy subwoofers directly from them, there are no other dealers between you and them.

And I don't own a SVS ... yet ^_^ (and neither do I work for them)

I'm fairly certain very few Hollywood feature films are filmed in 8mm or 16mm. IMDB seems to confirm BR was done in 35mm, using the anamorphic Panavision processes. Only mega-low budget (non-Hollywood) movies like Clerks tend to use 16mm. I would be very impressed if you have seen a film shot entirely in 8mm; IMDB lists a whopping 154 films with those specs, and many of them are just effects shots, intentionally looking grainy. But what do I know; I can't even be bothered to create a /. login.

I can only assume from the pricepoint ($1500MSRP, so $1000+ street price, at least initially) that the average MP3-laden geek is not the target market here. In fact, the pricepoint may be one of the things that allows this thing to avoid (at least somewhat) some flak from the RIAA and its gang of enforcers.

For an audiophile, this thing just might make some sense. First of all, the type of people who spend $300 on speaker wire are obviously not concerned with value per dollar. Second of all, such folks also cling to the ridiculous notion that the rotational stability of a CD is of key importance to audio quality, with typical ghetto-trash (read sub-$5000) CD players incapable of reproducing their music faithfully. For these folks, having a device that would play their music buffered from a hard drive (with the device stashed far away and connected with Monster Cable Ethernet would eliminate the need to worry about such things as spending thousands of dollars to isolate their hardware from any vibrations caused by their cat farting or toilet flushing. (That last link rules) :)

Seriously, a device that allows audiophiles to play their music from a non-CD platform, esp thru decent D/As, or even better, their multi-thousand dollar outboard D/As, would sell. The Linn Kivor, no doubt priced in the stratosphere, is one such example. My guess is that the SonicBlue DAC is about a tenth the price of the Linn.

Sooo, while I'm not going to rush out and buy one, I'd still say it may find a market with audiophiles.

The best information I've been able to find on this issue has been at Home Theater Hifi and it seems to imply interlaced storage despite the progressive sourcing. Can you provide a reference for your comment, and/or a DVD player which does progressive output without a deinterlacer?

I was reading reviews on progressive scan DVD players and the article was very in depth, explaining why certain dvd players would mess up with certain movies by looking at the way the mpeg stream was encoded. you can only do that if you have access to the unencrypted data on the dvd. You can say "well then you just have to construct your own mpeg stream for testing" but with a constructed mpeg stream you cant tell how the DVD player will do in real life, with streams that are actually in use in movies.. here's the url: Dvd Benchmark

PS for those who want more than just antedontal evidence. Check out this article