[...] I've got about $3,000 invested in a TV and a blu-ray player, and I feel ripped off. I can't find 1080p content. Most movies I get from netflix use about 1/2 of the height of my 16x9 screen. I had to abandon cable because the quality was so poor. Actually, DVDs or free downloads of rips from DVDs are about the sweet spot for price/quality.
I've been through a couple hundred Blu-Ray movies from Netflix, and they're all 1080p format. The reason the films use "about 1/2 of the height" of your TV is because many films (especially big special-effect films which account for a lot of the Blu-Ray releases) use an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, which is wider than your 16:9 (1.78:1) TV. If they didn't letterbox the image, they'd be cutting the sides off of it, which is worse.
I've seen better and worse Blu-Ray movie releases, but they're all 1080p (except Short Circuit, which is 1080i for some reason). Many of them can be criticized, but not because they don't fill your TV screen. If you're curious about a film, look it up on IMDB, and check the aspect ratio listed on the "Technical Details" page of the film.
I'll agree that cable look like shit, even most of the HD cable I've seen. Ugh.
I am studying a foriegn language, and purchased movies from amazon.fr to help learn listening to the language. If I set my DVD drive to region 2 to watch a French movie, then later back to region 1 to watch an USA movie, one I do that 5 times my DVD locks so I can't change the region on it. WHY? The movies I am buying from France are not even available in the USA.
Not that it's a solution to the underlying problem, but you should check out amazon.ca for French movies. They have a sizeable selection of French-only stuff, and Canadian DVDs are region-1, just like the US. They're also NTSC, so your TV and DVD player should handle them too.
As many others have pointed out, LaserDiscs have analog video. Also of note is that they store composite video, so a LaserDisc player with an S-Video connector is not necessarily better than one without, as your capture card may do a better job than the player of converting composite to S.
The audio on LDs is (except for the very old discs) digital: 16-bit 44KHz PCM, just like CDs. Many newer discs contain AC3 audio (16-bit 48KHz multichannel Dolby Digital) or dts audio, but in either case you'd need a player that supports it.
For convenience, you can't beat hooking the player up to a FireWire DV media converter box. But for the best quality transfer, I recommend:
Video: raw analog capture card; WinTV dbx or preferably PixelView X-Capture, an incredible card for ~$40.
Audio: get an audio card based off of the CMI8738 chipset that has digital in/out. These can capture an externally-clocked digital signal without altering it at all. I've used one of these to capture the 5.1 Dolby Digital stream off of a LaserDisc and (with some slight massaging of the stream) put it on a DVD without recompression. Even if you're just dealing with the 44KHz stereo PCM that's on most LDs, this will get you a cleaner signal that other options. If you're planning on grabbing the AC3 audio, you'll need an AC3-RF demodulator, or a preamp that will take an AC3-RF signal and output SPDIF or TOSLink to the soundcard.
I've successfully used this to get top-notch transfers of my own LaserDiscs to DVDs. Good luck!
I picked up the DVD in question from Amazon, as I'm a serious Ghibli fan. My usual routine is to get the R2 DVD, decrypt it to my computer, and then burn a new DVD with (often corrected) subtitles and translated menus. I do this for my own use, because I am a Freak. Yes, it's legal.
Anyway, I had heard that there was a slight red tint before I got the disc, but HOLY COW was it noticeable. I don't buy for a second that it was intentional, for two reasons:
1) The "balanced for Plasma and LCD screens" excuse is bullshit. If Plasma and LCD screens displayed a different white balance or color gamut than CRTs, then no one would want them. I'm tempted to make an unaltered DVD-R of the film and take it over to the Fry's and try it out on their big Plasma TVs, but I know what the outcome would be.
2) The "we wanted a warmer look for the film" excuse doesn't fly, either. This is because even the Studio Ghibli logo at the beginning of the feature is way off. The other six Ghibli DVDs I have all have the same, pure blue Ghibli logo at the beginning. This one was more of a coral color; it's clearly a different color. After adjusting the color balance in the rest of the film back to Earth standards, surprise -- the logo looked normal.
So, in case anybody else is as much of a freak, here's how I corrected the color on my copy, using TMPGEnc:
That gets the picture very close to the original, as compared to the non-red-shifted trailer included on the Spirited Away DVD and Kiki's Delivery Service DVD.
Hey, there's another thought: maybe there's nothing wrong with the color -- maybe we're all just moving away from the TV really fast.
I wonder whether the lawsuit will do anything for non-Japanese residents...
Someone asked this at a local book signing, and he mentioned that (as well as being nice) Viking makes some ovens that are deeper than normal, and are better for fitting a 3CCD pro DV camcorder.:)
He also mentioned that if you're going to stuff video equipment in ovens, make sure you check inside each oven before you turn it on, because "Nothing Sony makes tastes good."
I use a PC to play DVDs on my home entertainment system, even though I have (uhh...) three other consumer DVD players hooked up to the system.
The advantage? A properly configured PC connected to a decent (i.e. VGA compatible) output device (like a projector) will have features that a cheap consumer deck doesn't. My PC outputs a sharper signal than NTSC, gets the full resolution out of anamorphic widescreen discs, and displays noninterlaced progressive-scan frames at 72fps, 3x the 24fps source. The result, when combined with a nice projector, is amazingly film-like. Oh -- and I do get 5.1 audio out of my sound card, which would fit in the PCI slot of the machine in question.
To get these features, you can either spend serious $$$ on a consumer player that supports progressive-scan and component output plus a line-doubler. Or, you can run WinDVD on a $600 PC.
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[...] I've got about $3,000 invested in a TV and a blu-ray player, and I feel ripped off. I can't find 1080p content. Most movies I get from netflix use about 1/2 of the height of my 16x9 screen. I had to abandon cable because the quality was so poor. Actually, DVDs or free downloads of rips from DVDs are about the sweet spot for price/quality.
I've been through a couple hundred Blu-Ray movies from Netflix, and they're all 1080p format. The reason the films use "about 1/2 of the height" of your TV is because many films (especially big special-effect films which account for a lot of the Blu-Ray releases) use an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, which is wider than your 16:9 (1.78:1) TV. If they didn't letterbox the image, they'd be cutting the sides off of it, which is worse.
I've seen better and worse Blu-Ray movie releases, but they're all 1080p (except Short Circuit, which is 1080i for some reason). Many of them can be criticized, but not because they don't fill your TV screen. If you're curious about a film, look it up on IMDB, and check the aspect ratio listed on the "Technical Details" page of the film.
I'll agree that cable look like shit, even most of the HD cable I've seen. Ugh.
How on earth can the first Penny-Arcade video game not be called Wang Commander?
I mean, it practically writes itself.
I am studying a foriegn language, and purchased movies from amazon.fr to help learn listening to the language. If I set my DVD drive to region 2 to watch a French movie, then later back to region 1 to watch an USA movie, one I do that 5 times my DVD locks so I can't change the region on it. WHY? The movies I am buying from France are not even available in the USA.
Not that it's a solution to the underlying problem, but you should check out amazon.ca for French movies. They have a sizeable selection of French-only stuff, and Canadian DVDs are region-1, just like the US. They're also NTSC, so your TV and DVD player should handle them too.
As many others have pointed out, LaserDiscs have analog video. Also of note is that they store composite video, so a LaserDisc player with an S-Video connector is not necessarily better than one without, as your capture card may do a better job than the player of converting composite to S.
The audio on LDs is (except for the very old discs) digital: 16-bit 44KHz PCM, just like CDs. Many newer discs contain AC3 audio (16-bit 48KHz multichannel Dolby Digital) or dts audio, but in either case you'd need a player that supports it.
For convenience, you can't beat hooking the player up to a FireWire DV media converter box. But for the best quality transfer, I recommend:
Video: raw analog capture card; WinTV dbx or preferably PixelView X-Capture, an incredible card for ~$40.
Audio: get an audio card based off of the CMI8738 chipset that has digital in/out. These can capture an externally-clocked digital signal without altering it at all. I've used one of these to capture the 5.1 Dolby Digital stream off of a LaserDisc and (with some slight massaging of the stream) put it on a DVD without recompression. Even if you're just dealing with the 44KHz stereo PCM that's on most LDs, this will get you a cleaner signal that other options. If you're planning on grabbing the AC3 audio, you'll need an AC3-RF demodulator, or a preamp that will take an AC3-RF signal and output SPDIF or TOSLink to the soundcard.
I've successfully used this to get top-notch transfers of my own LaserDiscs to DVDs. Good luck!
The best combination I got from FireSomething was Mozilla HighDefinitionJesus.
That would make a great band name.
...except for Internet-land, where it'll be "released" several weeks early.
Anyway, I had heard that there was a slight red tint before I got the disc, but HOLY COW was it noticeable. I don't buy for a second that it was intentional, for two reasons:
1) The "balanced for Plasma and LCD screens" excuse is bullshit. If Plasma and LCD screens displayed a different white balance or color gamut than CRTs, then no one would want them. I'm tempted to make an unaltered DVD-R of the film and take it over to the Fry's and try it out on their big Plasma TVs, but I know what the outcome would be.
2) The "we wanted a warmer look for the film" excuse doesn't fly, either. This is because even the Studio Ghibli logo at the beginning of the feature is way off. The other six Ghibli DVDs I have all have the same, pure blue Ghibli logo at the beginning. This one was more of a coral color; it's clearly a different color. After adjusting the color balance in the rest of the film back to Earth standards, surprise -- the logo looked normal.
So, in case anybody else is as much of a freak, here's how I corrected the color on my copy, using TMPGEnc:
Using TMPGEnc's "Custom Color Correction":
RGB Brightness (0, 28, 46)
RGB Contrast (0, 71, 134)
RGB Contrast 0 base (-10, 0, 0)
Basic Setting (0, 0, -10, 0, 0)
YUV Saturation (18)
That gets the picture very close to the original, as compared to the non-red-shifted trailer included on the Spirited Away DVD and Kiki's Delivery Service DVD.
Hey, there's another thought: maybe there's nothing wrong with the color -- maybe we're all just moving away from the TV really fast.
I wonder whether the lawsuit will do anything for non-Japanese residents...
[why Viking ranges?]
:)
Someone asked this at a local book signing, and he mentioned that (as well as being nice) Viking makes some ovens that are deeper than normal, and are better for fitting a 3CCD pro DV camcorder.
He also mentioned that if you're going to stuff video equipment in ovens, make sure you check inside each oven before you turn it on, because "Nothing Sony makes tastes good."
-tbone
Nope, it's the Yano AH80FC 80GB FireWire hard drive. If you click on the link under it, it'll show you the drive in the Apple Store.
-tbone
I use a PC to play DVDs on my home entertainment system, even though I have (uhh...) three other consumer DVD players hooked up to the system.
The advantage? A properly configured PC connected to a decent (i.e. VGA compatible) output device (like a projector) will have features that a cheap consumer deck doesn't. My PC outputs a sharper signal than NTSC, gets the full resolution out of anamorphic widescreen discs, and displays noninterlaced progressive-scan frames at 72fps, 3x the 24fps source. The result, when combined with a nice projector, is amazingly film-like. Oh -- and I do get 5.1 audio out of my sound card, which would fit in the PCI slot of the machine in question.
To get these features, you can either spend serious $$$ on a consumer player that supports progressive-scan and component output plus a line-doubler. Or, you can run WinDVD on a $600 PC.
-tbone