Technical Issues and Questions

[swo17]

I'm looking into setting up a projector system for a home theater. My projector guy is telling me that an HDMI hookup from a Blu-ray player to a projector is unnecessary since the projector only displays video. He says component video cables will produce as good of an image for a lot less cost. Can anyone with experience with projectors comment on the truth of this last statement?

So as it turns out, this guy was trying to sell me a projector made by a company (Optimax 3D) that has been identified on a few websites as being part of a scam. Be careful out there, kids.

[swo17]

Another projector question: A good portion of what I watch is closer to 4:3 ratio than 16:9. I know they make projector screens in both sizes, though 16:9 screens appear to be the standard. It would be nice to be able to watch 4:3 films completely filling up a 4:3 screen, instead of having them only take up the center portion of a 16:9 screen. It seems like a 4:3 screen may also fix the problem of non-anamorphic DVDs, since everything in theory should project to the same width. (Though obviously, a lot of DVDs like that are going to look terrible when you blow them up.)

Then again, I see screen caps now for Blu-rays of 4:3 films that appear to have forced black pillars on the sides. This seems like it could present a problem with a 4:3 screen. Plus, given that the world is moving toward a 16:9 standard, it seems like insisting on 4:3 equipment could make my life more difficult as far as compatibility goes.

I'd appreciate any advice that projector users could share about this.

[domino harvey]

Why not get a pull-down screen? Make it 4X3 or 16X9 yourself each time

[swo17]

That's a good suggestion, but even if I pulled a screen down to 4:3 ratio, wouldn't a frame like this still have pillarboxes on either side unless I zoomed in with the projector?

[Feego]

It seems like a 4:3 screen may also fix the problem of non-anamorphic DVDs, since everything in theory should project to the same width. (Though obviously, a lot of DVDs like that are going to look terrible when you blow them up.)

Actually, shouldn't everything in theory project to the same height? The point of widescreen was that movies were now seen in a wider picture, not a shorter one. In that case, seeing a 4:3 picture in the center of a 16:9 screen would actually be more accurate (although naturally films projected in 2.35:1 or other extremely wide AR's will not fill up the top and bottom of the screen).

[swo17]

In my case, the wall space that I have available to project to is more or less square, so to maximize the frame size for any given aspect ratio, I would want to project everything to be the same width.

[Oedipax]

Here's a somewhat esoteric aspect ratio question. I was going to play some 1.33:1 standard-def DVDs in my parents' Sylvania NB530SLX bluray player. It's connected to their Pioneer Elite plasma via HDMI.

The TV doesn't allow you to adjust the picture mode when you're in 1080p, it just defaults to 16x9/"Full" and stays there. So when I put in Tokyo Story, I couldn't switch the TV to 4x3 mode. This tells me I need to change the aspect ratio on the player somehow or another; has anyone else has this problem? Switching from "16:9 Wide" to "4:3 Letterbox" in the DVD player's menu didn't seem to have any affect.

[domino harvey]

Is there no pillarbox option?

[AALFW]

seeing as how this is the \"technical issues and questions\" thread, and i couldn\'t find a post about this elsewhere, anybody find a way to hack the ps3 to make it region free for blu-ray or dvd?
sorry if this was addressed ad nauseam at some point in the past.

[mikkelmark]

seeing as how this is the \"technical issues and questions\" thread, and i couldn\'t find a post about this elsewhere, anybody find a way to hack the ps3 to make it region free for blu-ray or dvd?
sorry if this was addressed ad nauseam at some point in the past.

As of this moment, there's no way to make ps3 region free for either dvd nor blu-ray.

[mikkelmark]

Here's a somewhat esoteric aspect ratio question. I was going to play some 1.33:1 standard-def DVDs in my parents' Sylvania NB530SLX bluray player. It's connected to their Pioneer Elite plasma via HDMI.

The TV doesn't allow you to adjust the picture mode when you're in 1080p, it just defaults to 16x9/"Full" and stays there. So when I put in Tokyo Story, I couldn't switch the TV to 4x3 mode. This tells me I need to change the aspect ratio on the player somehow or another; has anyone else has this problem? Switching from "16:9 Wide" to "4:3 Letterbox" in the DVD player's menu didn't seem to have any affect.

From what I understand, the problem is that our tv is in a mode where that your tv calls "Full", and is named "automatic" on my tv, which zooms on whatever image it gets in such a way to remove bars for either sides.

On my tv, there's a button called "aspect" which should be set to "16:9", and not "automatic". Your dvd/blu-ray player should be set to 16:9, if that's what the tv it sends to is. If you pop in say an old movie in academy ratio, then it will show it with bars to the right and left of the picture, so it's in the correct aspect.

To sum it up, think the problem is its in "Full"/"automatic" mode, and then it zooms the picture.

[Roger Ryan]

Here's a somewhat esoteric aspect ratio question. I was going to play some 1.33:1 standard-def DVDs in my parents' Sylvania NB530SLX bluray player. It's connected to their Pioneer Elite plasma via HDMI.

The TV doesn't allow you to adjust the picture mode when you're in 1080p, it just defaults to 16x9/"Full" and stays there. So when I put in Tokyo Story, I couldn't switch the TV to 4x3 mode. This tells me I need to change the aspect ratio on the player somehow or another; has anyone else has this problem? Switching from "16:9 Wide" to "4:3 Letterbox" in the DVD player's menu didn't seem to have any affect.

From what I understand, the problem is that our tv is in a mode where that your tv calls "Full", and is named "automatic" on my tv, which zooms on whatever image it gets in such a way to remove bars for either sides.

On my tv, there's a button called "aspect" which should be set to "16:9", and not "automatic". Your dvd/blu-ray player should be set to 16:9, if that's what the tv it sends to is. If you pop in say an old movie in academy ratio, then it will show it with bars to the right and left of the picture, so it's in the correct aspect.

To sum it up, think the problem is its in "Full"/"automatic" mode, and then it zooms the picture.

Similarly, my 2002 rear-projection Hitachi won't allow the screen to be set to anything but 16:9 standard or 16:9 zoom when a 1080i feed is coming through (no 1080p on this puppy - will have to wait for a new TV/monitor). There is a setting within my Sony-BP460 player to adapt to a 4:3 pillar box signal, but I always change the player's output resolution to 480p for DVDs and select the appropriate aspect ratio setting on the Hitachi. Why? The Hitachi itself upconverts the 480p signal to 1080i in a much cleaner fashion than the Blu-ray player does. Obviously, Blu-ray discs themselves look best at the 1080i resolution setting on the player, but all DVDs, anamorphic or full-frame, look better at the lower resolution with the monitor doing the upconvert.

I'm not certain if the same would be true with the Pioneer Elite, but you should still be able to lower the output resolution of the player in order to adjust the TV appropriately.

[Oedipax]

Thanks guys. This plasma is one of the older models and also doesn't seem to allow toggling the mode from 16x9 "Full" when accepting a 1080 signal. Roger's suggestion to switch the DVD output to 480p was the way to go.

Another annoying thing about this Pioneer Plasma (which generally is great outside these few issues) is the self-pillarboxing it does when set to 4x3 mode is a middle-gray color. I've never found an option on the set to change the color to black. By now it's pretty old (made in 2003) so I know most HD sets these days don't have the same issue (my Samsung LCD, for instance...)

[swo17]

Me again. I have two options for placing the center speaker for a 5.1 system:

1) Below the projector screen, about 2.5 feet above the ground. This strikes me as the more traditional location for a center speaker, though my main concern is that it will be within reach of small children.

2) Above the projector screen, about 7.5 feet above the ground, and right up against the ceiling. This would be out of reach of children, but my main concern here would be all the sound waves bouncing off the ceiling (whereas closer to the ground they would be partly absorbed by the carpet). I would point the speaker downward though, aimed at the viewer's ears, to minimize this. I've also read that having the sound come from above makes it more difficult for your ear to place where the sound is coming from, which would seem to be an advantage over the below screen placement option.

So basically, is 1) really a better position, and is it enough of an improvement over 2) that I should just go with it and raise my children to respect Daddy's expensive electronic toys?

P.S. This is for a room I'm currently having built, so unfortunately I don't really have the opportunity right now to try it out both ways and see which I prefer. I'm also trying to run all the wires through the walls so I need to decide relatively soon where the speakers will go. I'd greatly appreciate any advice!

[Roger Ryan]

I don't think making it "more difficult for your ear to place where the sound is coming from" is a desirable attribute for a center speaker. Since this speaker is handling the majority, if not all, of the dialogue, you would want the impression that the audio is coming directly from the screen. The subwoofer is the only speaker that should lack direction since it could conceivably be accenting the sound coming from any of the five other speakers.

Perhaps more importantly, the center speaker should be aligned horizontally more-or-less with the left and right front speakers. A 5.1 mix will often "follow" characters off-screen (or with passing cars or what-have-you) with the audio panning left or right. If your center speaker is placed too high, it could disrupt this aural movement by having the sound follow a triangular pattern instead of a straight line.

Are your left and right front speakers going to be mounted on the wall near the top of the projection screen? In that case, there shouldn't be a problem with a center speaker positioned above the screen. If the front speakers are on the floor, you might consider placing the center speaker below the screen.

[swo17]

I was planning on placing the left and right speakers at about ear level when sitting down (about 4' above the ground). So whether the center speaker is above or below the screen, it wouldn't be lined up with the left and right, though it would be more closely lined up if it were at the bottom.

I've read about placing the center behind the screen, but I don't think that will work for me, for various cost-related and practical reasons.

Would I be better off just placing all three front speakers at the top of the wall, pointing down toward the viewer, so they can all be lined up with each other? Or will that sound like a mess with all the reflections off the ceiling?

Also, will it be disorienting to have the sound coming down from an angle as opposed to head on? If it helps to know, the sound would need to travel from about 7' above the ground down to 4' above the ground over a stretch of about 13'.

[fdm]

I almost chimed in yesterday, but I think Roger hit the point I wasn't quite getting to.

I've had a center speaker maybe a foot above my left and right speaker (on top of a large box rear projection set), with it tilted such that all three tweaters were all pretty much pointed at the sweet spot, and I noticed the triangular pattern quite often in that set up, regardless of where the center speaker was placed in terms of closeness to the viewer/listener. (So, too high seemed to make a difference in my setup.)

My current (a much slimmer rear projection) TV set doesn't allow anything placed on top of it (short of putting a shelf on the wall above it), and the only thing I found that could hold the TV and accomodate the center speaker otherwise was a bench-like table the top of which is just high enough off the ground to let me place the (rather large) center speaker just underneath it (and some pillows tucked behind the center speaker to absorb some of the reflections from the back wall). So basically TV on top of table, center speaker below it on the carpeted floor, its front propped up by some old "tiptoes" I had laying around so that all three tweeters are again all pretty much pointed at the sweet spot's ear level. Not perfect being right on the the floor but pretty close, much less of that triangular pattern, rarely if ever notice it happening.

Perhaps it's the combination of woofers/midrange/tweeter in the center speaker being all above the left and right speakers whose woofers/midrange/tweeter span from about ear level to the floor (and throw in a subwoofer also on the floor (in may case between the left and center speaker)) vs them all being at or below ear level, but I definitely prefer the sound with my center speaker sitting on the floor.

My two rear speakers, by the way, are similar to the left and right front speakers (they're floor-standers also, and share midrange and tweeters, but have smaller woofers (the same ones that are in the center speaker)), so they too are at or just slightly above ear level. I don't know how the above would differ if you had your rear speakers mounted above ear level, like mounted on the wall up in the corners (and ditto for the front speakers). My suggestion, based on my limited experience, is to keep all of your speakers on the floor, near or below ear level. (Taking into consideration the furniture you have to deal with.)

Also, my room has a few issues: it's essentially missing a left wall (so basically two corners rather than four), has a rather high sloped ceiling (slopes up from right to left), and probably could use a bit of sound absorption materials on the back wall. But surpisingly it sounds quite nice in spite of all those obstacles. (And thanks no doubt to a bit of help from Audyssey.)

[Foam]

Does anybody know of a laptop for under 600 dollars that isn't a total nightmare in regards to movie-watching? I've had trouble finding one that doesn't have an obnoxiously high black level/crappy contrast ratio/etc.

[G-Flex]

I've been pondering something about DVD regions.

There are obviously region-free DVDs and DVD players in existence.
However, what about the line count and frame rate? These are different between PAL and NTSC DVDs, so if a DVD is region-free, how is that handled? I understand that region-lock is more to control where exactly things are getting sold, but in a practical sense, wouldn't even a region-free DVD be encoded in, say, 29.97fps NTSC or 25fps PAL, leading to the issue of a DVD not working correctly if, say, I buy a PAL DVD (region-free or not) and play it on a DVD player (region-free or not) outputting to a typical NTSC television set?

[spocker]

Most TV sets here in Europe is capable of showing NTSC signals, so that is usually not a big problem over here. Don't know how well American sets show PAL signals, but I think some players can do the conversion for you.

[Foam]

Does anybody know of a laptop for under 600 dollars that isn't a total nightmare in regards to movie-watching? I've had trouble finding one that doesn't have an obnoxiously high black level/crappy contrast ratio/etc.

I have long since abandoned this hopelessness.

New question:

Anybody know of a good movie-viewing CRT monitor with VGA input that I could get for under $150?

[David M.]

I don't think you will ever find a laptop with a decent quality screen.

I can't answer your CRT question, unfortunately.

Don't know how well American sets show PAL signals, but I think some players can do the conversion for you.

Most US TVs were never engineered to support PAL's higher bandwidth/resolution, and modern digital-based ones often lock it out intentionally to prevent reverse imports.

[Norbie]

What is DVD or Blu-ray Authoring?

[fdm]

What is DVD or Blu-ray Authoring?

Try google for things like that. wiki

[David M.]

What is DVD or Blu-ray Authoring?

Arranging separate assets (menu graphics, highlight graphics, video streams, audio streams, synchronised subtitles) and programming then testing everything to make sure that the final disc will play as expected.

It also involves determining the best layer break position, etc.