Technical Issues and Questions

[Ahti]

If the PJ (or player) is good at de-interlacing, it will only look a bit more blurry than a progressive transfer. Only CRTs (AFAIK) do not need de-interlacing.
Macro-blocking and banding etc. look worse, because of the size and sharpness of my HD PJ/77" screen, compared to a 32" tube TV. Some put the PJ slightly out of focus or turn the sharpness setting down to counter the higher resolution when excessive digital noise (or film grain) in the source becomes to distracting.
But it has never been so bad I have bother with that.

The only real problem is becoming accustomed to things like City Girl in glorious 1080p.

[Panda]

Gentlemen:

Perhaps your expertise can assist me in a problem I'm having with my Oppo BDP-83 Blue Ray player. I purchased it last December and it contains the latest firmware update.

It has started freezing really badly on my Blu-Ray discs. I noticed this with my recent purchase of the Criterion "Yojimbo" and "The Magician." And it is now happening on Blu-Rays that had previously played perfectly. And the freeze-ups do not seem disc related since they occur in different places on the disc. And I can neither reverse or forward out of the problem and I have to stop playback. I believe it must be something specific to Blu-Ray playback since every standard-def DVD I try plays flawlessly and looks and sounds great. Could it be something related to set-up?

Panda

[fdm]

Perhaps your expertise can assist me in a problem I'm having with my Oppo BDP-83 Blue Ray player. I purchased it last December and it contains the latest firmware update.

It has started freezing really badly on my Blu-Ray discs. I noticed this with my recent purchase of the Criterion "Yojimbo" and "The Magician." And it is now happening on Blu-Rays that had previously played perfectly. And the freeze-ups do not seem disc related since they occur in different places on the disc. And I can neither reverse or forward out of the problem and I have to stop playback. I believe it must be something specific to Blu-Ray playback since every standard-def DVD I try plays flawlessly and looks and sounds great. Could it be something related to set-up?

If this were a Panasonic (just kidding), it would sound like your player's blu laser is failing. Or perhaps it's just out of alignment. Either way, get it fixed while it's still under warranty. One year, right?

[Norbie]

I'd like to hear the views of anyone who sometimes watches low quality DVDs, off-air DVD-Rs, bootlegs and especially VHS (or VHS-sourced) material on a High-Def set-up, ideally a projector. Do they appear significantly worse (even after adjustments) than on a SD system?

Yes. My personal experience is the HD + HD = Really Beautiful Image. HD + SD = Something Doesn't Look Right (I swear that my DVD of Apocalypse Now looked better on my Sony Trinitron)

[Roger Ryan]

I'd like to hear the views of anyone who sometimes watches low quality DVDs, off-air DVD-Rs, bootlegs and especially VHS (or VHS-sourced) material on a High-Def set-up, ideally a projector. Do they appear significantly worse (even after adjustments) than on a SD system?

Yes. My personal experience is the HD + HD = Really Beautiful Image. HD + SD = Something Doesn't Look Right (I swear that my DVD of Apocalypse Now looked better on my Sony Trinitron)

Some of this has to do with resolution settings, although perhaps you have already tried these. I found that my Hitachi rear-projection TV (keep in mind it's 8 years old and only 1080i) does a better job of upscaling DVDs than the Sony Blu-ray player I have hooked up to it. Whenever I'm watching a DVD (or streaming), I set the resolution output of the Blu-ray player to 480p and let the TV upscale to the "virtual HD" of 1080i - the image always looks better-defined than if I leave the Blu-ray player set to 1080i for all content.

[mikkelmark]

This might be kind of a weird question, but could you change a european blu-ray player to region a by installing the american software on it.

It is because I'm looking into buying a blu-ray player, and a multiregion machine is like $500 in Denmark, but you can get a LG/Philips reg b blu-ray player for around $100, so if it could work, it would be less than half the price to have 2 players instead of 1 multiregion, also you would still be kinda in business even if one of them broke down after the warrenty expired.

[swo17]

Looking for a ceiling mount for a projector (Panny PT-AE4000U). This one is super cheap and rated to hold 44 pounds. This one is a lot more expensive and only rated to hold 35 pounds. But that second site makes a big deal about the mount being made of aluminum, which conducts heat better and will supposedly keep the lamp and everything else cooler, saving me money in the long run. However, I can't really find anyone other than the guy selling the aluminum mount saying that aluminum is better. Frankly, my biggest concern is that the projector will fall on my head and kill me (different places online say it weighs either 16 pounds or 25--either way I figure I'm a goner). Considering how much the projector costs, I'm willing to spend $100 more on a mount that's going to keep my head in its current lovably round condition, with all of the blood and brains and stuff contained safely inside. Anyone have experience with either of these mounts, or can answer the steel vs. aluminum question? Both of the ones I linked to seem to be generally very well reviewed.

[Panda]

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how Blu-Ray discs were freezing up on my Oppo BDP-83. I got an RMA from Oppo and a prepaid UPS shipping label. They held it for all of 2 days and shipped it back. Turns out the blue laser had gone defective. Got it back and all is well. Great service from them, including the phone calls and e-mails.

In my diagnostic research, I also came across an "unofficial" Oppo FAQ site some of you might be interested in.

Panda

[Minkin]

I am looking for an external Blu-Ray drive for my laptop. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Could anyone speak to the quality of this?

I know that a Firewire connection would be preferable to USB but it appears the former is in the $300-400 range. I also plan to trade this (whatever I end up with) with a friend who has a Macbook (and therefore can't use VLC to go region free on their computer).

[triodelover]

I am looking for an external Blu-Ray drive for my laptop. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Could anyone speak to the quality of this?

I know that a Firewire connection would be preferable to USB but it appears the former is in the $300-400 range. I also plan to trade this (whatever I end up with) with a friend who has a Macbook (and therefore can't use VLC to go region free on their computer).

I've been using this drive for a year with a Mac Mini and had no problems. Windows XP bootcamp partition, ArcSoft Total media Theater 3 Platinum, AnyDVDHD. It does have a rather annoying blue LED that flashes when it's reading a disc. You'll want to cover that.

I've also got VLC installed on the Mini and running region free with no problems. It's the manufacturer of the drive that governs what you can do region free. When I had to replace the optical drive on my iMac, VLC would no longer reliably work with every disc. I had to switch to a free utility (Region X) and use DVD Player. Note that the drive must register as RPC 1 for this to work. You can use a utility called DVD Info X to determine this. Both utilities are here.

[manicsounds]

Very bizarre triangular mountain formation on my GoldenEye DVD from the R1 James Bond boxset. Emailed Fox about it, but I don't know if they'll be able to help me. Never noticed it until I was about to watch it last night. Obviously, not playable.

[fdm]

Is this from the last bunch of Bond boxsets, the ones from about four years ago?

[zedz]

That looks suspiciously like a form of crystalline decay that plagued a large number of CDs produced in the late 80s / early 90s. I've got a bunch of CD singles that were rendered unplayable by this. My understanding was that the culprit was (as usual) cheap materials. Rumour at the time was that you could arrest it by washing the discs gently in warm soapy water, but I only had mixed and temporary results with that (and there was the occasional side effect that it would lift the disc label off).

It starts off as crystalline formations around the edges as depicted above but spreads to craze the entire playing surface. Another victory for capitalist corner-cutting!

[mfunk9786]

I want to purchase the French Blu-ray of Match Point, but I'm more than a bit put off by the issue of forced subtitles. Has anyone figured out a way around these yet? Is there some way to turn them off that I merely haven't read, that would solve my issue with buying this? And before you mention it: Yes, I know about the Italian and Australian releases, but I have store credit at the Amazon France store (long story) and want to be able to use it.

[Drucker]

This one is hopefully easy for you guys. I just got an LED TV and blu-ray player. For some reason, when I hit play on my discs, if it was letter-boxed (black bars on the right and left) on the DVD menu, it suddenly expands. Some of the movies are played on the full screen (for example, Down by Law criterion just was). Is this correct? Should as many movies as I've been watching on blu-ray be filling up the full 46" screen?

[Roger Ryan]

This one is hopefully easy for you guys. I just got an LED TV and blu-ray player. For some reason, when I hit play on my discs, if it was letter-boxed (black bars on the right and left) on the DVD menu, it suddenly expands. Some of the movies are played on the full screen (for example, Down by Law criterion just was). Is this correct? Should as many movies as I've been watching on blu-ray be filling up the full 46" screen?

It sounds like you have an auto-format setting turned on (either the TV or the BD player). This is not necessary a bad thing as long as widescreen films are shown in their appropriate aspect ratio and full frame films feature the requisite bars on the left and right of the image. The aspect ratio of DOWN BY LAW is 1.77:1 so the image should fill your screen (doesn't matter how large or small the screen size is) with no visible black bars on either side. Check the ratios of the other films you own; 2.35:1 ratio films will have black bars at the top and bottom of widescreen TVs as well as standard televisions. Of course, anything wider than 2.35:1 will feature more black at the top and bottom. Full-frame films, normally 1.33:1, will have the black bars at the sides.

If your player or TV is "zooming in" or stretching the image to fill the screen, you'll want to check the settings and make sure you have "Standard 16:9" selected for widescreen films and "4:3" selected for full-frame films (although I've heard the "Standard 16:9" setting on some TVs will still zoom in on the image a bit, so select the one that shows you the most image on the sides). While you're at it, make sure you have any "TruMotion" (120 Hz) or edge enhancement settings turned off on your TV - the 120 Hz (or higher) refresh rate plus any "smoothing features" are often the default setting and make film-based material look like video.

[Drucker]

Thank you. I've noticed more pictures than ever are giving me bars on the sides (as opposed to top and bottom, which is what happened on my old regular 22" TV). Would 1:66:1 be able to fill the screen if 1:33:1 has the bars?

[swo17]

The only thing that should completely fill your screen is 1.78 material. Anything with a lower aspect ratio should show up with black bars on the sides (moderate for 1.66:1, considerable for 1.33:1). Anything with a higher aspect ratio should give you black bars on the top and bottom (very slight for 1.85:1, more substantial for 2.35:1).

[matrixschmatrix]

Are all widescreen tvs the same aspect ratio? My laptop is almost exactly 1:66, and I've seen other computers that varied from the 4:3 and 16:9 options- are tvs more standardized?

[Roger Ryan]

Are all widescreen tvs the same aspect ratio? My laptop is almost exactly 1:66, and I've seen other computers that varied from the 4:3 and 16:9 options- are tvs more standardized?

I'm fairly certain all widescreen TVs designed for the home are the same aspect ratio (you may have noticed some monitors used for promotions in supermarkets and malls are installed sideways). To do otherwise would be to make your product less marketable; standardized 1.78:1 HD programming on the networks would have black bars on top and bottom or on the sides which most customers would find annoying. Consumers are beginning to understand that widescreen films have different aspect ratios than 1.78:1 and accept the black bars in those cases, but I don't think consumers would have the same leniency for daily television programming.

[willoneill]

Are all widescreen tvs the same aspect ratio? My laptop is almost exactly 1:66, and I've seen other computers that varied from the 4:3 and 16:9 options- are tvs more standardized?

One company (I want to say JVC) did try to come out with a 2.35 tv, with a mode that "gently" stretched 1.85 out to fill the screen. I don't think it caught on though.

At this point, even my grandmother has figured out the whole "original aspect ratio/black bars" argument, which is an indicator that no one else should be allowed to complain about black bars ever again.

[Jonathan S]

I remember back in the 1960s and early 70s - before most Scope (or similar) films were routinely panned & scanned for broadcast - UK TV would sometimes show one letterboxed, even on the most popular channels. On the black bars, above and below the image, a message would intermittently appear: "THIS IS A CINEMASCOPE FILM. DO NOT ADJUST YOUR SET." Others had patterns added to the black bars - though I think this may have been for credit and pre-credit sequences of films which otherwise were panned & scanned.

[Gregory]

One company (I want to say JVC) did try to come out with a 2.35 tv, with a mode that "gently" stretched 1.85 out to fill the screen. I don't think it caught on though.

Philips. They're still offering it. That picture is apparently supposed to show people experiencing "the immersive feeling you get in a cinema."

"And with a third more screen space than the standard 16:9 TV model, movies are presented exactly as the director intended."

But then: "Compatible with 16:9 material ... giving you the option to resize the picture to fill the screen without any visible distortion"

[Zot!]

Woah, that is pure sex. Definately a conversation piece, and would look great in my fictional Soho loft space. I guess Vizio is going to offer the 21:9 displays in the US! Though I wonder outside of the novelty how often this would actually be useful depending on your viewing habits. Any films less wide would just wind up being even smaller. Just as a matter of curiosity, how many Criterion movies would actually benefit from this aspect ratio?

[Roger Ryan]

"...without any visible distortion"

Something is going to get distorted if you're trying to fill this screen with anything narrower than 2.35:1; maybe that distortion won't be "visible" to some folks, but...

Given that all HD television series, news shows, sporting events, etc. are 1.78:1 (not to mention the fact that subscription HD channels like HBO routinely crop 2.35:1 ratio films to 1.78:1), I'd say this particular monitor should only be aimed at those cinephiles who watch nothing but DVDs and Blu-rays of CinemaScope films.