Technical Issues and Questions

[MichaelB]

Interesting. I've noticed that even European models boast 24p though. I wonder if 24p means "plays everything at 24fps" or rather "plays each thing at its intended fps rate."

My understanding is that it means "plays HD signals encoded at 24p at 24fps" - in other words, Blu-ray discs that were designed to be played at 24fps from the outset. It has no effect whatsoever on traditional SD PAL material.

[Particle Zoo]

I mentioned this Multi region Blu Ray player in the Red Desert thread a few days ago. http://www.regioncodefreedvd.com/
As other board members have pointed out it is not cheap, especially as I had to import it from the US to the UK.
I received my Sony BDP-S300 yesterday, and it works really well on Blu Ray and upscaling SD DVDs. To switch regions you have to turn the player off and reset it with the remote. This is perhaps inconvienient, but it works. Just thought people with disposable income might want to know...in spite of the credit crunch.

[MichaelB]

Can it handle both NTSC and PAL material on Blu-ray (as extras, for instance)? British PS3s can handle both, but apparently US models can only handle NTSC.

[tubal]

I noticed that Warners released JFK on Blu-ray. The reason I mention it here is that they managed to fit a 3.5hr film with a Dolby True HD soundtrack and 3hrs of SD extras on one BD-50. This bodes well for longer films that have previously been split over 2 discs on DVD. My hope is for Warners to do the same with Once Upon a Time in America but there are obviously plenty films that would benefit from the convenience of being on 1 disc. Paramount also managed it recently with Godfather Part II without any detrimental effects to the transfer.

[Particle Zoo]

Can it handle both NTSC and PAL material on Blu-ray (as extras, for instance)? British PS3s can handle both, but apparently US models can only handle NTSC.

MichaelB, I currently own only three Blu Ray discs; Red Desert, 2001 and My Blueberry Nights (The last a mistake, having now seen it!). I don't think any of them have PAL extras.
There is no mention of NTSC or PAL in the manual.
The Sony does however happily play PAL SD DVDs, so I would assume it's the same for PAL content on Blu Rays.
Hope this helps.

[perkizitore]

I have a Acer 8920 laptop,which has a Matsushita blu-ray player on it.But the player is very tricky,i cannot even play R1 DVDs ](*,) (i am based in the UK).I can't complain about the picture quality,maybe it's one of the best laptop blu-ray capable machines but i'd like a player that can play everything.Any suggestions?

[subliminac]

but i'd like a player that can play everything.Any suggestions?

http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvdhd.html

The answer is simple enough. And I'll be singing its praises for years to come now that it has given me Monica Vitti in HD! (BFI's gorgeous disk should be the model in how to handle older films in the new format. Sharpness and grain are spot on - very filmlike.)

[perkizitore]

When i said that the player is tricky,i should have mentioned that it won't work either with AnyDVD or DVDFab.
So,please stick to suggestions for new players.

[denti alligator]

Does anyone use WinDVD? I recently installed it on my HTPC in order to play Blu-rays and it works fine, except that I can't get any of the keyboard shortcuts to work when a Blu-ray is actually playing.

The strange thing is that I can successfully skip through the pre-film previews using the keyboard, and I can also navigate the menus, but once the film is playing I can't do anything. This is frustrating, because I'm trying to program my Slysoft remote to control the player, which is proving difficult.

[perkizitore]

I am trying to say that my player is Region locked.It doesn't matter which program i use (viewing or not),it won't play Region 1 DVDs not even mention Region A Blu-Rays.I don't want to miss the Criterion Blu-Rays and my player cannot be edited by firmware,because such thing does not exist yet (for my machine).So,please stick to player suggestions proved handling anything.

[fiddlesticks]

I am trying to say that my player is Region locked.It doesn't matter which program i use (viewing or not),it won't play Region 1 DVDs not even mention Region A Blu-Rays.I don't want to miss the Criterion Blu-Rays and my player cannot be edited by firmware,because such thing does not exist yet (for my machine).So,please stick to player suggestions proved handling anything.

I had a Matsushita player on my old laptop, and yes, it's a bitch. Your only all-region option, as I think you understand, is a different player. Where I get lost is what exactly you are looking for. Do you want a new DVD/BD drive for your Acer to replace the Matsushita? Or an external drive? Or are you looking for advice for all-region standalone players (i.e., not PC drives)? If it's the former, there's just a small list of PC drives that AnyDVD won't work with (if you search the web, I think you'll find a list of such drives), so if you were to get a non-Matsushita drive and AnyDVD (or AnyDVD HD for use with a BD drive), you'll probably be okay. Personally, I have a HP Pavilion with an Optiarc BD-ROM, and with AnyDVD HD it plays all of my DVDs of whatever region just fine, as well as my BD Reg. A discs (I have no Reg B or C BD's to test it.) For standalones, there are suggestions in this thread, with more on the way. It really depends on your budget and your urgency (i.e. how soon you must have this player); I'd probably wait for the Oppo to come out, but that's me. I hope that helps.

[perkizitore]

No,i just want a BD for my laptop (if i wanted a standalone i would wait for the Oppo too).I've heard about the Optiarc,but i am not sure if it can be BD Region-Free.Also, i am concerned about the playback quality,i don't want to have more options in inferior quality.

[fiddlesticks]

The playback quality of my Optiarc drive is fine. I use my laptop as my BD drive, hooking it up to my Samsung LCD via HDMI, and the BDs I play look wonderful. However, I'm no authority on video quality, or computer drives (or much of anything else, for that matter, but ask me about small college basketball! ) As to whether AnyDVD will crack the region coding, I suppose you could contact Slysoft and ask them about the specific model number to be sure, or just search in their forum; their site does say that it "Removes region codes from Blu-ray Discs" so I'd assume that, barring some evidence to the contrary, it should work.

[denti alligator]

So I got my first Blu-rays from overseas: BFI's Red Desert and MoC's Mad Detective.

I have an HTPC with a Blu-ray drive and am running WinDVD with AnyDVD in the background to remove region codes. Region A Blu-rays play fine on this set-up. These two UK Blu-rays, however, are causing me problems, and I can't figure out why.

Mad Detective displays some digital noise: some jittering and pixellation. Since this disc isn't region coded I played it in my PS3 and it looks fine. So why the difference in quality on my HTPC?

Red Desert is worse. It displays blockiness in patches of slightly off-color blips. It's constant. It's mainly in the background: faces don't display it much, but it's very clear that this is some kind of digital error.

What could this possibly be? 1080p is 1080p, right? AnyDVD does nothing more than remove the region coding, which in the case of Mad Detective isn't even there. Are UK Blu-rays encoded differently? Is WinDVD fucking up somehow? I'm at a loss to pinpoint the problem. Maybe this is a question for the geeks over at the home theater forum.

[Morbii]

Did you try turning off AnyDVD for Mad Detective and seeing if it still had the problems?

[perkizitore]

You can try DVDFab Platinum.It's the ultimate tool.

[denti alligator]

Did you try turning off AnyDVD for Mad Detective and seeing if it still had the problems?

I can't turn it off completely, because I don't have a video card that is HDCP compliant, and AnyDVD bypasses that for me.

However, when I turn off the region-code removal function it looks the same. I don't think AnyDVD is the culprit. But what is? WinDVD?

[perkizitore]

Did you try turning off AnyDVD for Mad Detective and seeing if it still had the problems?

I can't turn it off completely, because I don't have a video card that is HDCP compliant, and AnyDVD bypasses that for me.

However, when I turn off the region-code removal function it looks the same. I don't think AnyDVD is the culprit. But what is? WinDVD?

I don't think that is WinDVD's fault (but you still can try PowerDVD).Maybe the fact that you don't have a compatible video card is the problem.Try DVDFab,it does the same things as AnyDVD and much more.

[denti alligator]

The video card works fine for all other Blu-rays, so I don't see that being the issue. The question is: what is different about these two Blu-rays? They were both manufactured in the UK. So what is done differently there? Is the disc encoded differently? What would be causing the problem?

I'm trying PowerDVD now. We'll see.

EDIT: PowerDVD doesn't even work with Region A Blu-rays. I get the previews in beautiful 1080p, but once the film itself starts all I see is splotches of green.

EDIT again:

I looked at a couple other Blu-rays (Region A) with WinDVD and noticed the same pixellation ugliness and digital noise as with Red Desert, so this isn't a region issue. It has either to do with the software (likely) or with my video card (also likely, since it's not HDCP compliant, though I figured AnyDVD is overriding this).

Any thoughts?

[subliminac]

I was able to watch the Red Desert Bluray on my HTPC using PowerDVD, AnyDVD, and an HTPC compliant video card (8600gt). It played smoothly without problem. However, I needed to let the AnyDVD software run for a few minutes before starting PowerDVD. At first it refused to play due to the region coding.

[perkizitore]

Try a different software and if it doesn't work,you should start looking for a new card =;
But,maybe it can be resolved with firmware or some change of settings.You should ask advice at specialty forums,like avforums for that.

[denti alligator]

I was able to watch the Red Desert Bluray on my HTPC using PowerDVD, AnyDVD, and an HTPC compliant video card (8600gt). It played smoothly without problem. However, I needed to let the AnyDVD software run for a few minutes before starting PowerDVD. At first it refused to play due to the region coding.

Good to hear. This probably means it's my video card, which also means AnyDVD isn't doing what it should be to bypass completely the HDCP. Thanks for your help!

Subliminac, can you list the specs of your HTPC for comparison.

[subliminac]

Its a home built system. Cut and Paste Newegg orders below:

1 Microsoft Windows Vista 64-Bit Home Premium for System Builders
1 Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
1 Intel BOXDP35DPM LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
1 Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor
1 G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
1 MSI NX8600GT-T2D256EZ GeForce 8600 GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card
1 LG Black Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM & 16X DVD±R DVD Burner SATA Model GGC-H20L

AnyDVD HD
PowerDVD (For HD-DVD, Bluray, and Interlaced DVDs)
TheaterTek in tandem with FFdshow (For Progressive DVDs)

I'm certainly no computer expert, and was only able to build this system with a good deal of help from some very kind members of the AVS forums, but if I can be of any assistance, let me know.

[Oedipax]

I'm finally going to be buying an HDTV, and I've narrowed my selection down to Samsung's 40" LCDs. Currently I'm debating between the LN40A550 and the LN40A650. The main differences seem to be contrast ratio (30,000:1 vs. 50,000:1 - although from what I understand, both those numbers are a bit inflated) and 60hz vs. 120hz.

In theory, I like the idea of a 120hz display, but I'm terrified of getting the 'soap opera' effect on movies. From what I've read, it's not the 120hz display itself that causes it, but rather additional technologies/"features" meant to smooth motion and reduce judder, useful for watching sports and so on. As long as I can disable these motion-smoothing filters and get the correct 24fps look when watching films, I'll be happy.

Is anyone else using a 120hz model? Would you recommend it for someone who's going to mostly be watching movies rather than sports?

[swo17]

This doesn't really answer your question, but if, as you say, you are primarily interested in watching movies on your TV, from the research I've done, plasma is the way to go--rendering black levels more accurately, and just generally having less of a plastic look. Though I would welcome someone to argue otherwise. I'm currently in the market myself.