[Stuart Wright]

AVForums Home Cinema Podcast : 25th March 2009

Latest news and opinion on the AV Industry in the UK

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Time: 1:08:46 Size: 62.9Mb

Please reply to this thread with your feedback.

[eddgreen25]

Just listened to the podcast and the high end bluray players
All the tech stuff went over my head
If I got it right the £1000+ players are best left and get a PS3
I was looking for a bluray player (higher end market)
Now I'm at a loss

[kingfats]

Very insightful podcast thanks good discussion on the high end BD players.

[David Mackenzie]

Originally Posted by eddgreen25

Just listened to the podcast and the high end bluray players
All the tech stuff went over my head
If I got it right the £1000+ players are best left and get a PS3
I was looking for a bluray player (higher end market)
Now I'm at a loss

Hey Eddgreen, what features were you looking for that made you want the higher end players? Is it a specific feature or would you rather have a higher end one really for safety?

Edit: one other comment from the podcast I want to pick up on is about "per pixel processing". When manufacturers discuss this, they're almost certainly referring to advanced diagonal interpolation, that is, better handling of 1080i Video content. For 1080p/24 content (most BDs) on 1080p displays, none of this should be going on. This is the fundamental reason why the video differences between players are just about non-existent - most BD software is inherently Progressive and doesn't need scaled.

[Nelviticus]

A great podcast once again.

The way I understood it, all blu-ray players are pretty close when it comes to playing decently-encoded blu-ray movies. Where you see a difference is in a) how they deal with shabby content, b) the quality of their audio output, c) the variety and type of audio outputs and d) how much noise they make.

If you just want to watch blu-rays and DVDs at close-to-best quality, get a PS3. If you're a very fussy audiophile, don't have an amp with HDMI inputs or find a PS3 too noisy, get a high end player.

[kingfats]

Thanks for that David i was a bit confused with the "per pixel processing" comment it came accross as something the player should be doing with 1080p/24.

[Avi]

Question for Neil or Graham. Out of interest what Blu-ray product/s are you planning to use in the demo instead of the PS3 in the forthcoming demo that is mentioned ?

AVI

[MJeeves]

If the Sony and Pioneer high end players don't quit tick all the boxes... what about the Denon 3800? Are we gonna see an AVForums review of the big Denon soon?

[PioRow]

Brilliant podcast, one of the best. Nice to see plasmas not dead!

Maybe some discussion on projectors in the next podcast?

[mikim]

Fantastic podcast as usual, I really enjoy the content when it gets technical.

Very interesting discussion on the new 'high end' Bluray players.
I am in agreement that the picture really is not in question here on a 'relatively sized' display/screen, it is much more to do with audio output sound quality and build (i.e. individual HQ analogue outs with dedicated DACs or multiple HDMI outs for audio and video - LX91 for example).

It was also great to hear some detail around the LED backlit screens soon to flood the market. Looking forward to the up and coming reviews

Shame we don't get a new podcast each week.

Mik

[GrahamMG]

Originally Posted by Avi

Question for Neil or Graham. Out of interest what Blu-ray product/s are you planning to use in the demo instead of the PS3 in the forthcoming demo that is mentioned ?

AVI

We used a Denon BD3800 in the main room and a PS3 in the mutiroom setup.

Both worked fine. I am sure both myself and Neil will add some interesting info into the review of this model as required. I wait the review draft with interest.

[GrahamMG]

Originally Posted by kingfats

Thanks for that David i was a bit confused with the "per pixel processing" comment it came accross as something the player should be doing with 1080p/24.

Remember that per pixel processing is a significant consideration when the display in not 1920 x 1080 res (and a lot are not!) and of course a lot of onboard processing in displays traditionally address pixels in clusters of 8....... This can and does make quite some difference to the performance of the display on just about all material but naturally the better the source material the less the difference, it is a complex and technical subject and rather geeky, please remember that people use Blu-ray players to play DVD and CD too, that is the bit that should be considered carefully when choosing product. Maybe we might consider a masterclass on video processing one day assuming more than one person is interested, maybe those people should invest in an ISF course as that covers the subject well.

[kingfats]

Originally Posted by GrahamMG

, please remember that people use Blu-ray players to play DVD and CD too, that is the bit that should be considered carefully when choosing product. .

Of course.