dead TV set

[garmonbozia]

Since 1991? Pretty decent for a shitty ass GE television

GE...  That's Bob Wright's old company, isn't it?  Perhaps I should invite a bunch of aspies over for a piñata party, or set it outside and everybody throw rocks at it.     You know, pretend it's him being stoned in effigy.  (BTW, somebody I once knew, told me that GE is an evil company and horrible to work for.)

Just to be sure, I tried it one more time after leaving it unplugged for several days.  No change, so off it goes to an e-waste recycler.

Well, I've made up my mind.  Once I've got that tax return, I'm getting the HDTV.  Not only that, but I'm going to just go ahead and get a Blu-Ray player.  I'm not going to be picky.  The TV just needs to be a 26" with at least two HDMI ports, and able to fit in my entertainment center.  (I actually cut a piece of dental floss to take into stores to measure display models with.)  And of course, the LCD has to show a decent image.  (Some are horrible, solarizing the image unless you're within a narrow viewing angle.  I'm not having that.)  The cheapest model that fits those criteria will do.  (720p resolution will do for now.)  The Blu-Ray player just needs to have its own ethernet port, so I can get the firmware updates without having to burn a CD every time.  I've seen the Samsung model that someone mentioned above, in the stores.  It's got an ethernet port and is cheaper than the Sony, so most likely I'll go with the Samsung.  I'm going with the cheap stuff just to get started with high-def.  Maybe someday after I've found a better-paying job (as per my career-bitchin' threads), I'll build the "dream" system in my living room.

Last night I ordered a second HDMI cable, and one movie on Blu-Ray.  Dawn of the Dead, the 1978 version... what better to christen the new high-def system with than an nice blood-and-guts zombie movie.  (So many zombie movies, so little time and money.)

[Christopher McCandless]

Don't get a blu-ray player get a ps3 instead! PS3's are cheaper have blu ray and have more functions than just a blue ray player.

Actually, don't. PS3's suck at scaling up ordinary DVDs.

You can get a separate player with an upscalar reasonably cheap these days.

And a Blu-Ray player that offers better quality for both media cheaper than a PS3.

... or what if you would not want to be caught DEAD with a gaming system of any kind?


(I actually heard a guy (much younger than I) say that to one of the sales people a couple of weeks ago ...  )

We were selling the Samsung BDP1500 (it's a decent one!) for two hundred bucks last week and we have an LG, internal PC drive (only reads BD, reads and writes all the other media types) for one hundred ten!

Well he could ask Ben Heck to make him a custom system - maybe he will do this design cheaper without the PS3 logo...
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/04/ben-hecks-ps3-l.html

[odeon]

Do you know how the Samsung performs with ordinary DVDs? I'm thinking about getting a Samsung but I don't know which one. I'd buy a Sony but they are evil.

There's really a hell of a lot to your question and I don't have the answer.

My guess is that an entry level BDP would piss you off, in the long run.  If you went with one of the higher grade Blu-Ray players right now you would probably be much happier in the future, mainly because of the new features already being incorporated into the disk media (the format is rapidly changing, still - most of the lower priced ones are version 1.0 or 1.1, but Blu-ray is now on version 2.0. If you bought a BDP last year, you can't play the new discs without a firmware update ...   ).

As far as standard definition DVD performance, your question is one I have been trying to answer for several months for myself. I can see a huge difference (playing a standard DVD, upscaled) when using a monitor with 1080P native res, 120Hz refresh rate, but not so much with a standard 1080P, 60Hz or 75hz refresh rate monitor.

If you are talking about how well one upscales output compared to the others, I really have not seen anyone do any conclusive testing in this area, which is of major concern for us with huge, existing DVD collections.
(I wonder if one of the HT/AV forums might have some info?  HHhhmmmm.)

The latter is what I'm trying to find out, I guess. DVD image quality is not very good but I own too many DVDs to just throw them away.

I suspected that the cheaper ones might piss me off in the long run. Thanks for the info, Dawg.

[DirtDawg]

I'll need to do more research to find an answer for us.
One of the reasons I would steer away from an entry level BDP right now is that in my opinion, they are mediocre performers in Blu-ray format, also, when compared to one of the middle grade ones. I've seen quite a few of them work with Blu-ray media, but I had a chance to see one or two players that I would certainly avoid.

We have a display set up behind one of our counters with two identical Pan-Islamic (my affectionate name for these Malaysian made Panasonics) forty six inch 1080P LCD television sets, side-by-side. At first the display was used to show the difference in standard definition and High Definition on a 1080P set for the "Direct TV" people. (it looked like shit to me, because the DTV feed is actually 720P and the DTV satellite receiver upscales to 1080i, but not very well) 

Later we switched it to show the difference between one set "calibrated"  and the other set "not calibrated"  and we were using a high-grade Pan-Islamic Standard DVD player, which does upscale quite nicely.

The next change was some Sony promo and we switched over to the Sony ...(some letters?) 550 BDP, but we were supplied with a loop Blu-ray disk, with true HD content from Sony, still using the same two side-by-side sets to show off the difference in our "calibration." (Like fucking WoW, dude! Nice picture)

THEN, we changed out the player (leaving everything else the same, again) to an entry level LG brand Blu-ray player and there was an obvious difference in image quality. In fact there was far more difference in quality than the price difference between the LG and the Sony would imply. I can't remember why it had to be that LG player in the display, but after a week of me complaining about the quality of our "calibration display,"  I convinced the boss to let me switch to a different one (same model). It looked the same, so I'm tempted to conclude that it's just a shitty player.

Most recently, I switched to an entry level Panasonic BDP in that display, and it is noticeably better than the LG. But, right around the corner is a "Sony all the way" entry level HTIB display and the image quality is quite superior to the Pan-Islamic (you know I'm probably going to goof up an say that to a customer one of these days  ) player and monitor set up.

I know that doesn't help with our dilemma, because all these displays use Blu-ray media.

[DirtDawg]

Check out this response ...

It is a forum with moderators "loaded for bear,"  but this thread is over one hundred pages and I searched just that one for  "upconvert standard DVD"  and got quite a bit of info.

Most of these guys seem to disagree with my assessment of the entry level players. My excuse is that I work at a Best Buy store and I am spoiled.

It seems that most everyone has good things to say about the Panasonic BD35 being the best one for the money.



In correction to what I posted earlier, the older players were not a different "version,"  as in computers.  It is a "Profile" system that I was talking about, all three of which came into existence before the first Blu-ray disk was ever created. (that will teach me not to listen to computer geeks talk about AV  ) The problem was that some of the earlier players, which were Profile 1.0 and Profile 1.1, had compatibility issues when disks began being produced which included hotlinks to internet content which could only be accessed on a player compatible with Profile 2.0 and required a firmware update to "fix" them. I just wanted to correct that, now that I have it clarified in my own mind.
Most of the Profile 1.0 players, will not be able to meet Profile 2.0 standard, which includes some internet functionality, such as BD-Live.
I also discovered that it is not "compulsory" that manufacturers of BDPs keep up backward compatibility with the Standard DVD format and that there are some of the BDPs that won't play CDs.



The only other thing that I learned at the AVS forum, which GRABBED my interest, was that there is also a Blu-ray Profile 3.0, which is strictly for audio. Can't wait!
 

Oddly, I found when I logged in, that it had been two years to the day and plus three hours since the last time I had visited that forum.

[punkdrew]

Fuck Blu-Ray. Fuck HDTV. Just more excuses for the industry to sell us crap that would need to be replaced in 2-3 years.

[duncvis]

I would have been perfectly happy to replace our dying 28" widescreen CRT telly with another, but we couldn't get one ANYWHERE, since the analogue TV signal is being switched off soon in the UK - its all digital now. I like the 22" HD tv we got instead though, it was pretty cheap. HD picture quality is nice but its not that big a deal. *shrugs at progress*

[Christopher McCandless]

I would have been perfectly happy to replace our dying 28" widescreen CRT telly with another, but we couldn't get one ANYWHERE, since the analogue TV signal is being switched off soon in the UK - its all digital now. I like the 22" HD tv we got instead though, it was pretty cheap. HD picture quality is nice but its not that big a deal. *shrugs at progress*

I think its because nearly no-one will buy a CRT anymore rather than anything else, all the big CRT's when they were still doing them were digital anyway. The problem with CRT's is they take silly amounts of space to store - not very good if you are running a shop.

[duncvis]

good point. I nearly ruptured meself getting the old CRT into the attic and the fucker is a couple of feet deep - the new telly weighs a couple of kilos and fits in a big carrier bag.

[DirtDawg]

Fuck Blu-Ray. Fuck HDTV. Just more excuses for the industry to sell us crap that would need to be replaced in 2-3 years.

I enjoy my life,

[Christopher McCandless]

good point. I nearly ruptured meself getting the old CRT into the attic and the fucker is a couple of feet deep - the new telly weighs a couple of kilos and fits in a big carrier bag.

Did you hear about the poor kid who died on Xmas Eve because their dad dropped the old tele on her whilst swapping it out?

[duncvis]

yeah. their Christmas had to suck.

[odeon]

How old was the kid?

[duncvis]

four. she was lying at the bottom of the stairs playing her DS; her dad tripped over her and dropped the telly on her head. 

[odeon]

I can't even imagine what it must have been like for that family. Poor girl.