Good! I sarport very much this topic very very much! Don't have to poke into gaming section for inform.

Wooot, nice!! And I can skip console crouch thread for now

Good move....

Will definitely buy Terminator Salvation and Transformers : Revenge of the Fallen BD.

My must buy list:-

Transformer 2
Terminator 4
FNF 4
Underworld 3

I miss those times when we have 10 pages a day "discussion".

Best version of movies with multiple releases :

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread....80#post14737480

Can I start by asking why HD movies sometimes appear 'grainy'? Shouldn't it be crystal clear?

wahh..new home.
then what happen to the old thread?

Nicely done!

Finally. A proper place to discuss. Let's keep this thread clean and focused.

But I prefer the old one as it was pinned.

reporting in .... gonna to watch abit of TAKEN again this weekend


wanto test after AUDISI setup

btw, the knowing BD got 5/5 PQ and SQ

Demm nice that movie

Amazon Gold Box - Ocean's Trilogy

http://www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox/?tag=bluraynews-20

what's good movie to start with? any recommendation? 5 titles should be enuf i think to begin with.....

Someones finally getting a BD player!

My "5 Movie Starter Pack" would be:
1. Transformers
2. The Incredible Hulk
3. Iron Man
4. Kungfu Panda
5. One concert title depending on your taste (Dave Matthews, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, David Foster, Take That)

Don't forget Star Trek. Colorful, nice sound effect. Perfect for you BD system.

Haha..

I am goin to go off de beaten path here ( not de normal boom boom bang bang..) n recommend

1. Benjamin Button - Beautiful luv story wif great pics n works de sub in a coupla scenes too

2. Slumdog Millionaire - Veri beautifully acted n filmed profile of livin in a Mumbai slum - its got a beautiful upliftin story too. A Rahmans soundtrack is sub heaven..

Cheers
Dirtrun

For me will be:

1) Dragon Tiger Gate
2) The Dark Knight
3) Kill Bill 1 (although not everyone may like it)
4) Transformers
5) Tsain Qin golden concert hall or Hacken Lee's one

Don't miss King Kong extended version...PQ n SQ are miles better than DVD version.

King Kong Extended very very good! But first hour.........Aiyoh! So boring lah. Almost fall asleep! After that Fuyoh! King kong fighting 2 T-rex

BTW anyone already bought Underworld 3??? PQ & AQ how?

Underworld 3, ok ok only, nothing special..
but all in dark scene

ghosbuster out already??

already out
go get it...

king kong hour 2 onward is very nice

oh ya .... if u watch Valkyrie BD

the opening machine gun fighting scenes and bombing

walao.... HM got a shock and she tot it is almost like real

Die Hard 4= The early part which Bruce Willis save the computer hacker, very nice SQ....
Transformers= The part which the girl scream while the robot jump over her.... this one will shake all the street if u push ur bass to MAX.

This post has been edited by nakata101: Jun 28 2009, 09:21 AM

Ghosbuster? The old Ghostbuster?

Yalah... where got new Ghostbuster movie now......

Yes! This is the part which will show u how good ur sub is! Good sub will vibrate ur floor! Bad sub just 'parrrr parrrr' only! Ur sub must be very very good! Fuyoh! Even the street outside also shake!

LOL... figuration only lah... my sub still cant reach all street, but have to said sry to my neighborhood suddenly their aquarium shaking.... hope their fish still alive.

Once you changed your current speakers to Dynaudio hor, I bet your HM will dive for cover

We ll bring popcorn and beers to your pad to enjoy.

Valkyrie BD ok ah?

just finished watching the old 1989 Batman (Michael Keaton) on BD....PQ a bit better than SD DVD, SQ ok lar....dialog are clear & sharp but the surround not very good....

also, rewatched Bolt this morning, BD.iso, 1st time using dts-ma bitstream to watch, fuyoh...the 1st few scene are super demo PQ/Aq for your HT, the LFE are strong and surround works wonderfully....can watch many many times just to enjoy the sound.....

Cannot wait to buy Braveheart and Gladiator BD...

Gladiator BD only out in Sept....bet there'll be a long list of ppl ordering from the regular LYN BD sellers, myself included.

This is a good site to know abt BD titles http://www.blu-ray.com/

This post has been edited by richard912: Jun 28 2009, 05:38 PM

i got my ghostbuster bd yesterday...along with the ps3 game....for 10euro..muahahaha...well this was in exchange with 2 old ps3 games..needed to rid some games.

Yes. Bolt the first 2 chapter bit stim is very nice ....hehe

i use bolt 1st chapter also to demo my system. very good bass n surround but i use dvd only la

is time for u to use BD this time..
then onli u know what is BD all about...

Why no answer to this? Or am I in wrong thread, this is only for BD Movies Titles only?

Also, are all BD Players now region free?

1st is maybe the director's intension

2nd not all, so far we heard some can be software hack/some need hardware hack

waitng for the knowing & 12 rounds BD

the reviews are good

i also waiting knowing...

12 round i waiting ur review..hahaha

actually i already did. borrowed a friend ps3 back then n tested a few movies with my system (using 663 n psb alpha at the time). pq is definitely better than dvd but the hd sound really disappoint me. maybe my expectation to high. i think that's why i lost interest in getting bd until now....but that will change soon very curious to c how my malaz n klip perform with hd sound

but now u got bit stim to ur 6003 ma.... sure sedap taukeh

---

Added on June 28, 2009, 10:33 pmthe knowing review :
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/movies.php?id=5350&show=review

5 bintang PQ SQ

This post has been edited by megatron007: Jun 28 2009, 10:33 PM

new speaker..will be different..
somemore now got BD60..different story already...

i hope so...i hope so...crossing my fingers

if not happy, sell the BD and BD60 cheap cheap to me..
i willing to take all...

those title recommend by forumer wont disappoint you..
so no worry

How good a HD or BD PQ and SQ all boils down to how much effort the owner of the material put "transfering/translating" the source material (the orginal film) to HD formats.

Take 2001 for example, alot of effort were put into transfering that to BD and the end results shows! Even some newer movie cannot compare in terms of PQ and SQ...

This is NOT a new thing. The same applies to DVD. Not all DVD are equal. But, with HD, the end product's PQ and SQ's quality are MORE apparent

actually there is nothing wrong with grainy movie

and new release of BDs movie ( i mean new movie) normally come with excellent PQ n SQ

u wont get far away.... believe me !

This post has been edited by megatron007: Jun 29 2009, 07:30 AM

For 2001: A Space Odissey, it's not just efforts that gave the excellent PQ. The film was shot on a 70mm film, essentially double the resolution of the 35mm normally used today. Nowadays only IMAX format uses 70mm film, you can see the difference between IMAX and anamorphic 35mm Panavision scenes in one same movie, The Dark Knight. The documentary, Baraka also uses 70mm (using some customized camera, not IMAX) and the PQ is simply stunning, one the best PQ on BD out there (scanned at 8k resolution instead of 4k normally, and downconverted to 2k (1080p) for the BD). Predator was given the best transfer but was not cosidered as good PQ with so much grains, but that's just how the film supposed to look.

About grains, they are natural properties of the analogue film stock. Scenes shot in dark will further enhance them, even with digital cameras because of the lighting and camera ISO etc. Actually no one likes grain, but the problem is, when you remove (DNR) the grains you will also lost the details, making the PQ soft. In worst cases with to much DNR, the people will look waxy. Some digitally shot film, like Miami Vice, grains were intentionallly added digitally to give film-like and gritty image. On the other hand, Zodiac, which was also digitally shot using the same Viper camera, has very minimal grain and the PQ is just excellent.

For AQ, mostly is lossless, so it's bit-by-bit identical to the studio master. Normal Dolby Digital on DVD usually stripped to 448kbps, but the Dolby TrueHD of my Celine Dion: A New Day BD maintains 10mbps average with 24-bit/96kHz sampling. When you hear some bad lossless audio, it's the source not the format, so blame the bad sound design mixing/editing by the sound engineers.

The studio masters are usually in big PCM format. In the early days of BD, they just put the whole thing on the disc. That's why you see a lot of old titles using this format. With this, all you need is a DAC to convert to analogue and an amplifier to power the speakers. But, by putting the PCM master on the disc, a lot of space will be taken. That space can be used to maximise the bitrate of the movie itself and/or put some bonus features. This is where DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD come in.

DTS-HD MA/Dolby TrueHD works like a ZIP tool, they losslessly compress (encode) the PCM and save a lot of space on the disc. Then it's up to the player or AV receiver to "unzip" (decode) the format to get the uncompressed PCM. If the player does the "unzipping", it will send the uncompressed PCM via HDMI to the receiver which will convert to analogue (i.e. BD60). Some players (except PS3) has it's own DAC, converting to analogue itself before sending it to receivers via the multi-channel analogue outs, very handy for older receivers without HDMI (i.e. BD80). Almost all players (except PS3) can send the DTS-HD MA/Dolby TrueHD untouched (still "zipped", HDMI only) to the receiver, this method is called bitstream. This way the receiver will do the "unzipping", DAC, and amplify. If the receiver uses better decoding chip (PS3 uses software decoding, not hardware), you should hear some difference in the AQ.

This post has been edited by aiman04: Jun 29 2009, 09:12 AM

If they maintain to put the PCM format into the disc...I presume there's no need to buy new av amp with hd decoding..isn't life is more simple for us...

You don't need a new amp even with DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD. Just get a player with multi-channel analogue outs, like BD80 or your own BD55. These players MUST have their own decoding capability in order to get the PCM, convert it to analogue (DAC) and sends out using the multi-channel analogue outs to older amps.

Actually PCM itself on the disc can be worse for owners of PS3 or players without multi-channel outs (like BD60) conneting to older amp, because they will have to use the optical/coaxial connection that can't carry the high bitrate multi-channel PCM track (bandwidth limitation). Using optical/coaxial will downmix the multi-channel PCM track to stereo! But with DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD, inside the codec there is a backup track of normal DTS (1.5mbps) and Dolby Digital (640kbps) that will be bitstreamed to your amp via the optical/coaxial, so you'll still get multi-channel audio, only not lossless.

This post has been edited by aiman04: Jun 29 2009, 08:46 AM

Some may argue that bitstream to avr is better but I think it's quite subjective..

Of course it's subjective. Some even argued that the lossy DTS/Dolby Digital audio is better than lossless. There's someone here even started a thread about it.

If two different machines uses different chip to decode, it's possible that you'll hear some difference, like I did when I compare between my PS3 (software internal decoding) and my receiver (hardware decoding bitstreamed from BD35). But if you use PS3, you have no choice but to let the PS3 do the decoding because it can;t bitstream.

Thanks for all the feedback about 'grains' in pictures. Can I conclude that:-

1) 'Older' films tend to be more grainy.

2) Newer ones will have lesser grains unless intentional

3) There is no way to remove grains all together? Only minimising it?

However, I only notice 'grains' when watching HD and not at lower resolutions. Why is that? Is it because HD (ie. higher resolutions) tend to enhance 'flaws'?

1) Not really. All films shot on analogue film stock will have grains. But on 70mm film the grains will be much finer, so the grains aren't that obvious and no need to DNR (DNR will remove grains but it also removes details and sharpness).

2) Same as above. Only digitally shot film should have lesser grains (dark scenes). Majority of theatrical movies now still uses analogue film.

3) Yes you can. But like I said, it will make the PQ seems flat, soft and fleshtones looks like they're made of wax. Lowry Digital (now owned by DTS Labs) is very good job in cleaning noise (dirt, specks, etc) but they won't simply remove the grain if it compromises the PQ.

Of course, at higher resolution you'll see more details, even the grains. That's why you don't see them on DVDs. This why HD is so wonderful.

This post has been edited by aiman04: Jun 29 2009, 12:51 PM

by the way, the movie Knowing....story line...kinda crappy.

crappy hero also what to do

sure?
get good review on it...

Alex Proyas is one of my favorite director. Watched Dark City BD again yesterday. Still amazed. The director's cut is much better with the removal of the opening narration (as he originally intended), keeping the mystery even more interesting.

So I have this Knowing pre-ordered. A blind buy for me. I'll keep an open mind watching it, hopefully it will not suck.

Dark City was trashed by critics when it was theatrically released (except for Roger Ebert, he's pretty much alone at that time). Now it's a classic.

Thanks, you almost answered everything i need to know

So if I buy, say, The Phantom Menace (shot digitally) I should see significant less grains, if not none, right?

Noob Question - DNR (I assume its Dolby Noise Reduction?) - the removal is done during the transfer or we have to do select it manually with the player?

Star Wars Series not yet available on BD right? I just ordered a DVD set from Amazon.

No problem, but's that's just my input, maybe others have more to add or to correct me if I'm wrong.

First, The Phantom Menace has not been released on blu-ray. Secondly, the movie was not 100% digitally shot, actually there is only one scene that was shot using digital camera (I think in the Jedi Council room). But Episode II and III both was shot fully digitally shot using Sony digital cameras. What's even better with digital movies, there's no analogue-to-digital transfer process, they just encode and put it on the disc with the proper resolution. For analogue movies they have to scan the film negatives to computer.

DNR is Digital Noise Reduction. Yes, DNR was done during the transfer from film medium, but they can still be applied later in the process too. Your TV also has it, but it usually focused to clean the noise in the broadcast signal.

This post has been edited by aiman04: Jun 29 2009, 01:52 PM

i purposely not watch it on cinema..
hopefully this is a worth movie for the wait..

Knowing Review


yeah..no news on star wars series yet on BD.

Currently I only buy DVD not yet on BD. For those already available on BD I just wait la until I decide on BDP then only buy BD. Dang...buying cars is not this difficult to make decision

Michael Buble's Caught in the Act is fantastic though...hehe

Saw Michael Buble BD at Speedy. RM179.....*gulp*

got mine for GBP12.70 postage included.....Amazon UK has the same version as the US

This post has been edited by rthj: Jun 29 2009, 02:52 PM

Region Free too.

True, both 2001 and Baraka were filmed in 70mm. But scanning the negative/positive to digital format, it NOT a matter of just scanning from film to harddisk/storage.

I remember that when George Lucas reissued the Star Wars: New Hope, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, he made it an effort to inform end-user the pain staking work they put in to reissued the said material. (Some film stock Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and black, run/evaporate. And to make matters worst, they evaporate at different rate. So the master stock of the said star wars movie, appeared "greenish") Also, depending on how the master film stocks are handled, scratches and dust particles might accumulate as well (if you had watched Grindhouse, Death Trap and Planet Terror, you'll know how this will look. The difference is in Grindhouse, this EFFECT is on purpose). So during (where film dust and scratches can be handled)/after scanning master film stocks to digital format (reintroducing missing Cyan, Magenta and Yellow information can be done).

So quality of BD disc is still up to how much effort the owner of the material puts into it. Disney company has a good track record when it come to introducing their movie on BD.

Sony because of lack of content, bought MGM for it's James Bond property!!

Some company, issued movies like Speed Racer, maybe because it bombed at the box office, doesn't even have PCM/Dolby Digital HD/Master DTS Lossless for it's sound track!!?!

I remember in the initial stage of introducing the DVD format, because the Mpeg II decoding was still relatively new, the people who are encoding from analog to digital found that encoding analog to digital were iffy at time. Like the scene in The Exorcist, where there is a shot of the headlights of a train, encoding the same scene several time gave several DIFFERENT results....

So in short lets hope the different movie company really understand the reason behind people buying BD is because of the PQ and SQ and therefore invest in proper translation.

This post has been edited by Mov_freak: Jun 29 2009, 04:58 PM

I didn't argue about how much "efforts" will affect the transfer. Read my post carefully, I said "not just efforts" which means I agree but there are other factors too.

Let's say the studio put the same transfer "efforts" for 2 movies, one 70mm and the other 35mm. Same condition etc, the 70mm should still be better than 35mm right? That's my whole point. It's just one of many factors.

Er... I wasn't disagree with your 70mm vs 30 mm statement.

I apologise if my previous thread "sounded" agressive

If there were any agression, believe me it is more towards produces of BD disc who believe that people would buy the BD because it is a bd and no effort whatsoever needs to be put into producing the bd

Can I ask if anyone has experience with Bluray disc from Speedy?
Are the disc manufactured locally or directly imported?
Are the PQ and SQ the same as the US or UK?

Speedy BD all imported I think. All region A. Scary prices

try those chinese movie....with speedy word on it...
Red Cliff 1 & 2 with Dolby Digital 5.1

not all..some is local made...made in speedy..haha..
beware of that logo when buy...

Watched a very good movie 2 nights ago. Warlords....Very aggresive mix. PQ very good, some shots a little soft, some grain and some noise in the dark areas. Overall, very good. SQ very good. Mandarin PCM 7 channels I think.

These HK guys really take the effort in making it realistic, that much I tell u. Rivals the big budget Hollywood ie, Gladiator...

Very good acting by the 3 main leads...

Also after not being able to watch Baraka due to its region coding (Region B) managed to catch about 1/2 hr on the region free Oppo. Fantastic, some ringing can be seen on some scenes but I believe it is due to the higher than usual downconversion (same as the IMAX scenes in Dark Knight) slightly apparent in some scenes, but overall

Oh Yeah, the DTS-HDMA on Baraka is superb.

This post has been edited by anfieldude: Jun 29 2009, 08:47 PM

ahh...warloads so nice? maybe can go see see liao

new arrival....

splendid choice with that Buble! if you havent got the Fosters and Friends...that one is absolutely fantastic as well

anyone watch HK shooter edition on BD ?

If Buble that good, then I am going to redeem it this weekend

Bro I think u salah tengok...just came back from Speedy this evening and Michael Buble BD is RM79. So is David Foster and Friends BD. I only bought the CD + DVD combo of David Foster and Friends but I really like it. Got Michael Buble singing also. The best for me is Katharine Mcphee duet with Andrea Bocelli singin The Prayer. Dang they are very very good. So in sync. I could cry

McPhee also sings in Botti's BD....she's smoking hot

Michael Buble Caught in The Act CD+DVD got 5 stars rating on Amazon. Eh what am I talking about la....this is a BD thread

Michael Jackson's Final Rehearsal Rumored for Blu-ray

When Michael Jackson died last week, he was rehearsing for a final series of live concerts in London. Those gigs will obviously never happen, but Jackson's last rehearsal, recorded in multi-camera, high-definition video, could be released on Blu-ray, according to concert promoters cited by the British newspaper The Independent.

The recordings were part of the deal between Jackson and concert promotion company AEG Live, which included a plan to produce a CD, DVD and Blu-ray of what Jackson had billed his "final performance" tour, titled This Is It.

One AEG official is reported to have boasted to a colleague: "We have a live album in the can." The rehearsal, which went on for several hours, included dancers, musicians and aerial performers.

Patrick Woodroffe, lighting designer, watched the final rehearsal. He said: "We had rehearsed for the last couple weeks. We put together a complicated show, quite a spectacular show. Of course a huge part of it was him, and I would say for the last week he hadn't really been with us. He would appear, and he would rehearse sometimes, and he would not rehearse."

Randy Phillips, president of AEG Live, has refused to comment for the story.

Posted June 29, 2009 10:54 AM by Juan Calonge at Blu-ray.com

RIP MJ... but i will buy the BD if it is really going out the market ....

RM79 only ah? BLOODY CHEAP! My sepet eyes saw it wrongly

Which Speedy you went bro?

Subang Parade

how come michael bobble BD not in hidefdigest reviews one?

Will go hunt tonight!!

No need to hunt coz its right in ur face at the entrance there. Only 1 unit left but no need to worry la coz not everybody buy BD

maybe you buy already then cheat him go there

what else did you see is cheap there?

What for I wanna buy...I don't even have bdp