Right now I only have 4 BD movies :
1. M:I III
2. Ice Age Meltdown
3. 300
4. TMNT


Note: This thread is strictly for Blu-ray Disc discussions only. No more format war please.

This post has been edited by neoardi: Sep 19 2007, 07:32 AM

Hi there,
before BD chooses VC1, I will stay away from it... The quality is poooooorrrrr..... I bought one (House of Flying Dagger)...

I think original Region 1 DVD could be better than the BD with MPEG2 compression...

I also prefer to have at least Dolby TrueHD (though IIRC BD doesnt support it in its mandatory spec)... I dont want to hear DD in BD... A US$35 disc for MPEG2 video and DD sound? No kiddin...

Sorry to say... but Sony has to fix this problem immidiately...

Thanks.

U were saying that the ol' DVD better than BD movies.
I dont want to argue about this but hv u seen BD movies on the 1080p LCD screens. I've seen it. The PQ is sooo sharp and the colours are vivid. If u've seen it then u dont want to go back to DVDs (at least for me la ).
BTW, i bought both BD movies @ Amazon.com for *edited*USD28*edited* each and it worth it.
And thanks for ur opinion.

This post has been edited by neoardi: Apr 10 2007, 10:48 PM

I have only 2 BD titles Underworld Evolution and MI Box set. Like what TS said, once u had watched BD movies, u dun feel like watching DVD anymore.

This has got to be the first complaint about BD quality.

Perhaps chinese titles are a no no for HD quality dvd.

From what I've heard the earlier BD titles have pretty mediocre picture quality though now the later ones can or at least almost match HD DVD's quality.Haven't personally tested them so I don't know...

I'm talking the BD movie with MPEG2 compression, NOT the VC1... so you better check which one that you have... lucky if you have title with VC1 compression...

The earlier version (almost all of the BD movie, at first) were encoded in MPEG2. This is simply no good (blocky image, color problem, ghosting effect, etc). I've a lot of friend in US/Canada, who returned back their BD Player and switched to HD-DVD. Dont have to ask why.

I bought one, "The House of Flying Dagger" and see myself the "great picture" from a BD movie I was so dissapointed. When I play it on my notebook (the Acer with BD drive), I can see it clearly on the PowerDVD's OSD that the movie was MPEG2 with DD audio track. It has become a "public secret" that BD with MPEG2 is a disaster...



Perhaps you are lucky because you buy newer movie (perhaps encoded in VC1 - I dont know because I dont have that movie). For this case, I have to admit that the PQ is good, just as good (actually totally the same) with HD-DVD quality.

But how about the sound track? Does it use "old" DD track? Too bad for me since, this is the same format with your old DVD. I dont think BD can support PCM uncompressed until Sony can mass product for its dual layer media. Lossless PCM simply can't fit the 25 GB BD single layer.

Thanks

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Added on April 10, 2007, 11:21 pmYes you are correct.

The earlier title was poooooorrrrr.... You dont even want to spend US$ 1000-1500 (the price for BD Player at that time) to buy such crappy video (at least at that price point)...

But the latter title (encoded in VC1) should have competitive quality to HD-DVD (actually same quality hehehe).

The final problem is the sound track. BD can't use uncompressed PCM for its single layer BD disc. It just doesnt fit there... So stick with old DD track, unless Sony want to pay more for Dolby TrueHD (as used in HD-DVD).

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Added on April 10, 2007, 11:26 pmI think if you search around, there are a lot of people complaining about this "BD with MPEG2 compression"... I dont believe at first, just like you, but when I buy one of the "MPEG2 BD" title, "The House of Flying Dagger" then I have to admit that the complain is totally right...

I think BD will beat HD-DVD because you cant get movie produced by Sony's Studio (and their friends) at HD-DVD format... so, like it or not, you have to buy BD for watching Sony's produced movie...

Anyway, Sony has moved to right path by using VC1... the old MPEG2 or AVC Compression at first used for BD was simply disaster...



This post has been edited by xneakers: Apr 10 2007, 11:26 PM

xneakers, u were right about BD movies using the ancient DD track (in this case the M:I III). The Ice Age using DTS HD 5.1 Master Lossless audio. But, both movies that i hv are still using the MPEG-2 compression with a higher bit rate (maybe 18mbps, not really sure). But then BD are really catching up its rival. We'll see. Hehehe.

This post has been edited by neoardi: Apr 10 2007, 11:53 PM

Hahaha... when it comes to VC1, so BD should be on the same level with HD-DVD...

So the problem is on the audio track... Dolby TrueHD is mandatory in HD-DVD spec, but I guess not for BD... We'll see how Sony will handle this...

Hmm not quite true, a lot of HD DVDs don't have Dolby True HD in their audio track but has Dolby Digital Plus instead.Don't know exactly what is that but it has to be better than the ancient Dolby Digital.It seems that the newer HD DVDs have Dolby True HD though.

anyone getting the Plant Earth on BD/HD-DVD platform@amazon,

the preview seems to be very interesting and its definately

worth getting as a demo disc for yr new plasma/LCD. or

if anyone have the DVD edition, can you give more comments bout

this documentary ?

Yup, but in HD-DVD the lowest audio format is Dolby Digital Plus (1500Kbps), while in BD still stuck with Dolby Digital (640 Kbps). You can see the different and it's quite significant.



Yup, 1500 Kbps vs 640 Kbps Quite significant.

According to Dolby spec for DDPlus:
Bit rate performance of at least 3 Mbps on HD DVD and up to 1.7 Mbps on Blu-ray Disc.



Yes, HD-DVD currently supports DDPlus or Dolby TrueHD, while BD supports DD or PCM Uncompressed.

I dont think PCM Uncompressed is a wise idea. You need at least 45-50 GB (dual layer BD or triple layer HD-DVD) for it, while you can get "same" quality with TrueHD lossless compression...

Thanks.

Lesson learnt so far: Don't buy HD movies yet ... wait for better quality and better content from future re-releases.

Well, most Blu-Ray titles are using MPEG-2 compression instead of VC-1 even though they have dual layered Blu-Ray discs. The funny thing why use the standard DD or DTS tracks in some movies. Shouldn't HD movies come with HD soundtrack too and since we're paying a premium for them, I guess we deserve something better.

The picture quality of MI3 on the Blu-Ray isn't that good if compared to HD-DVD's version. I'm not saying that Blu-Ray titles are inferior but they're encoded with MPEG-2 when they can simply use VC-1 and the audio tracks are questionable, why DD and DTS. At least all HD-DVD titles come with a minimum of DD Plus, at least it sounded better than the normal DD and DTS tracks.

I guess the Blu-Ray camp needs to get their acts right if they wanna compete with HD-DVD.

IIRC (read somewhere), Sony doesnt want to use VC1 due to royalty that they have to pay if they want to use VC1.



They simply dont want pay more money to get the formats. Sony have to pay royalty to use those HD formats.



For sure, because it's MPEG2.



I think Sony has realized it. Some studios already released the BD with VC1 and improving their audio track (perhaps with better HD format support).

They will hehehe...

After doing some collective researching, much of a surprise that there's actually more than 40 BD titles using the most hyped VC-1 codec. Here's the list

Dog Day Afternoon
A Scanner Darkly
National Geographic: Relentless Enemies
Enter the Dragon
March of the Penguins
The Dirty Dozen
Happy Feet
The Sopranos: Season Six, Part One
The Getaway (1972)
Bullitt
Nine Inch Nails Live: Beside You in Time
The Departed
Casanova
Beerfest
The Wicker Man (2006)
Scooby-Doo (2002)
GoodFellas
The Last Samurai
Lady in the Water
Flightplan
The Ant Bully
A Christmas Story
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
The Phantom of the Opera
Superman Returns
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut
Superman: The Movie
Million Dollar Baby
ATL
Under Siege
The Searchers
Unforgiven
16 Blocks
Syriana
The Lake House
House of Wax (2005)
Swordfish
Lethal Weapon 2
Corpse Bride
Lethal Weapon
Firewall
Blazing Saddles

Maybe there's more, guys please do add the list. Thanks.

This post has been edited by neoardi: Apr 12 2007, 03:10 PM

Although I dun have a Bluray player yet, I am really getting into this HD stuff. So I am watching this and the other thread discussing HD software closely. Coz finally that software titles and its availability is most important.

I thought that it will take awhile for Bluray to be come mainstream, but Sony is releasing more titles every day and as sales of PS3 and Vaios pick up.... soon there will be thousands of Bluray players out there.... Very clever this Sony.

Cheers

This post has been edited by jasonlky: Apr 12 2007, 03:06 PM

BD disc how much?i heard is expensive..but is super high quality picture!!

Here, some forumer quoted RM170++ (cineliesure) and also some quoted an insane price for RM280 (hartamas)
But mine bought from amazon.com for USD28 only , evenmore now they have some crazy discounts.

If I remember correctly its about RM160 for newer titles at the DVD shop in Cineleisure.If you get from Amazon its much cheaper as long as you don't get taxed