The setup
I currently have the 80 gig PS3 model, as the GPU crapped out on the previous one after a faulty firmware update. The setup may surprise you . Under the settings menu, there is a BD/DVD Settings tab. Most of the settings are based on your preference, but Cinema Conversion is the first thing listed that will affect the quality. So, here are the settings. Cinema Conversion - Automatic. DVD-Wide Display - Letterbox (probably will make no difference on my set, as this setting is for 4:3 displays). Upscale - Normal (Setting this to Full Screen will STREATCH 4:3 DVDs, such as TV shows. Unless you want your picture distorted, set this to Normal). BD/DVD Video Output Format (HDMI) is set to Automatic. Here is the shocker - BD 1080p 24Hz Output (HDMI) - OFF (Turning this on may satisfy purists - as it will show films at the original 24 frames per second that is used by 35mm film. However, this seems to produce a slight flickering that annoys the crap out of me, so I leave this off). BD/DVD Dynamic Range Control - Off (turning this on will boost voices over other sounds, which many people may love. However, I like leaving this to off, as I prefer to hear the movie the way the director meant for it to be). BD/DVD Audio Output (HDMI) is set to Linear PCM (this is because my audio receiver does not support HDMI, as such, I do not export my sound over the HDMI, so this setting is moot to me). BD Audio Output Format (Optical Digital) - Bitstream (I HIGHLY recommend NOT setting this to Linear PCM. My experience is setting this to Linear causes the PS3 to downmix the audio to 2-channel, and we do not want that). Under the display settings, Cross Color Reduction Filter - Off (beats me what this does, but it sounds like it would run the video through some filter, and I doubt I want this). RGB Full Range(HDMI) - Limited (This setting was automatically set when I chose the HDMI settings for the PS3, I have no clue what this does). The Y Pb/Cb Pr/CR Super-White (HDMI) - Off (Not really sure what this means, but my whites are bright enough).
My HD-DVD player is a Toshiba HD-A3. It is the cheap player, only capable of 1080i output, but truthfully you will probably not notice the difference between 1080i and 1080p unless you have a bigger display. If I look real close (like look at the same movie on HD-DVD and BluRay, which the latter of which is exporting at 1080p), you can tell the difference, but it seems to be minimal. For some stupid reason, I have never been able to get this thing to connect to the internet, so internet features on HD-DVDs are useless to me, and the player cannot seem to remember its settings if its powered off for an extended period of time. As such, I normally just leave the settings at the default, and leave the player on all the time, as it takes forever to boot up.
Both the PS3 and the HD-DVD player are hooked up to the TV using 3 foot Phillips HDMI-cables from Wal-Mart, at $25 a piece. This was before I realized that I can pick up 6 foot cables off of Amazon for under $2 (yes, that is UNDER two bucks for an HDMI cable). In my opinion, it is stupidity to pay extra for any digital cable. Analog cables, yes, there is a quality difference between cheaper cables and more expensive cables. However, for digital, the conversions are done at the TV or the receiver, so all the cable has to do is transmit ones and zeros between the two devices. If a cheap cable is capable of doing that without major data dropouts, then there is going to be ZERO quality difference between the cheap no-name brand cable and the $60 or $70 Monster cable. If you are running your cable more than six feet, however, you may notice a bit of difference, as cheap shielding over long distances could cause data dropouts. However, I am just speculating on this, and have not really tested that theory.
My audio receiver is not capable of HDMI inputs. The only digital inputs are digital - coax and TosLink, each of which there are one. Everything in my setup currently connects via TosLink cable. My TV exports TosLink, but I only use that for the LaserDisc player and the VCR (this is for convenience, not sound quality), but not for the other devices. This is because of HDCP, so if I run sound into the TV over the HDMI, it will down-convert it to 2 channel over the TosLink. Really stupid, but that is the way it works.
So, as I stated, my audio receiver only has one TosLink input. As such I use a Joytech Component A/V switcher to manage all the audio sources. On my old TV, this also managed my video for all my devices, but for now, it manages audio for all devices and video only for the satellite receiver, the Xbox, and the PC.
The receiver is a Sony Home Theater System HT-DDW790, which I picked up for $150 at Fry's Electronics. My theory here is that it's good enough. Don't discount this system because its cheap, or a home-theater-in-a-box, it is a VERY good sound system. Its an 800 watt system, with one larger center-speaker, four satellite speakers, and one humongous sub-woofer. My only problem with systems like this is that the speaker wire that comes with the unit is NEVER long enough. As you will most likely be like me and splicing speaker wires to make them longer, pick up a roll of speaker-cable at your local electronics shop. I suggest 16-gauge or lower (I was stupid enough at the beginning to think the higher the gauge the better, and originally picked up 24-guage wire. This caused my system to keep overloading. With the 16 gauge, I no longer have any problem with this). Now, this receiver is capable of handling DTS and Dolby Digital, as such, the decoding of Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio is done in the players and sent as DTS or Dolby Digital to the receiver. Don't let that be a detourant - you can still hear a huge difference between a disc with regular DTS and Dolby Digital vs the High-Res audio. My theory on this is it is due to the higher bitrate of these formats, and higher quality source material leads to better overall sound, even if it is down-converted.
Lastly, the TV is a 42-inch Toshiba Regza model number 42HL167. Its a great TV for its price. I got this incredibly discounted, as it was a store display model. Not top of the line, but it is 1080P and produces a better picture than probably anything else in its price-range. I normally just use the built-in picture presets, as they are actually pretty good, and I do not feel like spending hours to get my color "just right", I am not that picky. I bought the TV because I liked the picture, so why adjust it? Granted, I am NOT using the store presets (this was a store display model), but I do usually use the Standard options, and will sometimes use the other color settings on B&W movies and sporting events (the documentary setting looks really cool on Casablanca - gives it a Sepia look. Not natural, but is kinda cool, and what setting I use will depend on my mood at the time).
That's it, an entire HD system put together for under $2,000, and in my opinion, its REALLY, REALLY good. I know I could go better, but what's the point, why should I spend thousands of dollars more to get just a marginal increase in quality?
Quick Questions
What the heck, you only have reviews for x number of movies?
The site went live on August 16, 2008 with one review. At this time, I have 38 BluRay movies, and 24 HD-DVDs, and it will take time to write reviews for them all. I am also writing reviews on rentals. Then I am reviewing games as well. Have some patience on me, more reviews are coming.
Where are the game reviews?
First one is up, more coming soon
HD-DVD is dead! Why bother to review them?
There are thousands of people out there who still have players, Amazon is still selling movies, and you will probably see them in flea markets and garage sales for years. I still buy LaserDiscs, even though the last movie to ever be released came out in 2001, and there are review sites out there for those. So, why not review HD-DVD?
Can I submit reviews?
I am considering letting others submit reviews, but am not ready to put this into place yet. Let's see how popular the site becomes first.
What is up with this ActiveX content in Internet Explorer?
Internet Explorer is stupid, and mistakes simple embedded objects and javascript as harmful code. I am working to see if there is a way around this, but it looks as if Microsoft just needs to fix a bug in their browser.
Site displays fine in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, and Konquor and does not display error messages.
What do thse ratings mean?
HighDef Digest has a really good guide that I use as a refrence, but my reviews are a bit more subjective than theirs. I think the best thing to do would be to give you a brief rundown of my scale:
10 - If a disc achieves a 10 in any one area, it means that not only could I not find a single flaw, but I could not imagine it being any better. In fact, a 10 rating means that everyone else should take note - this is what your movies should strive before. If a movie gets a 10, this means that you are sticking it in and showing it off to your friends.
9 - A 9 rating is really an exceptional rating. At a 9, there is no flaws in either the transfer or encoding. In otherwords, you should see no artifects, grain should be subtle and not distracting, colors range from natual to the vivid and not be funky (such as orange or red skins), and shadows should be deep and well defined. In video, you should be able to pause on any one frame and make out detail in the background. Sound should sound rich and natural, and you should have a good surround field. There is only mild areas where improvement could be made. There is only one reason this movie did not achieve a 10, and that is because you just cannot bring yourself to put it on equal plane with a 10 movie. With a 9 movie, you are still showing this off to people
8- An 8 is VERY good. However, around an 8, your video- and audiophiles are going to start noticing slight issues. Grain may be slightly distracting. Film grain may be distracting. You may start seeing dirt, scratches and film specks in the video. Colors may be slightly off, or detail may not be sharp. In sound, you may start noticing that the sound may not sound as rich as it could. You may start loosing depth in the surround channels. None of these things by themselves are that bad, but perfectionists will start nit-picking around the 8 level. I doubt that most people are going to notice the difference between 8, 9 and 10 ratings
7 - At a seven, most people should start noticing that the disc is not perfect. Many factors could give a disc a 7 rating. On video, significant amounts of dirt, scratches and film specks may appear. There may be significant amount of grain or other noise. If its a digital video source, there is either noise, iris may be too bright, or in some independently produced films, they may have used cheaper HD cameras where you only have one or two true frames a second, and everything else is interpolated (consumer model HD). Colors may be slightly off, or you may notice that shadows or black levels are strange. On audio, the sound may start sounding flat, or processed. Surround and subwoofer channels may be underused. None of these would take the movie off a recommend list, though.
6 - A score of 6 is still passable, but there is a lot of room for improvement. At around a six, everyone should start noticing issues. A six most people will still accept this, but audio and video-philes may start twitching and having spasms. This is the lowest acceptable score in my opinion
5 - At five, major problems start appearing. This would be like a second or third generation source that they tried to do restoration on, or a poor master with no restoration. Video and sound are barely going to be better than SD DVDs. At 5, you should start to avoid these discs.
4 - At four, major problems are clearly visible. While the disc is watchable, you should start sending e-mails to the studios asking what they were thinking. A score of a four could also mean that there is not necisarrily dirty or anything, but the movie is either too dark or too bright. Harry Potter and the Prisioner of Azkabahn got a 4 on the video rating as it is so dark, details and colors disappear into blacks, and blacks became splotches of darkness rather than smooth colors.
3 or lower - At three, the disc really is no longer watchable, no matter how big of a fan you are. Anything lower than a three is really just out of spite.
Why don't you rate bonus features?
Because bonus features are not what sell the movie. Bonus features are nice, and some are even really enjoyable, but most people I know rarely even watch the bonus features, and I have never seen anyone buy a movie simply for the bonus features. Also, people have different tastes in what they like in bonus features, so rating bonus features would really be subjective. Finally, as someone who has a full-time job and tries to have a life, I just do not have the time to review hours of bonus features. Therefore, while bonus features may be reviewed, I just do not think its right to review them
WTF? Why was the audio / video rating on tis movie so low? I thought it looked / sounded pretty darn good?
I have gotten a bit of a beating over my ratings of some catalogue titles, such as 007 From Russia With Love. I mentioned above what a rating means technically, now let me explain how things are arrived at subjectively.
To give a subjective rating, you have to have some sort of refrence - usually, something you can put up and say "This is perfect". I have both a set of new and catalogue releases I use as that refrence, at least in video: Across The Universe, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Casablanca, Viva Las Vegas, and The Other Boylan Girl are my standards, just to name a few. Many of the other sites I looked at gave From Russia With Love the equivilant of an 8 or 9 on this site. Technically, it is a very good transfer, and I see where they are coming from. Subjectively, however, a score that high would mean that this movie is only a step down from your reference material when compared side by side. Anyone who is not blind can see that side by side, this movie is not even close to be up to par with the reference material.
Is it harsh to rate movies this way? Maybe. But it is how I chose to rate movies. If you know what perfect is, then a rating can give you an idea of what a movie will look or sound like compared to something else. If you rate a movie purely on techinical stuff, then you are comparing a movie only to itself, and you suddenly have no standard other than looking for dirt and color balance and compression features, and then that kills the whole reason why I started this site.