Christmas DVD Wishlist

[Steve_L]

Okay, fess up! What's on your Christmas DVD list.

I use every Christmas to order a bunch of DVDs that I want, then order them, then give them to the wifely unit to wrap and put under the tree for me.

Almost all of what I get are Music Concert DVDs. Classic Rock, Blues, Jazz etc. some movies, but mainly music DVDs. I haven't gone BR yet because I'll go HDMI at the same time and I'm not ready for a new AVR. My Prioneer 1015 is still an excellent unit that I'm completely happy with.

I've already ordered a few, an old Leo Kotke DVD that is excellent. (before it goes out of print) A 1993 BB King DVD live at Montreaux and a new John Fogarty DVD that's out.

I also ordered the new Tom Petty Live CD 4 CD set of Tom and the Heartbreakers. Great price on that too!

What about you guys!? Fess up! You might have an idea or two for me?!

[Thaddeus Smith]

nothing specific, but i asked for action/visually&audibly stunning blu-rays. stuff like the fall, the fountain, bad boys II, etc.

[pval-guy]

Here is a quote from the New York Times about a year ago (recognizing you haven't gone BR yet, I saw this at Costco in standard format for under $20):

"The best reason for buying a Blu-ray player right now is Warner Home Video’s high-definition version of “How the West Was Won,”
a film made 46 years ago in the highest-definition moving picture
medium the world had seen: Cinerama. With its three strips of
35-millimeter film projected side by side with a slight overlap on a
gigantic, curved screen, Cinerama offered six times the resolution —
which is to say, six times as much visual information — of the standard
film of 1952, when it was first used commercially.

"Not even the
finest home theater installation will be able to reproduce the scale
and resolution of the Cinerama experience, or anything close to it. But
moving from standard-definition DVD to Blu-ray generates a shock
analogous to what the audiences of 1952 must have felt when the
curtains parted to reveal the panoramic screen.

"The images are
so crisp as to feel almost unreal; the depth of field seems dreamlike,
infinite, with the blades of grass in the foreground as sharply in
focus as the snow-capped mountains in the distant background.
Unfortunately, there is no way to bend even a flat-panel monitor to
imitate the immersive experience of Cinerama’s curved screen, which
tried to fill every speck of the viewer’s peripheral vision. But sit
close enough, and that sense of enveloping depth returns. It feels like
a three-dimensional experience, and in some ways is a more convincing
illusion (and a much less visually painful one) than that provided by
the two-camera 3-D processes that followed in the wake of Cinerama’s
popular success."

I bought the BR set, but am waiting to have time to upgrade/repair my Cornwalls and Academy before I settle in to watch it. Let me know what you think if you get this.

[Steve_L]

>>> standard-definition DVD to Blu-ray generates a shock analogous to what the audiences of 1952 must have felt when the curtains parted to reveal the panoramic screen.

Interesting. Whose opinion is that? Let me ask this question, how much better is BR from hi-def 1080 TV that one sees from the basic cable set-up? Is it even better than that?

I'm looking forward to Blu-Ray, I'm just not an early adopter and I'm still seeign way too many threads talkign about screen freezes, missing LFE information that's 10db down of you don't use HDMI etc.

In the mean time, just getting great DTS and or DD 5.1 and 720 is way more than I had for so many years that I'm still a very satisfied consumer. I'm also interested to know how much effort the media companies are going to put into to lossless PCM formats. Right now most of what comes out on BR is still DD or DTS, not 8 channel PCM.

[RichardP]

If you are into classic classic rock, I strongly recommend the new multichannel remasters of King Crimson's 1969 "In the Court of the Crimson King" and 1974's "Red." Remixed (and greatly cleaned up) as regular stereo, hi-rez stereo, and 5.1 multichannel (5 ch analog and DTS) by Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree, with Robert Fripp's endorsement, these are fantastic reissues of some great earl prog-metal-rock (if you want to categorize it as such). Any KC fan owes it to him/herself to get these. If interested, there was a big story in a recent Sound & Vision about the project.

[WMcD]

Let me suggest the Styx video, Return to Paradise. It is probably available at your local video store for rental.

It seems to me that the video concert is somehow better than the audio recordings. A very great performance which is well worth renting.

- - - -

As long as we're here. How the West Was Won was a great movie. Also, Telarc has some the music re-performed by the Cincinnati Pops which is very good.

- - - -

The whole history of Cinerama can be found on Wikipedia including the availablity of playback available on video. Essentially, regarding the film version, the pure form required three cameras lookng at a curved area and three projectors onto a curved screen made up of individual elements.

- - - -

It seems that the recording photographic technique was unworkably complicated, using three cameras. OTOH, single cameras running 70 mm film with anamorphic lens replaced this and some playback using three projectors and a curved screen was accomplished from that single strip..

Wikipedia suggest that the movie Grand Prix was recorded and shown this way. As a young guy my great aunt took me to see Grand Prix in NYC and I recall the curved screen and excellent audio. It was quite a ride and my aunt left her seat, saying she was getting sea sick.

I have some doubt that all of it was photographed using 70 mm cameras, rather, I think 35 mm in the on-car situations. One particular shot was a camera mounted on the wheel of an F1 car with remote panning. Very enlightening in that we see the car and suspension travel from the viewpoint of the wheel . I can't quite understand how there was not more vibration.

There were some shots from a camera on the nose of a GT-40 following the F1s around Monte Carlo. Frankenheimer wanted to do this all at actual speed.

A great film for any motorhead. The cars are pre-ground effects from Chapman and the plot is lame. If you can get past those, it is classic.

Wm McD

[wuzzzer]

Let me ask this question, how much better is BR from hi-def 1080 TV that one sees from the basic cable set-up? Is it even better than that?

In the mean time, just getting great DTS and or DD 5.1 and 720 is way more than I had for so many years that I'm still a very satisfied consumer. I'm also interested to know how much effort the media companies are going to put into to lossless PCM formats. Right now most of what comes out on BR is still DD or DTS, not 8 channel PCM.

Any HD signal coming from cable or satellite is compressed, cable being even more so. A 1080p Blu-Ray is going to give a much better picture than any cable or satellite can for a very long time.

Virtually all Blu-Ray discs have lossless tracks. A Blu-Ray player such as a PlayStation 3 decodes the audio formats internally and passes them over HDMI via lossless PCM. As far as I know, almost all Blu-Ray players do this. True, not all Blu-Ray discs are encoded with 7.1 sound, but 5.1 DTS-Master, TrueHD, etc. is a huge step up from regular DD and DTS.

[Steve_L]

I'm going to start another thread for BluRay for non early adopters like me.

I'm really interested in BR now that you mentioned that they are all coming with the new formats.

But I'm PO'd that I gotta dump my current rig so soon, that is if I really do have to pull out the AVR. Maybe I don't.

[wuzzzer]

Only way for the new HD audio codecs is to either have HDMI on your receiver or have a Blu-Ray player that has 5.1/7.1 discrete pre-amp outputs and your receiver or pre-amp having 5.1/7.1 inputs.

[odysseyrevolver]

Let me ask this question, how much better is BR from hi-def 1080 TV that one sees from the basic cable set-up? Is it even better than that?

I'm looking forward to Blu-Ray, I'm just not an early adopter and I'm still seeign way too many threads talkign about screen freezes, missing LFE information that's 10db down of you don't use HDMI etc.

In the mean time, just getting great DTS and or DD 5.1 and 720 is way more than I had for so many years that I'm still a very satisfied consumer. I'm also interested to know how much effort the media companies are going to put into to lossless PCM formats. Right now most of what comes out on BR is still DD or DTS, not 8 channel PCM.

Let's see. Firstly, television is 99% 1080i with a few channels such as Fox and ESPN broadcasting in 720p, and all of these signals are compressed. Blu-ray is drastically better. Secondly, simply avoid crap generic players if you're worried about problems such as freezing. Do your homework and buy a reliable machine. Thirdly, DVD DTS and DD are vastly inferior to lossless Blu-ray audio. Even if your equipment is incapable of outputting lossless, you will still hear the advanced DTS/DD HD cores which many people cannot distinguish from the actual lossless stream.

Blu-ray is so laughably better than DVD. Make the jump.

[Steve_L]

I've decided to pick up an Oppo BD83, it's got good ratings, and all the decoders to output on 7.1 analog outs so I don't need to buy a new AVR to replaces the VSX-1015 which doesn't have HDMI.

My Sony WEGA does have the HDMI and the Oppo does a good job of upconverting DVDs too, so that will be cool.

I'll probably wait till after Xmas to see if the price drops a bit, but somehow I doubt it on these units.

I hope your right about how vastly superior it is.

EDIT: I have since checked, and the "non-bug" is that it seems all the BR based codecs send the LFE 10db down into the pre/pro so as to not overdrive the input. (what I read in a thread), so the LFE needs to have a 10db boost added in the pre/pro. For me that's not too painful as the Pioneer VSX-1015 (and probably all of that line and it's bigger brother Elites) all have a easy menu item that either shuts off/adds 0db/adds 10db. So, it's an easy menu switch. Trouble is it's not automatic sensing so I'll need to make that change everytime.

I guess that will remind me that a new AVR is in my future. Oh boy more upggrades.

Now, what Blu-Rays do I need for Xmas?!

[Thaddeus Smith]

I've decided to pick up an Oppo BD83, it's got good ratings, and all the decoders to output on 7.1 analog outs so I don't need to buy a new AVR to replaces the VSX-1015 which doesn't have HDMI.

My Sony WEGA does have the HDMI and the Oppo does a good job of upconverting DVDs too, so that will be cool.

I'll probably wait till after Xmas to see if the price drops a bit, but somehow I doubt it on these units.

I hope your right about how vastly superior it is.

don't build the expectations up beyond reality, steve. however ...my dad is not an audiophile, videophile, or quick to upgrade anything technology related. he's a self proclaimed luddite. he came over and watched iron man on blu-ray at my house ..totally blown away. was a nice ego boost as a son ..

[Steve_L]

Well, I'm feeling better that I can buy the Oppo and not have to go out and replace a 3 year old perfectly good in every other regard receiver just to get the new formats.

I'm thinking I will soon upgrade the AVR so let my daughter scoff up my old one, but that'll happen in a year or two. Buying a decent BR player like the Oppo makes it feel less painful and I haven't read anything bad about it yet.

I read a thread quite some time ago about the output of some BR players sending the LFE 10db down, and then it had to be adjusted in the AVR. It can be done but it's a PITA. I hope I don't have to deal with that. In the mean time I guess I ought to look for some BR concerts to add to my collection.

[wuzzzer]

I read a thread quite some time ago about the output of some BR players sending the LFE 10db down, and then it had to be adjusted in the AVR. It can be done but it's a PITA. I hope I don't have to deal with that. In the mean time I guess I ought to look for some BR concerts to add to my collection.

Also, some receivers don't allow bass management with their 5.1 or 7.1 direct inputs, so that's something to make sure of with your receiver.