violetgrey

This is by design. A PC will not pass compressed audio over HDMI. You will need to set your sound card to decompress all the audio streams before transmission. This is assuming you have the proper codecs installed. In my opinion it is much better to use dedicated devices for their individual functions. When you by a stand lone player you can be assured that all the equipment and processing is being dedicated towards only what you need it to do. They are also far less power hungry and usually easier to integrate into your HT environment. This is not to say that installing an HTPC cannot be done. It is, however, far more time consuming to set up and maintain and will come with all the problems that usually accompany any computer set up.This can be great if you also intend to game with this set up but it is not suitable for much else as text will not have the same ease of reading on a television or projector without modifying the output settings, which will not guarantee the same application of settings across all your applications.

Hate to bring massive amounts of rapidly falling precipitation to this festivous caravan of merry making but what you saw was not Imax. What you saw was Imax digital. Imax digital is the larger than standard presentation of film material that can include scenes shot with Imax cameras but does not necessarily need to be so. These presentations can contain material that was shot with larger than standard hi-def cameras or material that has been up scaled.What you mentioned with the domed shaped screen is true Imax and is appropriate for content filmed in the 70MM Imax aspect size. This content is usually displayed in a 1:43:1 aspect ratio at an estimated resolution of 18K. No standard size theater is equipped to handle the equipment necessary to project tru Imax films so these, "experiences" are usually little more than an approximation of a true Imax viewing.

It very much does relative to the formats that were available at the time. A dual layer DVD has 9GB of storage vs a dual layer Blu-Ray's 50GB. So there is a substantial uptick in available space. However storage is not unlimited and the more storage you devote to audio and video the less you have for anything else. For some people that's OK, for others a disc is being wasted if ther special features are not there. And then there is just the base difference in file size between SD and HD content.

such as......... Greatly increased audio and video fidelity. Greater capacity for supplemental features. Network capabilities for player maintenance, net connected apps, expanded special features such as interactive town hall type group viewings (WB did this a couple of times) and player based communications for setting up small group viewings. The net capabilities of these devices have not been completely explored as of yet but the ability to remain web connected for different features has great potential that is being wasted. First and foremost of all of this is the potential for video and audio presentation. While the video can be a compressed and compromised mess at times the audio should be a bit for bit 100% accurate reproduction of the original theatrical master track. Even if it's in DTHD or DTS-HDMA it should be the same mix, so in that case you are essentially reproducing the theatrical presentation at home.

Thank you. I'd say that if all of this is 100% accurate, then this definitively answers the question. It's sad, but it makes sense. Thanks to this thread though, I will forever be suspicious of the actual audio quality all of my DVD movies and what it COULD it have been. lol In a perfect world we would get raw video content and uncompressed PCM multi-channel audio that would leave the quality of the output completely left up to the quality of the master materials. There was talk some time back that the industry might be pushing towards 4 layers discs with much higher capacity of up to 128GB. This talk started back in 2010 at least. The discs were supposed to be compatible with current blu-ray players meanign you would not have to upgrade your player. This was all pointing the way to 4K releases but the advantage of using these with standard blu-rays is that you would need far less compression, if any, to get program material onto the disc. This would serve to greatly increase the fidelity pf the presentation.

Is it available anywhere that you know of? eBay, that's the only way to get the good stuff as far as I know. What I don't understand is that they are pressing the discs anyway. Exactly how much harder and more expensive would it be to press the good version? Makes no sense to me. It's like they're purposely giving us the crap version. 3D, maybe it's not as popular over here, I don't know, yeah it's an extra disc, whatever, but when it's the same exact thing except crappier here, I don't get it. Releases are usually from different distributors in different regions. Each of them gets to create their own release so they will take the same source materials and have all the compressing, mastering, encoding and such done by companies and to specifications that they choose in accordance with the customers they will be selling too. Region encoding is nothing more than a method of stopping one distributor from selling their product in another distributors region, as per the agreements they make. For instance, customers in Japan are willing to pay a higher premium price for their Blu-rays so the distributors often pay extra for better mastering, encoding and special features. In the US the average non-sale price range for a blu-ray is between $20-$25 dollars, with MSRP still set at $39.99 for the most part. Stores that sell them for less than that are usually getting a rebate from the distributor, who may or may not be the studio that actually created the content. The US markets lower price expectation forces the distributors to adjust down the list to hit the desired consumer price point. For instance, using a DD 5.1 as opposed to a DD-THD or DTS-HDMA track will reduce the audio file size, allowing for a lower capacity disk to be used.Smaller discs are cheaper and take less time to press, speeding up production and saving even more money. You also lower costs because you are not creating separate audio masters for your Blu-Ray and DVD releases. Not all distributors do this. For example, Criterion consistently produces some of the best blu-ray releases of films bother in terms of their technical output and supplemental content. However, most Criterion discs retail for anywhere between $28 - $40 dollars depending on where you look and if Criterion is having a sale. Criterion is very film maker friendly and will often invite the directors, producers, DP's and such to participate in the mastering and production of their material, attempting to ensure that the quality of the outcome is sufficient to please the original content creators. Very few distributors do this, usually putting production of this material into the hands of their home video division who makes choices based on their project cost targets and the dictates from their parent companies. This is one of the reasons we tend to get Directors Cut releases down the road. In these instances, for whatever reason, the original film makers have been invited to participate in a re-release of the material that will often include adjustments to visual or audio content that puts the releases quality more in line with the original productions intentions for the final output.

American Capitalism and an apathetic public.

Put in Prometheus and Blade Runner over the weekend. Love Blade Runner and Prometheus is far better than most people give it credit for.

As a computer tech I hear this question a lot. The answer is; yes. As the capacitors age and dry the power supply in the amp or receiver will begin to shed some of its rated output. This will not necessarily change just because you paid more for the device. Most good manufacturers will use PSU's that perform beyond the rated specs so this loss in power, over time, will not be as noticeable. However there is no way around the physics of this. The PSU's in the amps may be refreshed by replacing the caps This can be done if you have the skill and knowledge to do so.

That's a good observation. I tend to like the speakers more laid back for music but for movies and TV I like them a little more pushy. To me it helps sell the immersion of the presentation with a more three dimensional affectation.

They have a totally different sound, they are very flat, which makes them great for speech and movies of the George Lucas type that have a nice full range sound mix. But, they kinda suck for music, especially rock. You won't get that rock growl, drums aren't going to sound powerful, bass guitar will be weaker, etc. They are just kind of boring. But, boring is usually good with movies. I wanted to get back to this statement for a second. As far as flat response from the speakers goes; isn't that exactly what we should be striving for; speakers that do not add color to the audio signal? If you have a tonally flat output and room response and the sound of the material is not to your liking is that not more of a statement on the mix or master of the material itself?

I wanted to see that when it was making the rounds but it just got by me. I really enjoy watching J.K. Simmons work so I'll be looking for this one once it hits the VOD services.

That would be a much better guess than a cable going bad. With that small space in the enclosure it is easy for a big hand to lift that cable off its seat on one side, and that will cause intermittent problems. All it requires is to be re-seated snugly and it will work fine. It is possible for a cable to go bad. It happens from time to time with the laptops where I work; usually in the cable that connects the LCD panel to the main system board. it's certainly rare; but it does happen.

I think much of it has to do with TV programming being in 16:9. It's possible research has found that people spend more time watching TV then movies on Blu-ray or other media that would make use of the 2:35 framing. And there are still quite a few films that are shot flat (1:85) as opposed to scope. Most big blockbusters are shot in scope but you still get a lot of smaller films that choose to shoot flat for a more intimate feeling.

I watch 16:9 content on my 2.35 screen all the time, as does everybody else. It's fine, you press a button and the projector zooms. Switching back and forth, not so much. Watching one that switches, but in a way that doesn't display over the top of your frame, means that during the 2.35 scenes, instead of it taking up your whole screen, you have black bars on both the top and bottom as well as the left and right. Might as well have a dinky TV from Wal-Mart at that point. So you take 16:9 content and zoom it in to fill a 2:35 aspect? Doesn't that fundamentally alter the framing of the image?