[-GONZO-]

I was in Comet earlier and had a look at the Blue-Ray players and they were showing a DVD vs Blue-Ray demo.
The screen was showing the scenes from films with 1 half DVD and the other half Blue-Ray to show the difference in quality.
Now I know there is a difference between them both, but no way as much difference as Sony would like you to believe.
In the demo the DVD half of the screen was all grainy and were very blurry so you could not notice any detail which I would say was more like VHS quality and of coarse the Blue-Ray side was perfect.
One of the scenes were from A knights Tale which was showing off the detail in the stained glass windows which the DVD side was a Blurry mess.
So when I arrived home I put on my DVD and selected that scene and to my suprise it looked nothing like the DVD footage they showed and could make out the detail pretty well. Of coarse it wasnt a crisp as Blue-Ray, but was a hell of alot clearer than the demo.
Im all for showing off the difference to show off their product, but to make out DVD was hugely inferior was as far as im concerned a very poor show on Sony's part.
Has anyone else seen these demo's? What did you think?

[Chparmar]

The way these store usually set up "HD" demos (with probably a DVD playing via a SCART); I think it's fair play for Sony!

[-GONZO-]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chparmar

The way these store usually set up "HD" demos (with probably a DVD playing via a SCART); I think it's fair play for Sony!

It was played through a Blue-Ray player and the scenes filled the whole screen as if you were watching it at home, but with one half of the screen made to look much poorer than the other side, but in my opinion much poorer than DVD quality is in reality.

[andy.saunders]

We show a demo from Sony where I work, it's simulated on the non HD side, looks awful to be honest! and doesn't reflect the real difference, and how fantastic Blu-ray really is! The Sony 200hz demo is rubbish too, 200hz isn't as good as they say it is to be honest

[Orbitalzone]

I'd be rather wary of a blu ray demo that shows 'dvd' on one half of the screen and blu ray on the other half....

I've got an LG monitor that does a demo to show off the 'xg' picture enhancements and it shows a split screen and naturally then non 'xg' looks rubbish..... until you go to normal viewing without 'xg' and it looks fine...

Demos are often somewhat economical with the truth!

[methodyguy]

You really have to get it home and turn the lights off What am I talking about well its the Sony BDP-S350 bluray player its just amazing it shows bluray discs off to the highest degree pluss it upscales beautifully Its got to be the best Bluray player on the market

Regards

[Chris Frost]

Quote:

Originally Posted by methodyguy

...the Sony BDP-S350 bluray player its just amazing...Its got to be the best Bluray player on the market

This comment comes up a lot on this forum. Have I missed something i.e Has some reviewer declared that this £175 Bluray player beats every other machine regardless of price?

Oh, and does it now decode DTS-HD Master Audio on board which it didn't do last week?

[Orbitalzone]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Frost

This comment comes up a lot on this forum. Have I missed something i.e Has some reviewer declared that this £175 Bluray player beats every other machine regardless of price?

Oh, and does it now decode DTS-HD Master Audio on board which it didn't do last week?

I suspect it's due to being relatively cheap (I said relatively!) and there's only a few other brands to compete with right now,

I must say that my BDPS300 also gives good results on BD and DVD,

[Deacon1972]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Frost

This comment comes up a lot on this forum. Have I missed something i.e Has some reviewer declared that this £175 Bluray player beats every other machine regardless of price?

Oh, and does it now decode DTS-HD Master Audio on board which it didn't do last week?

I too see this comment a lot, mainly from those who have had other BD players/PS3 and they say it's a cracking player for the money, it holds it's own very well and against higher priced machines from other manufacturers.

As for the DTS HD MA decoding, this is the only format it doesn't decode into LPCM, but as far as I know it does output all the HD formats via bitstream, so if you have an amp that has onboard decoders you're in luck.

Even if it did decode DTS HD MA, you are still going to need an amp that is compatible with multichannel PCM over HDMI anyway.

For those with standard DD/DTS decoding it will not make any difference - if HD audio is important to them then they would have to go for something like the Sony BDP550 which has analogue outputs, that's providing their amp can accommodate them.

Buyers just need to choose very carefully when buying.

[Chris Frost]

The Sony BDP-S350 is a great machine for those with a suitable HD-audio decoding amp...and that's my point!

There's a lot of novices reading this forum - just take a look at the amount of "how do I connect..." questions as a guide . They'll read unqualified "it's the best" comments in a forum and then go off and buy something that isn't going to work right in their system. I know this because I've got two customers who've done exactly that in recent months.

Lisa is in Staffordshire. She's struggling with a Harmony when she really needs something better. Richard is in S.Yorks. He's bought a BDP-S350 but his amp is a Yamaha DSP-1, circa 1998. If he'd had the right advice then he would have spent the extra £50 for the 550 with analogue audio out. Bill from Falkirk was about to make the same mistake.

Now you could say "buyer beware" but that's pretty uncharitable when the purpose of a forum is to share advice.

I think there's a certain responsibility that goes with posting advice on a public forum. Answering direct questions is one thing, but what about the people who just read bits. How are they going to interpret what's been written?

If you found your best friend struggling with something you had recommended, would you turn your back on them?

There's an opportunity here to raise the bar and get some better quality advice out there. It's up to all of us to police the comments in this forum and temper the overly enthusiastic ones so there's a more balanced view. The stuff we write today is going to be around for a long time. Please, let's leave a better legacy.

[Steve5424]

Quote:

Originally Posted by -GONZO-

It was played through a Blue-Ray player and the scenes filled the whole screen as if you were watching it at home, but with one half of the screen made to look much poorer than the other side, but in my opinion much poorer than DVD quality is in reality.

Its Blu-ray not Blue-Ray

[late8]

I have seen that demo in HMV- Very unrealistic. the SD looks like a You Tube video.

Sometimes when watching BBC1 on Freeview SD The picture looks very good (especially on HD Filmed events and programs) - the only real benefit of HD is that its pin-sharp and textures / detail is better + lack of pixels.

HD however is no way near the massive jump Black & White to colour or VHS to DVD was. A lot of stuff surrounding HD is gimmicky and market driven- IF SD was transmitted at a decent bitrate it will fair very well.

I have a very old IMAX DVD 'Super Speedway' the quality of that DVD is still stunning and its SD!!

I'm shure the industry drive standards DOWN to promote the next big thing.

[-GONZO-]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve5424

Its Blu-ray not Blue-Ray

Oh! Silly me.
So that muct be the reason why there has not been too many replies as no one could understand what I was talking about.

[MrGiles2]

I own two blu-ray machines along with 4 other DVD players.

With HDMI connections the difference is very noticeable.

With scart, the picture quality is still very good so I think the demos were deliberatly set up to entice the public to buy blu-ray.

I wish these salespeople wouldnt insult would be customers like this, its so damn annoying

[roddydogs]

Bit like the demos showing a "Full HD"1080p loop designed to look like a normal transmitted1080i picture

[TheBoingoBandit]

My favourite instore demo is in the one in Currys where to try and show the difference between using composite, SCART (set to RGB I presume) and HDMI, they have identical TVs showing the same DVD side by the side.

Now while HDMI looks better than the other two options, the other two TVs have obviously been set up to look worse than they should.




One thing that I bet annoy companies (and used to annoy me when I worked for a major TV brand), is when they take a demo disc supplied by -say- Sony and then use it on other brands. So you end up with LG sets and the like demonstrating the benefits of a Sony TV!

Reminds me of the other day where the local Tesco had provided Sky News-showing TVs throughout the store for customers to watch and then on comes a Sainsburys ad! DOH!

[frasera]

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=811102
bluray vs dvd screenshot comparison

you might not believe it, but it is reality. 6 times the detail is not insignificant. still frames are more revealing than motion which can increase perceived detail which is why dvd is passable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by late8

HD however is no way near the massive jump Black & White to colour or VHS to DVD was. A lot of stuff surrounding HD is gimmicky and market driven- IF SD was transmitted at a decent bitrate it will fair very well.

I have a very old IMAX DVD 'Super Speedway' the quality of that DVD is still stunning and its SD!!

I'm shure the industry drive standards DOWN to promote the next big thing.

no, the jump is massive. as i said, 6times the detail.

you remember being impressed by super speedway. you might forget back then you were used to vhs quality, dvd super speed way was impressive when compared to analog garbage of that era. but thats the thing, memory distorts and how what we are used to can set our expectations. going back to vhs is impossible now, but in the past it was quite tolerable, we even watched films on it! unthinkable now. load up super speed way and take some frame captures. you will be surprised at how little detail is really in that image.

[EricH]

Sorry, posted in wrong thread,started a new one.

[-GONZO-]

Quote:

Originally Posted by frasera

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=811102
bluray vs dvd screenshot comparison

you might not believe it, but it is reality. 6 times the detail is not insignificant. still frames are more revealing than motion which can increase perceived detail which is why dvd is passable.





.

There is no disputing the fact that Blu Ray is an improvement over DVD.
That screenshot, just like what I originally posted about the Comet demo shows the DVD side looking out of focus and looking very poor quality which in fact my DVD's dont look any way near that bad in quality that is being shown in these bluray vs dvd screenshot comparisons.

[frasera]

Quote:

Originally Posted by -GONZO-

There is no disputing the fact that Blu Ray is an improvement over DVD.
That screenshot, just like what I originally posted about the Comet demo shows the DVD side looking out of focus and looking very poor quality which in fact my DVD's dont look any way near that bad in quality that is being shown in these bluray vs dvd screenshot comparisons.

it is however reality when you freeze a frame.

don't believe me?

screen shot using windvd/powerdvd or free using mediaplyer classic vlc etc of your choosing.


dvd is .3 megapixels. if you had a .3 megapixel camera u'd chuck it

it is that bad, its just that when you dont have it side to side you are used to dvd quality and have no reference.

and of course theres whether your hdtv is tossing away resolution
http://www.hdguru.com/will-you-see-a...exclusive/287/
many people badmouth hdtv because they've seen "hdtv" with garbage source and garbage video decoders. luckily its getting better.