Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Connectors + 1 more

[ajchesak]

I would like to upgrade my home receiver and am concerned with connectivity of Blu-Ray/HD-DVD equipment. Will the new players connect via HDMI cabling, or will they be something else?

Also, how much better is the picture quality supposed to be, versus an upconverted signal from a progressive scan DVD player and HDMI connection. I only have 1 HDMI connector on my TV and it is in use.

[thunderhawk]

Still to early to tell. I suggest you wait till the recievers for HD audio appear on the market more frequently.

And the picture quality is about... I don't know how to show you. Try visiting a local shop and ask them to show a HD clip on a HD display.

[Shadowself]

Originally Posted by ajchesak

I would like to upgrade my home receiver and am concerned with connectivity of Blu-Ray/HD-DVD equipment. Will the new players connect via HDMI cabling, or will they be something else?

Also, how much better is the picture quality supposed to be, versus an upconverted signal from a progressive scan DVD player and HDMI connection. I only have 1 HDMI connector on my TV and it is in use.

I can't address the second part of your question (but since you ended it with a period maybe it was a rhetorical question), but I'll try to address the first question and final comment. "how much better is the picture quality" is very subjective. Most people will notice a distinct difference on a set which can display full 1080p/60 (extremely rare at this point), but will notice less of a difference on a set which displays 720p only.

Blu-ray Disk will most definitely support the latest version of HDMI. As I've mentioned elsewhere in this forum HDMI will support all digital formats. The latest version of HDMI will even support 1080p/60 with 7.1 sound.

A likely set of connectors for a Blu-ray Disk player is
1) second generation HDMI (which, with the addition of a special cable, also gets you DVI and component audio)
2) component video/audio (certainly supports up through 1080i/30 though I don't know for certain if it has enough bandwidth for 1080p/60)
3) S-video (though this will only support the lower digital resolutions and will "piggy-back" on the component audio connectors)

This will allow for the widest audience without going through too many hoops for backward compatibility.

With regard to your current HDMI connector on your current set: if your set is much more than 6 months old then it is most certainly using a first generation HDMI connector. That connector will support formats up through 1080i/30 but will not support 1080p/60. For that you will need a second generation HDMI connector.

In all likelihood (though one never really knows until you investigate/test the specific implementation) the second generation HDMI on any Blu-ray Disk player will negotiate with your set's first generation HDMI and output a format that your set will take.

If you have other reasons to upgrade your system (other than being compatible with a Blu-ray Disk player) then you should do so within the next six months -- just be sure the set has a second generation HDMI connector [or two]. If your only reason to upgrade is to be compatible with a Blu-ray Disk player, I'd wait a year or so and get by with what you have.

[ajchesak]

I purchased my 50" plasma 2 weeks ago. How do I know if the HDMI connector is 1st gen or 2nd gen?

[Shadowself]

Originally Posted by ajchesak

I purchased my 50" plasma 2 weeks ago. How do I know if the HDMI connector is 1st gen or 2nd gen?

First step is to check the documentation which came with it. If it claims to support 1080p/60 then it is almost certainly second generation. I say "almost certainly" because not all documentation is written accurately. Note the "/60" at the end of the 1080p format reference. There is a lesser version of 1080p (1080p/30) which has been discussed by some, but it is not really better than 1080i. It also has a similar bandwidth requirement as 1080i. The 1080p/60 format, for many viewers, will be noticeably better than 1080i format for viewing imagery that has lots of very fast moving items in it and it requires approximately double the bandwidth of 1080i.

A second place to check is with the manufacturer. However, don't be surprised if the person you talk to has no idea what you're saying. My experience is that less than 10% of the tech support people understand the nuances of what is being sold.

If these two fail then a lot of digging and asking around is in order.

It would have helped if the groups making HDMI chips and connectors had done what Firewire (e.g., 400 Mbps versus 800 Mbps) and USB (e.g., 12 Mbps versus 480 Mbps) did and make it a clear generation difference and a differentiator on the packaging of the final products. (Though in reality USB is almost as bad as HDMI. A vendor can be able to claim its USB ports are USB 2.0 but still be just 1.5 Mbps or 12 Mbps. The official designation which requires 480 Mbps capability is Hi-Speed USB 2.0. If a vendor claims its ports are "High-Speed USB 2.0" then you can be assured it supports 480 Mbps.)

Sorry I couldn't be more help.

[phloyd]

I think that the 1080p frame rate is more applicable to the PS3 than movie players.

Consider that the source is 1080p 24 fps... changing the output frame rate to 30 or 60 won't really be an improvement (unless some super cool interpolation tricks are employed).

Also 30p vs 60 fields interlaced - really depends on what the source was recorded with. Both are a compromise when you are talking about 24 fps source.

Still, it is always wise to try to ensure maximum compatibility

Cheers!

[Shadowself]

Originally Posted by phloyd

I think that the 1080p frame rate is more applicable to the PS3 than movie players.

Consider that the source is 1080p 24 fps... changing the output frame rate to 30 or 60 won't really be an improvement (unless some super cool interpolation tricks are employed).

Also 30p vs 60 fields interlaced - really depends on what the source was recorded with. Both are a compromise when you are talking about 24 fps source.

Still, it is always wise to try to ensure maximum compatibility

Cheers!

Quite true. Yet the new cinema standard is, I believe, 4096x2160 at 24 fps for digital cinema. (IIRC it was ratified the summer of 2004, but no one has implemented the full standard yet.) The amount of spatial information when compared to 1080i/p might more than make up for the lower temporal resolution. Also the standard is based upon idividual frames captured as a whole rather than progressively scanned frames.

Converting 4096x2160/24f (framed) to 1080p might require 30 progressively scanned frames per second or even 60 progressively scanned frames per second to get as much visual information as is available. And yes, getting all that information will require some cool interpolation tricks!

[Shadowself]

The digital cinema standard also has a 2048x1080 48fps mode. I would expect that 1920x1080p/60 will be necessary to fully capture that mode.

[Blue]

It's not too late. How about adding 1080p/48 to the Blu Ray standard. We know all about the problems of converting 24Fps to 30Fps halving the resolution will be simple.