Digital Video Essentials (Blu-ray)

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by ClaytonMG

The monster disc is supposedly not very helpful and just a giant advertisement. That's according to some people on AVS though, so take from that what you will...

No surprise there. If the A/V gurus at AVS didn't like it, I know to avoid it.

[Erman_94]

could i just use ratatouille's video calibration? or would that make my set only look good for animated films?

EDIT: and also, if i were to use rat's video calibration, is there anyway to restore my setting if im not satisfied with it?

[skrill]

From the UltimateAVMag.com review:

The problems with the Blu-ray version are not the fault of Kane's production but of the format itself. The Blu-ray spec identifies many features—such as bookmarking and Dolby TrueHD—as optional, making it difficult to author a robust disc for all players. The only thing that is not optional is copy protection, which costs producers thousands of dollars each time they author a disc, even so-called "check discs" to make sure everything operates as expected on the wide variety of Blu-ray players. Now that Blu-ray has won the format war, I encourage all parties involved to remove the word "optional" from player specifications and add the same word to copy protection. This is exactly how HD DVD structured things, and it's clearly the right way to go.

I think this is right on the money. There is no reason to keep the spec as open as it is. BR should not have things like TrueHD support, bookmarking support, etc. as optional. It just does not make sense.

Anyway -- regardless of the review -- if you don't already have DVE for HD DVD or SD DVD -- you should get this disc. It is very helpful for calibrating displays. I use it all the time and have calibrated all my displays with it.

[Flomaster]

see I am on the fence with this one as I rented DVE Sdvd from Netflix it did NOT come with the filters and the disk for a novice was not helpful I found it hard to use.

but for $18 I get the disk and filters. if this is easier to use I might want to jump on it.

[blu-iscrack]

I was wondering if anyone has bought this and if it really makes a noticable difference with the picture?

[DetroitSportsFan]

It would probably help if you checked the long thread about the DVE disc.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=43526

[blu-iscrack]

lol i feel like a dumb *ss thank you though

[navyman]

I have this coming from Netflix tommorow, but after doing some research online and finding that the only real way to fully calibrate your system is by using the filters that come with the disk, I essentially just wasted a netflix movie. So the bluray is now on order from amazon and I will take the time to do it right.

[Josh]

With my SXRD, I was running the CNet recommended settings. After running the DVE disc, the only setting I changed was Color (using the color filters).

Only time will tell if these new settings will meet my requirements.

I did find out I have 5% overscan I can't remove.

[moviefan]

I liked the original version so I ordered the Blu-ray one. The Amazon price is pretty gpod and I get free shipping with a pre-ordered movie.

[Blus Brother]

Avia needs one - their disc was so much better!

[bhampton]

Navyman,

There is a lot more to it then just the filters.

For example... it's half dedicated to Audio. A big part of the calibration is using a Signal Pressure Level Meter to balance the output of all your speakers.

Then,.. on the video side...

Black Level,.. White Level,.. GreyScale,.. Sharpness (which shouldn't really be used for anything above composite video but many sets let you adjust this anyway and in that case the adjustment is to try to remove the distortion caused by these faulty circuits.)

The filters are for adjusting Saturation (or Color) and Hue neither of which should apply to anything better then composite video but this depends on the design of your display device.

There are lots of patterns and lots of information that has zero to do with the filters.

Just for the 97 minute into to HD basics tutorial ... the rental is worth it.

-Brian

[navyman]

BHamtpon I understand what your saying, I already calibrated my screen somewhat using the sony feature on some of the discs and the change was amazing. I never knew how screwed up my tv was until after I played witht hose setting. Now what is missing is just the filter changes so to me getting the movie without the filters from Netflix doesn't really help much. I guess others can benifit from it.

[obiwopkenobi62]

I should be getting this soon.

[Layd Dly]

Mine shipped this morning from buy.com

[Deciazulado]

For the filters, normally you'd use something like Wratten # Red 25, Green 58 and Blue 47B, or deeper, but if you have any colored filter(s) handy lying around that kill the colors composed by the other two primaries (example: blue gel filter that makes yellow/green/red look black when you look though it), that works fine. I use roscolux ones I got from a free swatchbook they gave me once. I think the red was the number 29, the green was the 90 or the 91 and the blue the 384 (don't have the swatchbook next to me at the moment). If the color gels you have handy aren't deep enough (pure), you can try doubling the filter over itself by folding it to make it transmit "half" the light therefore making it act like a deeper filter. (I usually have to do that with most green ones to trully kill the other colors (for green that would be the red/magenta/blue bars)

Originally Posted by Josh

I did find out I have 5% overscan I can't remove.

Well since it's a projection tv, the important thing to check is, if at that 5% overscan, it's mantaining 1:1 pixel mapping. If it is, unless you could zoom back a little the actual projector lens, eliminating electronically the overscan would only be a downrez. 95% of the picture at 100% sharpness is still good

[bhampton]

My netflix copy arrived and I gave it a spin.

I'm very happy with the disc and very glad I bought it.

Lots of accurate video test patterns in 1080p and 720p!!

I particularly liked the resolution checking patterns and grey scale windows.


Audio wise,.. maybe it won't continue to be the end all of calibration because I've read it's limited to 5.1 and maybe doesn't have info or audio all some of the HDAudio soundtracks.

But,... I love this disc... it's great.

-Brian

[Vlad44]

glad to hear that. my copy should be tomorrow.

[Entertainment72]

Just received my copy.. it does come with filters.. just in case some wondered.

[Go Blue]

I understand that using the DVE blu-ray will calibrate blu-ray sources, but what about sources like Directv HD (720p/1080i)?