Physical & Digital EST: The Future of Home Video Discussion Thread

[cheez avenger]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

Looks like Apple TV may finally get integer and fractional frame rates (here). If the Apple TV Atmos MAT will play nice with my AVP then I will add one to my equipment rack.

I know folks running the BETA update have it, but I do not. I didn't catch to see when it would be released, though.

[gotmule]

Originally Posted by Ender14

I got the Sony BDP-S6500. I wanted something that would do 4K up-conversion and that one had pretty good reviews. Only $179 after coupon code.

Looking at their site now and I think that player is $159 currently. I don’t if it is too late to cancel and reorder or maybe they can adjust the price? Either way, it looks like a great choice.

[Ender14]

Originally Posted by gotmule

Looking at their site now and I think that player is $159 currently. I don’t if it is too late to cancel and reorder or maybe they can adjust the price? Either way, it looks like a great choice.

It's $159 for region A only. It's $40 extra to make it region free so it was $199. But I had a 10% off coupon code which brought it down. But thanks for looking out for me.

[kfbkfb]

Will streaming (eventually) lower the expectations for physical media picture/sound quality?

Early in the CD era, the major record companies were careful about getting good sound quality on their CDs, in recent years, some (budget) CD masters were taken from vinyl discs (clicks and pops and all).

Same situation for some (budget) DVDs, they use damaged films (dirt, scratches, faded color, short edits) as the source material.

I'm mainly thinking about video and audio data reduction artifacts rather than poor source material (I've seen some VideoCDs with video artifacts, but no DVDs/Blu-rays with video artifacts).


Kirk Bayne

[stonesfan129]

Originally Posted by kfbkfb

Will streaming (eventually) lower the expectations for physical media picture/sound quality?

Early in the CD era, the major record companies were careful about getting good sound quality on their CDs, in recent years, some (budget) CD masters were taken from vinyl discs (clicks and pops and all).

Same situation for some (budget) DVDs, they use damaged films (dirt, scratches, faded color, short edits) as the source material.

I'm mainly thinking about video and audio data reduction artifacts rather than poor source material (I've seen some VideoCDs with video artifacts, but no DVDs/Blu-rays with video artifacts).


Kirk Bayne

Which CDs used vinyl masters that had clicks and pops? Most of the early 80s CDs were done with vinyl cutting masters that were too quiet/weak. They started to master them correctly in the early-to-mid 1990s. The problem now is they max out the volume artificially with dynamic range compression.

As for reducing the quality, doubtful since people could probably figure it out if they were using compressed streaming copies on the discs.

[gotmule]

Originally Posted by kfbkfb

Will streaming (eventually) lower the expectations for physical media picture/sound quality?

Early in the CD era, the major record companies were careful about getting good sound quality on their CDs, in recent years, some (budget) CD masters were taken from vinyl discs (clicks and pops and all).

Same situation for some (budget) DVDs, they use damaged films (dirt, scratches, faded color, short edits) as the source material.

I'm mainly thinking about video and audio data reduction artifacts rather than poor source material (I've seen some VideoCDs with video artifacts, but no DVDs/Blu-rays with video artifacts).


Kirk Bayne

Stonesfan is correct. Early CDs were often abysmal sounding. One of the biggest bands in the world at the time (Led Zeppelin) on one of the biggest labels (Atlantic) were very displeased what they heard.

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/jimm...-zeppelin-cds/

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by cheez avenger

I know folks running the BETA update have it, but I do not. I didn't catch to see when it would be released, though.

Some at AVS that follow Apple believe mid to late March for public release.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by stonesfan129

As for reducing the quality, doubtful since people could probably figure it out if they were using compressed streaming copies on the discs.

Very different work flow for disc, streamers receive a file (usually an Apple ProRes) of any given title then create their own file(s) for streaming. For disc the content owner may render and master their own disc file(s) or use an outside facility.

There used to be some Blu-ray insiders on this site, look in the insiders section if you would like more specifics. Stacey Spears made several post about disc creation in the Spears & Munsil Test Disc thread. Netflix has published some white papers about source file requirements, don’t know about other streamers.

[JohnAV]

Originally Posted by Wendell R. Breland

Looks like Apple TV may finally get integer and fractional frame rates (here). If the Apple TV Atmos MAT will play nice with my AVP then I will add one to my equipment rack.

The PB of tvOS14.5 beta 2 is available as a FYI. Easy enough to get that see here. Yes its very stable.

[gotmule]

Just watched Greenland, and have to say that is one of the better 7.1 mixes I have heard in awhile. Crazy dynamic mix that will test your system. Pretty tough to watch at times due to the subject, but worth checking out.

[kfbkfb]

CDs from vinyl:
Obviously, the Sheffield Lab CDs from their Direct Cut LPs were made from vinyl copies (they are excellent), however, then there's:
"dance hits of the 80's & 90's" TUTM 5846-2" with song 1 from worn noisy vinyl.

My main concern is if soft, mildly artifact ridden (streaming) video becomes the norm, will physical media producers reduce their quality because they can (to squeeze more on a disc)?


Kirk Bayne

[JohnAV]

Originally Posted by kfbkfb

My main concern is if soft, mildly artifact ridden (streaming) video becomes the norm, will physical media producers reduce their quality because they can (to squeeze more on a disc)?
Kirk Bayne

Do you dream of stuff like that?

[kfbkfb]

Digital audio sound quality has been reduced from CD to MP3, the general public seem OK with it, why not video quality reduction?


Kirk Bayne

[JohnAV]

Originally Posted by kfbkfb

Digital audio sound quality has been reduced from CD to MP3, the general public seem OK with it, why not video quality reduction?
Kirk Bayne

Streaming Music has been dumbed down, because a lot of consumers listen to stereo on a phone using bluetooth earphones roaming around all day. Not like people walk around with a Sony Walkman playing CD's anymore, or sit at home listening to CD's with a pair of speakers.

People have been widely exposed to 4K TVs where HD and 4K movies/TV shows and streaming content inspires them to spend money on getting that for home entertainment for their families. Larger TV displays can motivate people to want better video quality.

[Lee A Stewart]

Originally Posted by JohnAV

Streaming Music has been dumbed down, because a lot of consumers listen to stereo on a phone using bluetooth earphones roaming around all day. Not like people walk around with a Sony Walkman playing CD's anymore, or sit at home listening to CD's with a pair of speakers.

People have been widely exposed to 4K TVs where HD and 4K movies/TV shows and streaming content inspires them to spend money on getting that for home entertainment for their families. Larger TV displays can motivate people to want better video quality.

Absolutely! They buy a new 65" 4K TV for less than $1000, get it home, mount it where their old HDTV was (average: 9 feet from the couch) and switch it over to Vivid Mode. Now it looks just like what they saw at Best Buy or Walmart.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by kfbkfb

CDs from vinyl:
Obviously, the Sheffield Lab CDs from their Direct Cut LPs were made from vinyl copies (they are excellent), however, then there's:
"dance hits of the 80's & 90's" TUTM 5846-2" with song 1 from worn noisy vinyl.

My main concern is if soft, mildly artifact ridden (streaming) video becomes the norm, will physical media producers reduce their quality because they can (to squeeze more on a disc)?


Kirk Bayne

No, people buy Blu-ray for its higher quality. There would be nothing to gain by decreasing the quality.

[CV19]

This may well be a silly question, but I'm just curious about region-free players and their reliability. Let's say for example you were to buy a Region A player that had been modified to also play Region B blu-rays, could there be a time when that player, for whatever reason, no longer recognises Region B discs but will continue playing Region A? (or vice-versa)?

Forgive me asking, but I'm not much of a tech expert as you can probably tell.

[Wendell R. Breland]

Originally Posted by CV19

This may well be a silly question, but I'm just curious about region-free players and their reliability.

Region mod's have been around for quite sometime so if there was a reliability issue we most likely would be hearing a lot more about it.

I don't have many non A region titles but I plan to add more as it seems a lot of US big catalog titles will never see a region A release.

Now off to see if I can see what and how many titles I have in the email notification of release from this site.

[cheez avenger]

Originally Posted by CV19

This may well be a silly question, but I'm just curious about region-free players and their reliability. Let's say for example you were to buy a Region A player that had been modified to also play Region B blu-rays, could there be a time when that player, for whatever reason, no longer recognises Region B discs but will continue playing Region A? (or vice-versa)?

Forgive me asking, but I'm not much of a tech expert as you can probably tell.

I've only ever seen/heard of this scenario when folks run their region free player via the wifi and update the firmware. I always suggest to not connect your region free Blu-ray player to the internet, or even update the firmware. Sometimes it will brick the player or revert it back to its original region.

[ThanatosPT]

In my experience it's a lot cheaper to just buy another player for the region you want.

I live in Portugal (Region B) and besides a Sony X700 I bought a Panasonic UB-820 from Amazon USA and an electric converter (sorry I don't know the exact name for the hardware but it converts portuguese electricity to one acceptable by the player): total cost less than 400 euros. Some sites that sell modded players ask over 500 euros + shipping for the same model.

So I now have two players and just buy whichever region I want/need.

Anyway on a side note I'm beginning to see a lot of UHD releases where the blu-ray is region free; not all, mind, but an increasing number, both boutique labels and mainstream distributors.