The Official Blu-ray/HD DVD Discussion Thread

Couldn't agree more.

I truly believe there has to be a clear "winner" (like VHS over Beta) for an HD format to really take off.

 

By the time Beta machines were discountinued VHS wasn't doing all that good either.

 

True, because DVD existed. Beta still had a very loyal small following up to the very end. I actually personally purchased around 350 Sony SL-HF750 SuperBeta Hi-Fi VCRs and sold them online in 1995 to 1996. Used and working properly brought $150 plus shipping while sealed and unopened brought $440. Some with problems had to be sold for small figures, but everyone of them sold. I had planned to keep a couple for myself, but I kept on getting calls. I could take them apart and repair simple things when needed, usually taking parts from one for another.

I think the last Beta VCR was made in 2000 or 2001, but I don't recall for certain.

Chris

 

Yep. I bought one of those from you. Unfortunately sold it while hard up for money a few years ago. I bought an unopened one. I still have an ED Beta machine though (although it has a problem).

 

Wow, small world. I had the ED-V7500 EDBeta VCR, but traded it for an SL-HF2100 and then sold that at the peak around 1998. I currently have a JVC W-VHS VCR, I love it but media is too expensive to be of much use, but it reminds of the EDBeta VCRs.

Chris

 

Does anybody know why Universal is the lone major studio holdout to releasing movies on Blu-ray? It sure is a pain, I like the Universal catalog really well and as long as they are exclusively HD DVD, this two format nonsense is going to continue.

Chris

 

I suspect that many of the DVD/HD-DVD pressing facilities are subsideraies of Universal and Warner too.

 

Well, it's April, which means we should be hearing something about that firmware update for our Pannies soon. Too bad it has been confirmed that they cannot support DTS-HD MA decoding. Oh, well, I guess Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD will have to do. At least we get one of the lossless codecs.

 

Just a little odditty, Universal has ceasd providing subtitles en Espanol por HD-DVD....? Why? It seems crappie to do so.

 

Has anyone told Fox?

 

No worries, there will be future players and A/V receivers that will decode DTS-HD MA, and then those FOX discs will be able to be listened to in all their lossless glory. There's no point, IMO, in making discs only to the capabilities of current players. What's wrong with future proofing?

 

Panny Firmware

Panasonic has released it's Version 2.0 firmware to enable Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD decoding.

Rachael,

If you need me to send you a disc again, let me know, and I just restocked on CD mailers, so no trail of peanuts in the post this time.

 

Burn baby burn, yeah, I'll take one....

I'm confused about DTS-HD and DTS Master audio. What discs, if any, have DTS-HD? I thought that my Fox discs all have the Master version and I hear the "core" portion.

 

I think all but maybe one or two of the FOX discs have MA, and a couple have just DTS-HD - now branded as DTS-HD HR (High Resolution). I know that Reservoir Dogs also has a DTS-HD soundtrack, and a couple other discs that I can't recall off the top of my head right now.

So, yes, we only hear the core dts track on these discs now, which is dts at its highest bit-rate - ~1500Mbps. Once we have the DTS-HD HR decoding, we will be able to hear the DTS-HD tracks (which are at about 3000Mbps) fully decoded. I'm not certain what will happen with the MA tracks. I haven't gotten a clear answer if we will still be limited to only the 15000Mbps core dts, or if we will get a higher 3000Mbps core.

BTW, getting back to the firmware update, I have already downloaded it twice and burned two discs, and they don't work. I get an 'unsupport' error on the player, which is only supposed to happen when the firmware on the player is identical to the version you are trying to update to, which leads me to believe they have the wrong file up, as the filename is the same as the Version 1.4 firmware filename was.

 

Thanks Goldenboy! I got your PM. I'm not in a hurry. I wish Panasonic was as good as Toshiba about firmware upgrades but that's the way it goes....

 

When threads reach over 1000 posts it is time for Part 2.

Please continue discussion here: http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?p=2509612#post2509612

Thanks