A good way to clean for me has been to make up some dishwashing water, using dawn. Make it up just like you are going to wash dishes. Use a 100% soft cotton dishwashing rag and dip the disc into the liquid, make sure it’s warm and NOT HOT! Then gently but firmly from middle hub out to edge clean the data side of the disc. Rinse with gentle cool tap water then either put it at a ding on its edge and let it air dry or using another soft cotton rag, or I use an undershirt, lightly dry it off. I’ve never scratched a disc this way and the dawn really does the trick. Some discs I’ve had seemed to have a very light kinda oily film on the data side, and the dawn cleaned it away. Try that and one other thing is there could very well be some debris on the Sony’s spindle that is causing the disc to sit “Warped” on it, causing all sorts of problems. If your not comfortable opening up the cover get some double sided scotch tape and put it on the inner hub of a disc, without going into the data part. Put the disc in the tray, let it load and then eject it abd remove the disc. If there was a bit of dirt or pet hair sticking to the spindle, hopefully it’s now on the sticky back tape. Remove the tape carefully from the disc. If it was dirty it would be much better now. If you do open the deck, use regular scotch tape and taps it around the complete spindle’s sticky surface, that should pull off any debris stuck to it. Good luck. Beave
Ehh I'm happy with standard Blu-rays. I even still watch a DVD once in a great while and never think to myself "wow this looks terrible."
Count me as someone who has a back-up player if/when my current one goes down. Had a back-up TV until I moved and decided a new place called for a new set. I also have a turntable and laser disc player still in the box. Wonder if they still work?
I have a Sony 4K player hooked to a Sony receiver using Sony 4K HDMI cables. The player has played every DVD, BD, SACD and the other 100 or so 4K UHDs I have with no problem. It is just the LOTR, Jaws and BTTF discs that I have a problem with. I took them to the neighbor's house the other day they each locked up in the same places that I had the pixilation problems on his brand new Panasonic. Both of our players have all the firmware updates on them. This is the second copy of the LOTR and BTTF sets and both are beyond the return date. I am not getting a new player anytime soon so I will just watch the BDs, luckily I didn't get rid of the LOTR BD set and Jaws and BTTF come with BDs that work correctly.
Right. Yeah, I'm 6.5ft away from my 77", so by golly I'm going to catch all of those 4K details. 1080p details, too! I'm right in the spot where the screen fills my entire field of vision, without my eyes having to dart back and forth nor up and down. Lately I've been watching a ton of 1:33 & 1:37 aspect ratio films, so boy, the image is really front 'n' center! Sit closer, brother. Bask in the glow. Yes, thats exactly what I'm saying, that it 20 year's time someone will still be putting out physical copies, that they won't just completely vanish. I imagine a few small boutique labels will continue to sustain a healthy business model, catering to a niche crowd. It's like in the late '50s a person could still buy new 78rpm records, though the selection was tiny, yet not completely phased out. Blank cassette and VHS tapes are are still being manufactured in 2022, so there it is.
Fair enough, but it does seem those specific movies do have high bit rates (80 plus) from a quick web search, compared to say, Guardians of the Galaxy I saw mentioned as 50mbps - that could be the difference between the cable coping or not, of course if you have other similar bitrate movies it disproves this possible explanation, food for thought anyway. Hope you get to see them on 4k as they are a treat.
You aren’t exactly making a persuasive argument for anything but wishful thinking. The 33 1/3 LP didn’t come into existence as a consumer product until 1948. By 1956, the majors had ceased production of 78s and by 1959 they were no longer produced in the US (and most of the world). So in about 10 years, i.e. half of 20 years, 78s were effectively gone in the western world. Blank cassettes and VHS tapes are not the same as putting out actual releases on VHS. When was the last major (or even minor) new release on VHS? Or even a re-release? 10 years ago? And these were simply format/technology replacements; they still operated on the same basic ownership model. Now not only do the powers-that-be want to phase-out old tech and phase-in new tech, but they also have the powerful incentive of wanting to phase out the old property rights model (which means licensing will be taken off the table for any dreamer boutique label). 20 years is a very long time. Ok, maybe somebody will somehow make some cheap copyright free DVDs or Blurays as nostalgic curios (where I don’t know), but physical digital discs - of any sort - for all intents will be long gone in terms of both new software and hardware production in 20 years.
Sitting 20 feet from a 50-inch TV means I doubt Blu-ray is an improvement over DVD. That's a really long way to sit from a TV that's not huge!
I don't usually think DVDs look terrible but they're a substantial step down from a decent BD. I admit that I often think 4Ks and BDs look pretty similar on my 65" OLED, but I never get fooled with a DVD: even the best of them still are obviously DVDs and not BDs...
I don't worry about being unable to get a new BD or 4K player anytime soon, but I do fret about the eventual death of my LG OLED 4K since it's the last model year with 3D capability. I own a pretty good collection of 3D BDs that turn into coasters when it goes. I actually still have a 60" Panny plasma with 3D capability, so when the LG goes, I can still use it... but it's not nearly as good for 3D. I hold out a tiny sense of optimism that 3D's minor theatrical resurgence and the push the new "Avatar" will bring might inspire some manufacturers to add 3D to new sets... but I ain't holding my breath!
We always get these charts that say you should sit like 2 times the TV size or something like that, but I don't understand. Why get a bigger screen if it's gonna look the same size from your seat? I think I'm about 7 feet from my 65" set, and if I got a bigger screen like yours, I'd stay the same distance! Though I will say that if I had a larger HT room, I might sit farther away just to allow the surround system more breathing room. I think surround would work better if the speakers had more distance...
Oatsdad, I have a 2016 LG Oled too, and a substantial collection of 3-D blu-rays. A little more than 11,000 hours on this beauty, I’ve been thinking maybe a projector at some point, but even here we find long time 3-D stalwarts Epson have DROPPED 3-D from their new Laser powered models. Their wonderful “bang for the buck” (about $3K) 5050UB bulb based model is supposed to be still available, but I don’t know for how long. Bob Furmanek, main man of the 3D Film Archive, answered a query here some time back that HE used an Epson projector, and said, IIRC, that they “are sensational!” The JVCs still support 3-D but are more expensive.
I kind of guessed that it was 20 feet but it is really 13 feet, still not much of a difference for a 50" TV which is the biggest screen that is suitable for my apartment.
I spend decades amassing the "prefect collection" of about 150 classic films.... I'm tired of watching all of them.
Take that premise and reverse it, though: I'm sitting 6.5ft away from a 77" screen. Leave my seat where it is, yet replace my 77" with a 65" and I'm damn well going to notice the difference. Now, with a 65" I'm going to have to sit even closer to get the same effect. But is it actually the same? I'm not so certain. I mean, physically, all things being equal, I should have the same experience now, being closer to a 65", but the perception of height, and the pixels per inch, are going to different from my 77" (or something like that). I've seen two schools of seating, both of which I won't pretend to completely understand, simply because I haven't put much thought into it, other than what feels comfortable, and what most closely replicates the theater experience. There's the seating chart one finds on Tom's Guide or Rtings, and then there's the one that I see some folks in Europe bandy about. It's something like, take the height of your TV, then multiply that by 1.5, and that will give you the distance you should sit. Well, in my case that's something crazy like 4.5ft away, where anybody would be forced to look up and down, side to side, constantly, to take in the whole screen. That would be akin to sitting in the front 8 rows or so of a theater. I'm happy right now, so I don't sweat it. Maybe I'll consider it again when it's time for a new TV, but right now I've only got 1,435 hours on my set, since August 2021, so I'm a long way off getting a new tube (thank g-d).
Recently picked up the 4K releases of Lawrence of Arabia and Bridge on the River Kwai. LoA is absolutely stunning and must-see. It's up there with Vertigo as one of the best examples of older films on 4K. The audio sounds better too. Bridge not as spectacular but a worthy addition to the 4k collection.
I'm glad you approve of Lawrence, Greg. Outstanding! I got mine on Tuesday, but I won't get the chance to watch until this Friday when I have time to myself. I'm chomping at the bit, believe me. I didn't care for the look of Kwai. I love a nice filmic look, grain and all, but I found the grain to be "spikey," for lack of a better term. "Jagged," might be another adjective. And that's fine! To me it's more of what's aesthetically pleasing to me. You know, a lot of scenes in Kwai were shot with a bum camera. They kept trying to make the camera work, so by the time that they had it fixed, principal photography was done.
Yes, as we all know from our audio hobby, a disc is only as good as its source material and transfer. Kwai is about what you'd expect. But I think they achieved something very special with LoA and every frame appears optimally transferred. Looks like they agonized over the digitization and I could make the criticism that the grain is a bit more digital and less film-like in some of the scenes. But it's a small price to pay for the superb picture and fine detail. Amazing. And they left in many warts that show they avoided over-use of noise removal. I think they struck the perfect balance. Hope you enjoy it when you get the chance to watch.
The restoration was by Grover Crisp and Bob Harris, two of the best in the business, so we can bet that it's the best it will look whike being as true as possible to the source. Of course audio is a great analogy to the source. The brave souls who restore film, though, have lot more work than audio engineers ever have. That's not a slam on audio restoration (or remastering), it's just a lot more complicated process with film and all of its moving parts.
I only have a handful or so of 4K discs, but just got these LOA and Vertigo. Haven’t had time to watch them yet though…
I am the OP of this thread and I want to thank everyone for their posts. I finally upgraded my equipment to a Sony A80K and everything looks great. And this is without hooking up my Oppo 4k which I intended to do soon. Thanks everyone, Yes the upgrade was worth it.
