Panasonic DMP-BD30K Part II...

steveinaz

WOW. Now I know what Blu Ray looks like. I feel like I got a new TV in the deal.

I should have waited until I recalibrated my DLP. I didn't do the BD30 any justice with that quicky review.

I did a DVE calibration this afternoon, my jaw dropped to the floor when I popped Apocolypto back in. Holy smokes. This player is outstanding. I'm running HDMI out at 720p (My DLP is 720p native) for both Blu Ray and Standard DVD. I left all of the rest of the settings on their defaults.

I highly recommend the Panasonic DMP-BD30K for anyone who wants to dive in the deep end...

izafar

Congrats on Panny.

Although you have Cars on SD DVD try it on BR also (at least rent it). It is one of the two movies that were very good on SD and when I tried on BR it really made my Jaw hit the floor (the other one of my favorite is Spiderman 2).

Remember all Sony BR movies have basic video calibration tracks, and If you pickup Ratatouille on BR then you will get full audio/video calibration.

cheddar

Code to access the video test patterns is "sony" on a telephone keypad IIRC. Not sure how you enter it on a panny, tho...

steveinaz

I'm very pleased with the resulting picture via DVE, looks so good I'm afraid to change it! LOL. "The Robinson's" knocked my socks off last night. Didn't care much for the story, but the image is incredible. Bev just sat there in total amazement--she thought I was selling her some goods on the difference of high def material...

wingnut4772

steveinaz wrote: »

I'm very pleased with the resulting picture via DVE, looks so good I'm afraid to change it! LOL. "The Robinson's" knocked my socks off last night. Didn't care much for the story, but the image is incredible.

Imagine how awesome it must sound in 5.1!!:D:D

steveinaz

izafar wrote: »

Congrats on Panny.

Although you have Cars on SD DVD try it on BR also (at least rent it). It is one of the two movies that were very good on SD and when I tried on BR it really made my Jaw hit the floor (the other one of my favorite is Spiderman 2).

Remember all Sony BR movies have basic video calibration tracks, and If you pickup Ratatouille on BR then you will get full audio/video calibration.

I saw a high def trailer for it, and just when you thought the images couldn't be any cleaner...amazing.

steveinaz

wingnut4772 wrote: »

Imagine how awesome it must sound in 5.1!!:D:D

hehe

wingnut4772

Seriously, how can we continue to be audio twins like this? It's shameful.:p

steveinaz

Nevah I say...NEVAH!!!! LOL

Wingy, there's still time. You can come back from the dark side! 2 speakers, 2 ears, it is as it should be (Yoda on hi-fi).

wingnut4772

steveinaz wrote: »

Nevah I say...NEVAH!!!! LOL

Wingy, there's still time. You can come back from the dark side! 2 speakers, 2 ears, it is as it should be.

I agree. For music. You guys have totally gotten me into 2 channel but for HT, 7.2 baby! Yeah!

margate21

izafar wrote: »

Congrats on Panny.

Although you have Cars on SD DVD try it on BR also (at least rent it). It is one of the two movies that were very good on SD and when I tried on BR it really made my Jaw hit the floor (the other one of my favorite is Spiderman 2).

Remember all Sony BR movies have basic video calibration tracks, and If you pickup Ratatouille on BR then you will get full audio/video calibration.

how does the calibration from those disks work.. what would i have to do...

billbillw

steveinaz wrote: »

Nevah I say...NEVAH!!!! LOL

Wingy, there's still time. You can come back from the dark side! 2 speakers, 2 ears, it is as it should be (Yoda on hi-fi).

Maybe if you are talking about headphones, but you hear from every direction. Even 7.1 is not close to what you actually hear with those two ears. 2 speakers, definitely not.

izafar

margate21 wrote: »

how does the calibration from those disks work.. what would i have to do...

From any Sony disk (mostly issued by Columbia Pictures or Sony Pictures) enter 7669 from your remote when movie is playing.

Ratatouille has complete set of Audio/Video setup tracks with detailed instructions in the special features section

steveinaz

billbillw wrote: »

Maybe if you are talking about headphones, but you hear from every direction. Even 7.1 is not close to what you actually hear with those two ears. 2 speakers, definitely not.

When you listen to live music, are you sitting in the middle of the band? I rest my case. Surround is merely an evil "effect" meant to exaggerate what you would hear naturally, through reflection---oh, and to reduce the weight of your wallet.

Muahahahahahaha...2 channel forever--back evil naysayers, back! You'll never change me!

billbillw

steveinaz wrote: »

When you listen to live music, are you sitting in the middle of the band? I rest my case. Surround is merely an evil "effect" meant to exaggerate what you would hear naturally, through reflection---oh, and to reduce the weight of your wallet.

Muahahahahahaha...2 channel forever--back evil naysayers, back! You'll never change me!

Rest your case on what? A band doesn't produce sound through 2 speakers either. You hear sound coming from their instruments, vocals coming from their mouths, points of sound from each percussion instrument, all of which spread out in all directions and are affected by the acoustics of the environment. Trying to capture that in two channels is next to impossible. That's whey there is never a substitute for live music. It NEVER sounds the same.

Stereo is merely a crude attempt to simulate lifelike sound based on 50+ year old technology. Multi-channel is also just an attempt to simulate it, but it using newer technology and more advanced techniques. I'll admit, some of the early multi-channel music was distracting, but over the years, they have gotten much better at only adding ambiance to the music and less of the distracting stuff.

Still, none of this really matters when it comes to watching movies. Movies are not just music, they are meant to bring you into the scene based on what the director wants you to see and hear. Movie directors and sound editors make conscious decisions of how they want the sound to be in a given scene, and that, by current design, is in multichannel. By reducing the multichannel soundtrack down to 2-channel, you are taking away the sound that director intended.

For music, I never use artificial surround technologies, just plain old stereo because that's the way the music producer designed it to be (unless it happens to be a multichannel SACD, then I give both a try and compare). However, for movies, there is just no argument for not having surround sound.

I still maintain, that anyone who criticizes multichannel for movies has just not heard a well designed/blended system with good source material.

PolkThug

billbillw wrote: »

Rest your case on what? A band doesn't produce sound through 2 speakers either. You hear sound coming from their instruments, vocals coming from their mouths, points of sound from each percussion instrument, all of which spread out in all directions and are affected by the acoustics of the environment. Trying to capture that in two channels is next to impossible.

You haven't tried magic pebbles.

billbillw

Hey Steve.

I joined the BD30 club today as well. Got a sweet deal at B.B., price match to Fry's.com and 5 instant free BD movies (plus the mail in 5). I've got a pretty good little stash of movies to start things out. Now, if I can get my damn TV delivered, I'll be enjoying some sweet 1080p. (long story, waiting over a week from C.C.) I'll also get to hear what uncompressed PCM and Dolby TrueHD sound like.

FYI: Anyone with a local Fry's store should try to get this deal. The 5 free ends after Saturday.

cheddar

Congrats. If you like what you see and hear, you might want to pop over to amazon to look at their newest sale.

229 titles...great way to kick off the new year...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/002-9710752-0204866?ie=UTF8&plgroup=1&docId=1000186951&plpage=1

millerman 3732

billbillw wrote: »

I'll also get to hear what uncompressed PCM and Dolby TrueHD sound like.

I'll be expecting a full DTS HD-MA report, seriously I want to know.

billbillw

millerman 3732 wrote: »

I'll be expecting a full DTS HD-MA report, seriously I want to know.

Not sure if any of the movies I've go so far have that, but you know I'll check.

cheddar wrote:

Congrats. If you like what you see and hear, you might want to pop over to amazon to look at their newest sale.

229 titles...great way to kick off the new year...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.htm...86951&plpage=1

If you ask me, that's what the pricing should always look like, that is, if they want the format to ultimately succeed. Who the hell is willing to pay $35 for a frickin' movie anyway?

So far, here are the movies I've picked up.

Harry Potters 1-4
(BOGO sale at amazon, total $39.98)
Blood Diamond, A Scanner Darkly, and Goodfellas
(B.B on sale for $14.99 each -$20 coupon, total $24.95+tax)
Cars, Ratatouillie, Casino Royale, Pirates OTC 1-3
(ToysRU BOGO sale, total $75-tax)

That averages about $11 per movie. Cheap as DVD, eh?

Then today, with the BD30, I got
Harry Potter 5, Castaway, Oceans 13, Pan's Labyrinth, and F4-Silver Surfer.
(price $0 if you don't count the player)

So, for about $540, I've picked up a newest gen BD player and 23 movies (if you count the 5 mail in choices)

Not a bad start to the world of HD movies. I'm glad I held out through the early years of overpriced hardware and limited movies. Well, they are still pretty limited compared to DVD, but they choices are getting better and better. Lets hope the studios see the light and offer these movies for reasonable prices, ie: no more than $25 for a new release.

Chances are, I'll return the F4:Silver Surfer, Castaway, and maybe Pans Labyrinth. F4 is not really my cup of tea, and I've seen the others. I really want Blade Runner and Spidy 3. They were OOS of both , but I should be able to exchange them after this sale ends (been on for 2 weeks) and they restock.

millerman 3732

billbillw wrote: »

Not sure if any of the movies I've go so far have that, but you know I'll check.

Pretty much any tittle from Fox or Newline will have a DTS HD-MA track,

cheddar

Nice haul. I think you're returning the DTS-HD MA titles, though. Fox and New Line appear to be the big supporters of that particular lossless format.

cheddar

The DTS-HD MA track of Pans Labyrinth is supposed to be exceptional and is in full 7.1 surround.

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/1181/panslabyrinth.html

billbillw

Yeah, I checked and the ones I mentioned returning all have DTS-HD Master. I might need to keep one of them, maybe Pan's. I only saw it once and it was not under ideal settings.

cheddar

Well, Cast Away has a 5.1 DTS-HD MA track too that's supposed to be pretty good. But except for one scene isn't much of an action demo...I'd probably keep Pans too just to try out 7.1.

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/1088/castaway.html

billbillw

I was surprised to see Oceans only has a Dolby Digital 5.1 track, not even TrueHD or lossless PCM. Maybe I'll take that one back and just go with the DVD version. I was kinda in a hurry today when it came to selecting the movies.

steveinaz

billbillw wrote: »

Hey Steve.

I joined the BD30 club today as well. Got a sweet deal at B.B., price match to Fry's.com and 5 instant free BD movies (plus the mail in 5). I've got a pretty good little stash of movies to start things out. Now, if I can get my damn TV delivered, I'll be enjoying some sweet 1080p. (long story, waiting over a week from C.C.) I'll also get to hear what uncompressed PCM and Dolby TrueHD sound like.

FYI: Anyone with a local Fry's store should try to get this deal. The 5 free ends after Saturday.

Wicked, let me know what you think...Make sure you take the time to recalibrate your HDTV.

billbillw

steveinaz wrote: »

Wicked, let me know what you think...Make sure you take the time to recalibrate your HDTV.

Since I am getting a new TV (hopefully delivered Wednesday), I'll have to calibrate everything anyway. Luckily, the reviews say that the TV I'm getting is very close to the ISF standards right out of the box (once you set the mode to standard and color temp to warm). I'll just have to lower sharpness and get the black levels where I want them. Since I plan to have my receiver doing all the video switching, I'll have to find the best setting for BluRay and hope that it still looks good with the Directv box's feed. If that doesn't look good, I'll have to run the D* box straight to the TV and use a separate input. I've got some flexibility though because the TV has 3 HDMI inputs and the receiver has 3 HDMI inputs.

steveinaz

Do you have DVE? Also, some TV's do require some sharpness--My Samsung DLP gets very soft at the lower settings; and at maximum, doesn't show any white peaks. I set mine at 30 (scale 0-100).

billbillw

I have Avia on DVD. I haven't looked yet so see what's available on Bluray as far as HD calibration discs.

Since you are getting Directv (or already have?), did you know that HDNet has some test patterns that you can get to help calibrate the input for your satellite box? They broadcast them once a week, early Saturday mornings. I have them recorded on my DVR.

6:30 AM ET
3:30 AM PT HDNet Test Patterns
Wonder how your home theatre is doing? Wish you had test patterns to help set it up? Well, HDNet is here to help. This short program will help you get the most out of your home theatre setup by providing you with the same professional test patterns HDNet uses to set their gear.

Its 10 minutes long, so record from 6:30-6:40am ET on Saturday morning.

Lsi9

steveinaz wrote: »

When you listen to live music, are you sitting in the middle of the band? I rest my case. Surround is merely an evil "effect" meant to exaggerate what you would hear naturally, through reflection---oh, and to reduce the weight of your wallet.

Muahahahahahaha...2 channel forever--back evil naysayers, back! You'll never change me!

I agree sorta...I think 3 channel is the best!
a center channel really widens the front sound stage alot. I have 5.1 and will never go 7.1, but if I had to do it over again I would stay 3 channel