OT - Blu Ray vs DVD

nicklouse

EKE_38BPM wrote:

I think DTS films are 6.1,

you think wrongly.

CyclingBantam

nicklouse wrote:

CyclingBantam wrote:

The one thing I am not sure i was clear enough with was that I want to buy thesuround sound as well (probably 5.1). Am I best buying a Home Cinema bundle or buying speakers and player separate? What does this now make my £400 look like.

in that case a Sony BDV-E370

http://www.whathifi.com/review/sony-bdv-e370

The reviews look great but talk about no HDMI Input. I thought this was how you transfer between tv and Blu ray player. What does not having this mean in reality? Ideally I would want to be able to watch tv through surround sound or at least play my xbox through it.

Cheers for all the advice guys.

greg66_tri_v2.0

CyclingBantam wrote:

nicklouse wrote:

CyclingBantam wrote:

The one thing I am not sure i was clear enough with was that I want to buy thesuround sound as well (probably 5.1). Am I best buying a Home Cinema bundle or buying speakers and player separate? What does this now make my £400 look like.

in that case a Sony BDV-E370

http://www.whathifi.com/review/sony-bdv-e370

The reviews look great but talk about no HDMI Input. I thought this was how you transfer between tv and Blu ray player. What does not having this mean in reality? Ideally I would want to be able to watch tv through surround sound or at least play my xbox through it.

Cheers for all the advice guys.

I'm not sure that HDMI inputs are that easy to find on home theatre in a box kit.

You buy an in a box package, and you connect your tv and speakers to the BD player and off you go. Very simple. The video signal is handled by the BD player and runs to the tv. The sound is handled by an amplifier in the BD player, and runs out to the speakers. So far, so good.

But what if you have multiple hd sources? A sky hd box, plus a BD player, plus a PS3, plus an HDDVD player. Now you need something that will take audio and video feeds from each source, and run the video to the tv and the audio to the speakers. In short, you need an av amplifier.

So now the limitation of no HDMI in is a bit clearer. If you have a home theatre in a box set up, and a PS3, how do you get hd video and 5.1 or 7.1 channel audio from the PS3? You don't have the facility to run it as a source into the home theatre BD player. Hmm.

Well, the solution depends on your set up. Do you have a second hd source? If not, don't worry about the absence of an HDMI input.

Do you plan to get a second hd source (eg a sky box, or a free view hd box, or a freesat box, or a PS3)? Now you have to plan ahead. If your tv has two HDMI inputs, you can run both your BD player and your second source via HDMI cables direct into the tv. That gives you hd video for each. As for the audio, most home theatre BD players have a spare optical digital audio input, so you can run the audio from your second source into this port, and use the surround amp built into the BD player to get hd audio.

So what other hd sources might you have, how many HDMI inputs does your tv have, and how many spare hd audio inputs does your proposed home theatre BD player have?

greg66_tri_v2.0

Ps. 3D vs 2D.

A mate of mine has a new 50inch (maybe bigger) Samsung 3d tv, glasses and 3d bluray player. It is impressive to watch something on it, but (a) to get 3d you need a 3d tv AND - 3d BD player; (b) I'm not yet ready to wear dark glasses when watching a film in my own home; (c) you need to buy 3d BD specific media (not just bog standard BD) to get the 3d experience.

This is worth bearing in mind with home theatre boxes, as you don't want to pay additional for 3d if you're never going to use it.

prj45

Bluray slightly better visually, but not enough to justify the price difference of the disks at teh moment.

Much better audio wise though if you've got the right kit.

CyclingBantam

Greg66 wrote:

CyclingBantam wrote:

nicklouse wrote:

CyclingBantam wrote:

The one thing I am not sure i was clear enough with was that I want to buy thesuround sound as well (probably 5.1). Am I best buying a Home Cinema bundle or buying speakers and player separate? What does this now make my £400 look like.

in that case a Sony BDV-E370

http://www.whathifi.com/review/sony-bdv-e370

The reviews look great but talk about no HDMI Input. I thought this was how you transfer between tv and Blu ray player. What does not having this mean in reality? Ideally I would want to be able to watch tv through surround sound or at least play my xbox through it.

Cheers for all the advice guys.

I'm not sure that HDMI inputs are that easy to find on home theatre in a box kit.

You buy an in a box package, and you connect your tv and speakers to the BD player and off you go. Very simple. The video signal is handled by the BD player and runs to the tv. The sound is handled by an amplifier in the BD player, and runs out to the speakers. So far, so good.

But what if you have multiple hd sources? A sky hd box, plus a BD player, plus a PS3, plus an HDDVD player. Now you need something that will take audio and video feeds from each source, and run the video to the tv and the audio to the speakers. In short, you need an av amplifier.

So now the limitation of no HDMI in is a bit clearer. If you have a home theatre in a box set up, and a PS3, how do you get hd video and 5.1 or 7.1 channel audio from the PS3? You don't have the facility to run it as a source into the home theatre BD player. Hmm.

Well, the solution depends on your set up. Do you have a second hd source? If not, don't worry about the absence of an HDMI input.

Do you plan to get a second hd source (eg a sky box, or a free view hd box, or a freesat box, or a PS3)? Now you have to plan ahead. If your tv has two HDMI inputs, you can run both your BD player and your second source via HDMI cables direct into the tv. That gives you hd video for each. As for the audio, most home theatre BD players have a spare optical digital audio input, so you can run the audio from your second source into this port, and use the surround amp built into the BD player to get hd audio.

So what other hd sources might you have, how many HDMI inputs does your tv have, and how many spare hd audio inputs does your proposed home theatre BD player have?

Ah, that could be an issue then.

I am looking to Run Sky+HD and XBox360 through the suround sound as well as the blu Ray if possible. Sounds like I would need something with a HDMI Input (presuming I can get an adapter that would allow me to put two or three HDMI leads into one socket?)

Kieran_Burns

Just get a decent amp with multiple HDMI inputs, it's really the best idea

UndercoverElephant

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Just get a decent amp with multiple HDMI inputs, it's really the best idea

http://www.hyperfi.co.uk/onkyo-txsr605- ... p-472.html

For example...

Kieran_Burns

Which is the one I have - out of production but still a VERY good amp

themanfromdelmonte

CyclingBantam wrote:

Ah well that looks to me like my mind is made up. Seems no benefit (other than saving a little bit of cash) in buying a new DVD player now. Might as well go Blu Ray.

What sort of things sould I be looking for in it? What sort of price range do I need to go to to get a 'decent one' (will £400 be enough?)?

I have a HD TV (42") that I am pretty sure is 1080p and a 600hz refresh rate (not sure if that is important but I know it was for watching the sport as it supposedly stopped blurring)

600hz is the lowest common denominator between all the common frame rates used in TV and Movies. There's 60hz NTSC TV (US), 50hz PAL TV (UK) & 24hz Cinema Film. By having a 600hz capable screen, NTSC frames can all be run for an even 10 cycles, PAL for 12 cycles and Movie frames for 25 cycles. Instead of having odd frames displayed for slightly longer than others, it maintains the smoothness of the motion.

Initialised

Paul E wrote:

Only problem with that is, for a none techy person, keeping it all running and maintained is a pain in the ars*, after a while you just want something that switches on quick and plays things easy without having to update driver or codecs etc.

It's fun if you like that kind of thing though.

Even for a Techie keeping it up and running is a royal PITA. But running Crysis 2/CoD/F1 etc... on a 50" PDP with 7.1 Surround is a side benefit of using the PC for films in the living room