Technical Issues and Questions

[Morgan Creek]

If viewers are going to be watching the screen from (at most) 8-9 feet away, what is the optimum screen size one should plan on getting?

Michael, you can try this

[Michael Kerpan]

If viewers are going to be watching the screen from (at most) 8-9 feet away, what is the optimum screen size one should plan on getting?

Michael, you can try this

Thanks. Their formula points to a bigger screen than I suspect I would find comfortable, however. ;~}

[domino harvey]

try this instead: 5 inches for every foot you sit away from the TV.

[Michael Kerpan]

try this instead: 5 inches for every foot you sit away from the TV.

5 inches horizontal -- or diagonal?

[domino harvey]

try this instead: 5 inches for every foot you sit away from the TV.

5 inches horizontal -- or diagonal?

Diagonal, and then round to the nearest TV size.

[Michael Kerpan]

try this instead: 5 inches for every foot you sit away from the TV.

5 inches horizontal -- or diagonal?

Diagonal, and then round to the nearest TV size.

Interesting.

Matches just what I thought (totally unscientifically) was the most likely size. ;~}

[subliminac]

I wouldn't go with anything less than 46" at that distance. On a smaller size tv films with a widescreen ratio will still look good, but I think you'll find that those in academy ratio or cinemascope will appear a little lacking.

[Morbii]

I'm somewhere around 9 feet I believe. I used to have a 42" and while it was a nice size, I think I yearned for more. I purchased a 52" this year and it's a vast improvement. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever considered that I might want more this time around for that distance.

[Michael Kerpan]

I'm somewhere around 9 feet I believe. I used to have a 42" and while it was a nice size, I think I yearned for more. I purchased a 52" this year and it's a vast improvement. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever considered that I might want more this time around for that distance.

I bet 52" is pretty far outside my budget. ;~}

I won't be buying anything until I resolve the LCD/plasma dilemma to my own satisfaction, however.

[Morbii]

I would strongly consider LCD in your case, Michael, since you seem like you'll probably want to hang onto the television for a while. Plasma televisions, while having a better contrast ratio, still (and probably always will) have issues with burn-in. Grant it, the newer tech ones probably last longer. I guess it really depends on how long you want to keep your television for. For a lower end Plasma without burn-in protection, I believe you want to consider 3-5 years. For one that has burn-in protection technology it's longer but I can't really say (you might want to investigate this if you haven't already).

Also to consider is the new Organic LEDs coming out. You'd probably have to wait a while, though, as its new and expensive (I believe Sony either has or announced an 11" starting at like $3500 - I haven't been to the site in a while). The huge thing about those it he 1000000:1 contrast ratio.

[Antoine Doinel]

I've been having a weird problem with my TV lately. Whenever I play a DVD, the picture I'm getting just isn't "sharp" or crisp as it usually is. There seems be a lot of digital noise and particularly in landscape shots, the pixelization is fairly noticeable. I've watched a few different DVDs of late on TV shows (obviously shot at a lower quality) the issue isn't as bad, but on films lately like Into The Wild or No Country For Old Men it's a lot more apparent.

Now, when I watch regular TV I can't tell if it's a problem with my TV or not. The reception and quality varies from channel to channel (it's regular cable not digital or anything) and that's usually been the case (channels I get from the States aren't as crisp as local stations etc).

So my question is, could it be my TV? (It's a Toshiba CRT flat, less than a year old) Or is it my DVD player? (JVC, at least a few years old. Progressive, not upscaling.)

Or is it some combination of both? I haven't changed any settings of late or anything.

I'm going to try a different DVD player on the TV (I have another one in the house) but has anyone ever encountered something like this?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

David, a couple of ideas to try if the toggling doesn't work:

Is the laptop connected directly to the projector or via a receiver? I have the same projector as you and I found it a bit fussy with connections e.g. my old HDMI 1.1 DVD player doesn't work when connected directly to the projector, but works fine when passed through a receiver. Try connecting via a receiver (make sure the receiver supports the framerate selected on the laptop, or change the laptop playback if it doesn't - only the newer HDMI 1.3 receivers support 24Hz i.e. 24fps playback). If already using a receiver try a direct connection.

If that doesn't work then try playing a region B Blu-ray without using AnyDVD. If that works then the probable cause is HDCP being switched off by AnyDVD - means the handshake between the two components is failing and you might not be able to play other region discs. If it doesn't work, then... dunno.

[fiddlesticks]

David, I had a similar problem hooking up my new Blu-capable laptop (HP Pavilion dv9830) directly to each of two HDTVs. The problem for me turned out to be that the software would not permit the Blu playback to exist on two devices at once. The solution, the specifics of which I found in a post by "icplanets" here, was to configure the TV (or projector in your case) as a second monitor in dual format, which in effect gives you a double-wide monitor with the laptop screen on the left and the TV/projector on the right. Then all you need to do is transfer (i.e., drag) the Blu player from the laptop screen to the TV/projector. It worked perfectly for me, but as always YMMV. Good luck.

[Darth Lavender]

AnyDVD is a nice concept, but at that ridiculous price I don't see how people can NOT pirate it.
(Besides, if you want to get technical about the legalities of piracy, AnyDVD is probably illegal in Australia, America, etc. anyway because of DRMC or whatever those laws are called (the company technically operates out of a small South American country to sidestep those laws))

To an extent, it's unfair to steal from the little guy, etc. but you must admit paying $100 or whatever it works out to just for the sake of watching Blu-Rays (which you've paid for) is pretty ridiculous. (Perhaps a more 'ethical' pirate would pay for AnyDVD, then pirate $100 worth of blu-rays to make up the difference )

Anyway, just discovered my own new graphics card is HDCP compliant (been using a analogue connection until now) and my blu-ray purchases are relatively infrequent (and all, so far, multi-region)

I have to say, though, I find it genuinely odd that the cracking of HD has been so commerical. Ordinarily, these types of nifty little devices (like the excellent "Daemon Tools" for tricking your computer into thinking an ISO file is a physical CD) are distributed free, by crackers who are just proud of their work for whatever reason ("kickin' it to the man," technical expertise, copyleft, whatever...)

[fiddlesticks]

David, if you go back to the "icplanets" postI linked above, he mentions the sound (HDMI vs. notebook speakers) problem in his point 8. Since his solution to that problem is specific to the HP QuickPlay software (which, by the way, is shite), I don't know how to translate it for your setup, but try looking in the audio output sections of either AnyDVD or your control panel. Setting it to SPDIF would be "sound through HDMI" and whatever other option would be "sound through notebook." I guess. Technology newer than my old Commodore 64 tends to baffle me a bit, too! Hope that helps, anyway.

[bjeggert82]

I've got a problem:

I just bought the Batman Begins Blu-ray disc. I'm attempting to play it in my Sony player (BDP-S300) purchased three months ago at Best Buy. All of my other Blu-ray discs work fine. When I put in BB, it takes a long time loading. Then, just when the Warner Bros. lot image begins to wave in, the image freezes and my DVD player shuts off.

I returned the disc to Best Buy for another one, thinking it was faulty disc. The new disc did the same thing.

Is there something wrong with my Blu-ray player? Any ideas?

[denti alligator]

Have you tried upgrading the firmware?

You should check the forums at highdefdigest.com to see if it's a common problem.

[bjeggert82]

I'm looking into what exactly that is and how to do it online... thanks for the suggestion.

[Godot]

This thread on the Blu-ray.com forum corraborates bjeggert82's issue, as well as offering helpful suggestions on how to update your firmware (download file, burn disc, load disc, etc.).

[bjeggert82]

Got it working after downloading the Firmware file and uploading onto the DVD player. Works great now (and the Batman Begins disc looks wonderful).

Thanks for the suggestion!!!

[Toxicologist]

Apologies if this is the wrong place etc.

Just wondering if I'm beginning to experience problems with my fairly old Pioneer player.

Upon playing the discs within the Teshigahara CC Boxset it seems the motor starts and stops, the screen stays black and it is some 20-30 seconds or so before the main menu screens appear etc...Was just wondering if perhaps the laser on my player was getting out of alignment or whether it was inherent with the discs in the boxset?

[TheRanchHand]

Non-region DVDs on NTSC TV Aspect issues

I am in the US with an NTSC TV and an old APEX 600 all region player.

I notice that when I play some DVDs that are wider aspect images, they still play stretched to fit my 4x3 tube. I go into menu and toggle between Normal, wide and Normal letterbox but all settings have the same effect: A slight black bar at top and bottom but pretty much 1.33 frame.

For instance, if I play Criterion's L'avventura I get the 1.77 matte. But if I play Umbrella's Region 4, the image is squished to fill the TV.

Am I missing something or for some reason do widescreen outer region DVDs just not show in their native aspect on an NTSC TV? I have noticed this with the double disc of Predator as well as Madman's Red Desert but if I play an NTSC DVD that is wide it will play correctly.

[Antoine Doinel]

So - I'm looking into buying my first true flat panel TV, and the most I've decided so far is that I'm look at LCD instead of plasma.

I'm just looking for advice around here as to what specs I should really be paying attention to. I definitely will make sure it has 1080p output capability as a PS3 will be arriving on my birthday and Blu-Ray will enter my life. But is are there any other standards I need to be looking for? Brands that are recommended or stay away from? I'm not buying a Sony TV as, outside their video game systems (and even then), their reliability is questionable (in my experience).

Also, I see some TVs show 1080i but not 1080p -- is that a cause for concern?

[redbill]

you won't find a 1080i lcd, it will either be 720p or 1080p. High contrast ratio is good, 120hz is good so you can watch at 24fps without having to do 3:2 pulldown. I'd recommend Sony or Samsung. Sony is more expensive, and better, but I don't think necessarily worth the extra cost over Samsung. But I do think the cheaper ones (vizio) are not worth the cheaper cost. Meaning you get what you pay for... up to a point.

[King Prendergast]

o, I see some TVs show 1080i but not 1080p -- is that a cause for concern?

Yes!! Blue ray is 1080p. must get the p