Archive for February, 2009
How to Get the Best Picture From Your Blu-Ray System
February 26th, 2009 | 
Author: 
If you have just recently purchased a Blu-ray Player or you’re thinking of purchasing one, you should realize it may not be as simple to set-up or connect to your TV/Home Entertainment center as you did with your old VCR or DVD player. This is mainly because the Blu-ray player is forcing manufacturers to change the way they are making TVs and AV receivers, causing these manufacturers to play catch up in order to give viewers the full benefits of this new technology.
So in order to get the best performance out of your Blu-ray player, here are some tips or guidelines you will need to correctly set-up your player. Also highlighted are some of the problems you might encounter when adding a blu-ray player to your Home Entertainment system.
Getting The Best Picture From Blu-ray:
Blu-ray players are manufactured to work on any TV that has component inputs, regardless if the TV is High Definition or not. However, having a Blu-ray player connected to a HDTV (High Definition TV) via the HDMI or component video inputs will allow you to get the full HD experience from your Blu-ray Player. So even though connections can be made to any TV with at least composite video inputs, in order to get the high definition Blu-ray resolution(1080/24p) you really need a 1080p HDTV. HDMI stands for High Definition Multimedia Interface and is the new standard for transmitting uncompressed digital data from your player to your TV set, just make sure all your devices have HDMI outputs or inputs. HDMI cables can be expensive, try to get a package deal where these are included with the product you’re buying.
First, you should know the difference between a HDTV (High Definition TV) and HD Ready TV, you only have to remember one key difference: if your set has a built-in digital tuner it is HDTV, if it doesn’t have this built-in tuner, it is HD Ready. So when a HDTV is labeled HD Ready, it means a television set does not include a built-in tuner for receiving over the air signals in high definition through an antenna. To overcome this problem, if you have HD cable, the box provided to you by the service provider will receive the HD signal necessary to give you high definition images on your HDTV. So even if you only have a HD Ready TV you will still have no problems watching Blu-ray high definition movies on it.
Now, having a 720p HDTV is recommended, but a 1080p HDTV would be your best option. This is because all blu-ray movies are stored on the disk in 1080p at 24 frames/second. You will often see this referred to as 1080p/24p. The original film was shot at this rate and the blu-ray format allows you to view the movie as the director wanted it to be seen. You should definitely be aware of older blu-ray players that were not capable of displaying 1080p/24p. These blu-ray players will convert the 1080p/24p signal to 1080p/60p using the ‘3:2 pulldown’ technique. This means one frame is played 3 times and the next is played 2 times and so forth. One frame gets to be on the screen longer than the other causing a slight error in the video signal, commonly called telecine judder, the picture appears to have a slightly jerky movement.
Most of the newest blu-ray players have 1080/24 p output. But not all TVs can support 1080/24p. So feeding your 1080/24p signal into a television that cannot support it will result in the TV converting the incoming signal to 50 or 60Hz. This will also produce the telecine judder or vibration in the picture. Luckily most of the latest LCD and plasma TV set can now easily handle the 1080/24p signal.
To summarize, in order to get the best quality picture you need the following:
- Blu-ray Player with 1080/24p output signal
- Television that can support 1080/24p
- HDMI cable for connection
- For HD Television broadcasts you need HD cable service
This will give you the best cinematic images when watching movies or TV programs in the comfort of your own home. Happy viewing!
By: Titus Hoskins
Environmentally Friendly DVD and Blu-Ray Cases – Alternative to Troublesome Packaging
If you think about it, plastic packaging for DVDs and Blu-Ray discs aren’t really that bad in terms of function and practicality.
I just won a BluRay player. What do I really have here?
* Can I play regular DVD’s on this thing?
* Will the picture be even better?
* Will a regular HDMI cable be okay or do I need something special?
* Is this BluRay stuff gonna be around for a while or is there something else coming along soon?
* I heard the BluRay DVD’s are very expensive. True? Or are they expected to get cheaper or.. maybe, fade away (just another techno-fad)?
* Should I keep the BluRay for BluRay DVDs and the HD for old DVDs?
Obviously, I know little about this stuff. Can anyone offer any suggestions? Thanks.
By: da boomp
Posted in TiVO & DVRs | 
Tags: 1080p, Bd, Blu Ray Disc Player, Bluray Dvd, Fad, Flat Screen, Player Model, Samsung Dvd, Stuff, Techno | 
3 Comments »
Is there a diff w/Pixar movies on regular Dvd verses Bluray? ?
By: J J
Why Does My High-Def TV Look Terrible?
High-def TVs are great, but they don’t always look as good as promised. Worse, the issue you’re having isn’t always under your control to fix. Here are a few reasons you may be having problems with your picture, and what you can do to make it better.
Your Blu-Ray Disk Player Is Not Compatible.
Most people planning to get a new high-def TV are also planning to pick up a Blu-ray disk player as well. You might expect all these technologies would work together smoothly – but you’d be wrong. Unfortunately, there are some serious compatibility issues with certain Blu-ray players if you don’t have the right high-def TV. Read your specifications very carefully. Your high-def TV should be able to accept external 1080p signals from a scaling media player (DVD, HD-DVD, or Blu-ray). If it does not specify this, and your media player needs to scale the picture, call tech support.
Your Cable Company Is An Ass
In most cases, your HD will work, or it won’t; there is no snow, smudging, or other in-between issue. If your HD picture looks bad, it’s probably your cable (or satellite) company’s fault. HDTV signals need to be compressed to be broadcast properly, but they can be compressed too much. If your company uses a channel intended for only one data stream and squeezes two or more into it, your picture quality will almost certainly suffer. The only thing you can do about this is call the cable company and tell them what you think about it – or switch your providers.
You Need Better Cables
In most cases, provided your cables are short you don’t need expensive HDMI or DVI cabling for your system. You will get just as good a picture by using cheaper video cables. However, longer cables, especially cables near any source of interference, may corrupt your signal. This causes you to not have a picture at all, in most cases. Try hooking back up with a shorter cable; if that works, get the shielded, or change your setup.
You’re Playing Poorly-Recorded Discs
Not all movies are created the same. Sometimes the master that Blu-ray discs must use when they’re copied are not in the best condition, or the technician does not set up his parameters properly. This is another issue you can’t do anything about, but you can head it off by searching online before investing in any discs. New movies won’t have a problem, but the older library of stuff may have issues, and other people online will have found this and posted about it.
In addition, your regular television programs and DVDs may look fuzzier on your high-def TV than they did originally on your old set. That’s normal, and is due to the higher resolution having the net effect of magnifying irregularities – it’s like looking at printed paper through a magnifying glass. You see all the flaws. This is something you just have to live with.
My Friend’s Small Flatscreen Looks Better Than My Giant High-Def TV
Did you check the resolution? No matter the size of the screen, the resolution is what determines how clear your picture is. A large LCD TV often has lower resolution than a smaller plasma TV, resulting in a lower quality picture. Always look at the resolution before making a decision.
By: Des Smalls
