Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems HD621 Does it support 4K?

Don't discount the resolution completely. From the 4K I've seen, the resolution is a very noticeable upgrade over Bluray and it gives a significant improvement to the image, and if that's all that was on offer I'd take it without hesitation.

HDR has yet to prove itself... and to untangle all the competing formats...

I think the resolution depends on many things - screen size and viewing distance being both the same.

A crisper clearer image from a PJ is never a bad thing and for those with 4k PJ's and no HDR compatibility then it's not the end of the world to go in early.

The Panny UHD Bluray Player supposedly has

High Quality Sound

●TWIN HDMI PURE AV (Twin Isolated Output）
●7.1ch Analog Audio Output
●High-quality Audio Parts (Power Supply, Audio Circuit, Digital Circuit)
●High Clarity Sound Premium
●HDMI Low Clock Jitter Process
●Digital Tube Sound with Up-sampling
●High-resolution Audio Playback (DSD (2.8MHz/5.6MHz), ALAC, FLAC, WAV)
●192kHz/32bit DAC x 5
●192kHz/96kHz Surround Re-master

Does that mean a Torrodial based Power Supply - one can hope so

Yes, indeed. With a 15' wide screen I have already verified, using test patterns, that I can resolve all the 4K detail from my seating position.

With my TV (55") I can only just resolve 1080p from my seating distance, so for that setup, HDR and wide gamut are really the things to look forward to. I do suspect that a 4K image could still look better due to higher bitrate/less compression and so it will outperform that same 1080p source. Certainly 4K images on the TV have looked very good indeed.

Exiting times. But still no UHD players to order in the UK

I sit about 7 feet from a 100" Scope.
It's as immersive as it gets, here the resolution and bit rate increase will be most welcome.

Regarding the sound, i would rather take advantage of the superior digital audio processing of the Meridian 861 by routing the standard DTS HD MA/Dolby True HD (converted by the player to PCM) output from the 4K Bluray player into the HD621/861.
It will be better quality overall than the analogue output from the Panny UHD.

Also DSD is a gimmick. Studios record in 24/192 PCM. You cant mix in DSD. 16/44 or 16/96 gives all the resolution and dynamic range we can hear or feel.

Redbook CD quality 16/44 still has not been perfected. It is the quality of the master recording which matters, and not the bit rate or sampling rate.
Meridian MQA will hopefully wipe out the craving for ridiculous high data rate resolutions such as 24/192 or 24/384 etc. The DSD data rates are crazy.

I remember last decade watching DVD movies (so standard definition 720x576) on my Cine9 9" CRT projector on a 120" screen. The picture went through a video processor to scale it up to 720 or 1080P.
The picture was stunningly cinematic, with lifelike colours. I would say overall better than my current Sony digital projector displaying 1080P Bluray movies.

Playing the same DVD's on the Sony and the picture looks far worse. In effect picture quality has gone backwards from what i used to have over 10 years ago.
So resolution does not always dictate picture quality. Maybe just the sharpness.

I sit 11ft from my 125" cinemascope screen and when I watch my 4K movies it look great. I could go closer and appreciate it even more but my seating distance is more for HD at this point.

I will just be waiting for Oppo to release their UHD player and hopefully M release and upgraded HD621 in the near future. Time to start saving I guess.

I remember last decade watching DVD movies (so standard definition 720x576) on my Cine9 9" CRT projector on a 120" screen. The picture went through a video processor to scale it up to 720 or 1080P.

The picture was stunningly cinematic, with lifelike colours. I would say overall better than my current Sony digital projector displaying 1080P Bluray movies.
[/quote]

The Cine9 was one of the best CRTs out there (better even than my Barco 812), but even at the time, switching from DVD to real 1080p material it was obvious how poor DVD was in comparison. No way does 1080p on a Sony look worse than DVD on a CRT. If it does, then something is wrong in your chain

Once blu-ray arrived I stopped watching DVD. I'm hoping for a similar experience with UHD. My blu-ray collection is about to become legacy...

Hi Mark
Just out of curiosity, could you answer the following please.

1) What is your normal seating / viewing distance from your 55" TV Display ... i.e. where you can "just resolve 1080p"?

2) Did you happen to ascertain at what distance 4k detail / resolution [i.e. not HDR, DCI or wide gamut] might be visible on e.g. a 50 to 55" display??... I've seen "prediction charts" saying 4k res only detectable out to 7-8ft with 20:20 vision... but I'm wondering what your experience has been??... [and I know all of this is completely different for your 15' wide screen]

Thanks for any info you can provide.

As a follow on to the above, do you think that the latest Panasonic 900 and LG OLED 65" 4k displays are capable of exploiting ALL of the features of UHD Content [when it becomes fully available]

Or as with the current UHD Players, is one better off waiting until the 2nd half of 2016 to see what any Updated model may bring to the party??

Thanks

Sorry this is missing what I meant - that is all I would use the player for - however I wished I had bought an Audiocom upgraded Oppo over my Marantz.
I feel the benefits of good power supply, good clocks and rfi attention is just as important for digital as analgoue.
So if the Panny does have a torodial - proper power supply for sound quality it might be a keeper for those without HDR based PJ's

Other than that I would want all to go via the M kit for 100% sure lets hope the HD621 replacement has a torodial supply also

For my TV I sit around 11' away. Using an alternating on/off pixel pattern the lines are starting to blur for me at this distance (I have 20/10 corrected vision). If I move a couple of feet forward I can distinguish the lines clearly.
Yes, using 4K test patterns (Joe Kane) I had to sit about 3' from the screen to see full maximum 4K resolution patterns

HOWEVER, for TV broadcasts, upscaled DVD and average blu-rays, they are not reaching 1080p at my seating distance due to compression. The 4K images looked better, even though I was only resolving 1080p resolution at my seating distance, simply because they carry much more detail than 1080p sources.

So, I strongly suspect that 4K *resolution* will still look better than many 1080p sources even at normal TV viewing distances. Add in HDR and wide gamut and things get very interesting.