Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems Bob Stuart Slams HD-DVD & Bluray

I've been reading that there are audio problems with some of the early releases...

Mark

Yes, allegedly Warner have admitted a problem (albeit behind closed doors) that there is a fault with the audio mastering on both Last Samurai and Phantom of the Opera. I've yet to see confirmation of this from anyone of any real authority to confirm it for sure however.

Million Dollar Baby didn't come out on the 18th as planned and was delayed, and confirmed by Warner, due to 'technical issues'... It's purely guesswork whether such issues suggest Warner caught the audio problem in time before sending that title out. Serenity from Universal is apparently just fine. We'll have to see if Million Dollar Baby turns out to be any different when people get their hands on it over the coming week.

The problem certainly doesn't seem to be related to the fact the player is having to do real-time re-encoding of the DD+ track and turning it into DTS when using SPDIF. Some have suggested it might actually be down to the different ways a disc can be authored with regards to the iHD menu system, but as I say, we're now hearing reports claiming it to be an error on the mastering end that the Studio is at least aware of it. We'll have to wait and see how things turn out.

So like I said previously, this is why I'm not that excited about HD DVD and I don't think it will make it. The improvement really isn't worth it and then there is the copy protection. Do these disc's have the flag to stop the use of the analog outputs at full resolution?

I am getting a player to try out this weekend so I am a curious to see for myself. I still have that early adoption bug but this isn't going to be my player. It's for someone else.

Ron

I agree with you Ron,

Joe sixpack will be watching Sky sports in the pub, why should he care.

(UK Lifestyle)

Cheers, Chris

No. ICT isn't set on any of the launch titles. Until people got their hands on the discs Warner was the only studio they were not sure about since they never said anything beforehand, whereas Paramount, Universal, Fox, Disney and Sony/MGM have all said they don't intend to use it "for now" on the formats they've personally chosen to support.

It still remains to be seen whether Warner seek to activate the flag on new releases though. Since all we're getting form them at the moment are catalogue titles they might not have as much interest in restricting resolution over analogue on those, although it's a silly way to go about things if they are looking to implement ICT only on new releases because they'll become catalogue titles eventually themselves.

In my experience the 'average consumer' has never even heard of the two formats, let alone listened to any content!

Martin

Very true, Martin!

Ron, you should pop over to AVSForum and read some of the HD forums posts - most are very positive about what is being seen with the new HD sources.

Mark

Mark_H wrote: Is that what Meridian did with DVD-A? I hadn't realised.

This will probably seem complacent but I've read a lot recently in magazines like Stereophile and on sites like this about how the industry is not managing the interests of audiophiles and "videophiles" adequately, which seems implicit in this thread. Anyone with M kit, even Joe Six Pack, has moved beyond the "man in the street" position. The process of making such an investment develops skills of appreciation and discernment that allow one to focus on details that the man in the street is unaware of, not uncaring of. Mark, I don't doubt that the appreciation of music and video is what drives you, but your level of investment and your undertsanding of what you've got marks you out as a highly discerning consumer. Unfortunately, the higher our powers of discernment, the more specific our points of interest and the higher the cost of products that can satisfy. LOL, as people say. People on this forum wil always be at the leading edge of consumer appreciation, even if their investment is a couple of years behind.

I don't know if the currently evolving technology is worth supporting but I definitely don't believe it will be lost if we don't buy it. CD and DVD were step changes forward from vinyl and VHS - albeit for the CD/Vinyl debate you have to allow that convenience and utility is a big part of the step, as vinyl is still aurally competitive. The step change was such that technology absolutely led the market and the marketing people. It was irrefutable. At present, the marketing people are forcing the market and I'm left hoping for the next step change, which I'm unconviced is offered by Bluray or HD-DVD. Given the DVD-A experience, I won't invest until the benefits are clearly offered - irrefutable performance increase, substantial software library, undeniable incremental development potential without the need to wholly reinvest in hardware. Maybe we need to make the industry work harder at providing the step change by decrying and denying the current incremental offering. I'd be happy to see DVD hold sway for now whilst the industry sorts out standard interfaces, encryption and other things that matter. I'd hate to see DVD fail to be sustained at this time because then we'll be left with unconvincing replacements of a format that has not truly reached it's sell-by date yet.

Regards,
Steve

Steve,

I prefer the phrase "the bleeding edge" cus it hurts so much to be there

Meridian were actually about 2 years behind the first offerings for DVD-A players. By the time they delivered their product I was already listening to full resolution digital output via a hacked DVD-A player and I still haven't, nor have any plans to, upgrade my 800 to DVD-A compatible status...

I also now use a TacT TCS2 processor, in place of my 861, because TacT delivered digital room-correction about two years before Meridian's offering...

It's frustrating to me as an owner of kit as capable as Meridian's to be forced to go to a competitor for support as I will once again be forced to do in order to play HD-DVD/Blu-Ray discs.

I suspect my 800 [with third-party SDI card!] will now become a legacy device used for my DVDs.

The only Meridian kit I will continue to actively use are my DSP5500/D2500.

Cheers,

Mark

Mark,

I hang out on the AVSforum so I'll take a look. Still 15% improvement on a Ruby no less. Doesn't seem like a big difference for a big screen size. Most people have under 50 inches so its even less noticable. Thats my point. The folks on the forum and a lot of you folks have theaters and big screens. I'm at 120" diagonal myself.

I'm getting a HD player tomorrow to try out...I'll let you know what I think.

Ron

Look forward to the report.

Certainly the larger the screen the easier to see the difference.

You should be able to clearly see benefits on your screen.

My current screen is 10' wide but a new cinema is under construction (10 weeks to completion) which will sport a 15' wide 2.35:1 screen. This will demand the best sources available.

Mark

15' wide! Holy Cow! I'm only 8.6' wide and thats big. How big is your new room. My new room is 24.5'L x 15.5'W x9'H and I sit 16 feet back from the screen. I myself don't care to have to turn my head when watching a movie. When I gop to a cinema I sit towards the back of the cinema.