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

New room is 35'x21'x12'. Will be a bit smaller by the time we do all the acoustics work - more like 31x19x10' I guess...

Cheers,

Mark

What projector are you going for with a 15ft wide scope screen, Mark?

That's a great question :-|

I've a feeling I'll be starting with a temporary solution, something like a 1-chip 1080p DLP, while we wait for either 3-chip DLP 1080p or Qualia upgrades to be announced.

Still a couple of months to go so... fingers crossed for news

Mark

I watched Serenity last evening, a Universal Release. I thought the picture was excellent and the sound on this particular movie was spectacular. The only painful part was that the disc paused for about two seconds at the scene when the main characters return to their colony to find it destroyed. When the disc resumed playing there was a lip-sync discrepency of about a second and a half! Jumping to the next scene corrected the problem. I'll check tonight to see if it's repeatable. If it is, I'd assume that there is a problem with the authoring of the disc.

Rudy

I got a Toshiba HD-XA1 player yesterday and I'm very impressed with both the video and audio quality. I compared it to a G98 and found it very close in video and audio quality with upscaled S-DVDs (and it blows away a Meridian 598 I have), while HD-DVDs are clearly superior to the upscaled S-DVDs. I'm taking the Toshiba's 24/96 multi-channel PCM audio out via analogue into my G68D, which sounds better than the DTS encoded SPDIF output. (There is no audio decoding bug in the Toshiba - read the latest Toshiba HD-DVD audio avsforum postings on this issue.) Hopefully Meridian will soon provide us with a means to take the HDMI digital 24/96 multi-channel into the G68. The video goes to a Panasonic 900U 720p projector and a 92" De-Lite Model 2 screen. The 8.1 sound system is, of course, Meridian- 6000s, 5500C and 5000s. Given the video and audio quality and its price, the Toshiba is a steal and will spoil both your eyes and ears.

Hi Mark,

What screen and gain did you use? I am considering a 120" 2.35:1 screen also, possibly SR if I can justify the cost or maybe Carada, if I cannot. Are you using masking? If so, mind if I ask who and how much? IR and automated or manual?

The pj is my remaining question also. I still have 10 months left until I need to purchase, so hopefully the next CEDIA and CES will offer more options. Prices in Australia are just too damn expensive for temporary solutions.

As for HD-DVD or Blu-Ray, I think I will hold off and let the dust settle. I'll just try and restrain my envy until the industry picks up the pieces and gives consumers a clear direction.

Cheers,

Chris

Hi Chris,

I will be using a Screen Research CP2 screen with four way masking. Cost is ~�18.5k for 180" wide 2.35:1 format. Control will be RS232 via my existing Crestron system.

Cheers,

Mark

There I was thinking you took this home cinema lark seriously, Mark.

For something so important to the success of the cinema it's an acceptable price to pay. The Meridian kit cost signifcantly more, for instance... as will the acoustics/interior fit out and as did the new building which houses it.

It's all relative

Mark

Very, very nice Mark... don't mind my drool all over this post

I see some of you put off the SACD/DVD-A analogy. I still feel that the situation is similar. People wanted MP3 rips for their harddisks and iPods. For a while they have also preferred DiVX to DVD. I have several friends who - in addition to downloading illegally - rip their DVDs to DivX the moment they buy them (it takes just a few minutes with the right software on a modern PC). For convenience, space saving and taking their favorite movies on the road.

I will indeed be very surprised if the consumer behaves otherwise when HD-DVD or Blue-Ray comes to a shop near them. They will find out it's unrippable, and turn away.

HD will, as HiFi, remain an aqured taste for a tiny minority. The majority will always find mediocrity "good enough".

When CDs replaced LPs and cassetters it happenend partly because of brute force (the record companies stopped producing LPs) and the fact that it WAS a huge improvement. Most people owned really bad LP systems, and even the half-deaf could hear that LP was vastly superior to a needle full of dust.

The DVD replacement of VHS is similar, even if you this time dinn't have a bunch of home theatre freaks complaining about DVD quality and clinging to their old cassettes...

My point is that when a reasonable combination of quality, price and convenience is reached, people will be hard pressed to switch to another format.

Guy,

If HDTV didn't exist, I'd be tempted to agree with you, but it does, and people like what they see and they want their DVDs to look as good too.

There is already huge demand for HD material in the US and Japan and HD is starting to appear in Australia and Europe which will only fuel the demand...

One way or another, I reckon HD video is going to succeed.

Mark