DVD Reviews
Dear Gary:
I think we would all agree that Blu-ray™ has the best picture and sound quality of any source yet offered to the average consumer. However, your decision to stop publishing standard DVD reviews seems a little strange. Not listed in any particular order of importance, I submit the following facts/observations:
• You say that you conducted an extensive survey of your readers before making the decision... I have been a subscriber since year one... I wasn't contacted.
• WSR January/February issue (page 18)... Comcast reports that “33 percent of HDTV owners do not watch high-definition programming.” Interesting. Actually, more than interesting.
• At present time Blu-ray represents an extremely small share of total DVD player and DVD disc sales.
• WSR January/February issue (page 18)... Voom HD is officially shut down. Interesting. You would think that with all those HDTVs out there that there would be an insatiable desire for HD programming. Or maybe, just maybe... it’s not quite that simple. Maybe it’s not just how many channels are available in HD, but which channels are available in HD.
Alright, enough. I’m not going to quote any more articles/facts/ numbers from WSR, or any other audio/video source.
I have worked in audio/video sales for the past five years. I started to put together my first home theatre before the terminology “home theatre” existed. I bought into Beta, then after its demise... VHS. Then LaserDisc. Then standard DVD.
I love movies and music. Especially when it is reproduced on quality, transparent equipment. However... HOWEVER, it’s not quite that simple to predict what I, or most audio/video consumers, will buy into next. It’s just not that simple.
Consider the following chain of events:
• CDs replaced audiotapes in a relatively brief period of time... because of the overall quality and lack of deterioration of the product was that much better!
• DVDs replaced VHS tapes in a relatively brief period of time... because of the overall quality and lack of deterioration of the product was that much better!
The quality difference was huge!
Everyone heard it.
Everyone saw it.
Again, I repeat my opening statement ... Blu-ray has the best picture and sound quality of any source yet offered to the average consumer. Unfortunately, it’s not just about quality. It’s also about the cost of Blu-ray Discs™. It’s also about the technology itself. While the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray battle was on... both camps submitted mostly entry-level players to keep their costs down, in order to provide the consumer with an affordable choice. (Oh, by the way, this also meant keeping down the quality and features promised).
It’s also about the cost of the high-end players now offered (because the format war is over) that are actually beginning to offer the quality possible from the format. It’s also about the fact that all of the above has changed, and continues to change so quickly.
What I hear on a daily basis from the average consumer (who does not read WSR) and is more confused than ever... What do I buy?... Is this compatible with this?... How do I hook this up?...This doesn’t come with this?... What’s this?... How much is that?... You mean, this won’t work with this?... You mean, not all channels are in HD?... I just don’t see the difference... I don’t hear the difference. Will this be obsolete in another year?
But perhaps most of all... it’s about timing. Right now DirectTV and DISH Network are broadcasting a limited selection of pay-per-view movies in 1080p. Cable is soon to follow, as technology permits. The major studios have all signed on with DirectTV, DISH, and Cable to offer new movies in 1080p approximately two months before release on standard DVD and Blu-ray Discs (news release in past issue of Twice Magazine). Interesting. Actually, it's much more than interesting, or newsworthy. It’s all very confusing for the consumer.
Ok, final point, or observation. If WSR is marketed to only true audiophiles/videophiles and those with enough discretionary money to buy whatever they want... then fine, forget about standard DVD. Tell them all about how Blu-ray is the best, absolutely the best!
However, if you care at all about the rest of the world (the real world to many of us), then perhaps you might consider keeping the rest of us informed on standard DVD for just a little while longer.
P.S.––If we are all to take at face value your comments/rationale in your “NEW BLU-RAY DISC REVIEW POLICY” January/February issue (page 12) and Blu-ray is that perfect... then why the need for disc reviews? All the discs are perfect. Perfect 5 rating for picture. Perfect 5 rating for sound. You can’t have it both ways, Gary.
Jay Cervone, Nashville, Tennessee,
editorgary@widescreenreview.com
Editor-In-Chief and Publisher Gary Reber Comments:
Wow! You have presented a lot of points to address.
Our survey was conducted on our Web site, not through the print medium. As you know, all print subscribers receive a full access pass to the Webzine. It was on our Web site for quite some time. I did promote the survey rather extensively, as well, in the Editor’s Couch section of Issue 135, October 2008.
The reports that “33 percent of HDTV owners do not watch high-definition programming” is indeed interesting and probably reflects the fact that most people purchasing HDTVs are replacing their “TV” in their home. These people have never been picture and sound enthusiasts, nor have they pursued an enthusiast interest in a home theatre system experience. They typically watch TV in a lit room and listen through the built-in display loudspeakers. They definitely do not read Widescreen Review. Nor do they have an interest in premium performance video and audio equipment. Typically, they have not been exposed to the full experience of high-definition viewing and high-resolution listening. There are limited retail outlets (and endangered at that) to visit to experience a proper demonstration, and thus the majority of people will not cultivate an appreciation for quality if they cannot experience it in their lives.
Yes, it is true that Blu-ray Disc, at this time, represents a small share of total optical disc playback in the home, but the format is far in the lead of adoption, compared to the same time period for DVD adoption, and all projections indicated that by 2013 Blu-ray Disc will be the predominate format. Today, it has achieved “entry mass-market” status.
The majority of people do not want to pay for premium HD channels on satellite or cable. This is a function of economics rather than a function of quality. Channel availability has been steadily moving to “pay-for-view,” whether it is a selected package of premium HD channels, or selected single-program viewing. Such premium and targeted viewing is charged for by satellite and cable companies. There is still the option for “free” TV and HDTV via traditional broadcast, and I should point out that the HDTV quality of such over-the-air broadcasts is superior in picture quality compared to the same programming offered on satellite and cable. Still all “premium” options cost money, and they are limited in picture and sound performance.
I can relate perfectly to your personal evolution in the appreciation of a quality sound and picture experience. I too started viewing Beta first, then VHS, then LaserDisc, etc. In fact, I was associated, with Tate Audio in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Tate Audio was a technology company who developed advanced matrix decoding logic for surround sound and licensed its technology to CBS Laboratories for SQ Quadraphonic and Dolby® Stereo (CP50 processor) in professional cinemas. The first Tate Audio logic circuits were introduced in the early 1980s in a home theatre processor under the brand names of Fosgate and Audionics. I often conducted demonstrations with engineers from Sony, Japan using a Fosgate Tate 101 processor and ordinary off-the-shelf Beta and VHS tapes of movies with stereo soundtracks, showing how the matrix Dolby Surround four-channel encoding embedded in these soundtracks can be extracted in the home using the Fosgate Tate 101 processor. So, my history with surround sound goes back to the very beginning days of engineering development. Since then I have been active in the refinement of such technologies and have often been a producer of music and video concert specials using multichannel sound and multi-camera production technologies.
I founded Widescreen Review in 1992 with a focus on home theatre sourced with a “small niche” format called LaserDisc. This was a time when every household owned a VHS recorder/player. WSR pointed out that while LaserDisc was definitely superior in picture and sound quality to VHS, there were incredible differences among the movies released relative to picture and sound quality of the productions. This is true to this day with DVD releases, and it is true with respect to Blu-ray Disc releases. It is true with any playback medium, whether music or video produced. It has to do with the production values attained during production and the care to which the source material is post-produced and mastered for distribution on various consumer playback mediums.
Thus, there will always be inferior, mediocre, and reference-quality presentations released on consumer playback mediums, whether DVD or Blu-ray Disc, or over-the-air or satellite/cable distribution, or Internet download or for that matter any future release format.
It is one of our core missions at Widescreen Review to review releases for their picture and sound quality attributes, or lack thereof, so that our readers can gain some insight as to what to expect when they experience these releases on properly set up and calibrated home theatre systems. Of course, LaserDisc was the first option consumers had for a high-quality home theatre experience. This was superceded by DVD, which overtime, significantly improved in quality due to refinements in the technology, MPEG-2 codec, and the more focused attention to the source and post-production values. Then HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc. Blu-ray Disc won the competitive battle and now is the format standard for high-definition optical disc reproduction.
Every movie or music
performance starts out with an original source master recording. What our readers need to know is that given the same source and post-production mastering values, the Blu-ray Disc edition will always look better than the DVD release of the same title. If there are differences, then there are differences in the source and post-production mastering values used to create the DVD and Blu-ray Disc. In today’s world, a single post-produced master serves ALL release formats. Thus, understanding this, our readers should know that whatever picture and sound score we judge a Blu-ray Disc release, the same relative score will apply to the DVD release. But, don’t forget that the Blu-ray Disc will always look and sound better than the DVD release.
And don’t forget that the DVD format is limited to 480 interlace (“i”) resolution (which can be scaled to 1080p or so-called “near” 1080p quality) and that Blu-ray Disc is real 1080 progressive (“p”) resolution. These are significant differences in resolution that are obvious to anyone when the video quality is compared. Also DVD is limited to lossy compressed Dolby Digital and DTS® Digital Surround, while Blu-ray Disc offers lossless Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio™ up to eight discrete channels, as well as uncompressed multichannel discrete PCM. This is a tremendous differentiation in sound performance.
Also, readers should know that not all high-definition delivery is the same quality; that just because the credit is 1080p in one medium that the quality is the same as the 1080p in another medium. Currently, there is no other medium, whether broadcast or download that can equal the picture and sound performance of Blu-ray Disc. Period.
If one cannot appreciate these significant differences in picture and sound quality, then either the picture display they’re viewing and sound system they’re listening to are faulty or not properly calibrated, or he or she is deficient in sight and hearing.
Now, as to the cost differences. I believe this is the real upset. Unfortunately, the studios and the Blu-ray Disc patent holders have structured pricing significantly higher than that of DVD. Thus, Blu-ray Disc prices have remained expensive. This was true initially for DVD disc and player pricing as well, when compared to VHS pricing. This is about to change, and we should see a significant reduction in both disc and player pricing, which will open up the market adoption rates.
Our decision to switch to reviewing Blu-ray Disc exclusively reflects our original mission to seek out “the best that it can be” in picture and sound performance in a home theatre experience. We’ve been through this transition before from LaserDisc to DVD, and now from DVD to Blu-ray Disc. Still, readers will from time to time pick up on comments made in our reviews, pointing out the superiority of the Blu-ray Disc performance to the DVD. Readers will have to decide whether to purchase the Blu-ray Disc edition or the DVD edition or to rent one or the other, or view it via a broadcast medium.
You are right in stating that the “average” consumer does not read Widescreen Review. I wish they did because then, over time, they would come to understand the technologies and the performance levels to be appreciated, and they would come to be far less confused. But, we have always intended to stay true to our enthusiast readers who what to understand the various home theatre technologies and how to optimize system performance. There is no doubt that today’s technologies are complex and, thus, require much thought and research to digest. The Blu-ray Disc format is the format that is at the top of the class and the one that other technologies are migrating to. Widescreen Review will continue to explore these technologies and new developments and welcome everyone interested to join us in this exploratory adventure.
As for obsolesce, I think that Blu-ray Disc will be here for a very long time. There will be upgrades for 3D but 1080p/24-frames-per-second resolution is far superior in home viewing to the majority of cinemas one can see a movie in. And 7.1-channel-discrete-lossless audio is also far superior to the cinema experience. And as production values get better in making movies and post-production mastering, these performance improvements will significantly result in an even better picture and sound experience in the home via Blu-ray Disc. Of course, there will be competition from broadcast and downloads, but Blu-ray Disc has the inherent core technologies, including expanded GB capacity, to always be superior in performance.
Thank you for contributing this letter and expressing your concerns. Follow our Blu-ray Disc reviews and interpolate our judgments with respect to picture and sound scores to the corresponding DVD editions, and I think that you will find that to be a reliable barometer of DVD quality.
You can E-mail Widescreen Review @ editorgary@widescreenreview.com