HT Potpourri
Dear Gary:
I’m a longtime subscriber to Widescreen Review because of its honesty and integrity.
Just a couple of points before the technical questions:
1. CD sales have declined proportionally to the decline in the music industry. Who wants to listen to American Idol spin-offs and rap? Catering to the teens is poetic justice because they are great pirates. A couple of years ago, I quit going to movies because of the “tech-savvy” teens who were using their cell phones while the movie was playing—maybe they were recording it.
2. Sony has won, thanks to Walmart. With a large inventory of SD DVDs, I won’t be replacing them anytime soon with the $25 to $50 Blu-ray Discs™, but I will buy a Blu-ray Disc player when all the manufacturers are making them with Profile 2.0 specs with no computer updates.
Questions:
1. How many DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray Disc titles are actually 7.1-channel encoded? Could Widescreen Review publish a list of them with updates in future issues?
2. Is there a noticeable viewing difference between Silicon Optix’s Realta and Reon HQV processing for upconverting SD DVDs?
3. Logically, upconverting should be done in the DVD player, but HQV processing is now available in receivers/surround processors and televisions. Is it necessary/overkill to have HQV in all three components in one system to reap its benefits?
Neil Godwin, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Managing Editor Danny Richelieu Comments:
According to our online database, we have confirmed 28 titles released with 7.1-channel soundtracks. Because of New Line’s recent folding into parent studio Warner Bros. (New Line released half of those 28 titles), there haven’t been many new releases in 7.1, but we will continue to point out which new titles are mixed in 7.1 in our Discography and on our Web site.
From what I understand, the Silicon Optix Realta and Reon-VX chipsets perform the majority of functions quite similarly, but the Realta can do more. The Reon-VX does not handle as wide of a variety of cadences as the Realta, and the Realta is more easily upgraded when new, improved algorithms are created by Silicon Optix. Will you see a difference between the two chipsets for upconverting DVDs? It really depends on which algorithms the player/processor/display manufacturer chose to implement, which is completely their choice. In other words, not all devices using these chips will perform in the same way.
So, while it can be considered overkill to have a Silicon Optix chip in each device throughout your chain, one device might implement the chip “better” than another device. But it is generally believed that the less processing used on a signal the better, so it would be best to do your own tests watching various clips, activating and deactivating the processing in each of your components, and determine for yourself which combination looks best to you.
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