I need to chose a blue-ray player. The machine will be shared by two people with different areas of focus, so it needs to be versatile. The other user is a librarian, who needs a player that excepts multiple disc formats, and web download ability would be great. I want great playback in regards to buffering and frame rates. If there's a difference in color clarity, I need the better unit.
I don't know anything about blue-ray, per se. I bet that several forum members are well versed in who makes a good play deck. Please be very opinionated in your replies. Thanks.
Blue Ray Player
Moderators: Víctor Paredes, Belgarath, slowtiger
The Answer is Moot
To quote Jessie Jackson, "the answer is moot". The librarian has already ordered a player. However, I might get a second player for the studio (if that especially plush freelance gig come in). So, I'd still like to know what makes a good blue-ray player - for animators.
Re: The Answer is Moot
Keep an eye out for spam...jwlane wrote:...I'd still like to know what makes a good blue-ray player - for animators.
You can't have everything. Where would you put it?
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Acochran_89
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The search for quality
Yes, I've heard playstations are very versatile. It would be something of a waste with me, however. I'm not much of a gamer.
Citing Sony, the higher end Sony players may incorporate the same functionality. The company has also had some widely known issues of falling quality in their consumer media products. I wonder if recent corporate overhauls have and any positive effects on this?
Also above: thanks for the spam warning. Fortunately (or regrettably), I use to work in advertising and am somewhat inoculated.
I hope this thread continues. I'd like to hear views on the abilities of the format. It was exciting when I learned that the HDCAM pro tape decks could be set up to play NTSC, PAL and 24P natively on the same machine. Is there something like this available with blue-ray? Film festivals that except the HDCAM format certainly make international submissions easier for directors with access to the format.
Citing Sony, the higher end Sony players may incorporate the same functionality. The company has also had some widely known issues of falling quality in their consumer media products. I wonder if recent corporate overhauls have and any positive effects on this?
Also above: thanks for the spam warning. Fortunately (or regrettably), I use to work in advertising and am somewhat inoculated.
I hope this thread continues. I'd like to hear views on the abilities of the format. It was exciting when I learned that the HDCAM pro tape decks could be set up to play NTSC, PAL and 24P natively on the same machine. Is there something like this available with blue-ray? Film festivals that except the HDCAM format certainly make international submissions easier for directors with access to the format.
Viewing and Burning Blue-ray
I got to watch some National Film Board of Canada animation on a blur-ray player that was matched to a HD Samsung monitor, and had HD audio through a Denon receiver and Polk speakers. The blue-ray deck used a 24p picture setting, which had compliance with the monitor and looked great.
The thing that was most impressive was the audio. I had heard the same monitor and speaker setup with a HP windows media computer. The difference was like night and day. So much so that it would be hard to justify the other components without the better blue-ray deck.
Noting the above issue with the HP computer, if you buy a typical blue-ray burner, how good would it's playback be at your studio? Has anyone at the forum burned their projects to blue-ray?
The thing that was most impressive was the audio. I had heard the same monitor and speaker setup with a HP windows media computer. The difference was like night and day. So much so that it would be hard to justify the other components without the better blue-ray deck.
Noting the above issue with the HP computer, if you buy a typical blue-ray burner, how good would it's playback be at your studio? Has anyone at the forum burned their projects to blue-ray?
I believe this is region free: http://www.momitsu.com/bdp_899.html
How much are you willing to spend? http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/ ... /BDP-V6000
other things:
http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMP-BD3 ... B002DQS3WG
http://www.amazon.com/BLU-RAY-DEFINITIO ... B002ANCVFM
http://www.planetomni.com/Prod_BLURAY.shtml
http://www.220-electronics.com/dvd/mult ... agodRS_7mA
I've been fairly happy with the performance of my Panasonic 'cheapo' BD-35 player (which is region A only-and not particularly feature-laden). I'd have to agree with the Playstation recommendation too (though I'd avoid Sony stand-alone players). You can just ignore the game nonsense.
How much are you willing to spend? http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/ ... /BDP-V6000
other things:
http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMP-BD3 ... B002DQS3WG
http://www.amazon.com/BLU-RAY-DEFINITIO ... B002ANCVFM
http://www.planetomni.com/Prod_BLURAY.shtml
http://www.220-electronics.com/dvd/mult ... agodRS_7mA
I've been fairly happy with the performance of my Panasonic 'cheapo' BD-35 player (which is region A only-and not particularly feature-laden). I'd have to agree with the Playstation recommendation too (though I'd avoid Sony stand-alone players). You can just ignore the game nonsense.
I have burned a few things to blu-ray. Mpeg2 and AVC (mpg 4). 24 Mb/s (26 peak) and 30 (35 peak) Mb/s encodings. (about four times the typical data rate as on a DVD). Linear PCM audio. 1080 24P
It looks noticeably better on a regular old TV, as well as on an HDTV.
Audio-wise, Blu-Ray is lossless, while DVD is 'lossy'. If you have the audio equipment to support it, Blu-Ray generally has a cleaner sound. In my regular old TV, it's hard to tell the difference between the two disks though. Through my headphones, it's a noticeable difference.
I had to do a theater set-up on a film I did with both Blu-Ray and HD-CAM (because the HD-CAM deck arrived just after the Blu-Ray setup was done). Regular DVD looked horrible projected, Blu-Ray looked pretty good, but the HD-CAM projection looked substantially better. Even so, they are all lacking in quality for projection. Even on an 8' tall screen-video just doesn't cut it. I sure do miss the days of film.
I author on a Mac using Compressor and/or Toast (with the blu-ray plug-in). Basically, pretty low on the 'authorability' scale (not much control offered for menus and features). Doesn't matter much for what I need it for though. Adobe Encore supposedly offers better support, but I've heard it's sort of buggy and undependable. Sonic is the only 'real' authoring tool to use these days ($$$$). Incidentally, for Mac users reading this, Apple doesn't currently support playing Blu-Ray on a Mac. You can burn them but not really watch them. Toast comes with some viewer app, but it has limited compatibility.
Did that cover it? If not, ask away.
It looks noticeably better on a regular old TV, as well as on an HDTV.
Audio-wise, Blu-Ray is lossless, while DVD is 'lossy'. If you have the audio equipment to support it, Blu-Ray generally has a cleaner sound. In my regular old TV, it's hard to tell the difference between the two disks though. Through my headphones, it's a noticeable difference.
I had to do a theater set-up on a film I did with both Blu-Ray and HD-CAM (because the HD-CAM deck arrived just after the Blu-Ray setup was done). Regular DVD looked horrible projected, Blu-Ray looked pretty good, but the HD-CAM projection looked substantially better. Even so, they are all lacking in quality for projection. Even on an 8' tall screen-video just doesn't cut it. I sure do miss the days of film.
I author on a Mac using Compressor and/or Toast (with the blu-ray plug-in). Basically, pretty low on the 'authorability' scale (not much control offered for menus and features). Doesn't matter much for what I need it for though. Adobe Encore supposedly offers better support, but I've heard it's sort of buggy and undependable. Sonic is the only 'real' authoring tool to use these days ($$$$). Incidentally, for Mac users reading this, Apple doesn't currently support playing Blu-Ray on a Mac. You can burn them but not really watch them. Toast comes with some viewer app, but it has limited compatibility.
Did that cover it? If not, ask away.
Great Info
DM,
This is exactly the kind of information I was hoping to have come up in this thread. Thank you.
When I started preparing one of my own projects for festival/theatrical viewing, it felt like stepping into a void. As a small independent, I couldn't even get some better known post facilities to even return a call or email, particularly on the west coast, oh, and France. Having people like you share hands on experiences is, frankly, invaluable.
Hopefully the days of PAL, SECAM and NTSC (not twice same color) are rapidly coming to an end.
This is exactly the kind of information I was hoping to have come up in this thread. Thank you.
When I started preparing one of my own projects for festival/theatrical viewing, it felt like stepping into a void. As a small independent, I couldn't even get some better known post facilities to even return a call or email, particularly on the west coast, oh, and France. Having people like you share hands on experiences is, frankly, invaluable.
Hopefully the days of PAL, SECAM and NTSC (not twice same color) are rapidly coming to an end.
In reading through this thread again-
if you want to submit blu-ray to the 'rest of the world' you need to verify whether they can handle NTSC or not. If not, be ready to convert to PAL and encode accordingly. You can make the disk 'region free', but it still needs to be compatible with the video system the festival is using. You can pretty much ignore Secam.
Are you on Windows or a Mac (or Linux, or something else)? If you're outputting from Anime Studio, it shouldn't be a big deal to just change things about a bit to make it PAL happy. If you've got a finished product you may be better off doing a standards conversion (there are a few free and cheap ways to do this).
If you need a service joint to make blu-ray (or any other video format) for you, let me know, and I can point you in a direction-and supply some 'language' for you to be able to communicate effectively with them.
if you want to submit blu-ray to the 'rest of the world' you need to verify whether they can handle NTSC or not. If not, be ready to convert to PAL and encode accordingly. You can make the disk 'region free', but it still needs to be compatible with the video system the festival is using. You can pretty much ignore Secam.
Are you on Windows or a Mac (or Linux, or something else)? If you're outputting from Anime Studio, it shouldn't be a big deal to just change things about a bit to make it PAL happy. If you've got a finished product you may be better off doing a standards conversion (there are a few free and cheap ways to do this).
If you need a service joint to make blu-ray (or any other video format) for you, let me know, and I can point you in a direction-and supply some 'language' for you to be able to communicate effectively with them.
2010
Thank you for the help. I'm hoping 2010 will see me get busy on a stalled animated short. I'm animating at a frame rate of 24p. It looks, so far, like this will be the easiest conversion to both NTSC (3:2 pull down) and PAL. I may take you up on some suggestions for possible HDCAM festival reels.
I currently finish all shots in After Effects. I've done my own conversion from 29.97 to 25 frames per second - a bit of a pain. I didn't like the quality of the software solutions I tested, and opted to gradually tweek time warping in After Effects. It produced the fewest temporal artifacts, but I was always changing the settings as I went.
I currently finish all shots in After Effects. I've done my own conversion from 29.97 to 25 frames per second - a bit of a pain. I didn't like the quality of the software solutions I tested, and opted to gradually tweek time warping in After Effects. It produced the fewest temporal artifacts, but I was always changing the settings as I went.