Last night I had the privilage to watch an extensive demo of DVHS or D-theater (which is what it is being called) at Widescreen Reveiw's incredible reference video theater. I wish that at least one other member would have been there, not only to verify what I saw and heard but also because I am a terrible writer and reveiwer.
Before I get into the demo I just have to say what a great bunch of people work at Widescreen. Gary is just the nicest laid back guy and so is the rest of the staff. Everybody was made to feel welcomed and it was just like going over to a friends house to watch a movie.
When Gary was talking I thought that the room was overly treated and was too dead for my taste. Once the sound came up I realized that maybe it wasn't optimum for conversation but, for movie surround sound it was the best I have heard. Only the second time that I had heard better audio than my own system. Even though they use similar electronics (Theta), and similar style (time and phase correct) speakers, the combination of the Citidal amps and the perfectly designed room, far outshined my weak efforts.
Also in attendence to see the demo was Joe Kane, Neil Sinclair, and a rep from Runco. Or maybe he owns Runco, everybody seem to know him but me. Joe Kane gave a short demo of the new video essentials that he is in the process of preparing. Ever the perfectionist he has really outdone himself. Starting with the first 10 bit editing system so that there are no up and down conversions between the original source and the final poduct. It will certainly be a must buy disc for optimizing your HDTVs.
Before I comment on the actual demo of DVD v.s. D-theater I have to point out that it really wasn't a fair demo. The DVHS player was the consumer grade player available this weekend at the Good Guys for, I beleive $1500.00 plus $200 rebate and a free T2 video going straight to the projector while the DVD player was being fed through $20,000 worth of video processors. A more reasonable demo would be a progressive DVD player without the Runco and Faroudja video processors against the JVC player. Because of this I am going to leave my comments on the video comparisons for last.
My thoughts before the demo was, "Who is this format designed for?" Let's take a brief look at the history of home theaters. The first home theaters that I know of were movie collectors with 16mm projectors. That gave way to the VHS revolution. VHS made owning movies practical, plus you could record off your TV. The sound was superior to what I ever heard on a 16mm set up but, the video was dismal. Along came Laser Discs and film lovers had a medium that was far superior in video and better sound than VHS. So, those that wanted the best became collectors of LDs, those that just wanted to watch movies and didn't care about things like aspect ratios collected and rented VHS. Then came DVD, slight improvement in picture, slight decrease in audio performance, satisfied the studios desire to have a medium that was difficult to copy. So, now where does DVHS come in? It is easy to see why DVD became popular, picture is very good, most people feel the audio is o'k, it is cheap and you can easily rent or buy them.
According to the reps from JVC four studios are all ready on board for making films available in DVHS, remember at the start of DVDs there was only one studio. There will be a rental model so, yes you will be able to rent them. So, there will be product available.
O'k now for the reveiw. The two movies that were compared were U571 and Independence Day. Let's start with the audio. The DVHS is so much better than DVDs that I think the foley and wallow effects crew may have to change how they do things. During one of the scenes in U571 I heard such load breathing behind me that I thought that one of the guests was hypeventilating. Nope, came from the right rear speaker. We had just seen this same clip on DVD and I never noticed the breathing. I don't know how to quantify how much better the sound was using DVHS over DVD. It certainly isn't just a subtle difference.
Now, for the unfair part of the demo. What chance could the DVHS player possibly have against the incredible best you can buy for any amount of money DVD set up at Widescreen? Well, in the words from the fellow from Runco, " I can't decide if this means it is the end of people buying our scalers because why would they when for a fraction of the cost they can buy one of these players? Or, does it mean that sales are going to go up because people are going to hopelessly try to make their DVD player look this good?" I think that says it all.
Three other issues to think about. You can record HDTV on this player. We were shown a clip from the Tonight Show that had been recorded the night before through a new Samsung set top box, not yet out for the public. Oh my God! Beautiful images. The second issue is that it is linear. I don't know what the big deal is about chapter search but, I know that some people use if for some reason. Well, as an experiment I put a VHS tape of Toy Story in my player and the DVD version in my DVD player. My wife had the remote for the VHS and I had the remote for the DVD. At the same time we both started searching for various scenes. While she was quickly fast forwarding I had to go to the menu, choose chapters, find the right chapter then go there. Most of the time I beat her by a few seconds but, twice she beat me. The other issue is extras. If they are important to you, then you will have to go with the inferior quality of DVD.
I came to the demo expecting to be underwhelmed. Especially since I hac just completed a week of working with Micheal Mann on a commercial all shot in HDTV and didn't care for the images. Well, instead I walked away overwhelmed and when I see that there will indeed be films available, and not just from the studio catalogs, I will be purchasing one of these machines.
Before I get into the demo I just have to say what a great bunch of people work at Widescreen. Gary is just the nicest laid back guy and so is the rest of the staff. Everybody was made to feel welcomed and it was just like going over to a friends house to watch a movie.
When Gary was talking I thought that the room was overly treated and was too dead for my taste. Once the sound came up I realized that maybe it wasn't optimum for conversation but, for movie surround sound it was the best I have heard. Only the second time that I had heard better audio than my own system. Even though they use similar electronics (Theta), and similar style (time and phase correct) speakers, the combination of the Citidal amps and the perfectly designed room, far outshined my weak efforts.
Also in attendence to see the demo was Joe Kane, Neil Sinclair, and a rep from Runco. Or maybe he owns Runco, everybody seem to know him but me. Joe Kane gave a short demo of the new video essentials that he is in the process of preparing. Ever the perfectionist he has really outdone himself. Starting with the first 10 bit editing system so that there are no up and down conversions between the original source and the final poduct. It will certainly be a must buy disc for optimizing your HDTVs.
Before I comment on the actual demo of DVD v.s. D-theater I have to point out that it really wasn't a fair demo. The DVHS player was the consumer grade player available this weekend at the Good Guys for, I beleive $1500.00 plus $200 rebate and a free T2 video going straight to the projector while the DVD player was being fed through $20,000 worth of video processors. A more reasonable demo would be a progressive DVD player without the Runco and Faroudja video processors against the JVC player. Because of this I am going to leave my comments on the video comparisons for last.
My thoughts before the demo was, "Who is this format designed for?" Let's take a brief look at the history of home theaters. The first home theaters that I know of were movie collectors with 16mm projectors. That gave way to the VHS revolution. VHS made owning movies practical, plus you could record off your TV. The sound was superior to what I ever heard on a 16mm set up but, the video was dismal. Along came Laser Discs and film lovers had a medium that was far superior in video and better sound than VHS. So, those that wanted the best became collectors of LDs, those that just wanted to watch movies and didn't care about things like aspect ratios collected and rented VHS. Then came DVD, slight improvement in picture, slight decrease in audio performance, satisfied the studios desire to have a medium that was difficult to copy. So, now where does DVHS come in? It is easy to see why DVD became popular, picture is very good, most people feel the audio is o'k, it is cheap and you can easily rent or buy them.
According to the reps from JVC four studios are all ready on board for making films available in DVHS, remember at the start of DVDs there was only one studio. There will be a rental model so, yes you will be able to rent them. So, there will be product available.
O'k now for the reveiw. The two movies that were compared were U571 and Independence Day. Let's start with the audio. The DVHS is so much better than DVDs that I think the foley and wallow effects crew may have to change how they do things. During one of the scenes in U571 I heard such load breathing behind me that I thought that one of the guests was hypeventilating. Nope, came from the right rear speaker. We had just seen this same clip on DVD and I never noticed the breathing. I don't know how to quantify how much better the sound was using DVHS over DVD. It certainly isn't just a subtle difference.
Now, for the unfair part of the demo. What chance could the DVHS player possibly have against the incredible best you can buy for any amount of money DVD set up at Widescreen? Well, in the words from the fellow from Runco, " I can't decide if this means it is the end of people buying our scalers because why would they when for a fraction of the cost they can buy one of these players? Or, does it mean that sales are going to go up because people are going to hopelessly try to make their DVD player look this good?" I think that says it all.
Three other issues to think about. You can record HDTV on this player. We were shown a clip from the Tonight Show that had been recorded the night before through a new Samsung set top box, not yet out for the public. Oh my God! Beautiful images. The second issue is that it is linear. I don't know what the big deal is about chapter search but, I know that some people use if for some reason. Well, as an experiment I put a VHS tape of Toy Story in my player and the DVD version in my DVD player. My wife had the remote for the VHS and I had the remote for the DVD. At the same time we both started searching for various scenes. While she was quickly fast forwarding I had to go to the menu, choose chapters, find the right chapter then go there. Most of the time I beat her by a few seconds but, twice she beat me. The other issue is extras. If they are important to you, then you will have to go with the inferior quality of DVD.
I came to the demo expecting to be underwhelmed. Especially since I hac just completed a week of working with Micheal Mann on a commercial all shot in HDTV and didn't care for the images. Well, instead I walked away overwhelmed and when I see that there will indeed be films available, and not just from the studio catalogs, I will be purchasing one of these machines.
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