Well you didnt say were you saw this image, so there is no way to answer to what you're talking about.
The only thing i can guess is you were in best buy watching the 120hrz demo
plasma they have on display.

I don't know why you think it looks sped up.
1.3 times? how did you come up with that number?
and I don't understand why you felt motion sickness.

You did say anything on blu-ray give you motion sickness.
Something isn't right and you haven't provided enough information.

If I had a nickel for every time that came up... I wonder just how many more people (that don't come near these forums) think that is actually due to the BD format rather than the TV.

Yes, you were watching a demo of the "auto-motion plus" feature that 120Hz LCD TVs have. You can turn this off if desired. I'm afraid that those who don't like it will shun 120Hz TVs, not knowing it is optional.

Or worse, shun Blu-ray, thinking it's "what Blu-ray looks like." I really think that's one of the worst features the CEs have come up with.

Math is fun.

Circuit City Demo, actualy. Pirates on their TV and some demo disc at Best Buy. Hrmmm...maybe I'll try it out at home then. I just don't want to mess with switching over to all BD. I don't know. It's a little too real for my taste. =(

No BD/DVD Combos yet? That was a bit of draw for me with the HD. I can get the combos now, just in case I ever decide to switch up. I'm not so sure just yet, but I don't want to keep buying new SD dvds.

...actually, the Sony Store made me a bit motion sick watching their demos too. I don't get it.

I am new to BD and tried out a friend's disc "House Of Flying Daggers" tonight. The BD has several 5.1 tracks but also has a Chinese PCM 5.1 Uncompressed track. When I tried to play it my amp just decoded it as stereo and I had to change it to the normal 5.1 track. I assume there is a setting I need to change...or should I?

I have a Denon 1803 which can do DD-EX and DTS-ES. I have my speakers set up for 7.1 but technically my receiver can only do 6.1. It mixes the rear 6th signal between two speakers if it is decoding 6.1. I have it hooked up thru an optical cable.

So what are the best setting for this kind of set-up for the PS3? I haven't run into an "uncompressed PCM" track before. I know that I can't truly decode True-HD sound but if I ever select it on my HD-DVD player, it seems to give the sound a little boost. Obviously PCM is a completely different animal but I truly have no clue if I should or shouldn't change any settings.

Any answers are welcome. Thanks!

IIRC, there are only two ways you can take advantage of the full lossless sound from a multichannel uncompressed track:

-Use an HDMI receiver
-Use the multi-channel analog outs of your player (if available) to multichannel analog ins on your receiver (if available). Since it sounds like you're using a PS3, this option is moot (no analog outs).

If the player is connected via digital coaxial or optical, you're going to get a stereo downconvert when you have a PCM track selected.

On your HD DVD players (and the BD players do this too), TrueHD, DD+ and DTS-HD tracks can be transcoded by the player into a 5.1 stream that can be sent via optical. I've never heard of this being possible for PCM tracks.

I have to assume you haven't played many Blu-Ray's, as Sony and Buena Vista were using PCM tracks heavily in 2006-2007, and WB and Lionsgate released a fair amount of them as well. Only this year have they migrated towards using TrueHD over PCM.

In the end, you'll need to get an HDMI receiver to take advantage of full lossless audio if the PS3 is going to be your Blu-Ray player. The Onkyo 605 is a great receiver for under $500. It's last year's model, so there could be a newer model coming. I think Yamaha has also recently released an inexpensive HDMI receiver which can decode next-gen audio, but I am not certain. You actually don't even need a receiver which decodes them since the PS3 does the decoding onboard, but if you have to buy a new receiver, I think it makes more sense to get a newer which can decode bitstreamed next-gen audio in case your player changes later on.

Cool bunkaroo. You answered every question I had. Thank you.

And you are correct...I haven't played many BRs as I just got the PS3 yesterday.

No problem. I'm sure there are more details others could make clearer, but I think I hit the big points.

Quick question, I'm in the market for an upconverting DVD player and figured I'd grab an HD-DVD player on the cheap. Which model is recommended?

honestly, if you really just want it primarily for upconversion, i wouldn't recommend an HD DVD player at this point. an Oppo would be a lot more user-friendly.

that being said, the HD-XA2 is generally considered among the best upconverting players around, though you will likely not be able to find one "on the cheap." a step down from that are the HD-A30 and HD-A35 which have a very good Anchor Bay chip for upconverting. 1080i output is recommended on those, due to a poor deinterlacing chip though.

Cool. thanks!

I already have a 360 drive and this would be going on a secondary television. So any reason to go the Oppo route instead of having the extra HD-DVD functionality on a different set?

the main advantages of the Oppo would be faster startup/load times and responsiveness, region free, playback of video (including Divx), photos, and music via the usb port, as well as DVD-Audio and SACD playback. to me, those things would outweigh the ability to play a limited amount of HD DVD titles.

i have the 980H for our bedroom TV and it is a fantastic player for my standard DVD collection. (For what it's worth, I also have an HD-A35 in my home theater along with a PS3).

So a bit more info to help make a final decision. This will be a secondary player in the main family room and used for family movies, and TV on DVD. All my main movie watching is still on my primary setup in the basement. My ultimate goal is to go DVD-less on the kids DVDs in this room, but that's a pricier endeavor so it won't be happening in the near future.

Before posting I was weighing the options between a HD-DVD drive or a Sony upconverting 5 disc DVD changer. My budget is probably $130 and I'm not above getting one off ebay for that price. I'm leaning towards the 5 discer which would be nice for the kids movies, but a waste once I do go DVD-less.

So with my situation and out of those three options, go with the Oppo? I'm just a little hesitant because I know nothing about them.

well, Oppo makes what many consider to be the best all-around upconverting players. look up "Oppo" on Amazon and check out the reviews for the 980H and 981H. they're stellar. however, they are just slightly beyond your bugdet it appears. the 980H will run you $160-$170.

when you say you want to go DVD-less for your kids DVDs, do you mean you want their movies ripped to some sort of server? if so, the Oppo is a no-brainer, as you can have your kids DVDs ripped to a portable hard drive that plugs right into the Oppo's usb port. the interface isn't as slick as, say, apple TV, but it works great and looks great.

Clarification: the Oppo doesn't do the ripping, but it does play the ripped mpeg files.

Wow, I was planning on Apple TV down the road but if the Oppo can do the same thing, I'll spend the extra scratch now. Does it play straight Video_TS folders or do videos have to be converted to another format? HDD space isn't an issue so I'd rather preserve the quality than save down into a different format. A couple more questions about this functionality, does the Oppo upconvert everything sent through it or just DVDs in the drive? i.e. would ripped DVDs on a HDD be upconverted as well or would it be better to stick to DVDs for best quality?

Thanks for all the help kefrank.

i don't want to mislead you - it doesn't have all of the functionality of Apple TV. it definitely does not stream video over a network connection, for instance. it also has a considerably less elegant looking interface for selecting what you want to watch, which was really the only reason i brought up Apple TV.

i believe you have to rip the movie + audio to another format, such as a standalone MPEG or DIVX file.

i'm not sure about that. you'll have to do some googling to find that out i guess.

Okay. Cool, I do appreciate all the help.

I have a toshiba hd-a2 player. Every 4:3 dvd i try to play on it is stretched to fit my widescreen tv. Is there anything i can do about this?

The A2 does not stretch content; it's most likely your TV that's doing it.

Hi total newbie here and I have a few questions before taking the plunge into Blu-ray.

1. Can Blu-ray players purchased in the U.S. only play region 1 DVDs or is it basically a region free player?

2. The only wire I have to deal with to hook up the player is the HDMI one, right?

only region 1

yes (you can do other cables for different sound options of course, but can get by with just the hdmi)

I'm sure this question was answered about a dozen pages ago, but here goes anyway:

I have a 42" Panasonic and I sit about 6 1/2 feet away from the TV. Would a BR player be a good buy for me, or will I only really see major improvement with a bigger set?

I definitely think you'll see an improvement at that size and viewing distance, especially in vividness of color and what most people call the HD "pop."

Good to know. THANKS!

I didn't think that Blu-ray and HD discs were divided into regions like DVD discs. But according to this Amazon page they are: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=3193231

Does this mean that Region 2 Blu-ray discs run at a slightly faster speed than Region 1? The way DVDs do.