Category Archives: Blu-ray

Finding solutions

Posted on August 16, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

One of the fun bits of this job is inventing protocols to unambiguously determine different aspects of performance. While this is now largely a thing of the past (since most Blu-ray players now feature full audio decoding for all codecs), … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Blu-ray, Codecs, Giveaway, Testing | 2 Comments

The Godfather: Part II disc replacements

Posted on August 13, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

A while back I wrote about problems with The Godfather: Part II Blu-ray. Basically, it had stopped working at around 1:41:30 into the movie. The picture froze, and several minutes beyond that point were unplayable. I could jump past those … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray | 2 Comments

The Gladiator rises again?

Posted on August 10, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

I’ve had the Blu-ray of The Gladiator on my shelf since late last year, pondering whether I should do a review. I should have, but other titles kept bobbing to the surface. It would have been unpleasant doing it, because … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Disc details | Leave a comment

Blu-ray Secondary Audio

Posted on August 6, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

I’ve just been scanning the new Blu-ray release from Sony, From Paris with Love. Like so many discs, it has an audio director’s commentary. What’s different is that this is implemented as BonusView secondary audio, rather than as a separate … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Blu-ray, Disc details | 1 Comment

The Asian Aviator

Posted on August 4, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

A while back I ordered a few Warner Brothers Blu-ray discs on a two-for-twenty dollars special from EzyDVD. They came in yesterday. One of them was The Aviator, a fine movie. But when I was doing my indexing for my … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Disc details, Giveaway | 2 Comments

Madman Entertainment’s take on The Fifth Element

Posted on August 3, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

As I’ve previously mentioned, Madman Entertainment has taken over distribution of The Fifth Element in Australia. I’ve just received a copy and I’m happy to report that it is all good news. First, the video is identical to that on … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Disc details | 2 Comments

Will MPEG4 AVC become the dominant Blu-ray video codec?

Posted on August 3, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

I’m just wondering because the only Blu-ray 3D codec is MPEG4 MVC, which is an extension of MPEG4 AVC. The likes of Warner Bros which has pretty much entirely used VC1 will have to use MPEG4 MVC for any 3D … Continue reading →

Posted in 3D, Blu-ray, Codecs | 2 Comments

New Blu-ray discs coming

Posted on August 2, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

The news that I’m sure that we’ve all been waiting for: Donnie Darko! Yes, it is set for Blu-ray release on 11 August. Read all the details here, but the important thing is that it is a two disc release … Continue reading →

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Why do they do that?

Posted on July 23, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Some years ago I reviewed Sony Minidisk deck. Nice unit, but I was confused in that it had more optical connections than it was supposed to, and fewer coaxial ones. Later it was revealed that the device I had in … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, Equipment, Testing | 1 Comment

SACD comeback?

Posted on July 22, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

I’m presently looking at Sony’s new Blu-ray 3D player, the BDP-S470. Only $299! As I was exploring the player’s menu system, I came across something unexpected: a facility for handling Super Audio CD playback (you can choose between CD layer … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Blu-ray, Equipment | 2 Comments