marco f dot net

Yesterday I purchased the Panasonic DMP-BD55 blu-ray player because our DVD player started to show some weird defects. In a previous post I wrote about my experiences with the combination PS3 and blu-ray movies. I was very annoyed to see a stuttering playback in slow panning shots.

 First thing I did when I fired up the panasonic was to put the output from automatic to 24p and 1080p. My TV supports both. I also connected the panasonic with a high end Monster HDMI cable to the TV.

 Then the test. First Disneys Cars. What an amazing quality! And no sign of stutter effect in slower moving scenes.

 Then a "real" movie: 10.000bc
Superb imaging, and no sign of stuttering either. The movie itself is enjoyable, not extremely good, but nice to watch anyway.

 Last one was old but very good "The Goonies". This old material even looks better on blu-ray. Maybe they used the original movie reels to create a blu-ray version? Anyway, the movie is a classic and didn't show any signs of stuttering either.

 I can only conclude that either the PS3 isn't very good for blu-ray playback, or the used TV doesn't really support 24p.

 I also found out that the used hdmi cable actually *does* matter for better playback quality, so I opted for the high end Monster 1000ex cable.

 In any case the stuttering isn't inherent to the blu-ray standard, which I was afraid of.

 But one should really be aware of what components to buy. And double, triple check those manufacturer specs to be sure your TV actually support the right settings.

 My perfectly working combo:
Player: panasonic dmp-bd55 (299,- euro)
TV: samsung le37a656 (1199,- euro oct 08)
Cable (hdmi): monster 1000ex (120,- euro)

 Yes, 399 euro would give me a ps3 but I really (and I do mean REALLY) don't like the bulky ugly casing. And I truly believe the ps3 has been surpassed in blu-ray movie playback by the other players in the market. Since I'm more of a casual gamer, the gaming aspect is not important to me.

 Media center? Well, I think an Apple TV will be next :-)

Last week I watched a film (I think it was the X-men) on blu-ray. Setup
was a 1080p/100Hz/24p full-HD TV. And a Ps3 blu-ray. On HDMI. (not my
setup btw, I don't have a blu-ray player yet)

 While the details, colors is all superb there's something that annoys
the shit out of me: playback isn't as smooth as regular DVD.

 I may be imagining things, but in moving scenes, or scenes where the
camera pans, I notice that the movement isn't completely smooth. It
seems as if there constantly is a few frames dropped for some reason.
DVD in that respect is much better, with movements fluent without any
"jerking" effect.

 I have no idea what causes this, I mean the setup is pretty high end and
the PS3 supposedly is the best BR player around. Still, great colors and
detail are useless when the whole movie experience is ruined by constant
erratic behaviour like above.

 Does anyone know what may be the cause of this? Is it inherent to the
Blu-Ray? If that's the case, it's a big no-no to me.

 I'm actually not the only one noticing this, a friend, who has a high
end JVC TV and PS3 has experienced the same jerky effect on the Blu-Ray
of Wall-E.. And I've also seen it on the combination PS3 and a HD-Ready
screen (non 1080p compliant)

 Is it the PS3 that screws the experience? Is it the HDMI standard?

 I have no clue, but since there's only one common denominator above, I
bet the PS3 has something to do with it. Can someone chime in on this?