Category: Blu-ray

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Sony’s NEW Blu-ray Player BDP-S350

When I decided to get my first Blu-ray player, the decision seemed easy. It was either go with a Sony PlayStation 3 OR a Sony stand alone Blu-ray Player. Believe it or not, it was better to go with the PlayStation 3 (PS3) for a couple of reasons. The first reason was that the PS3 (although hard to find at first) was actually cheaper! The other reason to go with the PS3 was that it was more easily firmware upgradable right over the internet via it’s built-in Ethernet and Wi-Fi connections. To this day, I don’t understand how you could get a full game console AND a Blu-ray player all in one that was cheaper than just a Blu-ray player by the same company. Who am I to argue? So I bought a PS3 last year and have been happy with it. Sony has upgraded it regularly and I’ve never had any playback issues with Blu-ray movie discs.

 

PS3 vs. the NEW BDP-S350

Recently I decided it was time to put a Blu-ray player in my bedroom. So it was time to revisit that idea of getting a PS3 vs. the NEW Sony BDP-S350 Blu-ray player. This new player has overcome all of the issues with the original BDP-S300. The BDP-S300 was notoriously SLOW at loading discs and even opening the drawer. It was also not easily upgradable and from what I understand it didn’t or couldn’t support the newer Blu-ray 1.1 profile, while the updates to the PS3 allowed support for 1.1. However, the game has changed now with the new BDP-S350. This new player is much much faster at loading discs and supports all the latest and greatest specs. It also has a built-in ethernet port for doing firmware upgrades (and will support BD-Live as well as Blu-ray 2.0). The price is also cheaper. This unit goes for about $399 on average. That’s the same price as a PS3. Now since it’s the same price, you could argue that the PS3 is still the better deal because you do get a game console too. However, there are some tradeoffs. The BDP-S350 is much smaller in size than a PS3. So if you’re tight on space or want to stack it, it would be the better way to go. Also if you don’t care about games at all then the PS3 wouldn’t be a good choice. The next and probably the biggest reason not to go with a PS3 if your primary need is to play movies is that you won’t have a standard DVD remote or the ability to use a universal remote without an additional purchase. The PS3 uses Bluetooth based controllers. So your standard infrared remotes won’t work with it. Sony makes a Bluetooth based DVD remote and I’ve used the Nyko remote to allow me to use my Harmony One, but that adds $$ to the cost of going with the PS3. There is nothing stopping you from using the game controllers to control your movies, but it’s just awkward and not intuitive. There is no play, pause or chapter advance buttons on the game controller. You’ll have to remember what the “X” button does vs. the “O” button, etc.

Seeing that I don’t play games often and have no desire to play video games in my bedroom, I went with the BDP-S350 and I’m quite happy with it. Set up was a piece of cake using an HDMI cable (not included) right to my HDTV. Speaking of cables, I still don’t understand why Sony would include a standard def Composite video cable with a Blu-ray player. To a consumer that doesn’t know any better, they would use this cable (since it’s in the box) and get a horrible playback experience. Why not include an HDMI cable instead? Or even NO Cable! At least then it would make the consumer get the proper cable and length for their needs. I was able to easily add it to my Harmony One universal remote setup There was a software update available the minute I plugged it in and it downloaded an installed it with no problems. As a matter of fact, I liked this new player so much and how it worked with my Harmony One remote that I bought a second one for my theater (which already has the PS3). Now the PS3 will be just for games and the BDP-350 will be for watching movies.

The BDP-S350 goes for $360.29 on Amazon. I still feel that Blu-ray will not really take off with the masses (especially in this economy) until players are well below the $199 mark. However, if you’ve been wanting one and your budget allows for it, this is the one to get.

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Bose misses the mark when it comes to video

People either love or hate Bose

Let me start this by saying that I am a fan of Bose audio products. I currently have more of their gear than I care to admit. The New Bose Sounddock Portable ROCKS! However, when it comes to their home theater solutions, I’m starting to wonder "what were they thinking?" In my home theater I have a Bose Lifestyle 28 system. I bought it a few years ago off eBay. I got it new in the box for a fraction of the retail price. I’ve been happy with the performance and I’m thrilled by the compactness of the whole system and sound that it delivers. It was also extremely easy to setup and it’s very well integrated. This particular system included a DVD player built-in. Their higher end systems also include hard drives for music storage. Again, these were all welcomed features THREE OR FOUR YEARS AGO!

Today, anyone looking to equip a home theater has one thing in mind and that’s HIGH DEF! Traditionally Bose home theater solutions have focused on DVD and Component connections. Now that the format war is over, everyone that is moving forward is looking at Blu-ray and HDMI. So the question becomes, why would you introduce a new system in 2008 that doesn’t have a Blu-ray player in it? That’s right! I received an email advertisement from Bose about their NEW "3-2-1 GSX Series III". This system (the higher end model) has a hard drive that can store up to 200 hours of music from your CDs. It has an HDMI out port (about time) and drum roll please…A DVD player that upconverts to 1080p!!!! Huh? Um, hello! Upconverter DVD players are so 2006! While you can argue that Blu-ray is still a pricey situation and most people are still on DVD, I would agree. However, most people aren’t looking to buy NEW systems that feature DVD upconverters. If you’re in the market for a NEW system, you’re in the market for HD. Bose has never been known for being "cheap!" This "new" system goes for $1,499 ($999 for the model without the hard drive). For that kind of coin you should expect to have the latest and greatest technologies. Obviously you could piece together a system that does include a Blu-ray player for less (and you probably should). Granted, it wouldn’t be as integrated in an all-in-one easy to configure solution. So is it worth a grand for this kind of convenience? Um, based on my experience with the previous model, I’m gonna have to go with NO. For less than a thousand dollars, you can do better and have a really good sounding system that DOES do both Blu-ray AND upconverted standard def DVDs.

It’s funny that they don’t even picture the one HDMI port that they do have (probably an older picture on their site).

 

Note to Bose

If you want to stay in the game, then you’re going to have to step up quickly and adopt the new standard. Yes, it’s Blu-ray and yes it’s from your competitor – Sony. Otherwise, stick to what you do best which is audio. Leave the video to the others that are doing it better. Also realize that having no HDMI "in" or Component in ports and only one optical audio in port is like having a analog TV with one channel. Even if I want to add my own Blu-ray player to this system, I wouldn’t be able to as you have no HD inputs at all. You are so missing the mark with this product it’s not even funny and this is coming from a fan. Imagine what the haters are saying?

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Logitech Harmony One Remote Review

I’ve been pretty content over the years with my Sony RM-AV3000 universal remote. However, a couple of my buddies have been really going on and on about the Logitech Harmony One Universal Remote. So I decided to give the Harmony another try. This is not my first Harmony remote. I had one of the earlier models and I just didn’t like it. It wasn’t very forgiving if anyone turned on or off a device by hand. It just seemed like it was more work than it was worth. This remote is much improved over the earlier models in several ways.

 

How do you set it up?

I’ve always dreamed of a remote that would be 2/3rds touch screen and 1/3rd physical buttons and the touch screen would actually look exactly like the original remote for the device you’re trying to control. Think of an iPhone like experience as a remote. This way no matter how many devices you bought or got rid of, your remote would never be outdated. The Harmony One is the next closest thing to my dream remote. There is a small touch screen at the top of the device with the rest being physical buttons for common things like volume up/down, channel changing and things like Play, Pause, Stop, etc. The buttons are uniquely shaped which makes it easy to operate it without having to look at it. It also feels much better in my hand compared to the rather large footprint of the Sony remote.

The Harmony One comes with the remote, charging cradle, Lithium Ion rechargeable battery, USB cable, setup guide and software CD. That’s right, you configure this remote from your computer which downloads the latest and greatest device profiles from the internet. This offers a huge advantage over other remotes that make you enter codes or learn every function manually.

The setup is quite simple actually. You start by just listing the make and model of each of your devices. In my home theater setup, I wanted this remote to control my Epson HD projector, TiVo HD, Apple TV, Sony PS3, Bose Lifestyle 28 sound system and my Lutron Maestro Lighting Control. The Harmony One is IR only and doesn’t control RF or Bluetooth devices. So in theory that would rule out the Bose which is RF based and the PS3 which is Bluetooth based. However, the Bose systems now include an IR receiver just so you can use universal remotes. I also solved the PS3 problem (so that I can watch Blu-ray and DVD movies) with the Nyko Playstation 3 BluWave Remote which adds IR remote capability to the PS3 via a USB dongle. This is child’s play for the Harmony One because Logitech has the device information on over 5,000 different consumer electronic devices.

In theory after you input your devices all you would have to do is then configure your "Activities" such as "Watch My TV" or "Watch a Movie". Activities are designed to be one button macros that automatically turn on the right components and switch to the right inputs. Although the Harmony One software seemed to know about all my devices, there were still several issues that I had to fix manually. For example, my projector just didn’t come on. I had to whip out the original remote and manually program the power buttons using the "Learn IR Command." Also it seemed that no matter what, it insisted on switching the input from HDMI to PC on my projector. I finally had to setup a NEW button called "HDMI1" and then I mapped my activities to use that input. Once I did that all was fine.

My three activities are "Watch TV/TiVo", "Watch DVD/Blu-ray" and "Watch Apple TV". The only one that worked first time with no modifications necessary was Watch Apple TV. I found it odd that the Harmony One software warned me that the PS3 couldn’t be controlled via IR and offered the Nyko remote as a solution, but didn’t offer to set it up that way since I already had one. I just set it up manually.

 

Switching sources

Although my projector stays on HDMI 100% of the time, I use an Octava HDMI and Optical 4 port switcher to switch each device to the one HDMI cable going to the projector and the one Optical Audio cable going to the Bose. The Harmony software knew of this switcher and I was able to easily incorporate it into my activities. For example, if I’m watching a movie and after the movies is over I decide to switch to watching TV, all I have to do is press the "Watch my TV/TiVo" on screen button. This will automatically switch the Octava box back over to input 1 which has my TiVo on it.

 

How does it work?

Once I got everything tweaked to exactly how I wanted it (a couple of hours later), the Harmony One worked beautifully. I must admit that it’s easier to use than my Sony. The reason for this is that I can customize just about ever aspect of it. For example, with my Sony remote there was no preset button or activity for controlling my lights. So I had to use one of the other functions namely the CD player. Since I don’t use a stand alone CD player, I used that button and screen for my lights. Not very intuitive! This is not a problem with the Harmony One. I not only have the exact components I need setup, but I can name the Activities, Devices or even the onscreen buttons to whatever I want. For example, the Lutron Light system uses one predefined light level that is referred to as "Scene1" on the Harmony One. I renamed it "Low Light".

I was also amazed that not only could you setup your Favorite Channels for TV stations, but you could even use custom graphics as the buttons that show up right on the remote!

Although the Harmony software lets you use custom graphics for your Favorite Channels, they don’t provide the logos. They had a few sample ones from FOX, but that’s about it. So I found this site that had all the ones I wanted. Another very cool feature is that this remote has a motion sensor in it. When you pick it up it comes to life and lights up the touch screen and the keys. After a few moments of no activity it goes back to sleep to preserve the battery.

 

 

The Bottom Line

I’ll have to agree with other reviewers in that the only thing keeping this remote from being perfect is the lack of RF and Bluetooth support. Luckily for me my setup doesn’t require this, so this remote is perfect for me. So far I can’t really find anything wrong with it. I love the fact that it recharges when it’s in its cradle. Once you get it setup the way you want, it just works!

It’s pricey at a list price of $249, but Amazon has it for $187.08.

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Blu-ray + Digital Copy

I don’t buy movies like I used to. I used to buy DVD’s all the time until I realized that I wasn’t very likely to go back and watch a movie that I had already seen unless I absolutely loved it. Even then it was rare. However, there are some (a few) movies that I could watch over and over again. So needless to say when I buy a movie now I have to really really like it. In this age of High Def Blu-ray movies and being able to watch movies on multiple devices such as a computer, DVD player, iPod, iPhone etc, I hate having to decide what format to buy the movie on. For example, If I buy a movie on Blu-ray, then I pretty much limited to watching it at home. If I buy a movie on DVD then I can watch it at home or rip it into a format that’s compatible with my iPhone or computer. However, I don’t get High Def that way.

 

There is an answer

A couple of movie houses have started offering DVD + Digital Copy AND Blu-ray + Digital Copy. When you buy a title that contains a digital copy you get a second DVD ROM for your Mac or PC that contains the movie in a rights managed MP4 format. Once you put this disc in your computer, you can double click on the file and it will launch iTunes. You can then enter the code from the packaging to unlock/license the movie to your iTunes account and the movie will then be transferred from the DVD to your Computer. From there you can either watch it on your computer or sync it to your video capable iPod, iPhone or Apple TV.

Lionsgate is one of the movie houses offering Blu-ray + Digital copy. For me this is the best of both worlds. If I decide that I like a movie so much that I’ll buy it, I won’t be limited to only watching it on a Blu-ray player. I decided to give this a test. The first problem was that their aren’t a ton of titles out yet that are on Blu-ray AND contain a digital copy. So I ordered "The Eye". It’s not a movie that I wanted to own by any means, but it was one that I hadn’t seen yet, that met the requirements for my test. I opened the packing and as promised there was a second DVD-ROM that was clearly labeled for your Mac or PC and will not play in your DVD player.

I popped this disc into my iMac and doubled clicked on the only file on the disc. iTunes then prompted me for the code to unlock the movie. I entered it from the DVD insert page and iTunes then copied the movie to my hard drive. No muss, no fuss. I now have the movie in Blu-ray format AND a digital format that’s compatible with my iPhone and my Apple TV as well as my computer.

Now I just need more of a selection and I’ll be all set. By the way the cost of "The Eye" was $22.95 which is on par with other Blu-ray titles. To buy just the digital copy via iTunes would cost $14.99. So for $8 more you get both a High Def Blu-ray disc and the digital version in Standard Def.

 

Now I guess I’ll go watch my new creepy movie…

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Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 1080 UB HD Projector Review

In October of 2004 I decided to convert a storage/server room in my home into a home theater. This room used to be the catch all for empty boxes, discarded computer equipment, my web and file servers as well as the place that old papers and software seemed to go to die. At one point it was almost impossible to walk from one end of the room to the other, because of the amount of crap that was in the way.

 

So I decided it was time to turn this:

into this:

 

At the time I spec’d out the latest and greatest sound and video gear. I settled on the Sony Cineza VPL-HS20 1080i HD Projector. My friends were telling me this one was the one to get and the good folks over at projectorcentral.com had this GREAT REVIEW. So it was a done deal and I’ve enjoyed that projector for the past 3+ years. However, my cravings for "higher Def" lead me to want to experience Blu-ray at its best which meant that it was time to upgrade from 1080i (interlace) to a true 1080p (progressive) projector. I started asking around and my colleagues at Adobe (Kevan O’Brien and Dave Helmly) were both quite impressed with the Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 1080 UB projector. I’ve always been a fan of Epson projectors for data/business presentations, so it didn’t take much convincing to look into Epson to replace my Sony.

I also turned to ProjectorCentral.com once again to see what they had to say. They had not only reviewed the pro version of this projector, but they gave it their highest honor of Editor’s Choice! That’s all I needed to hear. My mind was made up! I figured I’d get it in the next few weeks when my schedule settled down a bit. However, I noticed that B&H Photo and Video had it and also alerted me to the current $200 rebate that is in effect until 3/31/08. So that pushed me to order it now instead of waiting. After all, $200 is $200 right?

I ordered it so that it would arrive in time for the weekend. That way I’d have time to set it up and enjoy it before going back to work and back on the road. Setup was quite easy. I used the same universal mounting bracket that I had used with my Sony projector and I ran a new HDMI cable to replace the DVI and Component cables I was using with the Sony. Although they (Epson) offer a ton of different configurations for getting just the right color and picture, the defaults produced STUNNING image! Yes, I might go back and play with the settings to compare, but out of the box I was blown away by the picture quality. It wasn’t like I looked at it and said, "well it’s a little too green or it’s a little to contrasty." It was dead on right out of the box. I can’t imagine it being better!

 

Comparing the old to the new

The Sony VPL-HS20 has a power zoom and focus. The Epson relies on a manual focus and zoom ring. So I sat right under it and just reached up and adjusted it until I was happy. There is also a "Pattern" button on the remote that allows you to throw up a pattern on the screen to make sure you have it aligned properly. The lens will shift up/down and left/right so that even if your mounting location is not dead on, you have some wiggle room (which worked out great for me!) This way I didn’t have to move the mounting bracket since the Sony’s lens is centered and the Epson lens is off to one side. It would have been a major pain in the butt if I would have had to relocate the mounting hardware in the ceiling. Luckily I didn’t have to.

The Epson is better in just about every way over my almost 4 year old Sony. It powers on and starts to display your image almost instantly. It powers off quickly too. There are a few little things I like about it: for example, there is a separate on and off button on the remote instead of just one power button. This makes it nice for programming universal remotes and macro sequences. In other words with a single power button, if the projector were already on and someone accidentally hit the power on macro, it would power the old projector OFF! Then we’d have to wait for it power all the way down before being able to bring it back up again. Although I’m only using a single HDMI cable to it, I like the fact that the Epson remote has buttons for each source. With the Sony I had to cycle through several sources to get to the one I wanted. Epson also allows you to diable the projector’s control panel so that kids or other people don’t mess with your settings. There is even a "Child Lock" that prevents small children from accidently turning the projector on.

I will have to hand the overall styling to Sony though! The Epson projector doesn’t win any awards in my book for design of their cases. The Home version is white and the Pro version is black. The latest Sony projectors look like something right out of War of the Worlds. Their home theater projector designs set themselves apart from standard business projectors. Epson could learn a thing or too here.

A scene from War of the Worlds where the alien probe has a look around. This bears a striking resemblance to the Sony Bravia VPL-VW40.

 

Back to the Epson…

Epson also does the right thing by standing behind their products if something does go wrong. Rather than making you take it into a service center, they will advance ship you a replacement! You just send the defective one back when the new one arrives. However, in my over 10 years of using Epson projectors, I’ve yet to have one break down!

I did find it funny that in the literature when they were bragging about their service, that they used the example of if your projector goes down before the "big game", they’d send you a replacement. I had a simple question and I thought I’d give them a call only to find out the service is open Monday through Friday only. So if the big game is on the weekend, you might be hosed 🙂

 

What about Blu-ray playback?

Now it was time to try out the one thing that I upgraded for. I wanted to see a Blu-ray movie in true 1080p high def. So I fired up the Playstation 3 and loaded up a movie. Believe it or not, Rocky Balboa was the closest so that’s what went in. I’m glad that it was, because that particular Blu-ray disc starts off with an opening ad for Blu-ray movies with clips and scenes from several blockbuster movies. I had seen this ad before, so it was a great comparison. My mouth hit the floor. I had never seen that ad with such clarity and depth. I was stunned by how much better the quality was. I also set my Apple TV to 1080p output and the photo slideshows are even more spectacular!

 

The Bottom Line

If you’re looking for a true 1080p Projector Experience, you can’t go wrong with the Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 1080 UB. If you’re not technically inclined and want someone to set it up for you and calibrate it, then you’d want to go with the Pro Cinema 1080 UB version which is only sold through Home Theater companies. Now I know what you’re thinking: "what are you going to do with your Sony VPL-HS20 HD projector?" Well, if you hurry, you can get a great deal on it here 🙂



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You can use your universal remote with your PS3

As I have written in the past, I use the Sony Playstation 3 (PS3) as my Blu-ray player in my home theater. It works great, however the one complaint that I had with it was that I couldn’t control it with my favorite universal remote (which happens to be a Sony remote). The problem is that the PS3 uses Bluetooth for its wireless game controllers AND for the Sony DVD remote.  I have the Sony PS3 DVD remote and as you may have guessed, it only works with the PS3 and controls nothing else. Also I have say that it kind of sucks as a remote in general. In typical Sony fashion the PS3 DVD remote is BLACK and impossible to see in the dark. There is no light on it and it doesn’t even have glow in the dark buttons. The Sony PS3 DVD remote is Bluetooth based which is why it doesn’t work with anything else but the PS3.

The good folks at Nyko have created a remote that uses IR instead of Bluetooth. Their Playstation 3 Blu Wave Remote comes with a USB dongle that plugs into the PS3. Then you can use their remote to control the PS3. So here’s what I did. I plugged in their dongle and then I put my Sony Universal Remote in "Learning mode" and I used the supplied remote to teach my universal remote the commands to control the DVD/Blu-ray playback of my PS3. Next I put their remote in a drawer. That’s it! I now have ONE REMOTE that controls my home theater environment again. So if you have a favorite universal remote that can learn commands and you have a PS3, this will be the best $14 you’ve ever spent. Now also if the PS3 is not in a great location for IR line of sight, you might also want to get a USB extension cable so that you can place the dongle in a better location.

The Playstation 3 Blu Wave Remote goes $13.99 at Amazon.com.

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The war is over!

It’s finally over! No, not that war. The High Def, format war has come to an end. Toshiba has announced that they will stop making HD-DVD players clearing the path for Sony with Blu-ray. Although I did buy a cheap Toshiba HD-DVD player (so that I could have BOTH formats), that I will now be getting rid of, I couldn’t be happier with the news! I have only bought one HD-DVD movie that is still in the shrink wrap. So no big loss there either. Now I can focus my attention clearly on Blu-ray and later in the year start outfitting the rest of my HDTV’s with Blu-ray players. At the moment the Sony Playstation 3 is still the best bet for a Blu-ray player. You not only get a good gaming machine, but you also get the only Blu-ray player that is upgradeble via firmware updates to the new Blu-ray features slated for release later in the year. Newer players could be released that are just as upgradeable, but if you’re looking to finally get on board with a Blu-ray player now, I would strongly suggest looking at the PS3.