[geeks] home equipment inventories

[Joshua D Boyd]

On Thu, Jan 10, 2002 at 12:59:10PM -0500, kurt at k-huhn.com wrote:

> Interesting.  I believe you - but I must say I've never noticed it in
> anything I own.  Like I said, I'm not a videophile - so perhaps I'm not
> "tuned" enough to notice.  Either that, or everything I own on DVD was Done
> Right...

There are two main movies that jumped out at me.  One of the is Mission 
Impossible 2.  Everyone I've watched it with claims to see no problem, but I
clearly see artifacts in the scenes where the wierd biotech deal is being 
broken up (also note the John Woo doves.  He just can't resist adding doves to
dramatic battle scenes).  Still, the artifacts aren't too bad.

The other movie I saw that had artifacts particularly painfully badly was a low
budget film called Downward Angel.  In had lots of low light seens that I think
you should have been able to see something, but really just looked black with
lots of brown and green artifacts across the screen (this is a scene where the
light is fading in and out).  I would be interested in knowing how this DVD was
made.  It looks like it was shot on film, so I would guess that it would most
likely be edited on an Avid, so there shouldn't be any problems so far.  Maybe
they just went and tried to compress it using a desktop software encoder. These
don't have to suck, but they usually do.  Still, this DVD had barely any extra
features, so no matter how bad the encoder, I would have thought that the 
bandwidth and disk space available would have made up for it.

Unlike MI2, I think pretty much any person, video-phile or not, would be able 
to see the flaws.

Also, I wouldn't call myself a videophile.  I just watch DVDs on my el-cheapo
Apex 500w DVD player, connected by svideo cable to a cheapo 27" TV (brand not
remeber, certainly not Sony, RCA, or other big brands), connected to a 70s 
quadraphonic reciever (but I only use the front to chanels, no surround sound),
connected to a set of sony suround speakers (center chanel, and the 2 speakers
meant for the rear chanel) bought off a homeless guy for $20.  It is a livable
system, but far from great, and far from what I would like.  

What I really want is a progressive scan DVD plan, a dedicated DAC, a 
progressive scan video monitor with a 16:9 aspect ratio, and a set of nice
speakers, perhaps Quad ESLs, or perhapps settling for one of Infinities nicer
lines driver by a nice tube power amp.  An aquaintence of mine has a set of 
infinities that are about 5 feet fall, 18"wide, and 4" deap.  It has 2 
subwoofers, a mid range driver, a tweater, and a ribbon speaker per tower, is 
is just about the best set of conventional speakers that I've ever heard.

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd