After Steve’s blog the other day, suggesting that we go to Amazon.com and buy what we want in the HD DVD movie closeout, I did so, picking up some movies that are in both formats. The HD DVD versions were half price. Interestingly, it appears that the studios who released their movies in both HD DVD and Blu-ray, encoded them at the more restricted bit rate of HD DVD for both disc types. So, the Blu-ray versions are no better than the HD DVD versions even though they theoretically could be (if the Blu-ray versions had been encoded at the higher bit rate capability of Blu-ray).

I have one HD DVD player, a Toshiba. I also have an LG HD DVD/Blu-ray drive (about $340) in my media server. At some point, the HD DVD players will break down. And when that happens, there won’t be a replacement available.  Even if you go to Amazon.com today and buy an extra HD DVD player at the very reduced prices, and store it away for when your current HD DVD player breaks, it will eventually stop working as well. So, what happens to your collection of HD DVDs then?

What I am doing is transferring my HD DVDs to my media server, using AnyDVD. This is software that some people use to copy DVDs, HD DVDs, and Blu-ray discs to their hard drives. It is not a legal software program in the sense that it is available in the USA. The movie manufacturers would sue them up one side and down the other if they were based here. The problem is that the program is used by some to steal movies, that is, copy borrowed or rented discs. I agree that is wrong. However, I don’t see a problem in just copying the discs that I own, to my media server, for backup protection. The discs do get scratched, and as I said, eventually, there will not be any working HD DVD players to play them. I really don’t think Hollywood has a disagreement with this approach. It is the copying of movies that consumers have not purchased that is the issue. The movie studios have a right to protect their investments. But we, as consumers, also have the right to protect our investments. Right? Right.

So, what I am saying here is that I hope manufacturers and consumers can come to some sort of official agreement as to how we can store our movies on transferrable media such that we can protect them with backup hard drives, and be able to continue to enjoy them for many years. Right now, that is in danger. I know there are many other consumers out there who are copying their movies to hard drives, or who want to do that. They are afraid to talk about it. As an A/V editor, I have to talk about it.

Anyone who spends time on the SECRETS site is familiar with the bane of many home theater dreams: the dreaded S.A.F. For the uninitiated, that’s Spousal Approval Factor (or for those who insist on being politically correct, Significant Other Approval Factor). You have been afflicted by the S.A.F. if you have heard any of the following: “You’re going to put WHAT in my living room?”; “That is the ugliest thing I have ever seen!” “No, you cannot paint all the walls and ceiling black!”; “Do they make that in a smaller version?”, and the one often heard in my home, “Why do you need another subwoofer?”

Because for every one of us who has the ability to create their own room in the image of a spaceship, there are twenty of us who share their primary theater space with a life partner who does not share our passion for home theater (Note: 20-to-1 statistic pulled out of thin air). And therein lies the rub, because those life partners view the room as something other than a shrine dedicated to reproduction of the perfect audio-video experience.

The phenomenon reaches far beyond the homes of A/V enthusiasts. Those who would underestimate the power of the S.A.F. need only look at the proliferation of on-wall, in-wall, in-floor and in-ceiling speakers; drop-down projection screens, and flat panel displays that hide behind artwork. Indeed, major portions of the industry have re-aligned themselves towards creating products with a high S.A.F. quotient.

So how does one deal with an outbreak of S.A.F.? There is no single “right” answer. Capitulation may seem like the easiest way out, but the reminder of what-might-have-been tugs at you every time you fire up the HTIB. It is the wound that never heals. Bribery is generally a better course of action, but can result in an ugly conversation about value systems within a relationship. If spending $5,000 on a set of speakers makes perfect sense, but a $5,000 piece of jewelry seems like a terrible waste of money, then bribery (or “horse trading” if you prefer) is probably not going to work. Good old-fashioned imperialism is always an option (“it’s MY house and MY money!”) but only if you’re prepared to deal with the consequences. That leaves compromise, settling for the proverbial half-a-loaf. Actually, my wife is very generous about allowing big tower speakers, multiple subwoofers and acoustic panels in “our” family room, so I’m very grateful for her patience. (She made me say that).

Perhaps somewhere out there is a magical, mystical cure for S.A.F. If you discover it, let me know!

As predicted, the price of HD DVDs has fallen dramatically in the last week. As I am sure everyone has read by now, even Microsoft has thrown in the towel concerning HD DVD drives for their X Box 360. The optional HD DVD drives are now available for $50.

A few days ago, I checked HD DVD pricing on Amazon and was pleased to find a number of HD DVDs that I wanted at $14.95; and so I bought a few and they arrived in my mail box yesterday. When I checked the Amazon site last night and today, some of these same movies, as well as other titles were now $11.95. So I bought a few more.

Note however, that some of the new releases on HD DVD, such as Beowulf and American Gangster still command a respectable price, $27.95.

Does buying HD DVDs on the cheap make sense, since we now know for sure that HD DVD it to be an obsolete format? I think if you have a HD DVD player already, as I do, it probably does, especially if it is a movie you think you may want to watch more than once.

Let’s see. Today’s news says

(1) Record Oil Prices.

(2) Drug Resistant Tuberculosis is Spreading.

(3) Extensive Power Outages in Florida.

(4) US Inflation Rate is Soaring.

(5) Record Decline in Home Prices.

But . . . Stock Market Rises for Third Consecutive Day.

Am I missing something here?

JEJ

About a year ago a friend asked me to help him set up his 78 year old mother’s new 32” LCD. I was more than happy to help, although since then I’ve set up his two sister’s systems too. As we unpacked the panel I was shocked by this woman’s questions: “Are you using an HDMI cable, are all the channels in 16 x 9?”

I went on to explain to her that since she didn’t have a sound system, (I watch mostly the news and documentaries she said) and that HDMI was preferred from her cablebox to the LCD, it wasn’t completely necessary as component would do the trick (that’s all I had with me!). Then she floored me again; “But I won’t get 1080p from component?” I said not to worry, your cable company isn’t sending you 1080p content, yet.

My God, we’ve arrived I thought – an elderly woman had all the right questions.

Another friend recently called and gloated that he had just purchased a state-of-the-art 60” plasma TV and wanted some information about HDMI, this is a common trend these days. After I made my suggestions I asked what audio gear he planned, he shocked me too: “Oh I’m not into that!” Here was a 35 year old who knew enough to buy the right display and get the best cables to take full advantage of video, yet he had no desire to watch in surround.

A dissertation to explain to him that he’s losing out on half the experience seemed futile at the moment, and I was late for a meeting anyway.

A third (and final friend for purposes of this discussion) asked me to set up his new receiver and 52” panel with his surround speakers. He invested in a Blu-ray player (Sony) as well so I thought it would be fun to do. I don’t have my Saturday’s to myself anyway.

After all was set up and we ran all the right cables, he was mortified that he couldn’t get his HDMI to give him lossless audio. I showed him that it had to be Linear PCM but I assured him that it was fine. He didn’t buy my argument – he wanted to see the familiar DTS or Dolby Digital across the face of his receiver (a Denon AVR 3806), not Multi Channel. I think to this day, several months later he’s still tinkering trying to find out why.

I found this to be an interesting cross-section of people that shows we’re all over the place with home A/V. It wasn’t a surprise that video is still far ahead in terms of what people want – sexy new flat panels. I was disappointed that 2 of the 3 had no interest in audio and the third probably read way too much for his own good.

I can’t wait for the digital switch next year, I’ll be the busiest “friend” around.

No Country for Old Men picked up the Oscar for Best Picture, in spite of my condemnation for that terrible ending. So be it. I guess the Academy was not impressed with my opinion.

We watched Michael Clayton last night, while the Academy Award Ceremony was being televised.

For crying out loud, another bad ending. This time it was satsifying, but just weakly done. No cleverness. Nothing like the “Gotcha” kind of endings we used to see in the old Columbo TV series (starring Peter Falk).

What is it with these storytellers? It’s like, “OK guys, I am tired. Let’s get this story over with.”

I have noticed the same thing lately in some novels. Great beginning (they have to do that because we browse books by looking at the first few pages), pretty good in the middle, then “Thud” at the end.

C’mon. Put a little more energy into the finale. Leave us with our hands clapping.

As I mentioned yesterday, I went to see No Country for Old Men at the Cineplex. I know it is up for Best Picture, but I want to officially complain about the ending. It’s lousy. As the credits started to roll, I used a few four-letter words, and people around me were also outraged.

One said, “That’s it?” Another said to his friend, “I am never coming to the movies with you again.”

It was if the director said, “Hey guys, we are out of film, so let’s call that last scene a wrap.”

This begs the question as to what the intent of the film maker is: Art or Entertainment.

Hey, it’s entertainment. Anyone home in Hollywood? We want to be entertained. That’s it. We want to buy our tickets, some popcorn, some soft drinks, sit down, and escape for a couple of hours. We want to go home feeling good, not pissed off. You can make us laugh, cry, scream, whatever. But, that has to stay in the theater. We don’t want to take it home with us, and we don’t want to feel cheated.

Cheated is what I felt at the end of Old Men. For 99.99% of the movie, I loved it. But, for the last 0.01%, well, now I hope the movie doesn’t win any awards tonight, and it’s been nominated for a bunch of them, including Best Picture. I don’t care how the book went, I want something better.

I went to a movie theater today, for the first time in a long while. I usually wait until the movies come out on DVD. But, I just had to go see No Country for Old Men.

My home theater is better than the Cineplex by a long shot. I have told people this, and they agree when they come over to watch movies at my home.

What I have referred to in the past was image sharpness and sound quality. Image sharpness because the Cineplex projects the films using anamorphic lenses,  and some sharpness loss occurs with this process. My sound system is also better because I have my surround speakers in the rear where they belong, and the Cineplex has them all along the side to be able to give surround sound to a huge audience. I use amplifiers that have quite a bit of bias into Class A. The Cineplex does not do that.

But, today, I paid attention to the black level. I haven’t worried about that in previous theater visits because it was before black levels were such a big issue in flat panel TVs (like I said, I haven’t gone to the Cineplex in a LONG time). In those days, we were all so excited to even see flat panel displays, we didn’t criticise them for this detail (and they were pretty bad).

What I noticed was that the black level on the Cineplex screen was actually worse than any of the LCD or Plasma HDTVs that we have tested or have seen at TV stores in the last year. This is because (1) the illumination for a theatric presentation is in the thousands of watts.  It is very, very bright. (2) the black areas on film are not completely opaque to light. They are dark, but not totally so. If you hold a piece of film that has been completely exposed to light and developed, up to even a low wattage conventional incandescent bulb, you can easily see the bulb through the film.

This particular Cineplex is very new, having been constructed in the last two years. So, it’s not because of old optics or old screens, or anything like that.

My point? With the latest crop of flat panel HDTV displays, we are seeing black levels that are far better than we have ever had at the Cineplex. I don’t think that the director’s intent when making the movie, is that we see a very dark gray in the deep shadows of a dark scene. So, the home theater now has the potential to deliver a superior visual experience. This is especially so when I consider that I also noted that the Cineplex image was not quite as sharp in detail as current 1,920×1,080 HD displays when movies are being shown on them.

It was also not as good as my 720p DLP projector that has two bulbs to give me a calibrated image with about 1,800 lumens, let alone some of the other projectors we have reviewed that really are tuned to deliver spectacular black levels.

Perhaps this is one more reason producers are going forward with more 3D films, like Journey to the Center of the Earth that I saw being advertised in the lobby of the theater today, for release mid-2008. We can’t watch those at home . . .  yet.

At home, I recently switched out my older DirecTV TiVo PVR for the newer version that has MPEG-4 decoding with the additional satellites that transmit more HD channels.

Included in these are the local channels in the San Francisco Bay Area.

So, we began watching local programming in HD, which includes the evening news.

I noticed the usual things, such as the pancake makeup on the news anchors, and I thought I might be caught up in paying attention to all the additional detail that was being shown in the live shots on the scene of news making events.

But, no, it appears that finally, for me at least, HD is just not the jaw dropping visual stimulus it used to be. I actually was paying more attention to the content.

And, it was still just as bad as it was in standard definition (SD), NTSC, 4:3.

I didn’t care that I could see more scratches in the crumpled metal of automobile accidents. I didn’t care that I could read the numbers of the stock market report or the numbers of victims in suicide bombings more easily.

The news stinks just as bad in high definition.

I think I’m the only one around here that doesn’t have a front projector, and it’s leading to feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem.  The reasons why I haven’t taken the FP plunge, I suspect, are the same as many others; lack of appropriate space, and cost.

The price of admission for front projectors continues to fall, with several 1080p projectors available for less than $3,000. That’s a huge drop from just a couple years ago, and inch-for-inch represents an extraordinary value. But still, three grand is more than most folks will spend on a new display, and that doesn’t include the cost of the screen.  Again, prices have come down, but a high quality screen can cost almost as much as the projector. Do-it-yourself options such as specialty paints and homemade screens are always an option, but you have to be really committed to undertake that kind of project.

The second reason I haven’t pulled the trigger on a front projector is that I don’t happen to have a spare, light-controlled room lying around the house. Of course, that’s my fault for continuing to have kids until they filled up all of our bedrooms. The only space that could possibly host a front projector is the family room. The list of undesirable features in that room is virtually endless: white cathedral ceilings, a sliding glass door on one side, open to the kitchen in the back, and a 12-foot tall opening to the dining room on the other side. Can you say “zero light control?” So that means a FP would only come into use at night, with my RPTV handling duties during daylight hours. And because the RPTV doesn’t hang on a wall, that raises an interesting question as to where exactly I could mount a screen. And where to mount a projector on a cathedral ceiling. And where to run the cables and power.

So the upshot is that I have perfectly legitimate reasons why a front projector isn’t a viable option. I’m guessing that many home theater enthusiasts who lust after a FP came to the same conclusion that I did (although maybe without as much overanalyzing). But I’ve decided to challenge my own reality. There must be a relatively painless and economical way to enjoy the wonders of a HD picture on a huge screen in my own home.

I’m going to investigate various options over the coming months, hoping to find one that won’t end up with me banished to the living room couch by my wife, one that can be duplicated in various less-than-ideal environments, and ideally, one that makes buying and setting up a front projector as simple (or close as possible) as bringing home a flat panel from a big box store.