More and more these days, movies and other media are being served to us for purchase or rental via online streaming or downloading.  This recently got some friends and me discussing the quality of such media sources.  Now, it seems you see the “1080p HD” label on just about EVERYTHING.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Detroit’s next car model is the “1080p”.  But what does “1080p HD” mean, really, and should it mean something else?

All “1080p” really means is that the resolution of the media is 1920×1080 pixels, and that it is progressive-scan, not interlaced, video.  Labeling something as 1080p does not in any way (unfortunately) indicate the quality of that video.  Although the FCC never set any guidelines on what qualifies as true high-definition video other than just resolution, I think that slapping the “HD” label on something should mean more than pixels.  One should be able to expect a stunning picture when you see the “HD” label.

In theory, one could take a 480p x 720 (that’s standard DVD resolution) video and scale it to a resolution of 1080p with no interpolation, and you’d get a 1080p resolution picture with absolutely zero change in apparent picture quality over the original, but substantially larger in file size. I highly suspect that a lot of the “1080p” content we see out there these days is what some might call “pseudo-HD”, and probably barely (if at all) better than a decent DVD picture of the same material.

For example, take the video streaming site, vudu.com, and Vudu’s ads for 1080p “instant” streaming.  Blu-ray discs can have a capacity of 50GB, with the movie alone taking up 30~40GB, and a bitrate anywhere from 15Mbps to 40Mbps.  How can a movie that large be available “instantly” with a standard broadband (e.g. 2Mbps speed) internet connection?  Answer: it can’t.

Warning: the following may seem like I’m picking on Vudu.  I’m not.  They offer a really cool, high-quality service.  I am picking on their marketing, and maybe a bit of their technological choices though

I think a lot of people forget that there’s more to HD picture quality than resolution. Bitrate is just as, if not more important than resolution. The only way these sites are streaming 1080p instantly is with a relatively low bitrate.  A low bitrate means high compression, and low picture quality, regardless of the resolution.

Think about how stunning a good Blu-ray movie is.  To me, it is surprising how much better some BD (Blu-ray disc) movies are than even a good off-the-air (OTA) HD broadcast. This is not because the resolution is different (1080i/60 from an antenna is easily and losslessly converted to 1080p/24 by most decent HDTV de-interlacers) but because the bitrate for a good BD flick is often twice that of most OTA HD broadcasts, and even more than twice the bitrate of most cable and satellite HD signals.

OTA 1080i HD signals max out at around 19Mbps, with most averaging around 12~15Mbps depending on how a given station allocates their bandwidth. Vudu however, based on their system requirements, caps its instant-HD bandwidth at just 2Mbps (the minimum bandwidth one must have to use their “watch instantly” feature). That’s less bandwidth (bitrate) than virtually all DVD’s have.

The trick of course, is new more modern codecs. DVD (and OTA HDTV broadcasts) still use the now outdated MPEG-2 codec, while everyone else (cable, streaming, and satellite) have switched to MPEG-4 or similarly modern codecs (H.264, etc.)  So 2Mbps gets you a lot more picture quality with H.264 than it does with an MPEG-2.  Okay, but most Blu-ray discs use either VC-1 or AVC (i.e. H.264) codecs.  Which brings us back to the question, how can you promise 1080p HD with 3Mbps bandwidth?  Even with buffering and the newer codecs, we’re still an order of magnitude away from the 30+ Mbps rates of many Blu-ray movies.

Don’t get me wrong - Vudu definitely has a great service. But I’m skeptical about their “HD 1080p” tag and its quality. (To be fair, it’s not just Vudu, Apple is touting HD streaming now too.)

Anyway, according to Vudu’s site, the minimum bitrate necessary to “watch instantly” is 2~3Mbp. This includes their 1080p HD content. It does NOT include however, their premium quality HD content, called “HDX”. HDX is just the tag they’re using for 1080p HD videos encoded with H.264 technology at a higher bitrate. HDX movies require 2 to 3 hours of buffering time before the box will let you watch the movie. They claim “near Blu-ray quality” and “virtually artifact free”. Those words sound like they’re hedging to me.  If we’re comparing to Blu-ray as a quality standard (which Vudu is doing), do the math: 2-3 hours of buffering before you can watch a HDX quality movie means that the file size is still only around 4~8GB.  That’s the size of a standard DVD movie.  Again the new codecs get you better picture quality for the same file size, but Blu-ray moves use these codecs and are 5 to 10 times larger in file size.  To call these “near Blu-ray quality” is really stretching the truth, in my opinion.

Regardless, HDX movies are pretty good, considering they are quasi-streamed.  You can order one from your work PC at 5 pm, and watch it by the time the kids are in bed and the dishes are done.  That’s really cool.  But is what you watch really comparable to a real Blu-ray disc experience?  I really don’t think so, especially on a large screen.

Vudu’s HDX format is “recommended for 40 inch and larger HD screens” which implies that their standard “HD” videos are NOT recommended for screens larger than 40″. Why? Given the low bitrate, this is probably because they are loaded with compression artifacts like macroblocking.  What I want to know then, is why do they waste bandwidth and file size making these videos 1080p resolution?  The same overall picture quality could most likely be had with lower resolution, the same or higher bitrate, and smaller overall file size.

Anyway, I guess my point is: buyer beware when you see “1080p HD” plastered everywhere.  Check the bitrate!  What are your experiences with streaming of so-called “HD” content?  What so you see as the future of streaming HD content to consumers vs. going to Blockbuster or Netflix and getting movies on a disc? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Kieran Coghlan

I have been ripping all of my CDs using EAC (Exact Audio Copy.) as bit perfect FLAC files to my media server for the last six months. This process and the ability to instantly compare one version of the same song of an artist to another version has made it easy to compare the audible differences between different releases of that same song.

The newest “Remaster” may or may not be the best version from an audiophile’s viewpoint. The advent of the iPod and the desire of music executives and some misguided artists caused a crazy downward spiral of musical fidelity by compressing the music to make it louder either for the iPod or to have a louder product that some music executives think sells better.

I have had quite a few people ask me why I have so many different versions of the same song by the same artist on my music server. The answer is simple: You have to listen to all of them to ascertain which one has the best sound. It may be the latest “remastered” version or it may be the original CD release, or it could be a specialty “audiophile version”.

Here are some of my observations: I pulled up four different releases of Elton John’s “Nikita”, one from the original album CD release “Ice on Fire (1985)”, another from “To be continued(1990)”, another from Greatest Hits Volume III (1987)” and from “Greatest Hits 1970-2002 (2002)”. I proceeded to compare all of these versions going back and forth over and over again. What may be surprising is that they all sound different. Surprisingly the best sounding version is the one from “Greatest Hits Volume III” from 1987. I would have thought that the best sounding version would be from the “Greatest Hits 1970-2002” as that version is the latest and a dual layer SACD Hybrid disc. I am only comparing the ripped CD versions, but the CD version on the SACD Hybrid disc should have been mastered from the same DSD version used for the SACD layer. However, the best sounding version is from the 1987 release on “Greatest Hits Volume III”. I repeated this procedure with many other different artists such as the Beach Boys, Elvis, Abba, Bob Dylan and others. The results were the same; there was always one version of a particular song that stood out from the others.

I can only postulate that the different versions may have been mastered by different mastering engineers or the mastering equipment (i.e. the A to D converters, the alignment of the master tape to the tape machine used for mastering, etc.) or the actual tape used to master from may have been different. (Maybe a safety master, which by definition would be a 2nd generation tape)

Of course it is a well known fact that there are remastering engineers that are legendary in their ability to get the job done right. Steve Hoffman and Bill Inglot are two engineers that always seem to find the real master tape and make the best sounding transfers preserving all of the available dynamic range with the best resolution. So, if you see something mastered by them, it is probably the best version available.

What’s the moral of this story? Don’t sell those old versions of songs you like, they could be the best version. Don’t try to preserve disc space (hard drive space is now cheap) if you are ripping your discs to a media server. Rip all versions of the same song by the same artist in a lossless format such as FLAC; you will then be able to easily compare them.

I would be interested to hear what observations any of you Secrets Readers may have had regarding this subject…..

Greg Mahoney

Like most readers at Secrets we too have been more than anxious to get our hands on Oppo’s much anticipated new Blu-ray player and to our extreme delight, it’s here. Secrets is fortunate enough to have a couple to audition so do expect information over the next few days on this blog as we prepare a full-out benchmark of the BDP-83.

Superfluous to say, most know of Oppo’s stellar reputation for developing affordable ultra-high performance DVD players.

The unit is much taller than typical Oppo players but similarly adorned on the front with minimal controls. Interesting enough though on the extreme right is a USB port.

Anyone who’s ordered an Oppo DVD player will know how it arrives packed – the unit is wrapped in a canvas bag, comes complete with an HDMI and typical RCA cables, instruction manual and nicely designed remote.

The rear sports audio analog 7.1/5.1 for those who want the Oppo to process the HD audio codecs for older AV receivers that cannot process lossless signals, as well as stereo outputs. Additionally are digital coaxial and optical outputs. Composite and component video outputs compliment the HDMI output. Also you notice an Ethernet port, a USB 2.0 port and finally IR IN and Out ports.

The remote control is extremely functional and logically arranged. Touching any button will automatically make it glow amber. The larger stop/play/pause buttons are easily found in the dark and the 4 colored buttons functions vary by content. All in all it feels good in your hand and working with the new GUI (more on that later), makes navigating the menus quite easy.

Piero Gabucci

A lot of us have wanted to see an all-in-one solution Blu-ray player that not only delivers Blu-ray movies in stunning picture and sound but also provides extra features like Internet download capability and proper standard DVD deinterlacing, and perhaps some versatile audio options as well. Looks like the BD-83 is gearing up to be just that kind of a player with features like BD-Live, bitstream and internal decoding of next gen audio formats, USB Stick support (for audio, picture, and video) SACD playback in bitstream format, and standard DVD deinterlacing capabilities. As we are just getting this player on the bench, it looks like Oppo has been wanting to maintain their reputation for excellent deinterlacing and the player is soaring through many of our benchmark tests.

Added March 15

Two features that the BD-83 supports are BD-Live capability and USB ports, which are used for enjoying picture, audio, and video media. Both the front and rear USB ports on this player are designed to be used with flash drives as they only can supply 5v, 500mA of power but external hard drives can be used as well if they have their own power supply. Navigation occurs through an easy to use on-screen menu. There’s not a comprehensive list of all the file formats that the player supports available at this time, but you can bet that there is support for all the major ones like .jpg, mp3, and DivX. We are glad to see the BD-83 support USB devices as it makes the player more of a one stop location for all your media playback.

BD-Live is just now making more of an appearance on Blu-ray releases and a lot of studios are even converting HD-DVD interactive features released on previous titles into a BD-Live format. There’s a lot of development in the works for BD-Live to get it to a point where the interaction is more worthwhile and fun but the capability is definitely a welcome addition on the BD-83. BD-Live is made possible on this player via an Ethernet port on the back of the unit and a useful feature that the BD-83 supports is the ability to filter or turn off BD-Live activity entirely. It’s especially nice for those concerned about network activity that is initiated without consent such as BD-Live titles that begin downloading material as soon as the disc loads. The Ethernet port on this unit also enables firmware updates via download, and grants the possibility of additional network based features released in the future. Big kudos to Oppo on that.

Adrian Wittenberg

By now we’ve all seen the news of the demise of Circuit City and Tweeter.  In today’s economic conditions it’s common for even long-established businesses to fail.  Circuit City started out 60 years ago as the Wards Company, changing its name to Circuit City in 1984.  They closed down in the US in January, remaining open in Canada.  Tweeter was not quite as old being established in 1972 and eventually growing to 100 stores before closing in December.

So is the poor economy really the culprit here?  Or is it perhaps… the internet?

I have seen countless debates in online forums about the advantages of buying in a brick-and-mortar store versus a website.  I certainly agree it’s important to see a television or listen to speakers and electronics before purchase.  But how realistic is this?

There were three Circuit Citys near my home.  Not one had a properly treated listening room.  Not one had a suitable environment for judging the quality of a video display.  And in my experience, not one could link me with a knowledgeable salesman who really knew anything about the products being sold there.  I did purchase my first HDTV at a Circuit City.  All of my electronics purchases since then have been online.

In all fairness to the good hi-fi shops out there; I’ve been in some great stores but the closest ones to me are over an hour away in New York City.  It’s just not feasible for me to shop in an electronics store near my home.  I, like many others, have spent thousands of hours researching products on the internet.  Websites like Secrets provide an invaluable resource.  Where else but the internet can one find so much information about electronics?  No, I can’t listen to speakers on the internet or check out a TV on the internet but I couldn’t really do that at Circuit City either.  So all that’s left is education.  I couldn’t find that at Circuit City.

So my conclusion is this: Circuit City and Tweeter failed, at least in part, because they had nothing to offer versus the internet.  They couldn’t educate the consumer.  They couldn’t demonstrate products properly.  And they couldn’t instill the confidence in a buyer that he was getting the most product for his money.

What do you think……..

Chris Eberle

ANN ARBOR, Mich. March 2, 2009 — Leon Speakers Inc., a manufacturer of custom-built, audiophile-grade loudspeakers for flat-panel displays, today introduced its new Vault In-Wall Series, a redesigned family of high-fidelity in-wall speakers. Designed as both in-wall mains or as timbre-matched rear channels to perfectly complement the Leon Horizon or Profile Series speakers, these fully sealed and acoustically dampened handcrafted cabinets are available with paintable metal grills or custom-colored fabric grills to perfectly match any room’s décor. (more…)

I have put together a pretty decent home theater system over the years.  Like so many other enthusiasts, I started out with a stereo system and systematically transitioned it into a full-blown home theater with surround sound.  Along the way, I have dabbled, tweaked, laughed, cried and learned a few things.  I have owned and sampled components with legitimate high-end aspirations as well as components that were decidedly mid-fi.  It has been an exciting adventure and the results are very rewarding.
This brings me to the point of my blog: I now believe that there is a fairly pronounced point of diminishing returns when considering the purchase of any piece of home theater or hi fi equipment.   I would surely have a super expensive system if I could reasonably afford the cash out lay, but I am an entrenched middle-classer.  And now with all the economic problems in the world, the time has never been better to help people get the most bang for their buck.
I have especially enjoyed helping my friends make equipment upgrades or when they want to build whole new systems from scratch.   Sometimes I can tell that my friends are afraid to ask for my help because they think I might recommend something that’s really expensive.  If this is the case, then I ask them to tell me what their budget is and then I can move forward with some recommendations.
The pictures accompanying this Blog are of one such system.  My friend had a decent monitor and he wanted to upgrade his DVD player and build a sound system.  He lives in a condominium and the room is not very big.  He budgeted $1,000 for this upgrade.  I recommended an Oppo DVD player, an Onkyo stereo receiver, a pair of Hsu Research HB1 bookshelf speakers and a Hsu Research STF-1 subwoofer.  By the time we got the speaker stands and some cabling, we had exceeded his budget by about $30.  The really great part is that my friend has been tickled to death over the quality of this set-up and I am so happy that I was able to help him.

There are some products out there that are such a great value that they are almost iconic to me.  Which budget products would you recommend?  What products do you feel provide the best balance of performance and value?  Would you be interested if Secrets made system recommendations for different budget levels like $2,500, $5,000, $10,000 and so forth?

Let us know….

Jim “Maverick” Clements

It’s no secret that innovation in electronics often begins in Japan and trickles down to the rest of the world. I recently packed my bags to enjoy the culture and the food, and to get a glimpse at some of the current trends in the industry.

Whenever I go to Tokyo, I always spend a good couple of hours in the Akihabara district because the streets are littered with electronic shops that offer everything from cellular to high end A/V equipment.

Here’s a promo booth for Sony’s Blu Spec CD which takes some of the manufacturing processes used in Blu-ray disc creation and applies them to this new high end CD audio format. There’s already a fair amount of titles available at this time.

I stopped by a couple of media shops to see how prominent Blu-ray media was. There were plenty of titles to choose from both in imported titles from the U.S. as well as Japanese originals. Blu-ray is fairly pricy in Japan with most titles priced at around the equivalent of fifty U.S. dollars.

Blu-ray recording is also very big in Japan as many consumers are recording HD television and movies to Blu-ray disks. In fact, many of the Blu-ray players available in Japan double as media recorders with full featured downloadable program guides.

Here, for example, we see Sony’s BDZ-x100 Blu-ray player that features a 1 Terrabyte hard drive, dual tuners for television recording, network communication with other Sony products, and playback of all the latest HD audio codecs. Blu-ray players are expensive in Japan just like they are in the U.S. but the trend is for an all in one solution. Think Blu-ray, plus media server, plus Tivo, plus BD burner. I’m hoping to see these kinds of player/recorders show up in the states relatively soon now that the big digital switch is right around the corner.

In this image is Sony’s gorgeous XR1 LCD display. This display features Sony’s 120hz MotionFlow frame interpolation as well as their Triluminous technology which provides a wide color gamut as well as multi-zone backlighting techniques.

As more and more folks convert their music collection for storage on portable MP3 players or hard drives we can expect to see more innovative products that capitalize on this concept. Both Sony and Panasonic have introduced hard drive based mini-Juke box players.

Here Sony’s NAS-M95HD is elegant, stylish, and just plain cool with tons of storage and a very nice display.

Customization is also very big in Japan, so a lot of the focus from Manufacturers is put on style and appearance as can be seen in this image of various Laptop case designs.

As many people in Japan spend their recreation hours in their homes with their family, the demand for home entertainment products is massive and as such, manufacturers will continue to take risks and create innovative products for having fun in the home environment.

Having said all that on a positive note, what has impressed me during this show was the consistent quality from display panels and projectors to amplifiers and speakers - there’s a whole lot of good product out there. The traditional gaps in quality are narrower than ever and at affordable prices. The quality of projectors especially has become affordable – what you get for under $3,000 is amazing. I’m sure Ross will have a great year reviewing these.

Although I had heard that Anthem was developing a LCOS projector with JVC, they are now ready in two versions, the $7,499 LTX500 and the $5,499 LTX300. Differences in the models include THX certification and 20,000 additional contrast ratio from 50,000 for the 500 and 30,000 for the 300. I find them very stylish with the red racing stripe and black enclosure. Can’t wait to see one in action.

You may have noticed that there are several 3-D movies being advertised as coming to your theaters soon. They seem mostly to be animated films, or movies that have a lot of CG environments, but it won’t be long before we get conventional movies that are shot in 3-D. This means the Blu-ray discs will have 3-D versions, and already there are some that come with red/blue glasses in the package so you can watch them in 3-D. A few new HDTVs have a port for a special device that transmits signals to polarized glasses, making the left eye and right eye lens alternating light and dark in synchrony with the movie. We obtained one of these HDTVs (rear projector), but have yet to see the 3-D device that is supposed to connect to it, so I can’t complete the review.

We also are getting reports that 4K displays (approximately 4 thousand pixels wide instead of 1,920) may be shown at this year’s CES, in preparation for release as consumer products within a year.

Well, we are just now getting all of our new DVD players with HDMI v1.3a output, receivers with HDMI inputs, and displays that will show 1080p. It’s all starting to work properly.

Is this a good time to introduce so much new technology in the HDTV arena?

Where is the 4K bandwidth going to come from? It has 4 times as many pixels as 1,920 x 1,080. Satellite and Cable are already crammed to the top with channels, most of which are not high def, and the compression is so high, the images are really not all that great. Way, way too many artifacts.

Blu-ray discs would not hold an entire 4K movie, so new technology has to be developed with more storage.

The HDMI jacks in our receivers would probably not accept the high bit rate needed for 4K movie discs.

And what about the signal that has to accompany the audio and video on HDMI that goes from the player to the receiver to the flat panel display to trigger the 3-D transmitter to our polarized viewing glasses? How much are you willing to spend to buy a full set of those glasses so your family can all watch the movie in 3-D? Are you like so many of us that recently purchased a flat panel HDTV because the price finally came within reach of our budgets? Are you ready to toss that one out for a new 4K HDTV that shows 3-D movies in the near future? Are you prepared to deal with the glitches that will certainly occur with such a big change in the technology?

I think like many issues in life, we are charging ahead to new technology before the old technology works.