Digital Video Essentials: HD Basics [Blu-ray]
by Joe Kane
![Digital Video Essentials: HD Basics [Blu-ray]](/images/Digital-Video-Essentials-HD-Basics-Blu-ray-B000V6LST0-L.jpg)
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Blu-ray details
Actor: Joe KaneDirector: Joe Kane
Brand: Digital Video
Blu-ray: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 120 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: 2008-03-25
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: DVD International
Blu-ray Reviews of Digital Video Essentials: HD Basics [Blu-ray]
Blu-ray Review: Close to Useless - An Electrical Engineer's Perspective
Summary: 1 Stars
As an electrical engineer and a real HDTV enthusiast I was hoping for a number of useful tests to set up my high definition TV by EYE. This test disk failed miserably! I should note that my work experience has NOT been with video and engineers who have worked in the field may find this disk more useful.
I own a top rated 2008 plasma, connected with HDMI cables and I used a Sony PS3 for playback of this disk.
I'm at a complete loss to understand any of the positive reviews* (*see my conclusion).
Here are a few of the many flaws evident on this calibration disk:
1.) There is an exceedingly long and sophomoric explanation of the compromises made as television evolved from standard definition to high definition and the marketing techniques used to make an HDTV more appealing in a showroom. This is not only a major irritant - this material takes up the bulk of the disk.
2.) Where the disk really fails is in its tests. That's right - it won't help you to set up your TV. The explanations of how to use the tests are either hopelessly incomplete or much more often - just missing! I find it absolutely amazing that this video has NO explanations for MOST of its tests. Not a single word!! Not a single word about how to use most of the tests is evident in the video, or in the manual or on-line, at the company's web site.
For example: Key factors like setting brightness and contrast are hopelessly confused or incomplete. After a a bit of searching on the web I was able to understand the usefulness of the "below black" signal on this disk. It turns out that "below black" is a test signal only useful for calibrating a TV but in your final calibration you don't want this signal visible. "Below black" picture information does not exist on any commercial DVD or Blu-ray other than a test disk. Trust me - the information I just presented is far more useful and clearer than what you'll find on the disk! Also, no mention was made that your blu-ray player has to be set up to pass this signal. While I was fortunate that I knew this ahead of time, there was not one word of warning to the user, let alone information in how to set up your blu-ray player to pass this signal. Of course if your blu-ray player is not set up correctly you render the test completely invalid. What a reader needs to understand is the test pattern provides various black bars and if the below black signal is missing - a person is not likely to know that it is missing! Even worse was there was no mention that all your room lighting should be turned off to achieve any meaningful results. Fortunately I knew that too. That is a "best case" review of one of the few tests that had an explanation.
Most of the tests have NO INFORMATION about how to use them. Unbelievable!!!!
3.) Some of the sample high definition pictures on this disk, which are included to promote the high quality of HD, have excessive noise. Unbelievable! I was very concerned how poorly some of these clips looked. Only briefly and NOT when these images were first displayed was there a mention by the narrator that this noise was due to flaws/limitations of the (vintage) digital camera used (remember this disk was produced in 2000/2001). In short, any big box store will have better high definition content playing!
4.) The menus are confusing and their titles change. The text that appears on the screen is so small that even on a 60" HDTV I had to get up from my seating position and move closer to read it
This disk had the potential to do a lot but it fails miserably. The disk was made circa 2001 and it clearly shows its roots in CRTs and Projector systems. For example: There is no help whatsoever in setting up the back light of an LCD. That is a key adjustment for adjusting the black level previously discussed.
I hoped to learn more at the company's web site and thought, maybe, I'd still be able to extract some utility from this disk. I could not have been more wrong. There were no technical discussions or anything that a user would find helpful. In fact, the overall scarcity of information was amazing. No forums, tech discussions, or help. Even more telling was there was NO contact information. Once you've bought this disk you are on your own and the authors clearly don't want to hear from you.
Quite honestly - save your money. If someone thinks this disk helps them I'm afraid they are very wrong unless they are far more sophisticated than I am and have extensive technical experience in how to use these test signals and, of course, have the needed instruments. I have no doubt that the test signals were generated with some care. But the question is - how to use them? Most of these signals absolutely need test instruments and the few tests that don't need instrumentation require far better explanations if they are to be done by eye.
Conclusion: I've come to believe that most but not all of the positive reviews of this disk involved people who never understood the tests they were performing and likely misinterpreted the results. For others who liked this disk maybe it was a revelation that the vivid settings, the default/out of the box settings present on many TVs, are not the best. In that case, I suppose the overly long and verbose explanation of how television evolved might be useful if it urges someone to play with the settings of their TV to get a better picture. In a similar vein - some of the tests might be helpful if the HDTV was grossly mis calibrated but even then, using this disk, the HDTV would only be marginally better.
You will do much better checking out CNET where they publish the settings they use for any TV reviewed or visit the AVS forum and look for a discussion on your make and model of TV.
Update: If you click on comments for this review you'll discover a link another Amazon member provided that directs you to a superb tutorial on calibration. As I suggested, you MUST HAVE a test instrument to use this disk (and put in the many hours learning to use it and the associated software). If anyone doubts that this disk is USELESS by itself they should read the tutorial.
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