Best Reason to buy illegal DVD's!!!

[Chilly]

Both of which were used for years by professionals because they were much better quality. Someone paid full whack for my minidisc player/recorder about 6 months ago on ebay!

Minidisc isnt better than a CD, its just smaller and re-writable. The data is stored compressed as AAC iirc, so it wont be on par with an uncompressed CD.

 

[TdC]

hmm, when I was still doing video stuffs we used betamax and DAT tapes iirc, although I may well remember it wrong :/

 

[Tom]

Minidisc isnt better than a CD, its just smaller and re-writable. The data is stored compressed as AAC iirc, so it wont be on par with an uncompressed CD.

Yaruar is probably talking more about Betamax, which became Betacam, then Betacam SP, then Digital Betacam, then Betacam SX (which died), then HD. All these formats used the Betamax tape shell, albeit with minor modifications and a typical tape running length of about 35-40 minutes. I've used them for years.

Lots of people are now using DVCAM though, which is a shame because its shit.

Minidisc was in use for a good long while by reporters, as the quality was much better than a dictaphone. They're still in regular use although most of them use solid state recorders.

 

[TdC]

yeah, that was it, iirc Betacam was the dog's back in the day because iirc the video and audio information on tape was in separate tracks or something. *scratches head*

 

[Tom]

Video on both Beta and VHS is recorded using helical scanning, audio on both is recorded using a longitudinal track.

Betacam wasn't that great tbh, despite what people say.

 

[DaGaffer]

Personally i'd disagree, it took a bit of tinkering but sd running from my v+ box via hdmi to my 37" tosh 1080p telly looks great from decent broadcasters (ITV is in general a bit worse than BBC which is superb and some of the lesser channels running mainly us tat is bad, but it was bad on a sd telly too) can't comment about much larger sizes of tv, but at 37 i can't say sd looks bad at all.

I hadn't really noticed this but you're absolutely right, and even between ITV channels there's a variation; I'm flipping between ITV1 and 2 right now in the ad break and ITV2 is def worse; you can see it in the programme bumpers.

 

[Wij]

ITV is awful quality on Sky :/

 

[Fana]

Bought a 32" 720p/1080i lcd tv recently and ive also noticed that picture quality varies alot from channel to channel - the state-tv stations and a few others over here have a good signal and send everything in widescreen as well, so those are a pleasure to watch on the new telly but most of the commercial stations have a rather shitty feed and look crap upscaled to 720p (as well as not broadcasting in widescreen most of the time). Bought a quality goldplated atenna cable to see if there was any improvement and it did help a little bit. DVDs played over the xbox360 via component cable look great. This is on a Samsung LE32R87.

 

[Jonty]

Hi guys

Just a few random thoughts:

• With regards skipping DVD adverts and notices, if you're watching on a PC then there's a fair amount of software which allows you to skip past these things (e.g. AnyDVD etc.). Standalone DVD players are more limited in this respect, but there must be some which allow it irrespective of the disc's protection features.
• I've personally always thought (or maybe just hoped) that if there's no unified HD disc format, then in the end we'll just have players which can read all the formats (just like the DVD rewriters for the PC). LG recently released the standalone BH200, and although it costs US$999, at least it plays all the formats (plus we already have similar drives for the PC).
• Quite a few people believe that the HD disc battle is a little short-sighted given the future of HD downloads. Microsoft already has an eye on this with their 360 marketplace (plus Steam could be adapted too), and given the advances in broadband, it's not hard to imagine people just streaming or downloading movies in the not to distant future. In Taiwan, they're privately trailing WiMax (akin to wireless broadband) across the whole island and these new technologies really open up a lot of new possibilities.

Kind regards

 

[Tom]

You can't put HD content on the internet, because the internet is pipes and if you fill those pipes it won't work any more.

Or something.

 

[rynnor]

You can't put HD content on the internet, because the internet is pipes and if you fill those pipes it won't work any more.

Or something.

Cognitive Radio will save us! Cognitive radio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Great wireless broadband that will finally effeciently use the Radio spectrum - its mentioned in articles about the next Ofcom auction of the UK Radio Spectrum (2008/2009 I think).

 

[rynnor]

Bought a quality goldplated atenna cable to see if there was any improvement and it did help a little bit.

Hmm - that would help with an analogue signal but shouldnt effect digital - are you certain it changed at all?

 

[Trem]

Hmm - that would help with an analogue signal but shouldnt effect digital - are you certain it changed at all?

Aye pretty much what I thought and it would only slightly make a difference to analogue as well. Gold is a very good conductor but it ain't magic!

You cannot polish a turd

 

[Embattle]

I do so much hate that crappy anti pirate crap they stick on more and more DVDs.