Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
This episode of TekZilla is brought to you by the Ben Heck Show.
Time to go to HD Nation on...
Standard definition: sometimes it just sucks.
True.
Well, Sam writes in, "Hi, Patrick and Robert. I'm a long-time viewer of HD Nation and Tekzilla.
I just attempted to watch the movie "Last Night" on DVD and was surprised at how low
the quality of the video was. It was labeled standard definition on the disc, which was
a bit surprising because DVDs usually are 1080p.
So there's no need to label them SD.
480p .
480 P. What did I say, 1080p?
Yeah.
I'm thinking wishful thoughts.
Blu-Ray.
Really. Hey, I'm wondering if this disc was deliberately down scaled so that there is
a bigger gap in video quality between it and Blu-Ray. It's hard for me to accept that a
movie shot in 2010 or even 2009 could be shot in such low quality. Thanks for taking the
time to read this ." Signed Sam. Well, it's really doubtful it was deliberately downscaled.
If you've been watching lots of Blu-Rays, you can be shocked at how crappy even a well
transcoded DVD can look. It's really...and let me make that clear. DVDs look like ***
compared to 1080...good transcoded 1080p Blu-Ray. So I'm just saying.
That's when they're blown up on a big screen TV, where you have lots of pixels.
Yeah.
A DVD is about 350,000 pixels.
There's a...yeah, and 1080p is how many? Over two million.
Yeah, that's a lot of space to fill with fewer pixels. DVDs are basically SD, though. Heck,
40p is practically SD. Most DVDs are 60i on the disc, not actually480p. And again, 480p,
it's a lot smaller than a 1080p screen, 480p picture has to be expanded, upscaled. Second,
by the way, we're going to assume your talking about Last Knight, the 2010 movie with Keira
Knightly.
And yeah, that should actually be a pretty good source. The Blu-Ray with video is suppose
to look good. You know, the 1999 straight to VHS movie probably not so good of the same
title. If somebody was asleep at the wheel when they mastered the DVD or if your DVD
player is having a tough time upscaling to 1080p, it can make things look ugly, especially
this film...if memory serves, there is supposed to be a lot of indoor shots, a lot of night
shots, a lot of dark wood, club room kind of stuff, you know.
Noise can be introduced not intentionally but just through bad upscaling.
Dark scenes can be difficult to compress too. So that could be a reason for the troubles
on the disc. Also, check the connections on the player. I'm assuming you're using an up-converting
player...
Right.
...With HDMI output to an HDTV, and everything's set up correctly. Because...
And that could be a big assumption, as we've seen.
Yeah, it can be. DVDs shouldn't look that bad, but it's unfortunate that they sometimes
do.
Yeah. Blu-ray, though, should almost always look better. Darn well should. It's five,
six times as many pixels. Yes. You hope, you hope that helps. Hey, Vinnie from Hawthorne
writes in, first let me say I love the show, you guys and gal rock. Keep up the great work.
I'm glad you demoed the new Roku 2 but you forgot to mention the new line of players,
that the new line of players have a micro SD input for game storage.
One thing that's not listed anywhere I could find is that, is what is the maximum sized
Micro SD card it will support? Can you let us know? And if one comes included with the
X.S. top of the line unit. Regards Vinny from Hawthorne, New York.
Vinny that is an excellent catch. I didn't really get too excited. about the Micro SD
card slot, which you can probably just...I don't even know if we can get a tight enough
shot on that. It's basically a little tiny shot right above the HDMI port. No micro SD
card comes with the XS or the HD or the XD, but the slot is there.
It will support 32 GB SD cards.
Yeah.
Micro SD cards. They just want it to be at least a class two card that has at least 2
gigabytes of scorage...storage...scorage...storage.
Scorage.
Basically, you need at least a 2 gigabyte card for the Roku to be happy. Once it's installed
and formatted - you go through the menuing system to do that - the Roku box is going
to automatically populate it with extra channel and game info as you load in new channels
and games. It's their way of of getting around game storage.
And something that some heavy channel collectors ran into in early Roku, which was literally
running out of space in the memory of the Roku to store channel info and having to load
it over again or delete channels to load more channels. The local storage on the micro SD
card should be a lot faster for games and for basically accessing your information.
Because the port where they've got like a plus, like, over 300 main channels, private
channels, even large number of them. And then of course they're adding in gaming with The
Angry Birds and such. And it's pretty basic, you just go into...Oh, you know what? I don't
have an SD card in there so it's probably not detecting it.
But the idea is that, you know, basically you can't load content through the SD card.
You're not moving your content on the Micro SD card. It's basically there to expand the
on board memory of the Roku, and it's taken care of automatically. Thirty-two gigabyte
cards are supported.
I like that it's an internal storage and those cards are readily available. And they're not
that much more expensive than standard SD cards.
They're getting pretty cheap. Yeah, it is. I used to put them in my old phone when I
needed that kind of thing. Anyway. Hey, now it's time for the new Blu-Ray releases for
August 9, 2011. First up, Paul. This 2011 film stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, but
instead of their usual directing partner, they've paired up with Greg Mottola, director
of Superbad.
This region free release comes in a two disc set, one Blu-ray and one DVD, with an MPEG-4
AVC codec, 235:1 aspect ratio, and a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack. This release
also includes an unrated extended cut, as well as an audio commentary, a 40-minute,
two-part "making of" documentary, eight behind-the-scenes featurettes totaling an hour, eleven minutes
of bloopers, a fifteen minute look at the CG behind the alien character of Paul, a two-minute
look at the fictional sci-fi writer Adam Shadowchild, and a minute of Simon Pegg making funny faces.
Next up, "Your Highness." This film stars James Franco and Danny McBride as two princes
who embark on a mission to rescue Frank Rowe's bride to be and stumble upon Natalie Portman
along the way. This release includes both the theatrical and unrated versions, but the
difference is minimal, with the unrated version only three minutes longer than the theatrical.
This region free release comes with an mpeg four A.B.C codec, 240:1 aspect ratio, and
a DTSE Master Audio 5.1 Soundtrack. Extras include an audio commentary, 30-minute making
of 15 minutes of extended scenes, 10 minutes of alternate and deleted scenes, a five-minute
gag reel, and 10 minutes of more outtakes, divided into three small featurettes.
Also released this week, Fast Times at Ridgemont High. This cult classic set the bar for teen
coming-of-age comedies. The film centers around the lives of students that attend the fictitious
Ridgemont High.
Although this disc was encoded in 1080PVC1 and its original aspect ratio, the video quality
is merely satisfactory. Blu-ray.com noticed ample digital noise throughout the film and
while we know the movie wasn't shot on the highest quality film, the print that was used
borders on unacceptable with noticeable film scratches near the movie's end.
The audio however, is blessed in comparison. The dialogue is clean and intelligible and
the music quality, while not stellar, is enjoyable. The extras include content from the special
edition <FONT style"BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffc0cb">DVD</FONT>plus new HD content via the u-control feature,
like scene companion with behind the scenes footage, bios and interviews.
Also included is the music of Fast Times and Ridgemont High a fun little music tool that
lets you identify the song playing on the screen as well as create custom playlists
and buy songs off iTunes.
One last noteworthy release is Dazed and Confused. But since Criterion is planning their own
release of the film in October, we'll wait until then for the details on that. And as
always, check out our show notes at techzilla.com or hdnation.tv for the rest of this week's
Blu-ray releases. And it's time to thank one of our sponsors, the Ben Heck Show.
Join modding wizard Ben Heck and friends as they build and modify a host of amazing community
inspired creations. Be sure to watch new episodes of the Ben Heck show every two weeks right
here at revision3.com/tbhs. In the latest episode of the Ben Heck Show, Ben demonstrates
how he modifies a pair of X-Box controllers for people with various disabilities.
Ben also receives a visit from pinball designer extraordinaire John Popadiuk, creator of legendary
Midway and Balley pinball machines. Stay tuned to element14. com/tvhs to find out how you
can enter to win Ben's latest builds from his show. Holy God!