SD DVD to demo HD805

[junglalien]

Whats a good title to check out how good the Reon works? Honestly I'm not impressed at all. Out of the box I'd have to say my PS3 looks ALOT better with SD DVDs. Well I'm off to play with settings try comparing between 1080p/24, 1080p and 1080i. Maybe switch between film and video modes until I can somehow acess the picture settings.

[Centauri]

Be warned; chris gerhard may pop up to twist your words and chastise you for failing to offer anything other than monumental praise for a player with a Reon in it.

[junglalien]

This is one of those instances when you can read stats and hype until you turn blue in the face. When you use your own eyes/ears its a whole different story. I'm glad I didn't pay over $200 for one of these. HD DVD does seem to look a little better than my A30 though.

[project86]

I've got the Reon in my Samsung 1200. It does seem better than my A3, but not by the leaps and bounds that people make it out to be. Keep messing with the settings though, and you should figure it out.

I find it best to use a mix of very good looking newer releases (Lord of the Rings) and grimy older stuff (Hitchcock) to see the range of abilities it has. It might help to burn an exact copy of of a disc and play them at the same time, switching between them. Just don't expect miracles.

[The_Doctor]

I don't know which would be the best to test it with but I used Narnia 1 and Superbits 5th Element to test out the XA2.

There was a noticeable improvement over the a35, and the a35 had been a noticeable improvement over the a2. (The A35 does a commendable job upconverting.IMHO)
I'd be very surprised if these Onkyos weren't every bit as good (as the xa2). Although with the tweaking Onkyo is supposed to have done they should be better.

We also watched Last Crusade over the 4th of July, and a few of the scenes I tested the a35 with were improved, but not as much I as thought they'd be .
I am looking forward to those new DVD players coming out this winter.

[Blacklac]

Originally Posted by project86

I've got the Reon in my Samsung 1200. It does seem better than my A3, but not by the leaps and bounds that people make it out to be. Keep messing with the settings though, and you should figure it out.

To be fair, didn't Samsung implement Reon only so-so?

For some reason LOTR-ROTK looks only mediocre in my A2 and A35. It looks much better on my Oppo and 805. (Not the Special Edition, although I rented the SE from Netflix and they looked the same. ) 30 Days of Night is another one that looked noticeably better on my Oppo than the A2.

To see how good the Reon is, your going to want to play movies that don't look so good on other players and see if the Reon can top them. There's not much point in testing with "clean" movies, since they will look good in damn near any machine.

But, if you do want the "best" looking upconverted titles, look here. The OP wasn't updating by the time I got my post in there. Here's my list of "clean" movies:

AVP
AVP:R
Condemned
Sin City
Cloverfield
X2
Signs
Mr. Brooks
Planet Terror
Wedding Crashers
Equilibrium
Bourne Ultimatum
Miami Vice
The Kingdom
You, Me and Dupree
Identity
Kingdom Of Heaven (Directors Cut)
Things we Lost in the Fire (closeup face shots look HD-lite)
XXX
Inside
Eastern Promises
Man on Fire
Requiem for a Dream
Collateral
Classic Bond Movies (remastered)
Hitman
Underworld
Crank
Cleaner (Samual L Jackson)
Live Free or Die Hard

[chris gerhard]

delete duplicate.

[Aurora]

Traditional animation looks fabulous. In particular, I recommend The Lion King. It's pretty much indistinguishable from HD. Lady and the Tramp is also really impressive because it's so old. It looks like it was done last year, not 50 years ago.

I also was really impressed with Inside Man when I saw that on DVD. Stop-Loss was also really nice looking as well.

[chris gerhard]

Originally Posted by Centauri

Be warned; chris gerhard may pop up to twist your words and chastise you for failing to offer anything other than monumental praise for a player with a Reon in it.

Actually, Centauri is likely to offer his continual drivel first and he proved that prediction correct.

This player and the chip used are proven and thoroughly reviewed, any issues are unrelated to the Toshiba implementation or the chip used and must be the result of a faulty player or other cause. There are few players any better, none are likely to be found at this price.

Chris

[chris gerhard]

Originally Posted by junglalien

Whats a good title to check out how good the Reon works? Honestly I'm not impressed at all. Out of the box I'd have to say my PS3 looks ALOT better with SD DVDs. Well I'm off to play with settings try comparing between 1080p/24, 1080p and 1080i. Maybe switch between film and video modes until I can somehow acess the picture settings.

I have the PS3 and this player and although I like the PS3, I like this player better. If you have DVE or Avia, it shouldn't be difficult to get this player to perform well provided it is working properly. I see a lot of criticism of the PS3 and it hasn't done well with objective tests at The Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity but I think it looks really good and has since one specific firmware update about a year ago, I don't recall the version.

Chris

[Centauri]

Ladies and gentlemen, set your personal observations aside; He has arrived!

[The_Doctor]

Originally Posted by Blacklac

But, if you do want the "best" looking upconverted titles, look here. The OP wasn't updating by the time I got my post in there. Here's my list of "clean" movies:

Nice list of movies, some I've tested most I haven't.
AVP: R I wouldn't recommend, well as a movie, but more specifically as a test disc. The picture is often dark and disorienting, that's the way it was intended it. I think unless they know the movie it might be a bit frustrating as a test disc.

I thought national Treasure 2 looked damn good on the Xa2 and the animated stuff looks real good too.
But for my money the suberbits stuff look noticeably better on the Xa2.

Although from some of the complaints it does seem as if a few of the HD805 might have a problem with upconverting settings or Conversions working at all.
If the player is in good working order IMHO you should easily be able to see the difference

?
Do the HD805 have the 1-2 switch in the front panel like the Xa2s?

[junglalien]

Whats superbits? I want to order somethin that probally won't be out on BD for awhile. I'm thinking Star Wars Revenge of the Sith because u can get then used for cheap on amazon. Or The Mist

[The_Doctor]

Originally Posted by junglalien

Whats superbits? I want to order somethin that probally won't be out on BD for awhile. I'm thinking Star Wars Revenge of the Sith because u can get then used for cheap on amazon. Or The Mist

I think Superbit movies generally have twice the bit rate of standard dvds. SD DVD 2.5-4 bits, Superbits 8-10(?) bits.

Superbit is a brand of premium DVD-Video versions of motion pictures from Columbia TriStar Home Video, a division of Sony. Superbit DVDs aim to improve picture quality over a standard DVD edition of a feature by increasing the bit rate of the encoded video. Audio quality is also improved by the mandatory inclusion of both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround audio tracks.

[vinnie97]

The REON impressed me on the Samsung BD-UP5000...