CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[Curt Palme]

... at the Winter 1999 issue of A/V Interiors, and a few things came to mind.

-all of us are damned spoiled with our projectors. I remember looking at those issues when I bought them and had an Ampro 1500 on my ceiling with a new blue tube ($700 from Sony!), thinking 'man, I will NEVER have a system like that!.

-There were probably a lot more Vision 1s sold than Tim or I think. He thinks that about 200 were sold worldwide. That issue alone had 4 of them in it!

-A lot of installer companies went for overkill. The amount of Faroudja line quadruplers on NEC PG and PG+ sets (Runco 950/980) was insane back then. There must have been a lot of soft images out there. Mind you, I don't know that anyone was making a line tripler back then. I think it went from doubling to quadrupling.

-I wonder how many of the setups still exist as they were pictured 8 years ago?

-One image had a Vision 1 on a motorized lift, but the lift cover facing downward was butted right up to the Vision 1 case... where the exhaust from the belly fans is located. Wonder how many focus and HDMs went out due to overheating?

[Curt Palme]

... at the Winter 1999 issue of A/V Interiors, and a few things came to mind.

-all of us are damned spoiled with our projectors. I remember looking at those issues when I bought them and had an Ampro 1500 on my ceiling with a new blue tube ($700 from Sony!), thinking 'man, I will NEVER have a system like that!.

-There were probably a lot more Vision 1s sold than Tim or I think. He thinks that about 200 were sold worldwide. That issue alone had 4 of them in it!

-A lot of installer companies went for overkill. The amount of Faroudja line quadruplers on NEC PG and PG+ sets (Runco 950/980) was insane back then. There must have been a lot of soft images out there. Mind you, I don't know that anyone was making a line tripler back then. I think it went from doubling to quadrupling.

-I wonder how many of the setups still exist as they were pictured 8 years ago?

-One image had a Vision 1 on a motorized lift, but the lift cover facing downward was butted right up to the Vision 1 case... where the exhaust from the belly fans is located. Wonder how many focus and HDMs went out due to overheating?

[ecrabb]

[garyfritz]

[dbaisey]

Curt,
Most were using 4:3 format screens then. Doug

[draganm]

[Curt Palme]

Hey, there's a good point.

I know it took me a while to get used to the softness of a line doubler (DVDO) with a VHS machine. I preferred a composite video feed. Once I got a DVD player and connected it via Svideo, wow, yeah, now I've hit the bigtime..

Now SD DVD looks soft. I'd even watch a crap movie on HD DVD just to marvel at the picture quality.

[Curt Palme]

Hey, there's a good point.

I know it took me a while to get used to the softness of a line doubler (DVDO) with a VHS machine. I preferred a composite video feed. Once I got a DVD player and connected it via Svideo, wow, yeah, now I've hit the bigtime..

Now SD DVD looks soft. I'd even watch a crap movie on HD DVD just to marvel at the picture quality.

[ecrabb]

My dad and friends and I joke around all time about how much we love watching HD. When I say this, I'm only partially exaggerating: I'd rather watch colorful paint dry in HD than watch a good movie in SD (AKA low def).

SC

[garyfritz]

Then you should watch http://video.stage6.com/1927309/.divx !

(Though you don't really get to watch it dry )

[dbaisey]

There are quite a few 'old school' guys / families out there using the NEC4000Q and other Quads 4:3 for most of their favorite SD titles and they are also running HDMI for the new devices and native formats. One of the nice things about the ISS switcher and having a display that can do both. Doug

[MikeEby]

The last 3-4 year I lost interest in Home Theater until probably just 6 months ago when HD-DVD and BR became more popular. It just seemed like there was just nothing new to get excited about. I knew HD disks was coming so I quit buying SD-DVD’s all together in late 2003 rented a few here and there I probably only used the theater a couple times a month until recently, now I’m down there 2-3 times a week just trying new things on the NEC and HTPC to get the most out of them, usually watch 2-3 movies a week. I also resumed building a collection HD-DVD and Bluray disks I don’t really care who wins the “War” my HTPC plays both.

Mike

[ecrabb]

[garyfritz]

Yeah, it's easy to find low-res Youtube versions of the bouncy-ball commercial, but not HD. I used to have a 720p copy but I seem to have lost it. All I have is a "making of" video, and it's just 480p.

You should be able to find these on http://www.bravia-advert.com but it's been down the last few times I tried. You can download Balls and Paint if you dig around in http://bravia.sony.eu/bravia.html.

Have you seen the "Play-doh" Bravia ad? Also exceptional! You can see it at the bravia.sony.eu site but unfortunately you can't download it. See also http://www.duncans.tv/2007/sony-bravia-play-doh and http://www.notcot.com/archives/2007/08/bravia_play_doh.php

They also did a "pyramid" ad, but I don't think that one's nearly as interesting: http://adsoftheworld.com/media/tv/sony_bravia_pyramid

[ecrabb]

Wow, the play-doh commercial is amazing. Holy sh*t, that must have been an insane amount of work. It said it took them 3 weeks to shoot it. There are some small movie productions that don't take 3 weeks to shoot!

I have the 60-second and 150-second versions of the bouncing ball commercial - 700x394 h.264 w/AAC audio, in a QT wrapper. I think I got them from that bravia-advert site about a year ago. I can yank them out of the QT wrapper and save an .mp4 file that should play perfectly on the PS3. I'll try that tonight. Let me know if you want, and I'll pass it along.

Man, I wish I could find some HD versions of those somewhere. Great demo material.

SC

[garyfritz]

I've got what seems to be 850x480 in mpg format. I can send it if you don't have any luck with the QT file. (Or you can just download it from the http://bravia.sony.eu/bravia.html site -- go to the "checkerboard of pictures" menu, then expand the lower-left picture.)

[ecrabb]

I already downloaded that one and checked it out. It looks terrible compared to the version I have. It's super contrasty, noisy, has some interlace artifacts (where somebody de-interlaced improperly and threw away vertical res - really noticeable on some diagonals like power lines) and even has some nasty macroblocking. My copy is WAY nicer than that (though at no higher res).

I have both the short on and the long one in that format - unlike what's live at the site, now.

SC

[garyfritz]

Then I'll take a copy of yours when you get it extracted! Thanks!

[Fujifrontier]

the one i want to see is the old "SDDS" promos they used to run at the movies.

[ecrabb]

I don't remember what it looks like, but I think I have a SDDS trailer. I'll see if I can find it.

The only problem is they all look pretty nasty, compared to what we're used to now.

SC

[kschmit2]

[kschmit2]

Here's the Bravia Paint 1280x720p ad:



http://rapidshare.com/files/90868842/bravia_paint_ad_70sec_1280x720.mp4

I'll post some more ads later.

Kai