Gizmodo's Take on Vudu's HD Quality

[radguy]

Re: Gizmodo's Take on Vudu's HD Quality

Hey there, I think VUDU is great and I use it all the time. However, I think one way to settle this Gizmodo issue is for a few of us to recreate their test and post it for all to see. I have my VUDU running through a 480p InFocus projector, HDMI cable, and it looks great. HD definately looks better than SD, but I know my set up is not top notch. So let's see some of you guys who have a 1080p/24 set up re-do this test and show us the real difference. Cheers!

Radguy

[redwein]

Re: Gizmodo's Take on Vudu's HD Quality

One other observation. The Gizmodude does not specifically state whether he is using HDMI or COMPONENT connection:



Everyone seems to be assuming that he is using HDMI, but that has not been confirmed by his response. If he is making his comparison without HDMI it is not even a valid review.

The fact that he doesn't shows something too. If he understood the question, he clearly would have said that he was using the HDMI connection, rather than just "directly". Since he didn't, he doesn't seem like the guy who should be testing and reporting on this stuff.

[aaronwt]

Re: Gizmodo's Take on Vudu's HD Quality

I forgot the P stood for progressive scan.

Do you think a Vudu HD movie would be better to watch with 720P instead of 1080i?

I'll definitely try it myself, but was curious what you thought.

Regards

I looked at 720P output and the resolution was lower than with the 1080i output on the radar screen scene with the text.
I also have no capture cards or at least none I plan on messing with. If I get a chance I might try taking some pictures if the rental period hasn't expired, but as we know taking pictures isn't the best way.
Although pausing it isn't either. I'll need to put it on a tripod and take multiple frames, although doing it that way also makes it almost impossible to get the proper frame for an apples to apples comparison.

[HeadHodge]

Re: Gizmodo's Take on Vudu's HD Quality

I looked at 720P output and the resolution was lower than with the 1080i output on the radar screen scene with the text.
I also have no capture cards or at least none I plan on messing with. If I get a chance I might try taking some pictures if the rental period hasn't expired, but as we know taking pictures isn't the best way.
Although pausing it isn't either. I'll need to put it on a tripod and take multiple frames, although doing it that way also makes it almost impossible to get the proper frame for an apples to apples comparison.

Thanks for the feedback.

I applaud your time and effort for doing this.

Too bad there isn't some sort of Whiz O' Meter or Gizometer that you could hook up to all the various devices and have it report which one has the best quality.

If they can determine how many people watch reruns of Friends, it should be a piece of cake.

Regards

[NA9D]

Re: Gizmodo's Take on Vudu's HD Quality

I looked at 720P output and the resolution was lower than with the 1080i output on the radar screen scene with the text.

On a 1080p/24 set, I would expect this as it's not native and 1080p is certainly better resolution than 720p. And since your set is probably 1080p/60 compatible as well as 1080p/24, 1080i/30 will upconvert no problem.

However, I disagree that 1080i will look better than 720p on a 720p native TV.

[aaronwt]

Re: Gizmodo's Take on Vudu's HD Quality

On a 1080p/24 set, I would expect this as it's not native and 1080p is certainly better resolution than 720p. And since your set is probably 1080p/60 compatible as well as 1080p/24, 1080i/30 will upconvert no problem.

However, I disagree that 1080i will look better than 720p on a 720p native TV.

It all depends on the deinterlacer and the scaler. If it is deinterlaced properly and scaled down properly to 720p/768P it might look better.
I never owned a 720P set, although I did own a couple of 768P sets. I still have one in my closet, a little 26" Olevia I bought in 2005, but I'm not going to pull it out to see how it will look

[NA9D]

Re: Gizmodo's Take on Vudu's HD Quality

All,

We have been told the official position from Vudu on HD quality:

The HD quality of the Vudu player is considered at this point to be "broadcast quality." This means that it is as good as broadcast HD and similar formats. The HD quality is not considered to be as good as HD-DVD or Blue-Ray and we don't want anyone to be misled otherwise.

The quality of Vudu's HD content is still evolving and as such will hopefully continue to improve as time goes on.

[HeadHodge]

Re: Gizmodo's Take on Vudu's HD Quality

All,

We have been told the official position from Vudu on HD quality:

The HD quality of the Vudu player is considered at this point to be "broadcast quality." This means that it is as good as broadcast HD and similar formats. The HD quality is not considered to be as good as HD-DVD or Blue-Ray and we don't want anyone to be misled otherwise.

The quality of Vudu's HD content is still evolving and as such will hopefully continue to improve as time goes on.

Thanks for that!

We'll I would not have come up with "broadcast quality" as a category with my pea brain, but I like it.

I've been too focused on DVDs and ignored the other competeing medias out there, like Directv, Network digital, and cable. They all offer movie content too.

I would now like to "propose" a quality metric to use.

1. We pick a single (or small group of) content to use for comparision, so comparisions would be consistant across all media types. Right now Transformers seems to be the preferrred choice.

2. Use Hdmi to the same display set to a single resolution that allmedia types support, i.e. 720p or 1080i.

3. Use an audio device that supports DD5.1

4. Watch the same content on each media type in the same viewing conditions and rate the content quality as one of the following:

* SD TV Quality
* SD DVD Quality
* Broadcast Quality
* HD DVD Quality

You can also use words like "better than or "less than" as part of the rating. i.e. Better than Broadcast Quality but Less Than HD DVD Quality.

5. To start, as per Vudu they rate their content as Broadcast Quality

It still amounts to a persons subjective view, but it would give some consistency to comparisons by multiple persons.

[aaronwt]

Re: Gizmodo's Take on Vudu's HD Quality

I tried taking some picture sbut it's a real PITA trying to do it with the picture moving. I wanted to get the scene with the radar screen and the scene with the bright flashes.

Here is the Radar scene from VUDU SD.. Remember this is from a camera.

[aaronwt]

Re: Gizmodo's Take on Vudu's HD Quality

RAdar scene Xbox HD

[aaronwt]

Re: Gizmodo's Take on Vudu's HD Quality

Radar Scene VUDU HD

[aaronwt]

Re: Gizmodo's Take on Vudu's HD Quality

Bright Flashes Xbox HD

[aaronwt]

Re: Gizmodo's Take on Vudu's HD Quality

Bright Flash VUDU HD

[aaronwt]

Re: Gizmodo's Take on Vudu's HD Quality

Now these pictures were not taken in pause mode which is also one of the reasons that everything looks so poorly. When viewing normally and not through a camera the text at the bottom of the radar screen is unreadable in SD. with the VUDU HD version it is clear and crisp while the Xbox 360 HD version is fairly clear but not as crisp.

The other two pics show the macroblocking in the Xbox Live HD version while there is none in the VUDU HD version.
This is one of the main reasons I think VUDU is better than broadcast. You see macroblcoking all the time in TV shows and sporting events anytime you have fast pans, fast movement and bright flashes. Which is also one the reasons I bought an HDMI flea for my broadcast sources. It does s good job in masking alot of the minor macroblocking.

[steveybaby]

Re: Gizmodo's Take on Vudu's HD Quality

Great job Aaron.