L E T T E R S
The Problem with DVD:
Digital Artifacts
Editor:
I have subscribed to your revival of
The Perfect Vision, and not being famil-
iar with the original, I can only say you
seem to be off to a strong start. Your
style feels more academically, intellectu-
ally driven than some of your competi-
tion, and I welcome this.
I’d like to address one point that
Mr. Pearson makes in his Viewpoints
editorial. “And we shall push, push, push
for the highest quality images, either
from an ‘enhanced’ DVD...” How hard
are you willing to push? Are you satis-
fied with DVD now?
I find the digital motion artifacts of
DVD too severe for a serious High End
format. DVD’s 10Mbps data rate is just
not enough to carry a component digital
standard definition video signal! With
only few exceptions, every DVD I watch,
on a wide variety of systems, is plagued
by
macroblocking. Also,
noise reduction removes much of the
film grain within the image. Film grain is
an integral part of an image; the type of
film stock and its grain structure are
often aesthetic choices made by direc-
tors of photography. How can reduction
or removal of this element be aestheti-
cally acceptable?
The popular press, and even some
higher end journals, are head over heels
over DVD. I will admit that it offers
some true benefits such as component
color space, progressive output capabil-
ity, anamorphic presentation, and
extended luminance/chroma channel
bandwidth. But the digital artifacts are
bad, they are visible, and they are unac-
ceptable. But I hear no other voices to
the contrary. This saddens me.
If The Perfect Vision is to “push,
push, push,” then I implore your maga-
zine to [convince] manufacturers that
our future digital formats must use
milder data reduction methods. I fear for
the future “enhanced DVD” format. Will
we be saddled with a digital output
channel that will max out at the low 19
Mbps data rate specified by the ATSC for
1080i transmission? Wouldn’t it be better
to output a wideband RGB or
analog signal to feed our monitors?
Within the home, we should shoot
for performance above the ATSC/Grand
Alliance system and stay free of injurious
motion artifacts caused by high data-
reduction schemes. Please use your plat-
form to strive for the finest images we
can get – we are counting on you!
CHRISTOPHER MOORE
MANHATTAN BEACH, CALIFORNIA
Greg Rogers: I applaud your desire for
your sweeping generalization of DVD.
You haven’t provided a single example
of a disc or player for which “digital arti-
facts are bad, they are visible, and they
are unacceptable.” That certainly is not
the case with the vast majority of DVDs
I buy or the players I use today. Early on
there were some quite poor DVDs
rushed to market to make a quick buck
and some DVD players that were ques-
tionable in terms of MPEG artifacts and
D/A converter output stages. Your char-
acterization would have applied to
them. But MPEG encoding on major stu-
dio releases is generally quite good
today and MPEG decoding and signal
processing in players is excellent. That
said, there are still plenty of video quali-
ty problems on DVD, but I think you are
barking up the wrong tree. I would spare
you the usual advice to make certain
your displays are calibrated, but I have
no other explanation for what you see.
I believe if we want real improve-
ments in DVD quality, we must have bet-
ter transfers using
conversion, no
facts, and use the 16.9 enhanced format
for all widescreen movies. And stop
recycling old transfers done on inferior
telecine equipment or stored on
composite video VTRs.
I’m not sure how much
you have been able to see through dirty
film transfers and the video noise of pre-
vious formats like laserdisc, and forgive
me, VHS tape. But you are correct that
important part of the MPEG compres-
sion process. But if that means cleaning
up dirt on film, and using better telecine
equipment with less noise, then I think
it’s a pretty good tradeoff.
When it comes to future
ition DVD formats I’m not as worried
about the ATSC
ago. From what I’ve seen of
ed HDTV,
encoding is working well and encoders
will be even better by the time 720p gets
to DVD. The jury is still out on
Targeting 14-Year-Old
Boys?
Editor:
I’ve just skimmed through Issue 24,
and already TPV is better than just about
anything else out there. A few weeks ago
a friend and I were discussing the lam-
entable state of Home Theater maga-
zine, which apparently has decided that
its target audience is
…I’m now using one of the Panan-
sonic DVD players, which does a pretty
good job. My monitor is the Toshiba 35-
inch direct view, and I heard that the
Sony DVD player looks a little soft when
not in 16.9 enhanced mode (although
that appears not to be a problem with
the S7700). I’d be tempted to spring for a
Theta Voyager if I had 6 grand to spare!
I’ve seen all the films in your “Best
of 1998” list except Central Station,
Gods and Monsters, Elizabeth, and The
Object of My Affection. I’ve been pleas-
antly surprised to see that the library of
DVD films isn’t entirely made up of
blockbusters. I had never seen Picnic at
Hanging Rock before and was knocked
for a loop by it. What an incredible,
haunting film! I’ve also been picking up
a goodly number of laserdiscs at give-
away prices. Speaking of which, is DTS
a consumer failure? I see that Ken
Crane’s is dumping its DTS laserdiscs,
which can’t be a good sign.
RICHARD GALLAGHER
RGALLAGH@IX. NETCOM.COM