New Bravo D2 DVD Player Supports Windows Media 9 High-Definition Playback

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.designtechnica.com/article2925.html' target='_blank'>http://news.designtechnica.com/article2925.html</a><br /><br /></div>"The 480p/1080i/720p/custom scaling MPEG-4 DVD/media player adds control of brightness and contrast on DVI, enhanced DVD-ROM drive, improved analog video output and a new remote control. Available in the V Inc. titanium finish, the Bravo D2 began shipping in February with a suggested retail price of $249.99. The Bravo D3 offers an HD DVD player with enhanced REALmagic HD deinterlacing and integrated Windows Media Player 9 HD decoding with HighMAT formatted playback. The Bravo D3 will be shipping in the first quarter of 2004 with a suggested retail price of $349.99."<br /><br />If you've never seen the insane quality that WMV High Definition Video is capable of, brother, <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/content_provider/film/HDVideo.aspx">you're in for a nice surprise!</a> If you've got broadband muscle to download 2 minute video clips at 115 MB in size, <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/content_provider/film/ContentShowcase.aspx">go grab a few</a> and see what I'm talking about. I don't have an HDTV yet (more on that later), but these look good enough to eat on my LCD monitor! Of course, the sheer power required to play the back is not for the meek. I just watched a Scooby Doo 2 trailer 8O and my 2.8 Ghz P4/1 GB RAM/ATI Radeon 9600 Pro system wasn't enough to play it back without hiccups (granted, I have quite a few other apps running right now).<br /><br />Getting back to WMV playback for a minute, this is something I'm very interested in. I've taken to creating high-quality WMV files from my video projects, if they're things that aren't important enough to archive back to MiniDV tape, but important enough to want a full resolution copy of for later use. By creating a 720 x 480, 2000 kbps WMV file, I'm keeping much of the quality from the original MiniDV recording, but I'm keeping the file size way down (20 minutes is about 280 MB). Gosh, there's so much to talk about! Next week I think we'll delve into video storage strategies.

[Suhit Gupta]

Wow, you weren't kidding about the jittering. I just downloaded the Terminator 2: Judgement Day 1080p clip and watched it on my Dual 2GHz, 1GB RAM, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro system and there were several times in the short clip where the video hiccuped. But the quality looks sweet. Perhaps it is time for me to switch to an HDTV :).

Suhit

[Fitch]

I bought an AMD 2100+ last year, and I can barely get the first 10 seconds of the 720p terminator clip to play. I just got my first HD plasma that I've been saving up for for three years (well... then, I wanted just a CRT, but wants do change). Now I need HD content, and a dern set-top box is $300+!
I would love to embrace the WMV9 HD stuff. Why haven't we heard of any content from Apple Quicktime, or some sort of MPG standard for this-- has Microsoft really been the only one to push out and license this technology?
So now I'm gonna have to either buy the $300 DVD player, upgrade my processor, or just live with SD in an HD world.

By the way, everyone go see Scooby Doo 2! My company did the visual effects for it, and they are excellent, and, y'know, we'll get more work if it does well. :D

[bryhawks]

Jason, I just have to say a huge THANK YOU!! for this site. It's only been 'live' for a week or two, and it's already exceeded my high expectations. Your teasers of upcoming articles and topics such as video storage, HD - aww, heck, it's all giving me goosebumps! If only I made an extra $20K a year to support what is a very addicting (and expensive) hobby - being an A/V geek.

[Jason Dunn]

Jason, I just have to say a huge THANK YOU!! for this site. It's only been 'live' for a week or two, and it's already exceeded my high expectations. Your teasers of upcoming articles and topics such as video storage, HD - aww, heck, it's all giving me goosebumps! If only I made an extra $20K a year to support what is a very addicting (and expensive) hobby - being an A/V geek.

Glad you like it so far. :-) I'll be posting a feedback thread this week asking people how they like things so far, and how we can improve things.