2. tech-talk
  3. 1004033915

Superbit DVDs -- extremely sensitive

Anyone try these yet? I bought The Fifth Element and Desperado the other day. Excellent quality. No video edges. Colors are perfect. DTS...(mouth watering). But these discs are extremely sensitive. I popped in Desperado and it was going great when all of a sudden the picture literally disentigrated before my eyes. Then is was back. I thought I had a bad disc and was in the process of cursing Best Buy when I noticed a tiny fleck of lint on the disc. As an afterthought I just wiped the disc off and put it back in the player. The picture was flawless. Played the movie again last night for some friends. Once again, this time at a different spot, the image died. Cleaned it off, and walla, picture restored. No other DVD or CD I have does this, as I'm sure they have had lint on them at one time or another. I hope its not my player, if the 9000ES can't play it I don't know what can. How much extra video information are they cramming on this disc to make it that sensitive to lint? I read the Superbit explaination but I thought DVD was encoded in only one quality format. Anyone close to this technology have some insight? Thanks.
argent

Showing 1 response by cjcerny

cjcerny
3 posts
 
I have both the Fifth Element and Desperado Superbit DVDs and haven't experienced any playback trouble whatsoever, even with my Pioneer DV-343, which I paid a whopping $110 for. There isn't anything different between a "Superbit" DVD and a regular one, other than the fact that the bit rate of the audio and video is much higher. If I turn on the "bit meter" feature of my 343 (most Toshibas and Pioneers have one in my experience), a "Superbit" DVD averages 7-9mbps. Normal DVDs average 3-4mbps when being played back. I suppose it's possible that the high bit rate is exposing a software or hardware flaw that has gone undiscovered in the 9000ES to this point, but I would also have to think that any manufacturer tests their gear to make sure it can handle the full bandwidth of the DVD spec.

I had a 1st generation Panasonic DVD player 4 years ago that exhibited the same problem with some discs that your experiencing now. That was a often reported problem with that particular make and model. I would definitely try the Superbit discs in another machine, if possible. If they work there, I would contact Sony about the problem.
More to discover