Yamaha DVD-S2300 MK2 Viewing Evaluation

Measurements and test patterns are fine, but we enjoy good old-fashioned viewing tests to really see how a player performs. My favorite method of doing this is through a series of movies I am very familiar with, allowing observation of elements and subtle details of film scenes that can visually distinguish the excellent players from the mediocre.

Finding Nemo

Finding Nemo was the perfect opportunity to see the way the Yamaha DVD-S2300 MK2 handled motion with its progressive scan output. As with all digitally animated films, there is a large amount of motion blur utilized for fast moving scenes, so edge combing will not be as apparent, but the vibrant colors and stark contrasts of this film, not to mention notorious embedded sub frame pixelation) serve to make other nuances viewable that would otherwise go unnoticed. For example, one of my favorite tricks is to see how clearly defined the MPEG-2 compression is when Marlin or Nemo is shown against the blue background of the ocean. While this is one of the drawbacks of a high-resolution system (try spotting this with a 32" CRT and a mediocre DVD player) it is a great way to illustrate a DVD player's resolution. Below is an enhanced photo of some MPEG-2 artifacts which, unfortunately, appear all over the Nemo movie. While Pixar is excellent at story writing and animation, their digital DVD transfers leave a lot to be desired!

Sub-Frame Pixelation
Notice the square MPEG-2 compression visible around Marlin (circled for easier spotting). It is quite apparent during full motion viewing - a little harder to point out in a still capture - but you should be able to see the hard edges enough to observe the sub-frame pixelation.

The Yamaha reveals these types of errors more so than other progressive players which may soften the picture due to inexpensive video decoding engines. This is simply the price of admission into the world of HDTV and high-end players. Hopefully, as high definition formats evolve and emerge, these problems will disappear as larger amounts of data, and higher resolution images can be stored to optical disc for artifact-free playback. For now, I'll continue to use this phenomenon to measure the clarity of video decoding engines.

DVD: The Lord of the Rings The Two Towers

Some of the most beautiful scenery is located in this film during the time spent in Rohan and also within Fangorn Forest . Within each of these scenes lie details that many inexpensive DVD players will miss. The Yamaha DVD-S2300 MK2 does an excellent job of picking up the cloud detail over the mountain range at the Rohan capital of Edoras. Also in these scenes, the detail of the thatched rooftops is something that simply will not be clearly visible (with detail) on players not capable of reproducing at least 6.75 MHz of video bandwidth.

This is by far my favorite DVD of the year and I am always amazed at how much attention to background elements the set designers gave during the creation of the film. There are countless opportunities to test the limits of your video reproduction system, from costume details (check out the detailed armor of King Theoden), to etched stone staircases (Edoras), to digitally-enhanced background elements (Rohan and the journey to Helm's Deep), to meticulously prepared hair and makeup elements (there are more than enough close-ups of Aragorn and Frodo.)

DVD: Pirates of the Caribbean The Curse of the Black Pearl

This movie is an excellent test of your system's black levels, but for our purposes it also served as an excellent gauge of the Yamaha's color reproduction and detail. In watching the live action sword fights (Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom) we could notice no comb errors or motion artifacts due to inaccurate 3:2 pulldown or poor error correction from the video decoding engine. In fact, the smooth motion of the scenes, excellent color reproduction, and fantastic clarity made this movie worth watching completely through. Having calibrated the system prior to these viewing tests, I noted that the Yamaha DVD-S2300 MK2 did a superb job of rendering black levels, even in the darkest scenes. I flipped the DVD player's video black level control to "lighter" as a test and noticed a fairly significant gain, presumably from 0 IRE to approximately 7.5 IRE - not something you would want unless your display device absolutely cannot reproduce blacks (a front projection system with low lumens, contrast ratio combined with a neutral or low gain screen, perhaps.)