|
Post by 1960broookwood on Oct 7, 2013 18:18:22 GMT -5
Looking forward to seeing it in person before making a judgment.
However I was certain bottled water and salad in a bag would never catch on--so my opinion may be somewhat suspect--LOL
|
|
|
Post by Jim on Oct 7, 2013 19:46:44 GMT -5
Looking forward to seeing it in person before making a judgment. However I was certain bottled water and salad in a bag would never catch on--so my opinion may be somewhat suspect--LOL That's hilarious.
|
|
|
Post by sagasa on Oct 7, 2013 22:21:43 GMT -5
Since I'm on the market for a Blueray player i just ordered one Oppo Bdp103d, i will have it by wenesday and see if i like it or not. This probably have a lot of option that i don't need but its nice to have it when you need it.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2013 18:25:17 GMT -5
I ordered a 103D as well and I'll sell my stand alone unit.
|
|
|
Post by ocezam on Oct 8, 2013 19:53:40 GMT -5
I ordered a 103D as well and I'll sell my stand alone unit. Stand alone Darbee? How much you want for it? ...
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2013 23:54:46 GMT -5
It's pre-sold to a guy from work that buys all my used stuff lol.
|
|
|
Post by mgbpuff on Oct 29, 2013 8:28:21 GMT -5
I've never seen a Darbee - would it work on crt units?
|
|
KeithL
Administrator
Posts: 9,902
|
Post by KeithL on Oct 29, 2013 10:25:05 GMT -5
The principle it works on is "universal" - "unsharp mask sharpening" was done with B&W film negatives a very long time ago. It's simply a new variation of a classic "optical trick" (but one that actually works) to make images look sharper. I believe the units themselves are HDMI only... but they should work OK with a converter... or anything else that passes an image. The only question is whether the interface you use can support the results (by that I mean that, if the TV you're connecting it to, or any converters and cabling you have along the way, isn't sharp enough, then any improvement will simply "disappear"). I've never seen a Darbee - would it work on crt units?
|
|
KeithL
Administrator
Posts: 9,902
|
Post by KeithL on Oct 29, 2013 10:36:00 GMT -5
I'd like to take a quick moment to say something...
I've reconsidered my previous position a little bit, and I think that having this as an option (which you can turn off) on the Oppo is a pretty good idea.
Please note that I personally have no interest in it, nor would I pay extra for the opportunity to try it, but I do think that getting to try it for little or no cost is a lot better than having to buy a $299 unit to do so... here's why....
I've noticed this progression in people who learn about sharpening images in image-editing programs (like Photoshop) for the first time (including myself)
1) you see a demo; it looks cool; you say to yourself "wow, this looks really good on certain pictures: 2) you learn how to use it, and start applying it (cranked way up) to every picture you edit 3) you start noticing that some pictures look really bad when you do that, so you start using discretion to set it just right for each picture 4) eventually you get bored with having to fiddle with the settings for each picture, so you go back to doing it on everything (but turned way down) 4a) or maybe you just give up and stop altogether
I remember when I bought my first parametric equalizer.... after about two years, one day I noticed that it had been set on flat for quite a while.... so I sold it. With still image sharpening, some pros routinely apply a small amount (and are quite pleased with the results ); others do not I suspect that Darbee may well be a slight improvement (if used carefully) with some sets... and so you may indeed end up leaving it on... (And, like I said, for only $100, and with the option to disable it, it's not exactly a huge risk.)
|
|
|
Post by mgbpuff on Oct 29, 2013 12:28:13 GMT -5
The founder of this company, Paul Darbee, died about 4 weeks ago. I wonder how this will affect the company going forward?
|
|
|
Post by mgbpuff on Oct 29, 2013 13:02:15 GMT -5
The founder of this company, Paul Darbee, died about 4 weeks ago. I wonder how this will affect the company going forward? Might be harder to integrate him into the video chain now? Why be disrespectful?
|
|
|
Post by Jim on Oct 29, 2013 13:04:34 GMT -5
Might be harder to integrate him into the video chain now? Why be disrespectful! My intention was not to disrespect him. My apologies.
|
|
KeithL
Administrator
Posts: 9,902
|
Post by KeithL on Oct 29, 2013 13:29:45 GMT -5
Honestly, all joking aside, probably not very much. From what I can see, Darbee is a "one trick company", at least at the moment - they have one product. (Well, actually, they now have a product and a technology license.) The actual mechanism used by the Darbee isn't especially new or revolutionary (although, arguably, it's a new application for it ). What I'm getting at is that the product is basically "done". As long as people like what it does, they can keep selling them (it) forever. Going forward, it makes sense that they would want to come out with other new products (presumably other signal processing widgets). In the short term, however, they should be able to "coast" - as long as people keep buying Darblets (or Oppos with Darbee in them - which, I'm sure, earn them nice licensing fees). At most, they'll need to update their current box to support HDMI 2.0 ... but that shouldn't be too difficult.
Now, of course, in the longer term, the big threat is that other companies decide to come out with similar devices that do the same thing - which is always a threat for a niche product once they start selling enough units to "interest" a bigger fish. Business is business: the reason Oppo is using their chip instead of developing their own "Oppo picture sharpener" is that it makes more economic sense to do so... both because Darbee has already done the research and because Darbee has also invested the marketing capital to become a recognized brand. (Contrary to what they might like you to believe, developing a product to apply sharpening to video isn't all that difficult - the reason they don't have competitors is that nobody else has spent the money required to develop an actual product and get it to where the public will recognize the name - so far.)
The founder of this company, Paul Darbee, died about 4 weeks ago. I wonder how this will affect the company going forward?
|
|
|
Post by Porscheguy on Oct 29, 2013 16:52:06 GMT -5
Well this is pretty typical of everything asked about in the forum. Your gonna get many opinions and preferences which is why it's pointless to ask what is the best this or that is because 95% of AV is subjective when to PQ or IQ.
|
|
|
Post by mgbpuff on Oct 31, 2013 12:24:20 GMT -5
Well, I just received my Darbee Darblet DVP-5000 - first few minutes impression is that it improves the image on my Mitsubishi crt projection set. Its easy to set up - HDMI out from PT-7030 to Darby HDMI in - Darby HDMI out to Fury 3 HDMI in - Fury 3 component out to tv HD component in. HDMI w/ sound works fine. It'll take me a while to find optimum settings. So far - so good!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2013 20:50:07 GMT -5
Darbee has 3 new products that are in development, including a very high end full sized video scaler type unit, that will be around $1800-$2000 range and from first reports, rivals some of the best scalers on the market. It's release was to be sometime in Q3 2014.
|
|
|
Post by matthew1975 on Jan 6, 2014 18:19:51 GMT -5
I have it and love it.
|
|