TESTING METHODOLOGY

     After giving it quite a bit of thought i have decided on performing the same exact tests/routine for all the Media Players i review from this moment forward. This is the second time I change my ways and that’s because some of you emailed me just prior to leaving from my previous position asking for a more reliable methodology when testing such players/recorders. To be honest this may complicate things a bit since I can’t really keep the same equipment and media files forever but it should also save me a bit of time. So from now and on testing will be performed with the help of 4 specific MKV media files and several BDISO, MOV, RMVB and AVI ones, with bitrates of up to 35Mbps, something which as many of you know is not easy to come by. Of course the 4 specific MKV files are ones i ripped myself from 4 Blu-Ray titles i currently own in order to not only manage to hit the desired bitrate of up to 35Mbps but also use specific, high detailed scenes. My good old SONY 55A2000 (already 3+ years old but still my favorite) along with my latest Panasonic TX-P42S20 are the two screens i will be using for testing. In due time and when i finally see a 3D Screen that really makes me want to buy it i will also start 3D tests but currently that is simply not possible. As for sound the audio/video amplifiers used with the two screens are the Yamaha RX-650 and the Yamaha RX-V463 coupled with 5.1 systems by TANNOY and Crystal Audio.

   Almost a year ago i could notice with ease the difference in image quality produced by all the latest decoding chips by Sigma Designs and Realtek, however lately it's becoming harder and harder since Realtek is obviously catching up (if not already there) to Sigma Designs. True there are some smoothness issues with the Realtek solutions especially when using heavy bitrate MKV and Blu-Ray ISO files (BDISO) but the image quality is quite impressive although i can't comment on anything related with 3D playback. Audio reproduction was also quite good but still i think that media players have a long way to go before they actually reproduce audio at an excellent level of quality. Regarding the new 1000Mbps LAN port i found no problems while using it but i was really not impressed with the overall internet connection speed, still i don't think people will be buying the IB-MP3011PLUS to surf the web.

     Bellow i have posted 4 different screenshots from 3 out of the 4 specific MKV media files mentioned above featuring a bitrate between 20 and 35Mbps. The resolution has remained unchanged (however the files are compressed to JPEG to cut down some of the size) at 1920x1080 (FullHD). Finally i will do my best to try and grab the same screenshots (same time) from every media player i test to allow for a somewhat direct comparison between models.