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Twenty two years ago, a grand and glorious room was constructed onto the back of my house that I lived in for 35 years. At the time (1987) Surround Sound was fairly popular and I had the contractor wire the room behind the walls so that the room was wired for Surround Sound regardless of which of the 4 walls the TV was on. The room was a beautiful cavernous family room with a cathedral ceiling and perfect accoustics for Stereo Surround. The room was long and the TV should have been positioned against the wall which would have allowed the Surround Speakers to be much further behind the viewer and located on the upper part of the walls just like a Movie Theatre. Unfortunately, my wife had her own strong decorating ideas for the room and the TV had to be positioned against the wall that allowed no space between the viewer and the rear speakers. Still it was a nice Surround sound effect with a 27 inch TV. But for years, friends would come over and say "My God, if you could put the TV against that other wall and create a longer Home Theatre effect, it would sound fantastic". So for 22 years I played all my favorite old stereo movies from the 50s and 60s in this environment. Ten years ago I vowed that DVD would be my last format, having run the gamut from VHS to CED to BETA to Laserdisc to DVD in the course of 18 years. So I'd had it as far as purchasing the same titles over and over in the newest format.
Well times have changed and my wife is not so particular about the room anymore, in fact she's hardly ever in it. In the meantime I set up a small DVD surround system in a very small upstairs room and have spent most of the last 7 years up there while the beautifully cavernous would-be Home Theatre room downstairs has been abandoned. But I never stopped fantasizing about that room and it's Home Theatre potential but felt that I was too old and tired to do anything about it. I was aware of the emergence of High Definition and the Blu-Ray vs HD wars but told myself I wasn't interested - I said DVD would be my last format and that was that. After years of being the first on the block to have every new format that came out, I had become an old guy who lost all the technical knowledge I once had. I didn't want to have to learn all the new terms (1080p, HDMI, Dolby TRue, DTS etc.) So rather than have to go through re-educating myself, I found it easier to stay in my little upstairs room watching my favorite old movies on a 24 inch TV.
Ron, you and I have similar tastes especially for old Musicals and Roadshow Movies and I always enjoy reading your posts. Then came the post that changed my life "South Pacific on Blu-Ray". It was your post and you rhapsodized about how wonderful the film looked and sounded in Blu-Ray. I knew exactly where you were coming from since "South Pacific" is my ultimate favorite Musical Film and has a lot of memories and meaning for me - to see it the way you were describing it would be a like going to heaven.
I guess you know where I'm going with this. Your post inspired me to make the decision. Despite my old age of 62 years, I put myself through a one-week crash course in High Definition and all the equipment involved, did a study of all the brands of High Def TVs, AV Receivers with 7.1 channels, Blu-Ray players, speakers etc., got ahold of the Electronics edition of Consumer Reports and compared what they said with what I read on the Internet and made the jump.
The end result? - that room built 22 years ago now houses a 60 Inch Pioneer Plasma TV, Sony Blu-Ray Player, Yamaha AV Receiver, 5 Klipsch Speakers and Subwoofer. (and it's all on the correct wall this time). Ron, it was your "South Pacific" post that pushed me over the edge and caused me to make the decision.
I don't have to tell you what I thought of "South Pacific" on Blu-Ray and on my 60 inch Pioneer Plasma screen. I'm glad you said it all because words escape me - I'M SPEECHLESS! And to think this is just the beginning of all the great old films that I love that are going to look and sound glorious on this system with all the lights out at night in the room. I truly felt like I could be sitting in New York's Criterion Theatre watching "South Pacific" or in my case the Midtown Theatre in Philadelphia. For the record, the "South Pacific" Blu-Ray has been reviewed on a number of High Def Websites as a candidate for best Blu-Ray of the year. I also got "Gigi" which is also breathtaking if just a few notches below "South Pacific" in quality. And my Standard DVDs also look great - "Vertigo" was mind-blowing (VistaVision right in my house) and practically looked like Blu-Ray itself. And look what's ahead for me "The Robe", "2001", "How the West Was Won", "Becket", "Patton", "Sleeping Beauty", "Quo Vadis", "American in Paris", "The Searchers", "The Sand Pebbles" the Connery Bond films etc (and these are just the ones released so far). I have now joined the ranks of Blu-Ray nuts scouring the Websites hoping for new Blu-Ray announcements for "West Side Story", "Lawrence of Arabia", "My Fair Lady", "Sound of Music", "Doctor Zhivago", "Mad Mad World", "Cleopatra" oh it's endless. A new world has opened up for me - all because Ron Pulliam posted on the FSM Message Board. Thank you, my friend.
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Did I say "I'm speechless"? I meant the "South Pacific" disc, not the above post.
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