Yes, I agree with the large screen statement: We have 3 viewing rooms with 1080p 63" plasmas and our individual viewing stations are equipped with 1080p 40" plasmas. We also have 1080i 22" screens at those stations for VHS and laserdisc playback which now, to our contemporary eyes, looks awful and very low res blown up beyond that size. Our students and faculty have become accustomed to HD images and expect that level of image for in-house viewing. Our viewership went through the roof when we put in 40" screens in the individual viewing stations. Students can easily watch films on their laptops so there is no incentive for them to watch films on the same size monitors attached to headphones. Providing as large a screen as is possible in a viewing station allows them to experience something more akin to a home theatre experience than an institutional carrel experience and it certainly shows in terms of our viewership statistics. An example I use when I show the facilities, is to show Kino's The General on DVD. I show the beginning and skip a bit, then I show the same thing on Blu-ray and whoever is watching is completely blown away because they are able to read lettering that is blurry on the DVD and see details they never knew existed. We only have about 400 Blu-ray discs at this point but our experience with the Oppo BDP83s and now the BDP93s, which we installed in the individual viewing stations a few months ago, is phenomenal.

Oksana

At 09:10 AM 03/05/2011, you wrote:
Despite my lukewarm assessment of HD for feature films in my previous email, I feel like I need to hedge a bit after reading Dennis's email and say, "it depends on the screen". On a large screen, yes, the difference is appreciable. However, our viewing carrels are equipped with 18" monitors, at which point there isn't a remarkable difference for most titles. And of course, in a campus environment, the investment needed in terms of players and projection upgrades becomes a bit more complicated.

*************************
Meghann Matwichuk, M.S.
Associate Librarian
Instructional Media Collection Department
Morris Library, University of Delaware
181 S. College Ave.
Newark, DE 19717
(302) 831-1475
<http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/instructionalmedia/>http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/instructionalmedia/

On 5/3/2011 8:59 AM, Dennis Doros wrote:
Dear Debra,

Just a quick note that regular DVDs do indeed play in Blu-ray players and there are several now that can play all regions of both. And in terms of feature films, there is no comparison in quality. Blu-rays look significantly better. So if you're playing a talking-head documentary on a monitor, that's no big deal. But if you want to project Terence Malick's DAYS OF HEAVEN on to a screen, the investment is fairly small in terms of players and discs relative to the increased experience.

Best,
Dennis Doros
Milestone Film & Video/Milliarium Zero
Harrington Park, NJ 07640
email: <mailto:milefi...@gmail.com>milefi...@gmail.com
<http://www.milestonefilms.com>www.milestonefilms.com
www.ontheboweryfilm.com
<http://www.arayafilm.com>www.arayafilm.com
www.exilesfilm.com
<http://www.wordisoutmovie.com>www.wordisoutmovie.com
www.killerofsheep.com

AMIA Austin 2011: <http://www.amianet.org>www.amianet.org
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On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 8:35 AM, Mandel, Debra <<mailto:d.man...@neu.edu>d.man...@neu.edu> wrote:
Hi-

What is the current theory on whether it pays to be adding Blu-ray feature films, even when Blu-ray isn't a campus wide standard, or where there are not classrooms dedicated for cinema studies viewing. (Northeastern has at least four Blu-Ray players available for reservation). Also we have no Blu-ray players in the library yet. I'd appreciate hearing about what folks are doing with this conundrum. I am sure there have been conversations about this before, but I wasn't paying attention. Unfortunately Blu-Ray players do not play regular DVDs, a major issue.

I'd love to hear from you!

Debra


Debra H. Mandel,
Head, Digital Media Design Studio
Northeastern University Libraries
200 Snell Library
360 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
<tel:617.373.4902>617.373.4902
<tel:617.373.5409>617.373.5409 fax

[]




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VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and distributors.



VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and distributors.

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VIDEOLIB is intended to encourage the broad and lively discussion of issues 
relating to the selection, evaluation, acquisition,bibliographic control, 
preservation, and use of current and evolving video formats in libraries and 
related institutions. It is hoped that the list will serve as an effective 
working tool for video librarians, as well as a channel of communication 
between libraries,educational institutions, and video producers and 
distributors.

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