Originally Posted By peeaanuut The big difference I notice is on sporting events. Baseball and football games specifically. I will almost not watch a sporting event in low def anymore. You wont notice on DVDs because they are not HD.
Originally Posted By DAR Yeah sporting events you can certainly tell the difference. And anything on the Discovery Channel.
Originally Posted By peeaanuut yeah I was watching the US Open on USA yesterday and remembered......UHD had it broadcast in hi-def. Oh what a difference it made.
Originally Posted By avromark That said I would agree with Joe right now and wait. I will not be replacing the vast majority of what I have purchased on DVD with the sucessor format as the picture/sound quality will only be as good as the source material. I just hope that they discontinue "flipper" discs forever. I have a fairly nice LCD TV (Regza) and a DLP (Hitachi) either produces good enough picture with digital cable at the moment, but availability is limited. When they substitute a game in regular def (usually non Toronto market hockey games here) you will notice a difference. Things generally look better on a small 32" TV then they do on the 57" Regza.
Originally Posted By avromark ^^ Although you have to admit paying over 7000 after taxes for a TV does hurt slightly.
Originally Posted By peeaanuut In general, no HD content looks worse on an HDTV. Not all because a flat screen tube HDTV looks awesome even in Standard Def.
Originally Posted By peeaanuut lol. Hey my parents have a tube, hi-def TV that actually looks better than any LCD I have ever seen. The colors are richer and the blacks are darker. Too bad the thing weight a billion pounds and is the size of a room. Ok well, its a 36". The other odd thing is that it is a 4:3 ratio.
Originally Posted By berol I've generally heard that tube hdtvs were the best. Sounds like it's still true.
Originally Posted By avromark <- has a Tube 36" GAOO in the basement, while not HDTV the picture on it is amazing (and I think it easily bested XBR's of the same generation)...
Originally Posted By mawnck <--- Has a 30" Sony widescreen tube. It rocks, but yes, it shore is big. Widescreen tubes don't get any bigger than 34". I see a big difference between standard def and HD, even with upconversion, but I don't think that's any reason to wade into the Hi-Def disc wars just yet. I'm going to be buying a few Disney titles for future use (darn them and their constant remasterings of Sleeping Beauty), but won't have a player for them until later. Oppo Digital upconverting DVD players are awesome, they play any non-HD shiny 5" disc you throw at them (including DIVX, SACD, PAL, and other region codes), and Oppo's customer support is out of this world. Go with them.
Originally Posted By ecdc >>The idea that future media is going to be stored on any sort of disc media is an archaic idea. I don't expect either format to have a very long life with the increasing viability of video on demand and the ability to download entertainment online. Digital music files pretty much killed the CD, and I expect the same to happen for other media formats as well.<< I really hope this isn't true, but it probably is. I can't even imagine the nightmare of always trying to get my DRM to work properly, of hoping something I purchased hasn't expired, of hoping some hard drive in some device didn't crash. And Hollywood seriously wonders why people download things illegally? One of the theories (that I happen to agree with) is that Microsoft is intentionally doing what it can to prolong the format war between Blu-ray and HD-DVD to intentionally confuse consumers and therefore promote their Xbox downloading service. The entire HD format war is absurd, and it's the option of picking between which greedy company you hate less. Let's see, do I go with Microsoft, who for all intentions is the biggest backer, if even behind the scenes, of HD-DVD, or do I go with Sony, the Blu-ray creator. Microsoft has a long record of Draconian tactics to ensure you don't even think about sharing your music with anyone else and playing it on anything but a Microsoft product. (I say this as someone who's always owned PCs - I've never had a Mac.) I thought it'd be great to stream video through my Xbox 360. Oops! It's not in Windows Media Video (WMV) format? Nice try. Then there's Sony. Hey, there's a new kind of software that's been developed. Oh really? Let's create our own proprietary version and try and market it over the other one so we can become even richer! Betamax is the way to go! Hey, who wants a recordable CD when you can own a mini-Disc player. Hi-def audio? Let's come out with SACD. And now, instead of HD-DVD (the name even makes more sense), let's develop Blu-ray. I swear, if Sony had been around, they'd develop the oval to compete with the wheel. So after that long rant, I'll just say unless you've got money to burn (and I mean really burn - like you don't have any idea what to do with it) then you'd be crazy to jump in the format war right now. It definitely looks like Blu-ray will be the winner, but with Paramount and Dreamworks going HD-DVD exclusive (after being literally bought off by Toshiba), it gives HD-DVD another chance.
Originally Posted By peeaanuut Still the one thing that HD-DVD has over Blu-ray is the name. people associate HD-DVD with regular DVD and will eventually steer towards that based on name alone. The winner isnt always the better technology. Its the easiest technology. Hi-Quality audio on minidisc sounds better than CD, but because it isnt easy to use it didnt take off. In my opinion SACD sounds better than DVD -Audio does and is more versitile with most being able to play in regular CDs, but people want pretty pictures and video so DVD-Audio wins. So its not going to be the technology that wins, its going to be marketing. Plain and simple.
Originally Posted By pecos bill Well, count me as one of those idiots who have already bought into the mess, specifically, Toshiba HD-DVD. I have it matched with a Panasonic 46 inch flat panel plasma at 720-P. I love the picture and the upconverting capabilities. I watched the newly restored "From Russia With Love" last night and was blown away at how crisp and detailed the picture was, and that disk is not even high def! I went through a top of the line Denon upconverting player and can honestly say the HD player is superior. The High def disks are extremely limited in availability, and that is my biggest disappointment with the format. Some of the classics that are sold in HD are no better than their standard dvd counterparts. I have had a problem with the players sound reproduction when i try standard music cd's. Toshiba customer service stalled me into waiting for upgrade disks through the mail rather than returning the unit. Went through two upgrade discs with no solution to the problem. I love the picture and sound reproduction on dvd's, but if you plan on playing music on this player I suggest you do some research.
Originally Posted By peeaanuut The toshiba players seem to be pretty good. As I said before, these new HD formats are for more modern movies which is why they need to have the upconverting for DVDs. As a companion to a DVD collection a HD Format disc collection would be great. I think I will just wait for the combo players to drop in price. Soon I hope.
Originally Posted By Buzz Lite-Snack Blu-Ray. Disney / Pixar is about to reveal just what Blu-Ray is capable of Nov. 6. with Cars, Ratatouille and Pixar Shorts - and the special (and never before seen in any format) features that will be included. And that will just be the tip of the Blu-ray capability iceberg - once the other 80% of it's depth are revealed it should be a slam dunk winner. That being said - marketing could win it outright for HD-DVD. The consumer will go with whatever they perceive to be cheapest and easiest to use. AND HD-DVD is much easier to ramp up for production wise as it basically uses the same technology as DVD (which is ultimately it's biggest liability - it's not a NEW format, it's just DVD PLUS). My hat's in the Blu-ray ring not just beacuse it's the overall superior format of the two but also because I have a vested interest in it winning out.
Originally Posted By peeaanuut you have to remember, that surveys have shown that the large majority of dvd watchers do not use any of the extras. Notice how interactive DVDs have dies out? People simply want to watch the movie. So while extra features are nice and give you more bang for your buck, most simply do not care.
