HD DVD players... :(

[Audioseduction]

About 2 months ago I viewed this BlueRay demo playing a scene of a rear shot of a watch with it’s back off so you can see all the inner workings of the gears and such. It looked so real as if I could place my finger on one of the gears to stop it. I figured that the movies would look as good. WRONG! My buddy and I went to a couple stores recently to see how the popular movies looked compare to a standard DVD player with upscaler and they did not look any better then my Denon DVD w/upscaler player does. Reason being the movies are not recorded with HD cameras unlike the Planet Earth is. I’ll just wait till the movie industries catch up before I buy one. That demo I viewed was recorded with a HD camera.

 

[sleepysurf]

Therein lies the rub! Not really that much true High Def material available yet, which is why I've decided to hold off for now as well. It'll be another year (or two) before the Blu-Ray vs. HDVD war is settled, and years longer for new High Def productions to become readily available. In the meantime, having just switched from SD to HD TV, I'm perfectly content watching Fios 1080i upconverted to 1080p.

Unfortunately, just as our hearing starts degrading at about the same time we can finally afford a high-end audio setup, with my luck, I'll probably have cataracts by the time 1080p (or better) is the standard.

 

[risabet]

Therein lies the rub! Not really that much true High Def material available yet, which is why I've decided to hold off for now as well. It'll be another year (or two) before the Blu-Ray vs. HDVD war is settled, and years longer for new High Def productions to become readily available. In the meantime, having just switched from SD to HD TV, I'm perfectly content watching Fios 1080i upconverted to 1080p.

Unfortunately, just as our hearing starts degrading at about the same time we can finally afford a high-end audio setup, with my luck, I'll probably have cataracts by the time 1080p (or better) is the standard.

Optimist, the format war may end just as the SACD/DVD-A one did, with no winners, losers galore and the two formats in a niche market of geeks and tweaks. As far as I'm concerned I'll wait a little longer, buy a true universal player and live with that for awhile.

 

[johnwa]

Just picked up a Toshiba HD DVD for so cheap it was impossible to pass up. I have seen them as low as $89 and I think they are on special for less than $200 and I believe come with about 5 HD DVD's in the box like mine did which at $30 + per disc is a pretty good value. The audio and the video are outstanding.

 

[Reverb2009]

About 2 months ago I viewed this BlueRay demo playing a scene of a rear shot of a watch with it’s back off so you can see all the inner workings of the gears and such. It looked so real as if I could place my finger on one of the gears to stop it. I figured that the movies would look as good. WRONG! My buddy and I went to a couple stores recently to see how the popular movies looked compare to a standard DVD player with upscaler and they did not look any better then my Denon DVD w/upscaler player does. Reason being the movies are not recorded with HD cameras unlike the Blue Planet is. I’ll just wait till the movie industries catch up before I buy one. That demo I viewed was recorded with a HD camera.

If you want to see a movie shot on HD check out Crank on Blu-Ray, the seen with Jason Statham and the Mob boss in the pool is stunning.

Also keep in mind the D5 masters the studios are mastering the HD transfers from have around a 4000 resolution. A lot of movies are purposely shot to be stylized or to have a soft film look. I am familiar with the watch demo your referring to and yes it can be misleading but it does demonstrate what Blu-Ray is capable of if a studio wants to take it that far.

 

[JonFo]

I'm totally blown away by the awesome video quality of good HD content, but also by the abilities of these new players to upsample SD DVD content to the point of where you start to wonder if it's HD or not.

I've always been a big fan of HTPC's for maximum DVD scaling potential, but with these new players, and with the features a device like the PS3 brings, with its ability to play any kind of media from servers, it really starts to beg the question of why have a PC actually provide the video.

With the new players able to also do lossless high-rez audio as well, they make pretty compelling devices for a high-end home theater. :music:

Bottom line, I see my rig having one or two Disc transports in the future, feeding the Pre-pro via HDMI for a really top-notch video and audio experience. It's really close now.

If only the stupid format war had not happened, we'd be there now...

 

[TheBobGoat]

I owned the first consumer upsampling DVD player about 4 yrs ago and sent it back to the store because my normal progressive scan player actually looked better..

Has there been a big improvement in the upsampling players??

What has really changed?

HD movies on comcast dont look great either because like you said above, they are not filmed with an HD camera...but on film.

 

[Cherian]

Film has far more resolution to offer than 1080P. It all depends on how the film is converted. I have seen very good Blue Ray HD movies and some very bad ones. The quality all depends on how much time and care was made in the conversion.

As for Comcast they compress the data so much the quality of action or fast shots break up. Comcast HD sucks at least in Chicago. I don’t know if Direct TV is any better.

 

[TheBobGoat]

It is probably because of comcast...I thought that film was supposed to be better than 1080p but wasnt sure because the movies on HBOHD look just a bit better than normal DVD's

 

[Audioseduction]

I had cable with HD but now I have FIOS and it's king for quality and resolution. :bowdown:

 

[DTB300]

I had cable with HD but now I have FIOS and it's king for quality and resolution. :bowdown:

Agreed and it was a pleasure to call "CrumyCast" and tell them goodbye!!!!

 

[HopelessDFilms]

In Hd And Lovin It

I do hear what you are saying about the jump to HD, and there were alot of points that have been brought up already, I will attempt to touch on most of them.

Point 1 - the demo watch footage *i believe for the samsung demo* true this was shot with digital HD camera. The format it was shot on is not that much of a deal breaker though. 35mm film is a very capable format and is still the format that most films are shot on. The information in a single frame of 35mm film has been compared to multiple multiple megapixels of information. When compared to the highest resolution found in consumer electronics today, 1080p this is far greater. Hence, the info held in 35mm film is much greater then the max resolution of screens today. The process is done through a very high res scan of the film print. If you were shown an older film that has been reupped for HD, you may be slightly disappointed, but take a look at either formats reference titles and I promise you will be blown away as long as the gear is set up properly.

Reference titles that I consider for each format

BR - Either of the Pirates of the Carribbean movies, Ratatouille

HDDVD - Transformers



As far as $ goes, the LG multi blue player I have seen for under 500$ which will play both formats. Thats not a bad deal.

The route that I have traveled is a PS3 for blu ray, and I was lucky enough to get an HD-A20 for 70$ So i'm set for players. A month or so ago a big writeup about the format war was written that shed light on the lie of format specific movies. Overseas many of the format specific titles can be found on the opposite format. There are also a handful of websites that deal to the us these gray market films. True a bit pricey, but what in our hobby is cheap?

I personally have only paid more than 20$ for a HD movie a couple times and I still mean under 25$ I have posted the cheap trick tips on buying HD movies before. For those who didn't read the basic trick is to go go best buy and price match to target, which is really amazon and usually has the cheapest prices on HD movies. The other trick is to price match to Frys. Which every once in a while has unbeatable prices.

I'm sure I passed on a couple topics brought up, but my main point is why wait?

With the new pricing on HD DVD and bluray its generally inexpensive to make the jump, with a single player that plays both formats, the LG, or going separate players, either way when set up properly both formats can take your home theater experience to a new level, similar to the first time you listened to logans. Cheers.

 

[TheBobGoat]

I am still waiting because I am not even on the HDMI train yet. I figure the jump would be all at once... New HDDVD player, New LCD HDTV (1080p), and new Receiver with 1.3 HDMI or better.

I dont really want to do one without the others. Right now I am still on my 4 yr old 60 in LCD RP HDTV (DVI 1080i) and no HDMI anywhere.

Also, is Dolby True HD audio or DTS HD that much better? I read that it is lossless which is nice, but have any of you noticed a difference in sound?

 

[bober]

Why so many people buying LCDs over Plasma?? It boggles the mind that people with such an appetite for high-end sound will succumb to a washed out, blurry picture of an LCD.

The glare argument is way overhyped too, LCDs still give glare, and nice plasmas give very little glare.. example: Panasonic plasma vs. Samsung lcd.. Samsung lcd has about 3 times more glare and the panny has a better picture.

So weird.

As for Dolby TrueHD and DTSHD-MA, they sound more full and dynamic than your typical DD and DTS soundtracks will. You won't notice this right away with a movie, but definitely will with a concert on bluray or hd-dvd..

The sound quality and picture quality will greatly differ from movie to movie depending on the transfer. example: I prefer House of Flying Daggers on DVD than the Bluray version.

 

[Reverb2009]

Why so many people buying LCDs over Plasma?? It boggles the mind that people with such an appetite for high-end sound will succumb to a washed out, blurry picture of an LCD.

I'll take LcoS/SXRD over Plasma and LCD any day of the week.

 

[sleepysurf]

... It boggles the mind that people with such an appetite for high-end sound will succumb to a washed out, blurry picture of an LCD.

The latest LCD's are not washed out and blurry, and rival Plasma's in overall picture quality. LCD's black rendering and off-axis sharpness have come a long way since their introduction. As a rule (with some exceptions), matte LCD screens are far less reflective than most Plasma's, so for those of us with lots of windows and lights, LCD's might be preferred. LCD's are also far more energy efficient, and have no risk of image "burn-in."

Every technology has it's merits, and investing time to learn and compare is highly recommended. I found www.avsforum.com particularly helpful, if you can wade through the hundreds of posts!

 

[Rich]

Why so many people buying LCDs over Plasma?? It boggles the mind that people with such an appetite for high-end sound will succumb to a washed out, blurry picture of an LCD.

Sorry, but . . . Wrong! Anyone who holds this point of view must surely have failed to see the Sony Bravia LCD's in person. They have the sharpest pictures I have seen on any T.V., beautifully saturated colors and excellent contrast ratios and black levels. This thinking may have held true five years ago, but LCD technology has come a long way since then.

 

[TheBobGoat]

I thought that the plasmas were still more expensive than the LCDs, but looks like they have come down in price and are pretty similar now. I would personally go with the LCD though. I have an old one now, and I like its certain advantages...especially because I play video games on it.

Maybe in a year or so I will have a new one with a whole new setup. Kinda waiting until I move to a new house next summer

And check the attachment from amazon...looks like people will keep on getting more HD DVD players over BR

 

[bober]

Sorry, but . . . Wrong! Anyone who holds this point of view must surely have failed to see the Sony Bravia LCD's in person. They have the sharpest pictures I have seen on any T.V., beautifully saturated colors and excellent contrast ratios and black levels. This thinking may have held true five years ago, but LCD technology has come a long way since then.

I see this TV 5 days a week. I sell them. I also sell Pioneer plasmas. LCD technology has come a long way, but 120hz using 3:2 pulldown is sad to watch. Local dimming is frustrating. Macroblocking is barely tolerable. LCDs at 52 or larger consume more energy than plasmas.

I sell these things, so obviously I don't push every customer to buy a plasma, its not for everybody. I have to meet the customer's needs and provide what's best for them and not what I personally think is the best. So I understand why some people would go LCD over Plasma.

But what I am saying is that we all own speakers that the average customer would deem "too big" and "impractical", but we have them anyway. Why? because you guys really appreciate high quality. All I was remarking was that I do not understand how if quality cannot be compromised for you guys, things like glare and power consumption are even an issue..

 

[Reverb2009]

Blu-ray players reach 2.7 million units sold

DEC. 3 | The Blu-ray Disc Assn. is touting a new milestone passed over the Black Friday shopping period, noting that player sales since launch reached 2.7 million units through Nov. 24.

Like the HD DVD camp’s recent claims, the figure encompasses both Blu-ray-capable gaming devices and Blu-ray set-top players.

Through October, there had been 2 million units sold of the Blu-ray-enhanced PlayStation 3. That arguably gives Blu-ray set-tops a 700,000 piece of overall format unit sales. But the picture is muddied somewhat by the likely gangbuster PlayStation 3 sales in November due to the introduction of the relatively cheap $399 PlayStation 3. November console sales will not be available from the NPD Group until mid-December.

It’s tough to calculate specific gains for Blu-ray set-tops, as many of the manufacturers have not released sales information on their players to this point.

Still, the 2.7 million sold is a clear achievement over the HD DVD side, which pushed its installment base to 750,000 units following widespread holiday retail sales, notably including $99-priced players at Wal-Mart and Best Buy. Although not as steeply priced-slashed as rival HD DVD, many Blu-ray players also were sale-priced at retail. Several chains were offering Samsung and Sony Blu-ray players at $399, $100 below their $499 list prices.

The BDA last week also trumpeted its continuing lead in Blu-ray software sales, which in the weeks leading up to Black Friday had been outpacing HD DVD titles by a two-to-one ratio. During the Black Friday period, BD titles made up 72.6% of all high-def purchases, with HD DVD totaling 27.4%, according to Nielsen/VideoScan figures cited by BDA.
The fact that BD software remains the sales leader in an environment of heavy HD DVD player discounting is especially heartening to the BDA.

A statement from the group noted, “Despite the $99 HD DVD fire sale, Blu-ray movies were flying off the shelves in this crucial holiday shopping period.”

According to the BD camp, total BD disc sales in the U.S. since launch topped 4 million units in November, about the same time HD DVD software sales passed just 2.5 million units.

To date in the U.S., 18 of the Top 20 high-def releases are Blu-ray, according to the BD camp.

According to Media Control Gfk International figures cited by BDA, BD movies control 73% of the European market, outselling HD DVD by a three-to-one margin, and BD holds a 95% share of the high-def recorder market in Japan.



http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6509196.html