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Originally Posted by BigKid13
1. Most importantly - Will I notice the difference between an upconverted DVD (to 720p) and an HD DVD? I can't get a decent (read simple) expanation on why it would be better. It's still going to be 720p, no more lines or pixles, so why will it be better?
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Absolutely it will be better, it starts with more pixels. Say you have a scene with fine detail that's resolvable at 720 but not at 480. On regular DVD those details are going to basically be smeared together into a blob. Think say a patch of fine alternating black & white vertical lines one pixel apart. If reduced to half resolution you just get gray. Now, when you start with the gray, upconversion has no way to unsmear that detail; it can't know that that patch was a result of trying to represent a patch of alternating black/white lines, so after you upconvert back to the higher resolution you still have a solid patch of gray. *Upconversion does not add or recover detail*. It is simply a method to get enough pixels to fill the screen of a fixed pixel set when starting with fewer pixels, and your TV will do it if your player itself does not.
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2. What's the deal with this film ware thing? Do I need to do any upgrades to an HD-A2 to get it to run an HD-DVD?
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"firmware". You might need to upgrade (either by network or downloading an image to CD-R), to play certain discs that exposed bugs in earlier firmware versions.
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3. Am I wasting my money as sooner or later (perhaps someone out here knows when) all the HD-DVDs will be available on Blu-ray. (gotta have Serenity you know)
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Depends on you. Are you going to collect a lot of HD-DVD titles from firesales, keep the player & discs for a reasonably long time, and watch them regularly? I decided that I wasn't going to collect as much on HDM as I did on DVD (I mostly rent, rarely have time to watch the DVDs I own), and didn't want to keep two players in my system when I'd use one of them only some tiny percentage of the time, so I returned mine to Wal-mart. Based on my viewing habits it doesn't make sense to own a lot of movies, since I prefer to mostly rent new ones, so keeping the HD-DVD didn't make sense. YMMV.
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4. If Blu-ray, which manufacturer would you suggest?
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PS3 if now. Or wait for Sony 550/Panasonic BD50, profile 2.0 players with full audio capabilities.