HD / Blu-Ray Question (1 Viewer)

[Guy_K]

When these high-definition discs hit the market, will there eventually be portable players or laptops with HD / Blu-Ray capability? I generally watch DVDs on my 15" laptop, and I wonder on a small screen how much better HD could look. Will the resolution only be noticeable to those with huge TV's, or will it effect the portable market as well?

 

[Arthur S]

The smaller the screen the less noticable the HD difference will be.

If either format catches on, eventually it will filter down to laptops. I would guess 2-4 years from now, if it catches on.

But since the difference on a 15 inch screen will be virtually non-existant, it is a non-issue for viewing on a 15 inch screen.

 

[ChristopherDAC]

It's expected that computer drives will become available, but it's not at all clear that you will be able to play prerecorded movie discs on them unless your Operating System incorporates some fairly drastic "digital rights management" technologies such as those slated for the next version of Windows [whic will effectively do what it wants to do, not what you want it to do -- though Windows sometimes does that anyway].



Not exactly true -- it's a question of viewing distance in screen heights, not absolute size. The big problem with looking at a small screen from a short distance, to give the same viewing angle as a large screen seen from a long distance, is that the problem of depth perception reduces realism and induces eyestrain -- the screen does not seem flat.