Stopping DVD purchases or upgrading dvd library to High Def. (1 Viewer)

[Josh Simpson]

True, but in the beginning of DVD, some people were annoyed, saying that "VHS is good enough," as well. The point is, there will always be some resistance to new things at first. It will pass.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

When HD digital discs arive (BluRay/HD-DVD) there will not be a large initial glut of catalog titles available on it. It will probably follow a similar model to DVD, which is to say that newer block-buster films will get immediate release on HD-disc, some "crowning jewels" that the studios know you'll want to own like the Matrix or Sound of Music, and a handful of catalog titles that will trickle in.

Point is that eshewing the purchase of a DVD title right now does NOT mean you'll simply get to buy it when HD-discs become a reality. Just like DVD replacing VHS and laserdisc...it might take *years* before some DVD titles get reissued in HD.

In fact, it might take HD-discs even LONGER to become available because of the probable slower adoption rate by consumers. Consumers grabbed ahold of DVD like they were going out of style...but that adoption curve likely won't be seen with HD media...that will be a core-enthusiast medium and it will take longer to establish in any wide-scale.

-dave

 

[Mike Wadkins]

i thought in 2006 cthv are getting all their titles out.
correct me if im wrong but this will also be the time of the PS3 launch and that will play blu-ray titles.

since sony owns both it may be a good idea just look at the films coming out next year they could launch with.

I learned with laserdiscs (even tho i stll prefer them) that its onwards and upwards, i will be there on the first day.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

You still prefer laserdiscs? Other than the PCM audio...what's better or to be desired?

 

[Jean D]

If the studios handle HD-discs like they've handled DVD-A or SACD, then it looks gloomy. I hope dual-disc catches on, just so they have a marketing model to follow.

 

[Tom B]

"640K ought to be enough for anybody." - Bill Gates

Sooner rather than later VHS will no longer be available. DVD will also eventually be obsolete as will HD DVD and it's ultimate successor.

Technology and time march on, and we need to open our minds up to understand that just because there is a widely adopted standard TODAY does not mean that it will be around forever. Something better is always on the horizon. It's only a matter of time. Anybody want my horse drawn carriage - once upon a time it was good enough for J6P.

Having said that, I will continue to buy DVDs until HD DVD is off the bleeding edge list and is only considered cutting edge. Probably 1-2 years after release and 3-5 years from today.
Tom

 

[Mike Wadkins]

full bit rate dts on all dts titles and no jaggies or artifacts
yes its low res but in my view can look more pleasing to the eye

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Can't argue with full-bit-rate DTS and a properly mastered LD can look lovely without MPEG artifacts...though Chroma noise and poor resolution often mar the image for me on my projection screen. What exactly do you mean by "no jaggies"? Do you mean scan-line artifacts? I find in my system that properly mastered 16x9 DVDs tend to have far fewer such video artifacts than most laserdiscs I've seen.

What type of video display do you have?

thanks,

dave

 

[WillardK]

I don't know if it's been mentioned yet in this revitalized thread, but just a few days ago it was reported that the lower than expected sales of HDTV sets has delayed a proposed requirement of HD broadcasts by a number of years.

 

[Mike Wadkins]

if using a pro monitor look around titles on movies closely

 

[Charlie Essmeier]

Holding out for HD isn't exactly new. I've been holding out since 1996, when I first heard that the successor to laserdisc would NOT be a high definition format, but would be just more of the same - NTSC.

I did break down and buy a DVD player in 2002, but most of the handful of DVDs I own were purchased second hand. I'm still mostly watching laserdiscs, which look just fine with my scaler.

Still waiting.

Charlie

 

[Norm]

I slowed down years ago.

 

[Rich Malloy]

I keep my purchases down to the essentials anyway, but after having experienced HD-TV in my house for three weeks now I have one thing to say:

DVD ain't good enough anymore. I'm no longer satisfied with the picture quality. It looks low-res.

I'll soon be investing in an "upsampling to 1080i via HDMI" DVD player, and I understand it'll somewhat improve better transfered titles. I hope so. But let me just repeat that again... DVD won't cut it for me anymore. Now that I've seen how much better it can be, I can't wait.

 

[Sean Patrick]

rich -

don't expect too much from the upsampling player.

i have been spoiled on HD for a few years now and i'm increasingly disappointed with DVD....so i got a bravo D2 with a dvi connection to use with my projector....HD still blows away the best dvds.


it's because of all this i've also DRASTICALLY slowed down my dvd purchases. like a previous comment, "dvd just doesn't cut it anymore".

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Lucky (unlucky?) for me, I don't have an HD source in my system yet...so I can still "get by" with a decent DVD on my projector. Every time I watch HD at my friend's house on his PJ...I think "oh yeah" and for a couple of days I avoid the movie-rig at my own place as I work of being temporarily "ruined" by the much more realistic HD image.

This is true for film source as well as "live" HD material. Moulin Rouge on D-VHS was a revelation...

-dave

 

[DaViD Boulet]

p.s. I also have an upsampling DVD player...the Momitsu which converts everything to 1280 x 720P and feed this signal via DVI to my PJ. The image is improved over 480P analog component...but it's subtle (though apparent). Good DVD transfers do look stunning at times...Nemo, toy story, shrek, fifth element, Empire Strikes Back...but bad DVDs still look sub-par.

The best thing about my player is that it does a nice job upconverting non-anamorphic discs to 16x9 bypassing the projectors built-in "zoom" algorithm which is pretty lame.

-dave

 

[Sean Patrick]

i will agree that Empire Strikes Back, with an upsamping dvd player on a projector, made me forget i was watching a DVD and not HD.

that had NEVER happened to me before....that dvd looks amazing.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Yep.

Training Day is another DVD has "looks like HD" when viewed in the best possible manner (upconverted/DVI). Fifth Element Super Bit hits the list too. And the Criterion 16x9 version of Charade is another steller DVD that seems to redefine video quality.

though I'm sure if we saw HD transfers of *those* films, they'd look even better...maybe those DVDs just happen to look like "normal HD" which is probably pretty filtered...and the HD transfers for those particular films that look so good on DVD might blow the pants off of the usual HD transfers we get used to.

 

[Rich Malloy]

Thanks for the warning! I have read a bit about it, and I understand upsampled 1080i is no video panacea. I'm hoping some of the new players coming out will continue to improve the video signal I get from DVD, but I also know full-well that I'm bumping up against the limits of the technology.

However, I think there's room for a good deal of hope. I've always been more of an audio nut than a video nut, and I never imagined that DVD would ever strike me as substandard. But then I saw HD-TV, and it completely turned me around.

I don't think I'll be the only non-video nut who realizes this over the next few years. Unlike the minor audio improvements that I've spent many hours and dollars chasing, most of which go by largely unnoticed by my wife and others, the difference between 1080i HD-TV and 480p DVD is obvious to even the most casual viewers. Now, before my wife and I settle into a movie on DVD, we check the HD movie channels. Last night, HD Movie Net was showing "The Manchurian Candidate", and though it was far from the best HD image I've seen, it was easily superior to the DVD and our obvious choice for viewing. Even such low-budget fare as "The Terminator" and "Friday the 13th" (which were broadcast last weekend) look spectacular in HD, meaning far better than I ever imagined these films could look.

I do have one question... when HD is available on whatever disc format they settle on (blu-ray seems the most viable?), will 1080p be the standard? Is there any reason why a monitor capable of 1080i would not be able to display 1080p?

 

[DaViD Boulet]

HD-DVD players will be able to downconvert the native 1080P image to 1080I, 720P, 480P, 480I etc. for just about any type of display. So far both camps have expressed a clear desire to master HD content in 1080P form...at least for native film-based material.

BTW, for film-based material, it takes NO MORE bandwidth to encode progressively versus interlaced...so don't do the knee-jerk thing as assume that it would take twice as much room or twice as much compression to do 1080P...with 24 fps film source, the data/bandwidth is EXACTLY THE SAME whether you do 1080I or 1080P encoding (same is true for 480I or 480P encoding)...it's a matter of flagging, and the good thing about "thinking" progressive from the start is that the mastering facilities might not apply the copious amounts of vertical filtering like they do with current DVD and HD transfers which are "intended" for interlaced displays.

In the near future, native 1080P displays and projectors will become available and by the end of the decade will seem "normal" any videophile considering a new display purchase, so it will be great to have HD software already encoded in full resolution.

-dave