Technology is moving *too* fast (1 Viewer)

[Jay Sylvester]

I was very happy with DVD quality when I first got my projector. In November, Comcast began offering HD via cable in my area, so I signed up. There is no comparison...it's so much more than adding another "really."

On a 34" 16:9 set, I'd say the difference is definitely noticeable, but not stunning. Get yourself an RPTV or front projector, watch a few HD programs, and DVD becomes woefully inadequate. Every DVD I own that I've seen in HD is now disappointing, no matter how good the transfer seemed initially. And films I haven't seen in HD are disappointing because I expect so much more now. Even reference titles like Training Day and AOTC look soft to me because I know there should be more detail than there is.

 

[Todd Hochard]

Beta and Laser != DVD. You must compare DVD to VHS. DVD has reached 30% US household penetration, and is still growing signficantly. Again I say, do you honestly think that the fastest selling consumer electronics product in HISTORY will have NO support in 20 years?

Laser and Beta never got anywhere close to 30% (closer to 2%, IIRC).

And, I think the Hollywood will hold out on HD-DVD, precisely BECAUSE of the success of DVD. It's just business, afterall.

I've been watching HD on and Elite RPTV for two years, but that still doesn't make me disappointed with DVD. It's pretty good, in its own right.

Todd

 

[Qui-Gon John]

Todd, some good points. Actually, it seems like DVD has taken quite awhile to start going really mainstream. Sure HTFers were on the bandwagon early, but this past year I think has been the real bust-out for DVD in the general populace. And I think 2003 will be bigger, look for 60-70% penetration by 2004. So you're right, Hollywood will be resistant to spend a lot of capital on another medium that they know will take quite some time to become mainstream, along with the fact of them being worried about copy protection from such a high quality source as HD-DVD.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Firstly people,

Relax and rest assured that any future HD-DVD player will player your SD-DVDs.

In fact, get *excited* because more than likely it will digitally upconvert your SD-DVDs to HD resolution...making them appear much better on an HD RP or front projection system than they would with a traditional DVD player (though not as good as native HD images, naturally).

SD-DVD has excellent quality!
Are our eyes so perfectly tuned that we're REALLY going to notice THAT much of an improvement from SD to HD-DVD? I've often wondered.

It depends on your viewing angle...how big the image your're looking at appears to your eyes. I'm sure from 15 feet back from a 34" screen it's hardly worth worrying about. But seated 12 feet from a 100" wide screen it could be jaw-droppingly better.

Remember folks, it's not about "TV". It's about "home theater". The viewing angle you enjoy comfortably in the theater is something that you cna't do with your Sony Wega 32" unless you want to be distracted by the grid of the shadowmask. TV is not the reference experience we're after...we'll have found our holy grail when we have a digital video medium that can duplicate an IMAX experience with perfect transparency to the 70 mm source.

-dave

 

[Jonathan Dagmar]

imax in your home?

that'll i would love to see, lol.

 

[GregC]

But what if Sony's cartridge-based BluRay format wins out in the end?
__________________________________________________ _______________________

Well, I for one hope that it does win out. This format should have had a cartridge all along! Scratches, fingerprints, etc.....

Go Sony!

 

[Derek Iverson]

But what if Sony's cartridge-based BluRay format wins out in the end?

Suicide.

j/k

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

Where does it end though? At some point, people are going to have such amazing HT set-ups, that they will probably stop going to the cinema, and then where will we be?

HD-DVD will hopefully be the last home-video format for a long time.


Gordy

 

[Joel Vardy]

Where does it end though? At some point, people are going to have such amazing HT set-ups, that they will probably stop going to the cinema, and then where will we be?

I'm there now. There is very little in terms of quality presentation that I am missing by watching new releases in my home (offset by some months before it reaches DVD). The only thing I'm missing is:

- munching munchkins
- talking during the presentation
- sticky shoes
- crying babies...

Joel

 

[Edwin-S]

People said the same thing when TV arrived on the scene. Supposedly TV was going to kill cinemas. It didn't. It doesn't matter how good home theatres get, they won't replace the cinema. Nobody, except people like Bill Gates, will ever be able to put a 50' screen in their houses and, unlike developments in some other fields, when it comes to the cinema, bigger really is better.

 

[MarkHastings]

Nobody, except people like Bill Gates, will ever be able to put a 50' screen in their houses

or a 50' plasma screen

 

[Lucas Dang]

I say way too slow. hollywood greed and copy protection paranoia is slowing things up. How bout that HDTV signal and channel selection that barely exist eventhough HDTV came out several years ago! I was an early adopter, and I didnt get the dish, so I am still waiting for some HDTV signals that arent available yet in my area and I live in the capital city of my state.

I have seen the HDTV dreamtheater version of Dvhs T2 and xmen. While they looked great, I came home and saw my dvds on my ISF calibrated hdtv in 480p. I enjoy the picture very much. There are many HDTV tapes out now that I cant imagine would look all that much better than the dvd, Young Guns for instance, just rereleased new edition, still looks grainy, older movies also wont look much better especially if the original transfers are bad.

I agree that Laser discs are still usable. I regret selling off a slew of discs at a garage sale for pennies, just because I had new dvd replacements. Aliens, the abyss, grease, godfather. all were great discs that could be enjoyed maybe at a relative's house where you go sometimes, and never have anything to watch? Especially now that devices are readily available and affordable to upscale our old lds to progressive scan for improved picture. Now there are dvd players hitting the market that will upscale 480p dvd to 180i or 720p, (not true hdtv but upscaled for supposedly better picture), Im confident that they will get better and be able to make better use of our 480p signals, Just look out how much better our regular dvd technology has gotten such as DCDI and Faroudja chips and interlacing. I had a first gen pioneer dvd 900$, then the first gen progressive scan toshiba 700$, now a new panasonic for 100-200$ will get you a remarkably better picture, Im not talking just specs, Im talking you can see the difference!

I sold all of my Sega Dreamcast games because Xbox came out. Later I had to go and re purchase all my favorite games because the quality was so good and not obsoleeted by todays game systems. I would argue that many games on the now 29 dollar dreamcast are equal if not better than the same game ported to the 200$ PS2.

HD-DVD should be backwards compatible, the blue laser players sony is making will have dual pickups so regular dvds will play. Univeral players are the big hit nowadays, so there should be players out there that cover all bases, look how big dvd vhs combos are.

We are fortunate to have technology increasing by leaps and bounds, what Law is that where technology doubles every 18 months? I hear that its coming to an end, that technology advances are slowing way down, chips cant get too much smaller or faster and we cant really do as much with what we have. Part of which is the lack of application for a 5 gighz cpu while programers only know how to use half as much.

When we sent men to the moon the technology was based on computers less powerful than the calculator you can buy at the 99Cent store. I still have a texas instrument calculator with red leds that takes a 9vold battery. funny how todays calculators dont even need a battery?


BTW, the matrix game on XBOX outputs in 1080i. A mircrosoft rep told me at launch that of course the xbox couldnt possibly have games that run at that high of a resolution, 2 years later here we are, including to other games at 720p. If only they would make some type of disc that would just play a 5-10 minute short or demo of hdtv film clip so we can just see what it looks like.

Lastly, Most of your old VHS tapes still play fine. You would rather watch the dvd at twice the resolution and digital sound, but if the only way to watch starwars 3 or return of the king was on a vhs release, we would still be able to enjoy the movie in prologic. You choose to upgrade to dvd for the benefit, but the vhs dead as it its, still works and still plays a movie to a somewhat enjoyable degree. so when hd-dvd comes out we will all have to look at our dvd collections and figure out which specific movies need to be upgraded and how much is reasonable to do so.