Why buy DVD when HD-DVD isn't that far away? (1 Viewer)

[RobertR]

No offense, but the studios will most likely never release video in a quality that equals film

None taken, Greg. My point was that the studios won't introduce new formats forever. They will bump up against a "dead end" that will be short of actual film quality. We can then say ok, this is the last version we need to buy.

 

[David Von Pein]

Does anyone have any idea just HOW much better the HD-DVD format will look when compared to DVD?? Heck, how much better could it possibly be?! Seems to me these anamorphic DVD's are darn near the perfect resolution now!! What are we getting now from DVD....I think it's near 500 lines of resolution, right?? What's HD-DVD gonna have....750?? Anybody know the stats?

Anyway, my point is: DVD now is so good as far as picture & sound, it's hard to believe that HD could make that huge of a difference clarity-wise! Hardly seems worth re-buying all your DVD titles (if the quality is to be just marginally improved).

Also....Question about LD ..... Is it possible to even buy an LD Player (new) nowadays?? What will you LD-lovers do if your current player kicks the bucket? Just curious? :b

 

[Kwang Suh]

Anyway, my point is: DVD now is so good as far as picture & sound, it's hard to believe that HD could make that huge of a difference clarity-wise! Hardly seems worth re-buying all your DVD titles (if the quality is to be just marginally improved).

Ahh, someone who's never seen HDTV.

HDTV is far, far better than DVD. Way better. Jaw droppingly better. DVD doesn't even come close. It's like watching VHS again when you watch a DVD after seeing HDTV.

HDTV has 1080 lines of interlaced resolution.

 

[RobertR]

David:

You ARE aware that people (including myself) are and have been watching HD material for some time, aren't you? It's not as if HD is some mysterious, unknown quantity that people have no clue about. We KNOW that HD at its best looks significantly better than DVD. There is no doubt about it. To answer your question, HDDVD will mostly likely be 1920 x 1080i, which is a big improvement no matter how you look at it, notwithstanding that current DVD may be considered "good enough" by some people in some circumstances.

 

[David Von Pein]

Thanks for straightening me out guys (Kwang & Robert) !!
Had no idea it had THAT much more resolution! 1080!! Holy Mega-Picture!!!!
You're right indeed....I've never even seen HDTV. But it sure sounds nice. Hell, with that much resolution, it must look like everything is JUMPING off the screen, eh??!! Is it darn near a 3-D effect?

 

[RobertR]

it must look like everything is JUMPING off the screen, eh??!! Is it darn near a 3-D effect?

Actually David, the phrase I hear used most often with HD at its best is the "window effect". Since HD cameras have tremendous depth of field and there is no film grain, it can indeed seem eeriely like looking out a window (You shoulda seen the two Superbowls before this one in HD! ).

 

[David Von Pein]

Very coool, Robert!

What size HDTV do you have?

 

[RobertR]

David:

I have an HDTV compatible CRT front projector (NEC XG135LC) connected to an RCA DTC100 (in addition to my DVD players). When I configure my screen for HDTV, the screen has a 16:9 ratio of 80" wide by 45" high (92" diagonal). When I move to a bigger place, I'll likely go to a size of 96" wide (8 feet) by 54" high (110" diagonal).

 

[Greg_M]

The "Good Guys" store in my area has a HD set which shows an outdoor scene of trees and leaves. It's like looking out a window - that's a pretty good picture.

 

[David Von Pein]

Here's a nice article on the subject ........
http://www.digitallyobsessed.com/showarticle.php3?ID=40

 

[RobertR]

Interesting link, David, and it does make some good points, points that have been discussed at length in various forums. Some things to note about the article you linked to: A lot of people, including me, have taken DVD a step beyond its regular performance, and are using PC-based players to scale the resolution to considerably higher numbers than the normal 720 by 480 (in other words, some people are indeed doing what the article talked about). I watch DVDs at an effective resolution of 1280 by 960p. This doesn't mean that it has an ACTUAL resolution that high, but scaling it that way does bring it a step closer to HDTV. Also, The quality of HDTV transfers varies just like any other format, and if the transfer is not well done, you won't see that big a difference from regular DVD, ESPECIALLY if you do the kind of scaling I mentioned. I see this sort of thing mentioned now and then when people compare HDTV movies on HBO and ABC with their scaled DVDs. Sometimes the difference isn't that great. But make no mistake, HDTV used at its maximum potential is much better than DVD.

 

[RobertR]

I just got finished doing what other people have done, namely a direct A/B comparison of an HDTV presentation with a DVD of the same movie. The movie is Thunderball, which is showing in 720p HDTV (upconverted to 1080i by the DTC-100) on ABC as I write this. I compared it with the MGM SE DVD. I did not compare the audio, only the video, although both are in 5.1 DD.

The result? I prefer the DVD, which just proves to me how transfer-dependent these things are. The ABC showing looks to have more washed-out colors. For example, the mini sub that carries the atomic bombs looks like a brilliant orange on the DVD, while it looks like a more pale yellow on ABC. And I don't see a big difference in detail. The biggest weakness of the ABC broadcast is that it zooms in the 2.35:1 picture to fill a 16:9 screen, losing picture information. The DVD lets you see everything.

Quite interesting. I'm not going to generalize from this, though.

 

[Marque D]

Does anyone have any idea just HOW much better the HD-DVD format will look when compared to DVD?? Heck, how much better could it possibly be?! Seems to me these anamorphic DVD's are darn near the perfect resolution now!! What are we getting now from DVD....I think it's near 500 lines of resolution, right?? What's HD-DVD gonna have....750?? Anybody know the stats?

HD-DVD will have 1080 lines, hopefully native 1080p by the time they are actually released.
here are a few HD Screen shots I found at http://www.coolstf.com/mpeg/HDTV/#dnmodpix

I saw these comparison shots of HBO-HD and DVD posted by Dede over at the http://www.hometheaterspot.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=4&t=001110&p=
HBO HDTV Transfer:

Keep in mind that HBO is not the best when it comes to High Definition transfers.

 

[Bjoern Roy]

Before anyone goes Oh and Ah over these pictures...

The Gladiator picture is a simulation. The DVD capture has been blurred just to make a point. While the HBO transfer has a fair bit more detail than the DVD, these pictures are vastly exgerated. The DVD has lot more detail than even the HD pic posted. And the HD transfer has even more.

The lady picture is no good display of HD either. The detail shown in that picture is so low, that a DVD with its 720x480 pixels could reproduce it 100%. The original probably had more resolution, maybe the screenshot discarded most of it.

The shot of MIB is the only really usefull, it actually contains information that is not capturable with 480p. You need more than 1000 pixels to store the horizontal information contained in that picture. Has probably been a 720p transfer.

Thanks for the last picture, i will try to post a detail comparison to the DVD.

 

[Frank]

The Gladiator pictures were originally taken by me off a 21" computer monitor. All I was trying to show with those images was the different aspect ratios.

The quality is not indicative of anything.