Posted on 05/06/2008 11:04:35 AM PDT by Notary Sojac
Getting tired of the Blu-Ray/Betamax comparisons, especially because Betamax DID succeed, just not in the consumer market.
That's the key right there Bill. DVDs are tremendous on my plasma and any improvement would be marginal at the best. Improvement that is not worthy of another $$$$ investment for a Blue Ray player. Also consider the additional $$$ to rent and extremely limited numbers of Blue Ray disks available at your local video store.
Its going to be a long time before I step up to a Blue Ray player, probably by the time I finish copying all the regular DVDs available at my library.........
NPD reports that player sales dropped by 40 percent from January to February 2008 and increased by only 2 percent the following month... PS3. The reported declines in Blu-ray player sales aren't actually declines at all; they only apply to standalone players. Sony's PlayStation 3 has been moving serious units, and while standalone player shipments can be numbered in the thousands, Sony sold 257,000 PS3s in March 2008 alone. That represents a 98 percent growth rate in year-over-year sales. Given the high cost of standalone players and the fact that the price didn't fall after the HD DVD announcement, it's clear that most people are getting their Blu-ray fix from the PS3. ABI believes that PS3s will account for a full 85 percent of all Blu-ray players in the wild by the end of 2008... Upconverting players...
HDTV is 1080i, BD is 1080p. the "i" stands for interpolated- it "guesses" 1080 lines. BD is a true 1080.
No. The "i" stands for "interlaced". It means that each 1080 picture is made from two 540 pictures; the first picture contains the odd lines and the second the even. It's still a real 1080 picture, it's just made from a pair of separate 540 pictures that are laced together.
I'm not sure what exactly I was experiencing, but I wasn't as impressed as I thought I'd be. Maybe it was expectations not meeting reality, since those HD formats are really hyped right now.
As for my apartment, a couple of years ago I bought a Sony widescreen CRT that is capable of HD (up to 1080i). I have been incredibly satisfied running DVDs at 480p and from where I sit, it's plenty good. The color saturation is wonderful, I can view it clearly from many angles and the picture is superb.
I think it will be quite some time before I move to a flat panel. Maybe I'll wait until SED technology comes out.
No doubt the big-screen HD viewing experience is superior.
It’s just that when I’m focused on the image, aware of price & hype, I still find it less than what it should be.
This in contrast with, say, CDs which due to no compression are everything they claim to be.
My old man had one of those. I remember it well. The clock malfunctioned, but other than that, it still worked great up until the time he finally gave it away a few years ago.
Someone will probably correct me, since I really don't have the technological background, but my understanding is that this has something to do with the fact that movies and television are shot in differing frames per second, and adjusting the movie picture to be shown on your television can sometimes produce jiggle or blur. The newer 120 hz sets are supposed to eliminate this problem.
OK, but lets put the difference between HDTV and Blu-ray in a different perspective:
A BD disk contains up to 50 GB of information. A DVD contains less than 10 GB. This translates to 5x more resolution for a BD image.
Exactly. Compression artifacts leap out at me where I'm expecting smooth subtleties, and the jitter on LCD panels is increasingly getting to me. Done right, HD is fantastic; corners cut, the flaws leap out.
There is NOTHING in that list that excites me to buy a blue ray. Even the John Adams series.
Iron man when it will get to regular cable, but not to actually buy for a collection.
The capacity issue is why I think spinning disks are doomed.
With 32 gig HCSD chips comming out, it is only a matter BRIEF time before seasons are released on chips.
or the ability to burn a single disk with 5x the worthless junk in a new format they want you to buy and redo your colleciton.
but DVD camcorders are already out before blueray camcorders even made it to the drawing market.
I had about 8 people over last night watching the Shining on Blu-Ray.
Everyone was blown away at how awesome it looked, and that’s almost a 30 year old movie.
OK, but lets put the difference between HDTV and Blu-ray in a different perspective:A BD disk contains up to 50 GB of information. A DVD contains less than 10 GB. This translates to 5x more resolution for a BD image.
Yes, but what does a DVD have to do with HDTV?
OK, but lets put the difference between HDTV and Blu-ray in a different perspective:A BD disk contains up to 50 GB of information. A DVD contains less than 10 GB. This translates to 5x more resolution for a BD image.
Yes, but what does a DVD have to do with HDTV?
Blu-Ray is still in its infancy. Bashing it for not having the same breadth and depth of DVD in terms of supporting devices is inane; DVD has a 10-year head start.
Also I have seen how fast chip prices are falling and would submit that Moore's law still holds true. We have reached 32 gig hcsd chips.
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