Source Doesn't surprise me in the least. I'm a Netflix subscriber who could give a shit about high def DVD. I'm not going to declare the death of these, but widespread market penetration? I just don't see it. Most people don't want to re-buy content they already have on DVD. Sure, there can be a gradual shift with new content, but I ain't shelling out hundreds of dollars for a new DVD player when mine works just fine. Plus, I can't backup content on these new formats...
Oh yea, I also have to say how amused I am at how the movie industry has screwed itself with these format wars...
Somehow I'm thinking that they are shooting themselves in the foot with these formats. Until the format war is settled, everybody bought new HD equipment for a few grand and re-buyed everything they already have perfectly adequate on DVD the next thing will be around already.
Hey, these cheap arse DVD players that artificially up the picture quality of a DVD for an HD tv are perfectly good for me for now.
Add to that most people won't be able to see much of a difference. I admit, when I upgraded to an HD-TV, I was more impressed than I expected, but I consider the image for a plain vanilla DVD on the new set to be outstanding. Why should I buy a new player when I have no complaint about my current equipment?
My current DVD player is not only upconverting, it also plays almost ANY disc I throw in it. It reads almost any format. I can view all my computer files (movies, pictures, etc) on my TV. I can guarantee that these first gen HD players don't have that capability, because most existing DVD players don't have that capability (at least the ones I have seen).
I do know in Japan, people are embracing HD movies the way you would embrace a hooker you know has AIDS. There, it's a question of space - i.e. the lack of it. Hardly anyone living in a cramped apartment has room for a huge-ass TV, and unless you have a huge-ass TV, you are wasting your money getting a next-gen media player. Personally, I've seen what movies look like on HDTV, and I like it. But there is not enough quality difference to justify shelling out $3000 on one, and then another $600 for a player. That to me is too much money to spend to watch movies maybe 6 times a year.
That's the point, yes. They're good but not that good. Not even close to the jump from VHS to DVD, and that was a lot cheaper.
It would be more justifiable for you, as you seem to watch a hell of a lot of movies, but I hardly rent any more movies. If I want to see something bad enough, I go to the theater, and the rest I download via bittorrent. Personally, the only movies needing a HDTV quality picture would be those huge blockbuster films with millions of dollars worth of special effects. No one needs to see Jack Black propose to Gwenyth Paltrow in high-definition, or every wrinkle on Tom Cruises forehead.
I'd need a mighty expensive HD beamer as I have no TV at all. Just checked - the cheapest one I can find in a hurry that can do 1920x1080p is € 6199.- I'm quite happy with my setup right now. For over 6000 euros I can travel Australia for half a year including airfare. That's totally worth watching movies in incredibly outdated progressive-scan quality on a 4 meter (~160'') silver screen and meager 7.1 sound for a while longer IMHO Well ... could apply that to screeners from the Internet too. You can follow the plot but you can't see a thing
You know who is really pushing the war... is sony. and with their conglomerit statis, where they make the movies, the disc format, and have the clout to sway the industry... If it wasn't for sony, the standard would be HD-DVD and the change over would be in full swing.
HD will take off once multiformat players start getting pumped out. Playing blu-ray or HD-DVD, as well as all other DVD formats, DIVX, Mpeg 4 etc.
Right now, I'm very happy with my Oppo 981. It does an outstanding job of playing pretty much anything I throw at it, and the picture quality is excellent.
Fuck 'em. I predict they'll bleed to so near death out of the wound of PS3, they'll be like Sega being eaten by Nintendo, they'll have no choice but to allow it.
That's a rather simplistic view. I remember reading about a lot of concerns from plenty of players other than Sony that HD DVD wasn't a good format (or good enough) because it apparently is more easily hackable and had less storage capability. If you are in the movie industry, these things would concern you. If Sony was truly the only one pushing for a format war, then you wouldn't have half of Hollywood's studios lining up behind them.
VHS demonstrated that the "best" format isn't always the one that works... the deal with the ammount of storage isn't really a big issue, as packeging two discs is still fieasable. The whole thing about the hacking and security is bullcrap, because people will always develope a way to crack any level of security...
DVDs and CDs didn't get such great adoption rate because of quality over tapes... ITS BECAUSE OF EASE OF USE. No rewinding, going to tracks (or chapters) is extremely easy, the media doesn't degrade over time and get stuck in your player, and in the case of CD vs cassette there was no side switching. Just look at mp3 players, they are LOWER quality sound than CD but people love them... because they are easier to use. Blu-ray & HD-DVD don't offer anything new when it comes to ease of use. In fact, with the HDCP DRM hoops you have to jump through, they are even harder to use. Anyone remember DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD? Yeah, theres a reason no one wanted those over CDs, even though they had higher capacity and quality. I'll say it again... ease of use sells new formats, not improved quality alone.
I must've damaged my eardrums more than I thought, cuz I can't hear the difference. Only lowering in quality that jumps out at me is sloppy/too-high compression, or some ass taped it off an external source instead of finding a way to jack the audio into the puter.
it also depends on the quality of the speakers/headphones you are using... But generally it is true, mp3 is definatly a downgrade in quality.
Balls. Sony doesn't own blu-ray, it's only one of a consortium of various companies that are backing it. LG has ALREADY PRODUCED a player that will play both blu-ray and HD-DVD discs. There goes your claim.
Mp3 is definitely a downgrade in quality, but you know what? I don't care. I've got friends who spend close to $5000 on a stereo and then mount it on a $40000 car - and I think, WTF?!? Unless you're driving something with an ultra quiet interior, or you plan to turn up your volume to offensively high levels, the sound of the road is going to affect the quality of your music. Same with MP3 players. If you're wearing them to the gym or while jogging, the sounds of the city around you are going to negate any gain in quality you would get from listening to CD over MP3.
The last I had heard, which was back in december, was that sony was threatining legal action against the dual format player makers because it violates something in sony's contract with the blue ray deal about a non compet clause or something...
Well my info came from wikipedia. Maybe it was wrong then. IMHO, China, at once the bane and the saviour of us all, will save us on this one. They don't give a hoot about intellectual property and all that. They even pirate cars. Cars!
Blu-Ray WILL win the format war! It's really no surprise that sales of Hi-Def disks aren't setting the world on fire. After all, only a minority of households have sets that can view them, the players are still very expensive, and the titles available are pretty thin. Even if there was no format war, it would still take a while for a new format to catch on. In the early years of regular DVD, it was the same way. Few people had players and VHS was available everywhere cheap. There weren't many great titles available---it was several years into the format before we got the Indiana Jones series, the original Star Wars trilogy, and the older Star Trek films, etc. The video rental stores went two or three years before even adding a DVD section. And, if you recall, there was a format war (of sorts) early on: Circuit City's Divx DVDs (not to be confused with the DivX codec) hit the market, with $5 movies that could be watched for 48 hours and then either discarded or re-viewed for a fee. DVD took years to catch on; it's premature to call Blu-Ray or HD-DVD failures when they've been available for only a few months. By the way, here's a news items from today's The Digital Bits: I went with Blu-Ray earlier this month and, I have to tell you, I ain't going back. HD content on a big screen is threatening to put an end to my theater-going days permanently. Blu-Ray currently has the upperhand in sales (small as the HD disk market is, at present) despite a headstart by its competitor, HD-DVD. The Playstation 3 has only been on the market for a couple of months and I suspect it will drive sales of Blu-Ray disks even harder. This Christmas (and, moreso, the following one) will be the one to watch. Enough early adopters will have the players and disks that those interested in a/v toys will have experienced them. Presuming they like what they see (and I think they will), sales will surge. If HD disks are just 5% of the video disk market by the end of this year, the format(s?) will be doing very well.
Haha... that thing is 1500 dollars. You could buy a PS3 AND a Xbox 360 + HD-DVD player for cheaper than that! So yeah that combo player isn't really having any easing effect on the format war. Once it gets cheap enough it will.
