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Format wars over!!

Discussion in 'Community Broadband & Computers' started by Chsalas, Feb 19, 2008.

  1. Chsalas

    Chsalas Active Member

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  2. gryphon

    gryphon Banned User

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    We bought a Blu-Ray, thankfully. I guess that HD DVD players and disks are about as good as Betamax.
     
  3. Chsalas

    Chsalas Active Member

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    I know, I wanted to Get a PS3, but I didn't know which way the Format thing was gonna go. I don't want another box in the entertainment center. Truthfully, if the Wii would play Blu-Ray disk, or any DVD, I would go with that. But I guess that was one thing they didn't think of.
     
  4. wahoogeek

    wahoogeek New Member

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    It will be interesting to see how much the players will be sold for. If you are looking for an upconverting regular DVD player, the Toshibas get excellent reviews in that regard.
     
  5. gryphon

    gryphon Banned User

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    I agree on the upconverting point. We got a Blu Ray for our plasma in the den. However, for our bedroom where we only watch TV occassionally, we went with an upconverting DVD. I really don't see much difference.
     
  6. L0stS0ul

    L0stS0ul hmmmm

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    I've got one of the sony upconverting dvd players. I've been really happy with it. Upconverts to 1080p and for the most part the upconversion is excellent.

    For all our HD movies we've been downloading from Xbox Live. Only 720p but still very good. I personally think the days of physical media are on the way out.
     
  7. Chsalas

    Chsalas Active Member

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    I agree! I went to a Conference on Media distribution, and the whole idea of physical media (i.e. CD,DVD,Disc ) is on the outs. With the broadband coverage in most major metropolitan areas, you can download movies straight to your media device. Apple TV, X-Box and I believe PS3 all have these options plus a host of other devices on the way. The big hold up is of course the RMA realities and content management (to avoid file sharing). That will be the only real road block, the technologies and infrastructure already exist to the point that the demand is there and on the rise.
     
  8. Pictor Guy

    Pictor Guy New Member

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    It's because of the DRM issue that I don't think downloads will work. At least not for a while. The MPAA and RIAA have been terrified about the DRM issue and it will be their undoing. The ones that offer HD downloads are very limited still. While I may buy an AppleTV for the HD rentals I don't see myself buying any soft copies because of the restrictions. For titles that I want to buy it will still be on Blu-Ray. I don't even think I have purchased a DVD in quite some time.
     
  9. BigDog

    BigDog Member

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  10. Pictor Guy

    Pictor Guy New Member

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    I don't put a lot of faith in George Ou's write-up. First, as of Jan 18th the Apple HD download service wasn't out yet so it's kinda hard to measure vaporware unless you're into speculation. Second, bit rate is not always the best measure of quality when measured alone. Third, I'm pretty sure the DirecTV HD service is not "HD-Lite" on the MPEG4 channels but I could be wrong on this one. Bottom line you can use bit rate as a measure when comparing like compression but to compare bit rate of MPEG2 vs MPEG4 (or H.264) is just silly. And to further discredit his little chart, when is the last time you watched ATSC 1080p (Blu-Ray yes but OTA?)? And to say upscaling 480i is reasonable at 1080i or 1080p because of the bit rate is laughable. If the source material is only 720x480i it's doing lots of vodoo to get a wide screen 1920x1080 image from a narrow screen interlaced image. I can definitely see a difference in an up-converted DVD shown even on a small 1080i screen versus a native progressive image. I'll pass on the DVD every time on TVs larger than 34".

    I'll stick to my belief that services like AppleTV will be good enough for many rentals but for ownership the disk is here for at least another 10 years.

    George may do more service to write up a story on how many 1080p sets aren't capable of 1080p motion images.
     
  11. flynnibus

    flynnibus Well-Known Member Forum Staff

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    there is no 1080p ATSC.. doesn't exist.

    The 'HD-Lite' term is from when DTV was compressing the heck out of their stuff and using a very low bitrate. The move to MPEG4 helps that... but all the carriers are going to be compressing their stuff vs the full bandwidth most OTA transmissions are using right now. It's simply a matter of economics. Customers are demanding more and more channels... its gotta come from somewhere.

    And sorry, the comment of "People often hear MPEG-4 and the knee-jerk reaction is that it’s automatically better than MPEG-2 because they see a bigger number but that’s only true if it’s at or almost the same bit-rate." is just flat out wrong. Take it from someone who is actually employed in the compression industry :) In fact, MPEG-4 can deliver similar quality at almost HALF the bitrate of a similar MPEG-2 stream or even better. Oh, and good systems can do that in near real-time.

    But I do believe the digital downloads will kill off disc sales faster then most people realize. The quality argument only goes so far. If the mass market was so demanding about quality, they wouldn't be buying all those 720/768 native resolution HDTVs they are gobbling up. Price point wins there buddy and that's why the low end displays that are native 768 or less are so popular.
     
  12. Zeratul

    Zeratul Well-Known Member

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    ...exactly Steve. Just watch on an average Saturday at Costco. They sell a ton of those cheaper flat scree sets (and I have one too) and as I casually talk to one of the buyers occasionally, the price factor is by far what they are there buying... not because of HD or Blue Ray. The set looks sexy, sleek and at $600 who could go wrong. They do not look at the resolution capabilities. And ask any Costco manager what the main reason people return the cheap sets? It is because it does not look as good at home and the PQ is not HD. Funny how all that works... but I think you are right.
     

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