But I Already HAVE a DVD Player!

[admin]

I've stayed out of the high def format debate mostly because of apathy. I honestly don't care. I don't own a player, have no real desire to run out and buy one, and I know a lot of people that feel the same way. It was a conversation I had over the weekend with a PS3 owner that started me thinking. Of course he was complaining about the lack of games but what was more interesting was the complete LACK of mention of Blu-ray. Why? The box is in his living room, hooked up to his stereo (I assumed), and connected to his TV. But he never mentioned the Blu-ray capacity.


Discuss "But I Already HAVE a DVD Player!" here. Read the article.

[autoboy]

Yep,

I've been arguing this for a long time. The only way any HD disc will get adopted is if they offer the disc for the same price as the DVD and make it backward compatible so all discs have both formats on them. Only HD-DVD can do this and they won't because they don't want to invest in this kind of plan. It essentially makes the HD version free. Instead of making profits on the disc they could hopefully make profits on the players as people upgrade.

Most people didn't see any difference in quality b/w vhs and dvd, they switched so you didn't have to rewind. What makes anyone think Jane Doe will want anything except a game changer like the vhs to dvd switch? DVDs already look pretty damn good on HD displays.

The next game changer is On Demand movies (and I am not talking exclusivly comcast here). However, we are not likely to get any great quality improvement with instant downloads. I personally would rather watch a soft DVD than a blocky mess of low bitrate 1080i HD mpeg2.

[Joe Schmoe]

Those of us who have been collecting DVDs for years, and have now ammassed collections worth thousands of $, are in no hurry to replace them with something new.
Also, DVD still has the power to impress, especially with certain material (the aerial views of Las Vegas that open most CSI episodes, for example.)

[Dezoris]

First and foremost, this entire thing namely with the Paramount announcement is very very disappointing.

It's true I am biased towards BluRay because I own a PS3.
Also I prefer it over HDDVD because it was a Microsoft project.
The last thing they need is more design influence over more market share.

Aside from that with the sales numbers of BluRay increasing I started actually buying BluRay in hopes this was the turning point.
After this I am not buying anymore.

Even more depressing is that Sony for once went out on a limb and made a very good console/DVD/Hi-Def player years ahead of it's time and this article highlights many of the reasons people are not buying it.

The niche market of techies is obviously smaller that the companies thought.

The other thing this article does is brings to light another good point.
Enough of the optical storage.

Where is our down loadable hi-def movies?
Where are our players that integrate into home theatre for networking, music, stream radio and download and store 1000s of movies.
The PS3 and Xflop attempt this but not at an acceptable level.

Give me a player With 4 hard drives in it, and let us download our movies like i-tunes but with real video and sound quality, make it trendy and cheap.

[Shugs1037]

I logged onto the site and saw the pic of Luke .....I started laughing like a little school girl in my cubicle. Great shot selection!!! Moohahahahahaha!!

In serious response to the article........these companies can all bite me! They aren't getting another penny from me until they end the war, get HDMI to cooperate and make products that will maximize the formats potential before deep sixing it. I saw a Runco 610 setup playing a regular def disc (I provided the disc which was The Aviator) on a 2:35:1 screen using an anamorphic lens.....most awesome picture I have ever seen!!! No 1080P,Just pure 480P upconverted to 720P. It's all in the processing folks. I realize the Runco stuff is expensive but come on!! Why can't other companies make regular DVDs look this friggin good!? I will be perfectly happy to buy my "low rez" PJ and screen and not worry about 1080P since these companies are already making money hand over fist on regular DVDs. At least when I plug in the component cables and Toshlink digital I know it will actually work on any combination of products I buy. This whole format war, HDMI garbage and marketing hyped 1080P business can go fly a kite......and I consider myself to be an Audioholic!

Don't get me wrong.....bigger, faster, brighter, clearer, sharper, louder...are all great things. But come back to me when they all work well together and the sales guy at the local Hi-Fi store actually knows which version of HDMI we are on...

The mighty dollar talks and that is what will influence the industry more than any hype or promises can.....

[autoboy]

But come back to me when they all work well together and the sales guy at the local Hi-Fi store actually knows which version of HDMI we are on

The sales guy should never have to know what HDMI version we are on and the average joe should never have to worry about double scaling an image because their xbox360 is set to 1080i on a 720p screen. These things should autodetect the optimum resolution just like computers do now. It is freaking retarded.

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I've stayed out of the high def format debate mostly because of apathy. I honestly don't care. I don't own a player, have no real desire to run out and buy one, and I know a lot of people that feel the same way. It was a conversation I had over the weekend with a PS3 owner that started me thinking. Of course he was complaining about the lack of games but what was more interesting was the complete LACK of mention of Blu-ray. Why? The box is in his living room, hooked up to his stereo (I assumed), and connected to his TV. But he never mentioned the Blu-ray capacity.


Discuss "But I Already HAVE a DVD Player!" here. Read the article.

I own both a blu-ray & hd dvd player. But I don't buy every HD movies that come out. I think most movies and TV shows don't even DESERVE the HD treatment, especially with the new awesome 1080p upscaling DVD players out there.

[j_garcia]

If the video quality is noticeably improved and the supplemental material isn't lost, I don't have a problem replacing discs with the new versions.

I don't see a lack of games. There are quite a few good ones on the market right now.

[autoboy]

Who here watches the suplemental material on a regular basis? I know I have only watched it on a select few discs.

[j_garcia]

And that is probably why they don't feel the need to include it all the time. I don't watch it on every disc, but I do at the very least like to watch gag reels/outtakes and deleted scenes. Rarely do I watch most or all of the additional content.