DVD's in HD

[ctribble]

Does anybody know the release date of DVDs in H.D? Also, do I need to buy a special player for this? I assume so, since my DVD only plays 480p vs 1080i h.d.
Thanks
C.T.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Blu-Ray Disc and HD-DVD will be out towards the end of this year and are scheduled to be the new VHS/Beta war. The new HD players are guesstimated to be near $1,000.00 as were DVD players when they first hit the market, but the competition may bring prices down quickly - or may keep them low when they hit the market originally.

It is a new technology and uses a different laser than what is inside your DVD player so you will definitely need new hardware.

 

[Leprkon]

The most recent versions of Resident Evil and Apocalypse were released as "HD mastered". Certainly not true HD, but they don't need a special player and look very sharp.

 

[MAX661]

"Mastered in HD" only means that Sony already has that movie ready to ship for Blue-Ray machines when they hit the market...

Grab any fairly recent DVD off of your rack that is from Columbia pictures and you will see on the back that it says "Mastered in HD"

This has nothing to do with the actual movie you are watching, it is still encoded with 480i.

 

[nick_danger]

As I wandered around Best Buy the other day, I realized that it's going to be really hard for me to re-purchase my collection. Every time I think to myself that DVD will be good enough and I won't have to upgrade, I remember what a sucker I am for new toys... I better start saving up...

 

[BMXTRIX]

Yep, I'm done buying DVDs.

I'm not sure which format actually will win the war, or if we will see both HD & BD combination players. But, I am ready.

 

[ctribble]

I thought dvds could play 480p

I thought there were some progressive scan dvds that play 480p dvds?
C.T.

 

[Rock&Roll Ninja]

The players are progressive scan.. they artificially "upgrade" the 480i (standard def) DVD to 480p (enhanced def).


Anyway:

There are a few DVDs released as "Extreme editions" whch have a HD version of the movie recorded in a special Windows media format, they play like regular DVDs in a DVD player, but will output HD if you use a powerful computer (with WinMedia of course) as a source player.

 

[BMXTRIX]

I thought there were some progressive scan dvds that play 480p dvds?
C.T.

480p is not an HD format.

It is (approximately) 640x480 pixels of information that comes out of the DVD player in a progressive format. It is NOT 16:9 material, but 4:3 material which your 16:9 TV then stretches out using the 'wide' setting to fill the screen.

HDTV actually is broadcast in 16:9 aspect and includes 1080i, and 720p. Blu-ray & HD-DVD are supposed to support 1080p as well. The color depth will be far superior to current DVDs and there will be more audio channels available.

 

[hrtbeat2]

I bought the samsung HD480 I believe it is and it upconverts to HD. Now their is a option to play in 480p/720p/1080i on the remote. From what I read it should be able to play a HD DVD when they come out.??

 

[JohnA]

I bought the samsung HD480 I believe it is and it upconverts to HD. Now their is a option to play in 480p/720p/1080i on the remote. From what I read it should be able to play a HD DVD when they come out.??

Here is a quote from Samsungs web site about the upconverting DVD players

"The 720p/768p/1080i DVD Players greatly enhance video performance by increasing the video resolution of ordinary DVD titles and up-converting them to HDTV compliant formats. A normal DVD player outputs 480i (interlaced) video. Progressive Scan DVD players can roughly double that resolution by outputting 480p video. the HD players enable you to enjoy an HDTV compliant picture-roughly twice the resolution of progressive scan DVD players. It is not High Definition DVD, so it is not a new format and works with existing discs."

As you can see it only works with current DVD upconverting them to 720p/768p/1080i and will not work with HD-DVD.

 

[hrtbeat2]

I called samsung myself and ask them and they told me the same thing. I said to the guy that you label this DVD player as HD841 and the guy who sold me this DVD player said it was a HD DVD player. So I think this falls into a gray area on how bad they lied to me. It still plays very nice and the pic is very sharp for the price of $179 on sale. I'll wait a couple years before buying a HD DVD player. My concern is will this play HD DVD's??? Thanks Dan

 

[guess88]

NO IT WILL NOT!!!

it's a different format, it will NOT PLAY HD DVD's. The sales guy lied to you, big surprise, that's what sales guys do. How many sales guys have you ever met that really knew what they were talking about anyway? More than half the stores i walk into, i usually find out that i know more than the sales guy. This goes for most any sales positions as well, not just A/V.

Granted, labeling the model name with the letters HD in the name is a bit duplicidious, but it's not false advertising at all. It's not an item description, it's the name of a model. But you're right, you shouldn't buy an HD DVD player for about 2 years. For one, the price tag's not gonna be worth it in it's debut considering you know in about a year it'll drop by more than half. And two, you should let the format war between blue ray, and hd dvd play out and see who really comes out on top. We can speculate all we want now, but only time tells how reality really sets in.