The largest hurdle of all...

[ClaytonMG]

I've noticed a lot of people commenting on how DVD is Blu-Ray's (and HD DVD's) biggest competitor. But I personally think it's misinformation. There has been so much false information let out by companies (mainly Toshiba) that it could drive a person insane. But more over, people seem to be getting things wrong, too. Wether they're making up their own stories or whatever, some of the things I found today were just insane.

I just went over to YouTube to watch the clips that Bill Hunt posted and I checked out what I guess was the HD DVD commercial. Now, a lot of people started bragging about the 360 which confused me because the commercial was more about a bunch of people break dancing and supporting HD DVD than it was about the 360 but that's beside the point. What concerned me was when I got further into the thread. One person posted "bluray and hd dvd got around the same quality. bluray has more space on their disks, but hd dvd disks can use multiple layers so it evens each other out." Now, where do people find this information? It has to come from some where. Then someone responded with "blue ray can store up to 100GB!" Of course someone then responds with, and I'll clean up the language a bit, "it can only store 25GB (expletive deleted), While hd dvd is fixing to get the 51GB disc. (expletive deleted) Blu ray." Another person also commented on how Lord of the Rings is HD DVD exclusive and how there's no such thing as a 50gb disc.

Now, if you combine all that with Toshiba's lies, including the K-Mart thing and the 51gb discs. Wether the 51gb discs will play or not is irrelevant. What is relevant is the bandwidth as most you already know. Plus there's Paramount's claims of selling the most HD discs overall (Transformers) out of both formats.

My question is, how are these companies fighting this? I haven't seen Sony do much to do it which in a way is nice. That way they don't look like the bad guys. But I think that studios (other than Disney, because they do seem to be stepping up as far as promoting Blu-Ray is concerned) need to start really pushing Blu-Ray and FACTS. The facts are what's going to put Blu-Ray at a real advantage over HD DVD. Some very simple things they could do are TV spots just listing facts and simplifying it for the public. Like saying "Blu-Ray has a larger storage capacity with a higher bandwidth. That means you can enjoy the movies you love in full uncompressed sound and a higher bit rate resulting in a much higher quality than any other format can offer." Some simple things like that. What's everyone else's ideas? I think this is very important this season because Toshiba is going to try to buy a win and they will fight dirty. They do not care about lying to the public. They will do anything to keep their dying format alive. Sorry for the giant rant, it's just these things have been bugging me lately!

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by ClaytonMG

I've noticed a lot of people commenting on how DVD is Blu-Ray's (and HD DVD's) biggest competitor. But I personally think it's misinformation.

HDM is a luxury product. And the consumer has to be first convinced that it is something they want. But, the problem is, they are buying an inadequate TVs.

A lot of people buy a 1280x720p or 1366x768p set which turns 1080i into 540p before upscaling it.

So, looking at effective resolutions (assuming the horizontal downscaling is right):

DVD: 720x480p - 345.6K pixels
HDM@1280x540p - 691.2K pixels (2x DVD)
HDM@1388x540p - 749.5K pixels (2.16x DVD)

While what people are supposed to be looking at is:

HDM@1920x1080p - 2073.6K pixels (6x DVD)

Is it any wonder we read about people not seeing much of a difference between upscaled DVD and HDM?

[ClaytonMG]

That's a very good point. So maybe Sony and all the other Blu-Ray people should be pushing 1080p products instead of having people buy inadequate ones and then focus on getting people to get into Blu-Ray. Or maybe they could push them both at same time

[BTBuck1]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

HDM is a luxury product. And the consumer has to be first convinced that it is something they want. But, the problem is, they are buying an inadequate TVs.

A lot of people buy a 1280x720p or 1366x768p set which turns 1080i into 540p before upscaling it.

So, looking at effective resolutions (assuming the horizontal downscaling is right):

DVD: 720x480p - 345.6K pixels
HDM@1280x540p - 691.2K pixels (2x DVD)
HDM@1388x540p - 749.5K pixels (2.16x DVD)

While what people are supposed to be looking at is:

HDM@1920x1080p - 2073.6K pixels (6x DVD)

Is it any wonder we read about people not seeing much of a difference between upscaled DVD and HDM?

to me, when I had 720 displays oh so long ago (lol last year ) sure the resolution was a noticeable improvement, gave it a smoother looking picture, but the bigger thing was the increased color, contrast and lack of compression artifacts/ringing those things were the bigger noticeable differences.

when people say they can't see a difference on 1080p souces like HD/BD on a 720 set, vs. a DVD they are just plain BLIND!

[jcdDigix]

Blu-ray camp has to fight dirty as well & more.

[Teazle]

Originally Posted by ClaytonMG

That's a very good point. So maybe Sony and all the other Blu-Ray people should be pushing 1080p products instead of having people buy inadequate ones and then focus on getting people to get into Blu-Ray. Or maybe they could push them both at same time

This is already happening though not specifically by Sony / Blu-ray manufacturers. At CES in January I think we will see relatively few 720p displays. 1080p will be shown off as the standard even for the "small" 37 to 40-inchers.

It seems to me that the 720p sub-generation greatly perplexed the public reception of high-def since (as Gary points out) it's so much harder to tell the diff over ordinary DVD, and even 1080i broadcast isn't displayed correctly. Good riddance 720p.

[oldmike]

so 1080i is better then 720p even on like a 32in or so TV??

[ClaytonMG]

I have a 26" Toshiba HDTV for my room. I can't remember the model number, but if you have anything above 480p, it looks pretty bad. It adds color banding like there's no tomorrow and has major sharpness issues. It's the oddest thing in the world... But really, I think you'd need like like 36"-42" or larger to really notice the difference and also distance is key. At least, that's been my experience.