Are people blind?

[SkantDragon]

From a recent article...

The difference between HD and BD and DVD on sets under 50 inches is not all that great...

I get very frustrated when I hear people say things like this:

- Upscaled DVDs look virtually the same as Blu-rays.
- There's no difference between 720p and 1080p on anything besides huge TVs.
- 1080i and 1080p are indistinguishable.
- You can't actually see the judder in movies at 1080p60 anyway.
- There's no quality difference between component and HDMI.
- Lower bit rate encodes (ala HD DVD) don't look any different.

These are rediculous things to say which I often hear cited as facts. I have to wonder if the people saying them have inch thick glasses or something. Because these differences are not inobvious. Even on screens which are not huge.

I think it's a legitimate opinion to say that the difference isn't all that important. Being sharper doesn't make a bad movie into a good one. But to say that the visible difference doesn't even exist is unreasonable.

And that's especially true when you start stacking multiple of these differences together. You start getting some large differences in quality indeed.

Why do people say these things? Is it spin? Is it sour grapes for things they can't afford? Can they really not see the differences?