The first questions about HD are:
1 - What about the encoding ? WM9 or H264.
2 - What will be the universal support ? Blue-ray or DVD-HD ? What about D-Theater ?

I guess that before those 2 questions can be resolved, the DVD5 will be outdated.

The other point with DVD-HD is that not only people should buy a new DVD player but they must change their TV, Plasma, TT, DLP etc ...
Don't know if one has tried to find some native 1080p sets but there are very few.

quote:

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Originally posted by karyboue:
Don't know if one has tried to find some native 1080_p_ sets but there are very few.

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That's why the HD DVD won't be 1080p but "only" 1080i or 720p. 1080p is not commercially viable, and the Majors will find it too good.

Agree with you about standards, HD DVD is only pushed by CE manufacturers, that's not enough.
We see what happens to hi-res CD.
We see what happens with HDTV, it is there (in North America) only because the FCC pushes it along with the mandatory move toward DTV.

Emmanuel
Euphonie

All opinions are my own, and reflect those of the organisation i work for, even if not stipulated.

There's life in the old thread yet!

Yesterday I was frog-marched into the big AV dealers in town while my wife did some shopping!

On the third floor I found a very big Pioneer plasma screen showing continuous HDTV from Astra.

A revelation is probably an understatement. On picture quality it completely flattened normal plasma, CRT and LCD. All on display on the lower floors.

Sparkling, moving photographs without the obvious artifacts of modern TV that I had just seen on a range of expensive screens down below.

The big Pioneer screen would also bear close inspection now. It would have been quite commfortable to watch from 6 only feet away from a resolution point of view. (if absolutely necessary)
Though ten to twelve feet away was probaby the best combination of visual screen size and watching comfort. Otherwise it was rather like looking into a large aquarium. Where you can't see everything at once without moving your head.
I was never a fan of the front stalls.

Boy are we all in for a visual treat if this technology ever becomes truly affordable.

Nime

Hehheh,

One of the pluses of living in OZ is that we DO have HDTV, and there are a range of products available, from CRT, to LCD, Plasma, and projection on the display front, with prices coming down all the time.

I know what you mean about a big HD plasma; it can be quite stunning.

I can scarecly wait until HD movies arrive in a year or so on disk for the home HT market, most likely via Blu-Ray, and of course the potential for that medium to carry high quality/resolution sound as well - no more of this Mp3 quality DD/DTS stuff I hope.

Heh, AlexB might have to sell his Pioneer amp, and invest in the latest Naim processor.. :-) - as might I with my Sony I might add!

I hope AlexB hasn't really 'cleaned out his locker' and disappeared; I always found his posts thought provoking and entertaining at the very least. And we all have a point of view; I guess in his case, language tranlation and perhaps age/experience might've counted against him a little.

Heh, we were all young once... Eeek!

Cheers

John...

This is my last upgrade.... after this my system will be finished...:-)

I saw HDTV in the US of A on a 6 foot plasma, a couple of weeks ago.

It was showing a aerial shot of Rio from a moving plane which was swooping in around the gaint statue and down into the bay. It was startlingly realistic and breathtaking. My stomach was actually reacting to the changing angle of the camera and the perceived motion. You were "there" in a way I have never seen before.

From someone living in "caveman" europe.

regards
GEOFF

The boring old fart

Nah. I'm still here although more active in a different forum, but a dedicated AV forum. But I like to read what you guys write in here and will comment every now and then. But I think I should try not to get to hyped up again and relax a bit more....enjoy the flow...

Glad you all like HD. Don't know what you saw, but probably 720p and then you would be totally starled what 1080 can do! Amazing. You can already buy HD LCD projectors in Europe at just 1500€. The Panasonic 700, the Sanyo Z2 (and upcoming Z3) or the Hitachi PJ-TX100, which is probably the best <2000€ proki around. They all do real 720 and the 1080 is supported although of course not native.

I'm too looking forward to what the new year brings. All formats have already been agreed on, although new sound formats like DD+ and DTS++ are not confirmed yet and might cause a problem as we might need new AVRs then anyway.

You can already buy HD DVDs right now, ordinary DVD but with WMV encoding, like Terminator 2, but you need a really fast PC. If anybody is interested, you can download demo trailers from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/content_provider/film/contentshowcase.aspx#sysreq . But I wouldn't recommend trying to screen them to your TV. The effect probably can only be seen on a good monitor or a proki supporting it.