HD - Can anyone explain this to me?

[alrightgeez]

Hello there!
Im hearing lots about this HD thing, and i do know that it has to do with good image quality (a mate of mine has it and is impressed by the sharpness of spiders legs on national geographic!).

i was wondering if its more of a gadget or its really worth having. i was wondering, what happens with old movies? do the movies have to have a particular coding for this?
thanks for any help

btw, ill take the occasion to say hello to everyone as im new :)

[ShaneM]

Anything filmed on 35mm film is usually higher quality than standard DVDs. They're compressed over 2000 times in order to fit on a DVD. HD DVD and Blu-ray, the two current competing formats, offer less compression and therefore look significantly better. If you have an HDTV you will see a huge difference in quality.

Older movies hold up nicely as most of the studios have released a few classics that look absolutely amazing. I don't know how I watched regular DVD after seeing the difference.

However, which format to get is really up to you. If you have an XBOX 360 for a measly $200 you can get an HD DVD add-on for it. It does a great job. The cheapest BD player is the PS3, but I'd hold off until at least November before getting one because they'll finally support everything Blu-ray apparently offers. Right now the claim to be able to do all this stuff, but absolutely none of the players can do 1/2 of it other than play the movie.

If you're interested in stand alone players then you can get a HD DVD player for about 400 and a blu-ray player for 1200.

Hope that helps.

BTW - I review all the formats so I see the difference frequently.

[armani_adik]

If i got a HDTV, but don't have a HD or Blue ray player. Is that mean s worthless??? ( i don't watch tv channel much, i only watch DVD) Can someone help me find out this problem.??

[JayB18]

Originally posted by armani_adik
If i got a HDTV, but don't have a HD or Blue ray player. Is that mean s worthless??? ( i don't watch tv channel much, i only watch DVD) Can someone help me find out this problem.??

I have a 42 plasma hdtv andcurrently only watch normal DVDs on it. I use my xbox 360 and ps2 on it as well. The tv will upconvert the signal to its native resolution but it wont look nearly as good as hd dvds. It should still look better then your sdtv. Other factors include your dvd player and cables (use component cables or your dvds will look worse).

[DarkKnight81]

Originally posted by armani_adik
If i got a HDTV, but don't have a HD or Blue ray player. Is that mean s worthless??? ( i don't watch tv channel much, i only watch DVD) Can someone help me find out this problem.??

If you got an HDTV, not for the sake of watching beautiful HD television, but you bought it to watch movies, but you're not going to buy an HDDVD player or Bluray, then yes, you're TV is worthless. The point of buying an HDTV is to do something relevant to HD.

[Badbird]

I've heard that up-converter DVD players make regular DVDs look really nice on HDTVs.

Really, once you go HDTV, you can't go back. Watching sporting events like football and hockey is simply AMAZING.

[APzombie]

I just purchased a Sony Vaio AR 190, its the first (and only for now) laptop that can also burn and play Blue Ray discs. I haven't tried it, but I just came back to my folks for the summer and they have a 56 inch hdtv so im thinking of giving it a shot.

It hooks up to an HDTV by a HDMI cord (which i still need to pick up). i'm, wondering, is this cord everything i need? I mean do I need to hook up anything else for the audio?

[Kings-Rook1]

Originally posted by APzombie
I mean do I need to hook up anything else for the audio?

Yes. Either via a surround sound system or through the TV’s internal speakers (if any).

[SpongeBod]

Originally posted by Badbird
I've heard that up-converter DVD players make regular DVDs look really nice on HDTVs.

I have a pretty nice Sony upconverting DVD player. I took back the Samsung that I bought first.
It does a good job. Some stuff looks better than others. The biggest difference was on my "24" DVDs. It really improved the darks and cleaned up the graininess. Plus, it seems to play scratched discs better.

[Bad_Feeling]

Upconverting DVD players are your best bet with the current format war.

After all you don't want to spend hundreds on a format that could be dead in four years, do you?

[EvilHenchman]

I can offer nothing as useful informationally (is that a word?) as some of our more HD-savvy schmoes have thus far; however, I am diametrically opposed to this newer DVD format as, if I eventually succumb to it, I'd be tempted into buying yet another version of the Star Wars series...

[Bad_Feeling]

Well, if it's any help, one of the big wigs at Lucasfilm where asked what there plans are for STAR WARS on the HD formats, and they said there are no plans for any release in the near future. So, you can bet we won't see any STAR WARS on HD discs for at least another five or six years. At least.

Hell, we're still waiting for the ultimate editions of STAR WARS to be released, supposedly coming out this year, only to be knocked back, maybe for another couple of years.

[dellamorte dellamore]

Right , these are the same guys that keep on releasing definitive , ultimate editions only to come out with yet another super duper , collector's ultimate wookie edition . I'm sure they're working on a next gen SW boxset as we speak .


I don't know that much about the next gen dvd format , but from what i know , obviously the image is of a higher resolution because more information can be put on the disc , at a higher bitrate ( the amount of info processed every second or something like that ) . The higher the bitrate , the better the image . It's not only about the image though , what gets me even more excited about the new formats is the improved audio quality . I haven't actually heard anything yet , but the specs sound like an audiophiles wet dream . Up to 7 to 8 channels of audio , supposedly recreating the original soundtrack , more like porting over the original soundtrack from the source , so you'll hear what the director intended , and what you heard in the theater ( if it's one with an excellent sound system ) . Now , with sdvd , they downmix the audio in order to fit it on the sdvd , so it's not exactly what you heard in the theater , some elements have to be dropped or compromised in order to fit the audio , from what i understand .


With the advent of blu ray and hdvd , on some of the discs , a dolby true or dts hd track will be implemented . Some of the first gen titles use an uncompressed pcm track which takes up more space , but supposedly it still sounds great , since nothing is lost in the transfer . With Dolby tru and Dts Hd , there is compression involved , but it's of a higher ( or is that lower ? ) compression rate than the current standards , so they can still fit an exact copy of the soundtrack on a disc and still utilize a high bitrate for the video .


Put it this way , you'll be able to hear seven ( or 8 ) seperate audio channels , which means 7 speakers and a subwoofer with an exact copy of the original soundtrack , that's pretty wild if you ask me .



At this point though , with regards to the next gen dvds , i would wait , because there is much to be worked out . I remember when dvd came out , and i rushed to buy everything in site , only to realize that the encoding tecniques were substandard on the first gen and second gen titles . This is the same deal with some of these new dvds , and if you read some reviews , you'll see some don't look that much better because the encoding standards are still being perfected and dolby tru is not being used for every title , much less dts hd . I'm not waiting to buy because of the format war , i'm waiting until i know they have all the kinks worked out , i don't want to buy multiple versions like i have done in the past .

[m_burlock]

Originally posted by alrightgeez
i was wondering if its more of a gadget or its really worth having. i was wondering, what happens with old movies? do the movies have to have a particular coding for this?


Whether or not it's more of a gadget or really worth having is "up in the air" for now, nothings settled yet. If your talking old movies on either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, then what happens is "they" restore 'em and put 'em on those kinds of discs. It's that simple. Putting a old movie on Blu-Ray or HD-DVD is as easy as putting them on DVD. No, the movies them selves don't have to have a particular coding for this but the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs do. If I'm not mistaken.

[m_burlock]

Originally posted by armani_adik
If i got a HDTV, but don't have a HD or Blue ray player. Is that mean s worthless???


In a sense, yes. If your going to watch only movies on your HDTV then you should buy your self either a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player. By not having one of those your not taking full advantage of your HDTV. A HDTV and a Hi Def player "go together like a horse and carriage".

[m_burlock]

Originally posted by JayB18
(use component cables or your dvds will look worse).


Aren't HDMI cables better than component cables?

[m_burlock]

Originally posted by EvilHenchman
I am diametrically opposed to this newer DVD format


I'm not opposed to it I just can't afford to "convert". Plus it's inconvient/ a pain in the ass to "convert".

[Badbird]

Originally posted by m_burlock
Aren't HDMI cables better than component cables?

I think he meant the old RCA cables (red, white, yellow). Apparently HDMI isn't really that much better than component. The advantage is a perfect digital connection for both picture and sound with one cable. That's pretty handy.

[APzombie]

i used HDMI from my laptop to my HDTV earlier today and it looked much better than my standard dvd player that used RCA cables. It could be because the laptop itself is better in quality than my standard player, i'm under the impression that it might be the HDMI. Its a hellava lot more convenient than three different cables.

[SpongeBod]

Originally posted by m_burlock
In a sense, yes. If your going to watch only movies on your HDTV then you should buy your self either a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player. By not having one of those your not taking full advantage of your HDTV. A HDTV and a Hi Def player "go together like a horse and carriage".
You don't need a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray to justify getting an HDTV.
A progressive scan DVD player looks great on an HDTV.
Plus, HD channels are great. I wish there were more, but that will come in time. Just use caution, The View is broadcast in HD.
Also, you don't need cable or satellite to get your local channels in HD. You just need an antenna.
Besides, If you want a big TV (and who doesn't). An HDTV or projector is the only way to go.

[armani_adik]

In a sense, yes. If your going to watch only movies on your HDTV then you should buy your self either a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player. By not having one of those your not taking full advantage of your HDTV. A HDTV and a Hi Def player "go together like a horse and carriage"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The only problem is In my country we don't have any HD channel yet. and i don't think any HD or Blue ray Player or HDVD or BR Dvd available here. All i can see is Hdtv only. so should i pick my Hdtv???

[EvilHenchman]

Originally posted by SpongeBod
Just use caution, The View is broadcast in HD.
:eek:

[WhatsInaName]

Originally posted by APzombie
I just purchased a Sony Vaio AR 190, its the first (and only for now) laptop that can also burn and play Blue Ray discs. I haven't tried it, but I just came back to my folks for the summer and they have a 56 inch hdtv so im thinking of giving it a shot.

It hooks up to an HDTV by a HDMI cord (which i still need to pick up). i'm, wondering, is this cord everything i need? I mean do I need to hook up anything else for the audio?

Actually, from what I've read/heard, HDMI cables carry digital audio signal and video siganl. Also, the larger the screen, the more difference you'll see between DVD and HD formats (he later being of a significantly better quality).