Any way to sample hd media for free?

[Alex C]

I'm thinking of picking up a Blu-ray/HD DVD drive, but my monitor is a 22" LCD at 1650x1080 so I wouldn't get the full potential out of it. I love the image quality on the hd tv's I've seen, but I'm not sure if the improvement I'll get will be worth the money. Is there any way to download a clip of something in 1080p to see how it'll look on my setup without buying the player or new software?

 

[Scouzer]

quicktime HD trailers...
http://www.microsoft.com/windo...o/contentshowcase.aspx

 

[sivart]

Those don't have the same bitrate as a BD player, but will give a good idea on your monitor's performance. Apple also has a lot of HD trailers to watch.

 

[Alex C]

Thanks guys. It looks good, but not $100 worth of good, I guess I'm waiting a bit longer to upgrade.

 

[Scouzer]

Originally posted by: Alex C
Thanks guys. It looks good, but not $100 worth of good, I guess I'm waiting a bit longer to upgrade.

Real Blu-Ray looks a lot better, honestly, but you can't find a single real Blu-Ray sample on the net. Trust me, I've tried.

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: Scouzer
quicktime HD trailers...
http://www.microsoft.com/windo...o/contentshowcase.aspx

What you linked above is Microsoft WMV HD. Quicktime is from Apple, and their HD stuff is usually H.264.

The link is here: Quicktime HD

 

[Scouzer]

Originally posted by: Eug

Originally posted by: Scouzer
quicktime HD trailers...
http://www.microsoft.com/windo...o/contentshowcase.aspx

What you linked above is Microsoft WMV HD. Quicktime is from Apple, and their HD stuff is usually H.264.

The link is here: Quicktime HD

yes, thanks, i know. i was too lazy to link him to the apple site

 

[rdp6]

http://www.elephantsdream.org/

Average bit rate for the ~11 minute 1080p movie is just under 10Mbps. Still not as good as HD DVD or Blu Ray, but elephant's dream, apple trailers, and the now defunct lookandsoundofperfect.com were the source of my HD material for quite some time.