Originally posted by: Phokus
Is the picture quality on upconverting 1080i/p DVD players as good as blue-ray/HD-DVD players?
No. No matter how good your processing/software algorithms are, you are never going to make 300,000 pixels look as good as 2,000,000 pixels. That's not to say that upconverted DVDs don't look good, or that they aren't good enough for the majority of the population; but from a purely technical standpoint, they absolutely do not look as good. But another angle which most forget is that DVDs feature compressed sound; Blu-ray, for the most part, features a completely uncompressed soundtrack, which, provided you have the equipment, sounds much, much better.
Originally posted by: TheTony
DRM I can understand and tolerate, assuming I'm not beaten over the head with it when I use my own software.
Region coding, on the otherhand, is nothing more than a moneymaker for the studios, and I have a hard time supporting that, when it means much less choice for those who are in the market.
Region coding isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. I use the comparison of The Rock, which was released several months ago on Blu-ray in the UK. It was a region free title, so I could well have imported it. But given that it cost 20 pounds, not including shipping, it would have ended up setting me back about 60 dollars. I'm not paying that for a movie. People's arguments against region coding are usually not based in reality, as most people aren't importing discs from foreign countries due to the extreme cost involved, not to mention the language issues if importing from a country that doesn't speak the same language as you.
Originally posted by: tfinch2
I'm sure this question is a bit naive, but why don't studios just produce movies in both formats?
It's costly to produce the discs in two different formats, to do two separate cases, and to pay licensing fees to two different companies. Then there are the problems that arise from printing different format discs in the same place (Warner Bros. shipping the HD-DVD edition of Harry Potter in Blu-ray cases for example). The companies did a cost benefit analysis, saw that HDM really isn't a big market anywhere yet, decided it would be cheaper to only support one format, and picked the one that had the most support.
Originally posted by: dug777
I still think the people predicting that we'll all be downloading HD content and that physical media will be dead are completely brain dead.
a) It would require a dramatic change in broadband speeds
b) It would be a complete pain in the ass. Who wants to only have a copy of your movie on your HDD? I find having a copy on my computer useful, but I want the physical disk with my music/movie on it as backup, dammit :|
Exactly. All these articles are predicting that physical media is dead because people will download movies. That's, and I don't want to be accused of using hyperbole here, one of the stupidest things that's ever been said. I mean, yes, eventually that probably will happen, but it's like saying we'll establish colonies on the moon; it will happen some day, but it's not happening right now. Let's examine the problems with the argument:
1. Most people don't have HTPCs. People aren't going to download a movie so they can watch it on their computer screen. They are going to want to watch it on their TV with their friends and family. Given the average person's frustration with basic electronic connectivity, I'm completely unconvinced that most people would be able to get their computer to output to their TV unless they absolutely had to. DVD players, HD-DVD players and Blu-ray players are designed specifically to connect to a TV, which makes them vastly easier to set up.
2. Most people's PCs can't play HD content. A lot of people are still using 5 year old Dells with Celerons, 256 MB RAM and onboard video. To assume that the average computer user has a machine that can process full HD picture (1920x1080) and sound (6 mbps 5.1) is ludicrous. Standardization of codecs is a further problem, and though it's been a while since I've looked into it, when I was doing my own video editing, installing a working build of h.264 or x.264 (which are very good codecs for processing HD content) was a pain in the ass, especially with Media Player. A standardized set of codecs would have to be developed, and it would be constantly refined, requiring frequent updates. If a codec problem developed, would the average user know what to do?
3. Broadband is not widespread in the US. Well, yes, it is, but broadband capable of downloading a 30 GB hidef movie file? Get the hell out of here. I know people who are still on 56k. I know people who can't watch movies on YouTube without choppiness. To predict that these same individuals will ditch DVD for downloadable content in the next couple years is preposterous. How many people are going to be willing to shell out for FIOS so they can stream hidef? Sure, I would if it was available here, but it's not... But most people don't want to spend $50+ a month for the internet when they can get it cheaper. The relative vastness of the US compared to a small country like Korea or Sweden (countries where broadband is much more prevalent in greater speeds than the US) means that reliable, fast broadband is harder to come by and more costly to maintain, and that works against widespread adoption.
-EDIT- Points 1 and 2 are rendered moot if we're talking about set-top DVRs, but then it becomes an issue of DRM. What if you cancel your contract with the cable company? They take back their DVR and you have nothing to show for the money you spent on downloaded media. It's just a way to lock you into a contract, and it stinks. Not to mention, it would take hours to download a true hidef presentation at current cable speeds (it certainly wouldn't download fast enough to stream, unless you settled for an overly compressed file).
So yes, we will have downloadable movies in the future, but they will not eliminate the need for physical media any time soon. The iPod and iTunes was supposed to kill the CD, but there's still crazy people out there buying physical copies of music. This will be no different.
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