Would it be practical for me to jump into HD-DVD?

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WolverineX

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Apr 27, 2005
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Correct me if I'm wrong but I always thought that higher resolution was intended for watching movies on large screens with loss of video quality from stretching. I understand that HD-DVD isn't just about video but I was questioning if the quality increase would be worth it. I know that's up to me if I'm willing to spend the money, which I am.

I don't, on the other hand, want to spend it on something that is marginally better. Is there a way I could watch a standard and high definition of a video to make the decision my own, which I'd prefer to do.

I'd greatly appreciate anyone's input.
 
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SGtheArtist

Senior member
Apr 5, 2001
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The difference in resolution between current DVDs (720 x480) and HD-DVD (1280x720 & 1920x1080) will be like the difference between the current TV (NTSC) and the new HDTV (ATCS).

It will be well worth it. However there is a good chance that the new HD-DVD's will be in 2 formats Blu-ray & HD-DVD similar to VHS vs Beta Max.

I personally wouldn't be an early adopter of any new HD-DVD format until it is clear which one will be the market accepted standard.


 
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WolverineX

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Apr 27, 2005
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That's kind of where my problem started. I never got to see high definition material on a hd-tv so to compare the two. Seems I will do the same and wait until the standard is set. Thank you for such a quick response.
 
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HDTVMan

Banned
Apr 28, 2005
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Compare a movie you own to one of these found on this site.
www.wmvhd.com

In order for you to view 1080P you will need to be able to set your monitor to 1920 × 1440. Its hard to imagine on your monitor but it is quite substantial visually on my 65" HDTV. Hands down it whips a DVD. You may have heard of the window effect. You will get that feeling from time to time because visually it is like looking out the window. Pictures almost become 3D.

Now for watching HD media on my HDTV I have one of these.
http://www.iodata.com/usa/products/prod....php?cat=HNP&sc=AVEL&pId=AVLP2%2FDVDLA

It plays HD from several different sources (WMV9, Divx HD, TS, and MPEG 2 HD)

I use a ATI HDTV wonder recording HD content which I then drop into a different directory on the PC. The LinkPlayer is a networked DVD player and can access those files on my PC just like a shared directory.

Others use a Firewire output from the earlier HDTV receivers originally meant for a HD-VCR but instead make their PC appear as one and record the content that way. These are usually TS files.

The next version is about to be released and its supposed to be even better. Not sure how but I do know it adds wireless. My Suspicion is the XBOX 360 will also be able to do this but possibly only WMV9 and I already know it will work with Windows MCE.

The downside is these files are usually very large. A typical movie in TS format is around 9-27Gig. So I leave them on the PC because I dont want to get up every 30+ minutes to swap a 4.3gig dvd. Hoipefully larger capacity DVD burners will arrive soon.

As a visual comparison can you compare a game played at 720x480(DVD) to a game played at 1920x1080(HD-DVD)? You can now imagine how much better HD looks to DVD.
 
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HDTVMan

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Apr 28, 2005
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Sorry if your only going to stay on 19" then DVD is fine. In fact I have blown up images of DVD to 120" and it still looks great.

Do people need HD over DVD no. Only us who really want super detail feel the need for HD.

Must be the thing if my display can get higher resolution I want to play everything at that resolution.

Sorry if I ran off.
 
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WolverineX

Member
Apr 27, 2005
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Nah, you didn't run off, it was quite informative actually. Thank you, I'm downloading the 1080p demo of Batman: Begins. I'll just set my monitor for that resolution you mentioned and see what it'll look like. Thanks again ...
 
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SGtheArtist

Senior member
Apr 5, 2001
508
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Just FYI, If you watch a DVD on a PC with the resolution as high as the HDTV & HD-DVD standards using PowerDVD or just about any other software player for that matter they use what is called Interpolation to "blow up" the DVD to fill the screen resolution.

Interpolation is a formula to guess-timate the most likely color of pixels surrounding actual pixels that were supplied by the source data in order to fill the screen resolution.

Depending upon how high the resolutuion is and how good the Interpolation algorithm is the DVD can look pretty good at the higher resolutions. While the quality may not be as good as HDTV & HD-DVD content it could bridge the gap until a market leader is determined between HD-DVD & Blu-ray.

I watched LOTR:Return of the King on my laptop LCD at 1280x800 from the DVD (720 x480) and it looked amazing.

I personally will not go back and rebuild my DVD library when the new HD-DVD comes around. I will simply begin purchasing the new movies in the new HD-DVD standard. I really hope that the new standard is backward compatible, but whatever happens-happens.
 
Soccerman06

Soccerman06

Diamond Member
Jul 29, 2004
5,830
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Oh this is a fun topic. Which to choose from, HD-DVD or Blu-ray...

My money would be on buying a PS3 with its Blu-ray disc player and just play games on it (duh). For $400 you get something that costs around $3000 in Japan right now. Of course prices will drop severly once they go into mass production for the PS3 and other companies and the adoption of the HDTV into the mass market (prices need to drop atleast half their current price). Still you cant go wrong from getting a Console comparable to a PC and have a Blu-ray player.

The problem with Blu-ray is that it requires a whole new manufacturing process and, this is not as well know to the public, that the Blu-ray discs will only have a .1mm layer of protection between the whatever is being read and the surface. Sony and it's minions realized that scratching would be a major problem because even the tinyest scratch would damage the code. They have a solution but at a great cost ($5.00 a Blu-ray disc). Its basically like a miny armor that is put onto the reading side of the disc, the armor is suppost to be somewhere around 20x more scratch resistant than a regular CD/DVD.

HD-DVD requires very little new manufacturing to create movies/games. It can be used in every household that has a DVD player, and uses current technology. The drawback is the capacity. It holds something like 15Gig on a disk, little compared to the 25Gig of the Blu-ray (single layer). But there is hope. Toshiba or whoever is sponsoring HD-DVD apparently has a solution. By using a dual layer disc, they put 30Gig on the dual layer side, and then another single layer on the other side, giving it a total of 45Gig. This reading process would also require you to only switch the sides of the disc to get the extra info, or if there is a player with a laser on the top and the bottom, there would be no stalling in the disc reading.

So all bets off, I will withhold my oppinion on which one will win the next gen DVD war, seeing as how both of them are so strong and only one can come out a victor.
 
gsellis

gsellis

Diamond Member
Dec 4, 2003
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Here is something to remember about Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD, the content will be the same! Both support the same codecs, only the media itself is different. Blu-Ray can hold more, but a standard 720p video can fit on DVD-9 disc (Step Into Liquid, along with others ships both DVD Wide Screen and WMV-HD on two seperate discs.)

As for who wins, I suspect that the settop manufacturers will ship support for both. The major players in each camp will probably ship their first unit supporting their choosen platform, but pressure from the rest of the market (like APEX, Cyberhome, etc.) will force them to ship support for both.

As for triple layer disc, I suspect that it will die on the vine. Pioneer has UV Laser tech that is almost as good as the new multi-layer media (forgetting what it is called, but similar to Constellation 3-Ds tech.)
 
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HDTVMan

Banned
Apr 28, 2005
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Originally posted by: SGtheArtist
Just FYI, If you watch a DVD on a PC with the resolution as high as the HDTV & HD-DVD standards using PowerDVD or just about any other software player for that matter they use what is called Interpolation to "blow up" the DVD to fill the screen resolution.

Interpolation is a formula to guess-timate the most likely color of pixels surrounding actual pixels that were supplied by the source data in order to fill the screen resolution.

Depending upon how high the resolutuion is and how good the Interpolation algorithm is the DVD can look pretty good at the higher resolutions. While the quality may not be as good as HDTV & HD-DVD content it could bridge the gap until a market leader is determined between HD-DVD & Blu-ray.

I watched LOTR:Return of the King on my laptop LCD at 1280x800 from the DVD (720 x480) and it looked amazing.

I personally will not go back and rebuild my DVD library when the new HD-DVD comes around. I will simply begin purchasing the new movies in the new HD-DVD standard. I really hope that the new standard is backward compatible, but whatever happens-happens.
Click to expand...

You should see LOTR in 1920x1080. :)
 
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HDTVMan

Banned
Apr 28, 2005
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Originally posted by: gsellis
Here is something to remember about Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD, the content will be the same! Both support the same codecs, only the media itself is different. Blu-Ray can hold more, but a standard 720p video can fit on DVD-9 disc (Step Into Liquid, along with others ships both DVD Wide Screen and WMV-HD on two seperate discs.)

As for who wins, I suspect that the settop manufacturers will ship support for both. The major players in each camp will probably ship their first unit supporting their choosen platform, but pressure from the rest of the market (like APEX, Cyberhome, etc.) will force them to ship support for both.

As for triple layer disc, I suspect that it will die on the vine. Pioneer has UV Laser tech that is almost as good as the new multi-layer media (forgetting what it is called, but similar to Constellation 3-Ds tech.)
Click to expand...


I agree. I watch HD now. All I need is a media larger than 9.4gig that is cheap like blank DVD.

Who is going to win? The first to bring it to PC's on the cheap thats who.
 
B

Bowsky

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Dec 23, 2004
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www.math.umd.edu
Even with the triple layer HD-DVD disc, blu-ray still has a high capacity. Dual layer blu-rays can hold 50gigs. Also, word has been circulating for awhile now that blu-ray will be able to support an eight layer form that will allow for up to 200gigs to be stored on a single disc.
 
gsellis

gsellis

Diamond Member
Dec 4, 2003
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Originally posted by: Bowsky
Even with the triple layer HD-DVD disc, blu-ray still has a high capacity. Dual layer blu-rays can hold 50gigs. Also, word has been circulating for awhile now that blu-ray will be able to support an eight layer form that will allow for up to 200gigs to be stored on a single disc.
Click to expand...
But Pioneer's UV may go to 500GB and the other tech is going to 1TB+, so why make it more complex when you can just change the media (which is what you would have to do anyway for 3-8 layers.) I suspect some of the multi-layer stategies will really die. Consider how DL write is slow to burn. Of course, glass mastered disc are a whole different thing, but putting more and more layers together makes mfgr that much harder when it comes to quality.
 
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SGtheArtist

Senior member
Apr 5, 2001
508
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Layers also means that there are pauses in your movie as it plays.

Unless of course you have high-end equipment. I would hope that all HD-DVD players would come with a buffer to eliminate the layer change pause from the film. That's why I watch on a PC (no problems with layer changes).

HDTVMan, I can only dream how LOTR looks at 1920x1080, I bet its sweet!
 
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ND40oz

Golden Member
Jul 31, 2004
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Originally posted by: blckgrffn
Don't worry, your HDTV is worthless if it doesn't have HDMI, just FYI. HD-DVD will require a DRM compliant monitor for your viewing pleasure :|

Nat
Click to expand...

Or DVI (HDCP) either will work with the DRM, most HDTVs have one or the other.
 
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