HD, 1080, Blue Ray...

[a454elk]

1) How long before the 1080i resolution threshold goes up so our tv's we just bought get outdated?

2) Blue Ray or HD DVD, which will win out and why?

We just got HD on our Dish and I love it but I began to think about the 1080i threshold. What will the future hold? I'm in the market for the HD DVD but not sure which one to get. I need some input!

 

[Red Rooster]

1080I has been in broadcast for over a yr now. 1080P is due by the end of this yr. or so I've been advised. There is now way to say who wins the war in Sony blu ray or HD. I guess it all comes down to who has the most $$. Either way a good HD player can be had for buck fifty so even if you lost out to Blu ray it wouldn't smart that much.

1) How long before the 1080i resolution threshold goes up so our tv's we just bought get outdated?

2) Blue Ray or HD DVD, which will win out and why?

We just got HD on our Dish and I love it but I began to think about the 1080i threshold. What will the future hold? I'm in the market for the HD DVD but not sure which one to get. I need some input!

 

[mkelly04]

I think 1080 will be around for a long time. Hell, 95% of tv is still 480i/p.

As far as the blu-ray/hd-dvd wars.... Historically speaking sony has always lost the proprietary format wars.... betamax...... minidisk.... sony memory stick....... etc. I really dont see any reason that they wont/shouldnt lose this war as well.

 

[MikeT]

I just got an HDTV and asked the same question to the sales guy. Although paid to sell TV's, he did have a good point. All the equipment that produces the images, the cameras. the editing equipment, all the transmission devices and cable boxes would have to be changed again which seems very unlikely as this change is costing the industry in the billions of dollars as a whole. We have been receiving the 480P signal since TV's first came out and they are only changing for the first time right now. He says we should be 1080 for a long time. My TV is a 1080P which is about all they have now so I'm good for the time being.

As far as HDDVD, and BlueRay, my prediction is that neither one will "win". I think they will just happily co-exist. I have this belief because Sony owns movie companies and will only release those movies in BlueRay. Other companies that have a stake in the HDDVD technology also own movie studios and they will only sell it in HDDVD. I think this will bring rise to the DUAL players that play both BlueRay and HDDVD. Just like no one won the blank DVD format DVD-R and DVD+R. They can both play on just about all players these days.

The one thing I have noticed is that this TV is so good that it shows how BAD all the transmissions are from the TV studios. Even regular DVD's look like old VHS tapes on this thing even with 1080i upconvert. It all goes to show if you put a substandard signal in you will only get substandard out. Right now my only source of an HD signal or source is the Cable TV which only transmits 1080i not P. When you see a HDDVD in the store they are playing in 1080P so they look fantastic. I think as Rooster said above we should be getting the 1080P signal soon. That is the only change I see.

That is my whole take on this. Right now I am just going to wait until I can buy a Dual format HD DVD player that is a reasonable price. I really want a dual format RECORDING DVD player but they are probably 2 years away right now and forget about the blank media price!!!!!

 

[a454elk]

1080i and 1080p, what is the difference with those? I have the Sharp Aquos LCD and I'm not sure about what the "p" is, or if it involves my tv??

 

[TwinSpar]

Some light reading.... http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_14_1/feature-article-1080p-3-2007-part-1.html

 

[XRpredator]

1080i and 1080p, what is the difference with those??

one has an "i", one has a "p"

that's difference enough for me.

 

[biglou]

Pred has Betamax.

 

[P0PWAR]

I have a feeling HD DVD will win, althought it has less storage space, it costs less. And thats all electronic illitirite people are concerned about.

 

[a454elk]

Wow, thanks Pred, where'd you get such a big brain?

 

[Okiewan]

Sony put a lot in the BluRay thing with the PS3 .. which, while a better machine than the XBox 360, is failing BIG TIME. Getting that base of DVD players into the market was a big part of their push. Go figure what happens.

 

[pidro_el_pirata]

I have a feeling HD DVD will win, althought it has less storage space, it costs less. And thats all electronic illitirite people are concerned about.

Like yourself?

Price isn't a factor, it's a variable. It lowers as things become more mainstream. It's a measure of popularity, basically. Blank CDs used to cost a bit in the beginning, now they cost literally cents apiece because they're so common.

Think about the hybrid car revolution. At first they were freakishly expensive, but now the price is coming down because everyone is interested.

Same thing will happen with HD DVD vs. Blue Ray, it'll be a matter of what people get interested in.

 

[a454elk]

I read that link that Twinkie posted and got a headache. Alot of info but it explained it pretty well. Is the Sharp Aquos I have a p or i? I thought it was an i, not sure though. I have a friend that wants to sell his HD player because he said Disney will be on Blue Ray only. Is that a fact?

 

[Patman]

Elk from what I learned 720p is better for motion (like sports) than a 1080i. Then 1080p will obviously be even better but until broadcasts are done in that format it will just dumb down. We picked up a new model Samsung for the bedroom that is 720p after lots of comparison both on line and in the stores. Not the highest end but also not that expensive. Now I guess I'll have to get HD satallite which will snow ball in to replacing all my existing stuff so I need a home equity loan for a TV for the living room, a HD theater system (at least I can salvage my wiring & speakers), then of course the kid will "need" it in his pad upstairs so that's two more (don't ask whay a kid needs 2 TV's I don't know either).

 

[mkelly04]

I read that link that Twinkie posted and got a headache. Alot of info but it explained it pretty well. Is the Sharp Aquos I have a p or i? I thought it was an i, not sure though. I have a friend that wants to sell his HD player because he said Disney will be on Blue Ray only. Is that a fact?

That is true, Disney is only blu-ray for now.... I honestly believe that blu-ray will go the way of betamax and Disney will re-release everything on hd-dvd.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Patman, keep in mind when your looking into that stuff that the satellite boxes AFAIK only output HD signals to TV1. If you are using a box like Dish Networks VIP722 your main TV is HD and the secondary TV is only SD. I just took this plunge at our house. So if you want HD on all your TV's you'll have to buy seperate boxes for each TV.

This plunge doesn't necessarily have to be extremely expensive. I bought a 37" 720p set (Vizio), Samsung HT-X70 home theatre in a box (which supports HDMI in and has a built in upconverting DVD player, 5 speakers plus a sub, and has a 1200w amp and sounds great), HD satellite box, an HDMI switch (with remote), a Playstation 3 (for video games and bluray), and a Logitech Harmony 880 remote to control the whole thing (works AWESOME), plus 4 HDMI cables to hook it all up, and a few miscellaneous accessories for the PS3 (an IR module for the USB port so the universal remote can work, a vertical stand, and a charging station for the controllers) for a total investment of $2200. I did buy the remote as a refurb off the auction site and bought my cables and the HDMI switch there as well to save money. Everything else was bought from box stores.

If HDDvd ends up winning I'll add an HDDvd player for $100 (which is probably what the price will be down to by then). HD TV and Bluray looks simply AWESOME! I didn't want anything bigger than a 37" set for our living room (I'd go bigger if it was a dedicated home theater but we use the TV as background a lot and a bigger TV takes over the room) and everything I read said that you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p on a set that size (and from looking at them I couldn't). Netflix rents bluray and HDDvd. Blockbuster has settled for now on only carrying bluray because 70% of their HD rentals were bluray ( http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/17/blockbuster-chooses-blu-ray-is-the-war-over/ ). It was just announced that Bluray movies outsold HDDvd this year by 2 to 1 ( http://gear.ign.com/articles/840/840834p1.html ). HDDvd players are cheaper than Bluray players and they are outselling Bluray on dedicated players although when you add in PS3 units then Bluray has far more players out there (2.3 million versus 750,000). The war definitely isn't over. Dual format disks are supposed to be released next year as well (Bluray on one side, HDDvd on the other). For me I wanted to be able to play our existing PS2 games and be able to sell our PS2 which helps offset the cost (I didn't figure that sale into the $2200 above). Got a great game system and a Bluray player at the same time.

 

[ZOMBIE666]

Thing i dont understand with blu-ray and sony is why the players are still so expensive. To begin with it was claimed the price was due to the complexity of manufacturing and at the time, shortage of the nichia 405nm "blu ray" laser diode. The shortage has been over for many months now. Sony still hasnt dropped the prices to reflect that. Players still start at around 400 correct? at that price no wonder its not selling.

 

[mkelly04]

Thing i dont understand with blu-ray and sony is why the players are still so expensive. To begin with it was claimed the price was due to the complexity of manufacturing and at the time, shortage of the nichia 405nm "blu ray" laser diode. The shortage has been over for many months now. Sony still hasnt dropped the prices to reflect that. Players still start at around 400 correct? at that price no wonder its not selling.

If I remember correctly betamax players were more expensive then vhs because of sonys expensive licensing structure. I would imagine that blu-ray suffers from the same problem.

 

[Petey]

1080 HD should be around for a while, IMO blue rays might have the upper hand on HD Dvd's because blockbuster is going to rent only blue ray movies and not rent any HD Dvd movies. I dont know why they choose blue rays over HD Dvd's, but i heard this info from a local block buster store.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Circuit city has a Samsung Bluray player for $299 right now - http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/HD-D...72+20016221/link/ref/rpem/ccd/categorylist.do . Their HDDvd players start at $249 right now so your looking at a $50 difference in price between the two. They are both coming with 5 free discs btw. For an extra $100 ($399) you can get a PS3 which gives you a great game system in addition to the bluray player.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

I dont know why they choose blue rays over HD Dvd's, but i heard this info from a local block buster store.

From an article in Forbes ( http://www.forbes.com/markets/2007/...hddvd-markets-equity-cx_er_0618markets06.html ) on the announcement:

Since late 2006, the movie rental company has offered both formats at 250 stores across the country. Both formats were given equal billing, but Blockbuster soon realized that Blu-ray outsold its competitor by 70%.

Blockbuster will continue to rent the HD DVD titles it already offers and may expand its HD DVD inventory in the future but, for now, the company has placed all its chips on Blu-ray.

“We intend to meet the demands of our customers and based on the trends we’re seeing, we’re expanding our Blu-ray inventory to ensure our stories reflect the right level of products,” Blockbuster executive, Matthew Smith, said Monday.

 

[a454elk]

Interesting. ALl great info here, thanks. I guess the jury is still out on whether to get the blue ray or hd dvd. Pat, it is a snowball effect for sure! I have the 622 DVR unit for two of my tvs from dish. Does this mean that the 2nd tv on the 622 is only sd? I know that it is hooked up via the coax cable so I'm not sure if the tv will accept hd through the coax port? My first tv, the sharp, is outstanding with the hd stuff. Haven't really seen a problem with moving items though, it seems like it's fine. It does show 1080i when the satellite is turned on.

So, what dang hd player do I buy, or do I just wait till after xmas? They don't make this easy.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Yep, your 622 DVR is SD only on the 2nd TV. Here's the spec sheet - http://www.dishnetwork.com/downloads/pdf/product_brochures/ViP622_ProductSheet_HighRes.pdf and here's what it says about TV2:

• TV2 viewing location
• Connect to an SDTV to view SD and down-converted
HD programming
- RCA-type audio/video outputs and an Agile modulated
output to distribute programming to a remote TV location
• Output resolution is 480i

480i is SD. It down converts any HD channels to 480i for that 2nd TV.

 

[a454elk]

Thanks Steve, I don't think they told me it was hd but I don't remember.

 

[Solid State]

I don't think anyone mentioned yet that it really doesn't matter if the signal coming in is 'i' or 'p' (assuming your TV has a 'p' compatible input) as the TV will convert it to the native resolution of the monitor screen anyway.

Then there's the fact that 1080p resolution over the 1080i format can only be seen up to a certain distance away from the TV (depending on screen size) after which no 'p' advantage can be visualized. For a 50" screen I have seen no difference beyond 11 to 12 feet between the formats.

I think what matters more is how well your expensive HDTV converts the crappy SD format (480i) that most of the channels broadcast in. Why buy a big ticket item and then have most of your viewing actually get worse?