Posted by Doug Jacobs on 10/22/07 20:56

EVman <nogot@nowhere.com> wrote:
> I am old enough to remember the VHS/BETA wars and have no intention of
> being cannon fodder in another fight like that. So I will wait for the
> unconditional surrender of either side before upgrading to HiDef.

Exactly.

> So I hate to risk my new-tech-at-any-costs reputation, but I am not sure
> that a whole lot of money for a small increase in clarity is a good
> financial choice at the moment.

A lot of people - including home theater-types and tech journalists - have
pointed out the same problem. The jump from VHS to DVD was quite
startling - even when using your old TV. However, the jump from normal
DVD on a standard definition TV (SDTV) to a HD-DVD/Blu-Ray on a HDTV isn't
quite as prounounced. Worse still, even taking your existing DVD player
and plugging it into a HDTV will result in your existing DVDs receiving
quite a boost from the TV's built-in upscaler.

Yes, there is a difference between an upscaled picture and a native 1080p
picture, but for most, just the difference between DVD on SDTV and
upscaled DVD on a HDTV will be more than sufficient - and won't require
you to buy an expensive new player or new discs (which are all more
expensive than normal DVD right now.)

Throw in the format war, and it really seems to me that HD-DVD and Blu-Ray
are looking to become this generation's LD at best, and SACD/DVD-Audio at
worst. LD never caught on with most consumers, but was popular with the
high-end home theater crowd. SACD/DVD-A were two formats trying to vie to
become the next generation of audio CD. Featuring 5.1 surround sound,
neither format managed to generate much in terms of sales due to their
pricey media, and a format war that, once again, split the high-end, early
adopter market with a bevy of confusing and incompatible equipment.

The best thing that HD-DVD and Blu-Ray can hope for is the introduction of
dual-format players. This way, no one loses the format war, but then
again, no one really wins either. At least consumers won't have to choose
which movies they DON'T want to watch. Unfortunately this means that the
home video market will now look like the DVD burnable market - 2 diffrent,
and incompatible formats, that do the exact same thing, yet we need to
support both of them. For ever.

--
It's not broken. It's...advanced.

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