Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems The one of MANY HD-DVD threads (No bashing Blu-Ray)

" sure didn't take you long from asking about multi region for the Toshiba to ordering the Panny player. "

x 2 !

Im going Hd-DVD initially and just upscaling Fox,Disney,Lionsgate SD discs with a Tosh player to see the lie of the land.

All toys should be enjoyed !

~M~

Stephan

I've also ordered the Toshiba as I guess the only way to see which is best is to try them back to back.

Regards Paul

Interesting marketing ploy I saw today in downtown Tokyo. Opposite one of the smarter department stores Toshiba has built a little two storey building and filled it with the "HD-DVD Cafe". They have demos, equipment on show, and discs to buy. Oh, and coffee. Interesting idea, but most of the people in there seemed to be looking at the drinks menu rather than the equipment menu.

Regards

Mark

Its interesting to me that in the fallout from Ces that evryone seems to feel it was a poor display by the Hd-DVD side ( mainly Universal ) and everyone also believes every little thing announced by BD side ( surely no more disc delays/authoring problems )

There's an interesting ( and very long ! ) thread over at avs where AmirM ( devout Hd-DVD guy from Microsoft) attempts to put some perspective on it all.

Personally, I think more discs and more players are the only way for marketing to be really meaningful to the man in the street and that needs to happen soon ( for either format to break through )

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9441455&&#post9441455

~M~

Paul,
Don't blame me for your new addiction- blame Mark H!

Manus,
thanks for the interesting points and reading.

I had some friends over and showed them HD DVD/ BRD and DVD via the Kaleidescape and none felt the HD sources were vastly superior. Note- this is on a 3+ year old 1280x720 1 chip DLP. I am convinced of the technical superiority of these formats but I am not convinced of the commercial viability.

Btw- I watched this HD DVD last night- Equilibrium. Its a kind of poor mans Matrix. Some solid Hollywood names for what looks like a Japanese market release. I found the image to be very good and the sound to be also very good- not the best surround- but still very good. Expensive, so I can't urge all to buy it, but if you want more software and like action movies and are willing to accept a plot somewhere in the "Aeon Flux" sphere then this is for you. I liked it!

http://xploitedcinema.com/catalog/equilibrium-japanese-release-p-10771.html

Best regards,
Jerry

I think that the outcome of the "war" is still far from certain, but the Chinese HDDVD players due this year will really help the HDDVD cause.

I'm gonna try unsticky-ing these and remove the restriction of a single thread.

Feel free to continue this one as well.

I think that is indeed a projector or calibration issue. Both HD DVD and BD completely smoke DVD when it comes to quality. There is no way I could ever go back to DVD. Even the best looking DVDs look like sh** compared to HD DVD and BD.
HD broadcasts were already much better than DVD, but the new formats are a new level.

I know many people will not like this example, because they don't understand how film is supposed to look, but pop in Sleepy Hollow any watch it. That transfer is simply beautiful and probably some of the best quality we'll ever see until we get 4k, 4:4:4 sources and projectors. And 4k scans from film for that matter...


Funny you think that this one looks pretty good, since this was one of the earlier mpeg4-AVC releases which doesn't look that good at all. I think with one of the latest encoders or VC-1 used instead it could have looked much better.

We just did another demo this morning and it was clear to me and some tech guys that the HD DVD was superior, but yet to friends it doesnt really hold up as well. They are not as interested in tech.

You will have to understand that not everyone will know the codec on a particular disc. "Very good" does not equal "excellent." I thought it looks very good- Ill stand by it. Maybe it would be better with VC-1. I didn't even know that it wasn't vc-1.

I really think this projector rolls off the grey scale at the lower IREs too quickly.

HD broadcasts that are carried on cable or sat tv here do not look as good as DVD for the reason that the low bit rates= terrible macro blocking and break up during fast action. I find this terribly more distracting than a lack of resolution. Point is- the formats still have to convince people they are worth adopting and when their prime argument is technical superiority and when the average person may not see it this equals trouble ahead.

Heres some enjoyable reading:

http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/
feature_microsofthddvdinterview.html

This fellow did well in his interview.

George,
Why did you break them up? I thought it was a good idea as consolidated stickies.

best regards,
Jerry

Jerry I agree with you. Most people are not, and never will be enthusiats.

They could care less (in the Uk anyway).

Wage rises are static.

Interest rates are up, Morgages have overstretched people to limits never known before in History.

Council tax rises above inflation.

Credit card abuse is comming home to roost in a big way.

To top it all, SD DVD can look real good on a small screen, (up to 32 inch) which is all most of us have room for over here.

Anyone noticed a trend here?

Could you think of a worse time to launch two overpriced ill thought out new Formats.

One format could be a success, but not two. IMHO

Cheers, Chris

Some folks didn't like it. When you have 2,3,4 conversations going within the same thread it gets messy. When you want to search on a topic and you hit a monster thread with multiple things being discussed it gets hard to find what you want. We'll see how it goes.

Trial and Error.

I know what you mean. Trying to read AVS threads is a nightmare most of the time, particularly when thread newcomers parachute in and start asking questions that were answered elsewhere in the thread.