Blitz6Speed

I posted that as of right now, HD-DVD has a slight advantage. You all looked right past it and just flamed me. Good going!

Slayer2005

Well, I was personally just playing around a not flaming (can't speak for the other guys though. ), but in a way you kind of invited a little bit of flaming. I mean, it was well known that you were a bit of a Blu-Ray fanboy despite not ever having seen Blu-Ray before (although no one would know that by reading your posts). Then you view HD-DVD on a poor LCD setup, move onto Blu-Ray on a higher quality Plasma tv and when you see how terrible it looks you did everything you could to make the image comes as close as possible to one of the worst HD-DVD setups possible. That right there made the gap close by being unfair to one technology and then you say the difference was blown out of proportion. How would you know? View both of them on an equal or near equal quality calibrated display from about the same viewing distance and that will tell the real story.

BTW, from what I've heard some of the Blu-Ray demos look better than the actual films themselves. I assume it's because they can use a higher bit rate by not filling up a disc with a 2 hour film. So, viewing an actual movie disc could be even worse. According to those who have seen both on a calibrated display HD-DVD has a much bigger advantage than a slight advantage. Most have said Blu-Ray currently isn't even in the same league as HD-DVD.

RockStrongo

No, it really is a big difference right now. My gf and I watched the BD demo disc on a sammy at BB too. It was right next to the HD-DVD display on the crappy 42in WH. The HD-DVD actually looked good even on the crappy tv. The Batman Begins and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory clips are the best.

When my girlfriend and I were watching the BD, she was commenting how shitty it looked and asked if it was actually HD. It actually looked worse than sd-dvd upscaled IMO. I was actually DEFENDING it to her and explaining the bad transfers right now and how it will probably get better. I checked the settings on the tv (I have a sammy DLP) and they looked fine (though its not ISF calibrated like mine im sure).

She loves HD-DVD and actually can see a difference (unlike alot of girls who cant tell shit). She was not impressed at all with Bluray. I, on the other hand, realize that right now BD is just not ready for prime time and explained that to her.

ChrisHicks

all this talk about potential makes me wish I married that butt ass ugly stupid girl I knew in high school who wanted to be a rocket scientist.

Vipper II

Very well stated!

Anubis2005X

butt ass? haha, awesome...

Supermallet

Sorry if my post seemed like a flame, as you can see from the free-for-all thread, I am capable of responding without malice.

What really got me is that this whole time that you've been so adamantly pro-BD no matter what, you had never actually seen BD. And then, when you do, you go to extreme lengths to make it look as good as possible, while at the same time writing off HD with only one glance and no effort.

See what I'm getting at?

digitalfreaknyc

So I went back for another look at BD today at a different store. I figured...maybe I'm crazy. Maybe I need another look.

I was wrong.

They had it set up on a Samsung display. I have to admit the lighting conditions are better in the store downtown. Regardless, when I got there, (what I think was) the Ultraviolet trailer was on. It looked pretty good. It looked a bit smeared. A bit like a screwed-up cartoon. But I didn't see as many of the problems I saw the day before...until...that wonderful little hourglass came up. Then they showed the trailers for 50 First Dates and another movie that I can't remember at the moment. It looked like absolute crap. There were speckles all over the place and the compression was absolutely horrible. Even when they did the side-by-side comparison, BOTH sides looked like crap.

I walked away laughing to myself because I really just can't believe it. No one bothered to help me either. I don't think they had any players. They did have one Toshie in stock (from what I saw). Unfortunately, I didn't even see it hooked up anywhere. I just saw the box.

Supermallet

The idiots at my local BB finally got the BD display TV correctly calibrated (or, at least, within the realm of correct calibration). I was only going in for a firewire cable and some Depeche Mode CDs (damn Rhino and their remastering program! ), so I didn't watch too much. What I did see was the watch/clock demo. It looked a lot better than last time, but still grainy as hell, with jagged edges to boot. Not nearly as nice as anything I've seen on HD, including Full Metal Jacket.

digitalfreaknyc

Oh yeah...i saw that. still looked like crap to me.

I remember waiting for the Samsung to come out so all the BD bullshit could be put to rest because it would "be out there."

And now here we are...waiting again. What's the next release date we're waiting for? What's the next player to come out?

Supermallet

The Pioneer, I think. Now that one actually should be a good player. However, shit in, shit out.

Vipper II

And to think, it'll be a very affordable $1300-$1500.

Mr. Cinema

I've seen this mentioned several times at AVS that Sony's player was actually made by someone else and it's just rebranded like the RCA HD player. Didn't find out which company, but I'm curious to know. I guess it will be from the one that doesn't play cds.

RockStrongo

Guys, I think we can all agree that BD looks like crap right now...its just not ready yet...but seriously, lets give it a year or 2 and THEN we can see what its really going to look like. Also, by then, maybe the player prices will have come down to HD-DVD player prices.

During that year or 2 though, we can all enjoy the many many discs we buy on hd-dvd (including this fall, Braveheart, Star Trek movies, Se7en, LOTR, Matrix, Superman Returns, MI3 and many day/date releases).

Mr. Cinema

And I'll add some exclusives such as Casino, Spartacus, The Thing, and The Mummy. Yes, BD looks crappy now, but I still think they will eventually start putting out discs that look good. This was a rush launch.

However, it would take a helluva lot of convincing for me to drop $1000 to also back BD. It's not bad waiting now because the titles out I'm not that interested in, and plus the quality is lacking. However, once Fox releases their 20 or so titles later this year, that's when things will begin to get tougher. Aside from Universal and WB, Fox is my other favorite as far as catalog titles go. Aliens is supposed to be out this year. I also believe Master and Commander is part of the group. And then Disney, who is still BD only, also has some titles I would love to see in HD, which includes Armageddon and The Rock.

The PS3 would be the cheapest option to watch BD, but I don't want a gaming machine to be my primary player. I'd much rather have a standalone, but I don't think we'll see one of those under a grand until next year. I'll also wait for reviews on the Sony and Pioneer to see how they stack up against the Samsung.

Davy Mack

As far as buying a "better" BD player, If they can't get the discs themselves looking good, I don't care if the player flys around the room, cleans the house and makes me dinner, I still ain't buying it...

d

Mr. Cinema

I believe they will get them looking good. They need to get dual layering to work and stop using the "uncompressed pcm" audio tracks which is taking up huge chunks of space. I think it's been mentioned on AVS that early 2007 is when we'll see BD titles encoded in VC-1.

HiFiLux

That Bluray PQ must have looked just fantastic from the parking lot, that way you would notice even less of the artifacting

Here's a cute picture of the last BD believers getting ready to defend the faith:

RockStrongo

I went to BB today and walked past the BD display...still showing the same demo and it still looked like crap.

BUT, I walked over to the Magnolia HT area and wow, they actually setup a XA1 on a MITS 73in 1080p tv...it wasnt there a week or so ago...they were showing Serenity and I think I wet my pants a bit. It looked stunning!!

Damn, I have a 61in DLP set and I was itching to buy one of those MITS sets.

Supermallet

Sadly, I don't think that line of Mits TVs accepts a 1080p input. Hopefully the next line will, because I have heard amazing things about their 73" sets.

tek2k

right...

RoboDad

Please, not this again. 1080p input and 1080p display are not the same thing.

The Mits 73" 1080p display set doesn't accept 1080p input, but I would defy you to prove that by looking at it. I've been told that the Mits does have problems with some (mostly improperly flagged, as I understand it) sources, but when I watch HD DVDs on mine, they are simply stunning.

bboisvert

I don't think people can accurately predict what will happen with any degree of certainty, but...

... I don't believe that BD can continue to look like crap for another year or two and still expect to succeed. Not with a better looking and cheaper competing product out there.

Supermallet

Yeah, but when I watch HD DVDs on my 1080i TV, they also look simply stunning. So I'm going to wait until they come out with a 1080 display that accepts a 1080p signal directly. And by the time my TV really runs out of steam, 1080p displays will be cheap.

flashburn

We need to be realistic here. New BD titles won't look like crap in even a couple months, with maybe the exception of Sony titles. Most other studios will be releasing with VC1 and Sony will probably start using AVC.