I have had HDTV for about 9 months now, so I have watched plenty of HD content.

When I receive my HD-DVD player on Monday, is it safe to assume that the quality will pretty much comparable to what I have seen on DHD, ESPN HD and network HD movies? Better? Worse (unlikely)?

I'm guessing I won't be "blown away" by anything here since I have already been able to watch some movies in HD on cable and on demand and lots of network shows. Of course, my primary reason for getting the player is that watching HD-DVD discs will look much better than watching my SD discs (although those will hopefully also have improved upconversion as discussed in my other thread, but let's not get on that topic here... I now am referring exclusively to HD content).

Is that assumption (that I have already seen this kind of quality) accurate, or are HD discs somehow going to look better than what I have been viewing on HD cable? Obviously this will depend on the encoding of the content but some of the things on cable have looked pretty amazing.

As the best example, would Planet Earth likely look exactly the same on HD-DVD as it did on HD cable? That may be a different question since it may not have been differently than a film, so I will also ask, if I watched The Interpreter on demand in HD would it look about the same as on HD-DVD?

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=497011

Check that thread out, has a link to some AVS thread with screen caps of HDTV and HD DVD.

Sadly, I dont have HD movies through Sat/Cable yet so I couldnt tell you what to expect but I think the general opinion is that it is an improvement.

The best HD DVDs look far better than anything on DirecTV HD channels but are about even with normal OTA HD IMO.

Depends... Probably not going to be better than any sports that you watch or anything filmed in HD video, but either than that I think its usually better.

Thanks for the link and comments. I'll go through that thread (only on page 1 right now) to see what it has to offer.

It sounds like my basic impressions were about right.

I find broadcast HD very mediocre now that I am adjusted to HD DVD and Blu-ray. Especially the quality that U-verse provides. The compression artifacts and all the other problems broadcast HD has due to compression is pretty much absent from HD DVD and Blu-ray and it makes a huge difference.

Sweet.

I can't wait to throw in MI-3 in HD once I get everything all set up Monday.

I'll certainly try to just enjoy some movies before I do too in-depth an analysis of quality on upconversion, broadcast vs disc, etc etc.

I'm obviously anxious to find out as much as I can ahead of time to temper my expectations. I've never even see HD-DVD in person before so the only expectations I have are from browsing this subforum occasionally and the HD content I have on TV.

Hopefully this gets me excited to watch movies in my Home Theater all over again (not that my excitement had faded, really)

HD DVD quality is usually much better than the artifacty presentations you'll find on broadcast. However, don't confuse the inherently different looks that filmed movies have with HD video productions like you'll see on ESPN or Discovery.

Right. Planet Earth will probably be very close to the same on HD-DVD, BluRay and the HD broadcast... right?

HD-DVD and broadcast HD are quite different. If you watch something on DirecTVHD it is a little softer. and it suffers from some compression artifacts. It really is a LOT better on HD-DVD than it is on DirecTV or Comcast. Oh , and just to ask what all have you got coming (movies wise that is)?

I ordered the system with the MI Trilogy and The Interpreter since I don't have those on SD yet and the reviews on this site were fairly good as far as HD quality (especially MI:3).

I'll also be picking up 5 titles from the mail-in offer but who knows how long those will take to get here. If anyone has taken part in that offer here, how long did it take?

HD-DVD looks so much better then OTA HD and anything on Directtv. ON my 92' screen theres a huge difference. OTA HD shows like Lost look really good but not as crisp as HD-DVD


HD-DVD has usually alot higher bit rates and the sound is better. Either Dolby Digital 5.1 Plus or Dolby True HD

HDNet provides some nice HD quality. They've aired 2001 before and it looked amazing. Universal HD aired Jaws last night and it looked pretty damn good. Too bad that one probably won't be on a disc anytime soon.

3 months and counting ...

92 foot screen???

It says to call if it's been longer than 10 weeks. Have you done so?

The hd-dvd or blu ray versions usually blow broadcast out of the water picture wise, as for their lossless audio it KILLS broadcast audio. You're in for a treat, having said that it also varies from disk to disk.

I had HD cable for about 1.5 years before going HD-DVD/Blu-Ray.

While HD cable makes you go "wow that looks nice", HD discs make you go "wow that looks GREAT".

I've had some recordings from HDnet that look close to HD disc quality, and the Star Wars transfers shown on HBO were some of the best HD broadcasts I've seen, but the discs win hands down.

Yeah, I called like 3 times. They just sent me a delay card last week that says they'll ship before May 10th. I called again last week to ask if I can upgrade to 5 movies (I got my player in Jan.) and they said yes ... so that's one good thing I got out of this long ass wait.

Niiice. You'll love it!

granted '2001' and 'West Side Story' (which I watched last night) were both shot in 65mm the HiDef airings on HDNet Movies [b]should[/b (and did)] look amazing. I mentioned this before, but 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' looked underwhelming in HiDef (when it shouldn't have).

The difference is there but you might not be able to notice it. I do but honestly it's not a "HOLY COW ITS SUPERB!!1" kind of difference. Just a bit of an upgrade.