Are you alone in an HD world?
 

I am completely alone in having HD among my friends, family, and co-workers. As a matter of fact, they think I'm crazy for being 'into it'. I have, over the last 12-18 months, helped a few friends pick out an HDTV, but they won't upgrade their TV package to HD, have DVD players hooked up with composites, etc... They just don't get it. They say the picture quality isn't that much better, or HD is too expensive, or I'll eventually make the jump...maybe. It really kind of sucks because I feel alienated. Outside of here, I can't really talk about recent HD releases, upcoming titles or rumors, TV shows with great quality, etc... I was telling my buddy about the Matrix trilogy on HD & he was like "Yeah, I saw the movies". I said "Not like this", to which he replied "It's the same movie".

Are you alone in an HD world?

yea, all of my friends think I'm crazy to buy HD-DVD/BR, even at amazon's prices, let alone retail. I finally talked my dad into it, but only cause he just got a new 70 inch Sony. Everyone else (friends, mom, grandparents, etc. ) couldn't care less. I was at best buy the other day and they had the new HD/BR releases on the new release table and some lady asked a clerk what they were and he told them High Definition movies (they had their DVD counterparts in their hands). They looked at the price and said, "How silly," and didnt even give them a second thought. A friend I have just got an HDTV (a cheap RCA 1080i with an upscaling dvd player)finally and says he cant even see the difference, and my girlfriend absolutely hated them until I got 3 HD and Blu ray players (one of each for the living room, office and bedroom), and she still says they are a waste of $ and she can't tell the difference either--and all of them are on 1080p TVs.
When people talk about DVDs they saw, want, etc. I used to try to bring up HD/BR but everytime they just look at me like i'm crazy, so I finally just gave up. Even when I bring the discs up to the counter at Fry's, most of the cashiers look at them funny, like "what the hell are these?"

I don't associate with the plebes. Heh.

Yeah, I'm the only one I know who has next gen DVD (HDDVD).

Granted, there's a few people I do know who have HDTVs but do things like "Full" on a 4x3, comment the SD looks "the same" as the HD, or connect their devices via composite.

Maybe being alone isn't so bad.

You are not alone. I am the only person in my group of friends that has HD DVD or BD. I have both. Several have HDTV, but most strech 4:3 material and few have any HD material at all. I just come here to feel better about being ahead of the curve.

I have 1 friend who has a PS3, one with the 360 Add-on, and another about to take the HD-DVD Plunge, so its not too bad. Parents have a HD Plasma, but they just watch HD programing over cable.

My parents have a 50" plasma and they love HD channels. I bought my brother the A2 for his upcoming birthday, so we will be joining the HD DVD crowd. I convinced another friend to get into HD DVD (via 360 add-on) and another who will be getting a PS3 this year. Slowly, but surely they are coming on board.

My brothers and I bought my parents an HDTV for Christmas last year, so they get and appreciate the HD channels.

My friends are all clueless, though. I have many of them that suffer from the "I have an HDTV so everything I watch is automatically HD" syndrome.

Not really.

My younger brother got an HD set before me and has Comcast HD service. My parents just got one a couple months ago, and they haven't gotten HD yet since DirectTV's current lineup is pretty slim and not worth the $10.

They're going to get it this fall for football (and hopes that they expand) or they may switch to Dish Network when their DTV contract is up).

None of my close friends have HD sets yet, so I guess I'm first in that circle.

I got my HD set about 2 weeks ago and got Comcast HD service the next day. :D

No HD-DVD or Blu-Ray among us yet. I won't buy into those until the players are routinely in the $150-200 range and, more importantly, discs are closer to current DVD prices. Movies just aren't worth $25-30 to me very often.

I have only 2 co-workers that have HD players, 1 has Blu-Ray (he's dead to me now :p) via PS3 and the other has HD DVD.
Those are the only 2 people I know personally who have bought into the new formats.

No one I know has any HD movie players. My brother has DirectTV's HD package.

I know no one with HD players and only a few that have HDTVs. Most of the ones with HDTVs are watching SD content anyway.

Yeah, but I was alone in a S-DVD world and look how that turned out!

Oh yes, I am pretty much in the "only I have HD" club. None of my family has an HDTV, much less HD DVD or BD. My parents are really too old (80s) to be interested in switching to an HDTV. My sister and brother-in-law are building a new house so they have other priorities and a very limited budget. Neither my niece and her husband nor my nephew can afford HDTV, much less HD disc players.

I helped one neighbor couple make the upgrade to HDTV, a 70 inch Sony XBR2 (they had a ten year old 480i projection TV so the step up was huge) and they have been loving their HD satellite feed and upscaled SD DVDs (I lent them my progressive DVD player, since I don't need it anymore). They want to get a BD player but have been holding off until the specs get finalized and the players become fully functional (BD-J and all that).

Another pair of friends just bought a 50 inch Pioneer plasma and have HD cable. But their seating distance is such that upscaled SD DVDs are probably good enough, so they are watching and waiting, for now, when it comes to HD DVD or BD. They also don't want to fuss with a surround sound system in their living room, but do have a really high end stereo system they use with the HDTV.

That's it, a neighbor couple and a couple of friends in another state, among all the friends and family I have. But at least those two couples give me someone to talk to about home theater stuff!

As far as Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, I'm the only one I know of that has one of the new formats (Blu-Ray). But for HD, most people I know seem to have it. Both my parents and in-laws have HD with new widescreen sets purchased within the last year and a half.

On this site we tend to look at HD for movies, or at least that is what most of the discussion seems to be in regards to. But for big sports fans, HD sports is far more of an improvement over SD sports than Blu-Ray/HD-DVD is over standard DVDs. HD sports is what got my parents into getting a plasma.

Nope. I was the first in my group but now four others have jumped on the HD DVD bandwagon. Most probably just to shut me up! :lol:

I actually think that I am going to scrap my HD coverage until football season starts. I am paying $125 a month for my HD cable and internet, and I don't even watch TV.

My uncle (who is more of a movie and tech nut than I am) has both a Blu-ray and HD DVD player, as well as gets HD programming OTA and on satellite, and my best friend just bought a HDTV and HD DVD add on for his Xbox 360, so I'm happy to say I'm not alone. Most other people I know don't think HD is important enough to spend money on upgrading though (even after my demonstrations).

My mother and step-father actually had HD programming before i DID (I was waiting on DTV to release their newest HD DVR first), I have a friends with the 360 add on... and ONE MOVIE... Myself, I have a 61" JVC 1080P in my den with BR, HD-dvd, and DTV HD... in my game room I have a 1080i 30" CRT HDtv along with the same DTV HD-DVR... bedroom has a plain 19" tv which will be upgraded with the CRT from my bedroom, although without hd programming since I dont want to get rid of the TIVO

Will look for a deal on a 32-37 LCD for my gaming room later this year

I knew no one who had laserdisc, and I know no one who buys blu-ray/HD-DVD movies. Probably half have some sort of HDTV.

I have a lot of friends and family that have HD sets and HD satellites - but none of them have HD and/or blu-ray players (and I only have the 360 add-on) - to them, while they love their HD broadcasts, their regular dvds are just fine.

I'm alone as well amongst my family and friends when it comes to HD-DVD (A-1). That is why I turn to my support group here at DVDTalk. If it weren't for this forum, I may have never gotten into HD-DVD, let alone collecting SD-DVD's.

My parents had HD on DirecTv but due to slow wireless connections, Mom conned Dad into ditching that once cable became available in their rural area. Now my dad has a cable company that doesn't even offer HD yet for his TV. He hates it, as he once had the power of HD and now has lost it.

But no, I'm not alone. I just feel sorry for my Dad and any people in the area who want to take advantage of that great feature. The area my parents live in still has a market for VHS tapes. Needless to say I will never be going back to that area!

Yea, I think I all alone too. I jumped on the HD-DVD bandwagon since I go the X360, and now with the Toshiba A2. For people don't understand all of this stuff, they don't get how Costco can sell HD CABLES for $100 bucks. When they are comparing DVDs to the HD stuff, they have to pay a premium. Most of the time, I think they just want one format, and won't jump until one format dies.

I just realized that everyone I can think of that has an HDTV has HD cable (it was a must-have after getting their HDTV), but those same people laugh about HD-DVD/BluRay. I wonder why. It's not like they don't watch movies, because they still gobble up SD DVDs. I'd like to blame it on the format war, but they just dont seem to care at all for some reason.

I have one friend who has both BD and HD (an ex-dvdtalk member in fact) and thats it... Hell even my wife yells at me about it all. We have a friend who always asks us to come over and watch movies with him and they are usually on *gulp* VHS :sad:

I've recently upgraded my 50" 720p Samsung to a 52" 1080p Samsung and I've purchased the BDP-S1.

I'd love to talk about the superior picture and sound with somebody who appreciates it, but I end up telling my girlfriend who always looks at me with a look of disinterest.

With the exception of one person (who has the PS3 & 360 add-on), I'm alone in the HD world.

Hell, my girlfriend told me she'd be happy to have a 19" TV with no HD signal.

She knows how to hurt me.

My supervisor's husband impulse bought the LG combo player, but I don't even think they use it much, since every week I mention new titles to her, and she says she thinks they just got the DVD version. I'm definitely the only guy who's full-on into the next-gen stuff. One of our programmers here has a PS3 and some Blu-Ray's, but he's more interested in buildng a PC that can be a video jukebox for all his ripped DVD's.

I only know one other person around here with HD at all.

Nope. Two of my friends own HD-DVD players.

One of them actually convinced me to get an HD-DVD player after his constant talking about PQ quality. The other did the same and is also planning to go dual-format soon.

Hey, when I was alone in the DVD world back in 1998, everybody thought I was crazy too. They brought up everything, including not able to record, having movies in widescreen only (boo fucking hoo) and scratching them.

Funny how that turned out, right? ;)

Today, I am also alone in the HD world, but that's probably because i'm the first of my friends to have the money (and the space in their house) to invest in a new HDTV, HD player, and rebuy most of my favorites. No one doubts the difference in picture quality (although I have had a few quick glances and the usual "looks no different to me") but I got the feeling HD will catch on in only a matter of time.

A few of my friends own a Blu-Ray player (PS3) but have yet to purchase any movies, for obivious reasons)

I was also alone in 1998. It took a couple of years for anyone else I knew to get DVD.

I was in college in 1998, so I wasn't alone on DVD. A good number of my friends got into it right around then as well, and by 1999-2000 nearly everyone had a DVD player.

I was slow to adopt DVD and did not get it until (gulp) 1999. but I know when I did, I was not that lonely. I was in college though so I had lots more geeky friends around me at the time. I also got Netflix which astounded some of them. Although I see some things in common, I just do not see HD taking off like DVD and not just because of the format war. I will be happy if either or both flourish as a niche market. LD did not do to poorly alongside VHS and for the bulk of that time, the Internet was not there to help the collectors out.

i too am alone in 'the digital world' among my friends and co-workers. one of my good friends who also collects dvds was cynical about the higher quality of bd until a few weeks ago when he finally saw my blu-ray player and hd dish receiver in action. now he badly wants to make the jump. it's pretty funny, my mom is in love with high def, she is so happy that i got the hd dish receiver and even buys bd titles that she wants. we were out of town last week and she wanted "catch and release" and "music and lyrics" they only had catch and release on sd at wal mart, and opted herself to go elsewhere to get the bd version instead of getting the sd. and now when she's at the store and sees a sd title she wants, she'll call me and ask if it's available on blu-ray. it's actually pretty cool.

I don't even know anyone with an HDTV. To say I'm alone is an understatement. I was nervous buying a TV last year because there was nothing for me to go on except store displays.

As far as HD movies go, forget it.

Other than one of my best friends having the HD-DVD drive for the Xbox, like I do, yes.

My dad is building a new place, and I'm trying to get him to get both, so they can enjoy HD.

Not alone in the HDTV & Hi-Def tv world, but definitely standing in solitude in regards to HD optical media. Got a Toshiba A20 HD-DVD player a month ago and just went dual format with the Sony BDP-S300 last weekend. Enjoying the benefits of watching movies in crystal clarity but all of my friends and relatives don't even know or don't even seem to care about the two formats. Some of them are insisting high-def dvds will only be within a niche market like laserdiscs.

Well technically I haven't jumped in yet since I haven't gotten a player (or tv) but several of my friends have PS3's and 360 add-ons, though they aren't big movie buffs. My best bro is sold on BD but he'll probably hold off till the end of the yr.

So no, not too lonely.