Am I being a little girl regarding HD?

[GMichael]

Let's turn back the clock a few decades and ask, "Does anyone really need COLOR TV?" What's wrong with B&W?
That was fun. Now let's turn the clock forward. "Does anyone really need holograms?" What's wrong with 1080p 3-D?"

If someone else has something "better" then we will need, or at least want, it.

[SlumpBuster]

Thanks guys. Lots o' good advise.

GMichael: Thanks for the heads up on shifting display sizes on a projector. That puts me back at square one, but that is good. Its features like that that are hard to discover without downloading owners manuals. But most companies are pretty good about putting them online.

Peruvian: What exactly do you expect to break in the spring? HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray?

Ericl: Yeah, the comcast infrastructure in my city is old and has not been well maintained. WOW had to completely rewire my house because the 25 year old Comcast coax was toast. Sure the house's romex is 50 years old and just passed inspection, but the cable TV wires are garbage. Go figure.

Topspeed: Thanks for the push.

As to what Tahitijack said: I'm actually predicting that HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will both never become more than the equivalent of Laserdisk. It goes against my 20 year market penetration theory. Each new format will run a course of 20 years before being replaced. I think its linked to the various generations having their favorite format. The major formats LP, Cassette, CD, VHS all had roughly 20 year cycles. Right now we are 5 years into the cycle for DVD and Mp3. While there were always other formats around (reels, 8 track, DAT, Minidisc, DCC, Beta, Laserdisc) they just never fully penetrated. Consumers pick their horses and ride the race. Frankly, you'll never be able to convince the Walmart/QVC set that HD-DVD and Blu-Ray aren't just fancy DVDs, especially after you just convinced them as little as 4 years ago that their VHS was worthless. And those are the people that you have to target to get market saturation and subsequently $30 players and $5 disks. And, for what its worth, alot of the user reviews I've seen on the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray describe it as underwhelming.

"This is it people, this is what you have been waiting for," they said. Then they said, "Oh wait, no this is what you have been waiting for, and it comes with a format war too!"

I'm gonna go listen to the LPs I got this weekend. Obsoletion be damned.

[SlumpBuster]

Oh, one last question. I read somewhere that the difference between 1080p and 720p is negligable at most viewing distances. Sounds like diminishing returns territory. Has anyone here actually seen properly executed 1080p?

[GMichael]

Oh, one last question. I read somewhere that the difference between 1080p and 720p is negligable at most viewing distances. Sounds like diminishing returns territory. Has anyone here actually seen properly executed 1080p?

Depends on the size of the screen and how far away you view it. Once you get to 100+" screen you'll notice. I saw a 65 or 70" Samsung 1080p LCD plugged into a Blue-Ray at CC two weeks ago. Sitting at about 6 feet away, I was very impressed. Not only were the slow moving scenes (AKA discovery channel stuff) nice, but the high action scenes were just as hot.

Will Blue ray or HD-DVD catch on? Maybe. I'd like to see them backward compatable. Who can afford to replace their whole collection at one time?

[drseid]

Will Blue ray or HD-DVD catch on? Maybe. I'd like to see them backward compatable. Who can afford to replace their whole collection at one time?

Well, HD DVD does have the combo disc that is available for some releases (mainly new titles). These have one side that has the HD DVD layers, and the other is that has the standard DVD version of the movie. I confess I hate these combo discs, primarily due to their cost (about $5 more than normal HD DVDs)... I guess that is as close to backwards compatibility as you will find with the formats. HD DVD might be onto something if they would price the combos at the same price as non-combos (or offer both choices whenever a combo option is available).

---Dave