I Predict HD DVD Players Will Be A Failure for the first 3 Years

[N. Abstentia]

HD is like sex, untill you've done it (or seen it) nobody can explain it. There are over
10 MILLION HD tv's in america right now. Only about 25% of them actually get HD.
Once people see what an HD/Blue ray DVD looks like... Those players will fly off
the shelves. $ 500 - $ 1000 for a player (at first) who cares, it's going to be sitting
next to a $ 3500 TV.

Don't count on that happening.

To people like us, yes...they might fly off the shelves. But guess what? People like us (audio/videophiles) make up maybe 10% of the buying public. Joe Sixpack does not care that HD-DVD looks great, it won't make his 27" standard def TV look any better so why should he spend $1000 to buy a player that is no better than a $39 WalMart DVD player to him?

And what about video rental places? How many HD-DVD movies are they going to have? Few to none at first, that's how many.

This is going to be an uphill battle for HD-DVD..trust me. It's going to be years and years before it starts to replace DVD.

[shokhead]

Mybe 10% and you are right on. I heard today they might try releasing movies to the theather and to rental at the same times.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

[QUOTE=westcott]

I would say very few of us have TRUE full range speakers and subwoofer sales are the proof.

"avoiding any unecessary processsing" like not converting it to analog and providing a digital link between the receiver and the player?

Here is a link(s) that I think you will find interesting.

http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/...udioSACD12.php

http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/...AudioSACD2.php

Cheers!

Actually both articles have been on the net for quite a while. The are some very important points that both articles leave out. How the mixes are actually done. What rules that most recording engineers use to mix multichannel audio(like don't put deep bass in the center channel), and if you didn't use bass use bass management at all. The article creates some scenario's that are so scares as not to be mentioned as a problem(like the LFE channel being used as a overhead channel). I still assert that if you can place your speakers equidistant, require no bass management(all speakers large with a subwoofer), and have proper volume control over all of your speakers(both of my SACD/DVD-V players have) is the only way to hear the true qualities of both high rez formats. Especially if you keep the DSD stream unprocessed until D/A conversion. If you check some of the current universal or SACD enabled DVD players now adays, they go pretty far in addressing the authors concerns.