Blu-Ray vs HD DVD war

[Jericho]

I say long live the Slingbox, which might soon become my favored method of getting free digital cable in grad school. Move out, leave the cable box I already have at home, and then for a one-time fee of like $100 get free cable over the Intarweb. Seems like a good idea to me!

Honestly: how many people are using the free analog waves at the moment? I\'ve only seen rabbit ears in one house that I can think of, and hypothetically when we used to watch NHL playoff hockey at work we might have had a color TV with rabbit ears stashed away until the bosses went home early... :twisted:

 

[squidders]

analogue is being switched off over here between 2008 and 2012.

 

[atacam]

Originally posted by supervike
It does look like Blu-Ray is winning the battle...but HD-DVD has been proclaimed dead several times already.

I don\'t plan on buying either until the price of players comes down....and there is NO way I am rebuying a library of movies again. I already did that once when VHS went the way of the do-do.

Netflix is the answer, and they offer both formats, as well as the standard dvd.

A few have already said this, and it dies make me laugh a little. Why would you need to rebuy your library? A decent DVD player will play your current library quite nicely. If you do feel the need to rebuy dvd\'s, then wait a while and you will find them in the bargin bucket at your local store. Either that or trawl some of the forums, and you will find some great 2nd hand bargins. Fizl and I are members of AVforums, and there are loads going on there.

 

[Torn blue sky]

Shame most the old dears are just getting used to the idea of analog TV lol

 

[Sand Rat]

Originally posted by supervike

Originally posted by steelcult
Actually Jeff here stateside you can get a box to allow you to watch Digital on your analog set - and a coupon from the government to help defer the cost.

URG!!! So my tax money is going to help deadbeats watch BETTER TV?

RIP OFF!!!

Umm actually no. HD Digital is by no means better than CRT Analog - the actual standard for LCD and Plasma is CRT analog - which LCD and Plasma only reach at 95%. In addition, while they can pack more into a digital signal, they get less range, which is why you have to have more transmission towers for it. The whole switch to digital is IMO a RIP OFF. But hey, some guy in Congress thought mandating it would be good for his district, so here we are.

And 2009 is not set in stone here in the states - that date may move again, because the service providers don\'t like how congress has said they will deal with the whole analog issue either.

 

[supervike]

UGH!

So they are going to spend my tax money on giving digital TV to deadbeats and it won\'t even be BETTER??

Double UGH!!

 

[Legacy Account]

Originally posted by Rigged4Mini
I have no problem replacing my movie collection.. Especially the movies I really like.

Aliens, Predator, Saving Private Ryan etc.. all deserve high def treatments.

Streaming movies will bomb as who will want to pay for digital online services just to download a movie that will take hours. Might as well just pay the 20 bucks and get a copy you can sit back and watch anytime. Don\'t need to worry about extra harddrives, download fees, internet access etc....

If you plan on upgrading your TV to a High Def anytime soon, then buying regular DVDs is pointless IMO.

The quality of the movies you mentioned is always going to be hampered by the media they were originally filmed on. Uprated DVDs look fine on my HDTV. I\'ve seen HD movies, and yes they look slightly better, but the jump is far less than the jump from VCR to DVD.

I think you misunderstand the word \'stream\'. Nowt to do with downloading. I want to watch HD feeds of movies straight from t\'internet - no video rental shops or stuff like that and no need for extra drive space. I\'ve spent thousands on buying movies in the past and it\'s an utter waste 95% of the time. They get watched once and then gather dust. I already stream most of the movies I watch, I\'m just waiting for connection speeds to increase to get better quality. It\'ll happen.

I just don\'t see the future in shiny discs or other traditional formats - the stuff takes up far too much physical space - I\'d much rather keep buying/replacing HD space. I\'ll keep my record collection, the digital stuff is getting ripped and sold!

 

[Roger Bunting]

I\'d have to move my computer (and put a silencer on it) to be able to sit and watch streaming films. This room is not exactly ideal.

 

[tooshy]

PS3\'s play ordinary DVD\'s and I confirm they play PS2 games too, but they don\'t look all that bad

 

[mud duck]

Originally posted by steelcult

Originally posted by supervike

Originally posted by steelcult
Actually Jeff here stateside you can get a box to allow you to watch Digital on your analog set - and a coupon from the government to help defer the cost.

URG!!! So my tax money is going to help deadbeats watch BETTER TV?

RIP OFF!!!

Umm actually no. HD Digital is by no means better than CRT Analog - the actual standard for LCD and Plasma is CRT analog - which LCD and Plasma only reach at 95%. In addition, while they can pack more into a digital signal, they get less range, which is why you have to have more transmission towers for it. The whole switch to digital is IMO a RIP OFF. But hey, some guy in Congress thought mandating it would be good for his district, so here we are.

And 2009 is not set in stone here in the states - that date may move again, because the service providers don\'t like how congress has said they will deal with the whole analog issue either.

My understanding was that the switch was to free up some of the bandwidth that anologe tv uses for more space for cell phones/internet

 

[Friar]

The Fall of HD-DVD

 

[Sand Rat]

Originally posted by mud duck

My understanding was that the switch was to free up some of the bandwidth that anologe tv uses for more space for cell phones/internet

Nope - the analog switch off date for cell phones is already here in some areas. They have to all be digital by the end of the year if I remember correctly.


Guess what I used to do tech support for and do tech support for now?lol