Hit me with your technogeekiness
While I have a little downtime here in document review land, I figure I'll throw another tech question out there to let the blogosphere help me out.
So, I bought that bigass plasma TV around New Year's, and I love it and all, but after watching part of King Kong on HBO in Hi Def I decided I need an HD DVD player. Or, a Blu-Ray. For those uninitiated in this sort of thing, there are 2 competing formats for Hi Def DVDs similar to what we all experienced back in the early 80s with VHS and Beta. I really, really don't want to buy the equivalent of a Beta (my uncle had one and we mocked him mercilessly for it for years afterwards.) But, after reading about the 2 formats a little it sure sounds like there is no obvious format leader at this point. Particular movie studios support one format or the other, with some supporting both. Microsoft has thrown its weight behind the HD DVD format, while there are slightly more studios on the side of Blu-Ray.
And there's one other wrinkle: I don't have a 1080p format TV. That's the super-expensive over the top fantastic image quality, and I wasn't paying $5000 for a damned TV. So, I have 1080i even though it looks phenomenal. I'm a little worried that if I go with a format that is really best for 1080p that it will not be as great on a lesser quality TV.
What to do? Well, one option that I won't be taking is buying a player that supports both formats. LG makes one, but its $1200! Who the hell would spend $1200 on a DVD player?! It also apparently has a few kinks because the folks who are pushing the HD DVD format didn't give their approval to the project, so they lack support for certain features available in "official" HD DVD format players.
I'm more confused than ever about whether I should even bother to try and get a good DVD player at this point. But hopefully some of you techie types who follow this stuff more closely than I do (and understand it) can help me out.
What kind of Hi Def DVD player do I buy, or do I sit this out for awhile?
4 comments:
Well... Do you really need HD to watch tv ? The HD technology cost A LOT and doesn't worth it in my opinion. I still has a 27 inches big and old tv at home and i'm enjoying the shows as much as anyone with HD.
Just my two cents. Sorry but I can't help you :)
BluRay and HD are going to have to fight it out like VCRs and BetaMax. Until that's sorted, I would wait. Word on the skreet is that Disney will go w/ BluRay for now, but that may or may not be an adequate bellweather. Like everything else, an HD DVD player will get cheaper once things have settled.
Olivier, I already have a Hi-Def TV so obviously I've decided that is important to me.
Nikki, what I saw from a recent search of articles was that Disney and one or two other studios had settled on Blu-Ray, but several of them service both formats and several are HDi only. Plus Microsoft is backing HDi.
All of it is very confusing. I've found one of the dual format DVD players on Ebay for $750, and while that seems exorbitant, it's so much lower than the original $1200 that I'm at least thinkin' about it.
Honestly, I would wait it out. I do not have a 1080p set myself. In fact, while I do have a HD set, I bought it in 2001 and it does not even have HDMI connectors. Thus, unless I can get a more modern HD set, I am not in the market for a HD "DVD" player.
FWIW, from what I have read, it sounds like Blu-Ray is starting to get a little bit of a lead. I have read several articles that their sales total for software has been higher than HD-DVD. Blockbuster has announced that they will only rent Blu-ray discs and Target is planning on selling a lower cost Blu-Ray player this Christmas. My understanding is that only one major studio is HD -DVD only. Add to this that the Blu-Ray has gotten into many homes via the PlayStation 3 trojan horse, and things seem to looking strong for Blu-Ray. I had not thought so four or five months ago, but that is the latest feel I get. However, the battle is not over and HD-DVD only studio has recently reiterated its support for the format. Whether that holds for long remains to be seen.
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