Does anyone but a tiny fraction of experts care about HD? (mod split)

[AlphaWolf]

please change the title of this thread as I never said that, thank you.

 

[Geo]

The price is very reasonable for the media. More so now than it will be later, most likely. At least if one is doing "street prices" rather than MSRP. Most of the movies we've bought have been $10-$15.

Now the catalog issue is a legitimate complaint at this stage, tho obviously it gets a little better nearly every week.

 

[ShaidarHaran]

I don't see the value at 50% more than dvd. Most of the titles that are $15 for HD media I can pick up for less than $10 in dvd format. Retail prices for new release movies around here tend to be ~$18-25 for dvd and $28-$32 for HD.

If this is as good as it gets in terms of pricing, I'll take a pass.

I also hope the pricing gets better, but I do think hi-def discs carry with them a premium over DVDs, and am willing to pay that premium. Now, if they were twice as expensive I'd be saying "dream on" but for the $5-$10 more that they are now, I'll take the B-r release over DVD.

 

[NVNDA]

AlphaWolf. Most of my HDM purchases have been between $9-$13 with either amazon or fry's. There is such a huge difference between 480p and 1080p, that's such a little price premium to pay if you have a nice HDTV. Sure the prices will get better, but right now is a great time to get into HDM.

On another note, I have a Super 16mm film coming out on HD-DVD as a part of the 1000 HD indies MS sponsored project, and I only have a Blu-Ray player personally. Guess I'll have to go dual when it goes up for sale.

 

[Sxotty]

The media really is too expensive when there is not a 2 for one sale going on. And as geo said 2 for one sales are not always all that

 

[willardjuice]

and I don't watch my DVD's in 480p I watch them upscaled to 1080p.

Because upscaling makes such a difference...

For the most part I consider the quality gains for HD media non-existant to minimal on my Aquos 1080p HDTV at my normal viewing distance.

I would say you're in the minority on this one.

 

[Geo]

So a poll of people who've never used real HD would be more accurate? Err? Perhaps a poll of the 20% of HDTV owners who aren't watching HD content and don't know it. Let's poll them on the matter.

 

[Ty]

Why are we arguing about personal choices? If someone thinks current media is cheap, bully for them. Likewise if someone else thinks it's expensive, then more power to them for having their own priorities.

 

[jb]

But this is just like it was when DVDs first came out. They were about 30 bucks compared to VHS tapes that were about 20 bucks for new movies. I did not hesitate to by them due to the DVD is a better format. Just like I dont care now as I know the HD version is better. Its all a matter of personal choice...

 

[willardjuice]

cuz that's what I said, right?

Then what are you saying? Clearly your "non-existent to minimal" statement is grossly exaggerated. You'll be hard pressed to find any statistical data to back that up.

By your logic PS3/Xbox360 should just render games at 480P and then upscale it to a higher resolution. The difference between a game rendered at 720P and a game rendered at 480P then upscaled should be "non-existent to minimal" right? I think you'll have more than a few people who disagree with you.

If someone thinks current media is cheap, bully for them. Likewise if someone else thinks it's expensive, then more power to them for having their own priorities.

Because there isn't a big difference in price. The problem is certain people are unfairly comparing the two formats. For example, Pirates At World's end (DVD) costs $15 on Amazon, the collector's edition costs $23, and the Blu-ray version also costs $23. I would argue that the Blu-ray version is at the very least equal to the collectors edition. Yes the Blu-ray version does cost eight more dollars than the "vanilla" DVD version, but the Blu-ray version includes a lot of extra features the vanilla version doesn't have. It's a bit unfair to compare the two. A much better comparison imo would be between the collector's edition and the Blu-ray version (in which case the price is equal).

 

[Geo]

cuz that's what I said, right?

Having excluded experts by ukase, yeah that's pretty much what I heard.

 

[willardjuice]

Games aren't movies. There is no comparison.

Upconversion is still upconversion. A game rendered at 480P and then upconverted to 1080P doesn't look any better than a game rendered at 480P without upconversion (see PS3's attempt to upconvert PS2 games). A game rendered at 720P looks a lot better than a game rendered at 480P. The same applies to movies.

 

[Geo]

Good to know the opinions of the other 99.99999% of the population don't matter.

Thanks for confirming my original observation about who you wanted in your polling sample. I see now you've expanded that to include the blind, infants, and people who don't even watch TVs.

Are we tired of this yet?

 

[Geo]

No, that doesn't support the state of play. You started the excluding, and you started it by excluding experts, which at this point in a new technologies life are a pretty large percentage of the people who've spent any significant time at all looking at both to have even an informed opinoin, let alone an expert one.

There's a reason why the phrase "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?" is infamous, and you've been doing a good job of showing it.

 

[Geo]

This having gotten wildly off topic for the Wither Warner thread, it has been moved.

 

[Skrying]

HD is stupid till they can agree on standards. There are many posts on this very forum of people who've bought a TV, then a certain setting that they thought their TV had but its a technicality listing in the manual and their TV on "supports" (or some other bullshit term) the function, not actually able to make use of it. These are stories the SD masses here all the time and fear, they don't want to buy a HDTV and then learn a year down the line it was a waste because so-so standard changes everything. HD is so immature in this sense still that I wouldn't dare touch it myself, it's in a horrible state.

 

[AlphaWolf]

This having gotten wildly off topic for the Wither Warner thread, it has been moved.

If you're going to make a comment with a title, I would rather you attribute your own name to it, thank you.

 

[ninelven]

Eh, I'm an enthusiast when it comes to audio/video, but do I care about HD-DVD or Bluray or the format war? No. And here is why... The source media + price = worst satisfaction per dollar spent on the planet for me. I guess I'm the kind of person who doesn't take care of his stuff, but I prefer to think of it as I don't have OCD when it comes to my disc collection. I finally realized that it wasn't worth it for me to invest in CDs, DVDs, HD-DVDs,etc... when they all eventually get scratched and ruined. And I don't want to have to back them up... I have far too little time as it is to waste more cataloging, preserving, and worrying about a disc collection. The day audio/video is offered in a format I can go swimming in the ocean with and use to fight off a shark attack, I might think about making another purchase.

Also, I really don't get the whole I need to own this movie thing... there are very few films produced that I would feel would be worthwhile to actually own (excluding children's movies if you have kids).

As for HD in general, TV programming and PPVHD movies are what I am concerned with....

 

[Geo]

Ah, I gather AW does not care to defend his original position and instead has deleted all his posts. Fine, closed.