Actually, I currently have a 24" gateway LCD monitor as my "television" -- it doesn't have a tuner nor speakers, but all those are external components in my setup. I used to have a 34" CRT, but didn't like the amount of space it took up. I also didn't want to get a large LCD for the same reason. I sit about 5-6ft away -- and realize it's a little too small for that distance. I would ideally get a 42" screen if I wanted to invest in a real TV.
*Rumors Spin-off* 360 & Blu Ray
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Actually, I currently have a 24" gateway LCD monitor as my "television" -- it doesn't have a tuner nor speakers, but all those are external components in my setup. I used to have a 34" CRT, but didn't like the amount of space it took up. I also didn't want to get a large LCD for the same reason. I sit about 5-6ft away -- and realize it's a little too small for that distance. I would ideally get a 42" screen if I wanted to invest in a real TV.
I put $10 to $70 to be fair but wtf costs $100 bucks that isn't a super edition thing ? a
42" at 5 - 6 ft you should still benefit from 1080p and would still meet SMPTE farthest and might just be good enough for THX farthest recommended. For SMPTE reference you'll need 54" at 5 - 6ft and you would benefit from 1440p.
Or just because they haven't experienced the difference between SD and quailty HD yet.
There is no Silver bullet in this discussion, except console and brand preferences.
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huh? Did you mean haven't? That could be, and I think its safe to say by this point, that if they haven't, they don't really care all that much. Enthusiasts always over play their impact in the market, there's really very few of them.
I think about all stupid discussions on this board about that people hardly can tell the difference between BD and upscaled DVD, each time i slide in a BD from BBC´s Planet Earth series to watch on my 52" LCD together with the kids. We just sit there spellbound.
If some people can´t tell the difference they must have some serious issues with their eyes.
I think it is safe to say that most people want to have the HD experience of BD on a large screen in their home, but it comes down to a price thing and the entry threshold is still high: large screen, bd-player, expensive BDs, it all adds up. If it was free everyone would have it.
But the high price is just a matter of time, just look at what happened to the price of large TV sets, 46", 48" and 52" will very soon be a commodity and you can argue they are only bought by enthusiasts, but there are many sport enthusiasts that have always loved to watch football or whatever on a large screen, and of course TV broadcasts in HD will be a large driver when it takes off at a larger scale, so the market share of large screens will keep growing with or without the demand/push of BD. BD players and BDs are coming down in price as well and as a sign of the times I just found out that the rental cost of BDs and DVDs are the same at my local video rental service.
Rental services like Netflix are great, but owning physical media is not going out of fashion for a long time if ever and meanwhile BD will keep growing on the expense of DVD.
If some people can´t tell the difference they must have some serious issues with their eyes.
I think it is safe to say that most people want to have the HD experience of BD on a large screen in their home, but it comes down to a price thing and the entry threshold is still high: large screen, bd-player, expensive BDs, it all adds up. If it was free everyone would have it.
But the high price is just a matter of time, just look at what happened to the price of large TV sets, 46", 48" and 52" will very soon be a commodity and you can argue they are only bought by enthusiasts, but there are many sport enthusiasts that have always loved to watch football or whatever on a large screen, and of course TV broadcasts in HD will be a large driver when it takes off at a larger scale, so the market share of large screens will keep growing with or without the demand/push of BD. BD players and BDs are coming down in price as well and as a sign of the times I just found out that the rental cost of BDs and DVDs are the same at my local video rental service.
Rental services like Netflix are great, but owning physical media is not going out of fashion for a long time if ever and meanwhile BD will keep growing on the expense of DVD.
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I've bought more games off PSN than not, and Sony are making plenty more money from me because of the option of downloads. Over the years I, and everyone else, have bought countless software applications and games and media that has become redundant. What use is the vinyl collection now? And the VHS collection? And all those Amiga games? And all those PS1 games? I doubt very many people buy content with the expectation of it lasting their lifetime. I expect the majority of people are okay moving on to the new format if it offers something better. I personally look forward to a future of everything on demand, no hard media. It means no storage nonsense, no environmental impact of billions of plastic discs and their distribution, and when new, better formats are available all it'll need is a download of the new format. eg. If we never had VHS, but started with downloads, no-one would have wasted money on a dead format and we wouldn't have made squillions of tapes. Instead once HD became available, we could have switched from SDTV to HD with no worries, no need to rebuy content to get the better experience. And when the next big thing comes, probably 3D although having seen 3D now, I don't think it adds much, we wouldn't have to think about replacing all our disks but instead would just stream a new video format.
The only reason this doesn't work is tech an infrastructure. Actually the tech is there. We could fit 100 MB+ connections to everyone and be done with it for the next few hundred years, probably. However, the world isn't organised that well and instead, if I want HD content I kinda need BRD. So for me, I'm buying BRD disks for favourite movies. I'm glad I have that option. I also appreciate that eventually they'll be useless lumps of plastic, but I'm willing to spend the money on the benefits now, rather than as a long term investment, for which I'd be better off buying gold or somesuch! Sure, some people will keep collections of records and tapes and NES carts and Dreamcast games, and love breaking them out and going all retro, but in my estimation most people are happy to embrace The Future and leave the past done and dusted. There is enough new stuff being made and released that there isn't time for old stuff!
RancidLunchmeat
Veteran
And every time that happens, I think of all the stupid discussions that use completely different standards to move the bar either intentionally or by accident.
I don't understand why anybody is talking about DVD vs BR.
Is there some HD issue all you PS3 users have with streaming data?
I'm talking about DD of 720p media. Not 420i, or 420p, or 420p upscaled.
I'm talking about people not noticing or caring about the difference between 720p and 1080p. And despite what you enthusiasts think about HDTVs becoming more reasonable in price, most people are still not buying large enough HDTVs nor are they putting them in rooms large enough that they will see any noticeable difference between 720p and 1080p. Which makes DD of HD content appealing, but means there's little need for the improved quality that adding another piece of hardware in order to get the physical media requires - except for enthusiasts.
DVD quality VS BR quality? Sure, nobody is debating that so light a match on your strawman.
As far as 'collectors editions' and whatnot, I'm sure the studios don't want to give up that revenue stream but why would they need to include a physical media in the package? Sell your little figurine with a set of codes that allows people to go watch the movies whenever they want via DD.
upnorthsox
Veteran
Where is this 720P material coming from? Are you talking about loping a couple of inches of each side or re-encodes? And if re-encodes, who is doing this?
Need to provide more specs. The term 720p alone only indicates the vertical resolution. There are other factors that affect a movie experience visually and audio-wise. e.g., The over-the-air 720p stuff often has artifacts (chunky !) in my area.
The perception is different for individuals too.
Don't think a simple blanket statement like "720p is good enough" will do any good. The streaming technology Netflix and others use will attempt to address other factors in addition to the vertical resolution.
The perception is different for individuals too.
Don't think a simple blanket statement like "720p is good enough" will do any good. The streaming technology Netflix and others use will attempt to address other factors in addition to the vertical resolution.
720p is a ATSC and Blu-ray resolution standard of 1280x720 although some of that screen space often has black bars for wider aspect ratio movies of 1.85 and 2.35.
HDTV broadcasts are sometimes blocky because they're pushing 720p/1080i at a maximum of 19Mbps MPEG-2, the same codec used for DVD. And if that wasn't bad enough the bitrate is sometimes compressed further by the cable/satellite company.
HDTV broadcasts are sometimes blocky because they're pushing 720p/1080i at a maximum of 19Mbps MPEG-2, the same codec used for DVD. And if that wasn't bad enough the bitrate is sometimes compressed further by the cable/satellite company.
Blanket statements are valid because we looking at the overall population of consumers. We are talking general trends and behaviors and not ancedotal or individualized experiences.
Most consumers don't know the difference between 720p and 1080p other than one number is bigger than the other. For most those two terms are just sales speak with one being better than other but don't know these terms refer to resolution and display method. Furthermore, while there is a technical difference between the two, there is nothing that suggest that the mass audience can perceive enough of a difference to actually have an impact on their viewing experience.
IQ is not even the major motivator for HDTV sales, it depth and the ability to wall mount these flat panel HDTVs. There is a reason that Vizio has become become at the least the third biggest sellers of flat panel TVs in the US. It gives you a flat panel at a cheap price, which motivates consumers more than HD/picture quality at cheap price (DLP or equivalent tech).
I was actually not thinking about this thread when I was thinking about stupid discussions, sorry if I stepped on someones toes.
Anyway, I am happy there is media that make my 1080p 52" inch screen shine. Anyone happy with 720p that is just fine with me and if they use blu-ray or net-flix I don´t care, they will both co-exist and fulfill different needs.
Yes and no. 720p is more like a marketing word in this context. The lesser broadcast 720p quality will cause some confusion among the general public.
Plus, in the first place, people may buy Blu-ray movies for different reasons. Most of my purchases are after I have watched them on digital download platforms or cinema. There is a study somewhere that corelates DD rental with Blu-ray purchases in this sense.
Plus, in the first place, people may buy Blu-ray movies for different reasons. Most of my purchases are after I have watched them on digital download platforms or cinema. There is a study somewhere that corelates DD rental with Blu-ray purchases in this sense.
specwarGP2
Regular
First of all the vast majority of special editions don't come with a figurine or trinket.
Second, how do you market a special edition file of a digital download movie to be better (ie costs more) than the regular edition? With physical media it's easy. The packaging is often different, and it tells you very clearly right on the package. Special editions are always marketed specifically by the number of actual discs that come in the box. Studios will lose that powerful marketing incentive to consumers if they go download only. "3GB digital download file" doesnt sound anywhere as appealing as "3 disc special collector's edition."
Well , it´s not long ago that there was a big crowd of people that claimed HiDef was pretty much dead in the water. Blu-Ray wasn´t gonna make it, no one had HiDef television and few planned on buying it.
Along that line, and lesson, i think it´s very hard for any of us to say what exactly the different target audience has, in terms of quality and size, making it impossible to backup your claim that 720 or 1080 doesnt matter.
Besides, it´s just a question of time before 1080 will be a DD option*.
In terms of of adding more hardware, that is true, in so far that the customer already has a DD capable box.
Afaik there is bluray players that provides netflix support.
Best of both worlds
*I never understood why the Digital Content suppliers doesn´t break away from the rule of always supplying worse quality than the disc based version.
Most music is mastered in 24 bit 96khz or higher.. well give a compressed version of that instead of 16 bit / 44.1
Many Blu-Rays are created from a 4k master.. lets us download that.
Hey so do I (well if the net was a lot better in NZ that is) shit Ill be there at the forefront Im certainly not attached to having something physical.
The problem is only 2/3rds of xbox users have xbox live accounts (the free + paid versions)
bang!! thats 1/3 of the market that dont even take up a free service that offers them something.
The way it is consumers as a whole like there physical medium
books vs e - readers
newspaper vs online
etc
sure the traditional mediums are shrinking but theyre still being dominated by the 'hard' medium's in actual dollar terms
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