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Post by The Curmudgeon on Mar 19, 2007 22:08:14 GMT 2
 HD DVD - Are you interested? We all remember that glorious day. The day when we bought our first DVD. That shiny disc. Those neat extra's. It was a glorious time, and we wasted none of it kicking VHS where it belonged - the Bin Of Shame. And let's face it, it hasn't been THAT long since we all bought that first DVD, and already some poncey upstart is telling us that this brilliant piece of innovative, revolutionary technology is, in fact - shit. That the REAL way forward is HD DVD. What I don't get is - honestly, what REAL difference is it going to make? Better sound and picture quality than DVD's? Remember the old ads that came out for DVD's? "The sound is infinitely clearer.." Oh yeah? So what's HD DVD then? Infinity plus one? And so the storage space is bigger. So what? Dunno about you guys, but I'm happy with two disc sets and 6 disc boxsets. One - it looks cool, and two - you feel you're getting that requisite bang for your buck. The Curmudgeon is not convinced, and I (vainly) hope HD DVD is going to go the way of the Laser Disc and be for "buy everything" fan boys only. Any thoughts? |
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Post by InvisibleWolfMan on Mar 19, 2007 22:09:07 GMT 2
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Oh, what was the question again? I'm gonna throw my opinion in on this: YAWN. In order to get the 1st rate experience out of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray a person will literally have to own thousands of (insert monetary term here) just to have that "theater" experience. Well, let me tell you what's cheaper (and smarter): GO TO THE CINEMA! Sure, I'd love to have a "cinema-esqe" setup at home but then I'd miss out on the theater experience. I honestly feel like I'm a dying breed when I'd like to see a movie in a theater rather than on my TV screen. So the makers of these "Next Generation DVDs" (insert laugh here) don't have a selling point with me on that. Plus, if HD & Blu-Ray are offering clearer picture, I wonder how it's gonna look when they don't clean up a print and there's dirt & scratches and "ciggerette burns" on older prints of films that don't have a better print. Besides, HD & Blu-Ray are soon gonna go the way of the dodo now that a scientist has developed the 50 Terabyte (50,000 gigabyte) DVD: in.tech.yahoo.com/060708/139/65pz8.html?www.dailytech.comWhat will they call the next format? Supercalifragilisticexpiali(annoyed grunt)ceous springs to mind? |
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Post by The Curmudgeon on Mar 19, 2007 22:09:45 GMT 2
Good point (and nice use of a Simpson's title too..)
You see what they've brought out now? Texas Chainsaw Massacre on HD DVD.
Um.. isn't it SUPPOSED to look grainy?
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Post by InvisibleWolfMan on Mar 19, 2007 22:10:34 GMT 2
You know, not long after I got the original Blue Dolphin release of TCM in 2000, I asked my friend from the US to send me my video copy I had given him before I left. It was a copy that had a cover like this: www.angelfire.com/darkside/realmofhorror/tcmbox7.jpgbut it had the MEDIA logo on it, which was the video company responsible for releasing New Line Cinema movies. ANYways, I decided to watch it on video and I'll tell you, I felt like I'd picked up some low grade snuff picture and was more terrified to watch it than I had been to view it on DVD. Why? The film grain, of course! I think it's nice to clean up a badly dirt and scratched movie, but I think the older the film is the more questionable it becomes to do so. I get more chills up and down my spine with monster movies from the 30's than I do from something like...oh, I dunno.... SCREAM |
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Post by hackersanonymous on Mar 19, 2007 22:11:22 GMT 2
I'll switch into full-blown geek mode here, chaps - for which I apologise..
DVD is a compressed format. So while the picture quality is better than VHS, it still has compression, so you can fit the damn thing onto the disc.
So the prospect of making more space available is an interesting one - particularly if you're in posession of a half-decent home entertainment system (large screen plasma or LCD).
While these toys will initially cost lots of cash, they will drop significantly in cost when mass production... Look at 42 inch plasmas - they initially cost about the same as a house (literally), while they now can be sourced for under a grand.
The picture clearing up thing... Don't confuse deliberately "scratched" film like TCM against compression. You'll see this as squares if you go close up or view it on a suitably high-spec LCD/plasma. Was this how Tobe meant for it to be seen? I suspect not.
Granted, if the companies are going to bring out "digitally remastered" films, then they should stick to their word - clean the damn thing up. It should be viewed as cleanly as it would have been when it first rolled through the projector back in the day.
Will it be HD or Blu-Ray we go with? Who can say? We're back in a VHS/Beta situation. The Terabyte disc format, I think, will be a while in the making.
Is DVD doomed? Methinks not. As a home entertainment format, it can't be beat in terms of production costs and widespread availability.
So your collections are safe for a while, chaps.
Toodles!
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Post by Ben on Mar 19, 2007 22:12:14 GMT 2
We have HD TV in our home, and I will tell you there is a huge difference. Believe the hype when they say it's all that. As for taking over DVDs, if it happens all I'll be missing is the double disc sets. The Curmudgeon nailed it when he said those looked cool.
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Post by The Curmudgeon on Mar 19, 2007 22:12:47 GMT 2
I actually think HD TV is going to happen big time over in the UK. SKY TV are certainly pushing it to the moon, at any rate.
What I'm worried about is that they start releasing new movies with the best extras on Blu-Ray or whatever, and the bog standard DVD gets the proverbial shaft.
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Post by hackersanonymous on Mar 19, 2007 22:13:18 GMT 2
HD TV will go through a stumbling phase in the UK for a while until Sky can get more channels on HD.
At the moment, the selection is pretty poor to say the least. Certainly not enough to warrant forking out 300 odd quid for a box.
It's sad to say, but there WILL come a time when DVD will become obsolete... If for no other reason than they (apparently) have a relative short shelf-life because of the chemicals used to create the DVDs.
By "short", I mean something like 10-15 years. By which point we'll all probably have TV implanted into our brains so that we can all watch Big Brother 24 hours a day... The technology will have improved, but the quality of output will have sunk to toilet level.
I'm not sure how scientifically proven this shelf-life thing is, but fingers crossed that if it's true, some bright spark comes up with something to spray on the discs.
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Post by The Curmudgeon on Mar 19, 2007 22:13:51 GMT 2
I'd heard that about DVD's self-destructing as well. What a horrible thought.
I have no problem with a new format in 10-15 years though. Just not before then...
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