Hi Def this, Hi Def that....

mjsmyth

Excuse me while I rant.

I can't help but feel that the public are being sold something of a turkey when it comes to Hi Def.

Joe Bloggs down the street will pay about €2000 for a new Hi Def TV after seeing it on display in his local shop. He brings it home, connects it up, plugs it in and turns it on.

Now then, if he has cable, which most people seem to have in this country, he is not going to get any benefit yet. Maybe someday relatively soon.

If he has sky, well nope, no benefit again, unless he stumps up another €450 to upgrade to Sky HD plus an extra €15 a month. Hmmm... he thinks, this Hi Def stuff is getting a little expensive.

Surely though, My DVD's will look amazing on the screen. Well actually no, not really. He could go buy a new DVD player with upscaling and a HDMI port though and yes, the movies may well look a bit better, but thats not real Hi Def.

I know, lets buy a new Blue Ray player!! Ok, lets put aside €500 for a player (if you can find one on sale).

Right then, wheres my Xbox, I'm annoyed now, I want to play a game! Hmm... this doesnt look so good on my 42" screen. I know, I know, off to the shop with me again. Right then, do I buy an Xbox 360 or do I wait for the PS3, Hmmmm well the 360 IS Hi Def but won't play Hi Def movies, but the PS3 is months away!! Mind you, it will play Blue Ray movies.

4 Months pass. Joe gets his PS3, the final part of his Hi Def kit...... Finally he goes to xtra vision to rent some movies. Blue what they reply, never heard of it!!! Try down the road! Oh and lets not forget, to get the best, he has to trade in all his old movies and buy the new Hi Def Blue Ray versions of them!!

Of course the above is a little extreme, but only a little. I have yet to hear a shop bloke explain that a Hi def TV is only any good when coming from a Hi Def source. Joe Bloggs has no idea what Hi Def is and has no idea what resolution or pixels or 7.1 true HD surropund Sound is. He only went it because his 21" Bush TV blew up and needed a replacement!!!!

Anyway, rant over.

mj

aidan_walsh

Buying hardware specific to not yet widely used formats is expensive, big surprise. People who bought the first VHS players, CD players, DVD players, etc all went through the same thing.

DMC

You are not alone, HD (anything) I've certainly gonna sit back for. I'm early adopted a few things in the past, but over the last few years, I've learned to be patient.

A fool and his money are easily parted.

mjsmyth

Aidan,

Have you tried to buy a CRT TV recently? Less and less shops are seeling them. Dixons don't, Power City have a tiny range. Harvy Normans (Naas) don't. Discount Electrical don't....

It is not easy to buy a CRT and pretty soon, you won't be able to.

The post above is about a normal guy, not someone outlooking for the latest and greatest, but someone being forced (as much as one can be) into buying it.

mj

byte

I'm hoping all my CRT's will survive until I finally think it's worthwhile to buy a HD TV!

Currently, there are very few HD TV channels, and very very few Blu-Ray/HD-DVD discs out there, not to mention players.

Then there is TV's. Why oh why do most TV's have a screen resolution of 768 lines or so when the likes of SkyHD output 720p? Am I missing out something?

Maybe 1080p HD pictures might have been more stunning?

bk

It is still easy to get CRT's, but the bottom has really fallen out of that market. You get the CRT's in Tesco's or Dunnes Stores now, rather then the TV shops. The guy who is looking for a replacement for his 21" Bush is probably looking here, rather then high end TV stores.

However some of the TV stores now have the nice Samsung 32" HD slim CRT for a very reasonable €800 with capability with HD.

DVD's, even without upscaling can look really good on a nice HD LCD. With upscaling they look very good. To be honest, much to the studios distress, most people aren't going to replace 90% of their DVD collection with HD discs. DVD is good enough for most of your collection, even on HD LCD, people will probably only replace their favourite movies where it would be noticeable, like Lord of the Rings, Gladiator, etc.

BTW Xbox 360 games look really good in HD. Eventually console gamers are finally getting what PC gamers have had all along.

As for Xtra vision not having HD Discs, I remember only a few years ago going into XV and asking for DVD's and them looking at me like I had two heads. About 6 months later they got one shelf of DVD's. Today they have nothing but DVD's.

BTW A BluRay DVD player costs more then €1000, not €500, that is HD DVD.

Then there is TV's. Why oh why do most TV's have a screen resolution of 768 lines or so when the likes of SkyHD output 720p? Am I missing out something?

1366 x 768 is a resolution of a computer monitor and is the standard called WXGA. Most TV manufacturers HD LCD's are actually just computer monitors.

BTW I thought SkyHD was using 1080i?

Maybe 1080p HD pictures might have been more stunning?

Only if you have a screen greater then 42". In scientific tests done by showing people pictures at 1080 and 720 resolution, people could only start noticing a difference on screens over 42".

Of course 1080p is preferable to 1080i.

JohnC.

bk wrote:

As for Xtra vision not having HD Discs, I remember only a few years ago going into XV and asking for DVD's and them looking at me like I had two heads. About 6 months later they got one shelf of DVD's. Today they have nothing but DVD's.

Of course Xtra Vision don't have HD discs. They have not been officially launched in Europe yet. HD-DVD launch was pushed back to November and Blu-ray may be pushed back to early 2007.

bk

Kahless wrote:

Of course Xtra Vision don't have HD discs. They have not been officially launched in Europe yet. HD-DVD launch was pushed back to November and Blu-ray may be pushed back to early 2007.

Obviously, I was only making the point that XV eventually changed to DVD and the same will gradually happen with HD, probably quicker then DVD, after the original poster mentioned no HD discs are currently available in XV.