HIGH DEF DVD...WHATS THE LATEST NEWS?

In addition, I just finished the extended version of Return of the King- All 4 hours of it. The audio is awesome- the increase in bit rate isnt going to offer that much more.

Also, for any format war to be meaningful, people are going to have to buy the players-- and at 1000-1800 dollars a pop- not included the increased cost of the Blu Ray discs themselves--dont hold your breath.

Rysa...the PS3 will out sell any and all hd dvd players combined just 24 hours after its launch even with a 6 month lead time for hd dvd.....putting more installed BD players in homes than hd dvd could ever hope to have.....game over.
Studio support + PS3 + automatic win for BD....period.

I never claimed to hear some flawed demo at CES....there are absolutely zero hd dvd players in the world that can do 1080p including proto types ect.

Anyone that wants to support 1080p will be buying a Pioneer Elite, Sony es,Panasonic or Sharp BD player for the forseeable future.

You do not need a receiver to decode the 96/24 or 192/24 soundtracks either....you need a BD player and analog outs.....much like sa-cd/dvd-a.
You should know this if you were there at this demo.
The Toshiba hd dvd players will not be decoding more than 2 channels though as they down res there other channels to normal dd/dts as well as down res there video to only 1080i.....so this is a BD player only option at this time.

BD + 7.1 on board decoding with analog outs that can be used on current gear and 1080p.
hd dvd = wait until the end of the year for a receiver or pre/pro that does the decoding that your player will not, and no 1080p, as well as a miniscule amount of studio support.

Well I read your rant. I am not talkin about PS3. Analog gear wont be useful as the copy protection will necessitate HDMI which as you know carries both audio and video signal. New firmware will be required on audio receivers in order to decode hi def audio correctly. Analog can of course carry anything but 1080P is basically HDMI 1.3 due to copywrite protection and the audio is going to be carried with that.

In order to hear "full rez audio" you will need the updated firmware as part of the decoding processon ANY hi def audio capable receiver. Now you are suggesting that someone would use an HDMI out for video and still be able to use 8 analog outs for 7.1 audio. First, I am not sure that that will be possible, but second--nobody is gonna do that. People want touse their HDMI connect only and maybe a coax dig or optical just like today. very few people are gonna buy 7 analog connections and fiddle with that and most do not have receivers that accept all of that analog input for each separate audio channel. SACD and DVD-A have essentially failed by the way--so thats not a very good example.

Also, it really isnt game over. The PS3, just like the XBOX is by no means a slam dunk quality player for movies. If that was the case then why make any other players at all? I'm not really concerned about who is winnig, only that the HDMI chip specs, 1080P content, 1080P displays, and 1080P players are far from being on the same page at this point. I mean nothing is avaialable or set, and its all really expensive. Very few people will spend the bucks on all of the technology pieces to make this work.

How were the audio demos at CES flawed? Please tell me. I mean NOBODY could hear any difference. The demos were run by DTS and dolby in their own set ups. They were great. But not better.

Reload!

Why do you think there are 7.1analog outs on most BD players seen at CES?
Anolog outs are fully capable of delivering even 192/24.
It seems hd dvd is only required to have 2 built in lossless channels, and the two Toshiba models only have 5.1 channels, with all but two, downrezzed to regular dd/dts.

The actual announced titles so far for hi res audio soundtracks are all on BD only movies, and are linear lpcm with zero compression..... or actual true lossless audio.
You see BD can skip right by DTS HD and DD with its higher average bit rate and 50gb disc if it chooses to, and so far, it chooses to.

So its true that for hd dvd, you will need one of these receivers, pre/pros next year to hear hi res soundtracks, but BD is no one trick pony.

BD = actual 1080p and 7.1 lossless audio.
hd dvd = 1080i with no more than 2 channels of lossless audio unless you replace your current gear next year.

Well lets try it again...

1. Its not about a BD vs HD-DVD competition--the market will settle that.

2. Actually I didnt see any analog outputs being used in the hi def demos at CES. What I saw was HDMI interconnects.

3. Almost nobody has a 7.1 surround system in their homes. Some do. But very few. 5.1 is what is prevalent in HT set ups and all of those HTIBs sold every day at the big box retailers.

4. I like analog myself. But very few folks are going to buy and hook up 7 analog connections, a sub pre-out, and an HDMI as well. How silly. Also, there is discussion as to whether analog audio will be available when HDMI is in use at the same time. Moreover, almost NO ONE has analog channel inputs on the receivers for speakers. They are out there but very few.

5. Therefore, in the big picture, unfortunately, analog audio outputs have no relevance at all. Its gonna be HDMI whether we like it or not.

6. The only way Hi Def DVD, for audio and video, eclipse todays offerings is if; 1. You own a true native 1080P display. 2. You own a true 1080P player. 3. You have HD-DVDs/BD by purchase or rental. 4. You have the correct HDMI chipset in your player and display. 5. And you have an HDMI interconnect. 6. And you have a firmware updated receiver. Cost?- At a minimum--6500 bucks.

7. Right now, the availability to set that up is non-existent. No content and no hardware. But it will come on board bit by bit over the year I am sure. And it will be, price-wise- out of reach for 99% of the consumer population of the United States.

8. Nobody can hear any difference between the new audio formats and the old ones, the reason is that there is no loss of data in most DVDs today becuase the current technical limits are sufficient to carry the audio engineers creations as mixed. Simply put, the new audio codec doesnt add much if anything in most films/movies.