HIGH DEF DVD...WHATS THE LATEST NEWS?

In principle I agree with you Mr F-Lamb. I also think dvd-A and SACD represent a somewhat evolutionary step in certain realms of recorded audio--but it still hasnt panned out and many stores have sent the unsold stuff back never again to stock DVD-A and SACD. Lets see what happens here--

I've not seen 1080p. While it is clear that 1080i from my STB is superior to what I get from DVD, the DVD picture is still stunning. Makes me wonder if PQ will really drive a format change, or is 1080p really that good?

With a B/sR player, I should get a better picture even from my 1080i HDMI plasma set, right? So I could get the new disc player but not have to upgrade the display right away.

Thats right Drubin...you get a better picture now at 720p or 1080i....and down the road when you get a 1080p display, your all set.

Blu Ray has done a lot more forward thinking with there format with all hd dvd players being limited to 1080i, a lot less disc space, and only a Toshiba player that only has 2 channels of lossless audio available with the other three being regular DD/DTS.

Pioneer Elite, Sharp, Sony es,Samsung, Panasonic,Philips Blu Ray player/recorder, LG ect all have players coming, With the Samsung due first, and then in June the Pioneer Elite and Sony es players Blu Ray players.

Actually there are several manufacturers of HD-DVD players besides Toshiba and the deinterlacing will be worked out by the end of the year as a new crop of true 1080P input capable displays become available.

AS far as High rez audio- I was at both dolby and DTS demos and got that cool dts test disc as a freebie. There really isnt any difference between hi res audio and what we have now. No one that I sat with at CES- not one person-claimed to hear any difference. The advertising for the new hi rez audio formats is for "lossless audio transfer so you can hear it just like the audio engineers.'

Cool. The problem is that even with current DVD audio tracks, the fulldata rate capabilities are not being reached in most instances; simply put, there isn't anything to lose in most sound tracks.

Finally, a receiver has to be able to fully decode the new audio codec. SO put your hands up--Whose got one? Answer- just about no one.

I recently spoke with John at Theta Digital and asked him which format they will use. He told me this battle between the two Japanese firms Sony and Toshiba will get ugly and Theta won't commit until at least 2000 titles have been released in one of the two formats. He told me they R&D'd DTS and DD EX to have in the Casablanca lll and to this day there are less than 200 titles between the two. I have gone through the replacing all my media to a new format only to do it again a few years later. I am going to wait and when Theta's Compli or next gen transport for Hi-Def DVDs is out I will commit then. For now I'll stick with regular DVDs and CDs. Just my 2 pennies.