01-06-08: Audiotomb
I'm happy to see this resolving to one format (although it hurts for those who recently bought HD DVD.
I'm sad to see it end this way (I consider the Warner announcement to be the death-knell for HD DVD), but not because I bought an HD DVD player. I knew going in that HD DVD might not win, but I bought anyway figuring that for $250 I could watch HD DVDs from Netflix in the meantime and that if HD DVD lost out I'd still have an excellent upconverting player (which it certainly is).
I'm sad to see it end this way because I consider HD DVD to be the better mousetrap, the more elegant solution.
* HD DVD had 30GB dual-layer discs ready from the get-go in April 2006. Blu-ray took quite awhile before they could offer anything above 25 GB.
* HD DVD offered stunning digital transfers from the beginning; they didn't appear on Blu-ray until they got the 50 GB capacity working.
* HD DVD players all had ethernet ports for instant firmware upgrades; with most Blu-ray players you have to wait for the CD-ROM in the mail or burn your own on your computer.
* Most HD DVDs at least had Dolby Digital Plus and a fair number have Dolby TrueHD; very few Blu-ray discs do, and the enhanced sound quality is not a requirement of the Blu-ray spec.
* The standard ethernet port on HD DVD players enabled interactive features on many HD DVD discs; Blu-ray discs seldom offer this feature and according to reviews I've read, trying to use them on Blu-ray often results in freeze-up.
So I'm bummed because I think Blu-ray has many more kinks to work out, and with less pressure from HD DVD competition, how long will Sony take to work out these kinks?
01-06-08: Audiotomb
I have a Pioneer Elite 1130 50" plasma
it is two years old 1080i
the picture is fabulous on blu ray
I've been tempted to buy the new 60" Pioneer 1080p plasma but $7.5k over something that is as good as I have at home is hard to justify right now.
I'd be curious to hear your thoughts johnnyb53
I read a little about your Pioneer Elite and it's an impressive unit that even figures out how to convert incoming 3:2 pulldown signals to 3:3 and send them to the screen with a 72Hz refresh rate. I've also lately been torturing myself over how--with a 1280x720 display I have to look at 1080-line input downconveted to 720. Even so, it's a highly satisfying display, and your Pioneer Elite plasma would far exceed my RP LCD Hitachi.
Although your Pioneer Elite accepts a 1080i signal, its maximum line resolution is 768, so that's probably what it downconverts 1080i input to (which would be about 5% sharper than 720p). I think this level of resolution is as good or better than most theaters I've ever been to.
OTOH, I've also seen 1080p-sourced Blu-ray player plugged into a 46" Sony Bravia LCD 1080p display, and it was a new level of sharpness I'd never seen before. I could not see pixels until I was about a foot from the screen. 1080p displays twice the pixels of 720p (or 1080i downconverted to 768p). Still, I don't watch anything at 1.5 feet away, and from my viewing distance (about 7 ft) 720p looks fine.
So my attitude right now is, yeah, 1080p is noticeably better, but not enough to go thru the hassle of selling my current unit and the expense of buying a new one. For me, if I replaced my TV it would have more to do with improving contrast ratio, low-level detail and color balance. But since you have a Pioneer Elite plasma, you already have the state of the art in those parameters.
I'd only "upgrade" to the new Pioneer Elite 1080p plasma if you have $6500 to burn and that slight improvement in resolution is meaningful to you. It'll be a long time before there's much meaningful hi-def content to show the difference anyway.
