[TruJade]

Not only do i not know the difference between Blu-ray and HD DVD
but i didn't care, until i read on the CNN ticker that movies
such as Shrek 3, the Bourne Ultimatium and other soon

to be new releases will only be released in HD or Blu-Ray format.
NO More "normal" DVDs. My understanding is that one format can be
played on a regular DVD player but the quality is poor.

WHY on EARTH are they trying to get rid of DVD's
it hasn't even been 20 years! Ridicluous!
It's sort of like with gaming systems, whats the point of buying

them when in 3 years they will be a better
and more effecient system. If this is true then i can
almost guarentee that film piracy will be booming at an uncontrolable rate.

It just doesn't makeany logical sense. No one is gonna buy a
Blu-ray when its cheaper to get a PS3 unless thats Sony's great plan.
But i can say now unless that price dips below $300 i ain't buying!!!!!

[Slade]

By "poor" quality, I assume these HD DVDs will just look like regular DVDs, which have a very nice crisp picture as far as I'm concerned. But I don't know. The whole thing is very stupid. Congress is apparently trying to force network Cable off of the airwaves and force everyone to move to digital by 2009 or some other silly bullshit, too. The media giants have far too much power over this country, and they are absolutely obsessed with gaining and retaining as much as possible. It's disturbing and sickening.

[Bond]

Indeed; what's the point of it all, one wonders?

[Chefelf]

Well forcing the regular TV off has more to do with freeing up that particular spectrum to be used for bigger and better things (depending on who buys it, potentially a nationwide internet frequency for wireless).

I think if you saw a regular DVD and an HD-DVD side by side you'd see there's an unmistakable difference. Thing is, who cares? I know there's a difference between a DVD and an MPG I ripped off of it. But the MPG takes up 1/4 to 1/8 the space and I can enjoy it just as well.

I may not want to watch The Matrix or LOTR this way, but 99% of the movies I'm watching will more than suffice as a compressed file that I can stream off my PC.

[Bond]

Well, what does compression do to a DVD image? Are there any... adverse effects?

[Chefelf]

Well, what does compression do to a DVD image? Are there any... adverse effects?

Sure, much the same way JPG compression affects a photo and MP3 compressions affects a raw WAV recording.

The thing is, there's a point where the file size compression is not worth the loss in quality. You can compress an MP3 to 160kbps and still retain pretty good audio quality (please spare me if you're an audiophile who thinks this is blasphemy) whereas the same MP3 at 128kbps will be noticeable to more people and 96kbps will likely make even someone with a tin ear cringe. Going in the opposite direction the difference between a 192kbps and 320kbps MP3 will be barely audible (again, audiophiles, back off) but the file size is double.

Now, the differently between a 5mb mp3 and a 10mb mp3 mattered a heck of a lot more 8-10 years ago when disk drives were much smaller. In the dawning age of the terabyte drive, it may easily be worth it to backup to 320kbps or just raw WAV files for some users.

For movies you can generally condense a DVD down to a 700mb to 1GB file and still have it be pretty watchable. Compessing it any further (of course, it depends on the movie) may not work as well.

As with anything there's always a diminishing point of returns.

[Bond]

Um... okay. Thanks!

Now, I'm a bit slumped about BluRay; they were so much better than HD-DVD, and they blew it on crap ads. Makes you reflect on the Betamax...

[princesskadee]

What if there comes a day when all digital medium becomes non-functional?

Who will need it then?

a day when all digital medium becomes non functional?, thats a mighty big sweep for many to embrace in technological advances. what youre essentially saying is..a day that arrives when all computers big and small no longer compute by ones and zeros.

And, let's face it, who listens to CD's anymore? When is the last time you put a CD in a CD player and listened to it that way? Every CD I've bought in the past 4 years has come out of its jewel case into my PC DVD-ROM drive, been converted into MP3's, returned to its case and never opened again.

(slowly raises hand shyly in the far back of the room)...uhhmm,...I do

[Bond]

As a matter of fact, one of the vans my parents own still has a casette player.

[princesskadee]

As a matter of fact, one of the vans my parents own still has a casette player.

listen closely to what you said bond...you said "What if there comes a day when all digital medium becomes non-functional?"

if your parents STILL own a conversion van that has a cassette player in it,.well..i think that day has already came...umm..circa,..1983?, perhaps?

This post has been edited by princesskadee: 26 August 2007 - 01:26 PM

[Bond]

Hey, it's an old vehicle; what gives?

Seriously, I do hate it when good mediums fall into disuse.

[Chefelf]

My mom has a cassette player in a fairy recent car. I think cassette players are pretty common in a lot of cars still on the road.

Besides, one of those handy iPod to cassette converters will take care of that nicely.

[Bond]

Yep.

You know what the only advantage vinyl records have over CDs? You can put them on higher speeds; Tom Jones turns into a young black girl, while the Beatles turn into the Chipmunks. It even makes Allan Sherman funnier!