HDTV

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

Albeit for seasonal, I got hired Tuesday at Best Buy. Home theatre. No commission, which I'd have liked, but considering I was working for a placement agency the last two months, I'll take it.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

On that note, I have an upconversion question.

 

Having established that the 360 can indeed upscale 480i/p DVD's, a discussion on GameFaqs has my back against the wall. I offered that you may need the HD add-on to upscale, given my experience a few weeks ago: I ran my 360 off HDMI on a 720p TV, but my movie stayed 4:3. The wheels that are being spun centre around my inabilty to argue that upconversion also turns 4:3 into 16:9, on the grounds that all HD is widescreen.

 

Yay or nay?

[Thoth 0]

On that note, I have an upconversion question.

 

Having established that the 360 can indeed upscale 480i/p DVD's, a discussion on GameFaqs has my back against the wall. I offered that you may need the HD add-on to upscale, given my experience a few weeks ago: I ran my 360 off HDMI on a 720p TV, but my movie stayed 4:3. The wheels that are being spun centre around my inabilty to argue that upconversion also turns 4:3 into 16:9, on the grounds that all HD is widescreen.

 

Yay or nay?

 

If the DVD isn't widescreen, it won't output in 16:9, but it can still output in HD. Put in any anime DVD if you want evidence of this. As long as the 360 is hooked up with VGA or HDMI, that DVD is going to upscale.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

On that note, I have an upconversion question.

 

Having established that the 360 can indeed upscale 480i/p DVD's, a discussion on GameFaqs has my back against the wall. I offered that you may need the HD add-on to upscale, given my experience a few weeks ago: I ran my 360 off HDMI on a 720p TV, but my movie stayed 4:3. The wheels that are being spun centre around my inabilty to argue that upconversion also turns 4:3 into 16:9, on the grounds that all HD is widescreen.

 

Yay or nay?

 

If the DVD isn't widescreen, it won't output in 16:9, but it can still output in HD. Put in any anime DVD if you want evidence of this. As long as the 360 is hooked up with VGA or HDMI, that DVD is going to upscale.

 

Son of a bitch. I got my wires crossed a bit, I guess (pun obviously intended). My thinking was that if HD, is by definition 16:9, then an upscaled 4:3 DVD would be as well.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

You thought the borders would magically be filled with unfilmed content?

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

You thought the borders would magically be filled with unfilmed content?

No. My assumption was that if it's stretching it out (to a degree) by 680 lines, that the main image would be stretched out to.

 

You thought the borders would magically be filled with unfilmed content?

Yes.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I don't follow fully, but this is all magic to me anyway.

 

[Thoth 0]

On that note, I have an upconversion question.

 

Having established that the 360 can indeed upscale 480i/p DVD's, a discussion on GameFaqs has my back against the wall. I offered that you may need the HD add-on to upscale, given my experience a few weeks ago: I ran my 360 off HDMI on a 720p TV, but my movie stayed 4:3. The wheels that are being spun centre around my inabilty to argue that upconversion also turns 4:3 into 16:9, on the grounds that all HD is widescreen.

 

Yay or nay?

 

If the DVD isn't widescreen, it won't output in 16:9, but it can still output in HD. Put in any anime DVD if you want evidence of this. As long as the 360 is hooked up with VGA or HDMI, that DVD is going to upscale.

 

Son of a bitch. I got my wires crossed a bit, I guess (pun obviously intended). My thinking was that if HD, is by definition 16:9, then an upscaled 4:3 DVD would be as well.

 

My understanding is that it really is, super technically, outputting a widescreen signal. With black bars on the left and right sides to make it a 4:3 signal.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

I was pretty close to getting an open box Blu Ray player yesterday for $129 after seeing that no one is going to have a brand new one on sale on Black Friday for less than $179 unless its unannounced.

 

[SuperJerk 0]

You're actually bitching about a blu-ray player costing $179?

 

I bought one a year ago for almost $400, and considered THAT a bargain.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

Here's one, for the sake of discussion: I had supper with my grandparents the other night, in a place that had HD on its screens. When a commercial came on and showed 4:3, they asked why, and I explained the difference. They mentioned they'd seen friends "zoom in" on their screens, and wondered what I thought of it. I said "I leave mine 4:3 since I primarily watch HD anyway, but I figure I'm in the minority. I'd say a 70-30 ratio or so fill the screen at the cost of image quality."

 

They agreed with me, but I wonder how accurate my ratio guess was - thoughts?

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

I filled my screen right up until I got an HD box. I thought it didn't look THAT stretched, but now I chastise everyone else I see doing that. Which is everyone I've ever seen own an HDTV.

 

With Cogeco, I have to manually use my TV's remote to change the aspect ratio. It's on full when I'm watching the HD channels, but if it's time to watch Charles in Charge on Dejaview, I have to set it to 4:3. There is an "HD Zoom" button the remote that does nothing. When visiting a friend in London, his Rogers HD automatically converted non-HD networks to only show up on 4:3 but the "zoom" button actually worked if you wanted it to (which we didn't, as after I hooked up his parents HD receiver last Spring I showed him the error of his ways - he's on board with proper screen formats now). I've been at a friend's house with Bell ExpressVu - same deal, their zoom function actually works but it seems to reset or not work properly. They had their TV set to full zoom for watching Seinfeld on a non-HD channel, then when hockey was on I thought the screen look really bizarre. I figured out the whole zoom thing and fixed it.

 

Of course I have a big f'ing black line / segment running down the left 'pane' of my TV now (which oddly has disappeared in recent weeks) so maybe these no black bars people are on to something.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

It's Marvin. He constantly bitches about how much stuff costs and brags when he gets a deal.

 

Wal Mart will have a Magnavox BR player for $130 but the problem is it sucks, and isn't upgradable although people say it plays discs (most notably the new 007 BRs) that the other players need firmware fixes for. But still. I saw a refurb Sony at their Outlet today for $179 and with no tax was close to getting it but it still seems too much for me considering all the rumors of how Blu Ray will be dead by next year as well.

 

HD DOWNLOADS ARE THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE!!!!*

 

* not for people with 1MBps "broadband" thats capped at 5GB a month.

 

but anyway, thats another rant for another time.

 

 

 

 

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

The Blu Ray rumour is news to wikipedia (which claims the format has a faster grow rate than DVD did). What's on the horizon to take it over?

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

The Blu Ray rumour is news to wikipedia (which claims the format has a faster grow rate than DVD did). What's on the horizon to take it over?

Blu Ray is Dead

 

Blu-ray is in a death spiral. 12 months from now Blu-ray will be a videophile niche, not a mass market product. With only a 4% share of US movie disc sales and HD download capability arriving, the Blu-ray disc Association (BDA) is still smoking dope. Even $150 Blu-ray players won’t save it.

 

Also noted in the article is the Economy and the fact that people can get cheap upconverting DVD players that put out almost as good of a picture as HD and they dont have to spend double the money on the discs either.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

The only people I know who actually own any Blu-Ray discs are PS3 owners. Maybe if the pricing on the PS3 drops a bit more, Blu-Ray could grow in popularity.

 

I'm still in the large group of people that is happy with the picture on my upconverting DVD player. Also, there are so many good deals on DVD discs right now...picked up brand new copies of 300 and Beowulf the other day for about 10 bucks each at Target. Haven't had the chance to watch them yet, but I'm sure they'll look amazing, even on "just" 1080i.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Great news for DVD fans everywhere, I guess. I play DVDs unconverted via component cables - obviously not perfect, but is $10 more a movie really worth it? I'm already getting excellent quality in widescreen.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

The only people I know who actually own any Blu-Ray discs are PS3 owners. Maybe if the pricing on the PS3 drops a bit more, Blu-Ray could grow in popularity.

 

I'm still in the large group of people that is happy with the picture on my upconverting DVD player. Also, there are so many good deals on DVD discs right now...picked up brand new copies of 300 and Beowulf the other day for about 10 bucks each at Target. Haven't had the chance to watch them yet, but I'm sure they'll look amazing, even on "just" 1080i.

 

Add me to that list. $200 for a Blu Ray player is a bargain, but it's still 200 dollars.

[SuperJerk 0]

The Blu Ray rumour is news to wikipedia (which claims the format has a faster grow rate than DVD did). What's on the horizon to take it over?

Blu Ray is Dead

 

Blu-ray is in a death spiral. 12 months from now Blu-ray will be a videophile niche, not a mass market product. With only a 4% share of US movie disc sales and HD download capability arriving, the Blu-ray disc Association (BDA) is still smoking dope. Even $150 Blu-ray players won’t save it.

 

Also noted in the article is the Economy and the fact that people can get cheap upconverting DVD players that put out almost as good of a picture as HD and they dont have to spend double the money on the discs either.

 

Marvin doesn't seem to understand the difference between fact and opinion.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Marvin doesn't seem to understand the difference between fact and opinion.

 

That's not really news.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

My Wal Mart still had about 20 of those Magnavox players for $128 at about 10 am yesterday when I finally got there. Part of the problem being its a crappy magnavox but still, I would have thought they would have flown off the shelves.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Yes, because spending $128 on a totally frivolous thing is a great deal.

[SuperJerk 0]

I'm sure that's what someone 100 years ago said about indoor plumbing and horseless carriages.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Not that exciting, but we were able to get a new 32" Samsung LCD HDTV (720p) for about $525 yesterday, as a Christmas gift for the in-laws. They badly need a new TV, so they should enjoy this one. Still seems crazy how much these TV sets have come down even in just the last year or so.

[Dandy 0]

I got a 65" DLP for $1,199.99 on Friday. Should be here in a few days. My current TV is in the shop, and I figure if it gets fixed properly, I'll just donate it to my parents. I can not wait to see Sunday Ticket in HD on 65"!!!

[Guest Vitamin X]

I'm sure that's what someone 100 years ago said about indoor plumbing and horseless carriages.

 

Yes, because a marginal upgrade over something people don't really want or need is really comparable to a technological advancement which led to winning World War I and not having to shit in a hole in the woods.

 

What the fuck is wrong with people. Blu-Ray players shouldn't cost over $100, not in this economy and a great deal would be like half that. I mean, right here on fucking Amazon, you can get an upconverting to 1080p Samsung DVD player for $69 and free shipping. That's a good deal. Not to mention there are still some people out there who are switching from freakin VHS to DVD, and a lot of people don't care about the picture quality- which is why HDTVs are only owned by 28% of all Americans, and who knows how many of those people are actually getting HD service.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

I got a 65" DLP for $1,199.99 on Friday. Should be here in a few days. My current TV is in the shop, and I figure if it gets fixed properly, I'll just donate it to my parents. I can not wait to see Sunday Ticket in HD on 65"!!!

 

You gotta pay extra to get ST in HD unless you already are.

[Dandy 0]

I have had HD and Sunday Ticket in HD for over a year, Marv. You probably don't remember, but you and I conversed back and forth over the right and wrong of my neighbor and I sharing HD. It worked flawlessly, by the way.

[SuperJerk 0]

I'm sure that's what someone 100 years ago said about indoor plumbing and horseless carriages.

 

Yes, because a marginal upgrade over something people don't really want or need is really comparable to a technological advancement which led to winning World War I and not having to shit in a hole in the woods.

 

What????

 

Everyone knows in the year 2021, spies working for the Western Coalition will smuggle large amounts of intelligence data on the Alliance of States using the same bluray technology currently being used for home entertainment purposes. If it hadn't been for the development of affordable, high-definition media technology, World War III might have easily been lost.

 

Why don't you fucking think about shit like that before you post? What's wrong with you?

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

I have had HD and Sunday Ticket in HD for over a year, Marv. You probably don't remember, but you and I conversed back and forth over the right and wrong of my neighbor and I sharing HD. It worked flawlessly, by the way.

 

How did you do that? Split his cable feed from outside and buy an STB from somewhere else?