DVDfile.com forum for DVD, Blu-Ray, and HD-DVD - View Single Post - You don't have to choose between HD-DVD or SD-DVD.

08-17-1999, 04:27 PM

I just read Peter's ramblings about the future of HD-DVD etc. Why oh why do people continue to make this into a debate over "choice" that will never matter? This is not laserdisc vs DVD. There's not one format vs the other. We have a 5" optical disc. We have digital MPEG2 video. Any future HD-DVD player will read today's red-laser SD-DVD's. Allow me to ramble for a moment. Peter, please make note of these comments as the tone of your article may mislead some people:

1. When blue-laser technology becomes viable for consumer use, we will indeed get hi-def movies stored on 5" discs. They will be HD-DVD's.

2.The players that become availalbe to read these HD-DVD's will also play today's red-laser DVD's, as well as standard CD's They will be multi-format players (heck, they'll probably also play DVD-audio discs, Sony's DSD discs, and have digital fire-wire connections).

3.Those future HD-DVD players will have selectable output resolution for HD-software, so you could, for instace, play HD-DVD's and watch them in 480i on your NTSC 4x3 set.

4.Those future HD-DVD players will also have selectable resolution output for today's red-laser DVD's, so you could watch today's DVD's in 480P or upconverted to 720P or 1080I on your HDTV.

5.Just because a format becomes available doesn't mean every studio will suddenly release every title on it. Think about Disney's resistance just to give us animated titles as well as the resolution of 16x9 on red-laser DVD!!!

6.Bottom line? This is not a format war. It won't be a format war. There's no phenomenon of 'buying into' DVD only to be 'burned' when HD-DVD comes out.

It's a DVD *player* war. Don't spend thousands on a stupid Faroudja DVD player or a THX Pioneer DVD player today that just output cheezy 480I. Just spend hundreds on a nice little red-laser 480I DVD player. The future has an HD-DVD player with your name on it that will upconvert all your red-laser DVD's with near-HDTV quality. Then the debate will be when the studios will work through the copyright so we can watch our HD-DVD collection in native 1080P.

-DaViD Boulet

08-17-1999, 04:27 PM	#1 (permalink)
DaViD Boulet	You don't have to choose between HD-DVD or SD-DVD. I just read Peter's ramblings about the future of HD-DVD etc. Why oh why do people continue to make this into a debate over "choice" that will never matter? This is not laserdisc vs DVD. There's not one format vs the other. We have a 5" optical disc. We have digital MPEG2 video. Any future HD-DVD player will read today's red-laser SD-DVD's. Allow me to ramble for a moment. Peter, please make note of these comments as the tone of your article may mislead some people: 1. When blue-laser technology becomes viable for consumer use, we will indeed get hi-def movies stored on 5" discs. They will be HD-DVD's. 2.The players that become availalbe to read these HD-DVD's will also play today's red-laser DVD's, as well as standard CD's They will be multi-format players (heck, they'll probably also play DVD-audio discs, Sony's DSD discs, and have digital fire-wire connections). 3.Those future HD-DVD players will have selectable output resolution for HD-software, so you could, for instace, play HD-DVD's and watch them in 480i on your NTSC 4x3 set. 4.Those future HD-DVD players will also have selectable resolution output for today's red-laser DVD's, so you could watch today's DVD's in 480P or upconverted to 720P or 1080I on your HDTV. 5.Just because a format becomes available doesn't mean every studio will suddenly release every title on it. Think about Disney's resistance just to give us animated titles as well as the resolution of 16x9 on red-laser DVD!!! 6.Bottom line? This is not a format war. It won't be a format war. There's no phenomenon of 'buying into' DVD only to be 'burned' when HD-DVD comes out. It's a DVD player war. Don't spend thousands on a stupid Faroudja DVD player or a THX Pioneer DVD player today that just output cheezy 480I. Just spend hundreds on a nice little red-laser 480I DVD player. The future has an HD-DVD player with your name on it that will upconvert all your red-laser DVD's with near-HDTV quality. Then the debate will be when the studios will work through the copyright so we can watch our HD-DVD collection in native 1080P. -DaViD Boulet