Blu-Ray DVD's and HDDVD's

[MuNch]

I want to know some details and recommendations from people who have experience with this gear. I currently have a HD compatible LCD screen (Though it is not 1080i HD) Samsung something or other. I have an old Toshiba DVD player, a Wii and a DENON amp with 2 speakers. I hate DVD's that give me the 2 black bands on my screen due to their ultra-wide format and aspect ratio of 2.40:1 and honestly it now pisses me when I can now watch Channel 9 and get Harry Potter in HD that fills the whole screen as well.

Now what I want to know is what would be the best progression to move my current setup to a High-Definition setup without being too expensive. I won't replace the screen because its not a bad one, I however have quite a few DVD's that I have both purchased and aquired.

I was thinking of getting a PS3 with the Blu-Ray thing, but it doesnt play DVD's does it? I can't spend too much money but I want good quality.

What do you guys do about the 'letterboxing' that occurs with 2.40:1 movies ?

Advice welcome

[Brougham]

Yeah, PS3 is a full Blu-ray DVD player and can also play std DVD's.

[Aphex]

WHS ^^^

You're screen is HD but not 1080i? Or its 1080i not 1080p? Im thinking the latter from what ive seen of your gear mate.

PS3 would be my choice for a stepup. Also some surround speakers to go with your system to gain the full experience on offer from the rest of your equipment. If your amp doesnt support atleast 5.1 with both optical and coaxial inputs, UPGRADE NOW. Go for something that supports 7.1 in readiness for when full THX sound is common place on Blu-ray. Dont let the haters tell you it wont happen either, because they're the same mob that also said DTS would never be common place and that AC3 would rule the audio format battle.

The aspect ratio thing be adjusted to a degree depending on your equipment. For me, I have zoom adjustment on the screen itself, on the foxtel iQ box, on the XB360 which is sometimes used for DVDs and on the DVD player itself. Usually with all of these adjustments, one can come to a happy medium. It does shit me that you have to keep adjusting for different shows/dvds etc but unfortunately at this point, you dont have much choice. One would have to assume that with the next generation of equipment, choice of aspect ratio will be set by the screen or other hardware which will then be kept uniform irrespective of the signal source.

[Fat Pat]

Just a quickie....HD-DVD has been killed-off.

Blu-Ray has one this battle ala VHS/Beta from 20 years or so ago.....

[lee]

Does your TV not have a 'zoom' option, that crops off a wee bit off the sides to get rid of the letterbox effect? Short of buying the right aspect ratio media, I think that's probably your best option (or live with it).

As the grumpy moderator said, my money would be on the ps3 (and fight night, because it's an awesome game)

[kwakas]

Originally Posted by Fat Pat

Just a quickie....HD-DVD has been killed-off.

Blu-Ray has one this battle ala VHS/Beta from 20 years or so ago.....

what fat pat said. Go the PS3 or something else with bluray capabilities. HDDVD is a thing of the past.

[Brougham]

Originally Posted by lee

As the grumpy moderator said

rep added!

[Klink]

Originally Posted by Aphex

WHS ^^^

You're screen is HD but not 1080i? Or its 1080i not 1080p? Im thinking the latter from what ive seen of your gear mate.

720 is still classed as HD
1080 is called "Full HD"

And to echo what the others have said... Bluray is the only Full HD consumer format now. HDDVD is no longer in production... however certain titles that were only released on HDDVD have not been released in Bluray flavour yet (Matrix Trilogy for example).

As far as the differences... visually I cant tell. I have a Full HD tv running off my HTPC and when I play a Bluray title vs HDDVD they both look fully sick. You can even see the wrinkles and plastic surgery lines on the actor's faces (aparrently the actors arent a big fan of HD... because it is pushing the bar of facial perfection even higher, boo hoo!).

[Aphex]

If you want to get technical 576p is HD.

My point was more direct at MuNch knowing what gear he has rather than a general comment. It would be unusual for a screen of that vintage to support 720p but not 1080i.

[Klink]

A few manufacturers make TVs that are same model-line but one will do 720 and one will do 1080.

They call them both HD.

*shrug*

Ive also never seen 576 called HD. Whether its progressive or interlaced... For curiosity sake, how did you find that out?

[merctom]

well seeing as hd-dvd and blu-ray use exactly the same codecs yes they do look exactly the same - the only difference is the media they are on not the quality.

Get the PS3 - atm it is the best value blu-ray player, full 2.1 support, and will be able to be upgraded to whatever else they add into the format. Amp wise have a look at the yamaha's - currently have the cheapest "true HD" one. Less wires is always good. Good thing about the ps3 is that it will upscale all your dvd's for you, making themlook awesome so its not that big of an issue replacing all your dvd's with blu-ray equivalents.

[merctom]

Originally Posted by Aphex

If you want to get technical 576p is HD.

My point was more direct at MuNch knowing what gear he has rather than a general comment. It would be unusual for a screen of that vintage to support 720p but not 1080i.

576p is not HD - 576p is PAL
NTSC is 480i (which is why it looks like ass)

it also explains the slow adoption of HD here and in europe as the jump is nowhere near as big

[Taylor]

Less wires isn't good. Component shat all over the composite.

Go the PS3, buy a 150-200gig 2.5" HD and swap it for the 40GB one in the PS3, then you can put all your downloaded content on it and watch whenever you want. Including your mp3's.

Pretty swish bit of kit for what it costs.

[Klink]

Originally Posted by merctom

well seeing as hd-dvd and blu-ray use exactly the same codecs yes they do look exactly the same - the only difference is the media they are on not the quality.

Home Entertainment: HD DVD and Blu-ray Compared Using Identical Source Material

Anyway... I didnt come here to start arguing... just adding some info.

[merctom]

and HDMI shits all over component

oh and the audio goes through the same cable - at no loss - infact it is preferable over optical.

[lee]

Originally Posted by merctom

well seeing as hd-dvd and blu-ray use exactly the same codecs yes they do look exactly the same - the only difference is the media they are on not the quality.

Get the PS3 - atm it is the best value blu-ray player, full 2.1 support, and will be able to be upgraded to whatever else they add into the format. Amp wise have a look at the yamaha's - currently have the cheapest "true HD" one. Less wires is always good. Good thing about the ps3 is that it will upscale all your dvd's for you, making themlook awesome so its not that big of an issue replacing all your dvd's with blu-ray equivalents.

so wait, ps3 can't output 5.1? that sux

[MuNch]

Excellent, thanks guys. Yeah I thought I was stuck on the aspect ratio thing, especially got confused when a rich guy from Justines work says his version of Harry Potter shows fine on his TV with no black lines. I can't for the life of me find non-widescreen editions and I always keep looking out for 1.78:1 format's.

Great to hear the PS3 does support the DVD, havent actually looked at the specs but its a great argument. Teenie wants to go for Blu-Ray and I would like a PS3 for better games than the Wii, so I think its a nice package.

Cheers for the help!

[merctom]

Originally Posted by Klink

Home Entertainment: HD DVD and Blu-ray Compared Using Identical Source Material

Anyway... I didnt come here to start arguing... just adding some info.

see things like this annoy me - lets get one format in VC-1 and the other in Mpeg-2... bluray supports VC-1 as well.

[Taylor]

PS3 : Dolby 5.1ch, DTS 5.1ch, LPCM 7.1ch, AAC, others *1 *2

[merctom]

Originally Posted by lee

so wait, ps3 can't output 5.1? that sux

of course it can - it has both optical and hdmi - both support up to 7.1