what's everyone opinions on HD and Blu-ray?

Hi,
I recently bought a HD LCD tv. When I bought the telly in the shop, they had it connected up to a hd source and it looked really,really good. (only found out about that when i bought). When I connected it up to my dvd player at home it does not look as good as it did in the shop. So now I'm thinking about buy a hd source for it. I don't really want to get sky hd because of cost and they have only 12 channels. So I have been looking at HD dvd.

What I would like to know is what's everyone opinions on HD and blu-ray?

just get a ps3, that will fix most of your problems

Hi,
I'm thinking about buying a ps3 after Christmas

My opinion? I have had HD since they first came out. Only here lately are there enough broadcast channels to make me happy about the whole thing. Did I say happy? Sorry, after having the arangement for the last five years I have become totally unimpressed by the whole thing. I have a mix of analog and HD broadcast through my cable company so I am **** to switch back and forth between them. At first I could really tell the difference in the picture quality, now I just don't see it anymore. I have become use to switching back and forth and now I am indifferent to the whole thing. This was my hobby, getting the latest and the greatest in AV equipment but somthing changed my mind about that.
I went to the store to buy a DVD player/burner here a while back, without knowing it I arrived the first day blue ray hit the shelves. I asked all the questions only to find out I could play blue ray disks on them, but could not record HD broadcast on them. The blue ray burner has yet to hit the market and I am waiting for that............maybe
The problem? I am tired of buying tech that goes obsolete in three months. Even the 1080 picture sets have improved with new tech, 1080p istead of 1080i. Does blue ray handle that?
My tivo is fine, but what I want is what I had, a tv set and a recording device like the vcr's use to be. A simple reliable technology thats compatible with everyone else's stuff. I want to burn or record something and stick it in my closet and be able to watch it in a month or a few years from now, whatever I want. Not pull it out and and find its not compatinble with the junk I just bought last week.
Signed,
fed up

Here's some facts which will give you a good idea of how things are at the moment....

1. Porn is pretty much only available on HD-DVD. Blu-Ray has some titles but they are for the most part, only coming from small companies that burn the discs in a PC. HD-DVD replicators number in the dozens with many overseas while Blu-Ray discs are only replicated by Sony (US/ASIA/Europe) and a few other companies here in the US which charge a lot of money for Blu-Ray replication.

2. Blu-Ray has yet to achieve a finalized software standard as they keep adding and changing things in the format which has led to the issue of current players not being able to fully or partially play future titles that are authored under the next version of the format. HD-DVD has it's software figured out for the most part and the only big issues with the format are the combo discs and the new triple-layer disc which supposedly might not work on current players though nobody has actually shown proof that it won't work since there are no discs in production.

3. HD-DVD combos (which unfortunately make up a large amount of new hit films) have serious issues with disc bonding and not playing after you reach a certain point in the movie.

4. Blu-Ray has more bandwidth due to it's capacity which in theory means a better picture and more robust sound since Blu-Ray is able to use uncompressed or lossless audio easily. All the titles released on Blu-Ray (except for a select few from niche companies) that are also released on HD-DVD use the HD-DVD video transfer so there's little if any difference between them apart from audio.

5. HDMI is great as long as you're directly connecting it into the TV but if you connect it to a switch or home theater receiver, you will likely have issues with what is called the "handshake" which automatically configures the video resolution for displays as well as the audio. What that means is that if you have a 1080P TV, a 1080P source such as a Blu-Ray player, and you have 1080P HDMI inputs on your TV, then you should (under normal circumstances) have a perfect 1080P video feed directly into your TV. Now if your TV only had 1080I HDMI inputs (which many cheaper or older displays have) you would not be able to select 1080P output from your Blu-Ray player menus as the TV would not accept it. That also means that if you have a receiver that has an HDMI connection, a TV with HDMI, and an HD source with HDMI, under ideal circumstances (which usually only happens with high end gear or stuff made from one company using the same HDMI chipsets) you can have problems if the equipment says different stuff to each other. For example your HDMI TV might say to the receiver "I can do 1080P", your receiver says the same thing, and your Xbox 360 says it to the receiver as well, but because the HDMI chipsets are different versions with different capabilities, your Xbox 360 won't give you 1080P or your receiver will give you 480p because it couldn't pass the HDMI flow from the 360 to the TV properly. I know that was a long winded bit of info but it's an issue consumers often find out about after they buy a bunch of expensive stuff and it doesn't work as logic suggests it should.

FWIW, I prefer HD-DVD myself

Hi,
Thanks for all the replies

I recently just bought a new LCD tv, I think my telly is only 1080i.

Does anyone think that HD dvd or blu-ray will take off? I'm quite happy with normal dvd.

I have to say thanks McMoofin for your catching us up on a few things, that was great and kind of what I expected to hear at this point. The problem is that there is to many companies doing to many different things to our vid tech. And while on the surface blue ray makes sense for the end all product, with its technology based in blue shift compression technology, we have to remember, or at least the big corps should remember, the public is fickle. There is still only one row of blue ray disks on sale at best buy, its been quit a while, don't you think? There was once a battle between beta and VHS, while beta was the better tech, we all remember how that played out.
Me? I am on hold. I will wait until somthing standardises this whole mess...
Remember Lazer discs???? Bwaa Ha Ha ha ha ha ha
Oh, and congrats on your purchase Ewandude, I am sure you will love it.

I think HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray is going to be the whole Betamax vs VHS all over again. It doesn't matter which is the superior format, marketing is going to decide the outcome, if indeed there is one. Furthermore, I don't see normal DVDs going away any time soon, especially as a lot of old material is probably not of a high enough quality to benefit from HD treatment. My personal opinion is that it's better to wait until something U want to see comes out in one format or the other & then make the choice.

PS. Can U get HD Freeview in your area?

To me Blue-Ray and HD-DVD are good but also bad. The good points is that the quality kicks the ass out of dvd and brings a more cinematic fell to playing movies in your home, the sound is also alot better than dvd (HD - DTS Digital Surround). But the bad is the number of people who have spent alot of money in building up a decent dvd collection, to now having to replace them with HD media, but to be fair to the studios they have not overpriced new HD media (Bourne Ultimatum £17.98 from amazon). To see what is coming out and to find out more about HD content in both formats go here http://www.highdefdigest.com/

Thanks for the replies everyone.

im waiting for the prices on the DVD's to come down before i stop buying the normal ones

From my limited knowledge, I think you really can't go wrong with either format in the interim. No one knows when or if there will be a winner or a loser though some would have you believed a resolution to that is near. Blu-Ray and HD-DVD both look fantastic but the source is very much scarce. TV shows are mostly in 720p which is, for the most part, identical to 1080i/p. My TV is 720p and I mostly buy the content on disc. In terms of hardware, there are so many deals on HD-DVD right now that it makes it a no brainer for someone with a budget for only one. Content wise, I think they're pretty even stevens right now but correct me if I'm wrong. This is why I said going with either is a win-win as there's no indication the war will end anytime soon.

What about the new 2080Z thats coming out next month?