As 2008 begins, the War for HD continues to rage on. For those with HD televisions we’ve already begun our venture into getting our hands on as much HD content as we can, be it buying ATSC antennas for over the air free HD stations or purchasing HD channels from the cable and satellite companies. Movies however are where our hearts are, it’s the reason we bought HD televisions. Bigger screens, better resolution, more detail. We want our movie experience to be just as good as it would be in the theater, but alas, regular DVD quality is a measly 480i while our TVs do 1080p. We want more, we deserve more, and more is out there you just have to know what to look for.
The most current format war raging on as we speak is HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray. Both have their pros and cons, but overall offer an outstanding HD experience. We’ll get into these formats a bit later. The other option you have is to purchase an up-scaling DVD player which will output to a “near HD” picture. These are basically your current options and we will go into each one in-depth.
Most of us have a fairly extensive DVD collection and may have just finished replacing all the VHS tapes we owned with new shiny DVDs. We can’t imagine having to replace our DVD collection with the new HD-DVD or Blu-Ray disks, but we want to take advantage of our new HDTV. We could just use our old trusty DVD player and let our TV upscale the image, but the internal scaler of many TVs isn’t as good as the ones you can get in an up-scaling DVD player. What a scaler does is take the 480i image and fill in the blanks as best it can to either 1080i or 1080p depending on your HDTV. What you get is a picture that “should” look better than the regular SD image, however you have to remember that the source is still only 480 lines, an up-scaling DVD player can only do so much which is why it is labeled as “Near HD”. If you’re not ready to make the jump due to the format war then an up-scaling DVD player may be just what you’re looking for. Sony and Panasonic make some great ones that are pretty cheap, around $100 USD, but I’d stay away from the Samsung ones, they might make great TVs, but their DVD players lack the image quality I look for in a good up-scaling DVD player; the image looks muddy and washed out instead of crisp and detailed.
This brings us to the format war of HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray. There are several players pulling you in both directions. HD-DVD is backed by big names Toshiba and Microsoft, while Blu-Ray has Panasonic and Sony. Both formats offer Full HD 1080p encoded movies, which if you have not seen one, will blow you away. The image is ultra crisp and clear, many of the brand new movies look like live action. Simply put, it’s amazing! However, both formats have their ups and downs. HD-DVD has been touted to have better image quality due to VC1 compression, which Blu-Ray now also uses, and more features than Blu-Ray, however Blu-Ray has better storage capacity, which HD-DVD claims to be working on. You really have to do some digging to get to the truth. HD-DVD does have more features, many of which Blu-Ray is just starting to implement in their current generation of players. HD-DVD players are cheaper than Blu-Ray and therefore more budget friendly. With Blu-Ray playing catch up you might wonder why not just go HD-DVD? Well, the fact of the matter is, Sony has more money and they’ve shown how much power and influence they have gained since their last format flop known as Betamax. Distribution of the PS3 has picked up recently as both a cheap Blu-Ray player and game console, prices on the “entry” level models of the Blu-Ray player have dropped recently, though still not to the prices of HD-DVD players. But the biggest thing to land in Blu-Ray’s lap is the 2008 CES announcement that Warner Studios was going Blu-Ray exclusive. This gives Blu-Ray 70% of the movie distribution Market as HD-DVD is left with Universal, and Paramount/Dreamworks. Rumors are circulating that Paramount/Dreamworks are poised to jump to Blu-Ray by activating a clause in their HD-DVD contracts that allow them to switch in the event that Warner Studios went Blu-Ray exclusive. Furthermore, rumors are circulating that Universal has not renewed their HD-DVD contract and are moving forward with plans to move towards Blu-Ray exclusivity. Whatever rumors you do or don’t believe, things sure seem to be pointing towards Blu-Ray as the out and out winner. I can't tell you what to buy, nor would I, but either way you go, you are guarenteed to be enjoying some picture perfect movies!
I myself have chosen Blu-Ray, a friend I work with went with HD-DVD. We’re both happy with what we’ve chosen and get to enjoy the best image quality available on our HDTVs so even of Blu-Ray loses I still get to enjoy HD content now, same with HD-DVD. If you’re leery buy an up-scaling DVD player, it’s not like your DVDs are going anywhere any time soon. Either way, take advantage of the fact you have an HDTV and get some gear to push your picture quality to the max. You’d be amazed at the picture quality of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray and refreshed at the life up-scaling DVD players can bring to your old DVDs. So get off your butt and hit the stores, you’ll be glad you did!
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