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Re: [ARSCLIST] Blu-Ray gets the BetaMax treatment
I think that you're right about the outrage that will come (although there
are almost no people who are able to get off-air TV in parts of the country
like mine, so they rely on cable or satellite and can use their NTSC TVs
forever that way- and when cable TV companies dump their analog, the
customers will yell at the cable companies for making them use set-top
boxes).
Also right about the audience for HD discs of whatever ilk- it is still a
niche market, I think. Only those who feel it's worth their while to buy a
new optical player and have a set that can display the HD material will buy
them. I think that Paramount's (and others who use the lower production
cost argument for supporting HDDVD) argument that it's a price thing is
misguided at this point. Only when enough people have HD AND want to/need
to buy a new optical player will the cost of the player and the lower
potential cost for the HDDVDs matter. (The cost of production issue brings
up again how the "content providers" are once again trying to push what
seems to be an inferior format because it is cheaper to make- they can use
existing lines to produce HDDVDs with little modification, and they are
being subsidized in that by the hardware producers who have thrown in with
that format. Would be nice if there were people in those boardrooms who
could argue for little things like practicality, long-term longevity, etc.
rather than just short-term profits...)
I play blu-rays on a PS3, which was cheaper than a standalone player, and if
blu-ray goes belly-up, I still have a game system and a streaming media
player that can access DVDs via my home network that I have ripped to my
PC... (But I think that inadvertently addresses the niche market point
again...)
-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tom Fine
Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 7:14 AM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Blu-Ray gets the BetaMax treatment
I know a bunch of people with digital cable and a couple who have HD
flat-screen TV's at this point.
Everything I've seen on these systems, including premium channels, has
obvious compression artifacts
(pixellation), not any better than NTSC sound quality, artificially bright
colors and high contrast,
and frequent dropouts/pixel dumps. I can't understand why people aren't up
in arms about this bill
of goods they've been sold, except then they'd be downright militant about
the horrible cellular
phone systems in place in this country.
Like I said, once the NTSC signal starts getting switched off, I predict
some major outrage. I think
most people haven't paid attention and don't know what's coming.
BTW, just to be clear, the forced switch to "high-definition" TV in this
country has nothing to do
with which HD disc format wins or loses. There can be a thriving HD-DVD or
Blu-Ray or whatever
market and with no forced inconvenience/expense to anyone. Many of the next
gen computers will play
these discs, for example, or one can go out and buy (by choice, as opposed
to being forced to
because their old equipment has been obsoleted) an HD monitor and player. It
seems to me that one
who cares about picture quality and "features" so much that they'd invest in
an HD disc system and
be unsatisfied with regular DVD wouldn't be a person who watches too much
broadcast TV anyway, so
his preferences should have nothing to do with the wider market.
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Breneman" <david_breneman@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 3:05 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Blu-Ray gets the BetaMax treatment
> --- Tom Fine <tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> I wonder if either of these HD formats will catch on near-term. I
>> predict a major outrage and
>> perhaps outright rebellion among "da folks" when NTSC TV really
>> gets switched off.
>
> I was hoping for HD-DVD to prevail, simply because it's
> backed by Panasonic, and their DVD recorders also support
> the DVD-RAM format, which is a magneto-optical disk that
> promises much greater longevity than regular DVD-R disks.
> So, I'm hoping we'll get higher-capacity DVD-RAM disks as
> a result. A tenuous hope to hang your hat on, I'll admit.
>
>> Sure, everyone in
>> certain elite groups now has a flat-panel HD television, but most
>> of the rest of us don't and don't
>> want to spend thousands to replace the TV's in our house simply
>> because someone is hyping an allegedly better boob-tube.
>
> My friends with big-screen HD sets have 720P models on which
> the cable company's compression is very obvious, and half the
> time they're watching NTSC pictures stretched out to fit the
> 16x9 aspect ratio of the screen. *That's* progress?!?
>
>
> David Breneman david_breneman@xxxxxxxxx
>
>
>
>
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