Blu-Ray Blues

[Wan-Fu]

This applies to Blu-Ray and HDDVD just the same, but the title would have been less sexy.
System wars aside, I have been mulling over hi-def formats when something hit me. I just upgraded to 6.1 and have a big widescreen etc. etc., but the only movies I find myself really excited about getting in hi-def are the big budget action sci/fi/horror thrillers that show over-the top visuals and make the house shake when the subwoofer hits. That's it. Literally. I don't know if its just my personal taste, but buying classics like Full Metal Jacket or even the Godfather in hi-def do absolutely nothing for me. Upgraded visuals in movies of their caliber and.or genre is absolutely pointless to me-- it will add nothing to the experience, because those movies in particular, not to mention comedies, rely on dialogue more than anything else. Well, there is nothing "high definition" about dialogue at all-- so why would you even bother? Am I alone here?

[DrunkenThumbmaster]

This applies to Blu-Ray and HDDVD just the same, but the title would have been less sexy.
System wars aside, I have been mulling over hi-def formats when something hit me. I just upgraded to 6.1 and have a big widescreen etc. etc., but the only movies I find myself really excited about getting in hi-def are the big budget action sci/fi/horror thrillers that show over-the top visuals and make the house shake when the subwoofer hits. That's it. Literally. I don't know if its just my personal taste, but buying classics like Full Metal Jacket or even the Godfather in hi-def do absolutely nothing for me. Upgraded visuals in movies of their caliber and.or genre is absolutely pointless to me-- it will add nothing to the experience, because those movies in particular, not to mention comedies, rely on dialogue more than anything else. Well, there is nothing "high definition" about dialogue at all-- so why would you even bother? Am I alone here?

I agree %100 percent. That's why I only go to the movies to see big action/scifi/fantasy type movies. If the movie doesn't take advantage of the movie experience why go. However I did see Kill Bill at the moviews But even that was an action flick.

I think studios are going to be in for a rude awakeing if they think people are going to upgrade there movie collections to the Hi-Def formats. This isn't like going from VHS to DVD. Hell majority of the people probably couldn't even see the difference.

[silversparrow]

This isn't like going from VHS to DVD. Hell majority of the people probably couldn't even see the difference.

This year I upgraded to HD cable and I have to admit, the difference isn't as striking as I thought it would be (minus the widescreen aspect ratio). I suppose it has something to do with being used to much higher resolutions on the PC monitor.

[Gadfly2317]

What you are saying is exactly true. In fact, my favorite thing on HD is watching nature films on "Discovery HD." Everything looks better in HD, but I don't find myself wanting to shell out big time to replace my library when every year more and more content is delivered on-demand, in HD, at the touch of a button.

[theWacoKid]

I've had the chance to see hd-dvd being demoed on 37inch Toshiba lcd displays at three different locations. Is it better than plain vanilla dvd? Yes, is it a quantum jump? No, not with a display running in 720p and only 37inches. There were no crowds milling around the displays. In fact, I was the only one who seemed interested. File this one under ho-hum, especially for the masses, who are really not going to care about either hd-dvd or bluray.

[Wan-Fu]

After doing some fact checking, I don't understand exactly what Blu-Ray in the ps3 has to offer beyond potentially swapping disks. Is that it? Is it that simple, or is there another unforseen advantage? If there is something proven, I sure as hell would like to know what it is. What can blu-ray with one disk do that dvd-9 cannot do with two, especially considering advanced compression techniques, or as we have seen, even oblivion doesn't fill up a dvd 9. I could see it if perhaps you could fit a trilogy of games on one disk, but that option doesn't work well with games like it does movies. And has anyone seen or confirmed RSX specs outside of press releases? I'm not into technobabble, but a layman's comparison of unified shaders vs.rsx's conventional design would be nice.