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Samsung Ships the First Blu-Ray Player
DigitalDame2 writes "PCMag.com reports that beginning June 25th, consumers will be able to purchase the first Blu-Ray player: the Samsung BD-P1000. The BD-P1000 is twice the price of the HD-A1 ($999.99 list), but supports full 1080p playback, something the first generation of HD-DVD players do not. It also up-converts conventional DVDs to 1080p to improve video quality and comes with HDMI, Component, S-video, and composite outputs. The BD-P1000 will be sold at more than 200 retail locations, including Best Buy, Tweeter, and Circuit City, and 10 Blu-Ray titles will be available as well."
Gosh! Only $999.99 list (or as we learned from The Price Is Right, the price you ask if you never plan to actually sell any, except to the most gullible or desperate, actual price will probably be about $700) I can wait.
When VCRs came out I bought a rather nice one for ~900$US. When CD's came out I bought a nifty CD player for about 700$US. I was a little more patient with DVDs but eventually got a DVD drive for a home computer and then a portable player (computer ~70$US, Portabl ~1000$US) As I'm pretty well past the point of being impressed with Eye Candy in cinema, I'll probably only get a Blu-Ray when there's significant offerings and most of the newer films I must have are only available via that channel.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
There are only 5-10 tvs that will even display 1080p right now, not even the Sony SXBRs can (NOTE many TVs actually display 1080p, but only accept 1080i input, like the SXBR for example).
As can be seen on this chart 720p will do for for most people. The human eye can't resolve the extra detail in the picture from 8' on a 42" diagonal.
About 30 for HD-DVD http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/format.cfm?classID= 1= 2
and 25 within the next month for BLU-RAY http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/format.cfm?classID
Not that anyone in their right mind would purchase either since both formats are DRM - Defective Recorded Media.
HR-HDTV - full res HDTV quality encodes
If you think the HR xvids are equivalent to full res HDTV, you are missing out.
They are only 960x540 and the bitrate is nowhere near enough to prevent artifacts like macroblocking and mosquito noise.
Don't get me wrong - the HR encodes are better than most any analog tv signal, but it is rare that they are better than a good DVD much less the equal of HD.
Capable of 1080p60.
Of course... There isn't any 1080p60 CONTENT. And there isn't going to be, except maybe technical demos, for quite a while. Nearly all films are shot at 24p and any decent HDTV will inverse-telecine back to 1080p24 from 1080i30 telecined frames. And any video-source material out there will be shot in either 720p or 1080i, so really, the 1080p60 is just an additional tick-box on the feature list at this point.
Heck, force 24 fps film to be output at 1080p60, and it could look WORSE than telecined 1080i30 because of cadence problems.