The quality and technology used in broadcasting improved hugely a couple of years in...
I remember BBC1 looking better and more "fluid" on my speckly analogue signal than in did on the first generation Sky Digibox.
They used to use the customers existing dish cabling during installation, which did the equipment no justice!
Near 10 years on the BBC1 Picture on a Digibox boasts unrivalled clarity and quality - I dont think that I "got used to it" I think that it improved and evolved as better technology became available.
I dont see what the fuss is with HD myself todays digital pictures are brilliant and dont compare to yesterdays analogue transmissions...
Incidentally my analogue sky always managed to get black or white rain on screen when I really needed to watch something!!!
That is something I definaltely dont miss!

I'm not entirely sure how much to trust that 0.5 films per blu-ray machine statistic (though I have read the original article that quoted it). Each side of the format war seem to come up with a new statistic each week to claim that theirs is better - it's swings and roundabouts at the moment. To be honest I'm not sure either format will necessarily win - neither of them are making much of a dent in DVD sales so far and I imagine that when the next generation of ADSL comes along that high def downloads will be just as (un)likely to take over from DVD as Blu-ray or HD DVD. One of DVD's major benefits over VHS was its longevity - and that's not really changed with the advent of Blu-ray/HD DVD.

I would agree with TH14 though - the PS3 is excellent value as a Blu-ray player considering it is comparable in price to the cheapest standalone players, and yet is also an internet-enabled high def games console, and a network streaming media player too.

Since getting mine a month or so ago I have bought a number of Blu-ray films and the quality is absolutely staggering - especially titles like Casino Royale. Remember it's not just the resolution that is higher in high def - the colours are also far better, and they can also support uncompressed (or lossless compressed) soundtracks too.

I see both Blu-ray and HD DVD as 'deluxe DVD' for the foreseeable future. I don't think it's really the same situation as DVD vs VHS. Similarly I don't see Blu-ray vs HD DVD as all that comparable to VHS vs Betamax either.

Just bought a HD DVD drive for my Xbox 360 and its bloody brilliant!!!!

Quality is superb, HD DVD seems to have the edge of Blu-Ray from what I can see with range of DVD's and how familiar a consumer would be when purchasing HD equipment and drives. Blu-Ray I feel has this Blu what??? They also have regions on the discs which is good, by the looks of things I can get buy one get one free on HD DVD from amazon.com due to price and exchange rate!

The majority of HD-DVDs in the Amazon.com BOGOF offer are sold at $19.95. That's only 10 of the Queen's English pounds! That would be a good price for 1 HD-DVD, let alone 2. You'll have to pay around £4.50 for delivery, but that still means you're paying less than £7.50/disc.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.htm...75031&plpage=1

Blu-ray is just as good as HD-DVD, but at the moment its certainly more expensive.

The statistic is basically backed by Blu-ray themselves, only recently they have stated they sold their 1 millionth disc in europe, but there are over 2 PS3's sold + ??? standalone players, which basically backs up the study.

I Do Blu!

I have had the pleasure of viewing the Simpsons Movie on Blu ray on a large screen Hi-def...
I couldnt see any difference between the standard dvd and the blu ray. Despite viewing both twice!
Maybe because its animation there isnt any difference?
Does anyone know what processes are used (if any) that would make animation hi-def?
If anything the only difference was during fast moving scenes the animation was more jerky on the blu ray.
The sound on the standard DVD was more superior.
Probably not the best footage to use for a comparison...

Well animation does tend to look good from SD sources on flat panels, one of the reasons it's used to demo screens when HD sources were not plentiful.
As for the comparison you would have to be sure how each source was connected and what was doing any scaling/de-interlacing and the screen resolution would also play a part plus viewing distances etc.

Since The Simpsons is a lot more computerised than in the earlier days the creation of pictures which are of high enough quality to be HD resolution in the first place would be easy and of course creating a NTSC/PAL master from HD makes the DVD look even better.

Any jerkiness on the Blu-ray may be down to the 1080p/24 source when converted to whatever res at 30fps where as the DVD was probably PAL.
Can't explain the sound, the Blu-ray would have the same DD5.1 if not a higher bitrate DD+ and of course the DTSHD lossless.