Blu-Ray?

[systemlord]

Hmmm... I was under the (apparently wrong) impression that as long as you had something to take care of HDCP, it didn't matter whether your monitor was HDCP compliant or not.

Well, thanks for correcting me.

HDCP = High Definition Content Protection

 

[bobbknight]

HDCP or High Definition Content Protection required the total stream from disk to display to be HDCP compliant. That is currently the only way you will see 1080P. If part of the stream is not HDCP compliant it will down convert to SD or standard definition. This will be similar to what you have with an s video output.

 

[fazers_on_stun]

I think your content numbers are maybe down by half, but there's likely not many more than 1,000 titles in either camp, and there are more in BR than HD, but really it's pathetic.

And alot of the disks that are out there are pointless on HD, Casablanca on HD? Errol Flynn's Robin Hood? C'mon!

If either wanted to makes sales jump releasing LOTR on either format equals 200+K sales there, same with Star Wars and Aliens franchises IMO.

Biggest mistake HD-DVD made was bundling Matrix instead of letting people buy it alone. It was one of the watershed DVD titles that made people buy players (the one for me was Top Gun), and likely would've sold a ton more if people weren't forced to buy the mediocre 2 sequels as well; $30-35 for the Matrix, sure but $80 for all three when all I want is one, forget it!

I see the difference between HD and SD, but the majority of people don't, so charging hefty premiums just kills your market and forces you to burden more of the start-up development cost on a smaller pool of consumers.

IMO BR didn't 'WIN' , if anything they just got a reprive from death, but their end time will come soon enough too, especially if they continue on with these myopic strategies that saw neither format grow.

As for the OTA-Cable, OTA is not heavily compressed, while cable usually is, which is why FIOS is usually better and closer to OTA (but you don't get VOD without some hardline). Alot of it really depends on where you are, if you have the OTA option that's nice, but some of us need one of the triumvirate of evil: Sat, Cable, DSL/Fibre.

Actually I got my info from Five reasons you shouldn't buy a Blu-ray player yet: "3. There are still very few movies available on Blu-ray: As of February 5, 2008, there are less than 450 current Blu-ray titles available in North America (not counting discontinued and adult titles). That stacks up well to HD DVD (around 400). But it's a drop in the bucket compared to standard DVD, which has at least 90,000 titles available (including TV shows). "

Of course, I read the above article after I bought my BD player

The Matrix was the very first DVD title I bought after getting my first DVD player. Seeing the extra features such as how they did the green-screen special effects is what started me thinking about converting my VHS favorites to DVD.

I live about 30 miles from the Washington DC "antenna farm" and get excellent reception using a Radio Scrap amplfied indoor antenna. Am thinking of getting a rooftop UHF with rotor mount to see if I can get Baltimore and Richmond stations as well.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Actually I got my info from Five reasons you shouldn't buy a Blu-ray player yet: "3. There are still very few movies available on Blu-ray: As of February 5, 2008, there are less than 450 current Blu-ray titles available in North America (not counting discontinued and adult titles). That stacks up well to HD DVD (around 400). But it's a drop in the bucket compared to standard DVD, which has at least 90,000 titles available (including TV shows). " [/quote]

Yeah I was going off of total BR & HD titles, regardless of discontinued or adult, including concerts. There's more than 450 at Amazon, but agreed it's not much compared to plain DVD.

I live about 30 miles from the Washington DC "antenna farm" and get excellent reception using a Radio Scrap amplfied indoor antenna. Am thinking of getting a rooftop UHF with rotor mount to see if I can get Baltimore and Richmond stations as well.

Yeah I would say forget the rotor mount, if you get DC clearly, then just get a quality digital splitter, point the rooftop at Baltimore and then switch between the two as required. I would think that even if there was some spread in Baltimore it wouldn't require a rotor mount.

 

[rgeist554]

Actually I got my info from Five reasons you shouldn't buy a Blu-ray player yet: "3. There are still very few movies available on Blu-ray: As of February 5, 2008, there are less than 450 current Blu-ray titles available in North America (not counting discontinued and adult titles). That stacks up well to HD DVD (around 400). But it's a drop in the bucket compared to standard DVD, which has at least 90,000 titles available (including TV shows). "

Of course, I read the above article after I bought my BD player

That's why you need a combo player. Then you can watch around 800-900 titles. 😀

 

[fazers_on_stun]

Yeah I would say forget the rotor mount, if you get DC clearly, then just get a quality digital splitter, point the rooftop at Baltimore and then switch between the two as required. I would think that even if there was some spread in Baltimore it wouldn't require a rotor mount.

Will have to try that but I suspect the angle is gonna be too great. Rotor mounts are less than $100 at Radioscrap. However over the weekend I noticed Comcrash cable had the HD channels unscrambled so I was able to receive them without using the STB. Guess I'll have to check my next bill carefully again - previously they were billing me an additional $16 a month for "digital TV" despite my having the "digital promotion package". When I called customer service the woman tried telling me that "digital package" did not include digital TV. When I pointed out that the regular analog basic service was $4 cheaper, so what else was in the "digital package" she told me to call back and ask for the supervisor. I suspect Comcrap is just taking advantage of those too lazy to check their bills...

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Yeah it's called negative billing.

Typical cable practice.

I just don't like the rotors if I can avoid them and even prefer the omnidirectional if the source is close enough.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey