Topic: HD is pretty damn good

[iPPi]

My parents got me an HD-DVD player for my 360 for my birthday and I gotta say, it's pretty good thus far.  The picture and audio quality are unbelievable. 

Well okay, the audio is about the same as DVD.  My receiver is pretty old now so it probably doesn't support the latest and greatest audio codecs, but it still sounds amazing.

The video though is incredible.  I mean, I saw the difference between SD and HD in games, but it's very noticeable in a movie as well.  I watched King Kong and 300 in HD and the video quality is simply unbelievable.  This is almost night and day difference between SD and HD.

I'm gonna start picking up on more HD-DVD movies and stuff.  Also, HD-DVD movies has started coming in combo packs-- that is, the HD-DVD version of the movie is on one side of the disc, and the DVD version is on the other side.  This is, in my opinion, a really smart move by the HD-DVD guys to push their format over blu-ray.

It's definitely worth checking out if you've got the audio/video equipment.

[Cools]

FYI: HD-DVD audio is still the same Dolby Digital or DTS 5.1 (or 7.1) (in addition to the 2 channel mixes), so unless the movie got a new audio mix and your receiver already supports those, you shouldn't notice a difference.

At some point, I'll get a new TV that supports the full spectrum of HD formats, then I'll get HD-DVD and/or Blu-Ray. Right now, the weakest link in my system is the TV. I've got some nice speakers and the audio is sweet ass as hell right now! Just need to get a proper subwoofer to finish off the 5.1 setup (though I don't really need it as my main speakers already go pretty low).

Anyway, enjoy the HD goodness!

[WindAndConfusion]

FYI: HD-DVD audio is still the same Dolby Digital or DTS 5.1 (or 7.1) (in addition to the 2 channel mixes), so unless the movie got a new audio mix and your receiver already supports those, you shouldn't notice a difference.

Not correct. See here, here and especially here.

[Cools]

I stand corrected! Do any of the new releases use Dolby Digital Plus or TrueHD?

*sigh*

More codecs to remember...

[WindAndConfusion]

No idea. I just know that the laundry list of required codecs for HD/BD is there to make sure all the right palms get greased.

[MysterD]

Coming soon, 51 GB sized HD-DVD discs.

They've been approved by The DVD Standards group.

[WindAndConfusion]

Fifty one gigabytes? Why'd they pick that number?

A dual layer Blu-ray Disc can store 50 GB.

Oh.

[MysterD]

So, next week, I bet whoever runs the Blu-Ray Standards Group will approve of a 52½ GB Disc.

[idolminds]

Well, they get 17GB per layer, so three layers is 51GB.

But who cares? HD VMD will take over!

[iPPi]

A quick look at the back of my King Kong and 300 cases indicate that King Kong uses Dolby Digital Plus 5.1, and 300 uses Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Dolby digital Plus 5.1

These codecs are lossless, which are even better.  Obviously you'll need a receiver that supports them to receive the full benefit though.

[WindAndConfusion]

Well, they get 17GB per layer, so three layers is 51GB.

But they don't. They get 15 GB per layer, so three layers would be 45 GB.

[idolminds]

Well from what I've read they can get 17GB per layer now. So...whatever.

[Ghandi]

Lets compromise and say 16GB per layer. Isn't compromise great?

[WindAndConfusion]

Well from what I've read they can get 17GB per layer now. So...whatever.

Well, obviously they'd need to do something different to get 51GB in three layers.

Which means they made two changes when introducing three-layer media. Two changes which, together, result in HD-DVD having one more gigabyte of storage capacity than BD-ROM.

A coincidence, surely.