EZC-Boston Posted January 19, 2005 Share Posted January 19, 2005 I was talking with my roommate and he raised that question and I had no idea. I know there are some smart AV people around here and I was hoping I could get a quick answer. If it is a stupid question feel free to pile on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevestojan Posted January 19, 2005 Share Posted January 19, 2005 from a tech guy at work: "In theory, yes. A DVD's current max resolution is 480p, 640x480 refreshing 60 times a second. You currently watch it at around 544x480, refreshed 30 times a second. I have also noticed that progressive scan dvd players do not skip." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rico Posted January 19, 2005 Share Posted January 19, 2005 Not yet. HD-DVD's are getting ready to be marketed later this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plenzmd1 Posted January 19, 2005 Share Posted January 19, 2005 I was talking with my roommate and he raised that question and I had no idea. I know there are some smart AV people around here and I was hoping I could get a quick answer. If it is a stupid question feel free to pile on. 210987[/snapback] Not quite sure of what you are asking, but here goes. Current DVDs are in a format called 480P , or 480 lines with progressive scan. HD, right now, implies either 720P lines , or 1080I(interlaced) lines . So while you can watch the DVD on a HD television, the quality and sharpness is not as good as HD TV. One common misperception is that with a 16:9 tv, there will be no letterboxing(bars on top and bottom) while watching a DVD. This is not true in most casesMost films are not shot in a 16:9 aspect ratios. However, the bars will be smaller on a 16:9 tv. One other note, HD DVDs are coming, however there are two competing formats and most of the studios are lined up behind one, while the other is being backed by Disney. Nother VHS vs Betamax coming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Gross Posted January 19, 2005 Share Posted January 19, 2005 As Steve's note indicates, you get better quality output from progressive scan DVD players on HDTV's, but it's not "true" HD. True HD is 720i/p (1280x720 image size) or 1080 i/p (1920 x 1080). There are DVD players that will upsample, but DVD's outputting "true" HD content do not exist yet. At this point in time there are two competing HD "formats" (HD-DVD and Blu-Ray) racing to the marketplace, with each having their own proponents (this could get messy...). Just as an FYI, the "i" or "p" determine how a screen gets refreshed. A TV refreshes at 60 Hz (60 times per second). TV's have tradtionally done refreshing using the "interlaced" method ("i"). With this method, every other line on the TV is refreshed with each cycle, so a complete new "image" only appears 30 times per second. With progressive scan, the entire image is updated every cycle, so you get a true 60 frames per second. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EZC-Boston Posted January 19, 2005 Author Share Posted January 19, 2005 Not quite sure of what you are asking, but here goes. Current DVDs are in a format called 480P , or 480 lines with progressive scan. HD, right now, implies either 720P lines , or 1080I(interlaced) lines . So while you can watch the DVD on a HD television, the quality and sharpness is not as good as HD TV. One common misperception is that with a 16:9 tv, there will be no letterboxing(bars on top and bottom) while watching a DVD. This is not true in most casesMost films are not shot in a 16:9 aspect ratios. However, the bars will be smaller on a 16:9 tv. One other note, HD DVDs are coming, however there are two competing formats and most of the studios are lined up behind one, while the other is being backed by Disney. Nother VHS vs Betamax coming. 211028[/snapback] Thanks, that's basically what I was asking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeeRay Posted January 19, 2005 Share Posted January 19, 2005 you can watch a DVD on an HDTV. However, it is in it's native and standard definition... not high definition... so, the only difference you'll notice on an HDTV is that movies that were done in 16X9 (widescreen format) will be viewed without the black bands on the top/bottom of the screen. The HD DVDs stilll have issues in regards to the copyrights. Hollywood wants extra protection to ensure that they can't be copied in HD... only standard definition. There are a lot of folks that don't want to see that happen, so the issue isn't over yet in that regard... and until it gets resolved, don't expexct to see HD dvds ou there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fezmid Posted January 19, 2005 Share Posted January 19, 2005 There's actually one movie you can watch in true-HD -- Terminator 2. You can watch it with Windows Media Player, but it requires some sort of activation and has DRM or somesuch. Never looked into it, but people say that it looks *stunning.* Other than that, you have to wait until Blu-Ray or HD-DVD (or both) come out. CW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EZC-Boston Posted January 19, 2005 Author Share Posted January 19, 2005 There's actually one movie you can watch in true-HD -- Terminator 2. You can watch it with Windows Media Player, but it requires some sort of activation and has DRM or somesuch. Never looked into it, but people say that it looks *stunning.* Other than that, you have to wait until Blu-Ray or HD-DVD (or both) come out. CW 211048[/snapback] Then we can get Bills games HD DVDs off you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plenzmd1 Posted January 19, 2005 Share Posted January 19, 2005 you can watch a DVD on an HDTV. However, it is in it's native and standard definition... not high definition... so, the only difference you'll notice on an HDTV is that movies that were done in 16X9 (widescreen format) will be viewed without the black bands on the top/bottom of the screen. Like I said earlier, the majority of films are not filmed in this aspect ratio. So, if you want to watch the 95% of the films in OAR(original aspect ratio) you will still have the bars on top and bottom. Cant tell you how many people are so disappointed when they get that new 16:9 TV, flop in the DVD, and there are still bars.. BTW, IMHO OAR is the only way to watch all content, including SD TV. I am one who never stretches or zooms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Gross Posted January 19, 2005 Share Posted January 19, 2005 There's actually one movie you can watch in true-HD -- Terminator 2. You can watch it with Windows Media Player, but it requires some sort of activation and has DRM or somesuch. Never looked into it, but people say that it looks *stunning.* Other than that, you have to wait until Blu-Ray or HD-DVD (or both) come out. CW 211048[/snapback] http://www.wmvhd.com/ Samples on the site...of course the file sizes are HUGE...not recommended for dial-up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rico Posted January 19, 2005 Share Posted January 19, 2005 Cant tell you how many people are so disappointed when they get that new 16:9 TV, flop in the DVD, and there are still bars.. BTW, IMHO OAR is the only way to watch all content, including SD TV. I am one who never stretches or zooms. 211056[/snapback] I bet it's more disappointing when they try to watch all the old fool-frame DVDs they bought on their new 16x9 HDTV. I only zoom (expand) on non-anamorphic widescreen DVDs... will use stretch on broadcast TV shows like the news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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