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Category:    Home > Reviews > high definition television > True High Definition Versus Imitation HD – Don’t Be Fooled!!!

True High Definition Versus Imitation HD – Don’t Be Fooled!!!

 

 

When innovations in the past were introduced that changed entertainment, they’re benefits were more obvious, like stereo, color TV, 3-D films and videogames.  The connection with the audience was instant and a big hit.  When DVD arrived over ten years ago, most people only knew VHS and bad cable, missing the better 12” LaserDiscs and how good they could look, so the DVD boom happened, raising standards for home video playback, even if the Dolby Digital mixes were a step backwards from the best sound out there.  They were a compromise because of the DVD’s limited room.

 

High Definition video has been talked about for many years, experimented with at first, originally in over a dozen versions, a few of which were analog.  Despite the several forms of compression signals now used, all hardware machines, cable and satellite systems handle all of them, yet there is mass confusion about what HD is and why it is so much better than anything downloads or DVD can offer today or downloads will offer for many years to come.

 

Part of the problem is a series of misconceptions.  They include:

 

1)     Regular DVD are not HD, never will be HD and machines that “upscale” to HD are just stretching low definition out by repeating lines and adding noise and artifacts that are not part of the intended picture.  Upscaling was a gimmick to stretch out the life of cheap DVD player sales, but it is almost as much of a rip-off as chains selling analog TVs when they knew permanent HDTV was just around the corner as analog TV would be shut off in 2009.

 

2)     Earlier versions of HD that were not perfected (720p, 1080i) that were better than DVD’s meager 480 lines, but not as good as the signal was capable of being.  They still had aliasing issues, artifacts, mesh, small moiré pattern and edges on the image that did not need to be there.  Since much HD equipment was produced with cameras that could not do 1080p (p for progressive) or higher, it is no wonder the more involved and those willing to spend more money) were only marginally impressed.

 

3)     Cable and satellite do not deliver the best HD either, though you do get some good live and prerecorded materials that make it out of the studio looking pretty good at this point.  In most cases, you still get errors and other problems, while some cable companies (et al) pass off cheaper, older, lamer, junkier HD boxes as state of the art when they are awful and even over-compress the image to the point of defeating HD in the first place.  Some even feel some were designed to do that to kill HD by certain forces who hate innovation.

 

4)     Electronic chains and some lesser mom and pop stores have done an awful job of showing how good HD can look.  To save money, Circuit City fired all their experts at the worst possible time (instead of increasing training) and their profits fell further, proving they have learned zero about the massive amounts of money they lost on the idiotic pay-per-view DVD system called DIVX (not to be confused with a new digital system that uses the same initials) and Best Buy highly undertrained their workers.  Instead of showing the best HD-DVD and Blu-ray titles in the best possible set-ups, they just talked about it being better, could never explain themselves or the system properly and instead would spout in know-it-all mythos too often about how much better HD was without backing it up.  If they supported Blu-ray, they just kept telling everyone how great Sony was, which is complementary, but not enough to get people to spend money.  It is another example of “talking to the heart” as poor substitute for talk to someone.  In all this, as much as the format war itself, both chains and their equally lazy “mom and pop” and smaller chain equals (some of which folded in the last few years) caused as much trouble in confusing the consumer by talking down to them.  It is amazing how many people got paid for so little work.

 

5)     The basic failure of manufacturers and media to allow “Digital” and “High Definition” not to have distinct, separate identities instead of making it severely clear that they can be as different as night and day has also cost the industry a few billion dollars and counting.  Digital video has been around for years and not in high definition, while some early high definition was analog.  Most of the public does not know this and by simply understanding it in a few sentences, would then understand how digital HD has arrived and why it should be so very good after years and billions of dollars of research.

 

 

Yes, we are talking about ignorance all around, though Blu-ray outlasting HD-DVD is a step forward.  However, with the prices HDTVs cost, consumers need to understand that the reason Blu-ray machines and titles cost so much is because they are now THE premium way to see programming on these expensive TV sets.  Even as prices drop, they will still be on the high end, as it is to be expected with the next big thing.

 

Fortunately, Blu-ray at its best can deliver picture and sound so stunning, the picture can rival lesser movie theaters and the sound at its best can outdo them (unless they have DTS or SDDS) and that is why this site took on the initiative immediately when high definition arrived on disc to cover all the software we could get.  When you see and hear the best titles on the market, you finally start to realize why the fans are so fired up about Blu-ray.  It is the replacement for DVD for the serious fan and collector, though all Blu-ray machines play DVDs, so you can focus on the high performers to add to your collection or buy titles that way you never got on DVD to begin with if interested.

 

But until everyone else gets on the same page in the Summer of 2008 with all the studios now releasing titles in the Blu-ray format and set up the highest quality playback in locations across the country, too many people are going to be left out of the fun and awesome performance.  If you are unimpressed so far and the major chains have not impressed you, go out of your way to find an upscale home theater store and see if they have Blu-ray to show you.

 

As for the best software, we have covered as many titles as just about anyone anywhere, so look on our sidebar, search of a specific title or enter “Blu-ray” in our search engine, or try this constantly updated link for highlights in HD software:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4249/Highlights+of+software

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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