High Definition Media & Technology Thread

[Uxi]

Unfortunately, dont' expect much better from Universal if/when they switch as they'll almost certainly use their HDDVD encodes and port them to Blu-ray. They might slap in extras on the same disc and maybe include a PCM track (which gobbles up lots of extra space), but wouldn't surprise me at all if the majority of their initial releases are on BD25 Single Layer discs completely unaltered from their HDDVD video and sound (which aren't bad by any means - just not to the bitrates that Blu-ray would have allowed).

[eugimon]

Not sure what you're complaining about. Most of the newer universal releases are VC-1 encodes with dolby trueHD audio tracks. Just like most of the newer blu-ray discs are vc-1 with DTS HD, or whatever variation they're on now. While I agree that the extra space on a blu-ray disc would probably have meant a show like The Kingdom would have gotten a lossless audio track, the visuals would be identical. Sorry, but this really reminds me of the blu-ray commercial playing where some guy proclaims that Blu-Ray just looks better.

Fonboyism aside, looks like HD-DVD canceled their CES press conference.

Edited January 5, 2008 by eugimon

[Uxi]

Uh Blu-ray has seen very few VC1 compared to AVC and MPEG2.

Certain movies you may be right. Other movies, however... seeing single digit Mbps video bitrate, and the corresponding artifacts, to say nothing of the general soft look (VC1 is notorious for smoothing out grain) on other titles (Troy Directors Cut, for example) simply would not have had happened if it had say... 20 more Mbps on an AVC encode behind it.

[eugimon]

Uh Blu-ray has seen very few VC1 compared to AVC and MPEG2.

Certain movies you may be right. Other movies, however... seeing single digit Mbps video bitrate, and the corresponding artifacts, to say nothing of the general soft look (VC1 is notorious for smoothing out grain) on other titles (Troy Directors Cut, for example) simply would not have had happened if it had say... 20 more Mbps on an AVC encode behind it.

huh... all the avc versus vc-1 comparisons I've read say the reverse, that AVC produces a softer image. I know that the eastern promises disc has an amazingly sharp picture.

coming to america is supposed to have a better vc-1 transfer, chronicles of riddick as well. And there are more than a few complaints about the artifacting in PoTC: DMC. So, I think notorious is a bit extreme.

And again, best reviewed audio track of 2007 was the HD-DVD version of 300.

Edited January 5, 2008 by eugimon

[David Hingtgen]

....and the latest news/rumor says WB got a half-billion for this.

[eugimon]

....and the latest news/rumor says WB got a half-billion for this.

yeah, and toshiba is saying this may be a breach of contract. I wonder if we'll get a nice big juicy lawsuit that will reveal all the financial backdoor stuff going on.

I just want to say, I'm not an HD-DVD fanboy. All of my AV gear is either Samsung or Sony and while I don't think MS is the evil empire, I have no vested interest in seeing them succeed. Most of my friends in the tech world work for MS' competitors like google and sun or are unix/linux admins.

Edited January 5, 2008 by eugimon

[Gaijin]

Even if Warner got that much (unlikely given the fact that their releases always sold more on the BD side and they will still "support" HD DVD for another few months, unlike Paramount which PULLED their titles because of whatever contract they signed), it's time for this stupid war to end. One way or another. If HD DVD had gotten Warner, Disney, and Fox to switch, then I'd kiss Blu-ray bye bye too. But they didn't so I think it's easier for Uni to go blu, and Paramount to suck it up and come back.

Once HD DVD is dead, we'll see more and cheaper players, not to mention no longer forcing people to go purple. The whole "choice" argument was crap for consumers...the only way to enjoy movies on the whole was to buy BOTH. Since the two formats just made a confusing mess for the public that were interested. many people took a wait and see. Since this is THE year for HDTV and High Def to really start taking off, it's time that we just stick with one format for movies.

The whole "breach of contract thing" by Warner...pretty unlikely as well. Did Warner have some kind of "Neutrality" contract with HD DVD group? If they did, I'm sure they proably did everything they could have done beforehand to null anything before dropping a surprise bomb like this.

Could still change, but I think the future is Blu.

Edited January 5, 2008 by Gaijin

[Uxi]

It could just be an attempt at easing the shock, but I doubt it's a mistake that Warner is waiting until May.

Toshiba made probably my favorite DVD player. I look forward to a combo Blu-ray / HDDVD player for them... if anything can ever unseat the PS3 as my preferred player, that is. The 360 add-on, I've never been entirely satisfied with but I sure as poo ain't gonna pay anything but bargain bin rates for an HDDVD only player now. I'll either keep waiting for a Denon dual-format (though I am dubious that will ever come out now). I think Toshiba is the best bet since I don't see them just abandoning HDDVD...

[Gaijin]

It could just be an attempt at easing the shock, but I doubt it's a mistake that Warner is waiting until May.

Toshiba made probably my favorite DVD player. I look forward to a combo Blu-ray / HDDVD player for them... if anything can ever unseat the PS3 as my preferred player, that is. The 360 add-on, I've never been entirely satisfied with but I sure as poo ain't gonna pay anything but bargain bin rates for an HDDVD only player now. I'll either keep waiting for a Denon dual-format (though I am dubious that will ever come out now). I think Toshiba is the best bet since I don't see them just abandoning HDDVD...

They should have never trusted Microsoft and joined with BD so this war never would have happened. Toshiba can keep on making players...but they'll stop if no one makes discs for them. HD DVD could in theory wind up be than UMD...because Sony at least has movie studios that they still release content from on UMD.

Here's an interesting blog about a meeting with Warner and their views on the war:

Media Wonk attended an industry dinner in Hollywood in early December where he ran into Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group president Kevin Tsujihara and home video president Ron Sanders. Although always nice to see Kevin and Ron, Media Wonk was somewhat taken aback by their apparent alarm at the state of the business. Now we know why.

"Not only did neither [high-def DVD] format really take off as expected in fourth quarter, but standard-def was softer than expected given the release slate," Sanders said Friday, shortly after the studio announced that it will drop is support of the HD DVD format and release its high-def titles exclusively on Blu-ray starting in June. "We’re seeing research now that shows that consumers are starting to delay purchases because of the format war, not just on high-def but standard-def purchases as well. That’s very alarming.”

As part of its ongoing tracking research, Warner has been asking consumers for months whether the format war has had any effect on the regular DVD purchase habits.

"They're waiting for something to happen," Sanders said. "They're waiting for the whole situation to become clear so they know what to buy. If you look at the historical conversion ratios of box office into DVD sales, several titles this fourth quarter underperformed where they should have been."

Whether Warner's move will clarify the situation any is an open question. Between now and the end of May, Warner will issue new releases simultaneously on standard-def and Blu-ray, followed by a release on HD DVD "after a short window."

According to Sanders, however, Warner's decision was driven by consumer behavior, more than an expectation of resolving the format war.

"It’s hard for us to speculate about impact this will have on the format war. All we can do really is make the best decision for our business and the rest of it will really take care of itself, in time," he said. "One of the things you see in the NPD data for this fourth quarter was that even with a $100 [price] premium, Blu-ray set tops outsold HD set tops in December. Even with Toshiba having the lowest-cost player in the market, software sales remained 2 to 1 in favor of Blu-ray."

The studio certainly wouldn't mind if it did help resolve the format war, however.

"Warner Bros.’ move to exclusively release in the Blu-ray disc format is a strategic decision focused on the long term and the most direct way to give consumers what they want," studio chairman/CEO Barry Meyer said in a statement. "The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger."

And finally, because someone is bound to ask, Sanders insisted that no financial inducements were involved in Warner's decision, despite the fairly constant buzz of rumors that Warner was being actively courted by both sides.

"There is absolutely no incentive from either side that would have changed the decision we made based on what we were seeing in the consumer data," he said. "The worldwide DVD business is about $40 billion. Any incentives we might have been offered would have paled next to the lost profits from that business if we get this one wrong.”

Not quite Sherman-esque, but he's unquestionably correct that the long-term risk is greater than the short-term gain.

And last one...not inspiring confidence by any means but what the hell: Michael Bay on BD and Transformers

http://www.shootfortheedit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=842

Edited January 5, 2008 by Gaijin

[eugimon]

Even if Warner got that much (unlikely given the fact that their releases always sold more on the BD side and they will still "support" HD DVD for another few months, unlike Paramount which PULLED their titles because of whatever contract they signed), it's time for this stupid war to end. One way or another. If HD DVD had gotten Warner, Disney, and Fox to switch, then I'd kiss Blu-ray bye bye too. But they didn't so I think it's easier for Uni to go blu, and Paramount to suck it up and come back.

Once HD DVD is dead, we'll see more and cheaper players, not to mention no longer forcing people to go purple. The whole "choice" argument was crap for consumers...the only way to enjoy movies on the whole was to buy BOTH. Since the two formats just made a confusing mess for the public that were interested. many people took a wait and see. Since this is THE year for HDTV and High Def to really start taking off, it's time that we just stick with one format for movies.

The whole "breach of contract thing" by Warner...pretty unlikely as well. Did Warner have some kind of "Neutrality" contract with HD DVD group? If they did, I'm sure they proably did everything they could have done beforehand to null anything before dropping a surprise bomb like this.

Could still change, but I think the future is Blu.

I don't know why you would think that blu-ray players will come down in price with HD-DVD out of the picture. With the dual format war, we saw a huge decrease in the price of players that was much faster than the drop in price of DVDs a generation ago. Basically, within a year, we saw units go from the 1000 dollar range to the 100-300 dollar range. With Blu-ray being the only player and most of the players being produced by Samsung and Sony, both of whome stick to the high end of the price spectrum, I don't think we'll see players come down in price anytime soon.

[Alpha OTS]

"We’re seeing research now that shows that consumers are starting to delay purchases because of the format war, not just on high-def but standard-def purchases as well. That’s very alarming.”

I find that hard to believe. I always thought hi def DVD was inconsequential compared to standard DVD. Some of the wiser heads in this forum and elsewhere usually advise calm because the "war" is niche in the scheme of things, which always made sense to me given the numbers that would be posted. Could it be that there just weren't any standard DVDs released recently that were worth owning?

I'm no insider or industry exec though.

Edited January 5, 2008 by Alpha OTS

[JsARCLIGHT]

Excuses, excuses IMHO.

The media fields have been on a downturn for the last decade and have been grasping at straws for reasons why. They can do a million polls of a million different people and get a different answer every time. They just hear rumblings of what they want to hear and they pick up that ball and run with it.

From the retail side of things the only big "truth" to come out of all of this is that media sales in general are slumping. I will agree with them that a "format war" is possibly contributing to the overall industry malaise but it in no way is the reason for it. Speaking as bluntly as possible the industry is in a time of transition right now. The shift from SD to HD has still not fully occurred yet and until it does the HD media market as well as the SD media market are going to be in a period of uncertainty. It's kind of like those heady years when the color TV came onto the market. They still sold black and white TV's and no one really wanted to buy an "old" black and white TV while at the same time no one really wanted to buy some new, "unproven" more expensive TV until the market settled down a bit. IMHO as soon as February '09 rolls around and the digital conversion occurs you will probably see more and more people wanting HD... either that or there will be such an uproar in the consumer community that it will set the stage for MS to ride in on their big white horse and save us all with their glorious digital downloads.

[Roy Focker]

The real winner?

Standard DVDs

Low prices!

I don't see a large HD or Blu-Section at Block Buster!

Commericals still feature the DVDs. It is only at the end does a VO announce "Also avaliable on Blu-Ray and High Def"!

More DVD presence at stores. When I go to a big box electronic store I see a huge section for HD TVs. Old tube TV are still there but not in a featured section. HD TV are being pushed people are buying them. Do you see stores pushing the HD format movies the same way? In the movie section I still see the focus on DVDs.

[eugimon]

The real winner?

Standard DVDs

Low prices!

I don't see a large HD or Blu-Section at Block Buster!

Commericals still feature the DVDs. It is only at the end does a VO announce "Also avaliable on Blu-Ray and High Def"!

More DVD presence at stores. When I go to a big box electronic store I see a huge section for HD TVs. Old tube TV are still there but not in a featured section. HD TV are being pushed people are buying them. Do you see stores pushing the HD format movies the same way? In the movie section I still see the focus on DVDs.

yup, that's a good point. Best Buy and CC still put DVDs out on the "just released" shelves but you need to peck through the HD aisle to find the latest HD-DVD or Blu-Ray discs.

[JsARCLIGHT]

Well to be honest that is because that is what sells.

Regular DVD's are 99% of the market share while all HD media is hardly 1%. Figure it this way, the industry crapped it's pants with glee when Transformers sold 150,000 copies on HD DVD... meanwhile Transformers on regular DVD has sold over 10 million copies. TEN MILLION. I see that as an indicator of the market presence of HD media... in other words it's so niche it might as well be Yugoslavian downhill skiing videos. The installed base simply is not "there" to support HD media being pushed to the front of the shelves just yet. Think about when DVD was an infant and you went into a place like Target... they had an entire section of VHS tapes all priced near ten bucks, but their DVD movies numbered perhaps thirty, all cost $30 plus and were usually in their own section away from the big bad VHS moneymakers. It was years before DVD caught on enough to have the big chain stores retrofit their sales areas to push DVD to the forefront.

[mikeszekely]

The real winner?

Standard DVDs

Low prices!

I don't see a large HD or Blu-Section at Block Buster!

Commericals still feature the DVDs. It is only at the end does a VO announce "Also avaliable on Blu-Ray and High Def"!

More DVD presence at stores. When I go to a big box electronic store I see a huge section for HD TVs. Old tube TV are still there but not in a featured section. HD TV are being pushed people are buying them. Do you see stores pushing the HD format movies the same way? In the movie section I still see the focus on DVDs.

Yeah, I think I already pointed out that when one of those CGI animated movies, I think it was Surf's Up or Happy Feet came out, it sold more copies the week it came out on DVD than every title on HD-DVD and Blu-ray combined since their respective launches.

I'm not going to pretend that deals like Paramount's and Warner's aren't shaping the way this is playing out, but at the same time, I'm not going to pretend that anyone but techies, early adopters, and hardcore audiophiles/videophiles are buying these things. It's trivial to argue that one HD format is outselling another 2:1, 3:1, or even 5:1, when DVD outsells them both combined 1000:1. This format war is something that affects us, so we discuss it a lot, but we're kidding ourselves if we think "the general public is going for this format" or what not, because the general public is still buying DVDs. And frankly, it doesn't matter who decided to do what exclusively on what format yet. Until you get those people still buying standard def DVDs to pick a format (and for that to happen we need better HDTV penetration, a sub $100 player that's not a sale price, and $20 discs with lower sale prices), the war continues.

[EXO]

My sister and my mom are going to buy HDTVs after seeing my flat screen which I just bought. I talked her thru the whole 720 vs. 1080, LCD vs. plasma and whatever. She's getting a bigger screen than what I have, 1080 instead of the 720, but she's not sold on the bluray player. Like most people, she likes her DVD collection and the picture on my upconvert is good enough for her. I'm sure down the line she'll get an HD player but I think people are just saving up for the bigger nicer displays first. Everyone I know is "saving up" for the better screen, no one is that rich that they can just go out and buy it at a whim, much less get all the accessories with it. Besides, the bluray vs. HD-DVD is too much for the average joe market. Once it's figured out then the stores will be able to push it a little bit more and everyone will be hooked. I'm surprised there's even a choice for 720. I think that just retarded.

[David Hingtgen]

I thought "reduced sales due to waiting for a winner" was obvious. I've greatly reduced DVD purchases over the last 6 months (to almost nil)---I'm really not buying anything until I have my next-gen player(s). No point at all in getting "hit movie of 2007" in DVD, then 3 months later buying it again. A week ago, I would have bought a cheap HD-DVD player with my HDTV, and waited a while to snag a PS3. But at the moment, it kinda looks pointless to buy HD-DVD. We'll see, just 2 more days until CES.

[eugimon]

My sister and my mom are going to buy HDTVs after seeing my flat screen which I just bought. I talked her thru the whole 720 vs. 1080, LCD vs. plasma and whatever. She's getting a bigger screen than what I have, 1080 instead of the 720, but she's not sold on the bluray player. Like most people, she likes her DVD collection and the picture on my upconvert is good enough for her. I'm sure down the line she'll get an HD player but I think people are just saving up for the bigger nicer displays first. Everyone I know is "saving up" for the better screen, no one is that rich that they can just go out and buy it at a whim, much less get all the accessories with it. Besides, the bluray vs. HD-DVD is too much for the average joe market. Once it's figured out then the stores will be able to push it a little bit more and everyone will be hooked. I'm surprised there's even a choice for 720. I think that just retarded.

I completely agree with you. HD should be made simple, just make it a standard 1080p w/HDMI and be done with it. No freaking 6 different resolutions, 2 different cable types.

[Gaijin]

I find that hard to believe. I always thought hi def DVD was inconsequential compared to standard DVD. Some of the wiser heads in this forum and elsewhere usually advise calm because the "war" is niche in the scheme of things, which always made sense to me given the numbers that would be posted. Could it be that there just weren't any standard DVDs released recently that were worth owning?

I'm no insider or industry exec though.

There are many knowledgeable people on the fence about it all. A lot of people that were interested are turned off by two "competing formats" knowing that only one will wind up being around in the end and do not want to buy the losing one.

DVD sales, while tremendous, are not what they used to be (and never will be no matter what happens). While the HD formats sales are "insignificant" compared to DVD 's currently, they are still profitable, and as adoption rates go up, and new players are phased in instead of plain DVD players, the discs will slowly rbegin to replace DVD's.

Apple is rumored to announce Blu-ray drives in Macs at MacWorld.

Good thing is you can still play DVD's on whatever player you bought, BD or HD DVD. Player prices WILL drop, regardless of opponents...DVD won out on DivX early and player prices dropped dramatically in a short time. HD DVD and BD players debuted at the $800 range and a year later, and now you find them both under $300 and 200. The PS3 will drop again in price this year, as will standalone players.

[eugimon]

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Dis...-ray_Plans/1332

Finding nemo amoung Disney's 2008 blu-ray releases.

[David Hingtgen]

Is Sleeping Beauty still the only traditionally animated widescreen Disney movie?

[eugimon]

New Line is confirmed BLu-Ray now... so LoTR for BD, here we go.

[Alpha OTS]

On the upside, if this is spelling doom for the HD-DVD format, there's going to be a lot of titles to pick up on the cheap.

[David Hingtgen]

True, if there is a "mass format-death sale", it may be worth picking up a player and buying a lot of titles on HD just to build up a "next gen library" at like 1/4 the cost it'd take to get those same titles on Blu-Ray. Future titles would have to be Blu-Ray, but depending on how many you buy, you could easily come out hundreds ahead, even with the purchase of a player.

[VT 1010]

Addressing some comments a while back:

The upscaling for the PS3 is done by software. This wasn't available until several months after release. Upscaling is only available for DVDs via HDMI and Games that support it.

Upscaling on the 360 is done by hardware. It has a separate chip dedicated to scaling. Upscaling is available for DVDs via HDMI and VGA. Games can be upscaled or downscaled to match the resolution of the display. This is available for all games. Keep in mind that the resolution at which a game is displayed is often different than that at which it is rendered. Halo 3, for example, is rendered at a resolution of 1152x640 and then scaled to the 360's set resolution.

Tell me again how to set up the PS3 so that it will pass the Dolby TrueHD bitstream via HDMI to be decoded by my Onkyo?

As stated in my posts on page 34, the PS3 cannot currently bitstream advanced codecs. It has to be converted to LPCM, before it is sent to the receiver, in order to get higher resolution audio. There shouldn't be much of a difference in sound quality.

As for the format war:

I have a strong Blu-ray bias, despite my purple shirt (yet another 360add-on/PS3 owner). Warner going "Blu" is good news to me. I'll be glad when this war is over. Warner choosing a Blu-ray should help end it sooner. I'm sure HD media will do better once there is only one format on the market. If this stalemate continues, it will probably end up like DVD-Audio and SACD. Dueling formats can do a great job of hindering mass adoption.

Lets not forget that once there is a single format, good old George will be more inclined to released Star Wars (with some new "improvements"). Imagine listening to those movies in HD audio...

[Alpha OTS]

Lets not forget that once there is a single format, good old George will be more inclined to released Star Wars (with some new "improvements").

Don't even joke about that.

[eugimon]

Don't even joke about that.

no kidding, he didn't even fix the real flubs in episode 4, like the lightsabers and the nasty composite shots of the tie fighters during the millenium falcon/ death star escape run but he added a bunch of useless crap. I mean, I liked the mos eisley vista shot, but I would have rather he fixed the bad shots first.

IMO, Empire Strikes back is the only one that really benefited from the SE treatment. Super clean print and CGI just adds to the environment.

[JsARCLIGHT]

Addressing some comments a while back:

The upscaling for the PS3 is done by software. This wasn't available until several months after release. Upscaling is only available for DVDs via HDMI and Games that support it.

Upscaling on the 360 is done by hardware. It has a separate chip dedicated to scaling. Upscaling is available for DVDs via HDMI and VGA. Games can be upscaled or downscaled to match the resolution of the display. This is available for all games. Keep in mind that the resolution at which a game is displayed is often different than that at which it is rendered. Halo 3, for example, is rendered at a resolution of 1152x640 and then scaled to the 360's set resolution.

As stated in my posts on page 34, the PS3 cannot currently bitstream advanced codecs. It has to be converted to LPCM, before it is sent to the receiver, in order to get higher resolution audio. There shouldn't be much of a difference in sound quality.

Wow if that is the case then Microsoft's hardware upscaler sucks on ice. Makes me wonder how it can "upscale" games so well but it doesn't make standard DVD's pop off the screen like my PS3 does.

[Uxi]

What 360 do you have? If you have an older one (without HDMI), 360 can only upscale DVD over VGA, which has its own set of issues.

[marimba]

Ok, thanks for clarifying VT 1010.

I now have the HDMI output set to LPCM and the Dolby TrueHD Icon is visible in the display of the PS3 when watching the Blu-ray of 300, and the PCM MULTICH HDMI indicator on the Onkyo is also lit. This sounds fantastic. I have also installed the 2.10 update on the PS3 which seems to have improved the video quality in the 1080i automatic setting. At some point in the future I will purchase a 1080p capable television, but for the time being I am wholly satisfied.

I hope that the HD-DVD Vs. Blu-ray debate comes to a swift end with Blu-ray being the winner. I see it as the true next step in video/audio playback instead of the incremental increase that HD-DVD seems to be. (but, then again I'm biased now that I'm the owner of a Blu-ray player.)

If anyone else has any setting magic as far as upscaling of standard DVDs that I should try, please do post them!

Thanks again.

Edited January 6, 2008 by marimba

[JsARCLIGHT]

What 360 do you have? If you have an older one (without HDMI), 360 can only upscale DVD over VGA, which has its own set of issues.

I have a first gen Xbox without HDMI. I originally had it connected via component and it would only upscale to 480p, which looked... well... passable for regular DVD. I have since connected it with VGA and it should be running in 1080 on my Plasma and my plasma's display says it is (it has one of those on screen pop ups that says what resolution it is displaying) and I assume it is upscaling to that resolution. It still looks meh. The actual games and my HD DVDs look pretty good but regular DVD's played on the system just lack the pop that they do when played on my PS3. As I've said before, I don't know how the PS3 achieves it's look but it really does a very good job upscaling.

[VT 1010]

no kidding, he didn't even fix the real flubs in episode 4, like the lightsabers and the nasty composite shots of the tie fighters during the millenium falcon/ death star escape run but he added a bunch of useless crap. I mean, I liked the mos eisley vista shot, but I would have rather he fixed the bad shots first.

IMO, Empire Strikes back is the only one that really benefited from the SE treatment. Super clean print and CGI just adds to the environment.

He did even more tweaking with the movies on DVD. They weren't even the true SE versions. Hold on to those Laserdiscs. I have a death grip on my Definitive Collection. Unfortunately, I'm already starting to see signs of laser rot...

I have a first gen Xbox without HDMI. I originally had it connected via component and it would only upscale to 480p, which looked... well... passable for regular DVD. I have since connected it with VGA and it should be running in 1080 on my Plasma and my plasma's display says it is (it has one of those on screen pop ups that says what resolution it is displaying) and I assume it is upscaling to that resolution. It still looks meh. The actual games and my HD DVDs look pretty good but regular DVD's played on the system just lack the pop that they do when played on my PS3. As I've said before, I don't know how the PS3 achieves it's look but it really does a very good job upscaling.

The scaler in the 360 pretty much sucks (Holy aliasing, Batman!). DVDs generally look worse upscaled by the 360. The PS3 may not have the best scaling, but it is dramatically better than the 360. It does a better job than my standalone upscaling player as well.

Ok, thanks for clarifying VT 1010.

I now have the HDMI output set to LPCM and the Dolby TrueHD Icon is visible in the display of the PS3 when watching the Blu-ray of 300, and the PCM MULTICH HDMI indicator on the Onkyo is also lit. This sounds fantastic. I have also installed the 2.10 update on the PS3 which seems to have improved the video quality in the 1080i automatic setting. At some point in the future I will purchase a 1080p capable television, but for the time being I am wholly satisfied.

I hope that the HD-DVD Vs. Blu-ray debate comes to a swift end with Blu-ray being the winner. I see it as the true next step in video/audio playback instead of the incremental increase that HD-DVD seems to be. (but, then again I'm biased now that I'm the owner of a Blu-ray player.)

If anyone else has any setting magic as far as upscaling of standard DVDs that I should try, please do post them!

I'm glad your now enjoying HD audio. I hope to get a new receiver soon, myself.

HD DVD is capable of great picture and sound as well. Both formats support 1080p24 video and high resoultion audio. The advantages of Blu-ray are minor. The codecs are pretty much the same. The only real difference is the bitrate and volume of storage.

Blu-ray has a higher max bitrate than HD DVD, but this is primarily a concern of MPEG-2. VC-1 (most HD DVDs use this) and AVC are much more efficient than MPEG-2. At lower bitrates, VC-1 and AVC can have a much better picture than MPEG-2. Blu-ray may be a technically better format, but practically, there is very little difference.

[Gaijin]

Paramount/Dreamworks announces they are still supporting HD DVD...but didn't announce any new titles for HD DVD at CES. Not looking too good.

Paramount CES 2008

[eugimon]

It's all up to universal.