After that,
1) IF one wins the war
2) IF the other gives up
3) IF the loser is forced to release their movies in the winner's format

Then :-

We users no longer need to buy two seperate players or Combo players (which currently no one wants to produce because of costs) to watch movies which are exclusive to two different formats.

This post has been edited by Ngto: Jan 9 2008, 10:10 AM

Why not speculate. Everyone speculates. After all it's free and makes life more interesting

You say you don't care who wins, but looks to me you are on the verge of a mental breakdown .

My guess is that if data is unaltered, direct through HDMI shouldn't be any different. Any difference will be from any sharpening or other enhancement features from the player or the LCD-TV itself.

Like I said previously, those DVD players make use of their visual enhancement features for better quality picture. This is especially important since ordinary DVD players are designed for output via analog cables where PQ degrades in quality according to the type of cable used.

Even upscaling players with HDMI need those enhancements (not because of the cable quality) but due to artifacts arising from the upscaling. Since the original pic at 480 is upscaled to 720 or 1080 it need a lot of help in terms of sharpening, contrast, noise reduction etc and also a good upscaling Chip.

But for HD sources like Blu-ray or HD-DVD , there is mininum enhancement required because the pic itself is already in the same High resolution format as the highest resolution LCD panel. And furthermore data delivered over HDMI won't degrade in PQ since it's digital signal.

So my guess is there won't be much enhancement needed for Blu-ray player as far as PQ is concerned. Whatever differences noticed will most probably be due to the adjustments of the LCD-TV itself.

But at higher price, those stand alone players probably have better parts like lens and electronic components that last longer and also better built in support for TrueHD sound.

But that's just my general impression so I could be wrong. I don't mind being corrected

This post has been edited by Ngto: Jan 28 2008, 06:21 PM

It's already available locally, if you know where to look.

But it's nothing more than Blu-ray downgraded to DVD (dual layer) format (single disc), so don't expect too much. Sometimes the quality do look better compared to the usual DVD only because it's source from Blu-ray was good quality in the first place. Furthermore lots of normal DVD already further lowered in quality to fit single layer DVD so the difference is noticeable when comparing to these ahem discs.

But one thing I observed from those samples I have tried, is that the contrast level on these Blu-ray converted discs are much higher than the usual DVD. Depending on what type of LCD/Plasma you are using it could look better or worse.

Another thing is that half of these samples I tried was prone to bad judder/jerking when the camera is panning.

If you compare to those original DVD, there is not that much different. Maybe a little bit better. For e.g AVP1, the Blu-ray coverted disc look just a bit sharper and shows slightly less picture noise then the normal DVD original (Can't remember how much I bought the original last time, maybe RM39.90). Fyi, AVP1 DVD is prone to picture noise in dark areas.

Some converted titles however, do look much better compared to the ahem counterpart.

On another note, about sound, I noticed one particular Blu-ray converted disc (Flashpoint) .. the DTS sound was not as loud or clear compared to the ahem one . But other titles are better or about the same , it all depends.

But all said and done the bad judder on some of the titles is what spoils it all.

This post has been edited by Ngto: Feb 17 2008, 11:47 PM

Yes, the ahem DTS volume always cranked up. But don't forget the Blu-ray converted ones also ahem, so the DTS audio would also undergo the same process when putting them on normal DVD (I think).

I am not sure about Superbit or not. It might look sharper maybe by chance, like maybe the newly released Blu-ray version that it's converted from , looked better than the normal original DVD which was released many years ago. Anyway it was only the RM39.90 DVD (probably Region 3) I was comparing it to.

It could also be the higher contrast that makes it appear to be slightly sharper to the eyes..... many possibilities.

It could be too. But the difference wasn't that great, so I don't think it was the case, not AVP1 anyway. Anyway I bought those few just to test and satisfy my curiousity

This post has been edited by Ngto: Feb 18 2008, 12:30 PM