Upcoming & future Xbox 360 motherboard / chipset revisions aJasper, Opus and Valhalla - The Valhalla to have 65 or 45 nm combined CPU-GPUin 2009

krw wrote:
In article ,
lid says...
Robert Redelmeier wrote:

Just because HD-DVD is dead does not mean Blu-ray will thrive.
There is competition from upscaled DVDs:

http://www.economist.com/daily/colum...ry_id=10610923

Seen 'em. They suck worse that leaving the DVD alone and nost
trying
to "upsample" them.

As always, the question will be "Is the difference worth it?"
Not something a techie can answer. It depends on mass market
perceptions. If Joe Sixpack can plug a [sinfully expensive] HDMI
cable into a decent DVD player and his HDTV and see a picture as
good as s/he remembers from the BigBox store Blu-ray, why would
they
switch? Only if the blu-ray players become really cheap, there
might a movie or two the SFX or other visuals will be worth the
premium.

They will become cheap, HD displays are getting cheap (you can't
hardly buy one that isn't HD any longer).

Depends on what you mean by "HD". Full 1080i isn't common under 42"
(just went through that - ended up with a 42" plasma). ...not that
there is much 1080i content.

For certain values of "common". Friend of mine got a 37" 1080i set a
couple of years ago. Not horribly expensive then and less now--seems
that the Chinese were the first to get a 1080 LCD line going in that
size.

People will want to watch
HD, not "upsampled DVD", on their HD displays. It's inevitable.

The "good enough" comments were right on. VHS was "good enough".
I'm not convinced people will pay big bux for BluRay. I don't think
I will, at least a large premium.

No, they won't pay big bucks, but a couple of years down the road it's
going to be as cheap as regular DVD is now.
--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

Sudsy wrote:

I even went with component video cables since I couldn't see a
significant
improvement with HDMI. Old eyes? Just cheap? ;-)

I thought you said that you were using an up-converting DVD player.
That is only possible with HDMI.

But perhaps I'm not the only one who doesn't want to pay $140 for a 6'
audio/video cable...

You're shopping at the wrong stores.

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips Sudsy wrote:
But perhaps I'm not the only one who doesn't want to pay $140 for a 6'
audio/video cable...

There are plenty of HDMI cables for under $20.

--
Nate Edel http://www.cubiclehermit.com/
preferred email |
is "nate" at the | "A sufficiently advanced incompetence is
posting domain | indistinguishable from malice."

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips krw wrote:
Depends on what you mean by "HD". Full 1080i isn't common under 42"
(just went through that - ended up with a 42" plasma). ...not that
there is much 1080i content.

I think you mean 1080p (which is pretty much limited to computers, video
game systems, and HD-DVD/BluRay disks.)

About half of the broadcast HD out there is 1080i.

People will want to watch HD, not "upsampled DVD", on their HD displays.
It's inevitable.

The "good enough" comments were right on. VHS was "good enough". I'm not
convinced people will pay big bux for BluRay. I don't think I will, at
least a large premium.

Videophiles certainly will pay big bux for BluRay, and *some* more will if
in fact HD-DVD is dead and the format war is over. Many other people will
probably end up only getting BluRay players when/if they're enough cheaper
that it's a "why not get the better one?" decision: unlike Beta or
Laserdisk, BR players will still play regular DVDs.

The other factor is the cost/availability of content: right now, BR disks
are often more expensive than regular release DVDs, and pretty much anything
available on BR is available on regular DVD at the same time.

If they really wanted to push BR, they could release the BR disks a few
weeks/months ahead of the regular DVD - remember how for a while, many VHS
tapes came out first in much-more-expensive "rental" editions before they
came out out as "retail" editions?

--
Nate Edel http://www.cubiclehermit.com/
preferred email |
is "nate" at the | "A sufficiently advanced incompetence is
posting domain | indistinguishable from malice."

Nate Edel wrote:

Videophiles certainly will pay big bux for BluRay, and *some* more will if
in fact HD-DVD is dead and the format war is over. Many other people will
probably end up only getting BluRay players when/if they're enough cheaper
that it's a "why not get the better one?" decision: unlike Beta or
Laserdisk, BR players will still play regular DVDs.

Right. Prices on players will come down, and then people will buy
them. At that point, they'll keep their DVD's but buy new releases in
HD.

Eventually, the market will shift, although it will likely take years.
I enjoy old movies, that I NetFlix in. I assume that it will be many
years, if ever, that the BluRay library rivals the DVD library.

In article ,
says...
In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips krw wrote:
Depends on what you mean by "HD". Full 1080i isn't common under 42"
(just went through that - ended up with a 42" plasma). ...not that
there is much 1080i content.

I think you mean 1080p (which is pretty much limited to computers, video
game systems, and HD-DVD/BluRay disks.)

Yes, for some reason I'm always doing that. Maybe I should put
"1080p" in my dictionary. ;-)

About half of the broadcast HD out there is 1080i.

People will want to watch HD, not "upsampled DVD", on their HD displays.
It's inevitable.

The "good enough" comments were right on. VHS was "good enough". I'm not
convinced people will pay big bux for BluRay. I don't think I will, at
least a large premium.

Videophiles certainly will pay big bux for BluRay, and *some* more will if
in fact HD-DVD is dead and the format war is over. Many other people will
probably end up only getting BluRay players when/if they're enough cheaper
that it's a "why not get the better one?" decision: unlike Beta or
Laserdisk, BR players will still play regular DVDs.

Sure, but the marginal cost of the BR player has to be close to zero
for that to happen.

The other factor is the cost/availability of content: right now, BR disks
are often more expensive than regular release DVDs, and pretty much anything
available on BR is available on regular DVD at the same time.

That's the other issue. If BR content is more expensive than
standard DVD, people aren't going to flock to it. I see a huge
catch-22 hurdle for BR to get over.

If they really wanted to push BR, they could release the BR disks a few
weeks/months ahead of the regular DVD - remember how for a while, many VHS
tapes came out first in much-more-expensive "rental" editions before they
came out out as "retail" editions?

They content producers wanted to make more money. They have no
horse in the media race.

--
Keith

In article ,
says...
krw wrote:
In article ,
lid says...
Robert Redelmeier wrote:

Just because HD-DVD is dead does not mean Blu-ray will thrive.
There is competition from upscaled DVDs:

http://www.economist.com/daily/colum...ry_id=10610923

Seen 'em. They suck worse that leaving the DVD alone and nost
trying
to "upsample" them.

As always, the question will be "Is the difference worth it?"
Not something a techie can answer. It depends on mass market
perceptions. If Joe Sixpack can plug a [sinfully expensive] HDMI
cable into a decent DVD player and his HDTV and see a picture as
good as s/he remembers from the BigBox store Blu-ray, why would
they
switch? Only if the blu-ray players become really cheap, there
might a movie or two the SFX or other visuals will be worth the
premium.

They will become cheap, HD displays are getting cheap (you can't
hardly buy one that isn't HD any longer).

Depends on what you mean by "HD". Full 1080i isn't common under 42"
(just went through that - ended up with a 42" plasma). ...not that
there is much 1080i content.

For certain values of "common". Friend of mine got a 37" 1080i set a
couple of years ago. Not horribly expensive then and less now--seems
that the Chinese were the first to get a 1080 LCD line going in that
size.

Sorry, I meant 1080p (AIUI, it must be 1080p - 1920x1080 to properly
be called HDTV now). Most of the =42" class weren't.

People will want to watch
HD, not "upsampled DVD", on their HD displays. It's inevitable.

The "good enough" comments were right on. VHS was "good enough".
I'm not convinced people will pay big bux for BluRay. I don't think
I will, at least a large premium.

No, they won't pay big bucks, but a couple of years down the road it's
going to be as cheap as regular DVD is now.

I see a catch-22 here though. DVD is incredibly cheap. BR doesn't
give *that* much more.

--
Keith

In article ,
says...
In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips Sudsy wrote:
But perhaps I'm not the only one who doesn't want to pay $140 for a 6'
audio/video cable...

There are plenty of HDMI cables for under $20.

Yep! ...and the price has gone up:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812339005

--
Keith

"chrisv" wrote in message
...
Sudsy wrote:

I even went with component video cables since I couldn't see a
significant
improvement with HDMI. Old eyes? Just cheap? ;-)

I thought you said that you were using an up-converting DVD player.
That is only possible with HDMI.

But perhaps I'm not the only one who doesn't want to pay $140 for a 6'
audio/video cable...

You're shopping at the wrong stores.

No kidding! Comcast gave me a 6' HDMI cable for free when I got my new DVR.
I paid $6 for the one I already had, and it worked great! Anyone that pays
more for a HDMI or DVI cables are getting ripped off. When you're dealing
with digital data there's no need to spend big bucks on the cables. Either
the 1&0's get there or they don't. JLC

JLC wrote:

But perhaps I'm not the only one who doesn't want to pay $140 for a 6'
audio/video cable...

You're shopping at the wrong stores.

No kidding! Comcast gave me a 6' HDMI cable for free when I got my new DVR.
I paid $6 for the one I already had, and it worked great! Anyone that pays
more for a HDMI or DVI cables are getting ripped off. When you're dealing
with digital data there's no need to spend big bucks on the cables. Either
the 1&0's get there or they don't. JLC

Yeah, it's real head-scratcher (I would hope) when they try to sell
you a freaking cable that cost as much as the sophisticated
electro-mechanical marvel that is a DVD player.

I have to restrain myself from giving the idiot a verbal pummeling on
those occasions that I hear the "Monster cable" sales pitches...