theatis:
Nice discussion guys. Hey Derek, another AVS forum veteran here and i wanted to add another perspective.
One of the problems with making the switch is that the companies rely on the first-adopters to determine which way the market goes. In this case, however, the strategy may backfire. I'll use myself as an example: i've spent a lot of my restricted cash flow (even more than on scuba gear!) on a 7.1 audio system, projector and upsampling DVD player (and an SACD player, remember those?). So now i watch my movies in sound that approximates the cinema aural experience (and better calibrated i might add) and a visual experience that is good enough in all its fake 1080i glory!
So, having spent so much and feeling content with my setup, why would i make a knee-jerk reaction and not wait for the market to sort itself out? I think that many people who have similar setups but also for whom money IS an issue feel the same way. What do you guys think?
Hey theatis, glad to have another AVS'er here.
Very, very valid points. I've been saying from day one that while it will be J6P who decides the fate of this format war, it is us early adopters whom will carry our respective format of choice along just long enough for J6P to weigh in. I say fate, because frankly, we may not see a winner, period. As you've pointed out, you're the owner of a SACD player, and we obviously know what happened there, and the same thing could befall the Next-Gen DVD war.
Most consumers don't have an HDTV. Those that do, IMHO, will be somewhat jaded. The jump from Standard-Def TV to HDTV is phenominal. I can still vividly remember watching my first HD show a little over 2 years ago on my Sony RP-LCD set. I nearly soiled myself watching a travel program on The Discovery Chanel. They were doing a feature on the Disney parks in FL, and they had just shown the Tower of Terror ride, which I had just been on less than a few years beforehand. It was like I was on my vacation all over again. I nearly soiled my shorts. But I digress...
There are great differences between HD DVD and non-upconverted SD DVD. Unfortunately, the average user isn't going to see the difference on a 36" CRT display. I sit approximately 10' away from my 50" plasma, and while yes the difference is noticable, the one thing it is begging for is a larger stage to truly shine (aka a projector). The consumer electronics industry has done themselves in by advertising other $120 upconverting players as "near-HD quality" and "upconvert to 720p and 1080i". If I were an average consumer and some kid at BB or CC tried to sell me a $500-$1,000 player when I could get one for $120 that was "almost as good", I'd be telling him to take a hike....
I didn't own an upconverting player when I bought my NEC, and was considering an Oppo. Excellent choice, yet one will run me $200. I figured, for $300 more, I could get a true HD DVD experience, get the best upconverting player money can buy (short of a dedicated scaler such as a DVDO product), and if HD DVD did in fact win the format war, all the better.
I own 5 HD DVD titles. Van Helsing, Chronicles of Riddick, U571, Goodfellas and The Last Samurai. These movies were chosen for one of two reasons, either they were a personal favorite of the wife or I, or they were one of those reference films to truly show off the power of the HD DVD player and my plasma. The rest I rent from Netflix. As a matter of fact, I sat down this afternoon and watched Assault on Precinct 13. Picture and sound were overall, breathtaking. Sure, there were a few scenes where it got a hair soft or even a smidge grainy, but it all flowed with the flim, and it almost felt as though it could have been artistic choice by the director, not a limitation in the transfer. As an aside, John Leguizamo's character was just stinkin' annoying. Was I the only one glad to see him get "offed"?
I hear ya on the money situation. I work hard, I play harder. Massive OT during the summers leaves me with cash for stuff like this. My wife keeps telling me I need to give up or severly cut back on at least one of my hobbies (scuba/HT/Mustangs). I sold my Mustang, but I don't know if I can walk away from either scuba or HT. I enjoy 'em too darn much. I'm gonna be in debt for the rest of my life, I figure might as well have some fun along the way. As long as the bills are paid, money gets put away for retirement and the kid's college, life is good.
AVS is an odd place. You have people there who could buy and sell us just as soon as they could pick out a new screen, and then you have the normal people such as us, and then everything else in-between. I think that we're going to see a fair amount of people stay on the sidelines until it becomes a little more apparent where the market will go. HD DVD definitely has the price in their favor, but is the Sony name, and the subsequent exclusive support (at least for now) from nearly every major studio enough to make consumers spend the extra dough? Time will tell. I do know this: they couldn't have picked a worse time to divide their potential customers. With gas in many places exceeding $3 a gallon for 87 octane as a starting point, I'm not so sure I see a whole lot of people jumping in headfirst into HDTVs, let alone adding another $500-$1000 to the mix.
I think it will also come down to which studios will support which formats (or both) and which films they are going to release. We're not going to see J6P making the plunge until titles like The Matrix Trilogy, The LOTR Trilogy and other major blockbusters hit the scene. Why drop (at the cheapest) $500 on a player for movies that you either already own on SD DVD or you don't care about (Rumor has it or Constantine...anyone wanna spend $35 on that?). The fact that Kong and Batman Begins were supposed to be launch titles for the Toshiba hasn't helped either. I understand delays, but it's been about 3 months now WB...
At any rate, I figured I hedged my bets with the Toshiba. If the format fails, I still have one heckuva upconverting player, and at least 5 HD DVD movies to watch in sight/sound bliss...
