I say no. Reason:
You do not need a HD or Blu-Ray DVD to get a great picture. A typical DVD player with an upconvert 1080i or 1080p and a monitor with the appropriate 1080i or 1080p gets you the same picture as a Blu-Ray or HD DVD.
So we all lose because we get to pay more money for movies when the current DVD’s work just fine.
Not completely correct. A good upconverter CAN get damn close to Blu-Ray quality. If your TV is under 50” you probably won’t see the difference.
Upconverters work surprisingly well, but I’ve seen HD DVD and Blu-ray images on a decent 1080 HD monitor, and it was much better. Not nearly as good as the leap between regular broadcast TV and HDTV, but it was very noticable.
How long until you won’t have a choice but to rent or buy Blu-Ray movies, instead of regular DVD?
I did a comparison of Aeon Flux Regular DVD, HD-DVD and BLU-Ray DVD on a Sony XBR Bravia 52” Flat Panel LCD.
Samsung UpConvert DVD player connected via HDMI
Toshiba A300 HD-DVD player connected via HDMI
Samsung BP-1400A BLU-Ray player connected via HDMI
I tested stills by pausing all three units at the same scenes and used an HDMI switch to pop back and forth. I also ran the same scenes on all three.
All three had a great picture.
The Regular DVD had slightly better color than the HD-DVD player
The HD-DVD player has slightly better picture than the upconverted DVD during motion scenes. I was disappointed that I almost could not tell the difference between the upconvert and the HD-DVD during stills. I chalked this up to the fact that the Toshiba HD-DVD player was only outputting at 1080i
The Blu-Ray player had a better freeze frame and motion than the upconvert DVD and HD-DVD. The difference in the motion scenes was significantly better. It also seems like the black are a little blacker with the Blu-Ray player on my Sony TV.
At the end of the day I returned the HD-DVD player and sold my Upconvert Samsung and kept the Samsung Blu-Ray. I paid $299.00 for it at the CompUSA going out of business sale.
Just my 1 and 1/2 cents worth and my old eyes. Your milage may vary...
Not true. A standard DVD contains a maximum of 720 lines of resolution. "Upconverting" to 1080i or 1080p does not add information that wasn't there to begin with; it either extrapolates the extra pixels or it doubles existing pixels. You may or may not notice the difference, but the difference is real nonetheless. Upconversion is not magic.
Sorry, but you’re wrong about the PQ.
While good up conversion can look terrific, it isn’t the same as the real 1080p. I’ve A/B’d the same titles on Blu-ray (via PS3) and DVD (via a $1500 up converting DVD player) and the real HD is appreciably better, sharper and with better color.
Of course this doesn’t take away from the “Garbage in, garbage out” factor in which a good DVD could conceivably be better than a poor Blu-ray, but all things being equal the real high def will be better.
Up conversion’s a good way to watch DVD’s until they get released on BD, though, and for people (like my wife) for whom “ultimate” PQ isn’t the be-all and end-all.
cheers
Jim
Not entirely true. Most NEW DVD players will upconvert to 1080i but require an HDMI connection to do it though a few will do it over component links. There are also a few that will upconvert to 1080p but they tend to be very expensive.