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  1. Sim2 to offer new HD video format, claims it will be better than Blu-ray.
    http://www.homecinemachoice.com/blogs/team_HCC/sim2+better+than+blu

    On dvd discs , halfway between blu-ray and dig cin 4k2k, better colour palette, Crunchier Popcorn..

    HA! I knew this Hi-def was only a passing fad....
    Corned beef is now made to a higher standard than at any time in history.
    The electronic components of the power part adopted a lot of Rubycons.
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  2. Unfortunately, it's not a passing fade. Starting Feb 17th most over the air if not all major stations will have either 1080i or 720p as their major and 1 or 2 sub channels.

    We will live this for years to come!

    Yes, I know....the requirement is for *digital*, but I can tell you that they ARE switching to HD at the same time. Granted, some of the smaller markets wont, do to money, but most will. Actually, I would be surprised if the major markes are already broadcasting in HD and Analog right now
    tgpo famous MAC commercial, You be the judge?
    Originally Posted by jagabo
    I use the FixEverythingThat'sWrongWithThisVideo() filter. Works perfectly every time.
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  3. Member Conquest10's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by stiltman
    Yes, I know....the requirement is for *digital*, but I can tell you that they ARE switching to HD at the same time. Granted, some of the smaller markets wont, do to money, but most will. Actually, I would be surprised if the major markes are already broadcasting in HD and Analog right now
    Here in Chicago most all OTA are also broadcasting in HD. Only ones that don't are Telemundo, Univision, and PBS. Telemundo I can see broadcasting in HD as they are owned by Universal but since much of its content originates in Mexico I don't see much actual HD on it besides the local news. PBS is weird. There is a PBS HD channel but that is WTTW digital which is channel 11. There are separate PBS channels on channel 20 and 56 (which is a PBS channel from Gary, IN that Chicago gets for some reason).
    His name was MackemX

    What kind of a man are you? The guy is unconscious in a coma and you don't have the guts to kiss his girlfriend?
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    Here in West Central Illinois, there is damn little evidence of Hi-Def over the air. Mostly what you see is 4:3 standard def broadcast with no overscan....big hairy deal! On Fox Hi-Def out of Springfield and CW Hi-Def out of Decatur, the audio and video are out of sync in these 4:3 programs all the time.......and I mean every day, any time you try to watch them. I can't believe anyone ever watches this shit.

    CW has a standard def channel running the same 4:3 programs with overscan and the audio sync is perfect and the picture better than the Hi-Def channel.

    ABC (only a Hi-Def channel) out of Springfield runs mostly the same type 4:3 programming, but they do have the audio in sync. Their analog channel is actually better.

    CBS may vanish after the analog cutt-off. Channel 7 out of Quincy is broadcasting digitally in the Hi UHV range and their digital signal is not traveling the 63 miles it takes to get here. They will move back to VHF channel 7 on the Cutt-off date. The Digital signal for Channel 31 out of Peoria (60 plus miles) is detectable, but only watchable for short intervals of less than 10 minutes before the signal goes to hell and then drops out completely.

    Channel 17 out of Decatur (71 miles to broadcast tower) is reliable 90 percent of the time, but I hardly ever watch it. Their analog twin is watchable 24/7, no matter how bad the weather gets.

    WCFN (My Network TV) out of Springfield advertises the hell out of the digital TV transition, but their digital signal is too weak for anyone to receive.

    PBS (WSEC) digital is the only channel where I see an improvement over its analog twin. But their digital broadcast are plagued with outages. Mostly they run standard def 4:3 and some standard def 16:9.


    Everything's going Hi-Def? Bullshit!
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  5. Renegade gll99's Avatar
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    I don't get it. Are these really business people? Seems poorly thought out.

    Looks like it's not HD that they are challenging but the $ony Blu-ray format although I have difficulty seeing the Blu-ray disc format itself as their target competition. It's more the encoding scheme that is different. It's also misleading since it's not a new hd format. The hd specs allow so much more than we are getting now and I suspect that $ony could adopt any of those if they so choose.

    They mention
    for distribution either via disc or download
    and then
    shipped directly to buyers on two double-sided DVDs, priced at around $40
    This doesn't imply a new disc format since they will be top blocked at <18gb per (single) dual layer flipper nor is it even a new encoding scheme since they say they will use VC1 and h.264 but it's more like a new drm wrapper that can only be decoded by their players. The question some might ask Blu boy is why a new disc format was needed for Hollywood movies if someone can produce a better hd image using standard dl DVD flipper discs. For some this might indicate that all that was needed is a slightly more sophisticated player with the right codecs that can read both sides of multiple dl discs without user interaction. On the other hand, (not like me to defend Blu-ray but) the convenience of a single high capacity disc is hard to ignore

    Another point/question is that although they claim to have
    already signed up to around 4,000 movies and TV shows from major studios
    why would major video "distributors" who are Blu-ray supporters and committed to the format take on the additional cost and do a switch now especially when Blu-ray is so slow out of the gate even though they have a clear road since the demise of HD-DVD.? I guess the fact they using standard DVD dual layer disc is the answer but it still requires different encoding, authoring, handling with limited distribution until (if) the players catch on.

    In a discussion about hd and blu-ray it's sometimes hard to separate the encoding schemes from the disc format itself. In the long term, the Blu-ray disc format probably has the edge because they can expand their disc capacity to meet new more space demanding encoding methods, upgrade the hardware firmware and codecs and easily produce higher quality content video to face the competition. It wouldn't always mean back wards compatibility with previous players but once the name is entrenched it will be hard to displace that disc format even if the compression method changes.

    I see this as doomed to failure.

    A better chance at success would be to either licence the higher capacity blu-ray disc or resurrect the defunct Toshiba hd-dvd and use their new drm laced encoding methods. Either way everything needed (hardware, encoding, authoring, marketing, distribution, etc...) is new. The only thing that pre-exists in their current plan is that is uses multiple dead end inconvenient 2 sided dl dvd discs but the abandoned hd-dvd already has much greater potential than that and could probably be licensed, produced and distributed more cheaply than these new multiple 2 sided dl flippers. Unless they can add more layers to existing DVD's, I think it's a mistake to build anything on relatively low capacity discs. The demands of the future will require still higher capacity discs or devices. On top of that if their business model is counting on downloads as a method of distribution they are dreaming. ISP's are limiting total usage per month and even so called unlimited plans are subject to service cancellation. The 2 most common Hi-speed plans offered by my ISP have caps of 100gb and 60gb per month without incurring exorbitant surcharges. Buying 2 or 3 of their movies would put most of us over the cap pretty quickly. The price would have to be pretty cheap if I have to pay the ISP costs, buy my own discs, burn them, absorb the cost of bad burns etc... Can you imagine downloading a 30gb+ file and then having data errors and having to not only convince them it was bad but using your cap allotment to get it again.

    Definitely a very limited niche market product. I'll pass on this one. That's not for me. Thanks but no thanks.
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  6. Originally Posted by gll99
    I don't get it. Are these really business people? Seems poorly thought out.
    It's aimed dimwits with deep pockets who just gotta have it because they see a 5 digit US$ price tag and claims that it's better than Blu-ray. The same people who will spend $1000 for a 3 foot gold core cable.

    Note that it uses a 1080p DLP projector. So the display doesn't have any better resolution than Blu-ray. They'll probably add some artificial sharpening, contrast stretch, and pump up the saturation. That will convince people it's better. The usual tricks of the trade.
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  7. Banned
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    I would say that jagabo has nailed it right on the head. What I find most amazing about this proposal is that it completely overlooks the resistance that consumers had against flipping media - laserdiscs and the early DVDs that were DVD-5 on each side. In fact, such resistance was probably the main driver behind the idea of DVD-9 - the discs wouldn't have to be flipped. I remember well how just the idea of turning over a disc made people say no to laserdisc. I don't see any way that this is going to work.
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  8. There is no more accursed, defective, useless format on this earth than DVD-18 dual-side dual-layer flipper discs. Horrible, horrible things. Any fools that think they can launch a new format on these super-flakey discs (that even Hollywood has given up on) deserve their day in bankruptcy court. "Just say no" to DVD-18.
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  9. Without wishing to me be annoying, (55 years old, English - Who me?), but I love my upconverting dvd player and my 46 inch Sony Bravia.

    i was always quite happy with SD, just wanted a big screen that didn;t make my 40 year old TV shows look like Crap.

    Most North American TV shows are crap but that has nothing to do with the HD
    PAL/NTSC problem solver.
    USED TO BE A UK Equipment owner., NOW FINISHED WITH VHS CONVERSIONS-THANKS
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  10. I've been saying all along that bluray should die a quick death. Hollywood is archiving films at 4k x 2k resolution, or at about 4 times the resolution of bluray. Why should we settle for a lossy format that does not reproduce all of original resolution?

    This new format is a step in the right direction, but to archive the film on two 2-sided discs is just ludicrous! Media with the ability to store more than one terabyte of data on it has been developed by IBM (and others), so there's no need for flipping or changing discs. JVC and Panasonic already have TVs capable of showing 4k source material. Even Sony is working on that format.

    So come on folks! Kill bluray and let's get on with the show!

    Roberta
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  11. Member dadrab's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by Conquest10
    There are separate PBS channels on channel 20 and 56 (which is a PBS channel from Gary, IN that Chicago gets for some reason).
    This is practiced quite commonly. Certain states will reciprocate PBS programming (especially in border areas) because the programming from each state is different, but comparable. Here on the border of Georgia and South Carolina, I get PBS programming from both states. My mother, who lives very close to North Carolina, gets both South and North Carolina channels.

    As far as the topic at hand goes, I'll have to agree with the majority in believing this is a niche product aimed at the upper middle class/lower to middle upper class - i.e. plenty of money with no techical acumen.

    Most folks won't bother because of the cost. Those who can afford it and have any HD savy at all will just let it pass as a fleeting fancy.

    I find it interesting that some try to predict what the next BIGASS "thing" will be in the realm of HD and "total market changing" visual entertainment. I don't think we've seen it yet.

    When VHS began to dominate the market, who'd have believed that some years down the road, 112 cm silver discs would displace them?
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  12. I would say that once Blu-ray (or whatever) tech is out the door and onto the sales floor, companies are already working on the next tech. In fact they probably work on two or even three generations ahead. I doubt this will get much traction unless it was say, distributed on Blu-ray data discs(HA!) and played back via media centres etc. Could be good for Hollywood Screeners, using secure hardware or possibly Apple PR junkets.
    Corned beef is now made to a higher standard than at any time in history.
    The electronic components of the power part adopted a lot of Rubycons.
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