What do I need to consider before buying a High definition DVD?

 
This guide looks at a few common points brought up when talking about HD DVDs and then answers a number of specific questions in detail.

Introduction...

With the demise of the HD DVD format, the main buying decision involves choosing which Blu-ray player to buy. It is worth noting that Sony offer an unusual option with their latest PS3 games console which comes with a built-in Blu-ray player.

Remember that the new Blu-ray players have the ability to play your current standard DVD collection, and you may have come across the term Upscaling in relation to Blu-ray players.

What is Upscaling?

Your old DVD collection was designed to be viewed on a CRT screen, and as such was encoded at the lower quality 576i resolution. Because your High Definition TV was designed to display material in either 720p, 1080i or 1080p resolution it uses sophisticated 'scaling' technology to take a video source and scale it to fit the screen, or 'upscale'.

Blu-ray player manufacturers have taken the upscaling concept a step further by adding detail to an upscaled source to create sharper more detailed images, enhancing the perceived quality of, for example, your existing standard DVDs.

Of course, sophisticated upscaling algorithums are making an educated guess as to what extra detail should be added. Although the extra detail is essentially 'made up' the results can be surprisingly good, and can give your old DVDs a new lease of life.

Questions and Answers

Presumably, hi-def players will be backwards compatible and play all our old DVDs but will these players allow them to be "upscaled" (rendered at a higher picture quality)?
The Samsung BD-P1000 we tested can upscale current DVD format movies to 1080p, offering significantly better viewing than stand alone DVD movies. But it should be remembered that upscaling to higher resolutions will not result in a picture as good as high definition. There is simply not enough picture information on an ordinary DVD.

Is HDTV required to reap the full benefits of HD-DVD/Blu-Ray's HD capabilities? If so, then what does this mean for me and other non-HDTV owners?
I'm afraid you will need a HDTV to enjoy the benefits of Blu-ray or HD-DVD. So that's another considerable expense to think of.

Is the time taken to retreive the data from one of these new disks any greater than what it is with current CDs and DVDs?
The loading time is longer than conventional DVD players (up to 30 seconds) for the first generation models. Read speeds on DVD players and DVD-Roms will improve over time.

If most film companies support Blu-ray and Blu-ray can hold far more data, what is the point of HD-DVD?
A HD-DVD disk does hold less data than a Blu-ray equivalent. Supporters of the HD-DVD format say the 30GB disk has more than enough capacity for high definition movies.

Blu-ray supporters have said one disk can hold many different versions of a film including more extras but as yet few Blu-ray disks are being pushed to their limit.
HD-DVD has less supporters in the film studio world but some analysts feel the two technologies will achieve a stalemate, resulting in studios supporting both formats.

I'd like to know why the Samsung player is more than twice the cost in the UK compared to America? £900.00 compared to $740.00
We asked Samsung and they told us: "The US market is a single market allowing the introduction of a single model produced, distributed, and sold in large volumes. Europe on the other hand requires the introduction of several model variants which will be produced and sold in lower volumes. There are also differences in purchases taxes between the two regions."

Will either or both or these formats involve the farce that is region coding?
Both Blu-ray and HD-DVD disks are expected to carry regional encoding - so that disks bought in one region will not work in another.

Is the difference from DVD a significant reason to upgrade? The advantages DVD had over VHS were great, e.g. higher quality visuals and audio, menus and extra features, optional audio and subtitle langauges, compact for storage, disks don't wear away etc etc... is it just video quality that makes the new formats better?
Proponents of high definition DVD point to the better picture quality primarily but also say the disks will be able to offer more extras and features. It's a question of whether or not you are satisfied with the picture quality of a standard DVD.

I want to know which format will give me better quality video, which of the two have cheaper disc formats and which one is going to be more reliable?
The image quality on both players should be virtually indistinguishable and reliability is unlikely to be much of a factor. The key issue will be content. Are your favourite movies supported by Blu-ray, HD-DVD or both? That's the big question.

Will either of the new HD formats play the current DVD standard definition format, and home recorded DVDs (-R,+R and so forth)? And if not, are there any plans to produce dual format players which can cope with the current DVD formats.
Both formats are backwards compatible. Whether or not the players support formats such as DVD- or DVD+ depends on the individual manufacturer. Check before buying.