Sorry if this has already been posted but I have searched the forum and Google and didn't come up with anything.

I have a 50" 1080p Panasonic plasma. I am currently using an XBOX 360 to play DVD movies and Comcast as my cable provider.

Will I see better picture quality from a Blu Ray player vs Comcast HD On Demand? Does anyone know of an article that matches up the two technologies?

Thanks!

I moved this from the BD player forum since it's not really about BD players.


larry

Sorry if this has already been posted but I have searched the forum and Google and didn't come up with anything.

I have a 50" 1080p Panasonic plasma. I am currently using an XBOX 360 to play DVD movies and Comcast as my cable provider.

Will I see better picture quality from a Blu Ray player vs Comcast HD On Demand? Does anyone know of an article that matches up the two technologies?

Thanks!

My experience with Comcast HD, Comcast HD On Demand and HD DVD is that the first two offer the same level of PQ while the last offers the best PQ. This will be the same for BD. And I am not saying the first 2 are unwatchable - far from it. Just that HDM today offers the best HD PQ of any available HD delivery system available to the public.

Of course in all instances, the PQ is dependent on the transfer and the condition of the film elements if the movie is old(er).

The 1080p picture quality on most well-produced Blu-ray transfers is better than anything you'll find in a comparable movie on Comcast HD. I have had high-def players (HD DVD and Blu-ray) since the day they were introduced, and I've subscribed to Comcast's high-def broadcasts (and premium HBO, Showtime, and Starz channels) since day one, so I've had plenty of opportunity to compare.

Blu-ray definition is almost always sharper and clearer, plus Blu-ray discs will provide you with the movie's original, theatrical aspect ratios. Comcast broadcasts, being more compressed, will be slightly softer and often presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio only, no matter if they were originally projected in a wider screen size.

Equally important to me as a fellow who enjoys good sound, Blu-ray discs most often offer lossless 5.1 or 7.1 Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, or uncompressed PCM, while Comcast broadcasts offer only regular, lossy Dolby Digital.

Unless you're hard-pressed for money, I'd go with both formats, though. I watch Comcast's On-Demand movies in high def, while enjoying on Blu-ray the movies I really love and want to keep.

John

+1

NOTHING compares to BluRay, at this point....NOTHING....

Comcast Digital Cable and OnDemand in general, without being too negative, in one word: SUCK!

OnDemand like other streaming services are mediocre when a low number are using the mulitplexed pipes, but as demand increases the quality quickly goes down.

The only reason I have Comcast is for Broadband. I am about ready to drop their HD and TV services for Dish.

Digital Cable is way overpriced for the (low) quality it delivers. The SD channels are compressed to hell to the point that watching the HD channels on a SD set look vastly better.

FIOS is a lot better and shows many movies in OAR. I know I have had both.

Nothing compares to Blu-ray since the bit rate is much higher. I find Comcast video on demand HD to have a higher quality picture than regular Comcast HD. Comcast regular HD has many HD channels (not broadcast HD channels) tripled up (three HD channels on a QAM channel rather than two) this means on occasion the quality of the HD is reduced because of bandwidth limitations.

This thread goes into great detail on how Comcast has cut corners on HD channels. To be fair Comcast has fine tuned their HD product and the quality has improved.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=100827

HD On Demand offers a nice picture but you will still get an even better quality from Blu-ray that has a full 1080p resolution with less compression and lets not forget superior audio options. My personal preference is to rent from OnDemand if its a movie that Im not going to watch multplie times, justifying the purchase of the Blu-ray disc.

In terms of compression, I would estimate that Comcast HD On Demand would be between 12 to 19 Mb/s MPEG-2 (constant bit-rate), while a BD could be 30 Mb/s MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 (variable bit-rate) or higher. VBR is better than CBR because the scenes with more motion can have a higher bit-rate for better quality, while the scenes with less motion can use a lower bit-rate in order to conserve space. (but obviously Comcast On Demand is streamed and doesn't involve discs so it wouldn't be helpful for them to use a VBR)