I am neutral in the format war; I endorse neither Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. I have a 60' SXRD with D* HD and an Oppo970. I have never viewed either format until this past week. While shopping at PC Richard, they had a Blu-Ray demo on a 60 XBR2, which is the more recent version of my unit. Great source for comparison, I thought.

I was not impressed. I was expecting a sharp picture as seen on Discovery HD or even HDNet. The picture was noisy and not sharp - looked worse than DVD on my Oppo, or even TNT-HD.

If the purpose of this display was to sell Blu-Ray, the promotion failed miserably. It could be due to how the harware was configured or the mastering of the promo DVD, but I can see how the average person could walk into the showroom and think this whole format is overhyped. The retailers are not helping.

I was not impressed. I was expecting a sharp picture as seen on Discovery HD or even HDNet. The picture was noisy and not sharp - looked worse than DVD on my Oppo, or even TNT-HD.

Sounds like the typical P.C. Richards store that I used to go to back when I lived on Long Island. They used to have anamorphic discs playing back in squeeze mode on 4:3 sets back in the late 90s.

I'm sure this had everything to do with how it was set up and nothing to do with the capabilities of Blu-Ray. I don't think even the most adamant HD-DVD supporters would ever go as far as to say that a 1920x1080 Blu-Ray disc would look worse than HD-Net which is broadcast 1280x1080 interlaced.

worse than DVD? hell, blu-ray is worse than VHS according to this guy:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=781777