So say I am watching The Departed on HBOHD channel, is the picture quality the same as if I was watching The Departed on HDDVD or Blueray? or would it be the same Picture Quality of a DVD?

somewhere in between

Also depends on your display and signal strength/amount of compression... no matter what it will look better on HDM but it's more evident the larger the screen is and how close you are to it.

That being said, sometimes I am floored how well cable HD looks on my 46" LCD at 8ft away... the closer I get the more compression artifacts I see.

HD-DVD/Blu-Ray: about 20-30 Mbps of video data

HD cable: about 12-19 Mbps of video data

DVD: about 4-8 Mbps of video data

So yeah, somewhere inbetween is the best answer. Whether each individual person can see the difference easily, that will depend on the person and the display, and what each person focuses on when watching the display.

HBO HD also changes the aspect ratio, and important bit of information.

I had taped a HD showing of Star Wars off of HBO a few months back and for kicks compared it to the DVD - and I was shocked by how similar they were. In most cases you could barely tell them apart; some scenes gave the edge to one or the other.

I also compared the regular DVD of Planet Earth to a Discovery HD broadcast and in that case the HD broadcast looked much better. So i guess results will vary...

Not just no but HECK no.

Wolfie

I have a Samsung LCD HDTV 32" 720p

so say I buy a HDDVD or Blueray player, will the picture quality of the movies will be very noticeable? or look about the same?

I have a Samsung LCD HDTV 32" 720p

so say I buy a HDDVD or Blueray player, will the picture quality of the movies will be very noticeable? or look about the same?

Given the size of your screen and the distance you sit. I would not imagine an appreciable difference in image quality between the two. I sit 9 feet from a 40" Sony LCD and have watched Blu-Ray vs. standard DVD and HBO HD on both D* and Verizon FIOS. There is just not that much difference. Now if you had a 60" plasma 1080p television and sat 8-9 feet away Bluray or HDDVD would look much better than any other format. But screen size and distance are huge factors toward perceived image quality.

Not just no but HECK no.

Wolfie

Assuming there is no AR issue, it's not a "heck no" if your HBO HD comes from a BUD (C-Band or 4DTV or whatever it is). My understand is that those HD feeds are as uncompressed as it gets.

That would be very close, or perhaps the same. But yeah, there is a big difference between blu ray/hd-dvd and HBO-HD on cable or DBS sat.

Yeah the first time I saw HDM on a 1080p 73" LCOS, I almost wet myself, it looked nothing like what I have at home... it looked truly amazing. So I went home and fired up my 46" display and a HDM disc... that wow factor just isn't there until I nuzzle up 4 feet from the screen.

I am telling my less informed friends to wait things out, use the money saved to go towards a larger screen and come back to HDM when you are better equipped.