[youngp]

I have a 30" widescreen sony wega crt HDTV and a cheap $30 toshiba progressive dvd player that I will hook up with a component cable. I wont use the tv for anything other than DVDs from netflix. I'm wondering, would I see any noticable increase in quality by purchasing either an upscaling dvd player or a HD-A1 HD DVD player with hdmi output so that I could take advantage of the HD capabilities of my television? I guess what I'm really wondering is if at such a small screen size, sitting halfway across the room, is it worth it- will hd-dvds really look that much better. or do you need a big screen to enjoy them? I dont care too much about having the latest technology-- but I would like to watch movies in the best quality possible, especially now that netflix is offering hd-dvds. Any help would be appreciated

 

[gosawx]

Have you seen High Definiton on your set, or only DVD? HD DVD is better than broadcast, IMO


HD DVD will look appreciably better than DVD, and the upscaling regular DVD should look better, as well

 

[f300v10]

It depends on how far away you are from the set. With 20/20 vision, you need to be a maximum of 4 ft. from a 30" set to fully resolve 1080. Anything greater than 10 ft, and you can only resolve 480. If you are somewhere in between, say 7 to 8 ft., I don't think you would see a very noticeable difference between SD DVD from a good upscaling player, and true HD with HD-DVD.

 

[lastxbr960]

YES!!

On my 34" it does at about 8-10 feet, even better closer or in low light.

I think it is about more than just resolution and distance, although that is important, it is also about better, richer, more accurate color, contrast, shadow detail, clarity and brightness, etc.,etc.,.

All made possible by the newer codecs and higher bandwidth made possible by the HDDVD format.

Of course quality varies widely from title to title and the abilities and calibration of your display. Some will look slightly better than upscaled dvds, while others will blow you away.

My favs so far for bright crisp clear tranfers are the Hulk, Ant bully, Aeon FLux.

For dark scenes and shadow detail I think Batman begins is second to none although day scenes are somewhat soft.

My fav and best all around is still King Kong

 

[Anthony1]



Quote:
Originally Posted by f300v10 /forum/post/0


It depends on how far away you are from the set.

Yeah, this is the gospel truth. I have a 30 inch 16:9 Princeton Graphics AF3.0 HD, which is considered a reference quality CRT HDTV, and HD-DVD looks fantastic on it, if I'm sitting the correct distance from the screen. The correct distance would be anywhere from 2 feet to 4 feet. Farther than 4 feet, and it's a waste in comparison to a solid upscaling dvd player.


Of course the only problem with this, is that most people have these HDTV's in a living room or family room or something, and are sitting 8 feet or more away from it, and from that distance, yeah the improvement is very marginal.

 

[jason978]

I sit about 5 ft from my 34"crt and HD is MUCH better than SD DVD.

 

[Customgamer1]



Quote:
Originally Posted by jason978 /forum/post/0


I sit about 5 ft from my 34"crt and HD is MUCH better than SD DVD.

I have a 32 inch i got the 360 add on for and it's a HUGE upgrade. Well worth it!

 

[miata]

I have a 38" CRT and sit about 10 feet away. I noticed a huge difference in going from my previous DVD player to the HD-A1 for SD DVD which puts out a much more detailed image even at 480p. I do notice the difference between SD and HD DVD at that distance -- mostly in more detailed backgrounds -- but at my normal sitting distance I am reaching the point of diminishing returns going from really good SD to HD DVD. When I'm really into a movie I sit down on the floor about 8 feet way and that helps. To be honest, with my normal seating situation I am more impressed with the SD quality and the sound quality (using 5.1 analog outs) than the HD DVD playback. I love the picture on my TV, but I have been having more and more serious thoughts about getting a 50" Pioneer plasma to really take advantage of HD.

 

[oliverjg]

i have a 32" lcd. hd dvd looks better even from a distance.


but, on a big screen the difference is much more dramatic.

 

[flipcody]

As other people have stated, it will make a huge difference if you are the optimum distance from the screen. f300v10 was very close with his distances. The only thing I would add is that further than 6 ft. from a 30 inch HDTV you would not be able to see the added detail that 1080i gives you over 720p. With a 30" 1080i HDTV you will see the most resolution at 4-6 ft.

Here is a really good article on optimizing your seating distance for your screen size and resolution:
http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/hit...esolution.html

 

[tsang1101]

Not sure if audio is a big deal to you, but the new surround formats are also a signifigant step up IMHO.


Tristan

 

[Morphx2]

I have a 32 inch westing hdtv with the 360 add-on, it looks AMAZING. AND I usually sit on my bed, which is around 15 feet away. Still looks awesome. GO BUY IT!

 

[Tim Glover]

Yes....

 

[lazerfan]

I have a 34" Sony CRT widescreen set and I sit about 7 feet away. There's a visible difference in resolution, but the real discernable improvements are in color saturation and elimination of dvd artifacts/chroma/luminence noise.

Basically, you get a clean, clear picture versus dvd. I find on a crt set, even the best standard dvds will have a little noise in the picture. This noise lessens to almost nothing when you A/B compare a standard to HD dvd.

I did this when I got the HD DVD version of Batman Begins. I compared this with my standard version and there was a big dropoff in noise/artifacts.

This "cleaner" picture is reason enough to enjoy HD DVD.