Subject: Re: Dvd vs LD
From: Chris Beveridge <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 02 Jan 1999 22:00:57 -0500

Greg Kempenich wrote:
> 
> Hmm, this seems like a better title for the thread.  Anyway, for many of us
> the whole issue is non relevant because in the US at least is nearly
> impossible to buy a new laserdisk player.  The only one I've seen in that
> past year is pioneer's combo DVD/LD player.  Which is a very kewl product
> btw...  I have to say that dvd is a medium which will take off.  My only
> reservation is that I don't know if DVD will support the upcoming hi-res
> HDTV modes.  Can anybody clue me in?

The "problem" that i've heard about the Pioneer combi model is that the
first gen one favoured the LD, causing problems with some DVD's, while
the current one favours the DVD, and not being completely perfect on the
LD side. But, that's coming from the high-end people I know.

As for the HDTV, it's complicated. The DVD encoding is 480p (players
decode as 480i right now). I've seen some DVD's player on a gorgeous 65"
HDTV set, upconverted to 1080i. It's naturally not true 1080i, but it
completely blew away anything I had seen before.

The thing to remember is this: There's been hesitancy among some of the
hollywood studios to release things on DVD because of it being a perfect
digital copy. And that's only at 480p, which in the HDTV world will be
the LOWEST resolution you can get. How likely are they to release 1080i
material in the next decade? Quite unlikely. DVD will be the baseline
for consumer product for video for quite some time if the studios have
any say. 1080i version will exist (Sony's library is being converted as
we type) but that's for broadcast only so far.
-- 
Chris Beveridge
Webmaster, Anime on DVD
http://www.animeondvd.com