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Originally posted by: DanielB
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Originally posted by: Darth Simon
I think its more than letting the market tell you what they want to buy.
Really? Well Coca-Cola has flunked products by just expecting the market to adopt them. You have to let the market tell you when they're ready for a new format. It's too soon after DVD to dive into a new format, especially if it's only really going to rivial the quality of the already-available D-VHS (which is uncompressed, and four times the resolution of DVD - so current DVD's hold one tenth the digital data that D-VHS does, which is dedicated just to the movie quality, whereas these new disc formats are just scarping 50Gig). The size increase isn't significant enough. It is for consoles to guarantee their developers they'll have more room then they'll ever need - but for a home-video format it's useless.

I mean, it's only just recently become available at a reasonable price for consumers to ger DVD-recorders. D-VHS on the other hand never faced that problem, you can record onto exactly the same High-Definition commercial quality tape straight from the D-VCR, whereas DVD only lets you record onto DVD-R/RAM which is not the same thing as a pressed disc. Consumers can go back to simply recording on tapes - where they can continue recording on the same tape, record record record - don't have to worry about damage, sure some visible damage may occur, but it's not going to pause the playback or anything like that, it'll still play-through.

No, JVC should be able to push D-VHS over the upcoming disc formats anyway.

1. D-VHS is most certainly compressed and uses the same compression method as DVD: MPEG2. Just a much higher bitrate because of the vastly superior storage space and source resolution.
2. The new codecs being used for HD-DVD and BluRay are superior to MPEG2, both in compression ratio and video quality. Particularly in the area of macroblocking.
3. HD-DVD and BluRay will both likely support native unfiltered 1080p, which will quite soundly stomp the filtered 1080i of D-VHS. Interlaced video is usually filtered during mastering to help minimize jaggies on interlaced displays. The problem is that when filtered interlaced video is deinterlaced, it doesn't have nearly the same amount of detail as native unfiltered progressive video. Would you be surprised to learn that even the best DVDs you've seen don't match the potential of the format because they're filtered 480i? Native 480p DVDs are rare and visibly superior to 480i DVDs.
4. As fixed pixel digital displays slowly but surely replace the CRTs of old, the higher resolution offered by HD will be easily discernable even on smaller displays. Most of the reasonably priced CRT-based projection "HDTVs" available today use cheap 7" guns that can barely resolve 540p. Within the next few years, I think most members here who find digital HD displays (720p/1080p) out of their reach will be shocked at the affordability they're going to see. At CES, several manufacturers introduced 720p DLP projectors with MSRPs just above $3K. That means street prices around $2500. We'll see 720p DLP projectors and projection TVs with street prices under $1K within 18 months--guaranteed. You're telling me 1080p downconverted to 720p on a 100" diagonal screen won't be visibly superior to DVD? You must not have seen HD on such a display. I have. It's beautiful.
5. BluRay will likely be recordable right out of the gate, or soon thereafter.
6. JVC can push D-VHS all they want. Consumers will not go back to tape. Ever.

Pairing HD-DVD or BluRay with projectors and large screens at attainable prices will result in what movie fans have wanted for decades: a true theater-quality presentation right in your living room.

There are three primary reasons manufacturers and studios are pushing these new formats out now, at the height of DVD's popularity:

1. The traditional manufacturers are getting killed by the Chinese with $40 DVD players. Releasing a new format means new, expensive hardware they can profit from.

2. It's a race. The HD-DVD camp and the BluRay camp are driving each other. Neither can take the chance of waiting. If one were to get a significant head start, the other might never recover.

3. The display technology is reaching mass-market pricing, and consumers will want the video playback hardware to drive these displays. Big selling opportunity.

DVD will continue to be a huge cash cow for the studios and will remain the standard video format for many consumers for the next decade. HD-DVD/BluRay will be like laserdisc for the time being, a niche format to appeal to videophiles. BUT...it will spend only a short time in the shadows. With playback hardware debuting in the $1K range and software only a little bit more expensive than DVDs, it won't take long for prices to drop--just in time for the arrival of affordable digital displays.

I'm looking forward to it. Should be lots of fun.