Dont let Sky HD put you off as they are squeezing HD through a horribly low bit rate channel. If you watched Iron Man on your set from a bluray player it would have looked a lot better.
I've got a Philips 720p/1080i 32" TV. The model escapes me right now, but its two years old, and is the non-ambilight version of an ambilight set. I can see the difference between SD and HD - but it just doesn't seem to make a difference, if that makes sense? My gf can't tell the difference, although my eyesight is better than hers. Its probably as Da_Rude_Baboon says, that Sky are just pushing the bitrate too far down, but if that really is the case, then there's no way I'll ever get bluray due to the expense of the player, as my gf will always be saying "Euggh HD's rubbish, why do you wanna spend that money when we could on holiday?" and I'll be agreeing tbh
Blu-ray is up 110% in the market, mainly down to the PS3 becoming less niche. It's becoming more mainstream quicker and quicker
BluRay doesnt compare to the SkyHD, IplayerHD and HD rips of say Top Gear, its much much better than those, even in 720p on a small 32" screen.
One of the most inane things they've done to BD players is to more or less force you to use them with new flatpanel screen, as you pretty much NEED to use the HDMI connection. For some dimwit reason they've even dropped the S-Video connector on recent players. Why is this idiotic? Well, if you could hook up your BD player to even an old CRT set (with a downscaled image), this would be all you'd need to see BD movies *and* your old DVD collection. Then, you could pretty much just pick up BD discs, which in turn would jumpstart the sale of such.
I don't see why anyone would bother with BD if they only have a CRT screen? Surely a proper telly still is a higher priority purchase than high-def player and movies? Seriously though, I'm the wrong person to say anything here, at absolute max I watch three hours of TV-shows a week, even those on my computer. For movies I wouldn't mind having a HD-projector..
The reason you need HDMI is it supports the HDCP (HD copy protection) protocol. Even if your player had other outputs for playings DVDs it would not put a blu-ray picture through them. There was a report on TV before christmas saying that one of the big US chain stores (Walmart or Bestbuy?) had increased the amount of shelf space allocated to blu-rays and that triggered an increase in sales.
I thought Blu-ray was pretty mainstream anyway... 46" Sony LCD TV + PS3 + Any Blu-ray disc = 1080p/24 goodness. As has been stated previously, Iron Man is particularly choice.
I thought Blu-Ray was main stream. Imo; DVD, even with up scaling, looks poor compared to BD. Matrix on BD is impressive (shame they never made a sequel) as are Starship Troopers and Blade Runner. I've pretty much stopped buying DVD with the exception of TV series that haven't moved to the format yet. As an aside, digital TV is a complete failure compared to either format (and previously analogue), due to the huge compression. It's like watching soup.
I'd agree with you on digi TV front when you consider the comercial SD stations (ITV, C4 - not so much C5) - it's like watching a mosaic sometimes. It's also like that on some of the less watched 'lifestyle' channels such as discovery Turbo etc. However, the Beeb always looks good, and is exceptional in HD. As does Sky 1, FX, etc etc. Upscaled movies are OK, but if you have Sky HD i'd recommend turning on the option that highlights native HD programs. All of those that aren't being upscaled to make it HD are highlighted in orange on the planner, and these invariably look great when watched. No, I don't work for Sky.
There're several reasons for "bothering" with BD. First of all, many new releases only show up as special/extended editions on BD. Also, even if you wouldn't be able to utilize the HD aspect of BDs with e.g. a CRT you would have that possibility once you upgrade without having to buy your movies *again*. For me, CRTs still offer the best picture quality. Plasma is getting very close, LCD not so much. Also, not everyone has the space for a 42" plasma. And to be honest, you *need* the extra resolution in HD images (in regard to SD) to make flatscreens look not so sh*** to begin with. Yes, I'm acutely aware of the fact that the reason for "HDMI only" is the protected content path. Bloody Hollywood bastids! I still can't see, however, how it comes into play when the content is downscaled to SD. That downscaled image would be akin to watching a DVD in the first place, with the added bonus of NOT having to waste money on DVDs and later on BDs and it would also hasten the adoption of BD and simplify the market structures if people could just buy a BD. For that matter you could more or less completely halt DVD production.
I will never buy a DVD again now I have the ability to play blu-ray. I'm not bothered about having broadcast TV in HD though, that is something I'm not going to pay extra for.
with 720p is BR worth it? I bought a tv right at the wrong time, 1080p was awfull expensive and it came way down maybe 6 months afterwards. I have a hd freesat box and i can see the difference between hd and sd even if it is gimped with low bandwidth. are BR players not compatible with DVD anyway, you could buy a cheap ass dvd player and buy a BR when you get the money together and the price goes down and your dvd's would still work. the cost of a player and the discs themselves is putting me of. I have seen a few players at good prices recently though.
I still tend to pick films up on DVD rather than BR unless: a) it's a film I'd really lilke to see in HD b) the BR copy of the film also contains a DVD copy I just wish a few more Blue-ray discs came with the DVD copy as well (eg. Wolverine & Ice-Age 3 came in Triple play packs, G-Force on BluRay + DVD). I bought G-Force for my nephew and it meant we could watch it on the main TV in Hi def, and if we were watching something else and he wanted to watch it we could put it on one of the other TV's (or on the computer) which don't have a BR player connected.
I think it'll take quite a long time. The difference between VHS and DVD was rather epic, the difference between DVD and Bluray is not as great and near non-existent if you don't have a HD TV. Once people upgrade the TV to HD they'll usually upgrade, but DVD is 'good enough' for a huge amount of people still.
You can just get a 50$ optical bluray drive for your rig and it plays over any connection, it's what I have Sure, though 1080p is where it's at. Also.. 32" TVs are a bit more suited for 720p, I wouldn't bother getting a TV smaller than 46" for 1080p playback.
There is no way I would be able to afford more than a 32" for a long long while. Blu ray may be common on here, mainstream for you guys, but like I said, I have yet to meet a person who owns a blu ray player, or is even considering getting one. I would mainly be getting it for TV series anyway, many of which are not out on blu ray yet. I might just get one along with heroes, battlestar galactica, and band of brothers and wait a while before buying anything else.