Not signed in (Sign In)

Culturegasm: [Sink] What needs hi-def anyway?

Bottom of Page

1 to 20 of 52

  1. <
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. >
    •  
      CommentAuthorhmobius
    • CommentTimeMar 6th 2008
     (1293.1)
    OK, HD-DVD has done the betamax thing and left the arena for Blu-ray to be the (currently) only hi-def format of any note to the public. So what deserves the full hi-def treatment? What needs that extra burst of colour, that sharper sound that DVD (what I'll still be buying for a while) just can't deliver? I can't see much Indie cinema benefiting from it much irrespective of the fact that everything will be shot on HD now. Actually, if it's all H-D from here on out, I wonder how long it'll take for people to suddenly pick up a Std-def disc and be appalled at the quality.

    Retro-digression aside, I get the feeling that the answers are either sci-fi \ highly digital movies, concerts or music releases in the majority. We've already got NIN's Ghosts I-IV as a Blu-ray hi def audio release and I imagine Beside You In Time is the current benchmark for Blu-ray concerts. Likewise, I guess that The Fountain, 2001, Bourne Ultimatum, King Kong and The Fifth Element all benefit from the format. So what else demands a hi-def release? My short list...

    Ghost In The Shell
    Leon
    Matrix (inevitably)
    Attack of the Clones (very specifically for the visual and audio work here and not the acting)

    And probably if they recorded something like Mahler's Symphony for a Thousand in HD, that would sound fairly immense as well. I imagine that HD audio will give dense, layered stuff more room to breath, but I could be wrong. Thoughts?
  2.  (1293.2)
    rthe only reason i care about hi def output is video games- and even then, i cant afford a nice tv OR a 360, so i will stick with my DS and tv with no cable. 5 channels are good enough for me since i really only watch the simpsons, the office and pbs. and football when that time of year comes back.....
  3.  (1293.3)
    As a cinephile and Blu-Ray owner, I can assure you that HD is leaps and bounds better than standard def, and that every film I've watched has benefited, whether that was Arthouse fare, or something more FX-filled. HD brings both the visuals and audio closer to what the theater can deliver, which is more in tune with what the filmmakers envisioned.

    Honestly, I can see a huge difference even between an upconverted Criterion DVD and Blu-Ray. Basically, I'm all for HD.
    •  
      CommentAuthorRudi
    • CommentTimeMar 6th 2008
     (1293.4)
    I only have two movies on Blu-Ray:

    300
    the first Pirates of the Carribean move (for the step-son, of course ;)

    when it comes to your standard drama, I don't think I need to shell out the extra 10 bucks for a clearer picture, but watching sports and playing video games, HD is a must.
  5.  (1293.5)
    This is something people give a shit about?
  6.  (1293.6)
    warrenellis
    This is something people give a shit about?


    No. In Australia at the moment the big TV networks are trying to push their new HD stations (I assume they'll shut down their non-HD ones in a couple of years, but at the moment they have two).

    Now, why the fuck would I want to watch Neighbours, or So You Think You Can Dance, or House, or any of that shit in HD?

    Until I actually become unhappy with the picture & sound quality coming out of regular TVs/DVDs/Games then I won't think twice about forking out a kidney for a HD set-up.

    And also, on the topic of Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD, nobody cares because DVDs are still great. People (as in grandparents, trailer trash, other people who aren't traditional geeks/tech types) have gotten to grips with DVD, they like DVD, they don't trust this new "HD" DVD and they won't for a very very long time.
    • CommentAuthortmofee
    • CommentTimeMar 6th 2008
     (1293.7)
    Bah, I think it will be more and more to downloading tv shows/movies anyways. Hi Def downloads will be a contender. You don't need to buy any special player or any of that crap.

    Yeah, I'm still on normal DVDs. Unless there's something that's not coming out on DVD, I'm not bothering.
    • CommentAuthorzenbullet
    • CommentTimeMar 7th 2008
     (1293.8)
    Format Wars make me laugh. The only loser is you, and this is precisely why I don't own media.

    I have watched {in two decades!} four major format changes, at least.

    Really, why does anyone bother?
    •  
      CommentAuthorMegaGoosey
    • CommentTimeMar 7th 2008
     (1293.9)
    We need a Uwe Boll Blu-Ray DVD set.

    yeah that's what we need.

    exactly what we need.
    •  
      CommentAuthorAlastair
    • CommentTimeMar 7th 2008
     (1293.10)
    i work at a massive dvd chain store and have to look at a hd dvd stand and a blu ray all day, and i couldn't give 2 shits. yeah the picture is crisper (on very few things) the sound better (on less) but the price just ain't right. we get people buying things like eddie murphy crap fest norbit for £30 just cause its 1080p. load of balls. dvd all the way.


    and anyway itll al be onternet downloads and streaming to hard drives soon. people don't want to go to the shops, people don't want to have nice stuff cluttering up their houses getting in the way of multiple viewings of fast and the furious. people are a bunch of cunts. (not you lot i like you guys)
  11.  (1293.11)
    I think gaming in hi-def is going to be what brings me over. The stupidly high resolutions really do make a difference to the new generation of console games, which I suppose is something PC gamers have been saying for ages with their billion bit Radeon graphics cards.

    As far as general home entertainment, while I'm always hugely impressed by Casino Royale/Planet Earth/Sky Sports HD when I see it running in the shops the ratio of the price v the difference in quality is still way off for my personal circumstances, particulaly on the broadcast side where HD through my satellite provider is stupidly expensive. I'm also not entirely convinced by the technology for said price, particularly with the standard banding/clouding/artifacts at high speed issues on LCDs and the relatively poor performance of plasmas with gaming.

    I feel good about waiting up to now as the format war looks to be sorted (although I agree that it's all misdirection until downloading to your home entertainment is widespread), the technology looks to be improving and the price seems to be coming down on the brands I'm looking at.

    @warrenellis: This is something people give a shit about? Do you not like pretty pictures?
    •  
      CommentAuthorAlastair
    • CommentTimeMar 7th 2008
     (1293.12)
    i have to say although i notice even less difference i do have my 360 in hd
    •  
      CommentAuthorhmobius
    • CommentTimeMar 7th 2008
     (1293.13)
    Back on-topic here. Save the "why HD is crap" for some place else.
    If you're gonna download HD quality things, the original question still applies.

    @warrenellis : What we don't give a fudge about yet is the Ultra-HD screens they already started developing for the next format wars. They'll give us another ten years before those appear and the same debate will rage.

    Right now, a HD screen has a similar res to a good PC monitor. If no other reason, this is a good kickback from HD at all. Touch screen media center TVs etc.
  14.  (1293.14)
    Michael Bay's Transformers would be high on my list, despite its general rubbishness. The fact that the 80s cartoon movie and the 2007 movie were on competing HD formats seemed a bit daft to begin with, but now there's no excuse not to release it in Blu-Ray.

    Presumably HD-DVD movies like Batman Begins, Transformers, the Bourne movies will all hit Blu-Ray around about the time the next installments come out.

    I'd like to see a bit more TV in HD. One time in Canada I saw Deadwood running on HBO-HD and it nearly brought a tear to me eye.
    • CommentAuthortmofee
    • CommentTimeMar 7th 2008
     (1293.15)
    @Craig Shaw why bother? The best scenes in that film zoomed by at a million miles an hour anyway, it was a blur at the cinema...
  16.  (1293.16)
    we get people buying things like eddie murphy crap fest norbit for £30 just cause its 1080p. load of balls.
    that is spectacular. i have often wondered why people care about resolution for things where it is not very visually intensive, ie shitty comedies such as norbit. although i do really want to see it as a conniesseur of shitty movies, but thats a whole other thread.
    •  
      CommentAuthorRudi
    • CommentTimeMar 7th 2008
     (1293.17)
    @ Craig Shaw : The first video game I ever played in HD was Final Fantasy XII, and it nearly brought me to tears
    •  
      CommentAuthorliquidcow
    • CommentTimeMar 8th 2008
     (1293.18)
    If you've gone and bought an HD-ready TV, you'll notice that regular channels and DVDs looks a lot crappier on them than on regular TVs, which means that you're craving an HD picture just so it looks normal and not so pixelated. HD is basically answering a question no-one was asking. I personally find it really distracting, as when I watch something on HD (such as downloading HD trailers) I'm constantly looking at the picture quality rather than watching the thing itself. The only thing that I think it's good for is that watching DVDs on a computer monitor has always been a bit crappy, and it sorts that out, but that's because HD TVs are just big computer monitors.

    Do we really need all these HD versions of films that weren't filmed with HD in mind anyway? It just seems like a massive gimmick right now. I'm sure in a few years it will be standard and regular DVD will go the way of VHS though...
    •  
      CommentAuthortedcroland
    • CommentTimeMar 8th 2008 edited
     (1293.19)
    EDIT: My brother Mike is a douche. This post was not me.

    I've been working with HD for over a decade now through my brother's business (he's a home integrator). Standard cable signal has always been transmitted in higher resolution than TV's could handle until the advent of progressive scan, which was the first step towards HD. If you think it's only a minor difference, I don't know what to tell you.

    On a good HD screen, normal cable channels will look crisper and brighter than on a standard definition screen. If they don't, you bought the wrong screen. DVD's from a progressive scan player will look FAR superior on an HD screen, you just have to set the screen right (don't play a prog scan DVD without upscaling in 1080p, dummy, it's native resolution is 480p. If you have an upscaling DVD player, make sure you run in native res, just like you've always been told to do with computer monitors.) HD formats are breathtaking in HD focus, seriously, and the sound quality is far and away from the standard definition. The issue is in the hardware used. We've set up systems that look and sound far better than 90% of theaters out there. Digital delivery systems and home integration solutions are getting cheaper and cheaper. Blu-ray players are getting cheaper and cheaper. The HD format, much like the color TV format, is coming to the masses. You can get HD through your standard TV antennae. HD is a boon for people who care about picture quality and sound quality; if you can't tell the difference, than it's not for you, and you will just upgrade when it's as cheap as that old black and white you're so comfortable with.

    As for what to watch in HD; the Pixar movies look really great on HD. We use them as demos for our systems. Every movie will benefit from the HD, but the ones that shine are digital or shot in HD. 300 is awesome, Sin City is fantastic, A Scanner Darkly is brilliant, etc. If you have HD TV you should invest in nice surround (not Bose, please).
  20.  (1293.20)
    Porn.

1 to 20 of 52

  1. <
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. >