Anyone know much about HD stuff?

[Diomedes]

Alrighty, so I'm going on vacation this summer.  Night/philo walked up to me today and said, "You know, it might be nice if we had a digital camcorder for the trip."  My jaw hit the ground.  YES! She's asking me to purchase cool technology, I can handle that! (I'm reminded why I married her).

Now, while I may have just built a new computer and am busy fusing with the voltage settings on it, digital photography/recording is new to me.  I've had a digital camera on my cell phone (that looks like crap) and that's about it.  So I've been poking around a fair amount online and I've done a ton of reading, but the bottom line is, I've never tried to hook a camcorder up to my computer and I'm wondering a few things.

First, the 1080(i/p) resolution is 1920x1080.  I, however, have a standard wide screen lcd sporting 1680x1050 on my computer.  Will the recording scale down to my screen size when playing back?  Do I need to use special editing software to scale it down?  Otherwise am I stuck recording at 720?  Will it basically look like total crap?

Second, can someone look into their magic 8 ball and tell me who's going to win the format war, HD or blue-ray?

Thanks

-Dio

[Donnie (S3 / Jagor)]

I think HD will win the format war... But I know nothing AT ALL about the technology.

[Deliverence (SilentPlague)]

Actually in 2 months blueray discs sold should surpass HD discs. Especially since Dell now supports blue -ray and will start advertising the crap out of it  for there PCs.

O ya Disney picked blueray to so there are all your kids movies........but they are rumored to release hd-dvds soon to..............plot thinkens

[Mike (jp / Jopan)]

First, the 1080(i/p) resolution is 1920x1080.  I, however, have a standard wide screen lcd sporting 1680x1050 on my computer.  Will the recording scale down to my screen size when playing back?  Do I need to use special editing software to scale it down?  Otherwise am I stuck recording at 720?  Will it basically look like total crap?

The resolution of your monitor will have no effect on the recorded video. Your monitor WILL play the true HD (1920x1080) video without any problems, it will just display it at your native resolution of 1680x1050. There is no scaling or conversion done. I highly doubt you even notice anything. Go ahead and record at full 1080p resolution so the picture will look the best it possibly can when you do play it on a true HD source.

BTW, the only time you'll really get lower quality looking video is on up-conversion. If you have an HD signal or recording that is at 720p and you are playing it on a 1080i/p source, you are likely to notice the lower quality. Honestly, though, 720p looks amazing as is. I can barely notice the difference between 720p and 1080i (I don't have a 1080p monitor, so I can't comment on how that looks). 540p is another story... that stuff looks like crap.

Second, can someone look into their magic 8 ball and tell me who's going to win the format war, HD or blue-ray?

I'm pretty sure BluRay will win the war. They are backed by Sony, which is a monster in the industry. Any movie that comes out of a Sony studio will only be released on BluRay.

On the flip side, though... Sony was the primary backer of BetaMax and look how that turned out. Not to mention that HDDVD is backed by a triumvirate of big companies (Toshiba, GE, and I can't remember the 3rd... HP?).

That said, I have a PS3, which has a built in BluRay player. I really don't care who wins. I will always have my BluRay player in my PS3... so if HDDVD wins, I only have to buy an HDDVD player. Also, it's worth mentioning that there is already a player on the market that plays both HDDVD and BluRay discs. All in one player. That right there kind of trivializes the competition. Both formats can be played on one device.

[Donnie (S3 / Jagor)]

Now THAT is good info...

[Andrew (I2ed3ye)]

I don't know.. just from what I've seen at the consumer level, it's hard to tell which will hold on top.  I don't think I've actually seen HD-DVDs at any of my retail stores.  But those Blu-Ray discs sure do stick stagnant in their small sections.  The cost of being able to play them on a screen to actually see a major difference doesn't make it too attractive to an average consumer.  Especially when every Blu-Ray movie I've seen is also available on a normal DVD.

Maybe one of them will be on top around the time the "physics cards" actually make a difference in gaming with a reasonable cost!  I just think right now it's the format pushing the content rather than the other way around and it'll probably be awhile before a lot of people choose which format they want to upgrade to.  Unless.. they put all the Seinfeld series on one disc. Then the lines will be drawn!

[Mike (jp / Jopan)]

As for the BluRay content also being available on DVD... I'd just like to say that the video and audio quality difference between DVD and BluRay is a very large gap. BluRay discs are exceptionally better as far as audio/video. It's really a "no contest" sort of thing.

It's only natural that the content will be available on both. It's just like back in the mid/late-90's when every music album released was on both cassette and CD. And then the late-90's when all movies were on VHS and DVD. This is a time of transition. My guess/prediction is that within 2 years DVD's will be about as scarce as VHS tapes are right now. Yeah, they're still available, but good luck finding them. The main market will be either HDDVD or BluRay (or both if the dual-format players really take off).

[Diomedes]

The resolution of your monitor will have no effect on the recorded video. Your monitor WILL play the true HD (1920x1080) video without any problems, it will just display it at your native resolution of 1680x1050. There is no scaling or conversion done. I highly doubt you even notice anything. Go ahead and record at full 1080p resolution so the picture will look the best it possibly can when you do play it on a true HD source.

BTW, the only time you'll really get lower quality looking video is on up-conversion. If you have an HD signal or recording that is at 720p and you are playing it on a 1080i/p source, you are likely to notice the lower quality. Honestly, though, 720p looks amazing as is. I can barely notice the difference between 720p and 1080i (I don't have a 1080p monitor, so I can't comment on how that looks). 540p is another story... that stuff looks like crap.

Wow, thanks a ton dude!