@HappySqurriel - Thanks for your response. I think the MP3 argument falls flat a little because a majority of the people that enjoy the cd quality encoding of MP3 audio are listening to the file via earbuds or inexpensive speakers. If you listen to a 128 encoding on decent loudspeakers you would notice a substantial drop in quality from a high def or analog source.
The reason why the MP3 argument doesn't match fully is because the standard HD display devices are of much better quality than standard ear buds. Your typical viewer may not know what a compression artifact is, but they do see them in highly compressed video offered by download services. Not to mention the audio quality included in these dowload services is atrocious. I agree that that there is less of a difference between an upscaled DVD compared to a Blu-ray movie. All Blu-ray players upscale DVD's as well. There is a significant difference from a downloaded movie compared to an upscaled DVD or Blu-ray.
IMO, I believe the typical HDTV owner would be able to correctly rank a downloaded movie, upscaled dvd, and Blu-ray in order of quality.
The first DVD players launched in 12/1995 and 4 years later the Matrix was released and became the first DVD to sell over a million DVDs at launch. The first Blu-ray players hit the market in 6/2006. The Dark Knight releases on Blu-ray 2 and a half years later and will ship over a million Blu-rays at launch.
Thanks for the input, Jeff.
