The new Zune Marketplace--a rival to BluRay?

[steverhcp02]

Domicinator said:

steverhcp02 said:

nightsurge said:
I agree with you. The Zune Marketplace streaming videos just made Xbox 360 the definitive OnDemand entertainment offering in the world. I only have a 720p TV but I rented a movie and it was flawless and looked and sounded identical to my blu-ray movies at 720p. I should be getting a 1080p TV soon so I can give my updated opinion then. My internet did stutter at one point, but it was amazing how the video very smoothly transitioned between resolutions without stuttering or pausing. It jumped for all of 1 second to SD then back up to HD as my internet stabilized again after that momentary spike of traffic or whatever.

Well its all relative to your syetm. If you dont have a receiver or PS3 set to decode your audio for TrueHD or DTS or PCM it will sound the same since it is the same.

Pretty much the same for video in relationship to your viewing distance. Alot of people think their BD's will sound better on their system without knowing the reason BD's sound better is when you have a receiver or player to decode the actual HD audio so there actually isnt a difference unless your system is set up properly.

I think video quality only sees a difference if you ahve a 1080p set at the right distance in relation to screen size.

http://hd.engadget.com/2006/12/09/1080p-charted-viewing-distance-to-screen-size/

This should be taken into account, if you up your resolution from 720p to 1080p it needs to be in this range to see the difference.

Very true--

I still think it's funny that so many people now have HDTVs and still don't know that they're not even watching anything in HD and are still using the TV speakers instead of their entertainment centers for sound.  My inlaws have one big HDTV in their living room and several small HDTVs in different rooms of the house.  (Yes, they are the type of people who have a TV on at all times no matter where they are.)  They also have a standard def tube TV in their basement.  Guess which TV has the HD digital cable box attached to it........you guessed it, the standard def TV!!

They do not know or care that the HDTV could give them really good quality HD programming if they would just move the digital box upstairs to the big TV.  I have even offered to do it for them and set it up to run everything through their Bose system.  Not a chance.  They want everything the way it is because they "don't have time" to worry about stuff like that.  (Yes, that really is the excuse they give.)  They came to my house the other day to watch a football game and could not believe how good the picture quality was on my TV, and I said, "You could have this at your house too!!"  And that's when they tune out and stop listening to me.  They just don't care that their gigantic HD flat panel could give them pure TV watching bliss.  I've often thought about taking my PS3 over there and showing them what BluRay can do, but I think it would be lost on them.

haha, thats great. MY GF's dad is very up on tech and he still doesnt maximize his BD player either. It does take a lot of work, thats one of the draw backs and things that stunts BD growth too. Its not like DVD and VHS where poeple could pick up a DVD and see the improvements as well as functionality right away regardless of tv or connections. Now we need the right cable, receiver and viewing distance to blow people away.

Its not TOO hard imo, but still work nontheless. Most living rooms are probably 12 feet from their tv so the 360 on demand or HD TV shows look the same to people with BD players, which will indeed hurt BD. But theres still a huge chunk of people that just like convincing themselves they have the best of the best so they will go with BD.....hooked up with component cables, haha.

I wish BD players shipped with HDMI cables and HDTV's all came with pamplets like the link i put up earlier.

A lot of people miss out on better picture and sound just based on lack of proper marketing to be honest, i wish it would change but its tough to do.