High-Definition - which & when? « Videomaker Community Forums

compusolver
Member

Now here's a thought - are we all going to have to have two different kinds of HD burners, Blue-Ray and Hi-Def? Since the public will presumably have both types, in order to deliver HD to our customers, so will we, right?

So, I'm thinking of waiting until someone comes out with a burner that'll do both. Otherwise, having to spend a grand for each type, on top of the camera costs, is just getting way out there.

Any info on when a burner that does both HD formats will be available?

What are the rest of you doing -

1. Going with Blue Ray now
2. Going with HD-DVD now
3. Going with Blue Ray soon
4. Going with HD-DVD soon
5. Waiting until it all sorts out
6. Sticking with SD, long-range

Posted 5 years ago #
Video-maniac
Member

Boy HankÂ… that is the million dollar question isn't it? I have to think that there will be some 3rd party company out there that will engineer a player and a burner that can work with both disks. If this can be done, that particular company could gain a very strong foothold in the market because if you think about it, who here is going to buy a player or a burner that just works with one type of disk? With that said IÂ’m waiting to see how this plays out.

Personally I think that HD will be more of a standard by 2009. By then we all will have to make decisions regarding equipment, methods and standards. Of course this is 3 years from now and a lot of things can change by then as well. Rather than jumping the gun, I think IÂ’m going to wait to switch everything over until I see how it all plays out. Camera technology could change, computer and software technology could change, industry video standards could change and so fourth. In other words weÂ’re all at a major crossroad and I for one would rather look before I leap.

Rodney,

Posted 5 years ago #
compusolver
Member

2009 is only the end of broadcast TV over the airwaves. Those with standard sets who are on cable or satellite will still be able to use them. There is so much out there on 4:3 that one has to wonder if its going to really be an issue.

This reminds me of when the government tried to switch us all over to metrics. Remember that? We Americans are sometimes so whiney and resistant to change. Now we're the only country in the world not on the metric system. I had a lot of fun when I lived in Canada, playing the "stupid American". I'd ask "How many liters is that from here?" And "Man, it's three kilometers colder than yesterday!" - problem was, I don't think they realized I was kidding!

Ya gotta wonder if mainstream Americans are going to refuse to buy widescreen HD sets. Look in the stors - there are still as many standard sets for sale as widescreens.

Will we see producers starting to do both formats, for fear of alienating viewers with 4:3 screens? Wouldn't that keep the cost of HD programs higher?

But HD is awesome. And there's going to be a good, if small, market. I say "good' because you'll be able to charge what you're worth if doing Hi-Def video, as opposed to shooting Standard video for minimum wage.

Posted 5 years ago #
Video-maniac
Member

Good points! History has shown that technologies come and go because they are usually replaced by something better. I remember in the 60Â’s when my mom and dad had the old black & white TV. Their idea of a remote control was making us kids go to the TV and turn the channel manually until they found something they liked. Then along came the color television. Everyone now has them! IÂ’m not even sure if they make B&WÂ’s anymore. Then the remote control comes into play which means that I donÂ’t have to make my kid manually change the channel for me. Now, 99.9999% of the TVÂ’s comes with a remote controls. And now cable and satellite feeds are taking over. As youÂ’ve already mentioned, the airwaves will be a thing of the past very soon.

I see two types of consumers out there. You have the, Â“Keep up with the JonesÂ’sÂ” mentality of which people with more disposal income will invest in HD sets and you have the, Â“Wait until the price comes downÂ” mentality for the lower income people. In both cases, HD sets are slowly filling up more and more homes across America as a result of dropping prices, higher income and more available content. I tell you what, watching the closing Olympic ceremony on my 53Â” HD DLP was absolutely amazing!

So I guess IMO, I think mainstream America will eventually make the switch just like they have always done in the past and at some point in time SD 4:3 will be a thing of the pastÂ… AS LONG as HD sets are backward compatible which they are and almost have to be. It will be at that time that making video projects in HD will be a must. To me right now it doesn't make sense to do a wedding video in HD if the married couple doesn't have a HD widescreen. Eventually that will all change for itÂ’s just a matter of time.

RAM

Posted 5 years ago #
compusolver
Member

To me right now it doesn't make sense to do a wedding video in HD if the married couple doesn't have a HD widescreen.

Well, it might make sense if you believe that we'll all be on HD in ten years or so. A wedding video needs to have a certain amount of timelessness to it, in that it is produced with the idea that it will be watched for several decades.

We're going to shoot weddings of two family members in the next month. I'm strongly considering shooting widescreen, but it's a little scary, because it's going to feel so foreign - framing and composition are going to be so different, yet better to experiment on family than paying clients.

Posted 5 years ago #
Video-maniac
Member

compusolver Wrote:
Well, it might make sense if you believe that we'll all be on HD in ten years or so. A wedding video needs to have a certain amount of timelessness to it, in that it is produced with the idea that it will be watched for several decades.

Hank, You know you just busted my chops. Talk about not thinking outside the box. Then I look at the phrase in my signature area of my posts. :-//

Is it OK if I blame you when I tell my wife that I have upgrade all of my equipment? X-D

Rodney,

Posted 5 years ago #
compusolver
Member

Is it OK if I blame you when I tell my wife that I have upgrade all of my equipment?

A guy who's been divorced twice, does not need another woman angry with him!

Posted 5 years ago #
birdcat
Moderator

OK - Here's the deal - I cannot afford all new equipment. I have a 31" TV that I bought 2 and a half years ago that I will not replace until it dies. I have a DVD player I'm quite happy with (less than two years old). I even have a VHS VCR with lots of old VHS, VHS-C plus my new MiniDV tapes all in SD. My target audience is mostly family who trails me when it comes to the bleeding edge (my fiancee just went to broadband today in fact from dial up).

I will move to HD when:

1) I can buy a decent sized monitor/tv for under $300 (I paid less than $200 for my current 31").

2) I can buy a decent consumer grade camcorder for $500 or less or it I can afford it a decent prosumer grade camcorder (three CCD) for $2000 or less.

3) I can afford purchase a good sound recording device (HDV currently sacrifices audio quality for video quality - no more PCM).

4) I can afford to spend more to replace software (title generators in particular).

5) I can afford to spend more to replace my buyout video backgrounds and buyout graphics.

6) I can spend lots more time learning to shoot for HD (from what I've been told, it's different shooting for HD than SD).

Looks like I'll be waiting a LONGGGGGGGGGGG time.......
Bruce Paul
7Squared Productions
http://www.7squared.com

Posted 5 years ago #
Video-maniac
Member

Start buying lottery tickets! X-D

Posted 5 years ago #
KBVP
Member

This all started with movie theaters having wider screens to enable sqeezing more people into a viewable area. Considering the average household in America is less that 200 people, wide screen format is useless and I'd rather have a 4:3 with 1000 lines of resolution. Trying to occupy a 16x9 viewfinder with meaningful subjects will be a challenge unless you are doing stage work. Trying framing a single talking head in 16x9. There are going to be challenges, that's for sure!

Posted 5 years ago #
compusolver
Member

Trying to occupy a 16x9 viewfinder with meaningful subjects will be a challenge unless you are doing stage work. Trying framing a single talking head in 16x9. There are going to be challenges, that's for sure!

You're absolutely right. I've tried 16:9 and composition is a mystery to me. I guess you toss out the "rule of thirds"? Talking heads will need really long noses. Jimmy Durante was ahead of his time. (that one will go over most heads!)

Posted 5 years ago #
alohrey
Member

I think it comes down to thinking differently about composing shots when you are working in 16:9. You are right about not filling a frame with a single talking head. But how interresting is a single talking head in the first place... You can use the other side of the screen for something interresting. In my opinion 16:9 allows for some much more creative shots, and may take a bit more forethought with the shooting and editing, but the overall visual appeal of the resulting product can in many ways benefit from a 16:9 aspect ration. However, with that said... I am the first to complain about dvd's that are in film widescreen. They look terrible on my 4:3 tv in the livingroom, who wants to watch Harry potter in a sliver about 12 inches high on a 32" tv?? If we are going to go widescreen, it needs to come with some common sense, and stay consistant to 16:9... not 400:2 or some of this crap they come up with.

later
~Adam

Posted 5 years ago #
BryantProductions
Member

I work in a high-end electronics store and I finally got to see HD-DVD and Blu-Ray playing side-by-side, and I have to say the better format seems to be. . . HD-DVD. I was really hoping it would be Blu-Ray with the higher capacity, but HD-DVD just looks better. Blu-Ray does not seem to be able to do black very well, and most movies/trailers/demos, ect just aren't compressed/encoded very well. Even on the Blu-Ray DEMO DISC that is supposed to show the best of the best of the format wasn't done right... maybe 10-15% of the material was on par with HD DVD, the rest was only decent. Better than DVD? Of course. But HD-DVD is much better in my opinion.
In addition, Blu-Ray is said to be more prone to errors in pretty much every step of production/viewing due to the higher capacity/smaller "grooves" on the disc... because of the higher degree of accuracy needed, errors are more likely during production of the disc itself, when the material is burned onto it, and even when it is read off of it in your player at home. And all this accuracy costs a price, which is why players/burners and media will cost a bit more than HD-DVD.
I know some (if not most) of you know this, but just in case any new guys are reading this it might help you out when making a decision. I just wanted to let you know how they looked stacked up next to each other...
As for me... I'll put my money on HD-DVD.[/b]

Posted 5 years ago #
KBVP
Member

Can you image the screaming when half of your Blue-Rays burn as coasters! You would have to charge a premium price to cover the overhead! It will be a cold day on my Pentium before I go that route!

Posted 5 years ago #
BryantProductions
Member

Expensive coasters! I wonder what blank Blu-ray discs will go for?

Posted 5 years ago #
KBVP
Member

When I started doing regular DVDs, they were $5.00 each, now it's cheaper than CDs were at the time. Dual layers are still expensive, but maybe the new format will drive those down.

Posted 5 years ago #
compusolver
Member

Will we have to wait for hologram video DVDs to drive the price down on HD-DVDs? :)

So who's got the best deals on HD-DVD burners & players? How many of you have already purchased?

Posted 5 years ago #