I got made at the cable people some time ago and get all my HD thru the air for free.   It was interesting to read in this Wired article that cable companies are compressing the HD signals and thus not giving the viewer the best experience they can get.

Yet when he tuned in Sci Fi HD for a recent episode filmed in high definition, the image was soft and the darkest parts broke up into large blocks with no definition. Explosions, he said, were just dull.

“It kind of looked like they took the standard definition and just blew it up,” said Swanson, a 33-year-old graphic designer and videographer who subscribes to Comcast Corp.’s TV service. “I couldn’t really tell if what I was seeing was really better than what I saw on regular television.”

As cable TV companies pack ever more HD channels into limited bandwidth, some owners of pricey plasma, projector and LCD TVs are complaining that they’re not getting the high-def quality they paid for. They blame the increased signal compression being used to squeeze three digital HD signals into the bandwidth of one analog station.

HD enthusiasts crying foul over cable TV’s crunched signals

HD DVD and Blu-Ray have been battling to become the pre-eminent format for next-generation DVDs for the last couple of years.

Toshiba had its HD DVD format approved by the DVD Forum back in 2004 and the first products hit the market in the US in April 2006. The same year Sony came out with Blu-ray.

Initially the two formats seemed to have an equal number of backers although there was general dismay in the industry that a new format war could slow down developments of a nascent market and be confusing for consumers.

So what is the big deal? Well the big deal is that is the company’s that distributes the content who will control which format wins. Studios like Disney, Lionsgate, MGM, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and 20th Century Fox. Together these studios represented over 70% of home video market share.

The final battle as it turns out that was the tipping point is when Warner Brothers decided to back Blu-Ray.

Around the same time HD-DVD lost several key retailers like Wal-Mart who announced that it would phase out HD DVD products and chain Best Buy also came down firmly in the Blu-Ray camp. Even Netflix said it would also focus on Blu-Ray.

What does that mean to you when you want to go by a player for your cool HDTV that you got for Christmas? Nothing really, except that it is still expensive and the format will be Blu-Ray. I bet you might be able to pick up a HD-DVD player on the cheap and some discs too. The only downside is that there will never be any new movies on HD-DVD ever again.

So when will the world have forgotten about the HD-DVD format and begin calling Blu-Ray by the same name? I bet really soon, since consumers call things whatever they want even if it is not correct. Coke, means soda weather you want a real Coke, Pepsi, or whatever.

If many out there are like me and want to watch movies in HD but are patiently waiting to see who with the format war, Blu-Ray or HD-DVD and the price to come down, LG is coming out with the perfect thing; a player that can play both formats.

This is a good thing and I am ready to order one today, but I am curious what the cost is going to be. I would be willing to pay about $150 to $225 for a dual format player that has HDMI and digital audio outputs.

Christmas 2007?

LG Electronics, South Korea’s largest home appliance maker, said Thursday that it would launch the world’s first DVD player capable of playing both Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD content in a move that could end the latest movie format war.

LG said the new high-definition disc player will be unveiled in the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week. LG, which was a strong supporter of Sony’s Blu-ray format, declined to comment on details but said the new development would end the brewing controversy over rival technolgies.

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LG promises dual format DVD player

I bought an HD TV a few months ago, and it’s made my life very complicated. With my old piece of crap TV, I just plugged it in, turned it on, and watched 90210 reruns until I was sated. Now I have to screw with component cables, industry standards, and manuals that are so thick you’d think Tolstoy had written them (that is, in Korean which was then translated to English by an Eskimo with a Korean/English decoder wheel that he found in a box of cereal (and, yes, Tolstoy was fluent in Korean, and he did write technical manuals, and you’re wrong if you say I’m wrong, and, anyway, he’s dead now so it’s not like you can ask him)).

The biggest issue so far arrived along with my Xbox 360. In case you aren’t familiar with the 720p vs. 1080i issue, there are two main resolutions at which HD TV is currently meant to operate, and the 360 supports both of them. The point of contention is over which is better. Some people say 720p, and others say 1080i. 720p, they say, is better for motion, while 1080i is better for looking at photographs.

If the argument ended there, then my decision would be made. Unfortunately, it doesn’t end there. If you just do a little internettin’, you’ll find debates all over the place, mostly conducted by nine year olds who got hold of the password to mummy’s AOL account and regurgitated the arguments they’d read elsewhere

While I’m fairly technical, I realize that some of my readers aren’t as intellectually sharp as I am, so I’ve taken it upon myself to distill the meat of the debate and present it in comic form in layman’s terms.

I hope this helps you when it’s time to make the Big Decision.

Rory Blyth - Neopoleon.com - Comic: 720p vs. 1080i - The Great HD TV Debate EXPLAINED and SOLVED

I have completed my first HD edit. I used my nice Sony HDV camara to shoot my little buddy playing hockey. He is 5 years old and love hockey!

I wanted to use iMovie to start with before I jump into Final Cut. To my suprise, it is a very good editor. A little weak on some things but easy to use.

So, I captured the footage, did the edit, exported it all to iDVD and made it pretty. I then also exported or “Share” as iMovie calls it to a true, MP4 and H.264 format as well.

Easy and looks great!

This is a good place to read up and buy a HDTV antenna. Under $100 sound good to me.

Winegard UHF DTV/HDTV Antennas available from Lashen Electronics