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generation player might look like good savings now, but may become a loss down
the road if/when upgrading to a 1080p display with such 1080p inputs.
The purchased player without 1080p could turn out to be another piece to upgrade
down the line once realizing how good 1080p 24fps film content looks on a 1080p
display that can handle 1080p correctly without performing unnecessary interlacing
video processing.
The Format Choice - Survey Question
A recent survey was made on the HDTV Magazine about selecting HD DVD or Bluray,
and the following question was asked:
"What factors are weighing in your decision?"
I provided the following candid response and analysis:
Response
Blu-ray. 24fps on 1080p. Manufacturer recognition and tendency to better quality.
Analysis
Although HD DVD is reading from the disc film content as 24fps, it is not outputting
it that way, not even on their second-generation players.
Toshiba's decision of not including such feature on the 2nd players was taken after
Blu-ray came out with specs and players with such feature (Sony, Elite), bragging
about it because of its importance for film content (with suitable displays).
Even then, HD DVD ignored the feature on 2nd generation players (one player is out,
one is coming out in spring 2007, neither one has it).
Ignoring the 24fps quality feature while concentrating in price reduction suggest that
there might be other possible shortcuts implemented across the player to make it
enter the market fast at a lower price point (this is an assumption, but with valid
logic based on verifiable facts). I would suspect that they would eventually
incorporate the 24fps feature.
Blu-ray is also releasing their players with features that are just partially
implemented, my message goes for them as well.
Since most TVs accept 1080i, or 1080p only as 60fps, this feature would not be as
important as it is for front projectors and some new displays that can accept and
process 24fps into frame-multiples to display a clean, artifact-free image, instead of
converting it to 60i and later to 60p, the interlaced world of video that film should
not be bothered with.
Even Toshiba is promoting the 120Hz panels now (5 times 24fps), so it is not even
consistent with their panel plans. Many other display manufacturers are also
introducing displays that handle 120Hz. However, that does not necessarily mean
that they will accept 1080p24fps and display it cleanly at 5 times the frame rate,
anything could happen on any display, proper research is the key to an intelligent
purchase.
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