I saw this post today comparing the difference between HD-DVD and regular DVD.
I made the comment there that while the difference between a DVD and an HD-DVD might be quite obvious when looking a static image 3 feet from a computer screen, the differences are not so obvious when looking at a moving picture, sitting 12 feet from your TV.
I say this as someone who actually owns a 1080p HDTV. Now, I don’t have an HD-DVD or Bluray player (bloody hell, those things are still way too expensive) but I have played HD content via my laptop on it. And I gotta say, it really is hard to tell when you’re watching HD content vs. SD content when you’re not actually sitting right up next to the TV.
My TV is 42" (about 100cm), which is pretty darn big, especially for an apartment. To really enjoy HD, though, you’d need a truly monster TV.
However, having said that, I do believe that HD is awesome for computer games. The XBOX 360, in 1080p mode is simply breath-taking. I think there are a couple of reasons for that:
- The 360 renders static images in quick succession. This is different to a movie, where the images are captured from a live source – the blurring that movie add to an image makes the differences harder to spot.
- You generally sit closer to the TV when playing games than when watching a movie (at least, I do – I usually sit on a couch on the other side of a room for TV but on a chair nice and close to the screen for games).
Still, I’m not sure that for the non-enthusiast, non-gamer, that moving to HD is quite as attractive as the manufacturers would like you to believe.