Post by: EvilBoris on January 05, 2007, 05:07:00 AM
2. Hd-DVDs come in a couple of different formats, neither of which are that common to find on the net.
3. The bitrate might be lower, but HD content obviously has a MUCH higher resolution. The bitrate isn't of much consequence unless you are comparing the same format.
4. They are all proper HD video, the only way you are gonna be able to experience the real things is to buy the HD-DVD drive. It doesn't look a great deal different to the WMV videos you have seen, just a little bit clearer/less grainy
Post by: zombie4rave on January 05, 2007, 08:08:00 AM
1. You can only get 1080p upconverted DVD and HD DVD output over VGA. DVD is limited to 480p over component while HD DVD is limited to 1080i. Games and streamed/stored media will be 1080p either way. This is all taking into consideration that you have a 1080P capable tv and set your resolution as such in the dashboard of the 360. Most 360 games are rendered internally at 720P.
2. HD is a generic term that is related more to resolution than format. Various codecs can be used to compress it including WMV, MPEG2, MPEG4. You will never actually see 'raw' HD. The file would be way too large to be broadcast or put on any kind of pre-recorded medium. Most HD DVDs use the VC-1 codec which is a variant of WMV9.
3. Bitrate varies with the codec used to compress the file. WMV was specifically designed to allow high quality files at low bitrates/small file sizes. DVD uses the older MPEG2 compression which requires a much higher bitrate and file size to attain the same quality. The newer compression methods are much more efficient at what they do although not necessarily better picture quality wise.
4. Generally speaking, if you see your file designated as 720P, 1080i, or 1080P you are getting 'true' HD. 1080P is often called FULL HD because it offers the higher resolution of 1080i combined with the smooth picture and better motion handling of progressive scan.
Post by: onis_uk on January 05, 2007, 10:37:00 AM
