Don't believe the low bit-rate 'HD' lie

TalkBack 11 of 153:

Next »

« Previous

• Thread View
• Flat View

The industry would like you to believe there is a 2 to 1 advantage

The newer codecs are great but they're being abused. The industry would like you to believe there is a 2 to 1 advantage and they'll point to tests on how they achieve similarly low noise levels. But what they won't point out is that they're cutting down on actual detail levels and optical resolution because they can do a better job of faking the detail.

There's no question that the newer codecs are better at the same bit-rate or even slightly lower bit-rates, but to say that you can get away with better than 50% more compression and still faithfully recreate the same level of detail is nonsense.

They fact that you are willing to say that 720p off Xbox Live is the same (at least perceptively) as HD-DVD tells me you're willing to bend the truth. Maybe if all you had was a 720p display you might be able to say that but that's a ridiculous argument to make. You can say that if all you have now or all you will ever own is a 720p TV, then it makes no sense to buy 1080p content. But you don't try to claim 720p content is no better than 1080p content.

As for your argument on more bit-rate per pixel for 720p, that is one advantage if you have extreme amounts of movement but in general I'll always take the 1080p signal which has more absolute bit-rate as well as more absolute resolution. You cannot compare this to the situation where I say DVD is better because it has 720x480 resolution with HIGHER bit-rate than video with 1280x720 resolution but lower bit-rate. But I'll simplify it for you.

1. Higher bit-rate and higher resolution is better than lower bit-rate and lower resolution EVEN if the latter has a higher bit-rate to resolution ratio.

2. Lower resolution (especially after you up-scale it) with twice the bit-rate is better than something with better resolution but half the bit-rate.


Lastly, 42" true 1080p LCDs and Plasmas are going to be less than $1400 list price this year and $1000 on sale so more and more people will have access to good HDTVs. Your 720P argument is out the window.

Posted by: georgeou   Posted on: 01/19/08 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• Get top-ranked Novell support for Red Hat at 50% less Novell A simplified IT environment isn't just less complex, it's more reliable. ... Download Now
• Virtualization: Architectural Considerations And Other Evaluation Criteria VMware Of the many approaches to x86 systems virtualization available in the ... Download Now
• Building the Virtualized Enterprise with VMware Infrastructure VMware VMware virtualization software has been adopted by over 120,000 enterprise ... Download Now