Home Theater View

Half a Format War Arrives: HD-DVD is Here

HD-DVD was formally launched last week with a single, $499 Toshiba deck. HomeTheaterView has not had a chance to get in a review unit yet, but Evan Powell over at Projector Central bought a unit and gushes buckets about it.

Part of his review is a primer on the difference between 1080i and 1080p at the source vs. how its delivered to the display; this type of arcane differentiation is what pushes normal people to choose formats based on even dubious specs. For now, there's nothing concrete to compare HD-DVD to in the market. But there's so little content for HD-DVD that a few month lead over Blu-Ray probably won't make much difference in the long run.

-avi

Does High End Audio Matter?

Design Technica just published Mark Fleischmann's passionate take on Why High-End Audio Matters. I'm not quite as dogmatic as he is -- I'm listening to "background music" off of a Portable Media Center as I write this, and I'm much more likely to be immersed in home theater than two channel audio -- but his basic points are well taken:

• Component audio sales are down while iPod sales are way up.
• Most consumers today don't know what high quality audio sounds like.
• The audio industry is isolationist, hastening its own demise.
• High end audio is not necessarily high priced (Mark specifically points to Outlaw Audio and Paradigm).
• We are hearing more music than ever in our lives, but actively listening to less and less.
• High end audio is an exciting, immersive experience.

-avi