Thanks for the tip about the BOGO, Patsa.  +1 rep for you.    I wish there were more Universal titles listed though---I have nearly all of Warner's output already.  Still scored some discs super cheap with the 10% buyer discount and free shipping on top of it.

Same here.  The new Kubrick discs were a godsend.

I have a couple of questions regarding HD tv's. I have a relative that is looking to buy a new tv and they want to get a hidef set with hopes of going with HD-DVD/Blu-ray shortly after they get the set. I too will be buying a tv after the new year so I am begining my research. So i get a trial run with their purchase. 

First Plasma is not an option that I would consider so it's LCD or projection. Leaning more towards LCD myself, but for my relative they like projection because of the larger sizes. So I need to do a little research into both LCD's and projection tvs.

1st question. Is 120hz technology worth getting or should it matter?

2nd. 24hz seems to be a smart way to go. I am assuming that 24hz and 24fps are the same thing. I have looked at a few sets and the only indication that i can tell  if they support this is if the signal it accepts is 60hz and 24hz. Am I right?

3rd. I am leaning towards Sony, although I am open to any other brands. Any thoughts on LCoS? The cost difference between a 50" LCoS and a 46" LCoS isn't that much different. about $700.

The high end Sony LCD's seem way pricey. I am looking to spend about 2500.

Thanks for any insight/exp that you people may have.

Gray, I can offer up some opinions but no real facts, but I'm sure the more knowledgable people will jump in.  So for what it's worth...

1.) Mostly a gimmick at this point.  From what I understand HDMI would be pretty hard pressed to try to fit 120Hz through the cable.  This might be an advantage if the user is going to be hooking their PC up to the TV, but really you're not going to notice a difference otherwise.  Only the highest of highend TVs and the highest of highend receivers even do this, so I'd advise to save the money and don't worry about this.  If they do end up getting a TV that supports this, don't stress too much about finding a receiver that does as well.  A normal 60Hz receiver will work just fine.

2.) Sort of.. 60Hz is the standard at the moment and a 1080P TV should be able to handle 24fps just fine.  I believe at 60Hz the TV has to do some kind of conversion or "pull down" or something to handle the 24fps but since this is by design I would imagine most cases you won't notice an issue.  The supposed advantage to your 1st question is that 120Hz is an equal division of 24 therefore nothing needs to be processed (or atleast, not as much) therefore you should have a smoother picture.  But again, I still find it hard to believe that a regular HDMI cable can handle that kind of bandwidth.  HDMI is speced to handle 1080p at 24fps at 60Hz along with the audio and then some wriggle room for future enhancements.  I might be wrong but I don't think that wriggle room is enough for a 120Hz signal (pure opinion based on light reading, some of the experts here may disagree).

3.) Got me here.  Been a while since I looked into TVs and my next purchase will likely be a projector.  I'm apparently enough out of touch because I have no idea what LCoS is.  There's another thread going on currently about the whole "is bigger better" theory as far a TV's go.  Obviously, since I'm thinking about a projector I lean towards the "bigger is better" side.  I want my whole wall to be my screen (you can't see me, but I'm smiling fiendishly while rubbing my hands together... my wife hates this look, by the way). 

Pirates of the Caribbean 3 Sold 160,000 Blu-ray and 8 Million DVD Copies First Week (w/o rental sales #s)

Quote:
DEC. 12 | Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End has sold about 8 million copies in North America during its first week on sale, according to multiple industry sources, helping to raise hopes for a strong December at retail.

The third installment of the Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment franchise, which streeted Dec. 4, appears to be running neck-and-neck with Transformers as the top fourth-quarter title in 2007. Paramount Home Entertainment reported that Transformers sold a little more than 8 million units in its first street week, but this figure included sales into the rental channel. The Pirates estimate only spans direct-to-consumer sell-through, add sources.

Disney execs declined comment.

Also, consumers sailed away with an estimated 160,000 Pirates Blu-ray copies, according to sources, another indication of the title’s strength, sources say. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment singled out Spider-Man 3 as its best Blu-ray seller to date, with 130,000 copies sold over its first six days on sale.

I believe that means Pirates 3 is the top one week HD seller for the year...followed by Spiderman 3 (Box set and single combined), according to the numbers provided by First Alert data.

Quoting Vega:

Quote:
Thought this was a bit of interesting news regarding Microsoft.

Quote:
Microsoft Corp. today announced the release of the Xbox 360 HD DVD Emulator, enabling film studios and disc authoring companies to model the behavior of HD DVD disc content, including encoded video and HDi interactivity, in a virtual environment before committing to burning a single HD DVD disc. This comprehensive tool is among the first commercially available, software-based solutions of its kind, eliminating the need for expensive hardware or time-consuming and costly trial-and-error processes for testing HD DVD titles, helping to ensure that titles ship error-free.

I think the price for this was $2,999.99?

Quoting pplchamp:

Quote:
I think the price for this was $2,999.99?

Nope.. it's $2,999.00.. 

But if it does what it says it does I have to imagine the savings to a studio would be pretty significant.  $3k is like spare change found under a seat cushion for them.

I thought this quote was somewhat amusing:

Quote:
Setting up the Xbox 360 HD DVD Emulator simply requires establishing a connection to Xbox LIVE, navigating to the Download Games menu, and adding the Emulator software to the hard drive of the Xbox 360 console.

I wonder if you can use Points to make the purchase. 

The following was posted over at DVD Talk's HD forum by BVHE-Rep:

Quote:
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl Framing Issue
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To help speed up this replacement process, please go to the link below and complete the e-mail submission. Thank you! Blu-ray Support

http://studio.go.com/cgi-bin/gmail/generic_mail.cgi?template=video/dvd_report_a_problem/report.tpl

This is what they send me after I filled out the form...

Quote:
Dear Erik,

Thank you for the e-mail regarding your Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl Blu-ray not playing correctly.

We are aware of the issue and are able to resolve it with a different copy of the disc.  Please reply to this email with your full contact information.  Once we receive your full mailing address, we will send out a new copy to you.

If you have any other questions, please reply to this email or call us at 1-800-723-4763, Monday's 9:30-7:30 and Tuesday through Friday 9:30-6:30 CST

Thank you for your patience,

Walt Disney Home Entertainment Technical Support

06

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