Don't have HDTV? Try a WMV HD video.

Since not everyone has an HDTV set and programming can be scarce, we thought to share the HD experience in a different way. If you have a computer with enough horsepower coupled with a broadband connection, you could try a Microsoft WMV HD video to get the 720p or 1080p experience in your home. These aren't full feature-length programs mind you; these are just great examples of high-definition content.

You'll need Windows Media Player 9, along with a video card with at least 64MB of memory. A 2.4GHz CPU is minimum, coupled with 384MB of RAM; more is better as you'll pushing your PC pretty hard. If you have the gear, head over to the WMV HD Content Showcase site and pick one of the many video offerings. You can choose a 720p or a 1080p video, depending on what your system can handle. Click to download and then wait, wait wait; some of the downloads are at or above 200 megabytes.

Bear in mind that these are just samples and that each video is just a few minutes long. If you're new to high-definition television and you're not sure what all of the buzz is about, this is an easy way to experience it. Nothing beats a good HDTV set paired with a solid 5.1 home theater, but at least you can see what you're missing. Enjoy!

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 11th 2005 12:08PM]

You can also find some HD trailers on DivX's site here: http://www.divx.com/movies/browse.php?categoryID=3

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 11th 2005 5:19PM]

Apple's also got some great HD clips available in Quicktime format:

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/hdgallery/

Well I assume they're great.... my 3+ year old laptop couldn't handle the 1080p clips connected to a 1900x1200 monitor. Time for a new computer.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 6th 2005 9:40AM]

DON'T BOTHER!!!!!

Most WMV-HDs can only be played on Windows Media Player. They are encoded so they can't play on anything else. You also can't set Media Player's video size for animorphic, full screen or change the aspect ratio at all, when every other media player can! This is very important if you have an animorphic lens on your projector and you want an even more major improvement to your large screen video.
Why fragment into more video formats exclusive to one means of playing them. Abort it while it is still an embryo!!!!