I own an ASRock NetTop ION 330, basically a small form factor box with the same hardware spec. It's connected to my flatscreen TV and digital surround amplifier and it is fully capable of running Win 7 rc (64bit) and full HD video with full HD surround (even in MKV-format with the right 64bit drivers). It's not the world's fastest machine, but it's good enough for surfing and video playback (full screen flash HD video on YouTube drops the occasional frame but I hope Adobe will fix that with a flash-plugin that is ION-hardware aware). Even Google Earth is doable. The whole setup is fed by a 65W power adapter, so I don't have to worry about the power bill if i leave the system on.

Let's hope that the ad-nauseum rant about the influx of cheap players from china would cause mass adoption over night was more that a fantasy. Just because it didn't happen for HD DVD doesn't mean it can't happen for Blu-Ray, yes?

Blu-Ray players in my area aren't that expensive anymore -- sure, they aren't giving them away wit $100 losses, but they are NOT expensive compared to the other components you will need to assemble a HD/high-def setup.

And Blu-Ray disks I can get at below $10 a pup and up -- granted that Blu IS more expensive that DVD, but not by THAT much any more. it's not like I'm forking out LaserDisk prices or anything.

Lowering the initial price point for the player might be exactly what is needed to speed up the format adoption rate in a slowing economy. Over here, the economy is doing very well right now, and Bly-Ray sales are doing just as weel as they did during x-mas season. This past X-mas, both HD DVD and Blu-Ray sold more than half of their volume for the year during those short weeks. But HD DVD where still less than 10% of Blu-Ray sales. Now Blu-Ray sells x-mas volumes each months, in spite of us having the warmest spring in 100 years.

Just what you would expect happen when a format is dying. Not?

Oh dear TT,

your continued attempt to misrepresent my statement in stead of answering my direct question concerning your claim about reduced image quality at high bitrates (an absurd statement) is telling. You have no facts, only vile abuse. No help in a discussion, I'm afraid.

And to comment on another ignorant statement in your most recent posting, there is no factual basis for claiming MPEG2 at sufficiently high bitrates produces inferior images compared to VC-1/AVC. Again, you reveal your lack of understanding. Noe that Black Hawk Down still is reference quality in MPEG2, and as you yourself have stressed the meaning of "refecence quality", I should not need to explain the fallacy of your claims any further.

As for HD DVD having all the space it needed, my only reply is two words. American Gangster. ...And HD DVD never "had the 51 GB disk". But who's counting wild misrepresentation of facts?

Yeah, i'm an ignorant fool for extrapolating your incorrect statement about how higher bitrates can't compare to the limitation of your beloved dead format.

Incapable of providing any backing to your completely false argument, you resort to childish name-calling. What a high grade moronic argumentation.

Can it be you don't understand that bitrates relates to compression, and higher bitrates equates to lower compression? Instead you twist my statement to mean that I think Blu-Ray has zero compression, which is MILES away what I was saying. Pathetic.

What magic function degrades image quality at high bandwidth as you have stated? What compression algorithm produces worse quality after an arbitrary bandwidth (let me guess, right around the level of HD DVD's capability?) is exceeded?

You are so full off the purest cr*p :-)

Truth Teller @ May 25th 2008 9:04PM
Above a certain level 'higher bitrate' does not guarantee anything positive
(and if you go too far with it you just get 'noise', which is not a plus at all).

---------------------

That was news to me -- when compression approaches zero, artifacts will appear? By what law is that dictated? In what compression algorithm is quality deterioration a function at high bitrates?

This is absolute rubbish, and TT must have known it to be so when he wrote it!

i own Ratatouille on Blu-Ray, and the difference between this edtion vs. the DVD is amazing, even in 720p. Now the detail level in this movie is higher than most cartoons i've seen, but still - just the crispness of the picture compared to DVD is enough to win anyone over.

i's hard to give just one reason why Blu isn't selling any better, but with the economy tanking and consumer confidence at an all time low, it's the worst time imaginable to sell in a new format. Maybe people prefer media-less distribution of lower resolution movies over another disk-based medium. But then we are talking pirating, because the legal movie download services are selling even less than Blu.

I think adoption of Blu-Ray will go slowly, and that DVD will continue to exist for as long as the disk-format is a contender. But with all the studios aboard the Blu-Ray train, and with impressive sales numbers compared to DVD on the recent titles, I see no way Blu-Ray can go away. And the studios have the power to make Blu-Ray even more attractive then DVD to consumers, mostly through releasing the titles on Blu-Ray weeks or months before the DVD edition. Now THAT would increade the adoption rate a few notches.

I live in Norway where this car was developed, and i would like to support Norwegian el-car industry, but given my length, i could never fit into a Think City. I would rather import a Tesla from the US.

Tesla has it right, you have to make el-cars look sexy!

I miss the days I could make snide remarks and make far reaching predictions based on these numbers...

i want to believe in SED, as much as i believe in OLED. But i need to see some physical evidence of it real soon. After all, I'm an atheist, and i don't make decisions based on beliefs, but on hard facts.

From what i understand of the manufacturing process, SED should be able to be relatively inexpensive to mass produce, given an acceptably low DOA rate.