Is professional football really a growth industry? Can the fan base support both the NFL and another major league? I'm not convinced.

Considering that a full generation of kids (both girls and boys) have been brought up playing soccer, and the worldwide appeal of that sport, I would think that bolstering the U.S. soccer presence would be a growth endeavor.

What are the numbers of U.S. households whose children currently participate or have participated in league-based and/or school-based soccer vs. league-based and school-based football? Soccer has a fan base that can span genders and due to the participation of their children in the sport, both parents and their children would enjoy watching professionals participate in the sport as well.

Football is to sports as long distance is to the telecommunications market. No growth in a flat industry.

So, let's see if I can summarize the BD-P1200:

List Price: $799

Supports 1080p/24: Yes

Supports DTS-HD: No

Supports DTS-HD Master Audio: No

Supports DolbyTrueHD: No

Supports dual video streams (e.g. PIP commentary): No

Supports October 2007 Mandated Requirements: No

Supports Ethernet for Firmware Updates: Yes

Supports Ethernet for Interactivity, Enhanced Features, etc.: No

Blu-ray Video Quality: On par with other Blu-ray (no bad filtering enabled this time)

SD DVD Upsampling Video Quality: Better than other Blu-ray players, on par with Toshiba's $799 HD DVD player

It's too bad that Samsung couldn't have produced a player that was compliant with the October 2007 mandate. It's also too bad that a high-definition player built in 2007 still doesn't support the lossless Dolby and DTS codecs.

Maybe Sony's upcoming BDP-S300 for $599 will do better?

I was looking forward to the Apple TV after it was pre-announced in September. I thought it had potential. Then in January, when they said that it wasn't quite ready, but would ship in February, I was still looking forward to it:

http://www.bigscreen.com/journal.php?id=436

By the time it finally got released, my excitement for it was already starting to wane. When a product is delayed multiple times, has a limited audience due to some inherent design choices, and more details were beginning to be released about it, I saw its potential diminishing.

Now that it has been released, it's time for the product to stand on its own. Unfortunately, it seems that Apple wasn't quite ready for it to be released, and the design limitation of HD-only sets wasn't the only limitation they built into it.

The more I hear about the product, the less and less interested I am in it. People complain about DirecTV and their "HD-lite" service, but this product seems to take HD-lite to a new level. How can a product be considered truly HD when it is limited to 720p, stereo sound, and a 4GB file limit? On iTunes right now, the standard definition version of Pirates of the Caribbean clocks in at 1.73GB for a 2:30 movie. On top of that, I would have thought that iTunes would have some "HD" content online by now, but still nothing.

So, let's move over to music, as this is one of the things that held much of my interest. I have an AudioTron music player now, but it is several years old, and I would like to be able to play lossless music and see track info, album art on the screen, and maybe even a nice visualization while the music is playing. I haven't drunk the iTunes/iPod koolaid yet, but I'm not against doing so if it results in a nice coherent music system.

I don't care much for iTunes as a music manager, but I can appreciate the value that the closed system of iTunes, an iPod, and the Apple TV could provide. I'd be willing to buy an iPod along with the Apple TV to make the system complete.

Not much has been said about the Apple TV's music capabilities, so either that means that it isn't significant, or given that the Apple TV doesn't do anything with music that a $70 dock for an iPod doesn't already do.

I'm still interested in seeing this device in person, but the reality that Apple is presenting the public with so far will limit its appeal to those who will buy anything with an Apple logo on it, and those who are less discriminating in their purchases.

Maybe all these shortcomings will be addressed with future updates, who knows?

This is why anyone watching this war from the sidelines or the trenches needs to pay attention to released products, not announced ones.

We've seen entire slates of movie releases delayed indefinitely, but the same companies' announcements are still used in the rhetoric about which side has the most support, etc.

Anyone interested in buying into HD DVD, Blu-ray, or both needs to assess each for their current value, not the promised future of either format.

Don't buy into the hype, buy into the reality.

motech,

The Pronto interface is completely customizable. The appearance and operational flow are completely up to the customizer that is creating those elements.

This flexibility is the Pronto's biggest strength, but the complexity that goes along with the flexibility scares most people, which is why Pronto's are marketed to custom installers who know what they're doing and can create a customized solution for each client.

This Pronto is aimed at the Crestron's of the world, not 6-in-1 universal remotes that cost $24.99. Once programmed, Pronto's can be very easy to use.

The Best Buy shoppers should stick with something like the Harmony from Logitech. It's hard to beat the Harmony for its Plug & Play functionality and low price, so long as you can live with the limitations of their approach.

Both products have their place in the world.

You say "my TV natively displays 480p" -- what kind of TV are you using? Unless it's a CRT (with multiple scan rates), or I'm missing something, a TV can't be native 480p *and* HD.

I'm sure that I'm misunderstanding something, because I find it hard to believe that anyone would try to seriously evaluate HD using a set incapable of anything better than 480p.

I tried one of these for two weeks back in December, comparing to to the performance of a Pioneer DV-563A (non-upsampling) universal player. The display was a Sony HS-51 LCD Projector projecting onto a 103" wide screen.

I wanted the Samsung to be a good way to get both upsampling and DVD-Audio/SACD capabilities into my system, but several problems caused me to take it back for a refund.

The best aspect of this player is that it can output 720p/1080i via the component outputs using a special remote code. This would make it possible to switch all of my devices through my receiver via component instead of requiring an HDMI connection and double-switching the receiver for audio and projector for video. The price was also very attractive.

Other than that, I found the performance to be lacking when compared to the Pioneer 563. There was no noticeable improvement when viewing test patterns or actual movie clips on the Samsung vs. the Pioneer.

I tried switching cables, using shorter cables, tweaking the projector's settings, and could not get a better image from the Samsung upsampled than I could with the Pioneer and letting the projector do the scaling. I even tried stacking the deck in the Samsung's favor by using the included HDMI cable and connecting it directly to the projector. The digital connection should have been the best possible image, and no matter what I tried, I could not see an improvement on the Samsung.

The Samsung also had other issues which I did not care for. First, the white display is very bright. Very bright -- to the point of flashlight brightness. You can turn off the display from the front panel, but there was no option to dim it instead. In a dark home theater, who wants the room illuminated by such a bright display? If it was possible to dim or turn off the display from the remote, I would have programmed a macro to do so and not worried about it.

Another strike against the Samsung is the lack of resume play. If I removed a DVD movie to put in a SACD or some other movie, and then put the original DVD back in, it started at the main menu again. In my Pioneer, the player remembers the disc and offers to resume playback where I stopped previously. This can be a very convenient feature once you get used to it.

Bottom line: I returned the Samsung and ordered a Pioneer DV-588. I saved $70 and the extra niceties of the Pioneer make me happy to wait for real HD on a 5" disc.