I think to be called "HDMI", the cables have to meet very stringent specs. It's not like the differing levels of shielding in coax cable, it's basically just $90 for the Monster label.
Yep, downloaded all the updates, etc. I had the HD DVD player and PS3 play the same disk on the same TV (with HDMI) and the quality difference is HUGE.
The cables are just cables. An ethernet cable will do 1Gigabit or 100Megabit because the cable doesn't matter - it's the equipment at both ends that matters. In this case, it's HDMI equipment. There are various flavors of the HDMI spec, and older equipment to the 1.0 spec will not do the better audio or video (1600p). The real difference in cables is shielding, the connectors, and maybe the metals used (don't corrode as easily). At 4 feet, there's going to be zero difference in the cables' ability to give you the best HDMI has to offer. At 15 feet, the quality absolutely matters, but who needs a 15 foot cable?
Yes. You can even find re-branded monster cables online for $15. I hard purchased 4 of them, 2 years ago. -Petey
Blue Ray is already out dated. They are going to be streaming HD movies to your TV through various means which do not require physical media. Some companies like NetFlix, already are.
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10243&cs_id=1024008&p_id=4745&seq=1&format=2 Excellent deal on HDMI cable(s) if you need. -Petey
Time Warner has already talked about bandwidth restrictions on my internet usage. I'm sure my cable provider and others will charge hefty premiums for the service. Part of why I think Blue Ray will be around for a while. It's not like cable TV killed VHS, DVD did. -Petey
Thnx for all the info! I don't think I'll re-buy my library to blu-ray. I have about 400 movies. But I do plan on buying some of the classics on blu-ray for better picture quality. Like 'The Shining,' 'The Godfather trilogy,' ect. Ok, I'm using my PS3 but I plan on upgrading my blu-ray this weekend. Any recommendations on a player?
I'll repeat what a lot of others have been saying. Monster is the biggest rip-off in terms of home audio/video products. HDMI performance is pretty standardized as the difference between a $100 cable and $20 cable is zero. All the claims the thrown on the front the package is all salesmanship and don't affect anything. In fact a lot of tests have shown the cheap versions being even better. About Blu-Ray, it's shelf life is going to be much shorter than Dvd's with increased availability of VOD. Also people realizing how much of a better deal it is to watch the movies using Netflix doesn't help things either.
I'd hold off till December if you already have a PS3. I'm sure with the economy, there will be some nice sales near the holidays. Amazon previously had a special of 100$ off Sony Blu-Ray players when you bought 4 Blu-Ray movies (so you actually came +40$. -Petey
Why do you need to upgrade the player if you have a PS3? The PS3 player is one of the best reviewed models.
Hey, I never thought of this. This could be a good option. Where can I get these software updates from?
Well all you need to do is not be afraid to try the competition. I have used Comcast and Qwest against each other so many times it is insane. The key is to have all your email web based, so you can switch providers at the drop of a dime without having a major PITA. You may be in a situation where your current provider is your only option. All I know is that if I received the warning letter on data limits, I would call them up and tell them to stick their business where the sun doesn't shine.
The choices in NYC are pretty limited if you want a cable based system. Otherwise you have to change to a whole new system (Dish/DirectTV), but not all buildings will let you use the equipment. Cable providers really have you by the nads in NYC. -Petey
You are in a sense right, but the technology hasn't advanced that far to take advantage of those HDMI cables that have a higher bandwith. Please for the love of God, don't pay more than $10 for an HDMI cable. Go to monoprice.com and save a lot of money. I can't find the article right now that compared HDMI cables of all different types of quality. The cables were tested with diagnostic equipment and the cables varied in length from 3' to 100' and the equipment could not detect a difference between a $5 cable and a $300 Monster Cable. Don't believe the hype. Here's a little article from PCWorld to educate people on the basics of digital cables: PCWORLD Blu-Ray is far from outdated. Digital distribution is a long ways off from giving consumers a true HD experience, that is Video + Audio. A bluray disc is 50GB of data. If you want to watch a movie of equal quality, you'll have to buffer it for a week before you'd get a stable streaming picture. The crap that Netflix streams is hard to watch on a 15" monitor, how the hell is that gonna look on my 50" plasma? Blu-Ray is an amazing format. I do refuse to rebuy my old DVD collection on Bluray though. The studios have already gotten my money once, I won't give it to them again just for a new format. I do only buy new releases on Bluray now. The prices need to come down, but I only buy them from Amazon or Walmart if they have the discs for the same price in the store. As soon as I can get my new release blurays for $20, I'll be a happy camper.
BlazersBlood, I did the math and they can actually stream blu ray quality audio and video without much problem. My assumptions are 50G for a 2 hour movie. 50G / 2 = 25G per hour. 25G / 60 = .417G / minute .417G / minute / 60 = .007G / second 7 Megabits. My Time Warner does 15 Megabits with 20 burst. This is without compression. They could degrade the quality slightly by compressing 4:1 and delivering near Blu Ray stream to people with 1.5MBit connections. FWIW
Interesting numbers. Too bad I don't know what they mean! LOL. I've got FiOS and I'm supposed to be able to get 15 Mb/s, but it isn't anywhere close to that consistently. I still don't believe that you can stream high quality video + audio to fill a big screen tv. Like I said, I've got FiOS & I've got trouble streaming live action with superior quality on my 17" laptop. I've never seen anybody download 50 Gb in 2 hours. Even if you compensate and say you let it buffer for an hour, you will still have trouble watching a movie hiccup free.
