Well,.... I've seen true HD sources into a true HD set, and it is VERY noticeable.
If HalfLife 2 can look as good as it does on a suped up PC and a 32in HD monitor, then it will be done,... and possibly done better, with large HD sets and more capable hardware.
I'm not saying that the holidays are not awesome times for sales,... but we adults are the primary purchaser. How many parents, who may have JUST bought their kid/s an XBox, are willing to lay down $400-500 on another system??
Maybe things have changed. Although, when I was growing up, $100 was our big gift, and the rest of the stuff was clothes items, like underwear and pajamas.
Even at 15, $100 was the limit. I got my first tv. An open box, RCA, 19in tube. It was missing the remote,... and was all scratched up.
Well,... enough of the whining.
I PERSONALLY, don't know any parent who would drop that kind of cash on their kid, when they already have a system/s. I find that when talking to my adult coworkers and friends,... they all seem to be getting the systems for themselves, and are even debating whether or not it'll be do-able.
They are saying they want to wait to see how much of a return they'll have.
Perhaps it's just my neck of the woods.?.?.?
Also,... the CELL is quite capable of producing those graphics in real time. It is only up to the developers, to understand and exploit the technology. IBM has been demo-ing the chip, and it will be used for advanced applications scientifically, and technically, amongst other things.
It's just being advertised in the PS3. I think $ony will pull through this time around.
Remember the Rebirth video demo for the GameCube?? Well,... look at RE4. It blended real time with video, just like it was previewed years before. It just took a competent, and willing entity to create it. The power was always there.
As for the BluRay discs,.... it shouldn't take as long to exact the art. When using a clean/original transfer, on a standard disc,... I'd imagine they'd have to format it ridiculously before actually having a similar picture,... then, with the limited disc space, they have to fill in the blanks, that the formatting has revealed.
With the Faroudja chip, they were basically doing advanced preemptive calculations, on where to render and shade pixels to mimic what the viewer would like to see. Giving a false 720p picture, when it was only a 480p source.
That's not HD either.
The prices won't be astronomical either. I'm thinking that they'll be on par with first generation DVD prices. From $30-40 a movie. Then, after 25% of the world has a player in their grasp, the prices will fall to what we are currently paying for DVDs. I'd give it 3 to 4 years.
Remember,... this isn't a new format for most people. DVD players are cheap enough that everyone in America probably owns 3-4. When DVD first hit, the players were $500+, and even though people saw the dramatic difference, they just couldn't see laying down the money.
Mostly because they already owned hundreds of VHS tapes, and secondly, because there weren't many movies available on the medium.
Today, disc media is widely available, and facilities are only running at minimal capacity. With the revenues of the movies and media, the industry will most certainly go right for the throats.
We aren't the same crowd, that went from VHS to DVD. We are tech saavy, and highly aggressive. We don't just sit around like our parents did, and wait for the FCC to regulate sheot. We motivate them to make haste. As for the 40 something consumer,... there is now an understanding about the disc medium.
Going from disc to disc isn't confusing, and that makes them feel confident in dropping a nice chunk of cash on an upgrade.
Especially when it's backwards compatible.
They see the quality,.. they assess the situation, and make an intelligent choice. They can't go wrong, and gloat in their success. They now have helped drop the overall price of the players, by a nominal percentage. As they are also financially stable, and make up a third of the, race we are human.
DVD freaks,... that's us, the majority, the 20-30 something-ers,.... live for this stuff. We will drive the prices down, if not to counter it in BluRay movie sales. Thems the breaks. Do we care??? No!... HELL NO!!! We wait in the shadows of our collections, anticipating the moment new tech hits.
Then we pounce.
Come on.
You can't tell me that you haven't heard how (MORE)rich these bastards have become off of our impulsive, nostalgic, insane purchasing rituals. Why do you think they can have these massive sales?? Why do you think CAG exists???
Revolution in 05!!
