Large groups of corporations working together are not always your friend.

[pmb]

So, let's say you own a projector.

Woohoo!

Now, let's say you want to hook up a DVD player to that projector.

Awesome! Like a movie theater!

But now you want your DVDs to look good like when you play them off of your computer.

SWEET!Unfortunately, at this point we are screwed. You see, because Hollywood is addicted to broken business

Comments

[flamingweasel]

Just for the record, the best output an NTSC DVD player can produce is 480p (720x480), which can be sent over composite output. Anything bigger is upsampled -- which might look good, but it's not in the source.

1080 (i? p?) is quite a bit bigger than low-end computer. It's 1920x1080, and video at this resolution pwns anything but the fastest machines.

That said, the anticonsumer tendencies of the playback machine manufacturers are weird. I'm used to the media industries thinking I'm the enemy, but I can't see any reason for the machine manufacturers to do their bidding when there is a demand for uncrippled playback machines other than they think the media cartels are their customers. Which, hopefully, they will be for HD-DVD/Blu-Ray. (That is, I hope the only people buying HD-DVD/Blu-Ray players are the media cartels.) HD is fucking gorgeous, and I'd love to rebuy a copy of LoTR that can play back in real 1080p, but I sure as hell ain't buying a component that requires an internet connection so the media cartels can change the rules on me whenever they want to.

[flamingweasel]

Whoops, forgot to note: here is a handy guide to resolution names.

Last post in reply to myself, promise

[flamingweasel]

ALSO! HDMI is just DVI + audio in a different plug. HDCP is the "trusted device" bullshit which talks over HDMI. HDMI itself is totally neutral -- except in the future, when all devices with an HDMI plug will have HDCP handshaking.

Re: Last post in reply to myself, promise

[pmb]

Creepily enough, everyone has agreed to include HDCP in everything starting now, but not turn any copy protection on until after 2010. Now THAT's fucked up.

[pmb]

Upsampled is what I'm going for here. I tested my laptop (1024x768 and upsampled) against the "progressive scan" 480p DVD player (using LoTR, natch), and the DVD player was noticeably shittier. Plus, I figure that it will only look better over time as people develop better software upsampling techniques.