Im new to all this HD stuff.....

If i get a blu-ray film i presume it has 2 copies of the film on it? one in 720p and one in 1080p then you select which one you want?

On a seperate note if i have a 1080p film will it still run on the 720p tv ?

Itll only have one version of the film on the disc (itll be @ 1080p).  Your player/tv can then just scale it to whatever resolution your tv works at.

QuoteOn a seperate note if i have a 1080p film will it still run on the 720p tv ?

Yes, itll just ignore half of the resolution and show what the tv can manage.

Its a bit like a computer game which can run at 1920*1080.  If you set your monitor to something like 1280*720 resolution the game still runs but its less detailed.  Thats all thats happening.  The film can run at 1080 resolution but your tv/graphics card is set to 720 resolution so just backs off.

The format will do the higher, it is your device that will downscale if your tv is unable to cope with the higher
Blu Ray movies are 1080p

EDIT: On a side note some movies on blu ray reported to be 1080i for some reason, do not know if that is true or not but most are 1080p
And the PS3 ? Is still at the moment the best bet to get due to the update ability to keep it up to date while hardware player you end up needing to replace at the moment and considering what they are not worth the money when you have the ps3 there

presume HD-DVD work the same?

These just work in a standard DVD player?

I know they are going to killed off soon but i dont have a blu-ray drive so HD-DVD seems to be what i need at the moment

HD-DVD doesnt work in a standard DVD player, it requires a HD-DVD player. Other than that, yes it is the same as BlueRay.

You can pickup HD-DVD players a lot cheaper than BR now as they are being phased out.

Quote from: Kris - Tekheadspresume HD-DVD work the same?

Yup - any disc you buy be it HD or Bluray will be 1080i/p.  (dont worry about the i or p part - theyll all be 1920*1080 resolution movies).  Your tv/player is what scales that down.  the discs are all max quality.

QuoteThese just work in a standard DVD player?

HD-DVDs must be played in a HD-DVD player, Bluray must be played in a Bluray player.  theres a couple of combo drives around but not many.  None of them will play in a normal DVD player as theres about 5x more information being sent a second than any normal DVD player could handle.

QuoteI know they are going to killed off soon but i dont have a blu-ray drive so HD-DVD seems to be what i need at the moment

Nope - you need a HD-DVD player for it (as above).  Bluray is the only way to go.

Yes, its probably not worth investing in HD-DVD at all now unless you dont mind having a player as a legacy player too when the HD-DVDs have all left the shelves.

I wouldnt invest in Blu-Ray either just yet personally, unless it was through a PS3. The format isnt quite finalised/standardised yet and as such most players are expensive and not all on equal footing, plus the discs arnt exactly cheap either. The beauty of the PS3 as a player is that it gives surprisingly good picture quality, resamples well and can be tweaked with firmware updates.

some pessimists (Like myself) might also say that bluray will also never be there, as discs are dead.

Quote from: Marksome pessimists (Like myself) might also say that bluray will also never be there, as discs are dead.

As I said to someone else actually about digital downloads - not there by a mile yet.

Considering a blu ray disc can top at 50gb and good quality media filled on that, same with games like with metal gear solid having to be scaled down to fit a disc...
When you consider just the bbc iplayer which is relatively naff in quality still is causing UK isps so many problems and even if your on up to 8mb most people have not got over 4 with the average still being 2mb down in the uk. With the constant moans from ISPs that there is not enough capacity blablabla and increasing use of download monthly caps by them as well as in other countries where this is still standard.
If you want to watch quality movies on big screens your going to need massive file downloads which will hurt the ISPs who already have a number of them throttling data, blocking ports etc to prevent you from doing so already and in many cases take aaaages to download as well as for many 2 months of download limits just to get them (average seems to be 30gb a month)

Digital media one day will be king and no need for dics but discs are hear to stay for a very long time, then flash or IBMS very cool memory technology in the future replace them but the physical media will be around for a long time to come because of the above but because also most people still want that physical element just in case things go tits up and you loose your data.

i can download 1-2 hd movies a night. that will do me