"DVD looks good enough for me" may come out of your mouth before you've actually seen the difference first-hand, but once you do, there's no going back. There are a bunch of advantages that aren't necessarily apparent at first. Blu-ray is a giant leap forward in a few respects and an agreeable do-over on some of DVD's biggest failings. Reliable, full 1080p HD streaming is still a ways off because ISPs in the States just can't manage the bandwidth. Anyone with HD cable or satellite gone a solid week without image artifacts or a delayed signal? I didn't think so. Broadcast HD is 720p, 1080i at best. Discs are here to stay for some time yet. A League of Its Own Pretty Pictures, Splendid Sounds Anyone who tells you that up-converted DVD looks just about as good as a Blu-ray, like the Orlando Sentinel's Roger Moore, is out of their mind or has a vision impairment. Video and audio quality are the biggest improvements over DVD, and if a Blu-ray doesn't blow you away in these areas compared to its DVD counterpart, someone messed up big-time. In-store displays don't often do either picture or audio justice by being badly-configured or by virtue of not running over HDMI, so you can't necessarily trust them. Finer detail in crowd scenes, clothing patterns, items in the background, and just sharper focus in scenes involving fast motion, smoke, fire, and dust are among the various things that you really pick up on with HD picture. You see freckles on Dorothy Gale, individual leaves instead of a blur in Zemeckis' aerial shots in Forrest Gump, and if you think Pixar DVDs look great, get ready for a wake-up call. Lossless audio means you can expect that analog hiss to disappear in more and more catalog titles (though it's annoyingly still there in a few). If you have a nice surround setup, channels will be more vivid and crisp than before. Restoring Justice Warner Bros. recently, and very expensively, remastered The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind for DVD. WB then had to re-remaster both for Blu-ray because they restored to the resolution they needed for standard definition, with HD formats not even nascent yet. In order for all the studios to not embarrass themselves, they're all going back and re-cleaning and transferring catalog titles for HD. The smart studios are pouring a bunch of money into getting higher quality than they need now so that VOD and higher-resolution formats will be easier to transition to in the future. They know they can't pass on the cost to the consumer in an economy like the one we're steeped in, so premium picture quality is more affordable and stunning than it was just four years ago. More Satisfying Materialism Premium-Feel Packaging I like that the cases are shorter and slimmer for single discs, and that a 6-disc set no longer sits 6 inches wide on my shelf. A full season set of a TV show is slim, sleek, and feels densely-packed. The buttons that hold the disc in the case are uniform across different studio releases, and they hold the discs tightly in place. As a bonus, they aren't so strong that you risk breaking the damn disc in half when you want to take it out. The disc coating is thicker and more scratch-resistant, so buying secondhand won't be the potential horror show roll of the dice that it is with DVD. Pricing Prices have come plummeting down over the last year, and we're finally at the point that the market will adopt the format en masse (so the studios hope). The higher gigabyte quantity of data and better DRM assures studios that piracy will be harder, so they're making the discs affordable more quickly. I recently got The Wild Bunch, Being There, and The Searchers for under $9 apiece. Criterion Blu-rays are generally priced lower than their DVD counterparts. In fact, most of them are currently $19.99 on Amazon to match a Barnes & Noble sale, including the now out of print The Third Man (temporarily out of stock, but they say they're still getting them). Region Freedom Lots and lots of overseas discs are now all-region coded. Most of the titles hitting Japan and China non-locked, but some juicy UK/European ones are Region B-locked. I posted a piece back in July about the Region Coding landscape. It's still accurate, so give it a look if you're interested. I'm planning to interview a pal who's the most prolific importer I know for a future installment. He'll shed some light on best places to purchase and pricing. What's Not So Great Loading, Loading....Jesus H. Christ, Still Loading... Load times are much longer than DVD, even with the newest players. The 2-3 minute delay is something you get used to by popping the disc in, making popcorn, taking a shower, and waxing the car while waiting. This is by far the biggest annoyance of the format, but all hyperbole aside, I pass the time pouring a drink and it's like it never happened. It still bothers me regardless. Digital/Managed Copies In the arena of added cost, any title that includes a Digital Copy suitable for playing on portable devices has some additional cost built in to the sticker price. These Digital Copy codes usually expire, so at some point the discs they come with will get cheaper because the code's no good anymore. On top of that, you never know which players or operating systems these things work on. The Reno! 911 Season 6 set works only on a Windows computer and not really any portable devices, negating its usefulness. There's a new, recently-ratified Managed Copy standard that doesn't require connecting to iTunes or PlaysForSure or anything, but it isn't supported by any of the current players on the market. BD-Living Dead I really, really hate BD-Live. I would love for that to change over time, but that's where I'm at currently and for the foreseeable future. Regardless of which studio the disc came from or which disc you're using, BD-Live is slow, times out, or just doesn't work. The prerequisite for doing BD-Live is that your player is somehow connected to the internet. Most people don't have ethernet in their living room, and wireless-enabled players (that aren't a PS3) are only now hitting the market and aren't cheap. I guarantee that most of the bundled or price-slashed players that will be sold this holiday season will not have wifi capability. The biggest problem is that there's no visionary innovation behind BD-Live at all. Paramount is trying to do some downloadable featurette stuff with their Star Trek TOS sets, and they require the Blu-ray to be in the drive to play them. It incentivizes ownership, which is understandable, and it's nice that, theoretically, new extras won't require buying a new double dip every 18 months. The problem is, these 28 megabyte files take over five minutes to download, which is insane. Fox has started including Live Lookup on its most recent releases. It's an IMDb-connected feature that allows you to answer "what did I see that guy in" without grabbing a computer or phone to get online and look it up. As shrug-worthy as that sounds, it's one of the few well-designed, fast, and useful BD-Live features developed to this point. That is part of the problem: there's no killer app or anything approaching it. BD-Live is the most broken, worthless thing about Blu-ray, but honestly it has nothing to do with the primary function of your setup: playing movies. The HD Guide is an ongoing series focusing on the evolving world of HD in the home: getting started, understanding the lingo, and appreciating the best (and worst) discs that are out there.

The beginning of the HD conversation is choosing the magic looking glass that will become the centerpiece of your new home cinema. My personal means of making recommendations in this department is in dispelling myths and focusing on the regular human budget. If you are comfortable dropping $6k on a Pioneer Kuro plasma, you either know this stuff already or have an assistant to do these things for you and you don't need me. I think the majority of folks out there are looking for something affordable, but not cheap. I don't care about gaming, so the following focuses entirely on watching movies and TV shows. The Buying Commandments Here they are as handed down to me by The HD Godz (cousins of Jeff's Movie Godz): 1. Thou shalt not buy a store display model. 2. Likewise shalt thou not buy an open-box, returned, or "as-is" model. 3. Thou shalt never even consider an HDTV marked 720p or 1080i. 4. Thou shall do thine research on bundled Blu-ray players you see in ads. 5. Thou shalt not be swayed by bundle offers for inferior products. 6. Thou shall not be swayed by Dynamic Contrast Ratio or other Contrast Ratio specs. 7. Thou shalt require the use of the display TV's remote control to adjust settings. 8. Thou shalt require a store associate allow you to connect a Blu-ray player over HDMI to the TV you are considering. 9. Thou shall not be suckered into multiple TV deals (2 smaller for the price of one). 10. Thou shall invest the time and patience needed to make a good decision. Which to Choose? The Brand I personally went with a 47" LG Class LCD. The first major myth to shred (with some qualification) is about brand equating quality. The nuts and bolts and transistors in the majority of HDTVs on the market feature the same LCD panels made by the same physical manufacturers. The primary difference is in the name plastered on it and the menu layout. You don't have to pay for the Sony label or fight with your friends about the relative superiority of Sharp, Samsung, or Panasonic. I would, however, stay away from store-specific brands like Insignia (Best Buy) and other budget folks like Westinghouse, Polaroid, and Vizio. Vizio is really eager to position themselves as "just as good" as the top brands, but they aren't based on customer service and warranty support horror stories. In the interest of full disclosure, my wife works for Samsung in a department wholly unrelated to their TV division. 480/720/1080 and Screen Size The bigger one is not necessarily the best one. The top resolution on HDTVs is 1080p, which in basic terms means the display is 1080 pixels tall. Think of pixels as little squares stacked on top of one another. You can have a 1080p monitor that measures 30, 37, 40, or 65 inches. It doesn't matter because pixels are a relative form of measurement. A "pixel" is not exactly a certain number of centimenters, millimeters, or inches in size. The bigger the monitor, the bigger your pixels. It's for this reason that going with the biggest display you can afford isn't necessarily a good idea. Of course, the smaller you go, the less enjoyable it is. To get what I'd consider reasonable enjoyment out of Blu-ray and true HD content, I wouldn't go smaller than 37" or larger than about 51". Make sure you measure your viewing space before leaving the house and try to get the same distance away from the TV you're looking at in the store. Bigger than the 47" we have would be too big for how far away we can get from the thing. LCD versus LED versus Plasma LCDs are the most affordable monitors out there. Samsung's new LED line still uses LCD panels, but different backlighting. TVs referred to as "LCDs" are backlit by compact fluorescent bulbs. This is what most of the world and I can afford. The other two types are what you ask someone to "help you invest in" or think really hard before budgeting. The new "LED" models feature cleaner, cooler, brighter LED backlighting that uses less power and produces better overall picture quality and contrast. They cost more, but they really are gorgeous. Plasmas are the best overall when it comes to contrast and picture quality, but the price tag shoots up even more so than LEDs. Plasmas are not prone to burn-in the same way front projection sets were (and are) [edit: I corrected some erroneous info thanks to a tip from pal Luke Mullen]. These are the best of the best for contrast and color depth, and with that comes a higher price tag. The LED monitors are projected to eventually outdo the Plasmas in quality. And no, just because it's a Plasma doesn't make it okay to get one that's 720p (see Commandment 3). User Reviews Are Generally Worthless Most people out there who've bought an HDTV don't have any idea what they're talking about when it comes to what you want it for. Additionally, there's no way to know who any of these people are. Seek out enthusiast hotspots like the Home Theater Forum and reviewers with a solid track record. If they talk about contrast ratios and other meaningless crap that isn't actually quantifiable, ignore them. If they talk about relative contrast (better than most, not impressive, etc.) that's qualitative, then pay attention. The In-Store Demo Demo Over HDMI Plan to spend a solid afternoon playing around with TVs at a store. This isn't something you want to just roll the dice on. I've yet to find a store that has their demo sets plugged in over HDMI, which is how you'll connect your HD cable box (if you have one), Blu-ray player, and game systems. You aren't getting a real look at what the TV can do unless you've got a Blu-ray player connected over HDMI. Some stores like Best Buy have little showcase rooms that have demo players set up with correct cabling, but they're usually plugged into the super-expensive sets someone's sales manager would love for them to talk you into buying. Depending on the store you're going to, you may have to bring your own player and cable. If the store wants your business, they'll work something out. Buying a few Blu-rays that are well-reviewed and having them in-hand isn't a bad idea. Buy them from the store you're at (likely Best Buy based on limited options) if you want to show them you mean business. Pick some from different eras, like the 30's/40's, the 60's/70's, and an 80's-present one or two. You want to see how it handles different content. Presets for Different Content Don't expect 70-year-old movies to look great on the same settings as Public Enemies or Easy Rider. You want a TV that allows you to easily set a few presets and quickly swap between them if you plan on watching a wide variety of content. The Third Man will not look good with the high sharpness needed for watching Zodiac or another HD-shot feature. Contrast Ratio This specification honestly means nothing and is more a marketing tool than a technical specification. Your two human eyes are a better calibration tool for your perception of contrast than an arbitrary proportion that every manufacturer measures differently. You're looking for the darkest black and the depth in shades of grey you see. Turn down the Backlight and fiddle with the Contrast and Brightness settings. Mess with the Sharpness while you're at it. Don't Buy Right Away You should be tired after your "field trip" so go get something to eat, go home, and sleep on it. It's not going anywhere. One last thing...Don't Get Gouged on Cables HDMI cables are how you connect HD devices to one another. They should be cheap, or you're buying in the wrong place. They don't need to be platinum or premium gold-plated of some other bullshit like that. Time Warner Cable gave a couple 6-foot ones to me for $10 apiece, but you can get them for even less if you plan in advance. Monoprice.com has some for $8 (less for more). Check with your cable/satellite provider too, they'll be happy to sell you extra ones. The HD Guide is an ongoing series focusing on the evolving world of HD in the home: getting started, understanding the lingo, and appreciating the best (and worst) discs that are out there. On the schedule for tomorrow is a set of three installments: What's So Great About Bluray?, Choosing a Blu-ray Player, and TV in HD. Depending on how the day goes, I may squeeze in It's Not Blu-ray, It's HBO, but no promises.