If I have HD TV & DVD where do Blue-ray and cable TV come in?

[grgurmg]

I see where your confused. Basically your misunderstanding some terminology.

What you may of heard is HD-DVD is on it's way out... not HD TV. HD-DVD is a brand of HD (High Definition) video disc. Blu-Ray is the competing brand of HD video disc. Blu-Ray IS HD, even though it doesn't have HD in its name... don't let the brand names confuse you. For that matter, Blu-Ray is called Blu-Ray because the technology uses blue lasers instead of red like DVD does... but HD-DVD uses blue lasers too, even though there's no "blue" in it's name. It's all brand name.

So HD TV is seperate from those. HD TV can refer to the type of TV that is able to display High Definition... or it can refer to television programing that is broadcasted in high definition (or a cabe/satellite/antenna setup that can use those broadcasts). To truely and actually see something in High Defintion (HD) you need to have both an HD cable/satellite/antenna setup and an HD TV. Not to mention you must also be watching an HD channel (like NBCHD) and that particular program on the channel needs to be in HD. For instance on NBCHD, the morning/evening news is in HD and so is alot of prime time shows... but alot of daytime TV isn't HD yet.

So HD (High Definition) is not on it's way out... it only just got here. The brand called "HD-DVD" is however.

There's also a move happening next year.. where all TV broadcasted over the airwaves (recieved via antennas) will be moving to digital only. If you use cable, particularly digital cable.. or have a converter box... this change isn't going to effect you at all.

Hope this clears some things up

[JaJa]

Young ones-please help the old broad understand! If HD is on it's way out, where does that leave the rear-projection TV and digital cable and converter box already in use? Do I need to get a blue-ray (?) tv or what?

[what]

ask at currys.

[Joe S]

If you have an older rear projection that is not HD, you just have a BIG screen with standard definition. To get HD you have to get an HD t.v. with an HD service from your provider or over the air HD antenna. Blue Ray is just an HD dvd player. You can play standard dvd's and Blue Ray discs. But you can't play blue Ray disc on standard dvd players. All t.v. signals are going to be digital by 2010. If you don't get digital service by then you will need to get a converter box to change analog to digital. I hope I was able to make this clear for you.

[philystyle]

Blu-ray is a new movie format (like DVD or VideoCasette) that lets you watch movies in HighDef on your HDTV. Not essential to watch digital tv now or ever.

HD itself is not on the way out, its on the way in. Digital TV and HDTV are the new standards of TV. All tv goes digital in 2009 in the U.S.

The thing I think you may be confused about is HD DVD. Today they announced HD DVD is no longer going to be made by Toshiba Corp. (HD DVD was a movie format "like blu ray" people thought was going to be the "new thing". Turns out blu ray is better. So to void confusion they have eliminated HD DVD)

If you have a Digital/HDTV TV right now your fine.

If not and you receive tv with an antenna get a converter box or sign up for cable/satellite. However, it sounds like your alredy all set up.

[philystyle]

Blu-ray is a new movie format (like DVD or VideoCasette) that lets you watch movies in HighDef on your HDTV. Not essential to watch digital tv now or ever.

HD itself is not on the way out, its on the way in. Digital TV and HDTV are the new standards of TV. All tv goes digital in 2009 in the U.S.

The thing I think you may be confused about is HD DVD. Today they announced HD DVD is no longer going to be made by Toshiba Corp. (HD DVD was a movie format "like blu ray" people thought was going to be the "new thing". Turns out blu ray is better. So to void confusion they have eliminated HD DVD)

If you have a Digital/HDTV TV right now your fine.

If not and you receive tv with an antenna get a converter box or sign up for cable/satellite. However, it sounds like your alredy all set up.