Sounds like there is. Stop messing with the controls and get a better TV. DVDs look great on my TV. I can read Barney Fifes badge when I use my Oppo. It says Mayberry Deputy Sheriff.

Steve covered the new players here: http://wesleytech.com/sony-announces-two-new-blu-ray-players/563/

We just heard last week that over 50% of the TVs they sold last year were 1080p sets. They’ve discontinued most of their 720p sets and those that remain are 32″ and smaller – not ideal movie watching, or even football watching sizes.

I don’t know why you are so opposed to Blu-ray, but it’s definitely something I encourage people to get if they want to take advantage of their HDTV.

Simply stated 1080p is not needed for many years, or may never come to typical homes, due to viewing requirements. Lump on to that the BD+ etc- this market is very very niche to say the least. Bluray is expensive to produce and does not dovetail with the typical American home. I would suppose overseas it’s the same story. At least in trhe US a lot of people have “McMansions” with home theater rooms.

To really enjoy 1080p you are going to neeed at least a 50 inch screen-62+ is better. Not many folks have the square footage to accomadate such a display. If they do, they are probably happy with upscaling DVD players and 1080i sports broadcasts etc.

I would takle the HD DVD back to the store, get a gift card to use however I saw fit and if I were to wait for a new player of some sort, I would wait for the Oppo

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cd-dvd-player-product-reviews/dvd-players/oppo-digital-dv-983h-dvd-player—a-secrets-dvd-benchmark-review.html

Play all your inexpensive DVDs in very acceprtable fashion and not have to risk being the new “Laser disc” victim.

I imagine it will work the same with BD2.0 features.

I think this is actually a good move for Blu-ray because they can now have different levels so you don’t have to pay extra for BD2.0 features (more memory and ethernet) if you don’t intend on using that.

I know. It’s just that the “new features” won’t work. You can bet your monster cables that the Bluray discs wwill have large type spouting about PIP and then you can get a magnafying glass out and read that you need a 2.0 profile player. A lot of folks will not know what the heck is wrong etc and others that are in the dark will then discover that they can’t “upgrade” their 1.x players.

“Well if a person purchased an HD DVD player from Circuit City within the last 90 days, chances are their HD DVD title collection isn’t that big. In that case, this certainly is a nice option for those people.”

It’s the ONLY option, but at least they have one. Having said that, I’m sure numbers were run and reletively few players flew off the shelves after the Christmas rush.

Let’s say they have only 10 discs (not that many if you just got a player and have a big screen to enjoy them on) they have to decide whether to toss them and eat the loss, then shell out another 250 for a player that will soon be obsolete 2.0 is better (I guess) then turn round and re-buy the dissks for 20 bucks a pop. I really don’t know what I would do. I think I would wait for 2.0 players and not get f8cked again.

But that’s just me. Some folks have money to burn.