Lawrence "The Dreamer" Chen's Blog

Link: http://blog.scifi.com/tech/archives/old_hdtvs_will_show_sony_bluray_movies_in_hd.html

Thanks to an "image constraint" flag on the new discs, movie studios could prevent any disc player from outputting a full-HD signal from that player's component-video jacks. Instead, you'd get a picture about the same as DVD-quality; to watch in HD, you would need to use the HDMI output ? a connector that didn't even exist when HDTVs first went on sale in 1998.

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Sony says it will not put the flag on its initial wave of Blu-ray titles,

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Sony says all of its Blu-ray titles will be flag-free for the foreseeable future,

I guess this is good news, and probably means Blu-Ray will become the defacto standard like VHS over Beta

Because, my HDTV monitor doesn't have an HDMI port....and I don't plan to replace it anytime soon. My previous TV was over 21 years old, before I finally replaced it.

OTOH, maybe they don't build TVs like they used to. My dad recently took the plunge and got a HDTV.....because his 6 years Sony TV suddenly stopped working, and he was told that it would be cheaper to buy a new TV than to get it serviced. And, I think I might have recommended the Sony....

Wonder when I'll be the position to buy a Blu-Ray player??? and how long before I start renting Blu-Ray titles??? owning Blu-Ray titles???