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The Gamer's Quarter
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GSL
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Joined: 16 Nov 2005
Posts: 725
Location: Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong
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 Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2006 3:47 pm Post subject: |
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Oh, I'm not arguing that there's no visual difference between, as per your example, 640i and 720p, but rather the perceptual difference. I've played games on 720p both at demo units in-store and at friends' houses where large, flat tube HD televisions nicely complement XBox 360 units. And you know what? I wasn't blown away. My hair didn't stand on end, and God Himself did not come down from Heaven and say unto me, "Yea, I say unto you, I shall count you among My angels in Heaven now that thou hast seen the Light." Sure, it was pretty, but that's all it was. My gaming experience has never been enhanced by large or high-definition screens just as I have never felt limited playing Super Mario Bros. 3 on my 14" TV through RF, or -gasp!- Resident Evil 4 on composite.
And yet this is enough to brand me a 'videophilistine'. An inferior, uncultured viewer I am through my refusal to wank over the new latest Sony Wega screen. I'm a 'philistine', trapped in my age of stone tools and scared of fire because I refuse to drop a month's rent--or a quarter of a term's tuition--on a fucking television to replace my current one which, though small works perfectly fine.
And that, I suppose, sums up why I mostly don't like all this HD or widescreen nonsense: the fans. The people that do their damndest to convince you that you are truly an inferior human being if you LIKE your archaic, analog viewing method, that there's nothing WRONG with dropping an entire paycheck for the crystal clairity of 720p. It's the Emperor's New Clothes, only now the little boy screaming, "Look mommy, the Emperor's naked!" is being beaten into silence by the crowd gathered to watch. It really doesn't negatively affect my life at all having such a small TV, no matter how often people will try to convince me otherwise. Words like 'philistine' are apt if a videophile feels threatened by my lack of concern, but for me it really comes down to having more important uses of my money, a perfectly functional television as is, and more important things to do: like actually PLAYING the games. |
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Alc
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Joined: 22 Feb 2006
Posts: 109
Location: UK
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| Posted: Sun Jun 25, 2006 1:27 pm Post subject: |
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| Greatsaintlouis wrote: | | The people that do their damndest to convince you that you are truly an inferior human being if you LIKE your archaic, analog viewing method, that there's nothing WRONG with dropping an entire paycheck for the crystal clairity of 720p. It's the Emperor's New Clothes, only now the little boy screaming, "Look mommy, the Emperor's naked!" is being beaten into silence by the crowd gathered to watch. |
Bit melodramatic, isn't it? The only thing that's been pointed out is that there is in fact a difference, and it's fine if you don't value it, but some do.
I know what Resident Evil 4 looks like through composite on a 14" TV, since that was the exact setup I was stuck with last year. It was adequate, I still thoroughly enjoyed the game. Was the £80 I spent on a much bigger (secondhand) widescreen a few months back worth it? Certainly for me, and it seems like more and more people I know think similarly. I won't try and convince you it's worth it, but don't come across all wounded that I demand my films in widescreen now.
For the record, I'd call my mum an "audeophilistine", not because I feel threatened by her lack of knowledge (that's an odd concept, by the way), but because she genuinely wouldn't notice if I played her a CD burned from 48kbit mp3s instead of the CDDA master. She is not an inferior person, just less picky. Your emperor's clothes analogy kind of fails since, by your own admission, there is actually a difference in quality - the Emperor is finely clothed, you just don't care what he's wearing. |
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thatbox
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Joined: 15 Mar 2005
Posts: 99
Location: nashville / nola
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| Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2006 1:02 am Post subject: |
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| Alc wrote: | | For the record, I'd call my mum an "audeophilistine", not because I feel threatened by her lack of knowledge (that's an odd concept, by the way), but because she genuinely wouldn't notice if I played her a CD burned from 48kbit mp3s instead of the CDDA master. She is not an inferior person, just less picky. Your emperor's clothes analogy kind of fails since, by your own admission, there is actually a difference in quality - the Emperor is finely clothed, you just don't care what he's wearing. |
That's all I was getting at.
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dhex
Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004
Posts: 6319
Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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| Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2006 9:00 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | And that, I suppose, sums up why I mostly don't like all this HD or widescreen nonsense: the fans. |
fans make everything suck. the 3% of fans who do cool stuff (mods, etc) is overshadowed by the other 97% who have serious self-esteem issues.
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Shapermc
Hot Sake!
Joined: 14 Oct 2004
Posts: 6279
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| Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2006 9:31 am Post subject: |
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| Alc wrote: | | I won't try and convince you it's worth it, but don't come across all wounded that I demand my films in widescreen now. |
Hey! Damnitall guys. I have been demanding my films in widescreen for an exceptionally long time now. My main TV still isn't even a widescreen TV. You should be demanding widescreen for reasons other than that it now fits on your TV.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932
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DonMarco
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Joined: 02 Mar 2005
Posts: 349
Location: 33903
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| Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2006 5:16 pm Post subject: |
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| Mister Toups wrote: | | SuperWes wrote: | | The advantage of HD is pretty much the same advantage as playing a game in 1600x1200 resolution vs. playing it in 640x480. You get more detail and the picture just looks much more crisp. Widescreen images on HD TVs should theoretically not have the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen because the screen should already be widescreen. If anything you'll see black bars at the left and right sides of the screen because the image was made for standard television instead of HD television. |
Black bars on the side distract me much more than on the top and bottom.
Therefore I will never own a widescreen TV. |
You must be a TATE man.
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Collector of over 1,538 strategy guides. That's weird, right?
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Westacular
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Joined: 03 Jul 2006
Posts: 110
Location: Waterloo, ON, Canada
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| Posted: Mon Jul 03, 2006 3:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Wolverine wrote: | | What exactly are you (Szczepaniak) using to watch DVDs? |
His eyes, which are admittedly quite crappy. It's more than a bit like a colour-blind person asking what the fuss is about with colour TVs.
| wourme wrote: | | I guess I should have mentioned that I tend to let people borrow my stuff a lot (including my poor copy of Rez--if that were a DVD, there's no way it would still work). Also, I can't imagine how people with kids around keep their DVDs and games in decent shape. |
Huh? DVDs are actually more scratch-resistant than CDs. How hard is it for people to simply put the disc back in its case when removing it from the player, and close the case? Problem solved.
About the whole HD thing: what is the problem here? The trend is toward higher resolution. Most people can notice the difference. No one is forcing you to upgrade (yet. There is that whole analog shutoff thing approaching), and no one is making you replace your DVDs with HD or Blu-Ray. Soon enough, the improvements will trickle down and you'll get a nicer, high-resolution TV for no increased cost.
Sure, it makes a few things like older, low-res videogames more difficult to view in the way they were intended, but this is a really niche market and it's not like the billions of older CRTs on the planet are just going to disappear overnight. Besides that, with some research and planning you can make sure it will look just fine on a new HDTV set when you finally get around to buying it. |
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