HD Nation

What's Robert watching? Baraka, if he wants to show off some gorgeous video shot all around the world.

HD News:

The HD Nation is growing... according to the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing 53 percent of total U.S. households have an HDTV... that's almost 20% higher than 2008!

Will CBHD, the China Blue Hi-definition Disk beat down Blu-ray? Cnet's CRAVE blog is calling it "blu-ray's new threat."

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Older movies on Blu-ray? Travis writes in: "I've noticed that older movies on blu-ray have price dropped into the realm where it might be affordable to start upgrading my existing library. Is it worth it to purchase "Hellboy" – for example – on blu-ray for $15, or keep my existing dvd and let my PS3 upscale? Will the source material limit any difference I might notice?"

Frankly, not all Blu-rays are amazing updates from the DVD. But if you're a big Hellboy fan, you'll probably enjoy the blu-ray version... Kenneth Brown over at HighDefDigest.comgave the video quality 4.5 stars... noting that the 1080p AVC MPEG-4 transfer of the movie had deep black levels, perfect contrast and fine object details... think being able to see the cracks in hellboy's horns!

The quality of the source material, the quality of the telecine and what kind of post work was done on the movie will all have a big effect on video quality.

The BBCs blu-ray of Pride and Prejudice, which started with a fresh scan on the original negatives is -such- an improvement over the DVDs my wife suddenly became a blu-ray fan.

A lot of eighties movies aren't fairing as well... Our buddy Justin Sluss over at High Def Disc News has the blu-ray version of The Last Starfighter, which came out last week... Digital Noise Reduction processing has wiped the grain and softened details. That said, the Blu-ray version of The Last Starfighter is an improvement over the HD DVD release: read this review to find out what a new transfer was able to do!

A classic film that greatly benefited from full restoration on blu-ray is The Searchers.

The blu-ray releases for August 10th 2009 include: 17 Again, About Last Night..., Alien Trespass, Blue Thunder, The Class, Cutthroat Island, I Love You, Man, Lie To Me: Season One, The Ninth Gate, Replicant, See No Evil, Starman, St. Elmo’s Fire, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: 25th Anniversary Collection.

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Your HDTV has one HDMI port, and you've got multiple HDMI sources, such as a PS3 and upscaling DVD player? Just like our viewer Max, you need an HDMI switch if you're tired of yanking cables. The good news is that there are great switches that don't cost a ton. Robert talks about the $99 Oppo HM-31 HDMI Switch and $30 Monoprice HDX-401E.

Looking for the ultimate switch? Anchor Bay's DVDO EDGE High-Definition Video Processor combines a switch (for just about any source you might want to connect to an HDTV) and gorgeous video processing... the price is $640, tho! (Get all the specs on the DVDO Edge here!)

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This Week's Recession Selection: Name Your Link! Amazon, tho, should be on your short list of places to shop for HDTVs. Why? Great prices, tax free depending on where you live, and -free- shipping to your door.

Vizio is the #1 seller of HDTVs in the US. Now they've entered the blu-ray player biz with the Vizio VBR100 Blu-Ray Disc Player. How does this $188 dollar player compare to other cost concious models? Robert reviews it on the show!