Home And Garden Articles

Home Improvements With a Home Entertainment Center

With high-definition television (HDTV) growing in popularity, HDTVs are much lower in price now than when they first came out. You can also pick up high-definition DVD players, or HD-DVD, and Blu-ray Discs (BD) for them.

Before jumping into home improvements with these latest gadgets, though, heads up. Follow these basic guidelines to help you and your family make educated decisions about them.

Digging in to the Next Generation of DVD

Remember when DVDs came out in the marketplace? It was roughly 10 years ago. The initial discs offered multiple times the storage capacity (4.7G over the basic CD (around 700MB, seven times less than DVD).

Then double-sided DVD came out, doubling the capacity. And of course double-layered discs were next in the evolution chain, thus you had:

Type, Capacity, Maximum play time

? Single-sided, single-layered 4.7 GB 120 minutes

? Double-sided, single-layered 9.4 GB 4 hours

? Singled-sided, dual-layered 8.5 GB 4 hours

? Double-sided, dual-layered 17 GB 8 hours

Despite some early technical difficulties, the DVD soon became a read-write medium, not just read-only. With that change came another round of acronyms to understand. DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM are the three most common. All types can be recorded on.

Now don?t forget the DVD-RAM, more costly, yet supposedly able to be re-written 100,000 times over the course of many years (OK, so the better ones, anyway). And since their stores data is non-sequent, they are said to be better for video editing than the other types. A downside, though, was that not all players can read this kind of data.

DVD-R can only be recorded onto once. Discs are cheap, so that isn't a problem these days and the format is compatible with nearly any player on the market.

DVD-RW, though, is only slightly more expensive and can be recorded onto many times. Not quite so many as DVD-RAM - only 1,000, in theory, but that's many more times than most people will need.

That was the state of things until very recently. Now comes the interesting part. Two new formats are coming onto the market and they're lining up for a good old-fashioned format battle. HD-DVD, developed by Toshiba, and Blu-ray from Sony have more in common than they have differences but one type will not play on a machine made for the other.

HD-DVD will store 15GB (30GB on dual-layer discs), while Blu-ray does better at 25GB (50GB on dual-layer). But the time differences are minimal. HD-DVD will hold about 8 hours of movies, etc and Blu-ray 9 hours. (100GB, quad-layer, Blu-ray discs are in development.)

Toshiba has lined-up support for its format from Microsoft, Intel and a few movie studios. Blu-ray is supported by nearly every major movie studio including Paramount and Disney along with Apple, Dell and several other PC companies.

Early HD-DVD machines from Toshiba (the HD-A1 and HD-XA1) are already on the market, retailing for around $500 and $800. Reviews are mixed, but that's usually the case with machines targeted at early-adopters.

On the upside, they can display high-definition discs in 720p or 1080i, and will show what your HDTV is really capable of. Blu-ray will display 1080p, the highest quality possible, assuming your TV has this capability. Few yet do.

A dozen HD movie discs are already available, including Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Serenity, and Phantom of the Opera. More are slated to become available (in both formats) soon.

For those who like to adopt the latest and greatest and are willing to accept some of the limitations always found in first generation technology, the new formats offer astounding visual quality. Be prepared to replace your equipment, though, in a couple of years once the format situation settles out and the bugs in the early machines are overcome.

Beam me up, Scotty!

Visit, subscribe to and bookmark our site for: home improvements and sign up for our free newsletter to keep up with the latest home improvements for your home and family.

Other Article Sites

findabook.com  moneycd.info  a-mortgage.info   about-lemon-laws.info  aboutstudentloans.info
all-about-publishing.info  auctions-articles.info  bestcollege-university.com  bestispconnection.com
biblefolder.com  blogger-website.com  books-used.info  brokers-guide.info  buywindows.info  cable-dsl.info
career-miner.com  carpel-tunnel.info  cashinaflash.info  cashloanreviews.info  casinobell.com  chat-house.info
clearmycredit.info  collegeloantips.info  crones.info  depression-articles.info   dirnic.net  dishguides.info
divers-below.com  expodog.info   financewizz.com  fire-insurance.info  getgood.info  handleit.net   it-idea.info
health-supplies.info  hosting-right.com  insidealert.com  insurance-facts.info  jobs-employment.info
justgood.info  lookgold.net   lowcost-travel.info  money-source.info  myhostzone.info  numisblog.com
peoplesearchfinder.info  pr-articles.info  realeas.com   refinancing-guides.info  spyware-remove.info
telelot.info  the-law.info   toppaid.info  travel-deals.info  travelcorrect.com  wedding-guide-site.com
your-blog.info  your-credit.info

MORE ARTICLES:

Chocolate for the Home and Garden ~ Chocolate Flower Farm Launches New Candle Division
Chocolate Flower Farm, a specialty nursery featuring dark foliaged and flowering plants, launches a new candle division with the acquisition of the exclusive rights to a distinctively different "Essence of Chocolate" candle. The candles along with their popular series of Chocolate Garden Seed Kits will be offered to retailers worldwide.

5 Most Popular Flowers for Your Garden
When planting a garden there are many questions which you must ask yourself before you begin. Where are you going to plant it, do you have the garden equipment to do so and how big do you want your garden to be? When do flowers bloom and what are their heights? These are all very important questions, however they mean very little if you have not yet decided which types of flowers you want to plant.

Wild Flower Garden - Yours to Design and Plan
To design a wild flower garden, you do not need to be a specialist or an artist, you just need to be observant and let your creative juices flow. Look around you, what is unique about your surroundings? Do you wish to enhance or compliment these things.

New Ways to Use Flowering Clematis in the Home Garden
As a lifetime horticulture professional, Vicki Smith (www.LGYP.com) has exciting news and guidance for using Clematis in today's low maintenance landscapes.

The Flower Garden in August
Our flower garden in August can be brimming with activities we can do at this time of year, as we can for most of the year. We have some flower gardening tips to give you and some experiments to try.

Wild Flower Garden - Make Amends...Your Plants Will Love It
A wild flower garden, just like any garden you wish to plant, requires good quality soil that will meet the needs of the plants you put in it. That means that your garden soil may need some amendment.

Wild Flower Garden - Plan to Plant
In the previous article I discussed design for your new wild flower garden. The next stage is planning the planting.

Enhance Your Flower Garden With Garden Edging
So, you've got your flower garden set up You've planted the flowers, some perennials here, a few annuals there

In Bloom: Manbury Home and Garden Accessories Unearths Garden Delights for Gorgeous Homes
Manbury Home and Garden Accessories now features a variety of attractive, practical garden solutions at www.manbury.nl, where consumers can peruse and purchase a variety of garden tools and accessories.

Flowers That Beautify Your Home and Garden
To help gardeners choose flowers, various systems for rating hardiness have been developed. A plant is considered hardy in a region if it can grow and thrive there without requiring special protective measures such as insulating with straw mulch.

Florist Johanne Russell Smith to Demonstrate at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show
Johanne Russell-Smith, founder of MY ROSES and Box Hill Institute's 2007 Floristry Student of the Year will be demonstrating at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show. Johanne will be showcasing her floral designs and sharing her tips for styling and caring for your roses.

Brighten Up The Garden With PVC Box Deck Flower Railings
Box deck flower railings can really brighten up any garden. The flowers create a homely, warm feel as well as adding a touch of elegance. Many people wonder how to improve the look of their deck and a flower box is by far one of the best ways to do it.

How to Choose the Right Bulbs for Your Spring Flower Garden
Choosing the right bulbs involves more than just selecting colors and cultivars. Timing, bulb size, and most importantly, bulb health are equally significant factors in designing your spring garden.

Add Rich Color To Your Garden With Blue Perennial Flowers
Blue flowers are some of the most striking plants around and can add a rich splash of color to any garden. Plant them in a cluster of all blue or mix them in with other flowers for a rainbow of color.