Scottiemon:

Dan,

Most of the time I agree with what you say here. However, I do take issue with this statement:

"The difference between a blu ray and a standard DVD on a good set isn't that noticeable."

If you are not seeing a difference, something is terribly wrong!

Blu-Ray, even at 720P, is stunningly better than the best of standard DVDs. This is, of course, assuming you are using component or HDMI, and not composite.

Now if you are talking an older movie, your statement may hold water. Newer movies though, with good transfers, are incredibly better.

I concur.  Back on topic, I like how the group that develops the HDMI standards has such a racket going, constantly changing the features and rendering previous versions obsolete much sooner than consumers should accept.  The standard as it is now should be more than capable of 3D, and 4k in a living room setting is completely ridiculous and unnecessary.  That's my opinion on the matter. 

Back off topic, then back on: Just from my own experiences, I've definitely noticed darn good overall improvements in both picture and sound quality with Blu ray/hi-def and lossless audio vs. standard def/ lossy Dolby Digital, DTS, etc. so +1, check to make sure your system's hooked and set up correctly, and you should definitely hear/see the differences. My original comment was that, with HDMI 1.3, we already have more than enough transmission bandwidth to make the most of what we have today and the near future in terms of resolution and quality.

But, what if you did not have HDMI 1.3, can you still get hi-def/awesome picture and sound? Of course you can! Any recent vintage HD capable TV will have even standard HDMI, which is great for the hi-res pic from your Blu ray. And if said Blu ray spinner has internal Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master decoding + analog outs, you don't even need HDMI on your receiver or pre/pro --you can use your Blu ray's analog outs to go straight into your 5.1/7.1 channel inputs on your receiver or pre/pro. Easy peasy.

HDMI is great for convenience, and 1.3 does have some neat capabilities, no question about that. But I was just trying to say don't worry about HDMI 1.4 yet. Heck, don't fret if you can't even do HDMI at all yet, as there are ways around it.

We may all just be tootin' our horns for nuthin: The HDMI group recently had this to say on their own website about the 1.4 "rumors":

"Recent News Articles
about the Next Version of HDMI
It has come to our attention that several news agencies have published information about the release of the next HDMI specification called 1.4. The release of information referring to the HDMI 1.4 specification has not been authorized by the HDMI Founders. Nor does HDMI Licensing, LLC confirm the accuracy of any of the information that has been posted online. In January of 2009, HDMI Licensing, LLC published a press release that provided a preview of the features for the next version of the HDMI specification. Please click here to view this press release."

http://www.hdmi.org/

Here's that press release that was mentioned:

http://hdmi.org/press/press_release.aspx?prid=93

Whatever they're calling it, I guess they don't exactly say when or whether it's gonna be a reality. Just thought I'd share.

-Oliver

Well, it looks like it is official: http://www.hdmi.org/press/press_release.aspx?prid=101 What's even better is now there is going to be five - count them - five different types of HDMI cables depending on application and capability.

Yeesh!

At least we don't have to worry about it for a little while....

Good points Oliver,

If you have an older non-HDMI setup and are happy with it but want to hear HD audio..Just get a Blue Ray Player that has 7.1 or 5.1 analog preouts and decodes all the formats internally.  Something like the Sony BDP-S550

Plus, don't overlook the fact that there are some bugs/handshake issues using HDMI, although, not complete deal breakers, just annoyances.  Just ask Harmon Kardon how their first launch of HDMI capable AVR's went.