MovieBeam: who wants it? {Engadget HD}

Mar 3rd 2006 12:59PM Hi there -
I've had the opportunity to be a product tester for MovieBeam's newest box, and stopped in here while i was scoping people's reaction... them's some fiery words you used, and I wanted to offer my 2 cents.

Just wanted to address your video quality paragraph (the last one) -- the math you use is a sound deduction with the info you had, but the conclusion about quality is off, in my humblest of opinions. I'm told MB uses Windows Media Player Codecs with variable compression, so different movies get different treatment. But I have to say, I've spent a considerable amount of time sitting in front of both HD and SD MovieBeam movies on huge plasma flatscreens, and as a cinephile (who minored in Cinema Studies in college) i honestly couldn't tell there was any compression at all -- the movies looked looked like Movies, not crappy downloads... Crisp, full motion, bright color, surround sound on most things i saw -- SD looks really good, definitely as good as DVD. and don't get me started on HD (holy mackarel, i love the wonders of modern technology)

I don't know all that much about the other things you mentioned like pricing model... I guess MB isn't always gonna be right for everyone. but i know there's a constant stream of new options and features coming down the pipeline -- like i heard internet connectivity's comin soon... and i imagine that that should address things like landline necessity, etc. anyway, my 2 cents...