You may have or think you have a High Definition capable PC today, but are you ready to embrace Blu-ray and HD DVD yet? In this article, we take a look at what is needed to get a PC truly ready for the next generation HD media and some of our early musings on quality. In terms of standards, the two most common HDTV broadcast specifications are delivered in 720p (1280x720 progressive) or 1080i (1920x1080 interlaced) with average bit-rates of 10Mbps. User encoded HD clips or those found on the web can come in various non-standard sizes and bit-rates using the multitudes of CODECs such as Quicktime, WMV, x264, etc. Blu-ray and HD DVD however, is standardized MPEG-4 Part 10 a.k.a. H.264 or AVC and can be delivered up to the full 1080p (1920x1080 progressive) resolution (commonly termed as True HD) with average bit-rates that are twice that of HDTV at 20Mbps and is within specifications to be capable of reaching a whopping 40Mbps.

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