They've been playing games with HD since even before the standards were developed. As originally conceived HD would have been a true legit audiophile and videophile format, with plenty of bandwidth dedicated to each. Until someone realized that with just a few little changes in standards the same bandwidth that would support awesome video and audio for one movie could also support crap audio and video for 500 channels of I Love Lucy and My Favorite Martian. Guess which side won?
Physical media is no panacea. The same sort of trade-offs occur in every phase of the entire recording/filming/mastering/pressing/playback chain. Because of this its entirely possible to download for free a file from Pirate Bay and have it look better off your laptop than the one from the disc you bought in the store and play back on your high end player.
The good news if there is any is you can stick just one Synergistic ECT on your player or laptop and elevate your video and audio about as much if not more than the difference between many of these formats.
