Let's talk Hi-Def DVD players...

[drunkatuw]

I bought the HD-A2 when it was on sale at walmart for $98 in November and I don't regret getting it at all. Just last week I got the 5 free HD-DVDs in the mail, which makes the player basically free (5 movies x $20 each = $100).

The toshiba HD-DVD players are also some of the best upscaling dvd players on the market, so it'll make your SD DVDs look great as well.

I too have my HD-DVD player hooked up to a 720p projector, so 1080p doesn't matter to me and it still looks great.

If blu-ray does win the format war, eventually I'll get one, but I'm waiting until they finalize their format (even if you buy a blu-ray player today, you'll probably want to upgrade to a profile 2.0 player once they come out), atleast if you buy an HD-DVD player now, you know it will work with all current and future HD-DVDs.

 

[Bobby_M]

There's no shortage of SD DVD but the quality sucks bad. I have a 90" display and enjoy HD broadcasts. Then I put a SD-DVD in which is supposed to be a treat compared to regular old TV programming and it falls really flat.

I guess I'm looking at a $130 HDDVD player as a stopgap to make me stop hating poor quality for now. I really do want to wait it out and actually feel like I have (since I didn't drop $600 on a first gen player like I normally would).

The more I look at how studios have been crossing over to BR though, the more I think it's going to win in the long run. This is hard.

 

[Evan!]

First off, I think it's safe to say the BD has won the war. The Warner Bros double-cross of Toshiba at the last minute was huge (I'd hate to be one of those Toshiba execs on the private plane when they found out...)

IIWY, I'd either wait or get a PS3. Like drunkatuw says, with a standard BD player, you'll want to wait for an upgrade to 2.0. The great thing about PS3 is the system architecture and the internet connectivity, which means upgrades can be performed without hardware ups, making the ps3 much more futureproof. Not to mention that the base ps3 is $400, versus $300 for Sony's BD player. $100 isn't much more for all you get on a ps3.

 

[Bobby_M]

Ok, it's official. I'm sure you all saw the headlines, Toshiba is dropping HD-DVD.

Here's the timeline from Wiki:

2008
Jan. 4-- Warner Bros. drops its bombshell: it will stop issuing HD DVD movies in the coming months and rely exclusively on Blu-ray Disc. In response the HD DVD Promotion Group cancels its CES news conference.

Jan. 6-- Akio Ozaka, head of Toshiba America Consumer Products, says at CES: "We remain firm in the belief that HD DVD is the format best suited to the wants and needs of consumers." In response Sony CEO Howard Stringer, with a grin on his face, says "All of us at Sony are feeling blue today."

Jan. 14-- Toshiba cuts the price of HD DVD players with the HD-A3 seeing a retail price of US$150.

Feb. 11-- NetFlix and BestBuy say they will phase out HD DVD.

Feb. 15-- Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, says it will phase out HD DVD by June.

Feb. 16-- Japanese public broadcaster NHK reports Toshiba has halted production of HD DVD players. Several additional local media reports confirm and The Nikkei business daily says Toshiba has decided to stop developing the format any further.

Feb. 19-- Toshiba formally announces it will phase out the production of HD DVD players and recorders by the end of March. The format war is over.

I just hope that when Tosh buys into BR that it means the prices will come down. Is SONY going to allow them to play nice (license the technology) now or what?

 

[riored4v]

Ok, it's official. I'm sure you all saw the headlines, Toshiba is dropping HD-DVD.
?

Heard about that this morning as well.. was very happy to hear that as well. Makes me glad that I bought the PS3

 

[drunkatuw]

I just hope that when Tosh buys into BR that it means the prices will come down. Is SONY going to allow them to play nice (license the technology) now or what?

Don't expect Toshiba to buy into BR anytime soon.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/19/toshiba-no-plans-to-adopt-blu-ray/

Toshiba owns the patents for DVDs, so they still make royalty money off of all SD-DVDs sold, so they have no reason to push BR players.

 

[shafferpilot]

I don't understand the point in blue ray or hd dvds. A standard DVD with a quality dvd player hooked up to a good flatscreen TV via the Y/Pr/Pb terminals delivers a fabulous picture with bright vibrant colors. A good friend of mine has a huge LCD with a high def dvd player, but his picture isn't any better than mine. Even he says so.

 

[NitrouStang96]

It's the difference between 350,000 pixels and 2,100,000 pixels. 1080 has the equivalent of watching six standard def screens at once. If you can't see the difference, you're not watching 1080p content on a good 1080p TV.

I'll give you this, though - old standard tube TVs will display standard def content a lot better than these current lcd and plasma screens do, from what I've seen.

 

[Dude]

I don't understand the point in blue ray or hd dvds. A standard DVD with a quality dvd player hooked up to a good flatscreen TV via the Y/Pr/Pb terminals delivers a fabulous picture with bright vibrant colors. A good friend of mine has a huge LCD with a high def dvd player, but his picture isn't any better than mine. Even he says so.

I call BS. I've seen the difference first hand, and it is major.

 

[NitrouStang96]

Made a little comparison:

 

[Bobby_M]

I don't understand the point in blue ray or hd dvds. A standard DVD with a quality dvd player hooked up to a good flatscreen TV via the Y/Pr/Pb terminals delivers a fabulous picture with bright vibrant colors. A good friend of mine has a huge LCD with a high def dvd player, but his picture isn't any better than mine. Even he says so.

No way in hell. Sorry man. He obviously doesn't know how to set up either the player or TV to output the appropriate signal. I don't put it past him for a second. A family friend has a lake house with a huge theater in the basement, best of everything. I'm over the for new year's eve and I think the picture looks horrible. I grab the player's remote, go into the menu and find that he's got it running 480i out to a $10k 1080p front projector. GREATTTTT!

Needless to say, I was invited back.

FWIW, I have a native 720p projector at 75" wide and I can see a huge difference between broadcast HD and a SD-DVD running on an upconverting player. The source is 90% of the battle.

 

[riored4v]

I don't understand the point in blue ray or hd dvds. A standard DVD with a quality dvd player hooked up to a good flatscreen TV via the Y/Pr/Pb terminals delivers a fabulous picture with bright vibrant colors. A good friend of mine has a huge LCD with a high def dvd player, but his picture isn't any better than mine. Even he says so.

I previously had an Oppo 1080i upconverting dvd player hooked up via HDMI on my 56" Sammy 1080p DLP. Looked great.

Now I have my 1080p BluRay/Upconverting/PS3 player hooked up via HDMI on the same TV. Looks even better.

Not sure how you can't see the difference, but there is definitely a noticeable difference.

 

[NitrouStang96]

I've got two images here, just to show an example. Please keep in mind that this is exactly HALF the size of a 1080p broadcast. The first one is the original HD image. The second one is the standard def version upscaled to fit the TV. Also keep in mind, though, that an old standard tube TV will probably make the SD broadcast look sharper than your LCD or plasma will.

I did nothing but downscale and crop the high def broadcast to SD size, then upscale it to fill the screen. Does anyone know why the old tube TVs can make 720x480 standard def broadcasts look so much sharper? Is it the filters or "pixel" layout?

 

[shafferpilot]

I'm chaulking this one up to a bad setup on my buddy's system. He's a hell of a nice guy, and an artistic genious...... but I wouldn't put it past him to be using the old yellow/red/white hookup. I'll have to take a closer look next time I'm over there

 

[Bobby_M]

People have a hard time adjusting to having to set the native signal formats in both the source and sometimes the display. You'd hope for the consumer's sake, the display is defaulted to "auto" sense the incoming signal. However, I wouldn't go assuming it either. Sometimes people just press buttons until they see a picture and stop there. There's no doubt a setup page on the DVD player for output signal format and whether it should automatically adjust to the disc's native format or to up or down scale to a single desired format (720p for example). Help the guy out so he can see what he's been missing (but paying for).

 

[NitrouStang96]

Yes, I hate that they make it so confusing for my parents - when I visit I sometimes see their HD broadcasts stretched :ugh: among other things.

All new TVs should auto adjust.

 

[sause]

Does anyone know why the old tube TVs can make 720x480 standard def broadcasts look so much sharper? Is it the filters or "pixel" layout?

It's because they are not fixed pixel displays. Meaning that the reay in the CRT can make curves smoother than LCDs or plasmas. Also fixed pixel displays have to use their full resolution while CRT's can actually down grade theirs.

 

[Dude]

It's because they are not fixed pixel displays. Meaning that the reay in the CRT can make curves smoother than LCDs or plasmas. Also fixed pixel displays have to use their full resolution while CRT's can actually down grade theirs.

Yeah, what he said. I was going to say that but the sause beat me to it.