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[Alcibiades]

Ok, so I know most people are waiting out for their PS3 or crossing their fingers for a cheap add-on for the 360 before jumping in to Hi-Def, but I'm sure there are some of us that can't wait.

Well anyway, here is the info (used thedigitalbits.com, videobusiness.com, crutchfield.com & avsforum.com - poster Grubert)

Logo:

The launch HD-A1 player (499.99 List price):

Specs:

» plays HD DVD high-definition discs (selectable 720p/1080i output available through HDMI output only — HDMI cable included)
» plays DVD-Video, DVD-R & DVD-RW, and DVD-RAM
» plays CD, audio CD-R & CD-RW, and MP3 and WMA CD-R & CD-RW
» selectable 720p/1080i video upconversion for DVD (upconverted video available through HDMI output only)
» built-in audio decoding for Dolby® Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD lossless (2-ch.), DTS® and DTS-HD lossless
» HDMI digital output (combines video and multichannel audio with HDCP copy protection)
» 1 set of A/V outputs (composite video, S-video, and component video)
» stereo and 5.1-channel audio outputs
» coaxial and optical digital audio outputs
» Ethernet port for access to Internet-based content
» two front-panel USB ports
» remote control (multibrand for TV)
» 216MHz/11-bit video D/A converter
» multichannel 192kHz/24-bit audio D/A converters
» 17"W x 4"H x 14"D
» warranty: 1 year parts, 90 days labor




Announced and available to pre-order launch window HD-DVD's:

04/18
Last Samurai (Warner)
Million Dollar Baby (Warner)
Phantom of the Opera (Warner)
Serenity (Universal)

04/25
Apollo 13 (Universal)
Chronos (R & B Films)
Doom (Universal)

05/09
Cinderella Man (Universal)
Jarhead (Universal)

05/23
Bourne Supremacy (Universal)
Chronicles of Riddick (Universal)
U-571 (Universal)
Van Helsing (Universal)

Warner releases post 4/18 (around May and June according to press statements):
*17 titles in coming weeks including the following

Batman Begins
Constantine
Training Day
The Matrix
Dukes of Hazzard
Lethal Weapon
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory



Pricing:

Universal - 34.99 List
Warner - 28.99 Catalog, 34.99 New Release, 39.99 Hybrid New Release


some random additional info:

-discs sizes include 15 GB for single layer, and 30 GB for dual layer (it seems at least Last Samurai is dual-layer)

-HD-DVD Hybrid Discs are either single-sided dual layer (one HD-DVD layer and one DVD layer) or double-sided (HD-DVD layer on one side and DVD layer on the other), and can be played on your standard old DVD player, so these discs are backwards compatible

-Batman Begins, The Dukes of Hazzard, Constantine and other select titles will carry HD DVD-specific bonus features that have not appeared on standard DVD versions.

-Hybrid discs will be reserved for Warner’s newest films, which few consumers would already own on standard definition.

-amazon.com has Warner's titles available for about $20, and Universal's for about $25, not bad if you ask me

-King Kong is rumored to be a surpise HD-DVD title to be released in the near future, if not launch window




Now for my personal take on the matter:

That said, I really want to jump right into this because my frothing demand for HD Content has increased to a level of frustration with what is available right now (expensive cable/satellite, an on-air channel or two, and "HD" upconverted players).

I bought myself a 27 in. Westinghouse HDTV (yeah, not exactly cream of the crop) LCD and Yamaha 5.1 receiver/JBL speaker set on Black Friday with a total savings of $600. In addition, I delayed my decision on an upconversion DVD player long enough that when a $500 HD-DVD player was announced at CES, I even more thought of waiting a few months.

So here I am, with some good equipment, money not spent on an upconversion (the launch HD-DVD player also upconverts regular DVD's so I'm covered there), and awaiting any sort of easily accessible HD content like crazy. Yeah there is XBox 360, but no thanks for now. I'm hoping Microsoft releases one with an HD movie player built-in at some point in the future (probably not this year) and I'll have 2 HD-DVD players at that point.

Have I considered that the odds are super-stacked against HD-DVD at the moment (their support falls far behind Blu-Ray on the number of CE companies, computer companies, and Hollywood studios and a looming PS3 monster)? Yeah, but I figure at worst I'm gonna have a good number (Toshiba says 200 by the end of the year) of movies to choose from and an upconverting DVD player which I wanted anyway, and of course access to HD-DVD content way before Blu-Ray becomes affordable (PS3 or similarly priced player).

So anyway, I'm wondering how many other GAFFERs and/or their families are jumping into this. HD-DVD is surely not right for most it seems, but considering I've stopped buying DVD's since a long time ago (last major purchases were Batman Begins/90's Collection and Revenge of the Sith) and haven't bought any game-related stuff in forever as well (I think Toys 'R US 3-for-2 deal was it), I feel semi-justified in a purchase as large as this...

Ok, so I know most people are waiting out for their PS3 or crossing their fingers on a cheap add-on for the 360 before jumping in to Hi-Def, but I'm sure there are some of us that can't wait.

For-sure initial buys:

-The Last Samurai (don't own)
-Serenity (don't own, and even borrowed Firefly DVDs so I could watch the whole series before buying this)
-Batman Begins (own but good enough to buy again)
-Chronicles of Riddick (don't own)
-Apollo 13 (don't own)
-The Matrix (own on DVD but never watched my copy, either way good enough to buy again)

Probably buys:

-Jarhead (don't own)
-Million Dollar Baby (don't own)
-Constantine (don't own)
-Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (don't own)
-Lethal Weapon (don't own)
-Bourne Supremacy (don't own)

Maybe buys:

-Cinderella Man (don't own)
-Doom (don't own)
-U-571 (don't own)
-Phantom of the Opera (don't own)

I made the decision quite a while ago to cut down on DVD buys (even those tempting 2 for $20 sales, and even returned some good deals I bought on Black Friday and such) to just the essentials (Batman collection, Batman Begins, Revenge of the Sith is really all the stands out from the past year), so it's not like I'm doing myself too bad by going into this with a strong buy-list. I'd be making most of these purchases slowly of course, and in increments as I sell off games and such on half.com, but more or less these are my planned initial buys. If some truly awesome titles are announced for mid-to-late summer though, I might hold back and collect up for those, whatever they may be.

I'm going to be buying my HD-DVD player from crutchfield.com, since I have a $25 gift card plus they have a coupon for $50 off, bringing the price to $425. I have a $25 gift card to Target and a $45 or so gift card to Circuit City, so I'll probably be making some purchases there if the price is right, otherwise I'll go for my first few from amazon.com.

I know a lot of people are gonna think I'm throwing my money away on a soon-to-be dead format, but even so, I'll enjoy this "gamble" for what it is, with whatever selection I find through it's lifetime...

 

[Solo]

HD and BRD officially tie in the shittiest box design ever race. Creativity FTW :/

As for me, Im sticking with DVD for the foreseeable future. Not for financial reasons, but more because Im not fully convinced yet that HD and BRD are anything but the LD and BETAMAX of DVD. Also, the introduction of these formats will continue to drop the prices on DVDs, which is a good thing.

So in conclusion Im saving my cash for a new HDTV, and getting a HD/BRD player in a few years.

 

[Rabid Wolverine]

Blue Ray will definitly the first format I purchase for as the PS3 will incorporate it.

Im on a wait and see approach. See if Regional Free Blue Ray/HD Players are available as I dont want to be stuck to 1 region.

 

[heavy liquid]

I'm not going to be jumping in until there's a clear winner. The lack of extras also makes it easy to wait until the dust settles.

The limitations of standard DVDs is really noticeable, especially since I bought a HDTV a few years ago. Even with a upconverting DVD player, OTA HDTV is so much better.

I've definitely cut back on my DVD purchases. I hardly buy anything anymore, except for a few obscure titles that will most likely be a looong way off before they're brought to next-gen, if at all. I rent a lot of DVDs, but that's it.

 

[Illuminati]

I'm definitely not picking one up for awhile. I've been noticing that DVD prices have been significantly dropping in price and I have no problems watching DVDs on my HDTV so I will stick with that till the dust settles. Hopefully some of my favorite TV series DVD boxsets will drop in price along with movies because there are a ton of them I want to get.

Also I think the HD-DVD boxes look alot better then the Blu-Ray ones, that shade of blue makes me want to puke.

 

[borghe]

if anyone on GAF who picks up the Toshiba player could please try outputting a movie at 1080i over component, that would be a trememndous help. yes it will probably fail, but I haven't seen one definite test yet. thanks.

 

[Shawn]

I'm not going to be jumping in until there's a clear winner.

Come on, now. Knowing that PlayStation 3 is incorporating a BRD drive, do you honestly think HD-DVD is going to be more successful than Blu-Ray?

 

[Lord Error]

The situation of not knowing which format would prevail is a bit annoying, but the way I see it, I'm buying PS3 anyways for games, and the BR movie playback makes the format ideal. I just can't see a single reason why I shoudn't buy a new BR movie (instead of a DVD) once I have the PS3. Even if in some remote chance that BR fails after a year or two, I can't see how that would make things bad because I still have movies that I bought, I can watch them anytime, and it's not like the value of those movies I own is going to increase in my collection, so that I have to care if the format will be successfull or not.

I know this is the thread about HDDVD, but you can apply the same exact logic there (in case you have no interest in PS3 that is). In any case, few years down the line I'm sure there will be dual format players available, so it really doesn't matter which format wins in the end, you'll be able to watch the movies you bought.

 

[sooperkool]

if anyone on GAF who picks up the Toshiba player could please try outputting a movie at 1080i over component, that would be a trememndous help. yes it will probably fail, but I haven't seen one definite test yet. thanks.

This was confirmed to be true over at AVS:

Toshiba HD-A1 User Reports

Edited to add:

I mean it was confirmed to output a 1080i signal over component just fine.

 

[hellfire]

i was going to hold off, but reading the avs forum thread http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=667248 (and seeing the player in action on a 500' screen) has increased my teknolust.

as a videophile and computer scientist, i'm also pretty certain that many of the bluray movies will likely not look better than HDDVD if they insist on using MPEG2, even if they manage to release early movies on 50GB discs, which seems very unlikely. i don't care how advanced their authoring tools are, you can't beat significantly better algorithms that probably yield 4x compression.

i'm sure i'll end up with a PS3, but if the PS2 dvd player is anything to go by and bluray movies turn out to look better, i'd probably fork out for a better player then.

 

[DaCocoBrova]

Screw BR. HD-DVD for me and my PC. I'm more concerened about storage than anything movie related.

 

[TerryLee81]

Uh, why no 1080p?

I always thought HD-DVD and BluRay both support 720p/1080p.

 

[heavy liquid]

Come on, now. Knowing that PlayStation 3 is incorporating a BRD drive, do you honestly think HD-DVD is going to be more successful than Blu-Ray?

:lol

They're obviously hoping that the PS3 will push more Blu-ray sales.

But there's no way anyone can call either side a winner at this point.

 

[Alcibiades]

Hmm, here are some further facts referencing issues in your post:

- HD-DVD is region-free for now (though the DVD player part of it isn't, it only plays region 1 for now). In fact, Biohazard (yes, Resident Evil, strangely enough Toshiba has the rights to video distribution or something) was released alongside the players in Japan, and should work on a US unit. Who knows about the future, but for right now that is the case.

- It seems that studios will decide if 1080i output will be available through component connections. Looks like some are going to give those with old sets some leeway in upgrading by not activating the setting that will downgrade the resolution if played through component. This is completely up to the studio though, and they haven't said for how long they'll be doing this, but I imagine that it won't be forever. Universal titles will allow 1080i through component, and I'm trying to check on Warner. Some on avsforum are reporting that Last Samurai runs just fine (1080i) over component, so I'm assuming Warner has chosen to bypass the restriction for now.

- HD-DVD titles (and I'm assuming Blu-Ray) won't be barebones releases. From what I've read, HD-DVD titles will have AT LEAST the extras from their regular DVD versions, and some (like Batman Begins) will include stuff beyond that.

-Although 1080p is a standard for HD-DVD, this current player has a limit of 1080i. Future players (in fact probably this year) should have that capability, and all titles are being encoded in 1080p. That said, some on avsforum seem to think this really isn't a big deal for a lot of people. Something about every line still being available and 1080p TV's doing the work and showing almost just as much. I really never understood all the technical stuff, but even if I'm missing out for now, it's no big deal since neither HDTV I have has this capability, and I don't forsee me buying one for quite a while. My bedroom/dorm TV has a limit of 1080i. Whenever I upgrade (long from now), I'll get a player (whatever that format will be) capable of 1080p.

Check out this boxart and it says at the top:

 

[kaching]

I know a lot of people are gonna think I'm throwing my money away on a soon-to-be dead format, but even so, I'll enjoy this "gamble" for what it is, with whatever selection I find through it's lifetime...

Eh, if worst comes to worst, its still a DVD player with upscaling. An expensive one, sure, but the reports about the innards of these first Toshiba players (pentium chip, 1 GB RAM) make me wonder if it won't attract a certain amount of "DIY" interest that might extend its value.

 

[racerx77]

I'm going to get one right now.

 

[borghe]

This was confirmed to be true over at AVS:

Toshiba HD-A1 User Reports

Edited to add:

I mean it was confirmed to output a 1080i signal over component just fine.

ummmmmmmm.... damn.. looks like I WILL be in on the launch for HD-DVD then.

though probably won't be picking up the player until May. hopefully Batman Begins is out by then.

 

[Lord Error]

Uh, why no 1080p?

I always thought HD-DVD and BluRay both support 720p/1080p.

HDDVD movies are encoded in 1080p, but it looks like the first players will only be able to output 1080i. No idea why.

as a videophile and computer scientist, i'm also pretty certain that many of the bluray movies will likely not look better than HDDVD if they insist on using MPEG2, even if they manage to release early movies on 50GB discs, which seems very unlikely.

THey won't insist on it, and some of the early movies will be on 50GB discs. I think Black Hawk Down was speciffically mentioned.

 

[borghe]

HDDVD movies are encoded in 1080p, but it looks like the first players will only be able to output 1080i. No idea why.

three words

five hundred dollars

THey won't insist on it, and some of the early movies will be on 50GB discs. I think Black Hawk Down was speciffically mentioned.

they won't insist on MPEG2? They better not, or he is absolutely correct about BRD not looking better. though frankly 15GB is more than enough room for a decent MP4 bitrate.. extras is another story, but judging by Last Samurai I am willing to bet that a lot of extras (on HDDVD) will be 480i/p. So 14GB for the feature and 1GB for the extras... still more than enough room for a nice bitrate.

edit - a 2 hour movie at 12Mbps MP4 (looks considerably better than broadcast MP2) is only 10.8GB. using the full 14MB would give you roughly 15Mbps of encoding room for video (assuming ~.5Mbps for audio)

 

[Rabid Wolverine]

Thats pretty fucked up on no 1080P standard players until whenever.

Im definitly waiting.

Are they cutting any corners with Blue Rays release? Added features which will be available at a later date?

 

[borghe]

Thats pretty fucked up on no 1080P standard players until whenever.

Im definitly waiting.

Are they cutting any corners with Blue Rays release? Added features which will be available at a later date?

yeah, you have to wait 6 or so months for the added "PS3" feature :lol

 

[DaCocoBrova]

When will the PC drives be avail.?

 

[hellfire]

they won't insist on MPEG2? They better not, or he is absolutely correct about BRD not looking better. though frankly 15GB is more than enough room for a decent MP4 bitrate.. extras is another story, but judging by Last Samurai I am willing to bet that a lot of extras (on HDDVD) will be 480i/p. So 14GB for the feature and 1GB for the extras... still more than enough room for a nice bitrate.

edit - a 2 hour movie at 12Mbps MP4 (looks considerably better than broadcast MP2) is only 10.8GB. using the full 14MB would give you roughly 15Mbps of encoding room for video (assuming ~.5Mbps for audio)

just to clarify - it's sony that's doggedly sticking to mpeg2, which is what i meant by 'insisting'...obviously nothing in the spec says you should use mpeg2.

also - the first title bitrates are on the order of 18-25mbps VC1 (with serenity's soundtrack at 1.5mbps!), so it's a higher quality encoding than anything we've seen for a full length movie, and as i said in the other thread after viewing the 500' (which i guess i can now disclose was the last samurai), i don't yet see why you need more bits. best test will be when something digital comes out like pixar.

 

[pj]

Isn't the reason there's no 1080p support because they haven't finalized the hdmi specification for it, or something? Not that it matters for movies, though. If a deinterlacer in a 1080p tv is doing its job (and most actually don't), a 1080i 60hz signal will show 1080p at 30 frames per second, which is higher than the 24fps of movies.

 

[hellfire]

Thats pretty fucked up on no 1080P standard players until whenever.

all movies are encoded 1080p 24 fps. at 30fps and below, you don't need a 1080p player - you're effectively getting a progressive image even though the player is outputting 1080i@60fps. not a single pixel is lost.

so if you have a poor TV, then there's a chance quality might suffer, but given that the videophiles on that avs thread seem pretty happy and don't see artifacting, i don't think it's an issue.

 

[sonycowboy]

just to clarify - it's sony that's doggedly sticking to mpeg2, which is what i meant by 'insisting'...obviously nothing in the spec says you should use mpeg2.

also - the first title bitrates are on the order of 18-25mbps VC1 (with serenity's soundtrack at 1.5mbps!), so it's a higher quality encoding than anything we've seen for a full length movie, and as i said in the other thread after viewing the 500' (which i guess i can now disclose was the last samurai), i don't yet see why you need more bits. best test will be when something digital comes out like pixar.

Actually, Sony isn't doggedly sticking to MPEG2 from what I've read. They simply used MPEG 2 for their first test & production runs because of the maturity of the encoders. They ~might use it for some of the first releases, but are expected to be publishing VC1/MPEG4 titles just like the other studios.

Given that no studios have committed to much in the way of extras for the first releases, 25/50GB titles should look great regardless of the encoding.

The thing that NOONE has seen yet are the kinds of benefits we're supposed to see from the interactive layer side, BDJ for Blu-Ray and iHD for the HD-DVD titles. The demos for both of those have promised some pretty incredible stuff, so it'll be interesting to see how that translates in the first year of titles.

 

[BigBoss]

Why the hell is Universal not supporting Blue Ray?

 

[hellfire]

Actually, Sony isn't doggedly sticking to MPEG2 from what I've read. They simply used MPEG 2 for their first test & production runs because of the maturity of the encoders. They ~might use it for some of the first releases, but are expected to be publishing VC1/MPEG4 titles just like the other studios.

Given that no studios have committed to much in the way of extras for the first releases, 25/50GB titles should look great regardless of the encoding.

The thing that NOONE has seen yet are the kinds of benefits we're supposed to see from the interactive layer side, BDJ for Blu-Ray and iHD for the HD-DVD titles. The demos for both of those have promised some pretty incredible stuff, so it'll be interesting to see how that translates in the first year of titles.

i doubt sony would ever support vc1 (and in fact, i think they tried (or they paid someone) to show that vc1 was inferior to 264). 264 encoder tools are definitely not mature, but vc1 tools are pretty good at this point.

in any case i'm not buying any mpeg2 encoding with better things coming down the pipe.

re interactivity- yeah i saw the CES demos and know the other spiels. the in-movie selection of stuff (scene, audio, special features etc) of the launch titles looks okay but definitely nothing i couldn't have done with a good remote.

 

[Lord Error]

all movies are encoded 1080p 24 fps. at 30fps and below, you don't need a 1080p player - you're effectively getting a progressive image even though the player is outputting 1080i@60fps. not a single pixel is lost.

From what I understand, that could be true if the stream was unfiltered (if it contains telecine flags that some TVs can understand), but in case of first HDDVD players, it seems they filter those out.

i doubt sony would ever support vc1 (and in fact, i think they tried (or they paid someone) to show that vc1 was inferior to 264). 264 encoder tools are definitely not mature, but vc1 tools are pretty good at this point.

So are AVC tools, which is what Sony will end up using, and actually already use for UMDs.

 

[hellfire]

From what I understand, that could be true if the stream was unfiltered (if it contains telecine flags that some TVs can understand), but in case of first HDDVD players, it seems they filter those out.

got a link?

there are no "flags" being transmitted over component (and nothing pertaining to hdmi that i'm aware of). i think what you're referring to is inverse telecine (of which, 3:2 pulldown is a part of - recovering the 1080p24 frame from 1080i frames), and modern tvs have been dealing with this for years.

if you're referring to incorrect progressive/interlaced flags that plagued SD-DVDs, that should go away with hddvds/bluray since input and output are both 1080p24.

 

[Slurpy]

However picks up the 1st generation of these players clearly has too much $ to blow and nothing of use to blow it on.

 

[ManaByte]

King Kong is rumored to be a surpise HD-DVD title to be released in the near future, if not launch window

It's not a rumored title. Universal said at CES it would be HD-DVD exclusive. However, there's no release date for it yet.

 

[golem]

well FWIW, i hear the Toshiba upscales normal DVDs quite well... im really tempted to get one.

 

[koam]

WTF? Those boxes are horrible. You'd think that something that promotes HD would NOT have a toyish box.

 

[ManaByte]

WTF? Those boxes are horrible. You'd think that something that promotes HD would NOT have a toyish box.

Blu-Ray boxes are exactly the same, except in blue.

 

[koam]

Blu-Ray boxes are exactly the same, except in blue.

I know, that doesn't make either look better though

 

[borghe]

also - the first title bitrates are on the order of 18-25mbps VC1 (with serenity's soundtrack at 1.5mbps!), so it's a higher quality encoding than anything we've seen for a full length movie, and as i said in the other thread after viewing the 500' (which i guess i can now disclose was the last samurai), i don't yet see why you need more bits. best test will be when something digital comes out like pixar.

at 18-25Mbps, are we seeing DL HD-DVD out the gate?

 

[golem]

at 18-25Mbps, are we seeing DL HD-DVD out the gate?

last samurai is confirmed dual layer hd-dvd-30 with vc1
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7489084&&#post7489084

 

[mrklaw]

I'm tempted, but I'll try and wait. I'm mostly concerned about the first player being practically a PC, and a bit clunky in operation.

Although at $499 its almost a no-brainer. You need an exit strategy though to avoid being burnt too badly by the loser

- buy HDDVD now, enjoy movies

- buy a PS3 when it comes out. Enjoy movies

- whatever format wins, you are set.

If PS3 isn't an amazing bluray player, then wait for dual format machines to come out so your collection isn't completely doomed

 

[VPhys]

Yeah I've also stopped buying DVDs (or at least I've slowed down) for the past year or so in anticipation of these new formats. I used to own 100+ DVDs and now I've narrowed my collection down to 30-40 movies. I got rid of most of them back when selling DVDs on ebay was still profitable.


I feel $500 is a little steep for a HD-DVD-only player, when the PS3 is likely to be around $500. I feel that I get better value for the money in getting a game system and a movie player for the same dough.


The 360 would have been better off with a Spring 2006 lauch date if it could have incorporated HD-DVD into the system. I would have bought one already if that was the case.

Additionaly there would have been

- more systems available for launch
- a bigger demographic (Gamers as well as the HT crowd)
- better piracy protection (copying HD-DVD games would likely be both more difficult and more expensive)


As it is PS3/Blu Ray have too many things going in their favor which is why I'm going to hold out for it.

 

[open_mouth_]

i was going to hold off, but reading the avs forum thread http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=667248 (and seeing the player in action on a 500' screen) has increased my teknolust.

as a videophile and computer scientist, i'm also pretty certain that many of the bluray movies will likely not look better than HDDVD if they insist on using MPEG2, even if they manage to release early movies on 50GB discs, which seems very unlikely. i don't care how advanced their authoring tools are, you can't beat significantly better algorithms that probably yield 4x compression.

i'm sure i'll end up with a PS3, but if the PS2 dvd player is anything to go by and bluray movies turn out to look better, i'd probably fork out for a better player then.

ditto. I'm probably going to get one of these soon and then get a PS3 some time in '07. Will get the best of both worlds and hopefully they'll make combo drives in the future so the format won't matter.

 

[DopeyFish]

i don't want to dive in until BR or HDDVD become the primary format but i'm finding it too tempting

 

[Lord Error]

got a link?

Actually I read it either in the AVS thread linked above or one of the other thread on their HDDVD or BR board. Let me see if I can fid it again.

 

[Solo]

Its also like the HD and BRD camps are going out of their way to release the shittiest titles ASAP.

 

[VPhys]

Personally the only title I'm immediately interested in is The Matrix.


Currently the only way to get the "true" version of the Matrix is to get the 10-disc set. That is the only version that doesn't have the green tint. Since I have no interest in Matrix 2 or 3 I will have to wait to get a high-def version.

 

[DJ Sl4m]

I think once the 2 split the market they will both realize they need a player that combines them like they were talking about in the beginning.

I think it'll be just like DVD-r Vs. DVD+r format war, give it time and we'll end up with hardware that supports both.

I figure whichever side starts to fall behind the corps behind it will make an offer to the other side to make a universal player so the bleeding isn't too bad, and the winning side gets a small percentage to accept the proposal.

 

[racerx77]

However picks up the 1st generation of these players clearly has too much $ to blow and nothing of use to blow it on.

Or MAYBE they want high definition content for their hdtvs.

 

[DJ Sl4m]

Or MAYBE they want high definition content for their hdtvs.

No doubt, I think once you get HDTV and an HD signal the desire for more TRUE HD content grows enormously, I know it did with me.

Other than live sports or the Xbox360, HD content pretty much sucks ass unless you stream HD movies through media center from the PC to 360.

Even if there are not many releases at first, at least it does upscale to bring older DVD's to a decent enough res to watch.

I know I just about refuse to watch non-HD channels on TV anymore. LOL

 

[VPhys]

I know I just about refuse to watch non-HD channels on TV anymore. LOL

Let me guess, you have an LCD HDTV?

 

[DJ Sl4m]

42" westing house 480p, 720p, 1080i & 1080p LCD

and two 27" Samsung 480p, 720p, 1080i DLP's