I Can't Hold Out Much Longer...
 

Is anyone else just dying to jump into the HD-DVD and/or Blu-Ray pool?

My gut tells me that I should wait...

Anyone else in this boat?

Yes. But my player upscales my SD DVDs to 1080p and the result is pretty satisfying, so at the moment I don't see the high cost of buying a new player justifying the extra details (which isn't THAT much of a leap on my 40" 1080p LCD, I lent a Blue-Ray player for a little while).

My player also upconverts and DVDS can look good, depending on the transfer.
I have a 60" SXRD and at that size, I can really see a difference...

No. My player does not upconvert, and I'm stilll quite happy.

No and here is why.

After buying and enjoying high end audio/video equipment for the last 30 years the one thing I have learned is that:

There is always something better for less money coming along.

Players and discs for either format will only come down in price and have more features. It is the impatience of people that causes buyers remorse.

You can do what you want, I know what I am doing. I am enjoying my existing DVD collection on my existing equipment and plan to do so for the forseeable future.

You are absolutely right and I should just wait. Money is not an issue for me, but it is still very early in the game. Maybe we will see a trend forming by the 4th quarter of the year.

I don't need HD right now, and DVDs are cheap. This is not analogous to VHS over DVDs since VHS tapes had more disadvantages apart from picture quality.

Yes, and I did last April. I'm still holding off on Blu-ray though.

However, I think waiting is still a good option for most. Player cost is still fairly high and this format war is still dragging on. I will say honestly that the quality is anywhere from slightly better than an upconverted DVD for something like Christmas Vacation all the way to a night and day difference for movies like The Searchers and Batman Begins.

In most cases you will see and hear some pretty significant upgrades and I personally think the $500 HD DVD player cost is worth the upgrade. It really depends on the person though. Many are perfectly happy with standard DVD.

You need to increase your DVD spendings and repress that urge. Get going!

I have almost an anti-desire to upgrade to HD/BR at this point. I'm very happy with standard dvd, and I simply don't want to get bogged down in a format war. I don't rewatch the dvds I currently own enough to warrant spending hundreds of dollars to be able to play some of the same movies in a higher resolution. Wake me when players are sixty bucks and there's only one format left.

I have a 40 inch 1080p tv too and the difference is really big. After watching blu ray and hd, I want everything in high definition.

It also depends on the size screen you are viewing your dvds on. The larger the screen size, the more noticeable the difference between DVD & HD-DVD.

I just bought a new 40" HDTV and a new DVD player that upconverts to 1080i and my DVDs look really nice...at least the DVDs that have been put on the market the last few years (a lot of my older DVDs do need re-mastering). No need for me to upgrade yet...I'm definitely waiting for the smoke to clear in the format war and for prices to come down on both hardware & software.

I bought into HD DVD last November/December because I had just purchased a new 40" LCD HDTV. I needed a new upconverting player anyway, and for only a few extra hundred dollars the second generation HD DVD players were available.

To me the purchase has been justified because there is a noticeable improvement between HD DVDs and upconverted DVDs. I am considering buying Blu-ray too, but it would be at least $1000 more for a player, cable, and discs just so that I can watch Sony, Fox, Disney, and Lions Gate movies in HD.

I am not buying until there is one universal format to hd-dvd/blueray.

When movies on either format shows up at the dollar store is when I will switch to HD-DVD or Blu-Ray.

I'd really like to go with Blu-ray (at least with a PS3 if not a dedicated player), but it's just too expensive for me right now. It's not just the player, the only display I have that's capable of showing HD content is a 17" LCD monitor, so it's almost pointless to upgrade for the moment.

I only went blu-ray now because I bought a PS3. Otherwise, I would have waited.

I only own 2 BD and that is Monster House which I haven't even watched yet, and The Departed which will be watched on Sunday.

I also have an upscaling player which does a nice job but there is definately a difference in BD v. SDDVD, and I am "only" using a plasma with 720p.

I'm perfectly happy with my upscaling dvd player right now and will have no problem waiting until there is ONE new format, and that it costs the same as regular DVD.

Wow, this is only like the 100th time this thread has been made.

Sorry for the reaction, but at this point everyone should just do there own thing and stop wasting forum space by letting people keep saying the same thing over and over again.

If you really want to test the waters and have an Xbox 360, then purchase the HD-DVD Drive add-on ($169 at Microcenter this Monday).

Well, even for those who already have a 360, the add-on will only allow them to <i>play</i> the discs. The achilles heel of both HD formats is that not only do you have to have the right equipment to play them, you also need a better display, since on a standard TV, HD content won't look much better than standard DVD.

I'm not really sure I see the point of an upscaling DVD player. Don't most modern HDTVs upscale the DVD image already?

Not til I can get a (reliable) machine that plays BOTH formats, for less than $500.

I couldn't agree more.