It doesn't look *much* better, and the noise/snow is still there [I may be using the wrong term], but what looked good before, does look better.
Yeah, I can't find any images that would demonstrate upconvert either. I recall the 'interlaced' versus 'progressive' images I found a long time back, and they did help make it easily understandable.

Upconversion is simply scaling the image to a higher resolution. It's like opening a picture in Photoshop or some other graphic program and resizing it to a higher resolution. It's not just a matter of repeating pixels with the same colors, but extrapolating them for a smoother appearance. This page has some pictures: http://softwareforhomes.com/upscaling-DVD-player.htm

Upscaling in DVD players or video scalers is popular because the scaling built in to many TVs does not do that good of a job.

Has it been officially confirmed that the G1 HD-A1 players will never be updated to 1080p output?

Something that hasn't been discussed here yet is the Xbox360 HD-DVD Drive. I'm specifically interested in how the HD audio formats are handled with this player. With all the talk of going analog over the digital and optical outputs I believe that this doesn't apply in the same manner to this player. I actually have the player, but it is still in the box until Friday or Saturday.

Somebody told me that it downsamples audio but I can't be sure.

If you don't have HDMI or six-channel analog audio outputs, you can't listen to TrueHD audio or Dolby Digital Plus tracks without some sort of manipulation. The 360 add-on converts Dolby Digital Plus tracks to Dolby Digital, but high bitrate tracks like Universal is prone to using are downsampled as well.

The 360 add-on downconverts to DD 5.1, not DTS like the HD-A1?

Yes, they're saying it's 640kbps DD.

is it possible for blu ray to make a hybrid disk--to work in both DVD players and Blu ray players--like the hybrid HD-DVD disks?

I believe they've said it is, but the Blu-ray camp doesn't seem to find the idea as appealing as a couple of the HD DVD studios do.

I always thought they can't since BD isn't DVD.

Thoeretically, if they paid the DVD licensing costs there wouldn't be an issue.

However, I thought I'd read that the physical structure of a Blu-ray disc prevented combos from working.

Are HD DVDS region free?

As of now, yes.

i have been looking into getting a hd dvd player for a couple months

i rent movies from netflix

i would love blue ray but a little mopre money as of now

can someone confirm this:

PS3 - Bluray you can not watch over component due to copyright protection. and you have to buy a component adapter.

Xbox 360 - HD DVDs you can watch using component and it is not copyright protected.

Both HD DVD and Blu-ray work the same way in regard to copy protection. The Image Constraint Token which restricts the resolution over component video is added on a disc-by-disc basis. At present, no discs from either format have included an ICT flag, and all current discs can be viewed over component video.

I am using component cables to watch HD DVDs on my 360 and BDs on my PS3. (My TV does not have HDMI or DVI.) My Mitsubishi HDTV says the signal it's receiving from both machines is 1080i. (I had to buy component cables from Gamestop for the PS3. The cables are cool because they have adapters to fit the PS3/PS2 and Xbox/Xbox 360.)

I understand optical cables can't deliver Dolby TrueHD. I'm using an optical cable between my Onkyo HT-R520 receiver and Xbox 360 HD player. When I switch the audio track from DD to Dolby TrueHD or from DD+ to Dolby TrueHD on the Superman Returns HD, I hear a huge improvement. If I'm not hearing lossless audio on the Dolby TrueHD track, then what am I hearing? Why does it kick ass more than the other tracks?

When I watch The Haunted Mansion BD on my PS3, I can listen to 5.1 DD at 48 khz 640 kps or linear PCM 5.1 at 48 khz 6.9 mbps. I'm clueless about this stuff. What's the difference? Is one better than the other?

My receiver says it has WRAT (Wide Range Amplifier Technology). What is this?

The Xbox 360 HD drive will let you set the audio to DD with WMA Pro? What is this?

My receiver has DTS 96/24. Will this help decode/downgrade any of the new HD audio formats?

Thanks for the help!

You're hearing DTS at about 1500 kbps, which has been compressed from the track on the disc. With a DD+ track, it's encoded in a lossy format, so the player is converting one lossy format to another (like taking an MP3 and converting it to Ogg or AAC). With the TrueHD track, the player is converting a lossless track into the lossy format. That's why it kicks more ass - it has a better source to work with.

The PCM track is lossless and definitely better than the DD track, but you need an HDMI receiver to hear the lossless track. Unfortunately, the PS3 does not do any conversion into DTS.

Do you think BDs and HD DVDs will offer 8.1 surround sound in the future? 7.1 surround gives you 2 rear channels, but it eliminates the rear center channel offered with 6.1 surround. I think the rear center is important because there are moments in movies when you expect to hear something directly behind you--not behind you and off to the sides. For this reason I may just stick with my 6.1 receiver and ignore 7.1 receivers.

Although theoretically the advanced audio codecs such as DD+, TrueHD, and DTS-HD are capable of some ridiculous number of channels (something like 25.1), both the HD DVD and Blu-ray formats cap their limits at 7.1.

I don't think you understand the distinction between 6.1 and 7.1. In a 7.1 setup, you use 2 rear center channels side-by-side instead of a single rear center channel like in 6.1. In either case, the speakers are to be positioned behind your head.

Dolby, DTS, and THX all recommend the use of 2 speakers to dispurse the rear center audio even in 6.1 setups.

exactly
also i'm relatively certain 7.1 will offer some moves that have "stereo" rear center SS.

You're right: I guess I don't understand. Why have 2 speakers side by side? Years ago when I bought my 6.1 receiver, 7.1 receivers were available but DVDs maxed out at 6.1 channels. So that begged the question: why have 2 rear speakers? Everything I read at that time said the signal being sent to both rear speakers in a 7.1 system was the same signal (just one channel).

I assume BDs and HD DVDs send discrete signals to the rear speakers with 7.1 surround, but if the rear speakers are positioned side by side how do you distinguish between them (the sounds)? Wouldn't the sound from them sound like they're coming from the same point in the room (as if they were one speaker)? To eliminate that problem, shouldn't they be separated? But if you separated them, wouldn't that leave a gap where you would place a center rear speaker? I'm so confused.

Apparently there's an acoustical reason for it, but the cynic in me thinks it's because you have to buy speakers in pairs. When it first came out, people were adding to their existing 5.1 setups, and they didn't want people to just buy a center speaker and place that in the back. Plus, they could make more money by selling two speakers rather than one.

I wouldn't assume the tracks will all be 7.1 discrete channels. We may get some, and I believe there is one BD title that does have it (I think it's a title called Innocence?), but you have to remember that most movies aren't being mixed for 7.1 channels. Many movies aren't even being mixed for 6.1. They would have to remix the sound to make the back channels separate, and it remains to be seen whether that will be a common practice.

There is supposed to be some separation between the two back channels. Josh didn't literally mean they were supposed to be right next to each other.