Dude,

Do you REALLY think it's going to work in a regular player? Come on. You're the first person I've heard even mention this. Of course it won't.

Sorry, IMHO it's a big ol' waste of time, and more importantly, SPACE. I prefer not being able to play it on other players. I like people not asking me to borrow discs. I miss the days of laserdisc.

anxiousily awaiting pre-order... Blu-Ray of course.

I'm glad there isn't much, if any, software I am looking forward to coming out in the next couple of months for HD-DVD. It is making the wait a bit more bearable. I am guessing even though there will be more BluRay titles I will be interested in at/near launch, the $1000 price tag will keep me away for a while. The more I look at it, the PS3 will probably be my first BluRay player.

After that, I will just wait for a region free player for under $1000.

Good luck waiting for that.

I have a feeling that everyone who's in the same boat as me will reconsider.

At this point, i was thinking of getting a new player anyway. Why the hell not get an HD player?

This part is true, especially since it will upconvert your SD dvds.

True. If I was in the market for a new DVD player I would consider getting an HD-DVD player. However, I think there are enough little bugs and quirks that would keep me away from the first generation players.

Hell, if I wasn't interested in content from other regions I probably would of bit the bullet already. Hopefully I can control myself when I go to Best Buy today.

I Totally disgree, and yes I did really want to know if it works. They have talked about it, and some of the discs will be the way I am saying. Blu-Ray may go that way on all discs, using that to their advantage (and a MASSIVE advantage it would be, with very little loss for the movie studios). But Blu-ray probably won't do it.

Actually I ask because I am in sales and work with dvds and video games. Honestly, this will be a HUGE ISSUE. And it has been talked about in this forum, home theatre forum, and avs forums. Regularly, and even being discussed in another thread in the HD forum right now.
They are just asking for LOTS of returns once this format is out and regularly available. Many buyers are ignorant and think their dvds are already in HD on their TVs. People will mistakenly buy these new discs in LARGE NUMBERS and if they open it and it doesn't work, they will return them. Problem for retailers and sellers, leading to slowdown of adopting the new format.
These 50 GB discs (which I realize haven't been offered yet) can easily hold that extra layer.
Once again, and I did state this in many threads months before these products release: An extra layer with dvd playback is a huge boon and extra value to the consumer, while costing very little to the studios to offer it.

Thankfully with all the bugs in the players and the limited number of titles available(only Serenity interests me, and I can cope with the SD-DVD version for now), I can hold off til at least the fall before upgrading to HD-DVD and/or Blu-Ray.


On a side note, does anyone know if the Serenity HD-DVD release has all the extras from the SD-DVD? And is Sony also porting over their extras for their Blu Ray discs?

I agree and it will help the retailers.......they don't have to carry both versions of the disk and clutter up the store. This will never happen though......until one of the new formats fail......if blu ray disks could only be played in blu ray players and HD DVD disks could only be played in HD DVD players.....but both of the disks could be played in an old SD DVD player (SD version), that would kind of kill the marketing approach.

1) what are the bugs? I see nothing glaring. Am I missing something?

2) I'm region free at the moment but HD material will kill any interest I have in that. The only reason I became region-free was for 16x9 and DTS, both of which will be covered.

I want a HD-DVD player, but I prefer BR's line-up!

ARGH!

Well, HD DVD is still region free for now and there are no major bugs I have read about. The sound thing is not a bug, but I think some people have run into issues with HDCP on their DVI port.
The player is slow to boot, but that is the only real flaw I have found yet. Granted we may have discs that show up with problems down the road, but so far it seems pretty solid.

Agreed. Although, with some of the WB titles mentioned today, I'm really in a bind. I used to be COMPLETELY in the Blu-Ray group. Now, I'm as on the fence as they come.

Hmm I want to buy one and take it for a test drive. Quick question guys. I have a Hitachi 65 rptv with dvi. I know i would need a dvi to HDMI adaptor but what about HDCP? Will this player work on my display for showing hd content?

You do know WB is beginning to release Blu-ray titles in late June, don't you?

Because there seems to be issues with the sd playback on the Toshiba player, apparently it's not that great, and you will probably have better results with a good quality sd player.

I have been in the market for a new player for over a year now(I really want a denon 2900 series), and I still haven't bought one. I was waiting to see how good the hd players were at upconversion of sd. It makes sense to just get an hd player to play both formats, but for me it's only worth it if the hd player can do what the sd player can or do it better. And that does not seem to be the case now.

Plus, I'm not buying 2 hd players, one for each hd format. There will have to be a format winner before I even bought an hd player at all.

So, it looks more likely that I should just get the denon now, as I doubt the format war will be over before the end of the year. That's going to take at least until sometime next year, probably more, IMO.

WAY too much stuff to consider, this is all driving me nuts!

not true. it upconverts better than the Oppo, which I also have.

Exactly. And that's what I was going to buy to replace the player I have now. So you take $500-$200 (price of oppo)=$300. Plus I have about $250 in Best Buy GC's. That makes my final cost around $50.

That may never happen.

Well aware. BUT I wouldn't have a player to play it in for quite some time. I'm not spending $1000 on a player and there's no guarantee at this point a) when the PS3 will come out, b) how much it will be or c) if you'll even be able to get one once it comes out due to demand. Hell, it's playback may be even worse than the HD-DVD. I'm not totally comfortable having my primary playback machine being a video game system.

Look, the only definite we have is HD-DVD. There really are NO definites for Blu-Ray. We have no date for the players. The software releases have been pushed around like crazy. We have prices but they're ridiculously out of my league. We have no definite info for the PS3. Hell, at this point I wouldn't even be surprised if they pulled BR from it.

HD-DVD is out there. I've seen a demo of it and was damn impressed. I've been pushing for BR all this time...but I don't see how it's even worth it. This was their war to lose and not only are they coming out WAY after HD-DVD but it's double the price. Shit, they even have a different name and although I thought that would be a small issue, coupled with the others I could see it doing more harm than good. The benefits have been decreasing and at this point, the only firm benefit I can see is studio support. If this war goes on long enough, that won't be in BR's favor any more. If people start buying players now, IMHO, HD-DVD is going to have a HUGE head start on Blu-ray. People looking to buy an HD player aren't going to go with the one that's $1000. They're going with the one that's $500. They're two formats. They do the same job. There's no real advantage to BR other than capacity. But since BR is using MPG2 and HD is using a different one, that point is moot. So if I look at it this way, by the time a BR player comes out that is stand-alone and $500, I wonder how cheap the HD-DVD stand-alone players will be? $250?

As I said in my other thread, sitting around waiting for a winner while you do nothing about the war isn't a way to help choose a winner. If BR were definitely coming out with a machine at the same price, sure, I'd wait. But they're not. It's double the cost...with no sign of that price dropping. I've been a huge BR supporter up until this point but the ONLY thing it has going for it is something that may change over the next 6 months.

This is why I am staying far away from any of these stores...All it takes is one moment of weakness and bam, I'm walking home with one of these fucking things and I need to stay strong.

Check online. I had to check the Mitsu site about my tv. My DVI input is HDCP compliant. I'd imagine if you tv is less than 2 years old, it should be.

well, what are ya waiting for?

seriously, the only downside for me is no region-free for standard def., which is why I'm keeping my Oppo for now.

The benefits have been decreasing? That is not my perception, not by a long shot. Man, in 2005 HD DVD was due out in October, with support from three studios which didn't support Blu-ray. It is now April 2006 and HD DVD launches with support from three studios (BTW, where is Paramount?), two of which now support Blu-ray.

If anything, during the last year, Blu-ray has gained studio support. HD DVD has failed to make any inroads.

In a year, HD DVD has blown their substantial first-to-market advantage to a mere two/three months which don't include Christmas.

The greatest achievement of HD DVD in a year has been... a lower player price? Please. Nothing is easier than price dumping. It only takes deep enough pockets (three million bucks for this first wave, give or take). Somebody is footing the bill, you can bet on that. And it has been already established that fixed costs for any blue-laser player are well in excess of $300, so if you are expecting an HD DVD player for $250, you think again.

Fox only accepted Blu-ray because of the better security it offers, and which HD DVD refused to adopt. That situation hasn't changed.

Disney wants big capacity to put new bonus materials to make us rebuy Snow White yet again. With Blu-ray they got it. Why are they going to renounce their marketing strategy?

It seems you are worried that waiting does nothing to help choose a winner... but you are not worried about helping the success of the format with less capacity, less studio support, inferior interactivity and even less scratch resistance. Just because the player is fucking subsidized.

To each their own, I guess.

True, I'm sure. But I didn't say I wanted the Oppo. In my post, I mentioned I am set on a Denon 2910, and according to darkside, it performs better than the Toshiba. I would rather pay $600 for the 2910 than $500 for the Toshiba because of this. This could change with the next gen player, so there is still hope before the end of the year for me. And there is also the Blu-Ray player which might be better, I'll have to wait and see. Even around $1000, it would be worth it to me if it does as good a job as the denon and also doubles as an hd player.
I know I didn't make this clear, but my main thing is content, it is pretty important to me. What I am watching now is a large catalog of sd titles, it is going to take years for hd content to have a large catalog of titles like sd, and I don't plan on upgrading many titles anyway, so mostly I will be watching sd titles for many years to come. That is why getting a really kickass upconverting player is important to me.

Grubert, I think you are missing the fact that right along, DFNYC has been a vocal supporter of BR. I was at one time as well since it is technologically superior. But Sony is dropping the ball dramatically in the marketing of this format. I'm sure that much of the studio support they have was bought with promises of this huge installed base of PS3's which may not be there as promised. Additionally, it is coming out that PS3 will be using software decoding instead of a dedicated decoder like the BR decks. This could mean that the quality on the PS3 may not be as good as the BR decks.

Since prices have solidified, I have been saying that Sony is nuts going into this at 2X the cost of the HD deck. I have said when push comes to shove, people are going to see no huge quality difference between HD and BR but they will see an enourmous difference in price. I have long thought many would be swayed by price. You are right, anyone can price dump. Tell me again, why isn't Sony doing that?

DFNYC is one of "your own" and it seems like he's wavering. Maybe it is because he's being budget consious. Maybe he's got the bug and wants a new toy. It doesn't really matter the reason why, but it sounds to me like he's ready to pull the trigger.

How many more will also do this? How many early adopters will be left for BR when it comes out? Will HD widen the pricing gap between now and then?

Sony is leaving too much up in the air. Except the price. The first horse out of the gate could have charged more, but not the second.

I'm determined to wait it out till BR launches just to see if Tosh sweetens the deal with a price drop or some free titles or something, but it will be hard to wait.

Just off of the top of my head... I have read people saying their players have froze up several times (it might be limited to Serenity). Also the reports of DD being converted to DTS when using a digital audio cable, this doesn't really affect me, but there should still be an option of hearing it in its native format. Also some people saying that their down arrow isn't responsive. There are also a good amount other problems that I've read people talking about over at the avsforums. Like I said, little bugs and quirks.

I safely made it out of Best Buy without buying a player. They had a crappy 42" LCD set up on the remote control aisle, playing a bunch of trailers on an HD-DVD. I wasn't really too impressed. I just watched the Serenity trailer, and it looked very, very grainy. I am sure they didn't have the set calibrated properly, so it didn't really bother me. I guess having HD cable for over a year has spoiled me.