Got the HD-DVD's in at work this week...
 

I was surprised to see that the DVD cases themselves are so...

Small.

They're much smaller and thinner than normal DVD cases, although a tad wider than CD cases (and the corners are rounded...not squared) and a little bit taller.

I thought the cases would be the same as a regular DVD case. Guess I was wrong.

= J

Great I'll have to shelve them apart from my regular DVDs since that will probably drive my OCD crazy. I don't think they had a choice but make the cases different enough to hopefully prevent people from buying the wrong version.

I'm sure you're right, darkside, but that is almost sad considering that the cases are red and have "HD-DVD" in fairly big letters at the top center portion, and Blu-ray will have blue cases with the Blu-ray logo as well.

What I would really love to know is how many people will purchase HD-DVD discs thinking that their normal DVD players will play them in HD. Makes me wonder if Best Buy and other mass retailers will print up big signs that make it crystal clear that they only work with the new players and place them where the HD-DVD software is.

People are dumb. I was over my fiancee's uncle's house yesterday watching some tube. They have an HDTV. My know-it-all future brother in law was telling his grandfather that having an HDTV makes DVDs HD. I had to correct him, and I think he was mad at me for doubting his omnipotence. These have to be retailed way different than DVD so as not to be confused, just like PSP discs.

I think most people are under the same impression as your future brother in law. I've been in countless discussions over the past few years with people who think the same thing. Even my own parents have asked me countless times why their DVDs don't look quite as good as their HDTV programming, and while it can be frustrating trying to educate people on the matter my only hope is that in telling them, they will in turn tell other people. It has taken years to convince people that buying high definition televisions is worthwhile and the reason for making that switch is because brodcasts in SD are going away completely and even then there are tons of holdouts; so many that seperate boxes for SD TVs will be mandated.

I hope that the cheap nature of the average consumer doesn't kill both of these formats.

Cool. Wherabouts will they be in the store? (if they don't sell out)

I'll be curious to check em out next time I'm in.

Standard Definition broadcast isn't going anywhere. The only thing being phased out is analog broadcast, which is being replaced by digital broadcast. Those digital transmissions can be either standard-defintion or HD. We won't see the end of SD anytime soon.

Very good point, JoshZ. Based on how slow the HD movement has been overall, I would say we are looking at at least 5-7 years before everything is on HD, and I am sure that is undercutting it quite a bit.

I couldn't help but get a chuckle out of Qui Gon Jim and kakihara1's posts, just because I have been there so many times with family members and friends. Just yesterday I was involved in something like that at the family Easter get together. My mother was talking about how she wanted to get a Plasma. This from someone who wouldn't know HD from an STD but is willing to fork over 3 or 4 grand just because she can mount it on the wall at her new house, hooking her standard digital cable box up to it. I also gave my brother in law grief over having a 50 inch plasma, and spending more to get one with a built in HD tuner over an HD ready set, but refusing to actually get any HD programming, either via DirecTV or OTA antenna. Either people are just clueless, they only care about having something trendy that doesn't take up space, or both.

I think even that is overly optimistic. Think about all the hundreds of small-audience cable channels out there. Do you honestly foresee all those religious, home shopping, home-&-garden, and do-it-yourself networks spending the money to updgrade to HD cameras and broadcasting equipment? I don't. How about the local newscast in Podunkville, Nebraska, population 1,047 people?

There is no mandate that forces any network to broadcast in High Definition. The requirement is simply to eliminate analog broadcasts in favor of digital transmissions. It will be decades before Standard Definition is weeded out, if it even happens in our lifetimes.

Right, which is precisely why I put "and I am sure that is probably undercutting it by quite a bit" in my post. Truthfully, I know I did say "everything", but I really wasn't even considering the "filmed in a closet" shows and infomercials and things like that. I was mainly referring to all the networks (not just in prime time and not just certain shows), and the various cable/satellite channels that have somewhat regular viewership, i.e. not all the extreme niche specialty channels.

I can see stations like TBS, A&E, MTV, Food Network, TLC and the like being HD within the next 3 years, easily. The rest are something that I am not about to even begin to ponder.

Qui Gon Jim, what kind of TV did the know-it-all have before the HD one? I'm thinking maybe if he had a 4:3 set, upgrading from interlaced, downconverted DVD to progressive scan, anamorphic video seemed like HD to him just because it was a big improvement. That would be even more likely if he has an upconverting player too. (That is, of course, assuming he actually has his DVD player and TV properly set up and is using the right connections.)

About the FCC mandate, isn't it true that cable systems don't even have to be digital, since they're not broadcasting over the air?

It was a SDTV, but it wasn't his. He just thought as always that he is the expert on all subjects. It has nothing to do with how much HD he has watched etc. This is a guy who still buys FS DVDs because his girlfriend hates black bars. We watched a FS copy of Longest Yard stretched to widescreen. I had to leave the room.

My uncle has an awesome 50 something inch DLP and the very first time I came over to check it out they were watching a FS DVD stretched. Now almost all of their movies are widescreen, but for some reason they picked the one movie that wasn't to show off the TV and they had the DVD player still hooked up S-video.

So yeah, I still see regular DVD and standard definition sticking around for a long time.

Yes, that's true. Most of the major cable providers (Comcast, RCN, etc.) are planning to force a conversion to digital cable anyway, mostly as an excuse to raise their rates again.

Yea , was playing with the HD-A1 at work today for a bit.

The menu was very nice (was playing around with Serenity) and i liked the design overall. The scene section was nice, where you scrolled through the selections. Downside... it was slow.

Picture quality , well ... since they put it on a pretty bad tv, it was nice, but could be much better with some tuning. It did look hd to me , sharpness and color tones were good.

Sound wise ... i will not say anything since it was on the build in speakers.

Other than that , i will say i liked it , but not 500 dollar liked it. Once I see the EDiscount on it ... then maybe i will consider some of the later models.