If a 1080p display uses the technique I described above, there will be no difference between the result of a 1080p24 HDMI ocnnection versus a 1080i60 connection. The result will still be a 1080p60 display, regardless of the type of interface used to deliver the image. So, I stand by my assertion. On a good quality 1080 display, you would not be able to discern the difference between an image delivered via 1080i60 and 1080p24.

This may or may not be the case, but it really has nothing to do with the 1080p24 versus 1080i60 HDMI debate. If a TV performs a D/A conversion before processing an image, it will likely do so on all images, regardless of source.

But I suspect that most newer, higher end TVs (which I think will be the more likely to be chosen by a videophile who knows enough about 1080p to care) do not perform a D/A conversion, but use straight digital scaling.

No problem here. If there was never any disagreement over such things, then thre would only ever be one player model to choose from, which would be a very bad thing.

I also want both technologies, and I don't doubt that the Sony and Pioneer players will look better on paper than the Toshiba, and they may well perform better in some respects (load speed, fewer initial glitches/bugs, etc), but as I have said before, I am not basing my opinion of the Toshiba player on others' reviews, or paper specs. I have one, and I know how amazing the image looks on my 73" 1080p display. That's all that matters to me.

I was also impressed with the Tosh CRT RPTV scaler and noticed that it made no difference whether or not I fed it an interlaced or progressive signal. But it has since occurred to me that since the display is native 1080i it shouldn't look better when fed a 480p signal over a 480i one. That makes me believe that progressive scan DVD players are only useful for those with progressive displays, typically 720p plasmas and the like.

The technical wizards here can correct me if I am wrong about that.

I hope so. But this hasn't been the case with the same issue at 480 resolution. As the last 6 years of hunts for good progressive scan players have taught us.

I don't have a lot of time to go into detail at the moment here, but even on standard DVD there's really never been much problem with film-based 24fps sources when interlaced using 2:3 and then deinterlaced later using 3:2 pulldown, assuming that you use a DVD player with decent cadence-detecting 3:2. The problem is that many cheapie DVD players don't even have 3:2 detection; they just read the flags on the disc, which are frequently inaccurate. Pretty much any progressive scan DVD player that says it will do 3:2 pulldown can do a decent job of reassembling film sources.

The bigger problem with progressive DVD players comes with deinterlacing video-based sources, which are shot interlaced with each subsequent field captured at a later point in time than the last. This is very difficult to deinterlace, and only the best chips such as Faroudja do it well.

Now back to HD-DVD. Movie content is stored on disc as 1080p/24 and later interlaced using 2:3 to 1080i/60. As far as I know, every 1080p display on the market uses 3:2 pulldown and should be able to reassemble the progressive frames flawlessly.

Material shot on 1080i HD video (HDTV specials, sports, and the like) will be problematic again, but this will be an equal problem for both formats. Either the studio is going to have to deinterlace it in-house and store it on disc at 1080p/60, or the more likely scenario they'll just store it on disc at 1080i. If the latter, either the display deinterlaces or the player does, but in either case you're still at the mercy of an unknown quantity secondary deinterlacer chip.

anxiously waiting to see and read some online reviews for Doom.

Where are the pics comparing the S-DVD release with the HD-DVD release?

Since there are no HD-DVD ROM drives yet, there's no way to do a screen capture from an HD-DVD. Any pic that's been resized and compressed for web site display is not going to indicate much, anyway.

In case anyone here's curious, the current DVD Talk selection of reviews:

Cinderella Man
Doom
The Last Samurai
Million Dollar Baby
The Phantom of the Opera
Serenity
Swordfish
Toshiba HD-A1 HD-DVD Player

In the pipeline:

Apollo 13
Assault on Precinct 13
Full Metal Jacket
Goodfellas
Rumor Has It...
Training Day
Unforgiven
View from Space with Heavenly Music

Apollo 13 is up.

Another shameless plug: we have 29 software reviews up now.

You guys are soooooo pro hd-dvd....you have NO BD reviews!!

;)

I thought we had thirty reviews, which is why I posted that, but then I remembered that one of them is for the player. Oh well. I'll probably have Kiss Kiss Bang Bang up tomorrow...Thursday at the latest...so that'll bring it up to an even three-oh, tying us for the most HD DVD reviews of any website.

I believe the only titles we haven't reviewed are The Rundown and Happy Gilmore, which we didn't receive review copies of for whatever reason.

As for Blu-ray reviews...well, keep an eye out.

So is Lethal Weapon another screwed up 1080i transfer?

Not as far as I could tell.

If it's from one of those 1080i transfers, they must've deinterlaced it -- didn't spot any of those artifacts, and it's sharper and more detailed than The Perfect Storm and Full Metal Jacket.

Okay, now we're up to 30. I'll post again when we reach another nice, round number:

16 Blocks
Apollo 13
Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)
Blazing Saddles
The Bourne Supremacy
The Chronicles of Riddick - Director's Cut
Cinderella Man
Constantine
Doom
Finding Neverland
Firewall
The Fugitive
Full Metal Jacket
Goodfellas
Jarhead
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
The Last Samurai
Lethal Weapon
Million Dollar Baby
The Perfect Storm
The Phantom of the Opera
Rumor Has It...
Serenity
Swordfish
Syriana
Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD Player
Training Day
U-571
Unforgiven
Van Helsing
A View from Space with Heavenly Music

Is DVDtalk getting the Paramount discs for review?

Eventually, I hope. Other sites got a box with all ten discs from the first three waves last week. We haven't received anything, at least not yet.

ok cool
I'd love to know what "trusted" reviewers think of Sky Captain. I'll probably be picking it up anyway but with how varied people's responses have been to some of the discs, I'd rather have it be from people I can trust.

Awwww, you make us feel so warm and fuzzy! :)

I'm torn on whether or not to get Sahara. It appears that of the 4 released, it probably offers the best audio/visual. But is the movie any good?

You should probably ask in the Paramount thread. ;)

I was really looking forward to it when it came out on DVD...luckily, I rented it first...I thought it stunk terribly and I really love adventure movies. But to each their own.

A box just showed up at the DVD Talk international corporate headquarters today, and they're being distributed now. Of the first week titles, Josh is handling Sleepy Hollow and Sky Captain...

aka Geoff's Mom's Basement?

;)

Good to know! I'd love to hear about The Italian Job and Sky Captain.

Have people been submitting to be reviewers? I was thinking about it but I'm nervous about not meeting deadlines and not having a "great" enough system.

I've thought about it, but I've not submitted a sample review yet.

What I like about Adam and Josh's reviews are they don't sound lame. On other sites, it seems like they don't change the review part and just replace the title every time they post something. It makes for a boring read.

I'd like to add a little flavor to the review and make it fun to read instead of the standard bs I've read on plenty of other dvd sites.