Uhhh...serious question: what did you expect?

How would you feel if someone came into dvdtalk and said "we at VHStalk think that the quality is good enough and there's no need for DVD's?"

If? I thought we were already there. Black Hawk Down, etc.

That comment goes to show that you've not been really reading this forum, apparently. There's plenty of criticism of both formats and HD in general to be found here. Some of it unwarranted fanboy musings... some of it valid concerns.

Ask the mods if they think these threads have been 'love fests'. I can guess their answer.

Oh yeah. And I own the damn disc too. Kingdom of Heaven has got to be the worst example then. I think it contains the trailer only. I've yet to find out how much of the 50 gig space the director's cut took up. They used MPEG2, which hurt some, but I can't imagine the number being so close that they couldn't fit extras on there.

Using MPEG2, the movie is HOW long and isn't there uncompressed audio??

I just wanted to take a moment to apologize for my earlier comments' tone.

I got more defensive than I should have. I want to in particular apologize for any negative comments I made towards Josh and his article. While I don't agree with some of the points, I could have stated that in a more respectful way.

As you can tell from my signature, I have picked up both HD formats. An opportunity presented itself to obtain the A1 for about $350 so I decided to spend the money I saved not waiting for the XA2 on the Sony player. I know it's a risk financially, but I'm rationalizing it by just enjoying the gear for what it is now. My display is not 1080p, and my receiver is not HDMI, so the way I see it in the next year or two I will upgrade the whole HT, players included.

That said, I still think it's important not to be too derogatory towards SD-DVD. Like with me, I think it can make people react negatively towards HD owners.

After having previewed multiple discs on both formats, I can certainly see the difference in colors, clarity and resolution. Ironically, the first title I viewed all the way through was A Christmas Story, which is obviously not a razzle-dazzle reference disk. Even so, to me there was a noticeable improvement over the SD. I popped the SD in and watched it upconverted, and thought it didn't look as good as it did through my Oppo. I then hooked up my Oppo exactly how it has been hooked up before, and it looked the same as on the Tosh. I think the 16:9 SD at the time was quite an improvement over the 4:3 disc, which may be why I thought it looked better than it did. Or maybe this is what happens after watching an HD version.

Once again, my apologies for my comments.

I hope I can be part of the discussions of both formats going forward.

And if anyone would like to berate me publicly, I'll take my licks like a man.

...hehe...licks...hehe....

Anyway, are the HD Revolution articles annual, or what? I've been a good boy and haven't waited on the sidelines...now all I get to do is re-read the same article for the nth week in a row =P.

Any word on a new one?

Sorry about that. I've been busy catching up on disc reviews and other assorted end of the year stuff. I expect to put the next one together the week after Christmas.

Yay! How do I subscribe to this mofo!?!

Oh, and answer me this HD-MAN ...

Do I just add on the HD player to my 360 or what?

The HD player is connected to the 360 via USB.

Awesome, I enjoyed the first, and look forward to the next!

Time for the new article? I am just now in the HD-DVD realm with the Xbox 360 add-on drive.

The quality upgrade is breathtaking to say the least. Even my wife noticed the difference!!!!

Now...Fox needs to get on board with HD DVD so I can have me some Star Wars goodness and rebuy the set...sigh.

Ah, Star Wars again.

Fox does not control SW. Lucasfilm does and decides when to release it and on what format, and up to now has used Fox as its distribution channel. I don't think it will be released until the format war is over anyway.

The new High-Def Revolution column with our year-end Top 10 list is up now:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/hd/index.html

I'm thinking of pulling the trigger on one of those too. Really can't sink much into a player at the moment, so it seems the obvious choice. Thoughts?

Do it.

Yeah. Just Do IT!!!!

Thanks, Drexl. I can't believe I didn't know that. It makes sense though.

I also hope that New Line gets their act together soon. Is New Line on the fence about which format to support, or have they chosen already?

New Line should be supporting both as of this year.

Updated link to the new column:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/hd/2006_high_...n_review_.html

Good stuff, Josh =)

.oO( No Batman Begins love? No Corpse Bride? ...oh, the humanity...)

They both got honorable mentions. Too many good things released this year. Couldn't fit them all in.

So, when's the next column? Will you address the AACS crack and CES?

I just posted a placeholder column. I'll try to keep these fluffier, software-driven installments coming to give the better writers time to put together a real column.

Neat!

I noticed the latest buying guide has a bunch of cover art that links just to the Look and Sound of Perfect website, even though several of them have already been reviewed. Any reason for that? Just curious.