I would assume most/all extras on the European HD-DVDs are 480i PAL...How would the A1 output these? Does it matter between HDMI/component?

We don't know yet.

None of the titles have been released.

Just because the extras are in 480i resolution or encoded in MPEG2 doesn't mean that they are in PAL, any more than extras on North American HD DVDs are in NTSC. So far as I am aware, they are not.

I was using dvdcompare.net as a source to see that the European ones released so far with extras are in 480i PAL. They also show North American SD extras as 480i NTSC. If that is not the case, what would they be?

That's not true. The extras on the overseas editions are still NTSC.

There's no such thing as 480i PAL. PAL is 576i.

Thanks...My question is still the same, though. How would the A1 output them? Will I be able to watch them on my HDTV? The A1 doesn't upconvert to HD through component on protected material, would that include extras like this?

I've been looking around and can't find any references that link NTSC and PAL to HD DVD. Is it possible that such listings in the source you mention are simply a mistake?

Consider that while the HD DVD format supports various resolutions, including 480i, it is entirely digital. NTSC and PAL are analog display standards. In DVD the players convert the digital data stream to analog outputs (the familiar composite, S-video, and component) in whichever analog format the player is designed to support.

With HD DVD the data and the output are digital. While they can be converted to analog for the component outputs, they remain digital when using HDMI (or DVI) to send the data to a digital HDTV. While I suppose it might be possible to port over a DVD NTSC or PAL data stream on an HD DVD with appropriate flags for analog output, it seems more likely that such data is simply converted to the standard digital format used on HD DVD with no intervening analog step needed during transmission via the digital input of an HDTV.

On my HD DVDs, the extras are listed at "480i" but no mention is made of "NTSC" as one sees on SD DVDs. So, I think that the mention of "NTSC" and "PAL" in the source you listed is simply a mistake.

On a less technical note: there are several people here who have European HD DVDs and I don't recall that they reported any trouble watching the extras. There has been some discussion of possible PAL speedup effects on some European releases, but that has to do with the conversion of a PAL source to HD DVD, not that HD DVDs contain PAL coded content . So far as I have heard, they do not.

So basically the issue with NTSC vs PAL is irrelevant with regards to HDDVD? ie, a European HDDVD will play fine on a US HDDVD player on a US HDTV?
We would still need to be aware of the presence/absence of selectable English subs [unless one understands Japanese/German/French etc.], correct?

Yes to both questions.

Yes, on both counts.

The lack of region coding (thus far) is a major advantage of HD DVD. Some titles that are BD only in the US/Canada are going to be released by studios overseas, like Studio Canal, that support HD DVD.

Analogue and digital have nothing to do with the difference between PAL and NTSC and ATSC (HD). These are two standards of video, which govern frame rate and resolution of image. NTSC is 480i at 30fps, while PAL is 576i at 25fps. Since many of the early HD discs appear to be re-using extras from earlier DVD releases the extras are almost certainly in their original resolution and frame rate. For European titles this means 25fps and whether it will display to an American TV will depend on the HD player's ability to convert from 25fps to 30fps (or 24fps). This is unless the player and TV are both capable of accepting 25fps signals, which I believe is rare in the US.

Oddly enough the reverse situation (importing US HD discs into Europe) doesn't carry such an issue since HD TVs are required to accept both 25fps and 30fps. Otherwise they cannot claim to be "HD ready". And they don't get the sexy badge.

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=63931

Underworld cover art is there.

The disc specifications are as follows:
Video: 2.35:1 1080p High Definition
Audio: Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 English, Spanish Castellano, Spanish Catalán, and DTS Spanish Castellano
Subtitles: English, Spanish Castellano

The following Special Features are also included:
Audio Commentary with director Len Wiseman
Image Gallery
Biographies/Filmographies
Photo Gallery
Trailer
TV Spots
Featurette (6 min)
"Imágenes de rodaje" (15 min)
Interviews (12 min)
Making of (13 min)
Making of: Special Effects (13 min)
Making of: Making Monsters Roar (12 min)
Making of: "Especialistas" (10 min)
Making of: Production Design (13 min)
Making of: Music and Sound (12 min)
Unspecified Video Clip (4 min)

That's some nice cover art! Too bad it's ruined by text!

Sweet cover art. If I get that one though, I want the first on HD also.

Anyone know if these are the same extras that were on the SD release?

Yup

And it certainly looks like there are more extras than are on the BD release.

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=22797

Damn... Well I guess Im not completely done with buying films from other countries quite yet. I will wait for reviews, but if good, I will definitely pick it up.

Extras aside, the HD-DVD will use VC-1 whereas the BD uses MPEG-2. But the BD has PCM whereas the HD-DVD will only feature DD Plus 5.1.

Should be interesting to compare the two.

In other spanish news...

http://hddvdformat.blogspot.com/2007...on-hd-dvd.html

Thankfully I have a birthday coming up and should be able to get some HD-DVD spending clearance from management.

Remind me... does the Tosh A1 handle DTS-HD?

Does DTS-HD even require any decoding? Isn't it just a high bitrate DTS track? Now DTS HD-MA is different. The Studio Canal HD-DVDs as well as Fox and MGM's Blu-ray discs all feature DTS HD-MA tracks and as of now, no players can decode that. The PS3 is rumored to be getting a firmware upgrade for this in March though.

Current HD DVD players extract the standard DTS core audio without decoding the MA extension.

An American Haunting is now up for pre-order at dvdgo.