Supermallet

Two people throw up their hands and suddenly it's a backlash? I'm disappointed with the dual format player and the THD too, but when you're watching a movie you love in HD, and it looks and sounds incredible, then what the fuck does that other stuff matter? Personally, I don't care what the mooks over at AVS are saying. There's a reason I stopped posting here. The only thing that bugs me about this format war at all is when a studio releases a movie without porting over the special features from the DVD, something they would do regardless of which format they released on.

Vipper II

For you people "putting on the brakes," something I'm thinking of doing, are you going to go back to buying SD DVDs in the meantime, or are they out, too?

bunkaroo

While I got into the game later than you guys, I've already bought dozens of HD-DVD's. If you hit my HD collection link, you'll see currently 61 of my 85 hi-def discs are HD-DVD.

I feel I've done my share to support HD-DVD. But, I will also be putting on the brakes now. Even though I feel Blu-Ray is on the upswing, I'm not going to buy like crazy on that side either.

Originally I had Clerks 2, Lucky # Slevin, Mummy Returns and Winged Migration on preorder for next week. I cancelled that order fully. I can rent those.

For the 23rd, I'll still be getting Brokeback, but if I do pick up Black Rain, it will be BD and not HD. Past that, there are only one or two HD-DVD's announced that I'll buy vs. renting, but a bunch of Blu-Ray's I want.

Even if Universal never planned a big slate announcement for CES, they ought to be flexible enough to react to the current situation and get one out there. That is, if they still intend to support the format wholeheartedly.

Meanwhile, this weekend I'm going to try and forget this nonsense and at least enjoy the discs I already have. I still haven't watched any of the Superman HD's, and Pearl harbor is high on my list as well.

Vipper,

At this point I would just rent the film in HD or BD. If I know a film will be available in hi-def either day-and-date or later on, I will no longer buy the SD-DVD.

FantasticVSDoom

I think some of us are too close...We read news and keep tabs on things such as CES and what not and we just know too much about it, so it drives us a crazy. Remember, we arent even a year into this. We all knew that this wasn't going to be settled any time soon. Eventhough we dont think its the best, these companies are doing what they feel will be best to make these formats last because it will mean more money for them.

digitalfreaknyc

But that's completely counter-productive.

They're not going to make "more money" if they keep doing what's best for them.

Mr. Cinema

I never stopped buying dvds. I'll buy HD DVD for the big title, in the vein of Superman Returns, a movie I really love. Otherwise, an upconverted dvd will suffice until there is 1 format. Buying a dvd does provide a bit of insurance, as I know it's going to be around for quite some time. There will still be continued support of those and players will still be produced for the time being. DVD sales may be leveling off, but there are still a shitload of people buying them. Pirates 2 has sold, what, 10 million copies?

When 1 format is left standing, I'll go back to buying them frequently.

Mr. Cinema

We all thought 2 formats was bad, but Warners is now combining them. That's worse in my opinion. Let's say the format war goes on for another year. When one does die, there's going to be alot of pissed off people who chose the wrong one. And I guarantee all of the greedy companies could care less.

darkside

I already have the breaks on. I bought 25 DVDs in December and Casino was the only HD DVD I bought out of those and I have none currently on order. I'm going to try and resist the urge to throw in the towel, but I'm definitely switching to HD rentals and on occasion standard DVDs again. For Clerks II I have already canceled the HD DVD version and will buy it on SD DVD. For other recent movies I wanted like Little Miss Sunshine I also just bought it on SD DVD since there may never be an HD DVD version of it. I've been watching more and more SD DVDs and honestly can live with it if needed as much as I love high def. The Denon does a good enough job on most movies of upscaling.

digitalfreaknyc

Clearly it's more than 2.

Centurion

darkside,
Which model Denon are you referring to?
I've got their DVD-1910, which was among their first batch of players to output a digital signal via DVI and I have to say that it's internal scaler does a significantly better job with SDDVDs than my HDA2 outputting via HDMI.

porieux

Even if a format 'loses' your hardware and discs aren't going anywhere, so it really doesn't matter. I still have my s7000 DVD player from 1999, these things don't just melt away over time. At least not in human life timeframes.

The Bus

No, I'm not even buying SD DVDs. With the exception of the occasional Criterion or oddball/foreign title, DVDs will only get cheaper. Same thing with HD DVDs and BDs. I have over 100 unwatched SD DVDs. Those will get my attention in the meantime.

Make no mistake. I'll buy Babel the week it comes out. I'll pre-order Children of Men. Departed? I'm there. But I'm not going to buy stuff just to "support" the format.

Right now, Sony, Fox and Disney are guaranteeing I don't spend a dime of home video money on any of their movies. Their loss.

Cardiac161

Suprmallet wrote: "The only thing that bugs me about this format war at all is when a studio releases a movie without porting over the special features from the DVD."

Uhhh...no freakin' kidding!!!

One example is the recently-released "Kingdom of Heaven" Director's Cut Blu-Ray dvd. Despite all the fascinating extras the standard dvd set had, this one, according to DVDTalk review, only had the trailer as an extra!!! How the hell can enthusiastic filmlovers and dvd collectors, who have pretty much voted this one to be one of the best dvd releases of last year, buy into Blu-Ray or HD-DVD if great films like these are being released this way???

Supermallet

It's all peer pressure, I tell you!

darkside

2910
I did a lot of side by side when I first got the A1 and the upscaling on the Denon is better though I will admit the A1 does a really good job. One thing I noticed on the A1 was mosquito noise on some scenes. The Denon cleaned this up in comparison.

Mr. Cinema

Wow. It out does the A1? I looked at their site and the 2910 isn't listed, but they do have the 2930. The list price scares me off though, $849. I'm wondering if their sub $500 player, the 1930, upscales better than the A1. I just got the Oppo 981. While it does produce a nice picture, it's not quite as sharp as the A1. But it's also region free, which I've never had before. So at least I can import some of those non-anamorphic discs such as Misery, etc.

Sorry to have taken this farther off topic.

matome

I use the 2910 for my DVD's and it's awesome. The 2930 is pretty much the same model but with 1080p instead of 1080i. Mine was well worth the money, so the 2930 should be as well.

darkside

The 2930 I believe has upgraded above the Faroudja chip in the 2910 so it should be even better at upscaling.

matome

Figures. I just picked up the 2910 about a year ago

Spiky

Denon gets better with every step up, 9xx, 19xx, 29xx, 39xx, 59xx. They usually also get better each generation, although not always. For instance, the current 59xx series have pretty much maxed out on video quality in the marketplace, adding a true Realta chip for scaling. There's really nothing better at a price under the player's $3500 price tag. So it's got nowhere to go, really. Except HDDVD/BD.

Then there are occasionally oddball ones like the 1600, really a Panasonic, and the 2900, which was a 3900 in cheaper clothing. Both of these were killer machines that far outperformed their price ranges.

But most of them have been above almost anything else in the marketplace the last 4 years or so. I wouldn't put too many faces on the 2910. It may not be as good as some other Denons, usually with higher price tags, but I'm sure it has a better picture than 99% of players.

GIjon213

This does not bode well....

Via Engadget.com

luigionlsd

If labels are that big of a deal, just print out a sticky label and put it on the data side of whichever format you don't want... no?

Music

NO!

Spiky

Never put a label on a disc. Including those labels they sell for you to label your own burned discs. They might as well market hammers as a device for smashing your player.

Just use a disc marker and write something on the center of the disc. This is what I've done with my flippers that aren't easy to read. "HD" on one, "BD" on the other in this case.

Drexl

I wonder if they can come up with a way of distinctly coloring these discs, like how some dual-layer DVDs are gold-colored rather than silver.