can you watch hd dvds and bluray on regular dvd players?
 

did a search but couldnt find anything.

i dont own an hd player but i will get one eventually. til then, can i buy hd dvds and watch them on my regular player? what kind of quality will it have?

and whats the difference between hd and bluray anyways?

thanks.

Short answer:no.
But technically there are some HD DVD's that are combo's, meaning they have the HD DVD version of the movie on one side of the disc and the standard DVD version on the other side which is convenient if you do plan to upgrade to an HD DVD player later on.

get the 299.99 HD-DVD player and get 5 free movies

where?

Best Buy, Amazon, amongst other places. Toshiba has a $100 instant rebate going on their A20 I believe it is. The 5 free movies are mail-in. There was also a deal with 2 free HD-DVDs with the purchase of the Matrix collection at Best Buy, but, I don't know if that was this week only.

If you have a costco membership, there's a Toshiba HD-D2 for $249.99. See this thread at AVS for more info.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=851951

Get it and don't look back. HD-DVD is wonderful...

First to address the differences between HD DVD & Blu-ray.

Audio/Video Codecs
The same video and audio codec can be used for both formats, so on that technical aspect, they actually are the same. (Actual codec efficency can be debated to death, and frequently is...)

Storage Space
Capacity wise BD has greater max capcity than HD DVD. Single Layer: BD 25 GB vs HD DVD 15 GB; Dual layer: Blu-ray 50 GB vs HD DVD 30 GB.

Studio Support:
I've put potential 4th quater titles in parenthesis for reference.
Blu-ray: Sony (Spiderman 3), Disney (Pirate of the Caribbean: At Worlds End), Fox (Live Free or Die Hard), MGM (Old Bonds?), Lionsgate (Saw IV ???).

HD DVD: Universal (Bourne Ultimatum) and Weinstein Company (Hoodwinked?).

Both Formats: Warner Brothers (Ocean's 13), Paramount/Dreamworks (Shrek 3) and Magnolia (The Host).

Generally, Paramount releases everything on both formats at the same time. Warner is pretty good at releasing new titles on both formats, but very spotty with catalog titles (See Matrix, Batman Begins and others).

Now regarding HD DVD combo discs... Only Universal and Warner release titles this way. Universal has generally released all of their new release as combo discs, but does no longer does this with catalog titles. Warner has released about 15 Combo discs, and they are all day and date releases.

That 299.99 HD-X2 is a hell of a deal, but remeber this only plays HD DVD high def discs, so you will be missing many titles from studios.

Personally, when it comes to high def, I have both formats to cover the bases, but I'll be glad when they finally get this crap sorted out, two formats only leads to failure.

fitprod

Well, I would also add Universal's 'Knocked Up' and 'Evan Almight' to the Universal HD-DVD exclusive list as well as whatever Weinstein decides to do with 'Grindhouse'. The Weinsteins will most likely separate the two features but either way, that will be a fairly notable absence on Blu-Ray for a lot of the HD demo regardless of theatrical performance. Fantastic Four 2, Hostel 2 and The Simpsons Movie (this one will hurt...) will be Blu-Ray only while the biggie HD title (at least for me) 'The Transformers' will be for both.

We should probably specify that if you set a HD-DVD or bluray disc on top of an SD player, you can indeed watch it, it just won't spin or put a picture on your television.