HD-DVD players actually in homes, general consensus on picture quality is just OK (1 Viewer)

[Sean Bryan]

Yeah, I had to laugh when I saw the title of this thread. I spent several hours last night following the thread at AVS and there certainly was no general consensus about the quailty being "just OK".

 

[RobertR]

Fortunately, people can read the AVS thread for themselves, and not rely on a "filtered" interpretation of user comments.

 

[Ron-P]

Can someone please change the title of this thread?

I watched parts of The Phantom of the Opera last night and was floored by how awesome the PQ is. Both my wife and daughter were making comments the entire time we were watching it. Gorgeous picture; sharp, really sharp and detailed, very clean, colors are excellent, very vivid with flesh tones being excellent. The blacks are outstanding, very deep and dark with great detail.

This thing is amazing.

I've got it wired up to a Sanyo Z3 via a 35' HDMI cable and running coax for audio to my Outlaw 950.

 

[JediFonger]

and thus it was that a great chunk of us (being HT-enthusiasts in general) predicted: marginal difference on small display but HUGE on the large displays.

i'm really glad a HD format is OUT (did waking up today feel like the world has moved on? become different?).

i'm really sad cause i gotta save up for 300"+ 1080p HDMI-HDCP front projectors, 100"+ 1080p LCD/DLP/LCOS/etc. HDMI-HDCP displays, universal HD players and a new DD+/HD, TrueHD, DTS-HD a/v receiver. that's a WHOLE lotta moola to make it truly worthwhile! =(.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

I got a demo at the magnolia store inside BB. They had just hooked up the player and were getting it to work. Phantom was all they had mediawise and it looked pretty good. It was on one of their more expensive 1080p displays. Player seems quirky right now but based on the picture, there is good times to come.

Of course I'm not supporting HD-DVD but I don't expect the BD picture to be any different from HD-DVD. One format only thank you. The salesman there was in the same boat, but for $499 Toshiba has made an enticing offer.

I did ask to see what the picture looked like through component only. They didn't have it setup but said it was a good idea and he would try to get a player setup on one of the component displays. I'll have to check back to see if that was done.

I didn't see any of the movie cases. Do they indicate if ICT is enabled or disabled?

 

[Mark Bendiksen]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the cases did not clearly indicate whether or not ICT was enabled/disabled but it looks like it is definitely disabled in this first wave of discs (thank heavens!).

 

[John Troutman]

You don't need terribly expensive things to make HD-DVD look good, though screen size is definently an issue. I have mine running through HDMI into my Infocus SP 5000, which tops out at 720p and the results are FANTASTIC. There isn't a single flaw in the HD picture (here I'm talking about Phantom, although it generally applies to other films as well). It's sharp, it's clear, and it's BEAUTIFUL.

This is, of course, at 76 inches, but my point is that even at only 720p (albeit with the PLAYER set at 1080i) and with an extremely affordable projector ($1000), HD-DVD still looks excellent.

 

[Andrew Bunk]

Question on audio:

What is the connection type? My receiver doesn't handle DD+ (does anyone's?), so I'm just curious to know if it "downconverts" to DD 5.1.

I have to admit I'm more interested in one of these players for its upconverting abilities than the titles available in HD-DVD.

But in the end I haven't heard anything that makes me want to go drop money on a potentially short-lived medium. I will likely wait until the same titles can be compared in both formats on the same display.

Also I just wanted to comment that while I think we should all know from the SD release days that the tech will get better and cheaper, it's also very important for both formats to land a knockout blow on day 1 to generate buzz.

Personally it doesn't sound to me like Toshiba has done that.

(Please note I am not a Blu-Ray supporter either-just calling it as I see it).

 

[Andrew Bunk]

Ouch....just looked up a Monster HDMI-to-DVI cable. $200!!!!

Wow. My set doesn't have HDMI but does have DVI-HDCP.

If anyone here has a Toshiba RPTV (57H83 or newer equivalent), I'd be very interested to hear your results. Not nearly ready to get rid of my display just yet.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

No, it transcodes to 1536kbps DTS for 5.1 output over coaxial or optical.

It also decodes DD+ into 5.1 discrete outputs for receivers with 5.1 discrete inputs.

- Steve

 

[Larry Sutliff]

I got one today at Best Buy, purchased THE LAST SAMURAI, PHANTOM and SERENITY. I've watched about a half hour of TLS, and it looks gorgeous. Deep blacks, beautiful color and sharp images. A on HD-DVD from me.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

You can get one from Monoprice.com for about ten bucks. That's what I'm using, and it works fine.

 

[Jeff(R)]

The Digital Bits initial impressions:

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/#mytwocents

 

[Andrew Bunk]

Ten bucks? Hmmm...that sounds a little low.

I did some more digging and found some other Monster ones for $100-$150. The first one must be their "platinum" tuipped one or something.

 

[Andrew Bunk]

OK, so I assume it should sound better than standard DTS and DD tracks?

I bought a new receiver last year and I really don't want to replace it even if I get into HD this year.

 

[Sean Bryan]

Just a follow-up on the "just OK" thing:

The main person at AVS who was saying this for about 2 days (Thaxx) now is very happy with the quality.

What happened, you ask? He adjusted his fricking monitor. Un-frickin believable.


I'll post my impressions on Serenity, The Last Samurai, and Phantom of the Opera in the next few days, but what I've sampled so far looks really nice!

 

[Max Leung]

Don't worry about it. www.monoprice.com has very good cables for the price. I have a 25 foot HDMI-DVI Monoprice cable ($35 US) and it transmits 1080i without any problems. Compare that to a $400 Monster cable - it will look the same.

What video format are these HD-DVD titles in? h.264? VC-1?

 

[Donnie Eldridge]

Q: Why are some audio soundtracks louder than others?

A: Some of the studios are using button sounds on "in feature" menus. In order to avoid cliiping when mixing feature audio with buttons sounds, they lower the audio levels.

AVS Forum HD-DVD FAQ

 

[Jordan_E]

I'm starting to doubt some of those people at AVS...do they even know how to adjust their monitors and receivers?!

 

[Jerome Grate]

Skimming through AVS there is a thread that indicates that LG/Zenith as well Samsung will be coming out with a Universal Player that does SD-DVD, HD-DVD and Blue-Ray. Kind of hard to wait for since the reviews are coming out about the AD1 player.