Joseph Bolus
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Feb 4, 1999
- Messages
- 2,780
I purchased an HD-A1 early on simply due to the fact that I was looking for a good DVD player at the time anyway, and it was $500 vs. the Samsung's near $1000. I've only purchased four HD-DVD's; the rest of my purchases have been for SD-DVD's which still look and sound great on my current equipment. (My current main display device is the 480p native resolution Infocus SP-4805 projector, so I'm sure that that has something to do with it. I intend to upgrade to a 720p IN76 within the next six months.)
Universal is only one studio, but they own a large majority of the films that I would like to own on HD. I feel that by the time the films that I have to have that might end up as as Blu-ray exclusives (Disney animateds, Star Wars, Indiana Jones) are released there will be 2nd gen DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-ray "combo" players available that will pretty much render the format war moot. (Or perhaps everybody except Sony will start releasing to "Total HD"?)
In the meantime, I'm still purchasing SD-DVD from the Blu-ray exclusive studios, and enjoying them. For example, I recently purchased the four
"Ultimate Bond" sets and the Disney "Cars" and POTC sequel. They all look and sound great on my equipment and I can enjoy them now. (And at very reasonable prices to boot). When the 2nd gen "Combo" players are available I'll purchase one of those, and then gradually start upgrading to a pure HD library. At that point the DVD's that will be replaced can migrate to my bedroom setup and/or to my daughter's portable DVD player.
The bottom line is that with SD-DVD's still providing a good quality experience many of us can just purchase one HD format or the other and then wait for the "Combo" decks to go under $500 (or for "Total HD" to dominate the marketplace). And that will be the end of this nasty little war - with the consumer (as usual) winning!
EDIT *** Actually, as has just been pointed out to me, the Paramount Indiana Jones movies would be released to HD-DVD and Blu-ray, so those titles will not play a part in the war.
Universal is only one studio, but they own a large majority of the films that I would like to own on HD. I feel that by the time the films that I have to have that might end up as as Blu-ray exclusives (Disney animateds, Star Wars, Indiana Jones) are released there will be 2nd gen DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-ray "combo" players available that will pretty much render the format war moot. (Or perhaps everybody except Sony will start releasing to "Total HD"?)
In the meantime, I'm still purchasing SD-DVD from the Blu-ray exclusive studios, and enjoying them. For example, I recently purchased the four
"Ultimate Bond" sets and the Disney "Cars" and POTC sequel. They all look and sound great on my equipment and I can enjoy them now. (And at very reasonable prices to boot). When the 2nd gen "Combo" players are available I'll purchase one of those, and then gradually start upgrading to a pure HD library. At that point the DVD's that will be replaced can migrate to my bedroom setup and/or to my daughter's portable DVD player.
The bottom line is that with SD-DVD's still providing a good quality experience many of us can just purchase one HD format or the other and then wait for the "Combo" decks to go under $500 (or for "Total HD" to dominate the marketplace). And that will be the end of this nasty little war - with the consumer (as usual) winning!
EDIT *** Actually, as has just been pointed out to me, the Paramount Indiana Jones movies would be released to HD-DVD and Blu-ray, so those titles will not play a part in the war.