No HDMI on my HDTV. Is an HD-DVD player worth getting? (1 Viewer)

[Clinton McClure]

The display in my HT is a 5 year old Toshiba TW40x81 which does not have HDMI inputs (of course). The best signal it can accept is component. We are looking at purchasing a house in 2 years so I most likely will not upgrade this display until then. The accepted signals on the Toshi are 480i, 480P and 1080i. Knowing this, would I even be able to enjoy HD content from a HD-DVD player via component or would I be burning 5 Ben Franklins for an expensive upconverting SD player? I've heard 1080i over component is a no-go with this unit.

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

Use the player for HD over component. Should be fine. Use the old player to continue watching SD discs via component.

The unofficial industry buzz is that the copy protection won't be turned on for 3 to 4 more years. By which time you have your new TV anyway.

Regards

 

[Oliver D]

If you find yourself watching a documentary on Australian wine simply because it is in HD, regardless of how interesting it may seem at first, then I would suggest you get a player. It may be a long time before a format "winner" is decided and I don't see hardware levels getting to the $150 or below "sweet spot" for quite a while.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Thanks Michael. I was worried I could not do that. Now comes the tough part...trying to convince my wife that we need to upgrade to HD-DVD. It is my understanding upconversion of SD-DVD can only be accomplished via HDMI, correct?

 

[Mark Zimmer]

That's correct. The 1080i does look great over component though.

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

SD upconversion is only on HDMI ... but ... DVD's that are not copy protected will be upconverted via component. So if you back up your discs ... the back ups would work fine.

Regards

 

[William Goodspeed]

Yes it does. Filmlike and natural. This is a great product.

 

[Paul Arnette]

I'm going over component, and it looks great. The decision to not turn on the ICT, reviews here, and some 'found money' made the decision to buy an HD DVD player a very simple one for me.

Regarding this...


Is there something about an HD DVD player, like the Toshiba HD-A1 for instance, that would make it less desireable to playback SD DVD? The only thing I could think of would be error correction. I'd really like to just use the HD-A1 for both and put the sale of my old player toward the Tosh.

 

[TedD]

It is not legal to upconvert protected DVD's when the output flows over an unprotected analog connection. HDMI is the only way that the Toshiba HD DVD player can legally upconvert DVD's. That's why upconverting protected DVD's are limited to the HDMI output.

Ted

 

[Clinton McClure]

Right now both of the component inputs on my display are taken, one with the SD player and the other with the xbox 360. What's a good 2-way or 3-way component switcher for

 

[Shaun]

Here's a question that I'm sure has been asked before, but here goes.

Do standard DVDs look better on the Toshiba HD-DVD player even when not upconverting?

My Mitsubishi has 2 or 3 component inputs only, no HDMI. I'm just interested to know if there are any significant differences in picture quality with SD-DVDs using the Toshiba HD-DVD versus any other DVD player out there.

 

[JeremyErwin]

It's a private affair between Toshiba's lawyers and DVDforums's lawyers. I will not interfere.

At least one of the NeuNeo players upconverts over component.

And, of course, the Oppo 971 does not apply hdcp to its dvi out, though it's component outs are limited to 480i.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

I've owned at least 10 different dvd players over the years. The 480p output from the HDA1 when playing standard dvds over component is as good as the best of the others which included one of the legendary Pannys with Faroudja. I've also tried 2 different upconverting players that would do 1080i over component, a Zenith and a Samsung. My set will display 480p natively as well as 1080i via component (5 year old Sony crt based rptv).

480p from the HDA1 actually looks better than 1080i upconversion from the Zenith or Samsung.

I have no hdmi either, have owned my HDA1 since mid April, HD-DVD looks better than any other HD I've seen, including OTA from a local sation with no sub channels.

Eventually I will get a set with HDMI, and then the Toshiba's excellent upconverting will be a bonus to it's already great HD-DVD picture.

I bought my first player back in '98 for the then bargain price of $499, the HDA1 at the same price without adjusting for inflation is a no-brainer.

 

[Paul Anthony]

I remember a special on CNN, mentioning that the copy protection could take as long as 5 years.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Last night my wife gave me the nod to pick up an HD-DVD player today.

Looks like I'll also need a set of analogue audio cables too...

And some good software to backup some of my DVDs for personal use under the INTERPOL act... I would hate to accidentally scratch a hard to replace DVD while playing it in a new-to-market piece of hardware. I have Sonic Recordnow! pre-installed on my laptop but it will not allow me to make a backup of copyrighted DVDs. What is a good DVD archival/backup software?

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Clinton,

I got into this thread late.

First, congrats on your new HD-DVD player! You will be
extraordinarily happy. I was playing HD-DVD over my component
for the past month and saw an improvement in picture quality.

Read my review here

....and having just upgraded to a new display with HDMI, it looks
even significantly better than it had before.

Please...be sure to write a review once you have had time to
enjoy your new toy.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Will do Ron.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Well I just got back. We went to 2 Best Buys and 2 Circuit City stores which were all sold out and did not know when their next shipment would arrive. They were also all sold out of the Monster MP HTS1600 power center which I was going to pick up today. We ended up at Sears so my wife could do some clothes shopping for her birthday and I ended up upstairs in the electronics department where I got to spend about a half-hour playing with an HD-A1 hooked to a 42" Toshiba plasma. They also did not have any in stock but I ordered one which should be at the store Thursday. Man, it's gonna be a long week.

 

[William Goodspeed]

Looking forward to reading your review Clinton.