Another hold-out... jumps in!

As some of you may already know from my recent "Who's using component?" thread, I finally jumped in and bought an HD-DVD player. My plan was to wait out the "war" or wait and buy a reasonably priced dual format player.

However, a few weeks ago I was feeling like I missed the boat when Walmart and BB had that 98.00 deal on an HD-DVD player. So, on Thanksgiving night I decided to take the plunge when Amazon was offering a great deal on the A3. I chose free shipping, so it's not here yet, but I am anxiously awaiting its arrival and I'm getting very excited. I just got back from BB where I exchanged my recently purchased unopened DVD of The Shining for the HD-DVD version. Can't wait to give it a spin.

Now, for some stupid questions. Is it neccesary that I update the firmware? How easy a thing is this to do? I have a cable modem... do I just unplug it from the computer and plug it into the player? Does the TV have to be hooked up? My HDTV and the computer are in two different rooms. There is no cable modem access in the HT room.

Any insight on this subject would be appreciated!

On another note, I'm soirry to say I may have determined the winner in the format war. I bought Beta back in the day. Sorry, HD-DVD fans! All kidding aside, I was a little dishearted to see that at Best Buy the ratio was about 5/3 favoring Blu-ray discs.

Universal and Paramount need to step up with some heavy hitters. Unfortunately, Spielberg was involved with most of them. ie: Jaws, Indy, E.T. Jurassic Park... And I hear he's not so HD-DVD friendly. And where are my Trek movies? Time to setuple dip!

Anyway, I've got a ticket, I'm ready to ride!

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

Welcome aboard Ric!

Yes, you should update the firmware when you get the chance, but if all of your discs play with no problem, then don't worry too much about it in the short term.

Since my computer is in my bedroom, I decided to call Toshiba and have them send me a firmware disc. I received it within a week and it didn't cost anything. You can download the firmware upgrade and burn it to a disc, but I'm still pretty old-fashioned when it comes to these things, so hopefully someone else will chime in and answer your question.

The ratio at my local Best Buy is 5/4 in favor of Blu. Keep in mind that BD had more and bigger releases this 4th quarter than HD-DVD, so this is probably why the shelf-space increased for BD. Catalog releases from Universal & Paramount were very disappointing this 4th quarter, and I agree, they will have to eventually start releasing catalog titles that people will buy. Paramount/Dreamworks have no catalog titles announced for December or January on HD-DVD ( save for the delayed "Zodiac") & Universal's January slate is dismal (save for "The Pianist").

Regarding Spielberg - Until we actually hear from the man himself on the format war, then all of this is a moot point. I've never read that Spielberg didn't like HD-DVD or preferred BD, it's just logically concluded since he ok'd the release of Close Encounters for Sony. I know the HD-DVD exclusive studios want a bigger install base before releasing blockbuster titles like the Spielberg films, but they are going to have to strike a balance somewhere. If people continue to go to stores and see catalog releases like Cars and Close Encounters on BD opposed to catalog titles like Old School & Mobsters on HD-DVD, this will not help HD-DVD's adoption rate but hinder it imho.

Anyway, enjoy!

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

Thanks Reggie! Burning a disc sounds easy enough.


Yes, I was kind of surprised when I noticed that. I figured since HD-DVD had been out several months longer, they should have more stuff out! And regarding Paramount and Universal, yeah, you gotta come out with the big guns!

If I bought a Blu-ray tomorrow, you can be sure I'd be picking up Close Encounters! As it is, I'll probably have to wait 6 months to a year before sneaking a Blu-Ray in the house (assuming the war is still going strong).

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

Allright Ric!! You are going to love this. HD DVD was my first experience in the HDM world and I am still amazed by it. It only gets better as time goes by, as well. Why, I just picked up Star Trek TOS in HD DVD and I never thought I'd see a release of this in such Awesomeness( my Bill & Ted review). Reggie has the best answer in downloading onto a disc or just getting Toshiba to send you a free firmware update. Again, Welcome to the family man. The rides gonna be a blast.

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

You guys should certainly see a Spielberg title from Universal in 2008.

I think it's safe to assume that the studio wants deeper penetration
in the format before rolling out its biggest fare.

Trust me, Spielberg is not preventing Universal from rolling out
those titles.

...and Ric, welcome to high-def! As I ask everyone, keep us informed
on your experiences which I think will be very positive!

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

I also got the A3 from Amazon and am very pleased with it. I haven't had any problems with discs yet so I'm holding off on updating the firmware.

I definitely hope that Universal and Paramount release some of their Spielberg titles in the near future.

While Blu-Ray might have more titles available, HD seems to have more titles that I am interested in having.

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

I bet Star Trek pushed you over, aye Ric?
Congrats, you wanna go Blu too, cause CE3K looks amazing!

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

Thanks guys! The thing arrived at work today! I wanted to pull a sick act so I could race home and get it going!

Anyway, got it hooked up and am just taking a break so I can give my real early impressions. I'm hooked up via component to my 5 year old 53" Pioneer rear projection CRT (no HDMI). I swapped out my JVC seven disc changer (which I will miss!) to make room for it with my TV and receiver.

So far, I have only sampled HD discs from Goodfellas and 300. First thing I noticed was that it was way too bright. Goodfellas starts with white credits on a black background, then they go into a night scene. After playing with my TV settings, I also hit "black enhance" on the A3. I imagine it wiill need some more tweaking, but I had already got it to a much more pleasing level. I watched a few day and night scenes and of course was very impressed with the picture. I then watched a few scenes from 300. It's a very contrasty film, so I am not sure if this was a good pic to judge. It did look great though.

I then fooled around with some of the special features. Namely the picture in picture feature, so that you can see the movie as it was filmed against blue screen and compare it with the finished product. What bugged me about this was there was a 300 bug, now displayed in the upper corner of the screen. It was a bit distracting and all I could think of was the thing burning onto my screen! After about 5 minutes, I switched it off!

Then I put in a couple of DVDs. First was the worst. My non-anamorphic DVD of "The Abyss." Um... Pretty bad! First thing that happened is I was informed that the disc would not support HD quality and it was being changed to 480. No surprise there. Still, I was hoping for the best. I can't remember the last time I looked at this thru my regular player, but I didn't think it looked this bad. I could definately see the horizontal lines and thngs were looking pretty murky. Maybe it did look like this on my old player... not sure. "The Abyss" is one of my favorite movies, so I guess when it comes out in Hi-def, I'm goin' Blu, since its a FOX title.

Then I put in my DVD of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. Now we're talking! I know I am not upconverting, but I don't think the movie has ever looked this good on my screen! Again, I probably should have loaded up my test DVDs into the old player and taken a good look before I made the switch.

Other thoughts... Man, this thing sure is noisy! I was a bit surprised by that! I never noticed any sound at all from my DVD player. I can definately hear fan noise on the A3. That being said, I didn't really notice the noise when watching a disc, even at relatively low levels.


I sure hope so, Ron! And I certainly would think they are going to get some deeper penetration after some of these incredible prices.


Well, sort of. I didn't buy the Trek set in the recent DD sale. After spending some bucks on the player, I went with buying some other HD-DVDs so I would have a more varied selection. Maybe by the time DD has its Summer sale I'll be able to drop some dough on the seasons! But yes, after I learned that Star Trek's studio Paramount was going HD-DVD only, I knew my fate was sealed.

Right now, Ive got:
300
Bourne Identity
Goodfellas
Casino
Letters from Iwo Jima (blind buy)
Flags of Our Fathers (another blind buy)
The Shining.

Coming in the mail are:
2001 (according to DD its not availabe til 12/3. Guess it was popular.
Eyes Wide Shut
Batman Begins
The Matrix Trilogy
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
V for Vendetta

That's all for now! If you guys have any opinions on whet the definitive HD-DVD is, lemme know! Now back to the movies!

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

Recommended classics:

-Reds
-The Sting
-Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)
-Forbidden Planet
-Grand Prix
-The Wild Bunch
-The Road Warrior
-The Deer Hunter

I think the picture quality on these classics will leave you breathless. There are others, but these are the ones that stick out for me personally.

I agree with Ron regarding Spielberg. All of these rumors regarding Spielberg preferring one format over the other makes for good format war propaganda, but once Universal feels the market penetration is there, they'll begin to release them. I think once they move over a million players, we'll start seeing some of his films.

On another front, HD-NET Movies will be airing most, if not all of the Universal Hitchcocks throughout December. This is usually a good sign that something is brewing on this front. Besides, 2008 is the 50th anniversary of Vertigo! Apocalypse Now & The Godfather films are also highly rumored to be coming in 08 from Paramont as well as the first batch of the Star Trek films.

I do think you'll have plenty of films to watch Ric until you are able to sneak in that Blu-ray player. Lol.

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

Thank you for the recommendations, Reg! Looks like there may be some more double dipping in my future. I just got thru about half of The Shining. Man, the Overlook never looked so good!

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

Hmmm... That's a bummer about the lack of HD-DVD content. I finally decided to take another look over here to see if I shouldn't take an earlier-than-expected plunge into HD-DVD (kinda like Ric did) since I just found out that the coming-real-soon, new release of Blade Runner (w/ the new "final cut") will not offer the 5-disc set for SD-DVD unless I ante up for the "ultimate" gift set. But if the studios are really gonna wait for that market penetration, I'm not sure I want to be part of that since I don't really want to replace that many of my DVDs w/ HD.

The good news, of course, is that I just found out that I can actually watch HD on my component-only RPTV and don't need to wait for a TV upgrade (w/ HDMI). So now I gotta figure out if I should go for BD or HD-DVD. Although the initial outlay for HD-DVD is cheaper than BD, it seems like it'll be easier to find excellent deals on BD discs in cases where I do want to upgrade from my existing DVDs.

What to do... What to do...

_Man_

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

Here's something tempting (my brother finally parted with some of his green stuff & bought the HD-A3 because of this deal) ...

Get 12 Free HD DVDs with Selected HD DVD Players



================================================
1) Toshiba HD-A3 720p/1080i HD DVD Player - Our Price: $224.98*

2) Toshiba HD-A30 1080p HD DVD Player - Our Price: $269.98*

3) Toshiba HD-A35 1080p HD DVD Player - Our Price: $359.98*

*Special Shipping Information: This item normally requires a shipping charge, but is eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping today.

-----[list of FREE HD DVDs @ Amazon - Select 5]---

01) The Bourne Supremacy [HD DVD]

02) Hot Fuzz (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD] (2007)

03) The Shining [HD DVD] (1980)

04) Serenity [HD DVD] (2005)

05) Pride & Prejudice [HD DVD] (2005)

06) The Big Lebowski [HD DVD] (1998)

07) Knocked Up (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD] (2007)

08) I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD]

09) Casino [HD DVD] (1995)

10) Shaun of the Dead [HD DVD] (2004)

11) The Last Starfighter [HD DVD] (1984)

12) Top Gun [HD DVD] (1986)

13) Meet Joe Black [HD DVD] (1998)

14) Dragonheart [HD DVD] (1996)

15) Dawn of the Dead (Unrated Director's Cut) [HD DVD] (2004)

16) Children of Men (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD] (2007)

17) Rio Bravo [HD DVD] (1959)

18) The Last Samurai [HD DVD] (2003)

19) The Phantom of the Opera [HD DVD] (2005)

20) Blood Diamond [HD DVD] (2006)

21) The Searchers [HD-DVD] (1956)

22) Batman Begins [HD DVD] (2005)

23) Disturbia [HD DVD] (2007)

24) Next [HD DVD] (2007)

===============================

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

Thanks, Phil.

Yeah, I saw that deal (and older similar ones as well). It's partly why I'm considering it at all (alongside the Blade Runner thing). There are a few discs on that list I wouldn't mind owning in HD, so the deal does make an HD player quite tempting for me. But I also just noticed that Pirates of the Caribbean (and I assume Disney/BV titles in general) are not available on HD-DVD, and I might've snapped up the trilogy to go w/ it otherwise...

_Man_

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

As 5:00pm PT - Toshiba HD-A3 720p/1080i HD DVD Player - Our Price: $199.98 - right NOW! (Price may change in the next hour so be quick!!!)

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

Ric,
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...d.php?t=264731

If you have any remorse then don't do it. By buying one format, you have to be mentally prepared that it might fail. I've hedged by bets by having both so I really don't care either way.

if anyone has any doubts, don't. You just have to accept your risks and be prepared for either scenario.

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

True that. And I decided to check out the Digital Bits to catch up on the latest info to see how the format war is actually going, and their view is definitely not so good for HD-DVD although they haven't updated this article in 2 months now:

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articl...oap060107.html

Before reading that article, I had assumed that both formats will survive and combo/universal players would be the future, but now, I'm not so sure...

_Man_

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

To be fair, TDB isn't exactly unbiased.

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

To get another viewpoint read (from Gizmodo.com) ...

The State of HD DVD

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

Thanks for that link, Phil. It does help reveal a more balanced landscape, but after reading the long stream of reader comments, it sounds like some of the points made in favor of HD-DVD are either kinda moot or simply based on inaccurate info.

One thing: Some of the comments made by the Megazone guy makes me wonder if he's not actually Bill Hunt, LOL. They read like they were either written by the same person who wrote/updated the TDB article or by a devoted follower of TDB. In any case, I didn't see much of any retorts to his comments that convince me that he (and TDB) is all that far off though.

Still, yeah, I do understand (and have observed for myself now and then) that TDB's views in general and also their stance on this subject in particular are not exactly bulletproof (nor free of bias). For instance, a lot of the stats they quote -- and this was true all the way back to the early DVD days (and yes, I read TDB since early 1998 when there were also other DVD sites worth reading ) -- are not all that conclusive nor support their arguments quite as strongly as they like to think. And like many other early supporters of DVD, they sometimes seem to gloss over how their own stances impact the successes of the different formats in a format war when arguing about the inherent merits (and demerits) of those formats (vs their own active involvement in a format war). For instance, I didn't like CC's Divx format (or more accurately, its business model) either, but if the whole thing was left to the average consumer to decide, I'm not so sure Divx would've lost at all, let alone die such a quick death. And the whole thing w/ OAR and the 16x9/anamorphic push were like that also -- if left to the average consumer, we might still be stuck w/ tons of 4x3 titles and a tepid adoption rate of 16x9/anamorphic formatting.

Anyway, I guess what all this probably boils down to for me is whether I feel like the initial outlay for HD-DVD at this point is cheap enough to take the risk just so I can get a small handful of titles for the near future and test the waters w/out worrying about potential obsolecence of the format. I don't think I'm ready to jump on BD yet, so if I don't do HD-DVD right now, then I'll just be waiting some more and see how this thing plays out -- and I guess just live w/ the fact that I'll end up needing to replace a few more SD titles w/ HD/BD when the time comes. Of course, I guess if I can somehow land a super cheap option w/ either (perhaps in the used market), then that would certainly help knock me off the fence on this. I saw that someone was trying to sell his Toshiba A2(?) player + V for Vendetta in the FS section for just $80. Something like that would definitely make sense for me since any player I'd get now will just a stopgap anyway.

Still, at least it looks like this format war won't likely play out like the recent one for SACD vs DVD-A... or will it w/ concerns about VOD and the future of movie downloads (to the benefit of Micro$oft)?

Anyway, thanks again for the info...

_Man_

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

Well, for me it ended up being an HD-DVD player plus 10 movies for a price of under 130.00 that convinced me to test the waters. This and the fact that Paramount (I am a life long Star Trek fan) joined Universal (Battlestar Galactica ain't too shabby either), convinced me it was time to get in.

Granted, that if Blu-ray is the winner, the opposing studois will probably join up after their exclusive contracts expire, and I have resigned myself to the fact that I may have to buy both systems. But, at least this way, I can begin enjoying some Hi-Def media right now, instead of always continuing to buy the SD-DVD counterparts.

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

Hey, life's short, gotta play.

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

I got my first HD-DVD ( A Christmas Story) in the mail yesterday.
It didn't really blow me away in terms of a/v quality but it was pretty good.
I had read reviews online so i knew it wasn't "demo material" to show off your your hd player with. Does anyone else have this movie on hi-def?
I would like to hear your thoughts on it.
I have another HD-DVD coming (Forbidden Planet) and also National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation which i hear is a very poor quality release. I would like to hear some reviews on that one too if anyone has a copy.
I was also dissapointed to find out that one of my favorites, the original Halloween is blue-ray only.

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

True that. But that's why I finally took up the violin (and viola) last year. Lessons are not cheap -- and neither are good instruments. And unfortunately, all the "playing" of different sorts do add up quickly...

_Man_

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

Davey,

I have "A Christmas Story" on HD DVD and it looks the best I've ever seen it. Sure it doesn't look as clear as "Planet Earth" but it shouldn't look like that.

I never saw "A Christmas Story" at the cinema but I'm guessing that this HD DVD is an accurate presentation of that.

This is what I love about HD DVD, not the super clear picture quality but that cinema look!

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

Ric,

Not sure if you realize this or not but Paramount and Toshiba have a special offer that runs from now into the new year whereby you buy an HD DVD player (check) and purchase Star Trek Original Series on HD DVD and you can mail in and get a Phaser style remote control fo your HD DVD player. An old style phaser just like Good ol Captain K.

Now what self respecting Trek fan can possibly live without one of those!!

I don't have a link but I am sure someone around here does....

Dave

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

09.18.2007
Toshiba Phaser Promotion for HD DVD Release


Already sent my original form, invoice, INFO and check - so I hope to get one!

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

That is the one.

It does look pretty damned cool. Not sure if it is worth my getting another HD DVD player though!

Now if it was Han Solo's blaster from Star Wars, that might be an entirely different thing!

Dave

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

Ulp! I gotta have that. Looks like my status as Super Nerd (according to the wife) will remain intact! My response to her is always... "At least I didn't marry Super Nerd, you gotta live with that one!"

Thanks guys!

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

You are very welcome.

I should get some sort of kick back from Paramount.

I just ordered my Star Trek season 1 but not getting a new HD DVD (although maybe I will...) Decisions decisions.

As I mentioned, I am not the biggest Star Trek fan but that remote control is just the coolest damned thing!

I suppose my Super Nerdness is still intact!

Dave

Re: Another hold-out... jumps in!

This site offers pretty accurate and complete reviews of both HD-DVD and Blu-ray titles: High-Def Digest

Regarding HD recommendations--(and I apologize if I'm repeating anyone)--I recommend:
- Planet Earth: The Complete Series (gorgeous visual demo-material)
- Transformers (great picture, great sound)
- Fearless (beautiful martial arts)
- The Shining (if you like the film this is an awesome remaster)