***Official HD-DVD Player Thread*** (1 Viewer)

[Tim Glover]

I'm not able to be an early adopter this time around but I have tried to follow the HD software news just to stay in the know if you will. Have to admit it's kind of cool reading this thread for the latest HTF members results.

Who really cares what format wins out...because sooner or later, we all win with the quality envelope being pushed further than it ever has for pre-recorded media. Hope all of you early adopters have a great time with your new gear, and keep us informed.

 

[Ron-P]

Yes, it's the one I'm using, I returned my 6' $98 AR (Acoustic Research) cable today and ordered up a 35' Blue Jeans HDMI cable for $70.

 

[LanceJ]

this has got to be one of the deadest forums on the HTF the past week.

 

[ericJed]

I have a question.What if my tv only has One HDMI input and I use it for HD Directv? How can I hook up HD DVD or Blue Ray with a HDMI cable?

 

[TonyD]

will this player play the WM hi def films like the one on the terminator 2 extreme version?

 

[andy wells]

Thats a good question about T2..I'll check, though I SERIOUSLY doubt it.
I picked up a player and Last Samurai and Serinity today.
Glad I did. Lovin it.

 

[Ron-P]

Was able to pick up POTO and TLS last night. Spun POTO for about 1/2 hour skipping around the movie.

I have the A1 wired up to a Z3 with a 35' HDMI cable for video and a coax connection of the audio, I have an 85" DIY gray screen. I have the A1 set at 1080i

The Image
Outstanding, the image was awesome. Very crisp, clean and sharp, so much detail in everything, it's amazing. The colors were very accurate, and very vivid, flesh tones looked very natural as well, more so then with SD-DVD. Blacks were deep and dark with great detail. This machine puts out a seriously impressive image.

The Sound
Excellent as well. My Outlaw 950 does light up with the DTS logo with the dd track playing but the sound is no different from SD-DVDs, very dynamic, deep bass and no tinny sound. The ouput is a bit lower as I normally listen at about -18 and to achieve the same level I had to turn it up to -06. Other then that, it sounds fantastic.

All I can say is WOW! This HD-DVD is a keeper, I am very impressed. Once I get the player in the rack I will wire it up with the analog outputs and give that a try over the coax.

 

[Craig W]

As long as your mits dvi input has the HDCP algorithm you should be fine. Check your manual to be sure. I some of the original dvi-input TVs did not have HDCP.

 

[Mike_G]

I tried getting movies from my local BB last night. The guy was being a dick about the whole thing (meaning his attitude, not because it wasn't street date), despite the fact that TWO BBs in a 20 mile radius were selling movies yesterday (but were sold out by the time I got out of work), not to mention all the BBs around the country that were selling movies since last week. I realize the whole street date thing, but when your store sells players for a brand new format and only get TWO copies of each title in the store, I think they could bend the rules for one week, don't you? Two copies aren't going to make or break sales.

I was lucky enough to scoot out of work at 9:50 this morning and went to a different BB, picking up TLS and Serenity. They had PotO but I wasn't interested in it. They did not yet get Doom or Apollo 13.

So as soon as I get home, I'll spin them up.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Amir from Microsoft posted on AVS the other day that the DVD standard prohibits upscaling above 480p via analog means (i.e., component). It can only be done via digital (HDMI, in this case). Oddly, the High-def standard allows higher resolution to be passed via the components, but that's the only instance where the ICT flagging would come into play.

 

[Craig W]

Does anyone know if this unit can do more than 5.1 over HDMI? Are the current Pioneer/Yamaha/other HDMI-receivers capable of doing true discrete 7.1 over the HDMI input?

I have a Pioneer 1015 that only has a 5.1 analog input and the unit will not do any sort of processing on that input to create the 2-extra rear channels. So if I bought this unit I would either sacrafice the two rear speakers to use the newer high resolution surround formats or sacrafice the high res surround to use the two rear speakers.

I really think limiting this player to 5.1 analog output is to force those who buy now to buy again next year when the players have 7.1 analog out are released. Some receivers have had 7.1 inputs for a couple of years.

I agree that in most setups it becomes a challenge to find space for those extra speakers, but when you have a larger dedicated room those extra speakers can help solidify the sound field. Also I thought the idea behind the new DD+/TrueHD/dts-HD was to make the move from matrixed 7.1 to true discrete 7.1 and beyond.

I am happy to see the content providers implementing the higher data rates for surround. The modern cineplexes are not currently doing true discrete 7.1 so is there any motivation for the studio to mix 7.1 tracks for the small number of end users in the home environment?

There are still a ton of questions that need to be answered about HD-DVD/BluRay.

 

[Chris S]

Engadget has some nice shots of the HD-A1 with the lid off. Nothing too surprising as its pretty much just a PC. Intel processor, 1G of 333Hz RAM, etc. But I must say that does look like one serious fan/heatsink.

Chris S.

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

The pure processing power required to pump out HDTV is such that I'm not even slightly surprised these have fans in them. I strongly suspect fans will be a staple in HD-disc players, or else they'll be monster-sized and basically one big heatsink. Some form of active cooling will be all but unavoidable, most likely.

But mayhap I'm a pessimist, it's been known to happen.

 

[Mike Robertson]

I was going to wait. Since my HDTV only has component inputs, I thought that was a good choice. Well, I caved. When I read that they are delivering 1080i over component outputs and I discovered the local Sears has them on sale for $475, I ordered one. Won't be in until the 26th so I guess I can wait a few more days.

 

[RonR]

http://www.i4u.com/article5485.html

has the insides also...

 

[TonyD]

did that guy void his warranty

 

[andy wells]

Tony D- Sorry it took so long to respond, but the high def version of T2 extreme edition does NOT work. A bit disappointing, but it's what I expected.

 

[Dave Moritz]

That was very interesting actually. That tells me that Toshiba was in such a rush to beat Sony to market. That they slaped together a player just to say they went to market first. The second generation players will most likely boot up faster and perform better. And have the bugs fixed in order to truely try to compete against Sony's Blu-ray HD player.

I did see HD-DVD at my local BB and the picture did look good. Even with a poorly set up hd display it still was impressive. IMHO the choice of a small 40" LCD was not the best choice in the world to demonstrate a HD format.

Because there is a Intel P4 in the HD-DVD player I am not suprised to see the fan on the back. I am not to thrilled about Toshiba using a PC drive to play HD-DVD discs in a home player.

If Sony does not get there act together and there is no Blu-ray players available by next year. I will most likely end up backing HD-DVD and I will then start building my HD library with HD-DVD discs.

 

[John Stell]

FWIW, my local Best Buy had the player back in stock today.

 

[TonyD]

i noticed the north wilmington del store had a return.
it was 450.00