Ron's HD DVD Review (1 Viewer)

[EricCr]

PS3 will be Blu-Ray due to the fact it is a Sony product. Even if Blu-Ray dies as a movie format Sony will have to keep it going because all games for PS3 will be on Blu-Ray discs. XBOX360 will have an add on HD-DVD player coming out around the same time as the PS3 for a rumored $150-$200.

 

[Gerrard Daniels]

Thanks Eric, I've gotta say that helps.
I'm almost a sure thing to get a PS3 so I'll be backing the Blu-ray camp.

 

[Dana Rodakis]

Ron,

Thanks for the review. You pushed me off the fence. I have an A1 sitting in the van while I "try" to finish my work day :frowning: I was going to boycott this stupid greed format war but decided to support the format I think is being done right.

Have a great weekend in your home theater.

 

[Jim Douglas]

I jumped off the fence today also. I was off today and went into BB to have a look around. Asked a sales guy when they would be getting some HD-A1's in and he said we have two or three in the back. Want One?? Of course having very little will power and a BB 12% off rewards coupon burning a hole in my pocket I said "Yes Please".

So got the player for $439.99 and picked up Serenity,Apollo 13 and Blazing Saddles with another coupon. Will raid Amazon for more later.

Hooked it up today to my Pioneer Elite 630HD via a HDMI/DVI cable. Went into the setup menus and will tweak the picture tonight after sunset. Mine has a June 2006 build date and has firmware V1.3.

Anyway wanted to thank Ron the the review and everybody else for their comments that helped push me off that fence. It's great to join the club.

Later,

Jim

 

[nousername]

Great review, Ron. It answered a lot of questions I had about the format.

I'm a little disapponted that you went out and bought a new, HDMI TV set so soon, however. Now who's going to represent us poor blokes who are still stuck with analog, component-inputs-only TV sets?

But seriouly, congrats on the new purchases and I hope you enjoy them immensely!

 

[Dana Rodakis]

Congratulations Jim, I was able to use the 12% off coupon on the player also but the "10% off movies, music and software" coupon says "no new releases". The BB St. Petersburg computer wouldn't give me the discount on any HD-DVDs. :frowning:

I'm feeding my Pro-510HD that has only component video inputs. I wish Pioneer made a module that would plug into the tuner slot that could give me HDMI inputs. The 510HD is overdue for a serious convergence session.

 

[Jim Douglas]

Dana,

My store said the same thing and I told the sales guy these were not new release titles. He said sorry but the computer would not take the code and give the discount. I said that's ok just leave those off and I'll pick them up at Fry's or Amazon. Those were the magic words and he called the manager who over rode the codes to give the discount.

Jim

 

[Ronald Epstein]

For all of you that just bought players....

First off, welcome aboard!

Please do me a favor. Post a review of your experience with HD-DVD?

We have an entire area devoted to the format and your honest
comments will help others decide whether it is worth their hard-earned
moolah to invest.

Look very forward to reading your comments.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Ron,

great review and congrads on getting into HD!

To everyone new to purchasing the Toshiba player, be sure to get the latest firmware upgrades from Toshiba (discussed earlier in the thread)... that will improve things quite a bit. Also, don't use the 720P output of the player even if you have a 720P projector/TV... always use 1080I output setting with the Tosh for the best image.

 

[Paul Arnette]

Ron,

Do you want us to post a review of our experience here in this thread or in a separate one?

Incidently, after about a week of messing with bad analog audio cables, byzantian receiver settings, and low sub test tones on the HD-A1, I think I'm about ready to start actually watching the four HD DVDs I have. Once I do that, hopefully by week's end, I'll share my thoughts.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Paul,

Tell you what. I'll start a thread in the HD-DVD OWNERS area
to talk up their experiences with the Toshiba and RCA models.

You'll see it as a sticky thread at the top of the forum

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Click Here To Post Your Review

 

[Dave_M]

This is certainly true with HD-DVD titles, but not so of SD-DVD upconverted discs. I notice no difference in upconverted quality with either 720p or 1080i on my Samsung HLP-5085. Calibrations with Avia are the same at either output. I have been trying to get people to do a little A/B comparison over at AVS forum and most are agreeing, even the people who claim 720p is "broken" on this machine. Here is an early review of the unit which explains why 720p has a worse picture, but he also says upconverted quality is good either way: http://www.ultimateavmag.com/hddiscp...ahd/index.html

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Correct. The Toshiba has a bug that causes it to down-scale HD DVDs to 480 then *back up* to 720 when you select 720P output instead of 1080I. Obviously that's bad.



But since DVDs start out at 480 to begin with, if you have a 720P display the quality for upconverted SD material might be just fine at 720. But if upconverted material looks good at 1080I also than I'd leave it at that setting all the time so you don't forget and then pop in an HD DVD title forgetting that the 720P setting reduces your absolute resolution to 480!

-dave

 

[Dave_M]

Agreed! However, if I send my Samsung a 720p signal, I can choose the 'Expand' setting which gives what I believe is called 1:1 pixel mapping (might have the term wrong). For me, it means overscan is reduced almost to zero. Also, it's so obviously poo-poo when you're watching HD-DVD at 720p that you'll remember to switch

 

[DaViD Boulet]

 

[RaymondSteiner]

Great review Ron!. I'm looking forward to get one of those machines!... (Need to start saving)

 

[todd s]

Off hand. What studios support which format?

Thanks!

 

[Tim Glover]

www.thedigitalbits.com Pull up the HD/Blu Ray release schedule.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

We have a release schedule of our own at the top of this forum area