So who is sticking with SD DVD and why and for how long (1 Viewer)

[PattyFraser]

I'm sticking with SD DVD for the time being for two reasons only:

1. Most importantly-my HDTV does not have HDMI, therefore I only benefit from the HD titles available now, no upconversion of my 300 + SD library through component. I'm often tempted by the HD titles coming out now, which, of course I could see in HD, but none have tempted me enough to justify spending $399 or more when I can only upconvert the 1 or 2 titles I have that don't have "protection".

2. My husband and I are retirees--there's no way I could justify spending the money on a player format that may be doomed to extinction.

No. SD isn't "good enough" for my old eyes. I love the beautiful, sharp HD content on Discovery HD and INHD and HDNET. When I put some of my favorite discs in (like the '95 Pride and Prejudice) and they look so fuzzy I just have to take them out and watch them on the standard def sets so they don't look so bad. If I could upconvert through component for my old discs I would have had an HD player in a heartbeat.

 

[Paul_Scott]

upconversion won't make a fuzzy 480i/p source look sharp and defined.
For that matter, a 1080p mastered transfer won't make a film shot with heavy diffusion look Discovery Channel sharp and defined- nor minimize the grain structure of a super 35 movie. They will, if done well, much more faithfully replicate the appearence of the diffusion and grain though, which can fool the viewer into thinking he is no longer seeing video at all. That can be quite an achievment that may not be entirely appreciated until after the fact (i.e. you live with it for a while then go back to sd- just like progressive vs interlaced was)

 

[CraigF]

It doesn't help you or won't change your opinion, but that is probably a function of your particular HD display. Which I guess you realise from what you did to make viewing SD DVD tolerable. Many types of HD display do not display SD DVD very well at all, they look awful. And many do an excellent job, as I think they should. It is one of the tests you have to do when choosing a display model, if it matters to you. Likewise, check out reg def TV on the HD display, many make that look pretty ugly as well. I don't quite get why some manufacturers have chosen this path at this point, unless of course it's an HD marketing tool. I am not sure why they'd do that though, as HD should always look clearly superior to potential purchasers in the store setting.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

I see no reason to wait for the jump into HD DVD. The Toshiba HD A1 gives one the best of both worlds. It plays SD DVDs, it will upconvert them - though only over HDMI, and it plays HD DVDs! Regardless of how the next gen format war goes, one is covered.

The real bonus in this scenario is that the HD A1 is an awesome CD player. I can't believe how alive the audio is on CDs I have been listening to for years.

The major negative of the HD A1 is that it is slow, damned slow in fact. If one can handle that aspect of it, then getting a HD A1 is a no loss scenario.

 

[CraigF]

The other perspective: there is NEVER any advantage beyond the VERY short term in being an "early adopter" with modern electronics. There ARE advantages to being a later adopter. (Not late, considering the audience, but later I mean.)

So unless you need a new TV or DVD player, or it's related to your business, or you have a terminal disease, etc., I don't see any necessity for haste...

I do not see that most manufacturers of hi-def displays and sources and software have their act completely together. As far as I can see, they are still rehearsing, and throwing half-assed concoctions out to see what sticks...

 

[David_B_K]

Posted by Lou Systma:

I do not think that's quite true-that you're "covered" with that player. The problem with the "format wars" at this time is lack of total studio support for both formats. If I buy that player, I am "covered", unless my favorite movie is only available on the competing format.

 

[MarkHastings]

Tell me about it! How many times have I bought some brand new technology, only to find out that a year later, all of my friends have bought the same type of item, but theirs is way better than mine! :frowning:

 

[Marvin]

Unless Blu-ray ends up as the winning format. Then, if your HD-DVD player goes and you can't find a replacement, you'll be stuck with a bunch of unplayable movies (in the same way, I presume, as the people that bought a lot of DivX videos).

 

[Ronn.W]

I have no desire to jump on the HD bandwagon yet. I've seen it, it does look good, but it doesn't look good enough to force my hand, or excite me sexually like it seems to do for some people. I'm not just waiting out the format war, but I think there may be a third, even better technology looming in the near distance.

The thing is, I don't collect DVDs. I collect films. I have around a thousand of them. Most of these films would fall into the "cult," "foreign," "arthouse," or some other sub-category that is not mainstream. With a lot of them, I feel lucky they even got a release on DVD. And, with a lot of them, it took years before they did find a release on DVD. I don't expect them to be available on an HD format any time soon, and I'm perfectly happy watching them on the "inferior format" for years to come. And yes, before anyone asks, I do own a plasma.

HD's current offerings are very poor, in my eyes, and there is no compelling content to make me want to make the leap. I also don't see retailers or studios abandoning the cash cow of DVD in favor of a HD format any time soon. Heck, many consumers didn't even go over to DVD until recently, and many retailers didn't change their business models and store layouts for DVDs until one or two years ago.

For now, I see it as a niche market. It's going to have slower market penetration than DVD had, and that's going to keep it down for awhile. It also doesn't help that the films are $10 or so more than a SD DVD, since price was a big factor in DVDs acceptance. Research shows that most people will drop $15-20 on something with little thought; but when it's around $30, it becomes a purchase you have to consider.

To make a long post longer, I'll get into an HD format when it has enough compelling content (so far that looks like no time soon) and an inexpensive price tag (again, no time soon.) I'm happy with what I have now, and even after I make a switch to HD, I'll probably continue to buy a lot of things in SD DVD due to availability.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

Excellent assessment, Lou. I also love the HD A1 as a CD player-it sounds so good that I no longer listen to the NAD standalone CD player that I have in my system.

 

[Sami Kallio]

Component is covered, the only thing HDMI is required is upconverting SD-DVD. That's the case with most upconverting DVD players as well. There are two ways to upconvert SD with the A1, removing the copy protection or using HDMI-to-component adapter.

If the movie is not issued in HD-DVD, it is still available as SD-DVD so you're covered, I think that's what the other post was saying.

 

[Jim_K]

Sticking with SD DVD for the foreseeable future. I have no reason to believe standard DVD wont be around for a long long while yet.

I'll start becoming interested once one of the HD formats goes belly-up. With a format war raging it's a piss poor investment.

 

[mdnitoil]

To answer the second half of the question "how long?", I've finally come up with an answer. When a single unified HD solution starts showing up in minivans straight from the automaker, it's time for me to change formats. Until then, SD will be ruling the roost.

 

[AndrewWickliffe]

I am sticking to standard definition until:

a) I have an HD-set
b) my computer has both HD and blu-ray capabilities or whatever, since I'm going to be watching *-DVDs from my compuder to my (HD-)set
c) the HD-available library has reached the point William Shatner's "Impulse" is available.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I hope someone can help me with this question.

When the HD players were just coming out...I thought most people were saying that the players WERE upconverting most SD-DVDs through component cables. In other words, that the dreaded copy-protection wasn't preventing analog upconversion.

Or, maybe I'm remembering that wrong. I am one of those with an HDTV without HDMI.

 

[Sami Kallio]

Unfortunately not, you will need HDMI. There are adapters that do this job but they do add another cost to the total.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search...tSearch=Search

 

[Yumbo]

The xBox 360 allows upconversion via VGA.
If you have a fixed pixel display, you should see upconversion already.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Excellent points guys. I mentioned the up converision issue over HDMI only to be fair - and if it is a movie you have in SD only that you want to upconvert there is always the option of ripping your own copy to bypass that issue - so the move to a HD A1 possesses little to no down side.

The big plus is the inclusion of analog 5.1 outs. This buys your AVR extra life if it possesses analog 5.1 inputs. You gain access to the latest audio codecs without any hardware upgrades! How often does that happen?

All told the purchase of a HD A1 is nearly all positive with only the HDMI upconversion of SD DVDs and the slow response time as the two downsides. Its a win/lose scenario tipped very much so to the positive side.

The thing that is being overlooked is the audio side of things here. I cannot emphasize how much better everything sounds with the HD A1. Until you experience this, you won't know what you are missing.

The caveat is of course finding a HD A1 now.

 

[Brent M]

That's another reason I decided to pull the trigger and get one last month. I knew they would probably be hard to find when the next generation players came out and I certainly didn't want to spend $1k for the one w/ analog outs for TrueHD. I figured $350 for a high definition player was a helluva lot less than I spent for my Pio Elite DV-59AVi a couple years ago and the A1 has certainly lived up to all my expectations.

 

[PattyFraser]

Thanks Paul Scott and CraigF. I didn't understand that my '95 Pride and Prejudice (and other favorite, fuzzy dics) would probably not look better upconverted. You have eased me of something I was regretting not being able to afford to do right now! They need to re-do this very popular disc for the HD age!
My display is a 5-6 year old Sony 40 inch 350 pound 4:3 monster, which makes the 1080i material shown on the HD channels look pretty good, but with no HDMI has been the reason I don't get a new player. To answer the question of the thread, I'll probably get a new display in 2009 when the broadcast channels go digital--by that time a new set will be justifiable to the probable increased number of HD channels, and also at that time we will make the move to whichever format player has won or looks like winning in the hopefully more -cleared smoke.