Ric Easton
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Feb 6, 2001
- Messages
- 2,831
It's been about a month since I got the Toshiba A3 HD-DVD player, and I've had the Blu-Ray for over a week. So far, I've probably watched about 12 HD-DVD discs and only about 3 Blu-rays. Anyway, I know Ron likes us to share our experiences and impressions of the new media, so here are some of mine.
First the good...
I'm very happy with the video quality. Although I do not have HDMI connections for my 53" HD-RPTV set, the video looks fantastic. It's also nice to be able to plop myself a little closer to the TV without seeing any degradation in the video. I don't think my ears are as discerning with the audio. I can't really tell the difference between a good DVD mix and an HD counterpart. Of course, I'm the guy that's happy with the audio quality on my iPod.
Now the bad. Unfortunately thay all had to do with HD-DVD. Though, like I said, I have only watched 3 movies on the Blu-ray.
First off, the HD-DVD player is a lot noisier. Though admittedly, I don't really notice it when the movie is playing. But here's the real problem... We invited some friends of ours over to watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. During the climactic moments of the closing act, the picture froze for a couple of seconds, stuttered and then continued. Except that now the sound was no longer synched. It was off by about two seconds. It was very distracting when characters were speaking. After a few minutes, and another couple of hiccups, the sound corrected itself and the rest of the movie was fine. Still, not as great a first impression of HD with my friends as I was hoping for. After they left, I tried to repeat the problem, but it played smoothly.
A few days later I did the firmware upgrade. Hoping that would solve any future problems.
So tonight we had them over again. I had gotten The Bourne Ultimatum for Christmas and we saved it until we could watch it with them. As a precaution I ran the disc thru the player before they came over. I did this without watching the movie. Since none of us had seen it before, I wanted to experience it for the first time with my wife and our friends. But from time to time I would go into the HT look at the picture and turn the sound up for a bit and make sure everything was going smoothly. It was the most I could do without spoiling the film for me.
So, we're having a good time watching the movie. And then during chapter 14 the sound goes completely away. The video stutters a bit (pretty hard to notice in a Jason Bourne movie). Sometimes it almost looked like it was going double speed. I checked the remote to see if it was hit by accident. It wasn't None of the controls worked except for stop. I stopped it, refound the chapter and the same thing happened. It was maddening. Finally, I flipped the disc over and we watched the rest of it on the DVD side. Luckily, it was an HD-DVD/DVD combo disc.
So, twice with my friends the film we were watching messed up. This and the fact that both my wife and the other female in the room, stated they could not tell the difference between the picture quality of the DVD side and the HD-DVD side. The guy said he could tell... sometimes. Not exactly a ringing endorsment.
Anyway, looks like I am going to have to pre-watch every HD-DVD before I have any company over. I can imagine their conversation on the way home. "Yeah, HD is just great... there's a sucker born every minute!"
I'm starting to look like a shmuck.
I'm not quite at the point where I wished I hadn't jumped in. But I can't help but feel like I am getting close. The disc is going back tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll get one that woirks. With tonights mishap I assume its the disc and not the player, although, who knows?
Didn't really mean this to be a rant against HD-DVD. I had planned on doing a "one month later" thread even before tonight's problems. I imagine it would have turned out much more positive if I hadn't been through this again.
First the good...
I'm very happy with the video quality. Although I do not have HDMI connections for my 53" HD-RPTV set, the video looks fantastic. It's also nice to be able to plop myself a little closer to the TV without seeing any degradation in the video. I don't think my ears are as discerning with the audio. I can't really tell the difference between a good DVD mix and an HD counterpart. Of course, I'm the guy that's happy with the audio quality on my iPod.
Now the bad. Unfortunately thay all had to do with HD-DVD. Though, like I said, I have only watched 3 movies on the Blu-ray.
First off, the HD-DVD player is a lot noisier. Though admittedly, I don't really notice it when the movie is playing. But here's the real problem... We invited some friends of ours over to watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. During the climactic moments of the closing act, the picture froze for a couple of seconds, stuttered and then continued. Except that now the sound was no longer synched. It was off by about two seconds. It was very distracting when characters were speaking. After a few minutes, and another couple of hiccups, the sound corrected itself and the rest of the movie was fine. Still, not as great a first impression of HD with my friends as I was hoping for. After they left, I tried to repeat the problem, but it played smoothly.
A few days later I did the firmware upgrade. Hoping that would solve any future problems.
So tonight we had them over again. I had gotten The Bourne Ultimatum for Christmas and we saved it until we could watch it with them. As a precaution I ran the disc thru the player before they came over. I did this without watching the movie. Since none of us had seen it before, I wanted to experience it for the first time with my wife and our friends. But from time to time I would go into the HT look at the picture and turn the sound up for a bit and make sure everything was going smoothly. It was the most I could do without spoiling the film for me.
So, we're having a good time watching the movie. And then during chapter 14 the sound goes completely away. The video stutters a bit (pretty hard to notice in a Jason Bourne movie). Sometimes it almost looked like it was going double speed. I checked the remote to see if it was hit by accident. It wasn't None of the controls worked except for stop. I stopped it, refound the chapter and the same thing happened. It was maddening. Finally, I flipped the disc over and we watched the rest of it on the DVD side. Luckily, it was an HD-DVD/DVD combo disc.
So, twice with my friends the film we were watching messed up. This and the fact that both my wife and the other female in the room, stated they could not tell the difference between the picture quality of the DVD side and the HD-DVD side. The guy said he could tell... sometimes. Not exactly a ringing endorsment.
Anyway, looks like I am going to have to pre-watch every HD-DVD before I have any company over. I can imagine their conversation on the way home. "Yeah, HD is just great... there's a sucker born every minute!"
I'm starting to look like a shmuck.
I'm not quite at the point where I wished I hadn't jumped in. But I can't help but feel like I am getting close. The disc is going back tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll get one that woirks. With tonights mishap I assume its the disc and not the player, although, who knows?
Didn't really mean this to be a rant against HD-DVD. I had planned on doing a "one month later" thread even before tonight's problems. I imagine it would have turned out much more positive if I hadn't been through this again.