Any cheeper D-VHS players out there? or HD-DVD players @ CES? (1 Viewer)

[Grady Hollums]

I have been wanting to see 1080i on my TV ever since I bought it, but everything is so expensive right now. Terrestrial receiver for HDTV, HDTV satellite, or D-VHS player.

I would actually buy a D-VHS player if it was down in the $350-$400 range, but until then I will have to wait for the HD-DVD players to come out.

Any news @ CES with HD-DVD players or cheaper D-VHS players? Thanks!

 

[Ken_F]

There were a number of different prototype/demonstration HD-DVD boxes on display, but none were actually functional (as in playing a movie), as far as I know. Sony and Panasonic come to mind as showing off non-functional units using Blu-ray technology. Update: Toshiba apparently did have a Blu-ray HD-DVD player running, but I did not see it.
Marantz announced its Marantz MV8300 D-VHS VCR at [an absurd] $1599. Many think it is a rebadged JVC, albeit with a better chassis, but that is as yet unconfirmed.
JVC has a new HDTV D-VHS product (model 40000) in the works, but it was not formerly announced or shown at CES; it was shown, albeit not working, at their Mandalay Bay site. No pricing or other information was available, but tt might come in at a slightly less compared to their existing HDTV D-VHS. Unfortunately, there were not any new D-Theater (HDTV D-VHS) titles shown or announced in a press release, but JVC representatives did tell at least one person that a dozen or so new titles were coming soon. Fyi, the current JVC HDTV D-VHS has a MSRP of $1299 (was $1999 when it originally came out), but can be found for $700-$800 now via mail order.
The D-VHS units look to be a good mate for the DISH 921 HDTV PVR and JVC TU-PVR9000 HDTV PVR (based on DISH 921), both of which will apparently allow dumping of recorded/timeshifted material to D-VHS through Firewire, even for protected "copy once" 5C material (by deleting copy from hard drive when recording to D-VHS). There were still no DirecTV HDTV receivers formerly announced with a Firewire output.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I guess your local cable provider doesn't do HD yet.

I just got Time Warner Cable installed and have HBO and Showtime in HD plus the locals at no extra cost compared to regular digital cable. The movies look great at 1080i although I see a fair amount of flickering. Also, HBO forces all of them into 16x9 ratio instead of OAR. Showtime seems to show some movies in OAR although I'm not sure I get a correct OAR picture from the STB (Scientific Atlanta 3100HD). Looks to me like it's vertically squeezing the picture.

_Man_

 

[JohnnyG]

Update: Toshiba apparently did have a Blu-ray HD-DVD player running, but I did not see it.

Actually, Toshiba was showing their AOD format, not Blu-Ray. They showed it next to a red laser based HD player using MPEG4 compression. The material was different, but the red-laser based video did NOT look as nice as the AOD material. It lacked that "reach out and grab you" look.