So, I swore I was going to hold out as long as I could (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Richard,

Welcome aboard! Can't wait to read your review!

 

[Edwin-S]

I wouldn't count on it. I can picture a lot of people replacing these intial releases with new ones as compressionists continue to hone their skills with these new codecs. In a few years, we may be seeing posts about how these first releases look bad compared to ones produced with improved algorithms and compressionist skill.

 

[Bryan X]

I know that no SD-DVD player will upconvert over component. That is why I was hoping the Tosh HD-DVD player would do that-- just to give me an excuse to get one.

 

[RobertDW]

Oh now I understand. You can of course backup your standard DVD's then they will upscale over component video but then that takes time and money.

 

[Dave Moritz]

I swore that I would not buy HD-DVD and look at me now I should have my HD-A1 this friday

That is as long as the player arrives on the truck at UE on Friday. I also plan to buy 2 or 3 more HD-DVD titles the same day I pick up my player. I allready own 7 HD-DVD titles. I am going to put the Sony Blu-ray player under a microscope before I spend the $1k to buy the player. I will also wait for VC-1 discs to replace the MPEG2 discs on Blu-ray.

I saw Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl on ABC-HD yesterday and I cant wait for it to come out in HD-DVD and or Blu-ray (VC-1). After seeing how awsum HD looks its hard to continue buying SD-DVD's. I hope that the studios realize that there are quite a few of us that do not want DVD any more. And that they excelerate the number of HD titles being released.



The Toshiba HD-A1 and Blu-ray player both require an HDMI conection to upsample DVD to a higher resolution so I would just go buy one anyway. If you have an older tv I would invest in a new HDTV if you really want to upsample your current dvd library.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

Well, there was one player that upconverted over component, the Zenith DVB318. I believe that the later models of this unit were modified to do upconverting via DVI only. I still have it, it's a pretty good player with one knockout feature-being able to stretch non-anamorphic DVD's to proper height and width, thus making these DVD's much more visually appealing. I'm holding onto the player for this feature alone.

 

[Michael Boyd]

I think it's impossible to stay away from a format like this for long when you read the forums.

I read the DVD newsgroup 1997-1999 and then finally got a player - upgraded from LD that I'd had since 1990. The upgrade is easier for me to do this time because of the fantastic upconversion of this player.

 

[Alf S]

Trust me, it's easier than you think...

 

[TedD]

Only if you don't care about having the best image quality for your HT and/or don't have the equipment to display that image and/or don't really have a home theater with a good size screen and/or you prefer to watch your TV from a viewing distance of 3 or more times the image width.

Otherwise, watching HD DVD is like having your own 35mm projectors and access to 35mm prints in your HT.

Ted

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Really....

I think once someone actually owns one of these players and sees
the benefits, they'll wonder why it was so difficult to stay away in
the first place.

Realistically, most everyone that converts to HD-DVD never wants
to go back to S-DVD.

Personally, I feel those that think it's easy sitting this out just
haven't had the opportunity to see these players in action.

 

[John Besse]

Well UPS just delivered this huge a** box today! I think they could house about 20 small SD DVD players in this thing... Anyways, I will be hooking it up a little bit later. My buddy Netflixed Cinderella Man. So, we'll be doing a movie night with that later. I'll let you all know if it was well worth me jumping in as an early adopter.

 

[Alf S]

I've seen it demo'd...looked ok, but not such a huge leap (from SD)that I'd need to invest $500 plus double or triple dip movies I already have....and of course if I did drop coin, I'd not be able to watch any of the movies Blu offers ..unless of course I drop MORE coin to the tune of $1000 to watch THOSE movies..whcih in turn clogs up an already full entertainment center.....thanks but no thanks.

When some form of Hi Def DVD is the norm and ALL of my players die off, THEN I will buy the ONE format that survived this mess.

I'm not gonna jump JUST because it's something new....not a wise investment for me.

 

[BrettGallman]

Welcome to the dark side. Hope your first HD-DVD experience goes very well.

 

[Tim Glover]

Let me add that most of those store demos ( at least at Best Buy) don't look very good...or at least they need to calibrate the TV. Getting it home and really taking the time to set it up properly will yield far better results for you. Once you see that...there really is NO going back to sd-dvd.

 

[John Besse]

Well, we watched Cinderella Man last night and it was night and day diffence when A/Bing the movie between a Panasonic RP-82 vs. the HD DVD player. However, when we stuck the SD DVD into the HD A1 the noticability wasn't nearly the same. Alone this player rocks for upconverting SD DVDs. I was more impressed by that than anything else. Don't get me wrong, the HD DVD looked beautiful and all, but I'd be extremely happy with just the upconversion on SD DVD discs. Price to performance ratio, I'm wondering if I didn't make a mistake not spending $200 on an Oppo vs the extra $240 I paid to get the HD A1. However, I'm not sure if Cinderella Man was a great comparison disc. Whenever my order arrives with Sahara and Last Samurai, I'm hoping there is more of a difference.

So, overall I'm still on the fence. Right now, I'm happy I bought the player. At least the upconversion factor is great and it plays HD DVD. I'm really more excited to have a new format and player to toy around with. Well, minus a few glitches. Once during HD Playback we had a lip sync issue, hitting pause and then resuming playback fixed it. There were also some audio glitches. Not sure if it was the actual Cinderella Man release or the fact that it was a scratched up Netflix title. Third, there was also a small pause that looked more like a layer change that happened about 15-25 minutes into the movie. I'm assuming it wasn't a layer change, 'cause that was way to early for that.

So, am I happy? At the moment I would say I am. Will I keep the player? I am leaning that way, mainly due to the excitement of having HD DVD. Not to mention a kick a** upconverting player. But, I tell you one thing... I will not buy into Blu Ray until they get their prices down and start selling VC1 encoded discs. I will upconvert every one of their releases until they drop their prices and roll out VC1.

 

[Member 323668]

I recommend to check if your player already operates on the new 2.0 firmware. This will add Dolby True HD support on titles like POTO and Training Day, fixes some problems and makes the player rock even more.

 

[Steve Blair]

Cinderella Man is one hd dvd where there's not a huge difference because of the way it was filmed. Gritty, depression era type movie. This is discussed over at AVS. The other hd dvd's you get will blow this one away...

 

[Dave Moritz]

Well its now official I now have gone to being an HD-DVD owner. I picked up my player today and will now set it up and update it to ver2.0.

Only time will tell if I invest in Blu-ray or put the money in other areas of my HT? It all depends on how good the Sony is, if it decodes newer surround and if the VC-1 encoded discs are available when I go to purchase a player.

But for now I will enjoy HD-DVD and plan my next upgrade to my HT

 

[Larry Sutliff]

Congratulations, and enjoy, Dave!

 

[Dave Moritz]

Thanks Larry

I have it all configured and started to watch The Last Samurai and I am also trying to update the firmware from the file I downloaded. I have heard from people here that it works and is the same as what Toshiba will be sending out. I just have to creat the disc and that's my problem. I do not have nero and I just downloaded ISO Magic 4 trial version. It would be awsum to not have to wait to get the update disc from Toshiba since this file should be the same.

Any suggestions ???