Warner hd dvd movies to street 4-18-06 (1 Viewer)

[Greg T]

www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6316722.html

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

I think this is exactly why an early launch for either format means diddly squat. It won't be until late fall when having product available will start to mean something.

 

[Pete T C]

This is the thing I like best about HD-DVD. I can buy a new Warner release and play it on a HD-DVD player, then take it to a friend's house and play it on his SD-DVD player. Further, I can build a collection of High Definition DVD discs without spending money on a player.

I heard JVC gave up on the DVD/Blu-Ray combo disc, which is a shame.

 

[Rakesh.S]

I don't think the hybrid is a good idea, at least for now

a) You're going to probably get the worst possible HD quality on these discs and there will be a dual layer double dip in the future.

b) error correction won't be so hot initially..never a good thing for double sided discs.

 

[JackKay]

$39.99 for a Hybrid disk is almost like double-dipping in one shot anyway.

 

[EricRWem]

Lots of new updates on this:

http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6316722.html

They've also reduced the initial line up to just three titles; Million Dollar Baby; Last Samurai; and Phantom of the Opera.

more articles-

Businesswire
Comingsoon

Reuters

Also an extremely informative piece on Home Media Retailing


Press release


http://www.homemediaretailing.com/index.cfm?sec_id=buzz

Toshiba may as well as well push back the launch of their player and work on the firmware a tad more.

What have they got to lose? There's no point in putting out hardware with no movies.



What's amazing is: I've actually run across a handful of HD-DVD apologists' on several forums who have given me this line of bunk, 100 percent sincerely:

Can this stuff get any more pathetic?

 

[Greg T]

Must be the kool aide Eric

 

[Ed St. Clair]

I guess, from some resent posts, some people don't realise the advantages of upsampling SD-DVD's.
And, of coarse, no one is going to checkout a SD-DVD on a BD player, that's out of the realm of possibilites!

Who's drinking Koolaid?

Get off the juice, get on the Uni's!

 

[Greg T]

We both own one of the single best sd dvd up scaling players in the world....so how wrong you are.

 

[EricRWem]

 

[Ed St. Clair]

Maybe none of us are cultist who drink Koolaid, maybe were just hobbist trying to have a good time!

Peace, love, & HiDef!

 

[Greg T]

No Ed....you got it wrong....first of all its called up scaling not upsampling.
Second of all.... if there into up scaling, chances are the Toshibas are not going to be anything special at it...so why buy one early with no hd dvd movies to watch.

Thats the only point

If someone was buying a Blu Ray player with no software available, and said they were buying it early to use it for up scaling to 1080p....I would still not consider this a good reason to buy early.

 

[Ed St. Clair]

Well, that's more than fair. Just consider they did not know at the time of their order, there would be no software. So, in this case they in no way shape or form wanted a HD-DVD to only SCALE SD-DVD to HD output. ;-)
Hope the BD people are not in the same boat of "hardware w/o software". But if they were, believe me they would be upscaling their SD-DVD's as well!

On that other forum, someone posted that a web site was giving their customers one HD-DVD (Kronos?) with another one of their choice. Hope everyone as SOMETHING in HD to play, demo disc or whatever!!!

 

[Greg T]

Ed... i took it that Eric was basically making fun of the fact that this guy was trying to convince others to buy early....and not merely laughing at him for what his plans are for his already ordered player, while he waits for hd dvd movies.

But anyway.....your an audio guy so you would probably love the Onkyo sp 1000 for redbook, sa-cd and dvd-a as well as its first rate sd dvd up scaling.

I sold my Modwright 9000 es signature and my Denon 3910, and replaced both players with one fantastic universal.
I also owned several 3k cd/sa-cd audio only players that could not compete.
I don't plan on using any hi res player for audio or sd dvd...but I may try the Sony Blu Ray players sd dvd up scaling to 1080p out when I get my 1080p projector in the fall.

 

[Quint van der Vaart]

Check out the specs for the initial Warner HD-DVD releases :

Million Dollar Baby

Main Feature:
1080P HD 16x9 2.40:1
Dolby Digital-Plus: English 5.1 & French 5.1
English, French and Spanish subtitles

Extra Features:
480i Standard Definition
Stereo Sound
James Lipton Takes on Three: Roundtable with Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman and Moderator James Lipton
Born to Fight: A discussion with real-life boxer/actress Lucia Rijker
Producers Round 15: Behind the Scenes
Theatrical Trailer

The Last Samurai

Main Feature:
1080P HD 16x9 2.40:1
Dolby Digital-Plus: English 5.1, French 5.1, Spanish 2.0
English, French and Spanish subtitles

Extra Features:
480i Standard Definition
Stereo Sound
Commentary by Edward Zwick
Deleted Scenes
Edward Zwick: Director's Video Journal
History vs. Hollywood: The Last Samurai {History Channel Documentary)
Tom Cruise: A Warrior's Journey
Making an Epic: A Conversation with Edward Zwick
A World of Detail: Production Design with Lilly Kilvert
Silk and Armor: Costume Design with Ngila Dickson
From Soldier to Samurai: The Weapons
Japan Premieres
Imperial Army Basic Training
Theatrical Trailer

The Phantom of the Opera

Main Feature:
1080P HD 16x9 2.40:1
Dolby True HD: English 5.1
Dolby Digital-Plus: English 5.1 & French 5.1
English, French and Spanish subtitles

Extra Features:
480i Standard Definition
Stereo Sound
Behind the Mask: The story of The Phantom of the Opera
The Making of The Phantom of the Opera in 3 Spellbinding Acts:
Pre-Production
The Director
Production
No One Would Listen: Additional Scene
Singalong
Theatrical Trailer



I am still dissapointed that Warner chose not to include DTS sound on these discs :frowning:

 

[EricRWem]

I'd say this regardless of format: Inexcuseable.

 

[Paul.S]

Thx for the spec post, Quint. Where'd you get that info?

 

[Quint van der Vaart]

I found it on www.dvdtimes.co.uk

 

[Stan Rozenfeld]

Greg, Eric,

I see that you're having your fun at the expense of the people who preordered hd dvd players, and no doubt you think that all of us are morons, but perhaps if I share some of my reasons with you, you'll at least see my side of the story. And no, I don't drink kool aid.

I currently have 61" dlp TV with hdmi input. I need an upscaling player, since I think you'll agree that a $50 walmart player won't cut it. By the way, a lot of my friends and relatives are in the same position. They are just buying their first high def TV and will no doubt discover that a cheapo player will look terrible. I know... I tried!

So my choice is to buy a regular upscaling dvd player or to pay some more and get an hd dvd player. Since I've seen and played with many good players (denon 3910, etc.), I can tell you that from my point of view, DVD is good enough, but it's not great. I can see plenty of room for improvement.

So I have a desire to get into high def dvd as soon as possible, but not risk too much. I figured that I will buy Toshiba hd dvd, watch my dvds, rent hd dvds from netflix and watch the format war unfold, and see how it comes out and what software will be available and whether unis will be available and so on. At most I am risking this $450,although I am sure I'll get plenty of use out of it as a dvd and an hd dvd player, and there'll still be an ebay market for it when I am ready to move on.

Granted, I could wait for the Samsung player, but I will be risking more money. Now is this strategy set in stone? Absolutely not! If between now and when my player ships, there will be developments, I'll be the first to reevaluate the situation. If Toshiba's upconverting turns out to be bad, I'll return it. If it becomes evident that ALL the studios have begun favoring Blu-ray and the software output will be far greater, I'll be the first to jump ship to the blu-ray side.

If anyone has constructive criticism as to my strategy or suggestions as to how to jump to high def dvd asap and still minimize risk, I would love to hear it, but without cool-aid remarks.

By the way, I am not partial to blu-ray or hd dvd... as far as I am concerned, they each have their advantages and disadvantages. I just want my high def dvd and am trying to find a way to navigate through the quagmire of this format war.

Stan

 

[Juan C]

For one, nobody knows how well the Toshiba HD DVD players will perform as upconverting DVD players.

Josh Zyber, former reviewer at dvdfile and now at dvdtalk, attended one of the demos and saw an HD-XA1 playing a regular DVD. In his opinion, the result wasn't as good as what he got at home with his $200 Oppo upconverting player. Of course, considering this wasn't a final production model, and that probably the setup wasn't fully calibrated, you can't draw definitive conclusions.

But there is a possibility that you won't get $500-worth of DVD playback performance.

Going on to getting use as an HD DVD player, it seems two of the three studios that supported the format are less and less committed. Remember that Paramount said that 'just a few thousand players' was not enough incentive for them to warrant a software launch. And that exactly is what we have here.

You mention renting from Netflix. We still don't know how easily or fast you will get your HD DVD titles. What if they get one copy and some greedy HTF member rents it before and hoards it for a month? Remember that with hidef disc, the RRR scheme (rent-rip-return) doesn't work anymore.

And regarding ebay, don't count on it. The first Toshiba HD DVD players will only output 1080i. By the holidays they will have new models, at the same price or maybe a tad cheaper, that will output 1080p. And, in true 'this goes to eleven' fashion, 1080p has added value. Not to mention multichannel Dolby TrueHD, HDMI 1.3 and all those little perks the first generation is being deprived of. Bottom line, you won't get a lot from your player.