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

[Stan Rozenfeld]

Juan,

Thanks for your thoughtful remarks.

I agree that no one knows how well Toshibas will perform as upconverting players, which is exasperating. For the record, I can't stand any Faroudja based players, including Denon 3910 which I sold, because I saw macroblocking all the time.

I doubt very much whether we'll get $500 sd dvd performance for the player. I figure more like $200 for sd dvd, and the rest is premium for hd dvd, which is not so bad considering it's new technology. I think that the same premium might apply to blu-ray, maybe more.

Regarding studio commitment, if I don't hear anything from the two studios within the next couple of weeks, I'll be the first to cancel my preorder!

Your comments about netflix are very perceptive! I hadn't thought of that. Same will be true for blu-ray of course.

I've been selling on ebay for a while now, and I find that players hold their value more than people think. It's no different with hd dvd than with regular dvd. Non-hdmi players, even of expensive variety still hold some value, and it's also a matter of timing your sale. And same caveats will be true of blu-ray.

So, Juan, what is your strategy? Would you just buy an sd dvd upscaling player right now, with high def dvd on the horizon? You see, I am not talking about people who already have an upscaling player and are quite happy.

 

[Juan C]

The thing is, I do have an upscaling player (a Pioneer 59AVi). With that in hand, I'm going to preorder a PS3... or maybe three or four, to make sure I get one.

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

Stan, like the new Neo player, there are several economical high performace upscaling DVD players that will even output 1080p. I have very little faith, especially after seeing the Toshiba demo in person, that their 1st gen players are going to do anything but disappoint those used to the current crop of excellent upscaling SD DVD players.

 

[Paul.S]

Juan re Netflix: Given the numbers of discs I understand Nf routinely gets from the studios, unless there are production capacity problems, I would think they'll get plenty of copies to preclude a scenario such as the one you described.

They're already getting a sense of what market demand is going to be by allowing customers to 'enable' their accounts for HD DVD. If Reed Hastings didn't think he could get enough copies from the studios to meet that demand, I don't think he would have so conspicuously announced the company's plans to rent both formats.

We'll see of course but, "throttling" and shipping the old disc when an SE is available aside, the company's got a pretty good track record.

 

[Ed St. Clair]

All Quite on the HD Front.
Man, you'd think this place would be buzzing!!!
With HD on disc, four days or three weeks away. People must be feeling HD burnout.

i blame Tosh (HD-DVD). Not, Sony, so much as they have had only one major setback and BD (hardware & software) looks to launch in May.

This has been a Hot Topic for a year, now with both formats probably out in the next two months, this forum (and other HD-DVD forums) is (are) attracting very little heat.

Maybe interest will pick up before the holidays.
It better!

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

Besides all the delays, ever shrinking list of initial titles, I think a big reason for this is that there are still sooo many unknowns about both formats in regards to hardware and software specs, selection, and reliability. In addition, the demos have not exactly been awe-inspiring other than what we already knew, and that true HD looks great.

Not only are these niche products, but even within this small target market, I don't expect more than 10% to be in line waiting to get a 1st gen player without knowing EXACTLY what they are buying.

I'll be a lot more excited once HD DVD and Blu-ray have demos of the actual models and that when they output 1080p, and have HDMI 1.3 (or see in writing that they can upgrade to 1.3 easily enough). I also want to log a few hours with one to be sure it's video processor is up to the task, and to test out all the subtle nuances.

Personally, I suspect I’ll be waiting for the 2nd gen players. I wouldn’t even rule out the idea that my first Blu-ray player may end up being a PS3 even though I’m not much of a gamer.