OT: Anyone get the $99 HD-DVD player at Wal-mart today?

[CKB]

It's nice that it is so cheap, but it doesn't output 1080p. =(

 

The Toshiba website says it does support 1080i Output.

 

 

Yeah, but...so? 1080i is not 1080p.

Nope, The "P" stands for Progressive. It will double the resolution on the screen and make the picture more stable. Always go for Progressive.

 

Is the "I" for interlaced?

 

[The Troll King]

It's nice that it is so cheap, but it doesn't output 1080p. =(

 

The Toshiba website says it does support 1080i Output.

 

 

Yeah, but...so? 1080i is not 1080p.

Nope, The "P" stands for Progressive. It will double the resolution on the screen and make the picture more stable. Always go for Progressive.

 

Is the "I" for interlaced?

 

Yes, that's why 720p will often times look better than 1080i

[The Troll King]

Blu-Ray disks have been kicking the snot out of HD DVD sales-wise for almost a year. And the HDDVD numbers were augmented by free giveaways...

 

I'm sorry but Tosiba's recent moves smells of desperation. The free movie giveaways, paying two studios big bucks for exclusive rights (and the 18 month sign-up is void after 6 months should the studios opt out), and now the cut rate sale...

 

By the way, Warner hasn't hinted on what format they will choose or even if they will go exclusive. Just that they are going to re-evaluate their dual format support. It could very well be the HDDVD judging by prior poor sales...

 

Just doesn't fill me with confidence...

 

Jim

 

Not really kicking the snot out of HD... granted players have been selling 4 to 1 but that's because of the PS3 oddly enough movies have only been 2 to 1. Something doesn't add up. What that tells me is that most people with PS3's don't care about watching movies on them, or at least half of them don't.

 

Oh, and yes, HD-DVD burners are all over the place:

http://www.engadget.com/tag/HdDvdBurner/

 

Not to mention individual drives.

[The Troll King]

I am not sure what to buy, HD-DVD player or Blue-Ray DVD player?

Blu-Ray player. Warner is considering blu-ray exclusive. Disney,Sony and MGM already are. HD DVD only has Universal and Paramount. with Warner as neutral.

 

Warner has not stated either way which one they are "considering" as exclusive. If they had, it would be all over the HD forums which it isn't

[The Troll King]

Blu-Ray Players and HD-DVD players do play DVD's, and CD's.

 

No way in hell would I "rebuy" everything on Blu-Ray or HD DVD.

When I have the DVD versions already.

 

Here's a problem I see with my beloved 60GB Playstation 3:

 

I cannot control it with a standard infrared learning remote. So my TV, receiver, DVD player, Tivo, HD cable company box, etc. all work with a single remote. Then I have to drag out either the PS3 joystick OR buy the Sony PS3 Blu-Ray remote. That only works with Bluetooth. Which to me is pretty silly.

 

Here's why Blu-Ray wins though overall:

 

1. One can go buy a Blu-Ray burner and dump their home movies they shot with a HDV camcorder to it.

2. One can go buy a Blu-Ray burner, period. I challenge anyone on here to find me a HD-DVD burner that's for sale. I can find the HD-DVD media just fine, but no actual HD-DVD writers.

3. There was an announcement last week about the soon to be released dual layer dual-sided 100GB Blu-Ray disc. I could put lots of stuff on that one.

4. For what's available now, 25/50 GB beats 15/30, especially with the higher bitrate that Blu-Ray supports.

 

I had a blu-ray burner for a month and sold it used for the same as what I paid for it. It's just too damn slow right now to burn blu-ray discs.

 

Capacity from the Blu-ray group has yet to achieve anything that they've promised and as I stated above production failure has been massive for Blu-ray disk especially those with higher capacity.

 

Sony likes to brag about capacity but why is it then that you don't get all those "extras" that we've come to expect from DVD's?

 

One of the coolest features on an HD-DVD is the web content that you can access THROUGH the player. Not just any content either, but many disks will automatically upgrade as more content is produced. Take Transformers for example... TONS of "coming soon" content on those disks in HD-DVD.

[The Troll King]

Blu-Ray Players and HD-DVD players do play DVD's, and CD's.

 

No way in hell would I "rebuy" everything on Blu-Ray or HD DVD.

When I have the DVD versions already.

 

Do the HD players usually do upconversion of regular DVDs to 1080i?

 

The Xbox 360 HD DVD player does. I am not sure about the other ones.

 

 

Yes all players automatically upgrade the resolution. Sometimes this isn't a good thing though.

[Shield]

Blu-Ray disks have been kicking the snot out of HD DVD sales-wise for almost a year. And the HDDVD numbers were augmented by free giveaways...

 

I'm sorry but Tosiba's recent moves smells of desperation. The free movie giveaways, paying two studios big bucks for exclusive rights (and the 18 month sign-up is void after 6 months should the studios opt out), and now the cut rate sale...

 

By the way, Warner hasn't hinted on what format they will choose or even if they will go exclusive. Just that they are going to re-evaluate their dual format support. It could very well be the HDDVD judging by prior poor sales...

 

Just doesn't fill me with confidence...

 

Jim

 

Not really kicking the snot out of HD... granted players have been selling 4 to 1 but that's because of the PS3 oddly enough movies have only been 2 to 1. Something doesn't add up. What that tells me is that most people with PS3's don't care about watching movies on them, or at least half of them don't.

 

Oh, and yes, HD-DVD burners are all over the place:

http://www.engadget.com/tag/HdDvdBurner/

 

Not to mention individual drives.

 

I'll give you 24 hours to find me a single HD-DVD burner that I can purchase right now in the United States. I'm not talking about a laptop version or buying a machine with one; I'm talking about a stand alone drive.

 

I'll be waiting. I'm not talking about units that are announced. I mean one I can buy today.

[Shield]

 

Capacity from the Blu-ray group has yet to achieve anything that they've promised and as I stated above production failure has been massive for Blu-ray disk especially those with higher capacity.

 

Sony likes to brag about capacity but why is it then that you don't get all those "extras" that we've come to expect from DVD's?

 

 

First of all, they promised 25/50 gigs on a disc. I had a burner with a 50GB rewritable disc that worked perfectly. What did the "blu-ray group" not achieve here? It worked just fine, and my PS3 played it back perfectly. Also, read about the new revision of Blu-Ray; it has all those bells & whistles you're talking about.

 

I'll come back when you've found me a HD-DVD burner I can buy. Good luck!

[Kevin76]

Warner to consider being Blu-Ray exclusive

[fingfangfoom]

Warner Stays neutral/

 

 

http://www.dvdtown.com/news/warner-bros-has-no-plans-to-drop-hd-neutrality/4876

 

 

[Silvers24]

If anyone wanted to use both formates for a cheapass price, get this

http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/19/lgs-2nd-gen-super-multi-blue-blu-ray-hd-dvd-hybrid-drives-and/

 

It's available for just under $300 now. It was on sale at a online store for $279.00 but then went to $299.99

 

Problem: Not a burner, for either formate, except DVD/CD

[john72tex]

I picked up the $99 Toshiba today and now will wait for Blu-Ray players to drop to $300 or less. I wish none of the movie companies were exclusive to one format. As for the movies, I'll only rebuy "big" releases like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings or the Indiana Jones trilogies.

[awe4one]

I think a movie's price will have more to do with which format ultimately wins more than the price of a player. If either format routinely sold for <$20 a pop then people would be more apt to buy the player. $20 seems to be a psychological threshold for whether people will impulsively buy a movie vs. having doubts due to price. Make them routinely available at this price and I think people will see value in buying a player.

 

Neither format has hit that mark consistently and as a result, people will just buy the DvD and not care...

 

Jim

[kenglo]

I am sticking with my regular DVDs. They look fine to me

[CycleGirl]

I recently purchased the only true 50" 1080p Plasma TV on the market made by Panasonic.

 

 

 

Another thing to consider is that Blu-ray is continuing to have repeated problems with their players and disks. Why? Because many of the players lack an ethernet port to easily upgrade the firmware in them.

 

This is why the Fantastic Four 2 Blu-ray disk caused so many problems with Samsung players as the players needed a firmware upgrade.

 

 

We successfully updated the firmware in our Samsung Blu-ray player and then watched FF2. If you're reasonably computer literate, and follow the instructions, it's not hard. I can imagine that a lot of people wouldn't be able to do it.

 

You have to burn the firmware upgrade onto the CD in IMAGE format. If you can do that, the rest is easy enough.

 

We went with Blu-ray because it seems that more studios support it.

 

CG

 

 

[CAP Freak]

No I already have a nice DVD player.

[The Question?]

 

 

HD-DVD....is a failed technology.

 

BluRay is killing it, bad!... hence, cheap hardware....that $99 price point is an example of a "circling the wagons" protocol, not good...IMO

[The Troll King]

 

HD-DVD....is a failed technology.

 

BluRay is killing it, bad!... hence, cheap hardware....that $99 price point is an example of a "circling the wagons" protocol, not good...IMO

 

What a silly statement.

 

Do you realize that there are actually MORE titles available on HD-DVD then there are Blu-ray now that Viacom has pulled their line-up? Nevermind the fact that HD-DVD players have been outselling Blu-ray players for at least 6 months now.

[The Question?]

 

HD-DVD....is a failed technology.

 

BluRay is killing it, bad!... hence, cheap hardware....that $99 price point is an example of a "circling the wagons" protocol, not good...IMO

 

What a silly statement.

 

Do you realize that there are actually MORE titles available on HD-DVD then there are Blu-ray now that Viacom has pulled their line-up? Nevermind the fact that HD-DVD players have been outselling Blu-ray players for at least 6 months now.

 

 

everything you wrote in this post is a NON fact...look up the actual numbers my friend, what I wrote is FACT!

[The Question?]

 

HD-DVD....is a failed technology.

 

BluRay is killing it, bad!... hence, cheap hardware....that $99 price point is an example of a "circling the wagons" protocol, not good...IMO

 

What a silly statement.

 

Do you realize that there are actually MORE titles available on HD-DVD then there are Blu-ray now that Viacom has pulled their line-up? Nevermind the fact that HD-DVD players have been outselling Blu-ray players for at least 6 months now.

 

 

 

 

Oh, and the quality of the format isn't even a contest...HD-DVD will be dead in two years time.