Hd-dvd

[Adz]

Should be an interesting year!

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/GB04Dh02.html

[jimmyp58]

Thanks for sharing ADZ. Guess all the promises I had with the Mrs. to slow down this year just went out the window............

[Adz]

Yeah, any news on HD DVD players, especially price????
I remember when my parents bought their first VHS player for $800.

[jimmyp58]

I am going to do some poking around on Monday to see what players might be available.

Jim

[Adz]

Yep, might be time to cash in on that HT Guide discount!

[George Bellefontaine]

Initially players will likely be priced rather high, but before you know it we'll be buying them for less than a 100 clams. I've waited this long for HD DVD and can wait a little longer. Today's standard dvds are often very well transferred, so I am really in no rush. Besides, with nearly 1000 standard dvd titles in my collection, there is no way I will ever afford replacing them with HD dvds.

[BlazeMaster]

theres a AV store in my apartment complex. The guy that owns it has the Sony BluRay DVD players shipped straight from Japan. I haven't seen one yet, don't really go there that much even though I can literally walk there. He doesn't have the proper setups to get a good demo, no point of going really.

[JonMarsh]

Initially players will likely be priced rather high, but before you know it we'll be buying them for less than a 100 clams. I've waited this long for HD DVD and can wait a little longer. Today's standard dvds are often very well transferred, so I am really in no rush. Besides, with nearly 1000 standard dvd titles in my collection, there is no way I will ever afford replacing them with HD dvds.

I have a friend who has been thinking along the same lines as you, George, until I gave him an HD tuner (wouldn't work for me where I live). It's hard to say exactly what his intrest level is right now, but after seeing HD on his XG75 once I set it up, he agrees there's no comparison to DVD, regardless of how good the transfer is.

I don't have cable, so the money I save there is what I spend on disks, well, OK, plus a bit more...

Because the release rate of good movies this year has been rather low, what I've been buying has mostly been TV shows. Probably I'm going to slow down on movie purchases even more- especially after seeing the planned release list for HD-DVD this fall. This is a relatively low risk thing for the studios, because HD-DVD, unlike Blu-Ray, can be made on the same equipment with minor tweaks.

It remains to be seen just how good they actually look, but if they can match what Microsoft has out now on WM9, then I'll be interested. Even the 720P versions at 6-8 MBs/sec are a significant step up from the best DVD disks I've seen (such as Waterworld, which pretty much runs 9-10 MBs all the time!)

It will be an interesting year, for sure.

[Brandon B]

I'm going to let the Playstation3 (which will have a blu-ray drive) be my foray into the next generation video disk format. It will be heavily subsidized by Sony and I want one for the games anyway. Win-win.

BB

[George Bellefontaine]

Jon, I realize that when HD Dvd comes it will no doubt ruin me for appreciation of standard def dvds. Sheesh, I can't even watch a laserdisc now. But I can remember when I couldn't watch vhs tapes after laserdisc. WHEN DOES ALL THIS MADNESS STOP ? :roll:

[David Meek]

WHEN DOES ALL THIS MADNESS STOP ? :roll:

Not any time soon, I hope. :B

[George Bellefontaine]

That's okay for you, Tex. You're still a youngster and have lots of earning time ahead. This old bean is retired and has to do publishing consultation work to get scratch for his HT addiction... and his projector upgraditis addiction ( just bought a Yamaha LPX 510 to replace my old Sony VPL 400) and his audio... hell I could go on all day... :B

[JonMarsh]

Jon, I realize that when HD Dvd comes it will no doubt ruin me for appreciation of standard def dvds. Sheesh, I can't even watch a laserdisc now. But I can remember when I couldn't watch vhs tapes after laserdisc. WHEN DOES ALL THIS MADNESS STOP ? :roll:

Uh, when we pass through the Pearly gates, or when our civilization collapses...

Avoiding planned obsolesence, and keeping those things that aren't obsolescent working is a a bit of a problem at times, for sure. I just popped for a NOS (new old stock) set of OEM CRT's for my NEC projector (less than $1K for all three), in hopes I'll be able to keep it running for quite a few years- at least until those SED things are perfected and have come down in price! I figure that's a good investment for another 10K hours of use, even if I don't have 1000 hours on the original set, yet.

Still, I'm putting aside funds for an HD-DVD player and some disks this fall...

~Jon

[Shane Martin]

Still, I'm putting aside funds for an HD-DVD player and some disks this fall...

Will your PJ work with the needed HDMI/DVI-HDCP connection?

That is what is putting the majority of the online community on pause at the moment.

[JonMarsh]

Will your PJ work with the needed HDMI/DVI-HDCP connection?

That is what is putting the majority of the online community on pause at the moment.

Short answer, yes, as right now I'm using a DVI/HDCP output DVD player with it... It's a DVI-RGBHV converter, and it may not be strictly legal- I may pick up another one, just so I can stick to switching at the RGBHV level (NEC ISS-6010 switcher, into NEC 9PG+ projector).

But the other side to that is there seems a fair amount of user paranoia (probably well justified) over whether there will only be encrypted digital hi res outputs, or whether component outputs, for example, will exist also. Considering all the HDTV tuners and the JVC D-VHS player and the existing Japanese Ble-Ray player with component outputs, there's reason to hope that high res component outputs will exist. However, I decided not to take chances, and researched and purchased appropriately.

Until we see what the manufacturer's actually ship, we'll just have to wait and hold our breath...

Let's see, of course there will be Toshiba, but also Thomson/RCA, Sanyo, and NEC will deliver HD-DVD ROM drives, probably by Q4. My second DVD player was a Toshiba (first was a Sony DVP-S7000; ThomasW still has that one), so I'll probalby go with Toshiba this time around.

I came across my original receipt for the HDTV tuner I bought years ago, couldn't get to work where I live, and gave to Thomas- those have come down in price, too! ($650 originally).

Well, life's short, I guess you just have to make your own decisions about what to wait for, and what to enjoy now.

~Jon

[Shane Martin]

Considering all the HDTV tuners and the JVC D-VHS player and the existing Japanese Ble-Ray player with component outputs, there's reason to hope that high res component outputs will exist.

Most of the info I've seen seem to contradict this. It appears the component outs will be 480P only from all I gether right now.

[aud19]

That's okay for you, Tex. You're still a youngster and have lots of earning time ahead. This old bean is retired and has to do publishing consultation work to get scratch for his HT addiction... and his projector upgraditis addiction ( just bought a Yamaha LPX 510 to replace my old Sony VPL 400) and his audio... hell I could go on all day... :B

Congrats George! :T I love that FP, supposed to have PQ and black levels on par with good DLP's, wickedly accurate colour temp out of the box etc. How are you enjoying it? :P

[JonMarsh]

Most of the info I've seen seem to contradict this. It appears the component outs will be 480P only from all I gether right now.

Which is why I've covered my backside and can deal with HDMI/DVI also. But I've got a LOT of friends with several year old HDTVs, pre DVI/HDMI, who are going to be mightily p!ssed if things do turn out that way- one friend who bought two big Toshiba widescreen CRT sets three years ago. That kind of restriction will alienate a lot of folks, and slow adoption- he's been a big HD fan, both on satelite and cable. And those boxes from his providers output in component. Most people aren't going to see a valid reason why they should be treated differently.

[Kevin P]

Well, let's just hope that if the players don't offer high res component outs, that an external box (e.g. scaler) will, as I'm considering a NEC 9PG in my next HT as well. If I can't run HD-DVD into that puppy I'll be ticked as well.

All the copy protection paranoia is ridiculous. First of all, the stuff is going to get pirated anyway (rule #1: copy protection does not, never has, and never will, stop piracy). Second, when they do pirate it, it's not going to be through the analog component/RGB outputs anyway. It's not like you'd be able to plug the component outputs on your HD-DVD player into a VCR and make a copy, protected or not. The only "copy protection" required on the analog side of HD is a requirement that no recording devices have component video inputs on them. There, that "protects" the content as well as HDCP and downconversion, and still lets us use our non-DVI/HDMI compliant displays.

[George Bellefontaine]

Congrats George! :T I love that FP, supposed to have PQ and black levels on par with good DLP's, wickedly accurate colour temp out of the box etc. How are you enjoying it? :P

Jason, I also own the NEC HT1000 ( a DLP )that has a picture hard to beat. But I have to say, the Yamaha comes really close. I did a post on this subject over in the FRONT PROJECTORS room under the thread saying I finally replaced the Sony VPL 400. When I bought the Yamaha, it was demoed against the Panasonic 700, which boasts higher contrast. But I actually preferred the picture on the Yamaha. They really make good products. And yes, calibration out of the box was spot on. But I find D6500 a little too red and the cinema filter reduces green and blue, so I added a little green back in under the RGB settings and it it great now.

LCD sure has come a long way since I bought the Sony back in 1997.

[David Meek]

But I've got a LOT of friends with several year old HDTVs, pre DVI/HDMI, who are going to be mightily p!ssed if things do turn out that way

That'd be me, too. :evil: