HD DVD announces players and software

[Shane Martin]

Release list:

3/28 - Batman Begins, Constantine, Million Dollar Baby, Phantom of the Opera, Twister

4/11 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, The Last Samurai, Lethal Weapon, Training Day, Unforgiven

4/25 - Goodfellas, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Matrix, Swordfish, Syriana (day and date with regular DVD)

5/9 - Blazing Saddles, Dukes of Hazzard, Full Metal Jacket, Rumor Has It (day and date), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

5/16 - Charlie & Chocolate Factory, The Green Mile: Special Edition, Ocean's Twelve, Troy

Warner has also announced that additional titles they expect to release in 2006 will include Superman Returns and Poseidon (both day and date with standard DVD), as well as TV titles, additional catalog films and more new releases throughout the year.

As part of this announcement, HBO confirmed that The Sopranos and Deadwood are among the TV offerings they expect to debut on HD-DVD later in 2006.

Also, Universal has announced that their initial March '06 slate will include 10 HD-DVD titles, among them The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Jarhead, Doom, Cinderella Man, Apollo 13, Serenity, The Chronicles of Riddick, U-571, Van Helsing and The Bourne Supremacy. The exact street dates are still TBA.


Players:

Bestbuy.com has a Toshiba player on preorder for March/April for $499 to start. Rumors are that Thomson aka RCA has one as well coming for the same money.

They also said that an external drive will be available for Xbox 360 for HD DVD.


War is on!

[George Bellefontaine]

War is on

Yeah, and I for one will be sitting out the war.

[Shane Martin]

Here you guys go:

Microsoft goes HD DVD on the xbox 360

http://www.htguide.com/forum/showthread.php4?t=17564

[aud19]

War is on

Yeah, and I for one will be sitting out the war.

Ditto.... we'll see what the formats are doing circa 2008/2009 and see if I'm interested yet :lol:

[J.H.]

I ordered it from crutchfield. I couldn't help it I had to do it. I saw the Dolby Digital plus,Dolby trueHD and DTS-HD logos and could not say no. Also Amazon has a Hd-DVD store opening soon. You can sign up for title email alerts and I did! Anyone know when the Toshiba will be shipping? J.H.

[Shane Martin]

March/April

I hope you have an HDMI input or DVI HDCP input. Otherwise you get 480P.

[J.H.]

Of coarse I have HDMI. I have a Sharp LCD and I have both DVI and HDMI. I will have both Bluray via PS3 and I'm getting HD-DVD now. It all works for me.I can't wait! J.H.

[slick]

Any word on what the pricing for the media will be?

[Shane Martin]

They said slightly higher than a regular dvd. Figure $5-$10.

[Chris D]

Me too... going to have to take a "watch and wait" approach. Unless I see products that convince me that they're quality, reliable units that won't be obsolete in 5 months due to performance, features, or the format war, I'll keep sitting on my hands and wallet.

[saurabh]

Quality or no quality......I will wait for the Multi-format player or till they reconcile their "egos" to one format.

I am not going to pay these vendors only to boost their egos in their format wars.

[Shane Martin]

The only negative to that is your are letting others decide which format is for you. For instance if you prefer Blu ray and people buy HD DVD and HD DVD becomes the standard then what?

[PewterTA]

These companies are all idiots, they are going to loose sooo much potential money by trying to push two formats out.

The format that will win will be the one most easily copied. :lol:

[Chris D]

That's true, Shane... you won't get to have a say in which format "wins" the war. But for many people, trying to "cast a vote" in the runoff means spending big $$$ on 1st-gen equipment, movies, and probably hardware, too, like new cables. That's a big hit if your candidate doesn't win.

If people here and other such internet forums, the A/V gurus and enthusiasts of the world, (and the people most likely to spend big $$$ on these things) are taking a watch-and-see approach, then what do you think the general public is going to do? There will be many that don't know any different and will buy a new player and movies of one of the formats. Later on they'll learn their mistake, and I do NOT think they're going to rush out and buy the other format so they can have both, or spend even more $$$ in the first format to try to make it win.

Like I said... everybody loses in this one. If you buy one format, there's a good chance, (about 50/50% depending on how you look at it) that in a few years you'll be left out in the cold with unusable stuff. If you, like me, will take a wait-and-see approach, you're delaying your next progression step into HD, when if there was one format you'd probably be gobbling it up at the first opportunity.

[George Bellefontaine]

I'm with you, Chris. Heck, we've waited this long for HD what's another year or two. In the meantime, I am still loving the great dvd pic I get on my projectors.

[Burke Strickland]

Having spent a small fortune in the past on a "losing" format (laser disc) that was "hi-def" compared to the prevaling home video medium of its time (VHS), and having no small investment in DVD, I'm sure not planning to jump on an expensive and speculative band wagon for a new format.

Both laser disc and "standard" DVD look pretty darned good upconverted to 720p, and I've already paid for the discs and the players. The HD DVD/Blu Ray vendors can fight it out whatever way they find satisfying to their egos and stockholders -- I plan to sit this one out.

Burke

[David Meek]

Me too! While the thought of collectable HD-quality movies is a powerful tool, I'm sitting this one out. I'm not going to spend a large chunk of discretionary funds and then hope I picked correctly.

I'm definitely a BluRay supporter as the extra storage capability gives more options as far as what can be put on a disc, but I have to admit that the initial titles being offered definitely favor HD-DVD.

[aud19]

XBox won't hurt HD-DVD either David but I agree... Until there's a clear winner and/or a truly universal player with FULLY working/compatible HDMI that plays DVD-V, DVD-A, SACD, HD-DVD and BluRay.... I'll wait thanks

[George Bellefontaine]

You know, if we early adopters don't bite on either format right away, both camps may find themselves in a financial pickle. Joe 6 pack is not likely to go out and spend $600 to $1K or more on a new player ( plus $30 or $40 bucks for a hi def dvd ) if he's content with his $89 Sony dvd player and all those standard def dvds that are $6 or less in the budget bin at Walmart. This whole thing is gonna be interesting. It's just a shame it had to come to this.

[Lex]

I believe the original subject matter of this thread has been tromped on a bit, sorry Shane. I admire yours and a few others enthusiasm for new technology. however,

This is truly among the most ASS-in-ine things the electronics industry has put Joe Six through in a long time when they knew good and well what their division, and lack of standards would result in, but proceeded anyway. The old saying is once burned twice shy. Well, remember when component video and 480p was going to be enough? Or at least 1080i and component? If you build a new system everytime they obsolete something, how many systems would you have by now? These are expensive lessons people, expensive. How many of you purchased a DIVX player maybe and discs? Betamax? Higher end component video input only HD sets?

At some point, it is true, the consumer has to say enough is enough. Frankly, if they can't get the enthusiasts behind them, by supporting a single format, just who have they got on their side? Joe 6 could care less. He ain't even got no stinkin HD set yet. He's runnin' full frame DVD on his old set with S-video, occasionally tollerates the black bar thing, and you want him to buy a new player that costs half as much as his car, and then you tell him he can't play it on his TV? Joe 6 can get a 49.99 DVD player at Walmart, he's got a TV that works, he's happy that he can rent something without a rewind button down at blockbuster.

Myself, I'm upconverting standard DVD to 1080i or 720p, love my image quality from my Samsung DVD-HD1000(s), they mates well with my Plasma, LCD projectors, play all of my 400+ DVDs at reasonably impressive resolution. It ain't that bad at all. .

[George Bellefontaine]

Yeah, Doug, we have tromped on this thread haven't we. But I'm sure Shane knows this subject is a hot potato. And I'm certainly not against anyone who wants to spend their bucks and take their chances on who's gonna win the war. It just ain't gonna be this retired schmuck who lives on a fixed income. I want high definition but it isn't a matter of life and death. I can wait...well, uh, that is if i live long enough...

[JonMarsh]

Well, the industry certainly doesn't seem to care much for the consumer- I have several friends with 3 year old HDTVs that would like to get an HD Disk player, but their nice Toshiba RPTVs only have component inputs. Now, I have the means to get them on the air, but it's not cheap- as much as the purchase price for one of the Toshiba players.

OTOH, when you've got a 9" CRT projector, what's another $300 or so for a DVI/HDCP to RGBHV converter? Or a DVI HDCP stripper? (would feed than then to a scaler like the VP-30 or others that will transcode/convert unprotected DVI 1080i to 1080i RGBHV or 1080P RGBHV). Of course, technically, these devices don't exist, and you couldn't legally buy them if they did. :E

Still, I can't say that I'm very happy with the CE/Computing industry as a whole. Probably why I switched to Macs this last year. :twisted:

I figure I've got about 9000+ hours left in my 10PG NEC, and if you've ever seen 1080P clips of "Batman Begins" or "Serenity" compared with the original DVD resolution, :T you'll know why I'm not waiting several years for this to sort out.

I'll probably order an HD-DVD player in a couple of weeks (just ordered some mucho expensive Accuton drivers, gotta let the credit card cool off a little... )



~Jon, AKA Grumpy old Videophile

[Shane Martin]

you'll know why I'm not waiting several years for this to sort out.

Ultimately that is why I think alot of fence sitters will change their mind. Right now there is no product to say "No thanks to" when it is staring you in the face

[George Bellefontaine]

I'm sure I'll be drooling the first time I see hi def dvd, :drool: but it still won't change how I feel about this general F---up created by two greedy electronic giants.

[rdram]

Betamax? Higher end component video input only HD sets?

Yup...that's me. Beta Hi-fi too. And lets not forget the mini-disc player I have that nobody uses. Oh yeah, and I parted with a beloved Panasonic RP-91K so I could buy a Denon 2900 and get into the whole SACD thing. SACD...where did that go?

I've been an early adopter in the past (still have my Sony CDP-101)...but not this time. I guarantee that whatever player I were to buy, the other format would win. So I'm with George (and others)...sittin' this one out.

Sony always seems to be involved too......

RD

[Adz]

I've been an early adopter in the past (still have my Sony CDP-101)...but not this time. I guarantee that whatever player I were to buy, the other format would win. So I'm with George (and others)...sittin' this one out.

Sony always seems to be involved too......

RD

Problem is that this time around the new technology is both audio and video at the same time. Nobody will be sitting out for long. Mark my words...

[Andrew M Ward]

The only negative to that is your are letting others decide which format is for you. For instance if you prefer Blu ray and people buy HD DVD and HD DVD becomes the standard then what?

The Regular DVD format has won, will continue to win and I don't see that changing for about three years. Sure some people will buy one-or-the-other (Blu or HD) but ultimately for the next 36 months 100's of millions of DVD's will sell along with an astounding number of DVD players, with no concern for new formats... The events at CES didn't convince me of much other than both formats are totally full of $h!T and are nowhere near convincing themselves, the consumer or me...

I used to believe that Blu-Ray had it all figured out... now I think I'll keep my DVD player and let this whole thing sort-it-self-out without my participation in the debacle....

[theMaximus]

I read an article in HT Magazine that Samsung will try to make a universal player for both HD-DVD and Blue Ray. I'll probably buy the Toshiba HD-DVD player from Best Buy when it becomes available just to see what the picture looks like on my TV and promptly return it. Until either one format wins or someone comes out with a universal player that will also play DVD-Audio and SACD, I'll have no choice but sit this one out.

[Shane Martin]

I read an article in HT Magazine that Samsung will try to make a universal player for both HD-DVD and Blue Ray

Samsung debunked that article by saying "no chance" of that happening.

[mitch57]

Until either one format wins or someone comes out with a universal player that will also play DVD-Audio and SACD, I'll have no choice but sit this one out.

You got that right! If they won't make a universal player that plays both SACD and DVD-A as well as both HD formats, or at least the prevailing HD format, I'm not buying!

With over 230 albums in these two formats I'm not just going to throw it all away.