HD DVD on the Way

[Mouse]

Well I took the first plunge and have a copy of Serenity on the way and a player too (fingers crossed) to be here by the 18th.......

Anyone else or I am the lone soul who should have known better to wait?

I am still on the fence and may last minute cancel the player but right now my geek is winning the battle.

Mouse

[Dbailey]

We will look forward to your review..... How will you be hooking it up? HDMI, DVI or Component Video?

[Mouse]

I will be running the HDMI thru a HDMI-DVI adapter unless but I will also test component to see how well that goes...

[Mouse]

Well I got the player on Saturday, BB is selling software but wont till tommorow so all of my testing has been with SD DVD

Setup:

Running to a CRT Rear Proj Sony 51inch screen via HDMi-DVI
Output to 1080i on upconvert

Reference Denon 1910 as prior player

Results:

Well first off everyone should be aware that this thing is not a standard DVD player it is a computer with an HD DVD drive for all intents and purpose so ther is a fan, only noticable with no sound coming from speakers or TV, it is quiter then my TW HD DVR box as a reference...

Upconversion is on par and perhaps slighty better than the Denon...very crisp, bright, no Macroblocking, the only thing that plauged the Denon...I do notice a mild amount of film noise on some DVD's but I can live with that over the better color rendering and no MB......

The load times are longer..........the actual use time as far as chapter switch and all that is standard, so get used to the boot up if you are going for this or a B.R. machine.......we are on a new frontier here..

The remote just plains sucks............its big and has no backlighting which I could live with if the text was not dark gray on a black background, taught my Harmony the commands so that is not an issue for me..

The player itself is well built and worth the money if only for a good upconverting player........

I was able to get some quicktime trailers in 1080p and they really worked well as far as some intial testing of the HD.....

Dolby Plus and True HD and DTS HD are only passable thru the 5.1 analog outputs..........luckliy I have 8 channnles of analog available on my reciever...

One minor quirk that I am hoping to be fixed via firmware is the HDMI-DVI combo can drop the siganl when switching a disc or going from the setup menu back to a disc.....

The player will pass HD content over component but not Upconverted SD...

These are just some intial test more to come if anyone is interested once I get some HD DVD's tommorow..

Mouse

[nakedeye]

so you can burn your own hd dvd's on regular dvd as long as its in a proper file format?

[snodgrass23]

I really don't understand the whole thing with blocking upconverted HD through the component outputs. It's one thing that has stopped me from upgrading my DVD player for a while now. I probably won't get a new player until I add a DVI input card to my projector. I'd like a HD-DVD / BluRay combo player that also sends upconverted SD through the components. Can I have one of those for $200? :D

BTW..What player did you get and where did you get it from?

[Mouse]

Player is the HD-A1 the more expensive unit did not justify the extra cost to me.

Yes you can burn your files as long as they HD files....it recgonizes it as an HD disk...

I picked up 2 HD movies today and I am now sold for good...

Serenity was nice and a noticed improvemnet over the SD

Phantom of the Opera is straight up reference matter....hot hot hot

As long as they churn out discs looking like phantom this format has me sold..

I got the player thru a contact I made and the movies at Best Buy..they have the players as well, they got 3 or 4 per store for the launch monday

I tried to take some pics showing the same scene in each flick but my canon camera no likey the dark so it would not do anygood to post them..

I am excited for whats to come with this new format

[rossl]

I really don't understand the whole thing with blocking upconverted HD through the component outputs. It's one thing that has stopped me from upgrading my DVD player for a while now.

Probably don't understand because it doesn't make any sense to anybody but Hollywood lawyer types.

I am convinced that the lack of acceptance of the SACD and DVD-Audio formats is directly because of digital rights managment. People can't back them up or convert the music to a format that is more portable or usable. So they don't buy it.

We will have to wait and see what happens but it may be a long time before the masses switch from DVD to one of the HD-DVD formats if the Hollywood idiots keep this up.

I have noticed some chatter on AVS forum about up-converting DVD players from Hong Kong that do have component outs.

[snodgrass23]

Yeah, the Momitsu is pretty popular. I was really ready to get that, been then haven't decided if I should wait for an HD-DVD version. I should just go ahead and get it.
http://www.momitsu.com/dvd_880.html

[zelig2]

So Mouse.... when are you going to loan out your hd-dvd player to the group so everyone can try it out? :)

[Mouse]

Oh I am more than willing to do so, all I need is a deposit of $500.00 and copies of your DL and car keys and....:)


Maybe I can arrange folks to come by for a viewing?

[Smak Runner 2K]

I can get you a pretty good (re: controlled) review as soon as my store gets one in - hopefully in the near future.

You guys may not realize it, but you have a Sales Manager at a local AV shop who frequents this website....

As soon as my company gets their shipment (soon), I'll be running this little beast through it's paces.

-DZ

[Mouse]

Where might one encounter your store? It would absolute treat to come in and see the genesis of the progressive nature of marketing this thing to HT consumers...... :)


I am starting to look for a projector.....had to send the current one back.....pm if you want..

Mouse