HD DVD hit today

 

Silver Member
Username: Helpful_smurf

Post Number: 184
Registered: Jun-05
My Best Buy had the Toshiba 499 dollar HD DVD on sale today. All Best Buys recieved 3, 1 for demo and 2 for sale. Genius marketing, they only had standard def DVDs being upconverted on them since Toshiba did not provide HD DVD demo discs for the units (liscensing requirements prohibit BB from using off the shelf media for demos) . So there is no way to see what the playr can actually do, they just look like upconvert DVD players. Brilliant. I'll wager Blu Ray will be a little smarter.
 

New member
Username: Marlong67

Post Number: 1
Registered: Apr-06
Here in SD, the sales guy (Best Buy) told me that they got 3 in, and the Fedex lady that dropped them off came back and bought one! They had Phantom of the Opera playing when I stopped by. They also have Last Samurai. Well...I could not find ANYTHING wrong with the picture, but my socks remained on. It blew away the the surrounding DTV HD loops that were going on around it. I am just not convinced that it was better than say, a HBO-HD feed. Maybe the value-add is superior fast motion and higher quality conversion (did not see this) of existing DVDs? The TV was a $5K 60 inch Sony 1080p. The sales guy said the player ws putting out 1080p but the specs say 720p/1080i. How did the "regular" demo DVDs look?
 

Bronze Member
Username: Dfantom32

Irvine, CA USA

Post Number: 84
Registered: Feb-06
excuse me guys it seems that your talking about the HD DVD...well, base from what you said here that the HD DVD player sounds like a up-convert dvd player not totally a HD DVD (hardware) player is this correct? Also about the HD DVD movie you can only play it to HD DVD player not to a up-convert dvd player? Just wondering what's the difference between this two HD DVD player & Up-COnvert.

Well, thanks for your info on this.

:-):-):-)
 

New member
Username: Marlong67

Post Number: 2
Registered: Apr-06
excuse me guys it seems that your talking about the HD DVD...well, base from what you said here that the HD DVD player sounds like a up-convert dvd player not totally a HD DVD (hardware) player is this correct? Also about the HD DVD movie you can only play it to HD DVD player not to a up-convert dvd player? Just wondering what's the difference between this two HD DVD player & Up-COnvert.

Well, thanks for your info on this.
If you bought the Toshiba HD-VDV player, it does both; plays HD-DVD and seems to do a fine job of up-converting your existing DVD libraries. Regardless of your TV's native resolution, set the resolution button on the player to 1080i. For your DVDs 480p should do just fine (100% here, but it kinda makes sense..for this player). Good luck!
 

Silver Member
Username: Praetorian

Canada

Post Number: 142
Registered: Dec-05
Uhhh, no. HD DVDs are a new format of DVD. I am sure you have HD DVD players that upconvert standard DVDs too, but standard players will not play HD DVDs. The picture of an HD DVD is suppose to be superior to an upconverted picture, however I remain sceptical that this will be the "thing" in the next year. It will take more than a few generations for introduction and R and D costs injected into the MSRPs before they become affordable to John Q Public. Second, there is not a wide variety of avail content at the moment (an important qualification) I am sure it will become more avail over time. It is also instructive to not the type of demo movies they use, at all costs you want to run the test at the upper limits of what the current tech can do, so you want to see fast movement, gunfire and booms, etc, things that might cause pixelation or blurriness in most HD TVs. I remember the demo's of intro-HD Tvs was always slow moving, picturesque nature-type shows, as not to risk customers seeing the jaggies and pixelation at 1080i.

Lastly, I strongly believe that any 500$ HD DVD player is the "entry level" of this particular technology, and it is hardly going to showcase all that the technology can achieve. Also, I doubt that Toshiba's "marketing geniuses" are complete morons, if they did not provide a demo disc, there was probably a reason, and until I find out what that is, I will withhold my wallet from being opened... Cheers!
« Previous Thread Next Thread »



Main Forums

Today's Posts

Forum Help

Follow Us