HDTV Forum

Have you invested already? Are you thinking about investing once prices come down? What factors are weighing in your decision? Vote here!

Since I have an older Mits CRT without HDMI inputs and which offers native 480i which makes SD DVDs look great (to me, ymmv) I'm waiting.

We Had a Pioneer 51" based HT (circa 1995) with 7.1 and a Denon 3801 and just replaced the Pioneer with a Sony 60A2000 which is excellent.
4 points:
1.We switched to Dish for the maximum number of HDTV channels which is better than Direct TV.
2.The Std Def channels are all better than the Pioneer 1995 Elite which was very good for over a decade, ( I feared wose).
3.The transmitted picture quality, Std Def, is all over the map from channel to channel, so knocking yourself out calibrating seems silly. Ditto for old DVDs we have. So, pick your most watched channel, adjust for that and live with the rest. If it's a long movie, do a simple adjustment. (News programs are the worst where split screens can be half great and half terrible--that can't be calibrated out).
4. HDTV channels are great, even stunning. We bought On-Line at Amazon, got in house delivery, and anybody can turn one on which is all Geeks do.
Enjoy now; I'm sorry we didn't buy last year.
BBA

I have a Panasonic 47" HD set & have an HD cable box from our local provider. I recently bought the HD-DVD addon for the X360 and I really like it. I can definetly see the difference but I wish that my TV was capable of displaying a 1080p signal. I guess that will be the next purchase!

Have bought both Toshiba HD-A1 and Samsung P1000 (both with upgraded software). No comparison the HD-DVD is sharper, with less artifact on 95% of the titles. HD-DVD for home theather.......blu-ray for computer storage.......that's how it should work out..................

Was very impressed with bluray disc . Waiting to see HD - DVD on Toshiba hxa2

Prefer to see if suitable solution can be worked out for dual disc or one prime disc

Would check out Pioneer Elite player when it comes t o town

alice wrote:
Prefer to see if suitable solution can be worked out for dual disc or one prime disc

Samsung and LG are working to put out dual format players. As for one format, don't hold your breath.....unless one goes under we'll have the two formats for an undetermined time, (which actually is NOT that bad a thing, competition= lower pricing points!). Right now HD-DVD is on the lower pricing scale without any sacrifice in quality; If it persists you'll see some studios coming over to HD-DVD (ie . Buena Vista, Lions Gate) since it's only a minor expense to retool existing DVD production lines as vs. starting from scratch to create a blu-ray line. That's why I think you'll see BV, LG, come over to HD-DVD before you see Universal coming out
with blu-ray disks. When you see Sony titles on HD-DVD then one of two things; 1) Game Over, blu-ray delegated to computer storage; or 2) someones learned how to pirate the Blu-Ray disks to other format.

I haven't been paying as much attention to HD DVD's due to the two formats. When and if dual format DVD players become available that will change.
I heard somewhere that these players require you to hook them up a certain way or the output will not display in HD. I'm not happy about that prospect since what if I have a HDTV that is a bit older and doesn't have the necessary input capability? I think this is all about some paranoia they have about controlling how and when we can view their content. For example: I think anyone that has an older HDTV that doesn't have an HDMI input capability will not be able to view HD movies in HD with either format player. If this is true it certainly will impact acceptance of HD players.

Not exactly true.

Both of the new high def DVD formats (HD DVD and Blu-ray) use a method called AACS to protect the content on disc. Through AACS, the movie studios have THE OPTION to indicate that they want to restrict resolution over unprotected (non-HDCP) outputs. So far, NONE of the studios are doing this, which means that all titles in both formats can currently be viewed at your TV's highest resolution even if you're only using component connections. If the studios do start doing this, you will still be able to view the movies, and at up to slightly-better-than-DVD resolution: 540p.

I have an older TV as well, that is limited to component inputs, and does not support any sort of HDCP input. So I will be one of those affected if the studios decide to start limiting output.

- S

WITH MY NEW 65" MITSUBSHI AND THE LATEST TIVO UNIT, I'M GENERATING VERY LITTLE INTEREST IN HAVING AN HD DVD OF ANY TYPE. I CAN'T IMAGINE NOT HAVING YOUR VIEWING HABITS/NEEDS SATISFIED WHEN YOU HAVE A TIVO UNIT.