Are we on a sinking ship: Is this the beginning of the end for HD-DVD?
1492475
It's not over yet and there is still hope. I have both formats and have been enjoying better deals on players and discs because of this format war. So I kinda hope it'll go on longer to provide consumers with better quality at lower prices. I know it's easy to freak out right now, sell off your stuff and go Blu, but remember, Blu isn't guaranteed any victory either. Even if HD DVD goes away, most people aren't buying Hi Def now and it will take a long time for Hi Def to catch up with standard dvd. Blu could still fail by lack of consumer interest. And company partnerships and deals are very fragile. It doesn't take much to sway a companies opinion. HD DVD players may continue to sell very well and make some Blu supporters reconsider. Sony may tick off some companies or studios may continue to struggle too much with the difficulties of developing for Blu. There's a number of things that can happen. Just don't let any "press releases" or avid fans sway you with their words and enthusiasm (there are ALOT of rumor mongers out there). That's as much propaganda as anything. I'll believe the end of HD DVD when Toshiba officially bows out, Paramout and Universal go Blu, and there are no more HD DVD's on the shelf with no more to come. Then it may be over. By the way, your HD DVD player isn't region coded so you can buy european HD DVD's from Fox, Disney, Sony, and now probably Warners future catalog. Weird huh? Plus there's bound to be some crazy disc sales (Amazon) to take advantage of to pad your HD DVD library. Also remember that your HD DVD player also plays standard dvd's and upscales them nicely, so it's not like it's good for nothing. But if you only want one machine, then consider a dual format player. I hope more of them come along at lower prices and because it's a nice solution to play both. No need to sell anything till it's really over and there are no more options. Stay calm.
253452
I just picked one up from BB today, and the included manual isn't much more helpful. According to the manual, it is going to be up to the individual production of discs as far as what you'll be able to get from components. IF the protection is enabled, without HDMI you will only be able to view 480i or 480p. 720p or 1080i, either through HD DVD or upconverted SD DVD would/could be blocked. Hope this helps. Like I said, I have the unit and I'm watching it now with SD DVDs until tomorrow, and the upconversion is MUCH better than my previous Toshiba DVD upconversion player. Star Wars III was absolutely fantastic (picture wise. Unfortunately this unit cannot yet "upconvert" poor scripts, but I digress). If anyone wants to ask anymore questions, I'll be picking up a couple HD DVDs tomorrow (Tuesday 4/18) as well as getting some from Netflix, so I'll have plenty of review material.
323366
If credible = lossless HD audio tracks, then YES via the BD55's 7.1 analog outs. NO via the digital coax or optical outs - you'll only get the fallback lossy DD and DTS tracks (higher bitrate than DVD, but still NOT HD) to be decoded by your Yamaha AVR.BTW, wait for the DMP-BD80 coming in March '09, as current pricing for the now discontinued BD55 is completely ridiculous...
869462
Thanks you two for responding. Well, I bought a DTV, so my problem is solved. I guess I'm an old timer, 51 yrs. I used to think I was handy with all this when I dubbed some VHS tapes or loaded programs into a computer, or had my own FTP space to put pictures on eBay. But OH MY GOD!!! You've got to be kidding!?? I know younger folk will have a better handle on it all, but just looking at these manuals,... who do they think they're talking to? 'Nuff said
1790092
There is a post on the Economist.com which suggests HDTV buyers to wait for 6 months as the price of 1080p will start falling and those who buy it now it said "will kick temselves in the back". I agree Economist is not the best place for Tech related advice. However, this is more to do with pricing than technology and therefore would take it seriously!
97413
Nope. HD lost to Blu-Ray years ago. They haven't put out movies for it in years.
616521
Hey Guys,Thanks for the advice. I ended up going with the 983. I expect to receive it mid April. I actually had a Toshiba D3 but I just recently sold it with my HD collection. As I have quite a large collection of SD DVD's it made sense to go with the best quality upconverting player available especially as there would be quite a noticible PQ difference on a 72" display. The plan now is to pick up a cheap Blue Ray player during thanksgiving or boxing day sales which I will use purely for Blue Ray while the 983 will be uses for everything else.
2139909
Am I crazy, or is it more than a bit offputting that, after buying a machine, you then have to start getting upgrades for it just to be able to play newer discs? My machine's about two years old, and the last disc I bought wouldn't load. Seems like a rip-off to me. And it's not like blu-ray sales have been strong enough to justify this sort of customer fleecing.
2071942
And in addition to Paulos comment If you are thinking about buying another player then look somewhere else as even though this will up convert standard dvd to near hd, the hd dvd's are not produced any more and only a handful of titles are available in places like ebay. It is better than a standard dvd player but with so much blue ray readily available I would go with a blue ray player that will also play your standard dvd library.
2232957
Yep, that's exactly how the picture looked during the first 2 years of DVD sales. Stores had a single rack devoted to them while VHS still took up the majority of the space. That's how it happens - slowly, progressively. Music downloads have been around for about 7 or 8 years now, and yesterday I saw people buying CDs at Best Buy. You can speculate all you want about what will happen with physical media, the reality is that physical media still exists and there isn't a single retail store that you can point to as evidence that it is being phased out anytime soon.
791238
Thanks for the response. I did expect that to be the case to some degree. I did some re-adjusting recently and am pretty happy with what I have now.With the dvd issue I used component video instead of the rca and it's a huge improvement. It turns out to be pretty solid tv after all.
114006
By far, the majority of my high def wish list is on HD DVD exclusively. For me, the question was never "should I buy HD DVD" it was "should I buy a player that will allow me to play the odd BD too". Both formats will be around for years to come, and I think that smart buyers are among the early adopters of the universal/dual player formats.
1358134
There will be a few new Canon HD cameras coming in March. Maybe this is the reason for this price drop. Or maybe Canon wants to monopolize the market. Could be both... Blu-Ray player will be able to recognize the HG10 HD files format. You have to select AVCHD format in the Corel application to create such disk. But personally, I prefer to keep my files on HD.
2232956
I have a HD DVD player, I don't hate BD, hell I may even buy one sometime in 2009 when (if) prices come down and the 2.0 players are out. I don't believe downloading will replace discs in the next year or two, but I have gotta say, I am currently on a new cable trial here is Australia, I get 100mbps, and download HD movies in a flash, in the meantime I intend on watching my flicks like this for a while to come!
1847815
With HD DVD "dead" there is no need for the LG or Samsung duo players (or upgrades of same) both of which had compromises, anyway. Stock is gone. Marketplace prices are inflated, as are eBay.
1190461
Blu-ray is a niche market too. I have had HD DVD player for year now and even after showing it to friends who have a HDTV they still are happy with regular DVDs. Even with HD players going for under a $100 they are waiting for any HD format players and media to hit DVD prices $30 for a player $5 for a DVD. At the prices BR is charging even 2 years later they missed 99% of the home market. That makes HD & BR both niche products. As a HD fanboy I'm not resisting anything. I'm just enjoying movies on my HD system. Tonight is the re-mastered "Poltergeist" off of SD DVD. Any new re-mastered DVDs look great on my set-up so it is all good at my house even as a "loser" in the format wars. My DVD collection is 99.8% SD DVD and .2% HD. Good thing my HD player plays all the disc I already own and makes them shine.
724363
Yes, but you'd be better off with a regular blu ray player, unless you've got a substantial HDDVD collection.