I was shopping for a new DVD player for the bedroom, something with HDMI output, so I could connect to my TV with HDMI rather than component. I almost took the plunge with Blu-ray, but picked up a nice Pioneer upscaling DVD player with 1080p HDMI output instead.

Why? Simply because my local movie rental service doesn't have Blu-ray, as they too are waiting for the format war to come to an end. And as I rent more movies than I buy this made the most sense to me. What's your experience? Have you bought a HD capable player yet? If so, which media format, and why?

Cheers,

getting an upscaling DVD player is a good idea as a stop gap... Which player would be considered the better when it comes to image quality of the upscaling?


It doesnt matter to me who wins out in the end, just as long as there is only one format. Us consumers will be on the loosing side of the stick if it turns out that both format will exist for good.... Just too much complications for the end user when it comes to hardware and if a movie title will be produce in both, one or the other only.... all of the sudden then you will have to get dual format players for everything.

For me.... i'm just gonna sit on the sidelines and wait it out to see what happens....

I own a Toshiba A3 HD-DVD player. A few months ago, Best Buy had a great deal on the A2 players. Well, I was looking for a DVD player for the bedroom anyway. I was going to spend $75-$100 on an upscaling DVD player anyway. So, when they had the A2 for $99 (with 5 free HD-DVDs after mail in), I bit. The best part was that they ran out of A2s. So, they upgraded me to the A3 at no charge. The A3 came with 2 movies in the box (300 and Bourne). So, I got the player and 7 HD-DVDs for $99. Would I rather have HD-DVD win the war? Sure. I have a $100 investment in them. But, that's pretty much the only reason. The only reason Blue Ray is winning is because they played the game better. If that player had been a Blue Ray player, I would have bought that one.

However, with everything else being equal, I would choose HD-DVD after seeing the dishonest Sony/BR advertisement in Best Buy. I walked up to a 60 inch Sony DLP TV with a split screen. On the left side was a "standard DVD". On the right side was the same movie playing from a BR disk. Well, it was very obvious that they degraded the DVD to boost how good the BR looked. It was so grainy that the movie on the left would be unbearable to watch. It was like watching analog cable on an LCD. After years of watching DVD, I know that DVD is tons better than what they were displaying. The 2 other customers standing there with me were laughing as well. What a joke.

After reading some reviews and info on the web and comparing a few modules in a local electronics store I picked up a Pioneer DV-400V-S (S = silver). There's also a DV-600V which has SuperAudioCD support, but I have just one SACD disk, so that didn't matter to me.

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Products/HomeEntertainment/Blu-rayDisc+DVD/PioneerDVDPlayers+Recorders/ci.DV-400V.Kuro

Cheers,

That's a nice upscaling dvd player, I remeber when they used to be really expensive for good ones. I used to have one myself, a denon 1920 and the picture quality was great. For me though i'm a quality nut so I own both formats. First I got a ps3 cause the price was right and I wanted a blu-ray player, then some movies I wanted were on hd-dvd so I finally took the plunge and bought the Hd-A30.

Personaly though it's to darn expensive, I own 16 blu-ray and 6 hd dvd movies have already exceeded the price of the payers with that small collection. Luckly though to some music stores are taking in used blu-ray /hd-dvd and I have got some pretty good deals that way but I'm trying to keep it down to 1 movie a month but it is soo hard with alot of new relases comnig out.

Mavtech said:


Mav,

Yeah... I saw that too.. LOL... I was in Best Buy myself last night and saw the same exact thing.. ahahahah.... It was not right.... But hey... that's marketing... it is up to us consumers to wade through the hype. From what I have seen so far between HD-DVD and BR.... (unfortunately not in same configurations)... To me and IMO... BR had a slight edge when it comes to detail, clarity, and color. NOT to say that HD-DVD was bad... on the contrary it as every bit HD.. It just seems BR had a slight edge. Now for the comparison between DVD and BR..... there is NO WAY DVD looks like it does in how Sony is trying to do the comparison. It was funny to me standing there shaking my head looking at the display. LOL

Hi Sander,
Were you at any point tempted to get one of the Toshiba HD drives, like the A3 or A30? Arguably one of the best upscalers on the market, and you get a HD capable player thrown in. If you weren't even aware of this as an option, it shows what a poor job Toshiba have been doing to promote their drives.

Peter,

They didn't have any, as that was also an option on the list. The most affordable Blu-ray player was a Sony at $299, considering I paid $79 for the Pioneer that's a whole lot more expensive. I can rent almost a years worth of DVD movies for that amount.

Cheers,

$79 is a good price for an upsscaler of that caliber - good find! (at least for us here in good old Blighty! )

I think the format war was over before it really got started. The problem is that most consumers aren't aware of the outcome.

Only Blu-Ray is available in a large % of the world. Australia doesn't yet(?) have HD-DVD, and the retailers I talk to keep saying "It's coming in a few months". A few months has come and gone many times since I first asked.

This has obviously given Blu-ray a big head start in many countries. I think that's why Warner Bros. and a few others have announced going exclusively to Blu-ray. It only makes sense since their markets are much more than just the USA.

Shame that the consumers are the last to find out, but not a new trend either.

Myself, we don't watch many movies via DVD. We go to the indoor occasionally (I really miss the outdoor), and pay way too much for satellite TV to also rent or buy movies regularly. About all I pay for to watch on DVD in (both the bedroom and living room) are my series such as House, Boston Legal, Scrubs, Everybody Loves Raymond, etc., and frankly I couldn't care less if they're in HD format or not. We're probably in the minority as we've never owned nor really cared to own an entertainment system. I have excellent car stereos and computer sound, but spend very little time in the living room.

Eventually we'll bite the bullet and get a Blu-ray system with surround sound (complete entertainment center), but we're in no hurry.

i think it would be very hard for hd-dvd to fight it's way back against blu-ray. however the real battle lies ahead for blu-ray. dvd. dvd is still controlling 95% of the market and with blu-ray still having huge problems with disk compatability and even getting all of their hardware requirements installed in the players. i would say they have an uphill battle. since with a good upscaling dvd player you can make movies look pretty darn good-i would say the blu-ray camp will only remain a niche market.this is especially true if they don't figure out how to get prices of players and disks down to affordable levels. that is my 2 cents worth.

blu-ray or bull s**t price is not just important, its everything and that they came at such a stupid price, and with technical problems. I belive the boat has not only left without them, but its already over the horizon. they should change tack and try for a new market in say very high quality audio and forget the rest as a bad joke.

We bought an upscaling Phillips which plays Dvix. It doesn't have the Blue-Ray look to it. I am going to try HD downloads before committing to a format.

Funny, though I have heard of Blu-ray and HD-DVD I have never seen them. Is it going to work with the DVD drive in my laptop? If not how do I get it to work? My laptop is a sony Vaio SZ43GN with windows vista business.

A new technology is always expensive. You all remember the $350 DVDRW days? I do. It wasn't all that long ago. Now, you can get them for $20. The price will come down. I jumped on the HD-DVD player since it was under $100 and came with 7 movies. It's a shame that HD-DVD isn't going to make it. I think with that name, it would have an easier time taking market away from DVD. The name "HD-DVD" sounds like the next step for "DVD" while "Blue Ray" sounds like a whole new animal. The techies like those of us here may know better. But, the general public doesn't.

nura yusuf said:

Nope. You have to buy all new hardware to play BR or HD-DVD.

I'm still a moron on the HD perspective. But as I come to understand the upscale dvd player is only good for resolutions of 720 and 1080? What is it doing with dvd? Is it resizing the image to perfectly fit the big HD TV?


Also what would you guys recommend would be a good tv size for the dvd upscaler? I'm thinking 40 inches but I've been reading that you can only see a difference if the tv is 47" to 50". I also need good brands, if it really matters at all. I'm thinking Samsung, but I read that Sharp has the best LCD's but they're really expensive.

My 1 word reply to all the Blu Ray hype nicely summed up by this guy

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/1383-Zero-Punctuation-Console-Rundown

i agree that upscaling players are the best choice at the moment, although Newegg has a drive for sale that plays both HD DVD and Blu Ray for under $300. Despite this i think that just as with the VHS vs Betamax war, this format war's outcome will be decided when the adult entertainment industry takes a side.

Personally I ignored the whole subject for several reasons:
- Hardware and disks are expensive
- I have HD TiVo
- I don't have much time to watch TV as it is

One thing I was thinking about is getting an Xbox360 to play around with it being a Vista Media Extender. If it ended up in my living room I probably would've gotten an HD-DVD player to go with it if it. But again, the same 3 reasons from above apply.

I'll be holding out until one format is the clear winner.

DVD is good enough quality as it is for the time being, I certainly dont feel I'm being 'left out' in any way.