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HD DVDs: Last Samurai and Phantom of the Opera


MrMcGoo

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I have purchased the Toshiba machine and the first Warner releases. The picture is stunning on both DVDs in 1080i on my RPTV. I suspect many newer monitors would look even better with 1080i material.

The sound is Dolby Digital+ which is 3 Mbps, but only 5.1 channels are available now. In the future up to 7.1 discrete channels will be available.

Since I do not have an HDMI receiver, I must use the older coax output. Many users have been surprised to find that DTS at 1508 Kbps is being output. The full bit rate DTS is excellent. So far it is better to use the DTS digital output than the DD+ via the analog outputs.

Phantom has truly excellent sound and was chosen for this reason as an early release. Last Samurai has excellent visuals, and apparently is intended to show off the video capability of HD DVD.

Only time will tell if future releases are as carefully mastered as the early releases. If they are, then the lower price on the Toshiba player will attract many buyers.

Bill

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HDMI equiped receivers and HDTVs are where the industry is headed. Unfortunately current HDMI machines are already obsolete. HDMI v. 1.3 will bring it all together, but will not be out till next year.

I collect DVDs. Hollywood will want to sell me the same movies as many times as possible. By adopting HD DVD early, I hope to buy movies only once on new titles. The downside is that HD DVD may loose to Blu-Ray. Dual players that are planned will reduce this risk.

Bill

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I had read that HDMI 1.3 was one of the reasons the PS3 was delayed, so that should be out before November of this year.

I plan on buying a BluRay player the moment they are available. However if the extended edition Lord of the Rings movies come out on HD-DVD first I will end up owning one of each. As I just typed that, I realize something: the studios could deal the deciding blow to one format or the other if they decide to release a "killer app" movie on one format but not another.

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I'm flip flopping between getting the Oppp DVD player or waiting a few months and see what happens with the HD-DVD players. I believe I read that the Toshiba is backwards compatible, how's the PQ with reg. DVD's.

My set has HDMI connector but I was planning on using it with my SA8300HD STB that I just upgraded to. For those who need additional here's the switch that most are talking about over at AVSForums.

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10110&cs_id=1011002&p_id=2777&seq=1&format=2&style=

It has a remote.

Not sure what's wrong with the link insertion button but it's not working right.

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