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HD DVD not worth it according to Popular Mechanics


jdm56

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Early adopters in the HD dvd game are paying the price so the rest of us can get the real deal in a year or two or three.I grew up w/4 channels on tv,two with snow,cable/sat/dvd took care of my video needs.As long as it's clear I'm good to go.I do have two HD tvs and HD sat,it's ok,nuthin' out of this world,just good,I'm waitin' for holograph technology,lol.

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Early adopters in the HD dvd game are paying the price so the rest of us can get the real deal in a year or two or three.I grew up w/4 channels on tv,two with snow,cable/sat/dvd took care of my video needs.As long as it's clear I'm good to go.I do have two HD tvs and HD sat,it's ok,nuthin' out of this world,just good,I'm waitin' for holograph technology,lol.

Did you see the new Trekker Quarterly? It has an article about the recent developments being done in Holographs. I am going to build my own Holodeck in the basement for 3d interactive movies as soon as I can loose some weight to fit into my Jean-Luc Picard official replica uniform. The salesman was right I should have stuck with a Riker uniform, would have been easier to fit into. Worf was too tall and I hated the shoulder pad inserts, made me look stupid.

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Picky,

I did not want more tape, so I bypassed D-VHS. It is a good solution to HD reproduction, except for the price of the tapes. However, the rumor is that dual layer Blu-ray blanks will cost over $60. Blu-ray burners do not look so good at that rate.

TKD,

The folks over on AVS are selling their high end Pioneer and Denon DVD players. They will use the Toshiba instead to upscale SD DVDs to 1080i. I am not a fan of selling high end upscale equipment. The Toshiba takes too long to boot and load. In some cases it also has HDMI handshake problems. Look before you leap.

Bill

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Early adopters in the HD dvd game are paying the price so the rest of us can get the real deal in a year or two or three.I grew up w/4 channels on tv,two with snow,cable/sat/dvd took care of my video needs.As long as it's clear I'm good to go.I do have two HD tvs and HD sat,it's ok,nuthin' out of this world,just good,I'm waitin' for holograph technology,lol.

Did you see the new Trekker Quarterly? It has an article about the recent developments being done in Holographs. I am going to build my own Holodeck in the basement for 3d interactive movies as soon as I can loose some weight to fit into my Jean-Luc Picard official replica uniform. The salesman was right I should have stuck with a Riker uniform, would have been easier to fit into. Worf was too tall and I hated the shoulder pad inserts, made me look stupid.

HA...no,I missed that issue.I do like the idea of interaction.I'm thinking of something more"involving"for my holodeck,maybe Barbarella?

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TKD,

The folks over on AVS are selling their high end Pioneer and Denon DVD players. They will use the Toshiba instead to upscale SD DVDs to 1080i. I am not a fan of selling high end upscale equipment. The Toshiba takes too long to boot and load. In some cases it also has HDMI handshake problems. Look before you leap.

Bill

I subscribe to the Denon DVD 3910 Owners thread over there and don't see the mass exodus as of yet. [;)] I appreciate the review and look forward to the comparison myself.

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Early adopters in the HD dvd game are paying the price so the rest of us can get the real deal in a year or two or three.I grew up w/4 channels on tv,two with snow,cable/sat/dvd took care of my video needs.As long as it's clear I'm good to go.I do have two HD tvs and HD sat,it's ok,nuthin' out of this world,just good,I'm waitin' for holograph technology,lol.

Did you see the new Trekker Quarterly? It has an article about the recent developments being done in Holographs. I am going to build my own Holodeck in the basement for 3d interactive movies as soon as I can loose some weight to fit into my Jean-Luc Picard official replica uniform. The salesman was right I should have stuck with a Riker uniform, would have been easier to fit into. Worf was too tall and I hated the shoulder pad inserts, made me look stupid.

HA...no,I missed that issue.I do like the idea of interaction.I'm thinking of something more"involving"for my holodeck,maybe Barbarella?

Isn't it a beut. Only six more payments of 79.99 and she is all mine. Mind you I fill it out nicely. Can you imagine all the babes I am gonna get with my own holodeck in this uniform?

post-16829-13819304671368_thumb.jpg

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Early adopters in the HD dvd game are paying the price so the rest of us can get the real deal in a year or two or three.I grew up w/4 channels on tv,two with snow,cable/sat/dvd took care of my video needs.As long as it's clear I'm good to go.I do have two HD tvs and HD sat,it's ok,nuthin' out of this world,just good,I'm waitin' for holograph technology,lol.

Did you see the new Trekker Quarterly? It has an article about the recent developments being done in Holographs. I am going to build my own Holodeck in the basement for 3d interactive movies as soon as I can loose some weight to fit into my Jean-Luc Picard official replica uniform. The salesman was right I should have stuck with a Riker uniform, would have been easier to fit into. Worf was too tall and I hated the shoulder pad inserts, made me look stupid.

HA...no,I missed that issue.I do like the idea of interaction.I'm thinking of something more"involving"for my holodeck,maybe Barbarella?

Isn't it a beut. Only six more payments of 79.99 and she is all mine. Mind you I fill it out nicely. Can you imagine all the babes I am gonna get with my own holodeck in this uniform?

WOW,that is a sweat outfit.You will be an intergalactic pimpmiester.Colonel Clipsch? wink wink.

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OK, better late than never. Here's a few of the details of the PM comparison: The video display was a 42" plasma with 720p resolution. The upconverting, standard-definition machine was the Philips DVP5960/37 ($80!), while the high definition player was the new Toshiba HD-A1. The three viewers were seated at 10.5 feet from the screen.

So, I guess it's not quite so surprising the results were what they were. Ten and a half feet away from a 42" 720p TV is probably not the best set-up to show off HD DVD!

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Here's a humours view of the format war from Cracked.com

http://www.cracked.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=716

hehe that was pretty good :-) I laughed a lot.

I personally don't see either format winning though. I am sure many of you read this http://www.audioholics.com/news/editorials/10reasonsHDDVDsfailed.php

Also, i have heard many reports on how easily a HD-DVD & Blue-Ray disk can be damaged... slightest smudge/scratch and they quit playing. :-/

Also, look at it this way... if the home theater enthusiasts are this sceptical how does the general public feel. Or more importantly the majority without an HDTV.

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Here's a humours view of the format war from Cracked.com

http://www.cracked.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=716

hehe that was pretty good :-) I laughed a lot.

I personally don't see either format winning though. I am sure many of you read this http://www.audioholics.com/news/editorials/10reasonsHDDVDsfailed.php

Also, i have heard many reports on how easily a HD-DVD & Blue-Ray disk can be damaged... slightest smudge/scratch and they quit playing. :-/

Also, look at it this way... if the home theater enthusiasts are this sceptical how does the general public feel. Or more importantly the majority without an HDTV.

BluRay has dropped the ball in so many ways I can't even believe it, but if they'd gotten their launch right and convinced people they could produce 50gb dual layer discs then the format might have had a chance of winning. My problem with HD-DVD is the capacity is barely/not really enough. With the more advanced codecs an HD movie is still taking up 28gb on disc, coming very close to filling up the disc. Sure I want higher quality video and sound but BluRay is uncertain and HD-DVD seems so "safe" that it skipped any chance to innovate. I'd gladly pay $1k for a big jump forward that was going to be a format that stick around, but....

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And I'm still wondering when they're going to start releasing these new media in cartridges like the old mini-disc. It would definetly get rid of this stupid durability issue and complete lack of easy back-up capability.

I've heard through the grape-vine that sony is more interested in releasing downloadable media that will require an internet connection for playback. Though the idea and convenience factor is really cool, I can't imagine this ever being as stable as say, making a phone call over a land line.

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The HD DVD is limited to 30 Gb on a dual layer disk. The HD DVD will hold longer movies than a 50 Gb Blu-ray disk due to its more efficient video codec, VC-1. Blu-ray uses MPEG-2 which requires about double the bandwidth to get equivalent quality to VC-1.

The first generation HD DVD players are very clunky. There is nothing clunky about the HD DVD software. The better transfers will amaze you as far as quality is concerned.

The only problems with HD DVD software is that there is not enough of it and it is a tad bit on the expensive side. Lord of the Rings will be out in HD DVD by year end along with Batman Begins and Harry Potter 4. Paramount is scheduled to bring out the entire Star Trek movie series in HD DVD by year end.

The Toshiba player is built like a tank, is made in Japan and can be found as low as $363, if you have the right type of frequent flyer miles. If you want the best HD source available, it is HD DVD at the moment.

Bill

PS: The last thing that the studios want is backup capability on HD sources. They have made provisions for limited backups with DRM. The whole reason that the studios want to go to HD DVD is due to piracy of SD DVDs. Don't expect ant easy hacks on HD material any time soon. HD DVD encryption is designed to be upgraded around hacks. B

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