Cheap HD DVD

[Professor.Ham.Slap]

For those of you who may not have caught this deal yet, you can get the HD-A2 (Toshiba's base player, but a really good one none-the-less) for $299 or less on Amazon with free shipping and the 5 free HD DVDs. I just ordered one for my parents but just wanted to throw this up here for those who may have been sitting on the fence this is a pretty killer deal IMO. Another thing you can do is if you're looking for an HDTV yourself, at Best Buy they're giving another $100 off the player with a TV over $999 so you can get one for $200.

[gibbie]

Note that it doesn't output 1080p or include analog outputs. The lack of these features will not be a major factor for most people but it is something to consider.

[Roc Rinaldi]

Well the lack of 1080p is a deal breaker for me.

I'll just keep waiting for things to settle down and prices to continue to drop. Let's hope that I don't die in the meantime.

[Professor.Ham.Slap]

Just one thing to keep in mind: so far none of the next generation players do true 1080p. The internal decoders transmit a 1080i signal to a deinterlace chip on board the player and render it as 1080p, same as your TV would (although admittedly, the chips vary in quality from player to player be it HD DVD or Blu-Ray).

[Roc Rinaldi]

Just one thing to keep in mind: so far none of the next generation players do true 1080p. The internal decoders transmit a 1080i signal to a deinterlace chip on board the player and render it as 1080p, same as your TV would (although admittedly, the chips vary in quality from player to player be it HD DVD or Blu-Ray).

This is real news to me, and a real concern. What does "true 1080p" give me that the 1080i deinterlaced to 1080p doesn't? I didn't realize that this was going on.

[Professor.Ham.Slap]

Just one thing to keep in mind: so far none of the next generation players do true 1080p. The internal decoders transmit a 1080i signal to a deinterlace chip on board the player and render it as 1080p, same as your TV would (although admittedly, the chips vary in quality from player to player be it HD DVD or Blu-Ray).

This is real news to me, and a real concern. What does "true 1080p" give me that the 1080i deinterlaced to 1080p doesn't? I didn't realize that this was going on.

Really, it gives you nothing - and here's why: Movies are filmed at 24 fps which equals 1080p 24hz. Any player set at 1080i outputs 1080i 60hz. So since 1080p is 2 frames of 1080i pasted together, that gives us an effective 1080p 30hz, which is still more than a movie is filmed at. From there 3:2 pulldown in your TV takes over and you really don't have to worry about the rest. The big difference comes in on broadcast stuff where 1080i and 1080p actually would make a difference (sports broadcasts and the like). However since virtually all digital displays MUST convert to their native resolution (1080p in this case) you will get the desired end result, one way or another.

[gibbie]

When I had my TV calibrated, the tech and I found that the 480p setting on my Oppo 981 actually produced a better picture on my TV than the 1080p setting.

So I would agree that the quality of conversion will vary across devices. I understand the Reon chip in the XA2 upscales SD discs very well.

I'm staying on the fence myself because I can't see buying discs in one format only to risk having to buy them again in the event my format loses. I still have my collection of Beta tapes.

[mas]

"1080p is 2 frames of 1080i pasted together, that gives us an effective 1080p 30hz"

Nope.

But we got into frame resolution earlier and I am not into doing it again.

[Professor.Ham.Slap]

Well, in broadcast 1080i, no it isn't the same (although if the TV does de-interlacing correctly it can be darn close) but I think I remember with film sources at the much lower frame rate it works out that way. I may be incorrect, but regardless, one thing I can say for sure is there is currently no way to get a true 1080p stream directly to the TV. Either way, the high definition disc formats are going to look phenominal on any HDTV (720 or 1080).

[alkemyst]

Just one thing to keep in mind: so far none of the next generation players do true 1080p. The internal decoders transmit a 1080i signal to a deinterlace chip on board the player and render it as 1080p, same as your TV would (although admittedly, the chips vary in quality from player to player be it HD DVD or Blu-Ray).

This is real news to me, and a real concern. What does "true 1080p" give me that the 1080i deinterlaced to 1080p doesn't? I didn't realize that this was going on.

Most don't.

1080p is the buzzword to get people to spend 2x the money on a set. Most people that did A/B comparisons have stated the only time 1080p looked extremely better was sitting too close to the set. It's noticable *supposedly* at normal viewing distances, but the problem is so little being broadcast and recorded in true 1080p.

Does anyone know if the this player is multi-region? I have a Yamakawa DVD as my wife is Japanese and gets movies from overseas. I wish region was not locked down for most players.

I didn't realize you get 5 DVDs with it...makes it a much sweeter deal.

[Professor.Ham.Slap]

Most don't.

1080p is the buzzword to get people to spend 2x the money on a set. Most people that did A/B comparisons have stated the only time 1080p looked extremely better was sitting too close to the set. It's noticable *supposedly* at normal viewing distances, but the problem is so little being broadcast and recorded in true 1080p.

Does anyone know if the this player is multi-region? I have a Yamakawa DVD as my wife is Japanese and gets movies from overseas. I wish region was not locked down for most players.

I didn't realize you get 5 DVDs with it...makes it a much sweeter deal.

Yeah, you can get the rebate form at www.thelookandsoundofperfect.com. The player is region locked for DVDs, which I agree does kind of suck, but the good news is that there is no region coding for HD DVDs. I've imported a few titles and they work great on my player.

[mas]

Blu-Ray Region Codes:

Region code	Area
A/1	North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.
B/2	Europe, Greenland, French territories, Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
C/3	India, Nepal, Mainland China, Russia, Central and South Asia.

And while I am not sure of the exact current status, don't anticipate region free HD-DVDs either.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060526-6927.html

[Professor.Ham.Slap]

My guess would be due to the lack of region coding on current HD DVDs, the age of the article and the some of the ramblings over at AVS forum this has become pretty much a non-issue, or at least I hope.