Why I went with HD-DVD...

[Spineshank]

Sony has managed to flop every other standard they created, they can do it to Blu Ray too.

 

[FreedomGUNDAM]

interesting. May look into giving this a try.

 

[mercanucaribe]

HDCP only applies to digital connections. VGA is analog.

I'll never be able to watch HDDVDs on my LCD unless I use VGA .

 

[imported_Mike]

Originally posted by: spacejamz

Originally posted by: bum

Originally posted by: Mike
Very inexpensive compared to blueray, but I just can't see HD DVD winning the format war.

I really don't want to start another flame war about this, but I think price is precisely the factor that is going to win this "war."

Anyway, nice set up dude. My HD-DVD player is on the way.

You don't think studio support makes a difference? What good is a cheap HD DVD player if you cant get Disney flicks for the kids? Imagine how pissed someone would be after buying an HD DVD player and then finding out they won't be able to watch any of the Pirate of the Caribean movies or Cars?

Not only other studios, but Sony is a huge player movie production. That and Sony is a stuborn company....look at their memory stick. Back in the day it use to be as much as twice the cost of compact flash, but now they're equal. Blueray will be the same. Eventually it will cost the same, and have large studio support. It's just a matter of time.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
HDCP only applies to digital connections. VGA is analog.

I'll never be able to watch HDDVDs on my LCD unless I use VGA .

Not true. You can use AnyDVD and it'll remove the restrictions on the fly. I tried it and it worked.

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Originally posted by: spacejamz

Originally posted by: bum

Originally posted by: Mike
Very inexpensive compared to blueray, but I just can't see HD DVD winning the format war.

I really don't want to start another flame war about this, but I think price is precisely the factor that is going to win this "war."

Anyway, nice set up dude. My HD-DVD player is on the way.

You don't think studio support makes a difference? What good is a cheap HD DVD player if you cant get Disney flicks for the kids? Imagine how pissed someone would be after buying an HD DVD player and then finding out they won't be able to watch any of the Pirate of the Caribean movies or Cars?

Your kids will enjoy Cars whether you show it to them on upconverted DVD or HD DVD (speaking of which, the XA2 does a phenomenal upconversion, hopefully Samsung's new BD player also does the same since it uses the same chip).

As for Sony's impact, they eventually started making VHS tapes didn't they? .

While I agree that studio support is important, getting a player cheap enough that using HD discs can be viewed as a bonus is what will win this war. I.e. the day you can go to Best Buy and are faced with the decision of a semi-decent upconverting DVD player is $100-$150 and an HD-DVD or BD player for $200.

 

[spacejamz]

Your kids will enjoy Cars whether you show it to them on upconverted DVD or HD DVD (speaking of which, the XA2 does a phenomenal upconversion, hopefully Samsung's new BD player also does the same since it uses the same chip).

Sorry but Cars is a Blu Ray exclusive that will not be available on HD DVD...no Blu Ray player, no Cars...

I am sure that upconverted material looks very good, but it will never be as good as Blu Ray/HD DVD...if you really think so, then why ever bother with these new formats?

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: Shawn
PRICE!

I was originally holding off because both players were too expensive. However after doing a bit of reading I discovered that the xbox360 HD-DVD drive was USB and could be hooked up to a computer. PowerDVD 7 said my video card was compatible so I decided to give it a shot.

I bought a HD-DVD drive off ebay for $160 shipped and it works great. Compared to the cheapest Blu-ray drive that Newegg has ($509.99AR), $160 is a steal!

Even if Blu-ray somehow wins the format war it won't be for a while and there will still be plenty of HD-DVDs released. I got 4 movies from Amazon for $50 shipped and will probably pick up the Matrix trilogy, 2001: A Space Odyssey, the BBC Planet Earth series, BSG Season 1 as well as a few others once they are released.

Here are some blurry low res pics. Looks much better in person, obviously. PowerDVD wouldn't let me take actual screenshots.
PowerDVD 7.3
The Fugitive Intro
The Fugitive Intro 2


HD-DVD Interactive Menus:
Serenity Main Menu
The Fugitive Scene Selection

Pics of my setup:
Entertainment System
Loveseat + Rear Speakers
Desk
Another Angle
Rig + HD-DVD Drive
Bed

Bonus:
Pic of my current HD-DVDs

If your HD DVD on your XBox looks as good as my Blu-Ray Disc on my PS3 you are in for a treat

 

[BabaBooey]

Well good for you as when I hit the pawn shops and gamestops for blu rays the only used stuff they have is HD-DVD ..

 

[0roo0roo]

hd-dvd pr0n?

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Originally posted by: spacejamz

Your kids will enjoy Cars whether you show it to them on upconverted DVD or HD DVD (speaking of which, the XA2 does a phenomenal upconversion, hopefully Samsung's new BD player also does the same since it uses the same chip).

Sorry but Cars is a Blu Ray exclusive that will not be available on HD DVD...no Blu Ray player, no Cars...

I am sure that upconverted material looks very good, but it will never be as good as Blu Ray/HD DVD...if you really think so, then why ever bother with these new formats?

My point is that your kids won't give a rats ass if you play Cars on Blu-Ray, DVD, or VHS; I really don't think some 5 year old is going to start complaining about edge softness and the lack of lossless audio. If I were buying an HD DVD or Blu-Ray player, animation flicks would not be a consideration even if I had kids.

Come to think of it, if I had kids around, I would buy all their movies on DVD regardless of whether I had a BD or HD DVD drive so that they don't massacre the $25 HD disc. At least with the DVD version, you can use a burned copy so that the original stays intact.

As an aside, animation movies are usually the types of movies that can be upconverted with the least amount of artifacts.

 

[T9D]

I wish a format would win already.

But I'm going to also buy the x-box HD-DVD and hook it to my computer. So I guess thats one more for HD-DVD support. The price is just much more reasonable. I think many others will follow as far as taking a side because of price.

I hate format wars either way.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

Originally posted by: Gnrslash4life
Sony has managed to flop every other standard they created, they can do it to Blu Ray too.

yeah...i remember they were trying to push this format called CD or something a while ago. Dont know what happened to it though.

 

[IGBT]

..I'll get one when they're 59.95 at costco and play all formats. mabe a year or so.

 

[Matt2]

Originally posted by: Inspector Jihad

Originally posted by: Gnrslash4life
Sony has managed to flop every other standard they created, they can do it to Blu Ray too.

yeah...i remember they were trying to push this format called CD or something a while ago. Dont know what happened to it though.

What about Betamax and their craptastic mini-cd?

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
hd-dvd pr0n?

no comment.

 

[secretanchitman]

the fugitive - one of the best movies of all time.

and ill bet it looks great in hd-dvd. enjoy them!

 

[Inspector Jihad]

Originally posted by: Matt2

Originally posted by: Inspector Jihad

Originally posted by: Gnrslash4life
Sony has managed to flop every other standard they created, they can do it to Blu Ray too.

yeah...i remember they were trying to push this format called CD or something a while ago. Dont know what happened to it though.

What about Betamax and their craptastic mini-cd?

isnt mini disk still used for recording?


apparantly they also came out with the 3.5in floppy, SACD, and S/PDIF

 

[JackBurton]

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
HDCP only applies to digital connections. VGA is analog.

I'll never be able to watch HDDVDs on my LCD unless I use VGA .

Not true. You can use AnyDVD and it'll remove the restrictions on the fly. I tried it and it worked.

No one is using the HDCP flag now. You can play HD-DVDs using a VGA/Component/DVI (non-HDCP) connection without decrypting it.

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Originally posted by: JackBurton

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
HDCP only applies to digital connections. VGA is analog.

I'll never be able to watch HDDVDs on my LCD unless I use VGA .

Not true. You can use AnyDVD and it'll remove the restrictions on the fly. I tried it and it worked.

No one is using the HDCP flag now. You can play HD-DVDs using a VGA/Component/DVI (non-HDCP) connection without decrypting it.

No one uses the ICT flag, but playback software enforces it on all discs over digital connections nonetheless.

 

[JackBurton]

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle

Originally posted by: JackBurton

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
HDCP only applies to digital connections. VGA is analog.

I'll never be able to watch HDDVDs on my LCD unless I use VGA .

Not true. You can use AnyDVD and it'll remove the restrictions on the fly. I tried it and it worked.

No one is using the HDCP flag now. You can play HD-DVDs using a VGA/Component/DVI (non-HDCP) connection without decrypting it.

No one uses the ICT flag, but playback software enforces it on all discs over digital connections nonetheless.

I thought you could do 1080p with the 360 using the VGA connection.

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Originally posted by: JackBurton

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle
No one uses the ICT flag, but playback software enforces it on all discs over digital connections nonetheless.

I thought you could do 1080p with the 360 using the VGA connection.

VGA is analog

 

[mzkhadir]

Originally posted by: JackBurton

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle

Originally posted by: JackBurton

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
HDCP only applies to digital connections. VGA is analog.

I'll never be able to watch HDDVDs on my LCD unless I use VGA .

Not true. You can use AnyDVD and it'll remove the restrictions on the fly. I tried it and it worked.

No one is using the HDCP flag now. You can play HD-DVDs using a VGA/Component/DVI (non-HDCP) connection without decrypting it.

No one uses the ICT flag, but playback software enforces it on all discs over digital connections nonetheless.

I thought you could do 1080p with the 360 using the VGA connection.

1080i upconverted to 1080p

 

[JackBurton]

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle

Originally posted by: JackBurton

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle
No one uses the ICT flag, but playback software enforces it on all discs over digital connections nonetheless.

I thought you could do 1080p with the 360 using the VGA connection.

VGA is analog

I understand. That is why VGA is not HDCP compliant. If the flag was used, you wouldn't be able to watch HD-DVD movies using that connection (well at least not at anything greater than 480p).

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Originally posted by: JackBurton

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle

Originally posted by: JackBurton

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle
No one uses the ICT flag, but playback software enforces it on all discs over digital connections nonetheless.

I thought you could do 1080p with the 360 using the VGA connection.

VGA is analog

I understand. That is why VGA is not HDCP compliant. If the flag was used, you wouldn't be able to watch HD-DVD movies using that connection (well at least not at anything greater than 480p).

As I said , current software doesn't allow playback of HD DVDs and Blu-Ray discs over DVI or HDMI if the whole chain isn't HDCP-compliant (your original comment mentioned HD DVD over non-HDCP DVI, this is not true). For example, if I don't load AnyDVD, I cannot play back HD DVDs through a DVI-HDMI cable on my TV; PowerDVD simply refuses to output over the non-HDCP protected link.