T1B

I might get the HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360 when it comes out.

The problem is that the HDMI port on my TV is already being used by the HD-DVR cable box. No sense in spending the $500 or $600 for a stand alone HD-DVD (there's no fucking way I'm dropping $1000 on a Blu-Ray player). I'll spend the $200 on the add-on drive though. Netflix is renting HD-DVD's now so that will be cool.

That's a thought. I was going with the "what do I watch more?" philosophy - which would be TV over DVD. I should check and see what kind of quality loss I might see from dropping to the component cables. Probably not a discernable difference but I'm a snob like that. :D

I ordered that bitch today.

So which one is the industry going to go with, BlueRay or HD-DVD?

Is it going to be like the VHS vs. Beta wars?

I'm waiting on the final word of how good the Xbox HD-DVD drive is. I already have an upscaling DVD player so I won't need that feature in a new drive.

A big factor in the VHS vs Beta war was the porn industry's support of VHS. They could decide which format wins this time as well. I guess time will tell.

Your DVD player doesn't upscale to true HD though.

It just makes standard DVD look slightly better by morphing the image to fit 720p or 1080i. It's nowhere near the quality that HD-DVD or Blu-Ray is. Night and day.

In no way do I imagine a DVD could look as good as an HD disc does. I'm just pointing out that since I already have a machine that does upscaling I don't need to worry about whether the HD-DVD player I buy has that feature or not.

Gotcha. I don't believe that the 360 add-on player upscales.

I'm excited to get the new player. It comes with the HD-DVD version of King Kong and a remote (about $50 in extras). You can kind of rationalize that the player is $150 out of that. Hell, some nice standard DVD players cost that much.

Sure beats paying the $500 to $1000 for the players out now.

Believe the Heupel wrote:So, hey, Fu, how do you like the HD-DVD drive?

It looks great, easy as pie to setup and haven't had any issues. I watched some of King Kong that came with it (already saw it and don't feel like sitting through 3+ hours of mediocrity again) and just watched Slither (rental from Netflix). I haven't bought any HD DVDs yet since I'm not about to spend $30 on a movie. Once they hit the $20 mark, I'll start buying some.

I've bought some MMA DVDs from DeepDiscountDVD.com.

Just bought a PS3 today for the sole purpose of using the Blu-Ray. So now I have both HD formats.

Believe the Heupel wrote:Heh. I did that about a month ago.

HD DVD has done an ass-poor job of capitalizing on the great start they got out of the gate by not releasing a damn thing for the last couple of months. My BD collection is almost as big as my HD DVD collection now.

That's what pushed me to Blu-Ray. I took a look at the movies coming out in the next few months on Amazon.com and Blu-Ray just flat out dominated HD DVD. I have 25 movies in my Netflix queue (6 of which were available in HD DVD). 15 of the 25 were available for Blu-Ray.

You just don't see HD DVD advertised anymore. Go into any Best Buy or Circuit City and the player used on the endcaps is Blu-Ray. What hi-def player is in their weekly ads? Blu-Ray. Yes, the still sell the HD DVD players they just don't push them. It seems the big box retailers made their decision.

Rack Fu wrote:Just bought a PS3 today for the sole purpose of using the Blu-Ray. So now I have both HD formats.

PS3s are still hard to come by around here or I would have done the same thing. Frankly, I'm disappointed with both formats, but we're stuck with them for the foreseeable future. I'll probably get one of the new 360s when they come out so I can watch HD-DVD over HDMI, not to mention the quieter drives they're going to use.

How do you guys like the PS3 as a player? I don't need another game console, but it's still the cheapest Blu-Ray solution out there. I only wish I could use my universal remote with it.

I'm still not sure what to do. If a dual format player can be bought for under a grand by the end of the year I'll probably get one and be done with it.

I really like it as a Blu-ray player. It's the cheapest and arguably the best player (per the geeks at avsforum.com).

If you have a 1080p TV, I'd say go for it.

So has anyone run into problems with the HD disks not playing in their players? I heard something on the news yesterday how the most popular disk sold to date yet is having a bunch of issues in the players.

The only issue I had was with Clerks II on HD DVD that I got from Netflix. It was all scuffed up and shit so that was more than likely the issue.

Why do people treat rental disks like frisbees and drink coasters? People need to rent the disk after you fuck it up, douche.

The paper sleeves they're mailed in are also a big reason why they're usually scratched to hell. Blu-Ray discs are supposed to have a coating that makes them more resistant to scratches. Have you noticed a difference?

Thanks for the input about the PS3. I'll probably get one later in the year. I won't have much time for movies this summer anyway.

Donovan wrote:The paper sleeves they're mailed in are also a big reason why they're usually scratched to hell. Blu-Ray discs are supposed to have a coating that makes them more resistant to scratches. Have you noticed a difference?

Thanks for the input about the PS3. I'll probably get one later in the year. I won't have much time for movies this summer anyway.

There's a rumored $100 PS3 price drop in October. They also stopped (or are about to stop) manufacturing the 20 GB version.