Anyone familiar with HD-DVD?

Is it worth it?

I got a new, 37" LCD Tv from my family and friends for Christmas. I also just bought an XBOX 360. I have my XBOX hooked to my TV with an HDMI cable.

Watching DVDs on it look amazing! Amazing is an understatement compared to my old TV.

My question(s) is..

Is HD-DVD worth it?
What are my television requirements to make HD-DVD worth it?

I was asking a guy I work with if he has any experiance with HD-DVD and he was extatic about it. He says it "More real than reality".

All opinions welcome.

Thanks

 

i have a 360 with the HD player and on a 1080i or 720p tv it HD movies look 100 times better. Don't bother with a HD player on the 320p TV or what ever that lower standard is. I had one of those also and it wasn't worth the effort.

 

HD DVD and BluRay is the new technology, There are several different reports on which is going to win out in the end and most are going BluRay. I personally have a PS3 and my folks have HD-DVD, and hooking up the two on my Set (Mitsu 57732) I like the picture of the PS3 better..Any way back to you question-As long as your 37" is atleast 480P you are in HD, up from there is always better though, 720p-1080i and 1080p or full hd..It all depends on what looks good to you though


Jon

 

No its not worth it. Don't spend the cash on a format that is now dead.

Use your money towards a Blu-Ray player.

Toshiba is slashing all the prices on their players by almost half off right now to get rid of their remaining stock since they know in about a year no movies will be out on HD DVD anymore since all the movie companies are ditching the format to go with Blu-Ray.

 

I would wait until the High Def battle settles down a bit. I think Paramount just started making it's movies exclusively Blu-Ray, meaning that 3 out of the 5 major movie producers are selling Blu-Ray only.

 

I have a 50" Panasonic plasma Xbox 360 with HD player it looks great, but you should hold off and see what happens with HD DVD vs Blue ray. Plus take a look at this link

 

FWIW: I'm not a fanboi of HD DVD. I do have a player, and some HD DVDs. I don't have enough that if the format war was over tomorrow, I couldn't replace them w/ their Blu-Ray equivalent.

Now... from what I've read, the format war probably won't be over for some time. Yes, Blu-Ray did win a major battle when WB went Blu (not Paramount). But Paramount, MICROSOFT, and Universal are still some of the players in the HD camp.

I suggest looking at these:

HDDVD.com
Official HD DVD site
Blu-Ray.com
Official Blu-Ray site

 

Thanks guys!

I've been reading up some on the internet.. but I want a real person's opinion. You can read the hype all day... but do YOU.. the consumer feel that the picture is "that" much better than a normal DVD.

My TV manual says it supports up to 1080i. I'm using HDMi cables and the picture looks GREAT playing HD channels and DVDs... I just want the most.

Keep the opinions coming. Where's Dzervit... he always pretends to know alot about the latest technology. LOL

 

Yes the picture is worth it. I have both a HD-DVD player and Blu Ray player. Both to my 1080P tv, and both 1080P capable with the HDMI's hooked up. Honestly I watch more Blu Rays than HD-DVD's. There is a far better selection of good movie on Blu Ray (18 months till transformers on Blu Ray). I find the picture with Blu Ray better, features are better, discs are better, and more studios back it than HD-DVD (IE disney, lionsgate and the such) Not to mention at least one studio a year defects to Blu Ray.


But to answer your real question....yes the money is worth the picture!

 

btw this guy is the **** with this stuff

robby you get pirates yet? and not the one with johnny dep

 

I thought **** went HD? And **** was a solid indicating factor in these wars. Or not, I just looked it up and Vivid is going both ways, figures.

 

i recently went with a HD player. i read about all the blue ray vs HD stuff, but who knows what is going to happen in the end. as far as the manufacturing of the discs goes, regular dvd plants can easily upgrade their current machines to make HD discs also. from what i understand, blue ray is a whole nother animal, they have to setup totally new manufacturing equiptment to make those discs.

it all looks like political crap now when you read what companies are paying which studios to side with their format. again, leaving the future of the two formats very uncertain.

with that being said, the HD movies look and sound great. i am also using a hdmi cable with a 1080i tv. what is also really nice is the player 'upgrades' the quality of my regular dvds also. i think somewhere in the dvd player owners manual it states that the upgraded picture is almost indistinguishable from a HD formated disc. the first movie i put in was 'finding nemo' and though it was not HD format, the picture was much better than from a regular dvd player. also, from what i have seen, the prices (at least on amazon) have really come down on these machines.

 

When I purchased a new panny plasma they basically had a deal that I could get a panny blu ray for free and through in 10 movies as well. The TV is a 1080p and the picture is great. I ended up watching "Cars" the other night on blu-ray and the picture was simpily amazing.

 

No cole I have not picked up that pirates.

And **** is kind of a deciding factor, but not that much when you think of the revenue it brings in compared to blockbuster movies.

 

Blue ray has won HD DVD is getting pulled from the shelves and people are returning it as it is a dead product. My buddy is the GM at Best Buy.