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Is an HD-DVD player worth it now?

3K views 68 replies 27 participants last post by  Kyoseki 
#1 ·
I've noticed that the prices of the Toshiba HD-DVD players have come down a good bit in just the last couple months. BestBuy and Circuit City both have the HD-A3 and HD-A30 models for $149 and $199. Thats a pretty good deal compared to what they were just a few months ago and Blu-ray players. Is it worth it? I heard somewhere that Blu-Ray already won the format war? Is this true?
 
#2 ·
I am in the same boat right now. I think blu-ray will be the dominant player but both will be around for a long time. Do you play any video games? My plans are to buy playstation 3 and it already plays blu-ray dvd's, so I kill two birds with one stone. The price of the ps3 will be more than what you found for the hd dvd player but some hd dvd's and blu-ray's are almost the same price. You just have to shop around. I am not going to buy anything until the summer time. Hopefully by then one player will become more dominant and I can make my decision. Good luck with what you decide.
 
#3 ·
#4 ·
I'm even holding off on the Blue-Ray for now to see if it sticks. It looks like a lot of companies are pushing for downloadable movies and movies on demand thus doing away with discs and store fronts that rent them.
 
#6 ·
You can play dvd in either blue ray or hddvd players, but you have to pay extra for a player that plays both hddvd and blue ray. From talking to a store in town, they told me blue ray is winning, the only thing that is keeping the hddvd going is the porn industry, because its cheaper for them to produce.
 
#8 ·
I've read articles that said Blu Ray players that are currently out (except for the PS3) are obsolete because of planned changes in the programming (the PS3 is built to accept the upgrade whereas other Blu Ray players are not). The PS3, all things considered, is the best Blu Ray player on the market. As far as HD-DVD goes, I have a Toshiba A30 and I really like it. Yes, HD-DVD doesn't have as many studios on their roster, but the ones they have - Universal and Paramount - make up a HUGE portion of the movie world. It helps that I ended up getting 10 HD-DVDs for free when I bought it, so that made it worth while for me, even if it ultimately loses the "format war." It's up-conversion feature works well - some movies are obviously better than others. It doesn't seem to like my Futurama DVDs at all, but up-converted Gladiator looks spectacular (I'm running it in 1080p/24Hz mode through an HDMI connection).
 
#10 ·
I've read articles that said Blu Ray players that are currently out (except for the PS3) are obsolete because of planned changes in the programming (the PS3 is built to accept the upgrade whereas other Blu Ray players are not).
Isn't that why most players have firmware updates that need to be performed? I know my first generation Samsung Blu-Ray BD-p1000 needs a firmware update in order to play some of the newer titles, but I just haven't done it yet.
 
#11 · (Edited)
I think its sad that the consumers aren't allowed to choose which format will win. Instead you have studios who make the decisions. I really like HDDVD because it doesn't have regional encoding so you can play a disc in your machine manufactured anywhere in the world. HDDVDS are also cheaper to produce and there's no difference between BLU ray and HDDVD, both even use a blue laser. HDDVD players started with their final format meaning that they won't be introducing new HDDVD players that make them obselete later like sony is with the Blu ray technology (except for PS3).

Even before the HDDVD camp started selling players at 150 bucks they were always cheaper than BLu ray players. Last year they were 300-400 while the Blu-ray players were 800-900. The only reason Blu-ray got cheaper was they had to compete. When Blu-ray wins there goes the competeition unless downloading gets more mainstream.

Blu-ray players and HDDVD players are both backwards compatible with DVD's and even upconvert them sometimes making them look better than a standard DVD player. The two new technologies are not compatible with each other.

There are two dual format players the LG Super Blu and Samsung's new model which play both HDDVD and Blu-ray discs but at 700 bucks its cheaper to buy an HDDVD player and a Blu-ray player.
 
#64 · (Edited)
I think its sad that the consumers aren't allowed to choose which format will win. ...
Consumers are allowed to "vote" in the process. It's simple consumerism. Whatever sells best will win. If Sony didn't have it's hands neck deep into multi-media, Blu-Ray probably would've have gone the same way as the BetaMax.

I like to support the studios that are willing to release their movies on both Blu-Ray and HD. Not very many of them, but I give them kudos for trying to cover every consumer out there.

For me personally, I went to Blu-Ray. Until someone out there makes an HD/game console (integrated, and not an expensive add-on like Xbox 360), then I'll consider getting one of those. Now if Nintendo could integrate HD into their Wii, then the PS3 would some serious competition.

That's just my :2c:
 
#13 ·
Someone recently posted a thread that had an article about Warner Brothers (I believe) is switching all their new movie releases to Blu Ray only. When I brought that up at a local big box store, one of the more level headed employees told me that one of the other big production companies also just switched to strictly Blu Ray. So whatever thats worth to you.

Personally I download my movies and connect my TV to laptop through HDMI and watch all my movies in 1080p.
 
#17 ·
With WB defecting to BRD, I'm calling the war over, and I have HD DVDs here, I'm not planning on buying more, but I don't regret it, at the time, the movies I wanted to watch were all on HD DVD, most of them still are and it's not like they magically stop working when Blu Ray takes off.

One thing though, if you don't mind having two players, you'll be able to pick up HD DVDs on closeout for next to nothing.
 
#18 ·
Blueray can store more info than HD can, which is cool. But from everything I've read blueray has massive compatibility issues, discs that barely run on any machine, slow frame rates, 5 minute load times for a movie etc. Video quality is supposed to be equal between the 2, but I've heard the audio on the BR is worse. I'm guessing that the studios are either ignorant of the complaints or just hoping like hell that they'll get resolved. Long term wise, the greater storage capacity is the better way to go, but right now I don't want one. I've got an HDDVD, and it irritates me to no end to know that eventually it will be worthless for new movies.

But the upscaling on standard DVD's kicks ***, and HD discs really kick *** on my 54" plasma. I bought an upscaling only dvd player a couple weeks before I bought the HD, and the upscaling is better on the HD.
 
#19 ·
Blueray can store more info than HD can, which is cool.
Blu-Ray = 2 layers x 25GB = 50GB disc
HD-DVD (new spec) = 3 layers x 17GB = 51GB disc

The thing is, the new triple layer discs will work with all existing players. If Blu-Ray develops any new storage capacities, very few existing players prior to the new spec's launch will be capable of playing them. As a standard, all HD-DVD players come with an ethernet port for updating purposes; Blu-Ray standards regard that as optional. So, to keep costs down and sell more players, not very many are being released with that feature.

Personally, I'm going to keep my HD player since it's the add-on for the 360 and works with my PC as well. Even if Blu-Ray "wins", I can load up on cheap titles. It's not like the technology is going to become automatically inferior (from a technical standpoint, HD and BR are virtually identical), there just won't be any more titles released eventually but I can still enjoy the ones I have until the next major format is on the horizon.
 
#20 ·
Netflix has gone all Blu-Ray DVD



BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Netflix Inc., the online movie rental company, said Monday it is switching exclusively to the Blu-ray format for high-definition DVDs, following four major movie studios in selecting the Sony technology over one pushed by Toshiba Corp.
ADVERTISEMENT

Toshiba and Sony have been vying to set the standard for high-definition DVDs for several years. The stakes are high because the winner will also get a boost in sales of DVD players needed to read the new format.

The Walt Disney Co., Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures, News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer have endorsed Blu-ray. Paramount and Universal Studios publish their high-definition DVDs in Toshiba's HD DVD format.

Netflix has stocked both formats since they became available in 2006, but said the decision of four of the six major studios to issue films only in Blu-ray format made it likely that the Sony format will prevail.
 
#21 ·
#24 · (Edited)
So which one will computers come equipped with?

edit: and what does this mean for us folks who only have a standard DVD player at the moment?
 
#30 ·
Best Buy has long sided with Blu Ray because the profit margin is higher, HD DVD is the cheaper format, both in terms of players and discs. Consequently the de facto HD machine that was hooked up was a blu ray box and the HD DVD boxes were typically either not present, or hooked up with substandard cables to degrade the image.

Blu Ray won because it had:
a: Better marketing &
b: A cooler name.

You can tell how uninformed the average consumer is about these things because they'll swear blind that Blu Ray looks better than HD DVD, when the truth is there's no significant visual difference between the two formats, if anything they could be forgiven for saying that Blu Ray SOUNDS better, since the only manifestation of the lower HD DVD capacity is compression on the audio track, but visually the two formats are identical.

These people are probably the same ones who say they can tell the difference between 1080i and 1080p when watching a 24fps movie.

ie. They're talking out of their ***.
 
#29 ·
I own an HD-DVD player, as said it's up-conversion is amazingly good. Spectacular, in fact.
Biu ray is more expensive than hddvd is, by about 5 bucks per disc, but both are 10 bucks more than sd.
I buy 90% sd dvd's and let my hd player upconvert it and am happy.
Not sure the public will accept $35 dvd's. That is the price of a bluray.

I got this from Netflix, today...
*******************************************************
NETFLIX - We're Going Blu-ray
*******************************************************

Dear Thomas,

You're receiving this email because you have asked to receive high-definition movies in the HD DVD format. As you may have heard, most of the major movie studios have recently decided to release their high-definition movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format. In order to provide the best selection of high-definition titles for our members, we have decided to go exclusively with Blu-ray as well.

While we will continue to make our current selection of HD DVD titles available to you for the next several months, we will not be adding additional HD DVD titles or reordering replacements.

Toward the end of February, HD DVDs in your Saved Queue will automatically be changed to standard definition DVDs. Then toward the end of this year, all HD DVDs in your Queue will be changed to standard definition DVDs. Don't worry, we will contact you before this happens.

You can click here to change your format preferences.....
 
#31 ·
Not sure the public will accept $35 dvd's. That is the price of a bluray.
I don't know anyone that spends $35 on a bluray movie. They can be had easily $20-25. New releases are typically $30 tops, except in stores that outrageously up the price. Not to mention Best Buy and Amazon, etc have been running buy 1 get 1 for quite some time now. It's on select movies, but good movies still.
 
#36 ·
I shoulda known it. First I bought Beta and then VHS won that format war. Then I bought HD DVD and Blue Ray has essentially won that war too. To make it worse, I just got an email from Netflix today saying they're now officially solely on the Blue Ray bandwagon and they will stop buying new HD DVDs and even stop shipping what they have in HD DVD format after a few more months. :mad:
 
#37 ·
So next time two new technologies are competing against each other could you please tell the rest of us which you chose so we know to get the opposite? :laugh:
 
#39 · (Edited)
It boils down to PS3 has blu-ray. Blu-Ray will be made for the next tenish years accordingly for game discs. They had nothing to lose by throwing some money at it since they were going to produce the disc anyways.

Personally. I have a Samsung 40" 1080p LCD and can barely tell a difference in High Definition discs and an up-converted DVD, but it most definitly isn't worth the price. I would have never bought PS3 if it didn't up convert and will not be re-buying any movies I own now. Spend the hundred bucks on an upconverter and save your money till the winner has players at $100 or less and you still save a hundred bucks or get a PS3 and spend probably too much.
 
#40 ·
Personally. I have a Samsung 40" 1080p LCD and can tell a difference in High Definition discs and an up-converted DVD, but it most definitly isn't worth the price. I would have never bought PS3 if it didn't up convert and will not be re-buying any movies I own now. Spend the hundred bucks on an upconverter and save your money till the winner has players at $100 or less and you still save a hundred bucks or get a PS3 and spend probably too much.
It's not just the video that's vastly improved -- it's the audio as well. Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD are both lossless formats which support over 8 discrete channels. The average consumer probably won't notice, but anyone with a decent surround setup to take advantage of those formats definitely will.

It usually doesn't hurt to future-proof yourself when it comes to technology, but Blu-Ray's high cost and lack of hardware scalability haven't convinced me to begin supporting that format quite yet. If you buy a player right now, it might not be compatible with some of the newer disc revisions coming up and there's no guarantee that its firmware will be upgradable.
 
#42 ·
:rofl:

I love how when the gaming console PS3 is mentioned, that the actual gaming aspects are never mentioned.

I'm waiting for Microsoft to release a Blu-ray addition to the 360. That way I can have Blu-Ray, and actually have a console that functions for gaming as well. :)
 
#43 ·
:rofl:
I love how when the gaming console PS3 is mentioned, that the actual gaming aspects are never mentioned.
You mean like their latest commercial? Just looks like a Blu-Ray player with a weird remote to me. Right now its only saving grace is that it plays BR. A buddy of mine bought one just for that... and folding. Doesn't even own a game for it. :laugh:

 
#44 ·
Hmmm..........I think PS3 should change their name then.

Perhaps to MS3.

"MovieStation3". :laugh:
 
#46 ·
Yea because COD4 sucks so bad on PS3....................................insert roll eyes smiley here.

sure xbox has alot more games..........but since the fall, PS3 has put out some solid games, so to say it's a joke as a gaming console is well, a joke.

xbox fanboys crack me up.
 
#47 ·
Yea because COD4 sucks so bad on PS3....................................insert roll eyes smiley here.
True, but CoD4 is available on every other platform as well, I personally play it on the PC :D

There's still a dearth of really awesome PS3 exclusive games, Motorstorm is good as is Drake's Fortune and R&C Future, but there's no truly awesome titles exclusive to the platform.

The 360 has nearly ALL of the PS3's good games (e.g. cod4, oblivion, assassin's creed) AND a sprinkling of truly fantastic exclusive titles (like mass effect & bioshock, forza 2), so if you're comparing platforms in terms of gaming, the Xbox is definitely the way to go right now.

There are some promising PS3 exclusives on the horizon, so we'll see how it goes this year.
 
#49 ·
XII is online isn't it? Think I'll skip that one, looking forward to XIII but Christ alone knows when that'll show up, next year probably.

I think that's why they're planning on the PS3 having a 10 year life cycle, it takes that long for their developers to write something for it :p
 
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