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Is this something I need to buy? I admit, I am still in the DVD-era, and have absolutely no urge to re-buy a single movie in my collection again. However, I do have a 42 inch plasma. Is there really that much of a difference? And is this $98 player a worthy machine?

Assuming that this player isn't a complete piece of shit, then it's probably not a bad investment. However, at this point you'd probably get more enjoyment out of a nice (Oppo or similar) upconverting SD DVD player if you don't have one already.

from hidefdigest forums. someone posted news:

Warner Lets Their Bluray License Expire?!

Reports are circulating that Warner Brothers' Bluray license expired last night, October 31st, and that they have not renewed it! This would be a very clear signal that they may not continue support of Bluray releases. No confirmation is yet forthcoming, but speculation is rife that an official decision may be forthcoming from Warner before the end of the year. It is said that Warner is very interested in seeing the sales of HD DVD players at their new price points starting at $198 at various retailers such as Circuit City, Walmart, Best Buy and many more. Tomorrow, Walmart also runs a half-day sale on Toshiba A2 players at an incredible $99! After the "Bluray Convention" this week, Bluray Hydra posters on almost all the online forums started posting rumours that Warner said they "favoured" Bluray - but this was met by an almost IMMEDIATE denial by Warner, who said reports of their statements at the Bluray convention were taken "WAY OUT OF CONTEXT" in terms of their stance towards the Bluray format - nothing new for the Hydra posters who continue to fabricate "news" for the format.

Best Buy offers HD DVD player for $99

This less-than-$100 HD player and the rumour in the last post are creating quite a buzz on the net. Many are saying that if the prices stay around $100-150 and if Warner indeed is not renewing their Blu-ray liscence, the war's over.

Are there any reviews of this particular player? Some people on other boards (who have full HD-DVD systems) keep saying "you get what you pay for" about this deal - I realize that this doesn't support 1080p (which is a non-issue for a lot of people), are there any other issues that would make this not a good investment?

Are there any reviews of this particular player?

Toshiba HD-A2

If you're a Kubrick fan, this is a no-brainer. If you have a 1080p display you can go for the next model up for only $90 more. It would be worth it, however, even you only have an old CRT.

patrick wrote:Are there any reviews of this particular player? Some people on other boards (who have full HD-DVD systems) keep saying "you get what you pay for" about this deal - I realize that this doesn't support 1080p (which is a non-issue for a lot of people), are there any other issues that would make this not a good investment?

The 1080i output is, for me, a non-issue since that's as far as my plasma goes, but that one possible caveat aside, it's a fine player. I haven't had a single issue with it since June, Toshiba has been great with firmware updates (available as direct downloads or can be burned to a CD via their site) and the upconversion is quite nice - an unquestionable step beyond my Samsung upconversion player.

I can understand wanting to go for the higher-end model(s) if you've got an equally snazzy audio/video setup, but for many people, this is an ideal way to get into HD, or even just for testing the waters.

I've been following the war with mild interest, and don't pretend to know much, but doesn't the lack of a 1080p television (or player that supports it like the one on sale) kind of defeat the whole purpose of hi-def. At least, that's the draw for me.

Basically, no. Firstly, I've heard that 1080i is basically indistinguishable from 1080p.

Secondly, I'm only on 720p (as are a lot of people) and it's still a definite improvement. Actually, I think the only real difference between 1080p and 720p is how close you can sit before you get the 'flyscreen' effect.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only problem with 1080i would be if you have a TV that does a bad job of deinterlacing the image, correct?

patrick wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only problem with 1080i would be if you have a TV that does a bad job of deinterlacing the image, correct?

that's basically correct. from what i understand, a 1080p player is equivalent to a 1080i player unless your display can play at 24fps. I don't fully understand it, but it has something to do with the TV needing to interlace & then de-interlace to perform 4:3 pulldown, to convert to 60fps.

Well, even with all this cheap HD-DVD player talk, I made my first foray into the field today with a... Blu-Ray.

The $399 model PS3 released today finally got me down to a price point I can reason with, and I jumped on it. I have already arranged a trade of the packed-in Spiderman 3 for a Criterion of more interest. For me, as a gamer with a 1080p 42" plasma, it's a useful combo of game device (with finally a few decent games) and a Blu-Ray on top, so I'm less concerned that I will be entering a war that BR will lose. It will still be another year, probably, before I pick up a standalone HD-DVD player EVEN if the war was over tomorrow and HD won, as my relationship to the whole HD movie thing still seems like a marriage of convenience at this point.

But who knows, I haven't even plugged this baby in through HDMI and seen what it's all about yet. Maybe it will prove indispensable...

Assuming the person you traded with doesn't mind that it's been opened, it's worth popping in Spider-Man 3 - the film is godawful but I have to admit it's a pretty incredible disc in terms of quality.

I went and picked up the $98 Toshiba HD-A2 Today at Wal-Mart. Went on sale at 8am, there was a line of maybe 50+ people, I originally wanted to purchase multiple players to resell , but they limited it to 1 per customer. They also had 50" Sanyo Plasma TVs for <$1000 which also sold out extremely fast. Your chances of getting one of these HD-A2s now from WM or BB are extremely slim as they're basically sold out nationwide.

God, I can't wait to sell the house and get a nice home theater system with an HD/Blu-ray player. Actually, I should just wait until, A, prices go down, and B, they finally settle on the marketing and design. The swoop packages are just terrible.

Just print out one of these.

davidhare wrote:Absolutely. And it still astounds me at the joints I occasionally visit with the BD players (which may be the old defective first gen ones) which are connected to 1080p Sony Bravias and Pioneer Juros etc look like total shit.

Don't even GO THERE lummox!

Then you are not going to the right joints. I've had a XBR3 Bravia 52' for well over a year and own both the Sony S300 and PS3 and can tell you for a fact that aside from the latest Sharp Aquos which comes close to XBR3 this is the best set I've owned ever.

I don't know what the hell are you talking about but to come in here and start talking that these two sets are shit is to put it simply the fud of all fuds.

Dr.A

I just thought I'd add my observations as a consumer with a PS3 who's been buying blu-ray movies for the last few months. My understanding is the blu-ray dominates the market because of the PS3 and that it outsells movies by a significant margin. Now the PS3 has recently been offered at $399, which, while still high compared to cheap HD-DVD players, will attract more gamers and possibly film buffs. Even recently I've noticed that the two Best Buys near me have moved the HD-DVDs into smaller aisle space compared to BRD. Both stores used to devote the same amount of space to each format.

I'm not really in favour of one format or the other as I don't mind buying HD-DVD if it succeeds in the end, but I'm not sure that they're won the war. In fact, I plan to pick up one of those reasonably priced HD-DVD players so I can have the best of both worlds. But it may be a bit premature to declare a victor in a war all of wish hadn't been started.

The difference between DVD and HD or BRD really is akin to the difference between VHS and DVD. I recently bought Dawn of the Dead ('78) on BRD and compared it to the Anchor Bay DVD release and there's absolutely no question, the BRD looks far better. The colors are richer and deeper, the contrast is better, and the highlights burst onto an HD TV. I was overjoyed.

Could somebody point me in the direction of a good number of screencaps comparing HD-DVD to Blu-ray to DVD, or any combination of the three?

denti alligator wrote:Just print out one of these.

Because, of course, that's my main concern. Not the fact that I could only afford an HD-bluray setup if I took out a second mortgage.

davidhare wrote:And then confused by salesdroids who simply make it up as they go along.

Reminds me of the first time I bought an iPod, and the sales guy told me you could only put music on it by burning it onto a disc and putting it back into the computer. I still have no idea if that's even remotely related to anything that was at one point true. The same thing turned up in a comic strip a few months later.

Magic Hate Ball wrote:Could somebody point me in the direction of a good number of screencaps comparing HD-DVD to Blu-ray to DVD, or any combination of the three?

I saw some a while back and I'll try to dig up the links. I remember not being able to tell much of a difference between the two. 1080i looks pretty damned good even if it isn't progressive.

AVS Forum thread with brd/hd-dvd/sd dvd comparsions. Huge pictures files. (EDIT: Oops - it's only a sd dvd vs. hd comaparison - here's another thread with a couple brd/hd dvd comparisons)

denti alligator wrote:Just print out one of these.

Those are just as bad; the guy seems to make up what the film is about as he goes, there's no correlative. It's like the same film made in an alternate universe, or some kind of cover made exclusively for sale in GAP stores.

John Bored wrote:

denti alligator wrote:Just print out one of these.

Those are just as bad; the guy seems to make up what the film is about as he goes, there's no correlative. It's like the same film made in an alternate universe, or some kind of cover made exclusively for sale in GAP stores.

Maybe we should be discussing this in the cover art thread, but I beg to disagree. While these aren't exactly perfect, they are FAR superior to the art that comes with these DVDs.

denti alligator wrote:

John Bored wrote:

denti alligator wrote:Just print out one of these.

Those are just as bad; the guy seems to make up what the film is about as he goes, there's no correlative. It's like the same film made in an alternate universe, or some kind of cover made exclusively for sale in GAP stores.

Maybe we should be discussing this in the cover art thread, but I beg to disagree. While these aren't exactly perfect, they are FAR superior to the art that comes with these DVDs.

Yeah, these custom covers look awesome:



Do people really print these out? Embarrassing.

Like I said, awesome they are not, but they are superior to what you get with the DVD (have you seen the artwork for the Bourne films? [ugh!]).