well I have had one for a week or so now, not been using it becuase I didnt have any HD-DVD's 
My inital impressions just on how it played standard DVDs were pretty good the picture seemed as good as my £250 pioneer DVD player.
Anyway, the postman dropped off my very first HD-DVD yesterday, GOODFELLAS, I know its an oldy, but its a goodie, i also checked on the review sites and it got top marks for picture and sound quality so i was expecting good things.
Oh, its being used with a Panasonic TX52 LCD TV by the way, the first thing i did was try both 720p & 1080i , i always use 720p but I thought id see if there was a differance, and yes there is, 1080i is a lot clearer, you can really tell the differance espceally on the CIA warning screen at the start, the text is pin sharp compared to the 720p.
Anyway, sat down to watch the film with the missus last night have to say im very underwhelmed by my first film experiance with HD-DVD, the jump from standard DVD just wasnt there, and right now I am hoping its just the first film iv bought. it really didnt offer anything over a very good DVD transfer picture wise. I got the expected comment off the missus I was waiting for 'and this cost you how much again!"
It in no way comes close the HD showcase films I have streaming off my PC. let alone the best DVDs in my collection, I mean if you put Goodfellas on the HD DVD drive and Cars in my DVD player and asked people to choose which was HD I think they would go for Cars.
sound, I have 2 issues here, firstly, again I was very under impressed by the overall sound quality, I have this film on standard DVD and know it sounds a lot better. I also know the 360 sound from games sounds a lot better. Im sure its becuase there is no direct output from the drive itself, and every is being shuffled through a USB cable then split up, but things just dont sound that great.
My biggest concern is the sound of the unit itself though, not the addon drive but the actual 360, this is the first time I have used it to sit down and watch a fiklm properly, and even with the home cimema setup on load, and especaly in a film with a lot of dialog, all you can here in the background is the whine of that flaming machine, I am a bit of a silence freak but it really does ruin the whole experiance.
so there we go, err not overally impressed, I will try it with a newer film, i have a couple more on the way but even if the picture and sound were great, I think I would still struggle to put up with the unit because of the noise, as it stands, I think im going to flog it and get a standalone HD-DVD player, one with dedicated outputs alowing me to use quality cables. and more importantly one that doesnt sound like a bloody hoover convention is going on in my living room
My inital impressions just on how it played standard DVDs were pretty good the picture seemed as good as my £250 pioneer DVD player.
Anyway, the postman dropped off my very first HD-DVD yesterday, GOODFELLAS, I know its an oldy, but its a goodie, i also checked on the review sites and it got top marks for picture and sound quality so i was expecting good things.
Oh, its being used with a Panasonic TX52 LCD TV by the way, the first thing i did was try both 720p & 1080i , i always use 720p but I thought id see if there was a differance, and yes there is, 1080i is a lot clearer, you can really tell the differance espceally on the CIA warning screen at the start, the text is pin sharp compared to the 720p.
Anyway, sat down to watch the film with the missus last night have to say im very underwhelmed by my first film experiance with HD-DVD, the jump from standard DVD just wasnt there, and right now I am hoping its just the first film iv bought. it really didnt offer anything over a very good DVD transfer picture wise. I got the expected comment off the missus I was waiting for 'and this cost you how much again!"
It in no way comes close the HD showcase films I have streaming off my PC. let alone the best DVDs in my collection, I mean if you put Goodfellas on the HD DVD drive and Cars in my DVD player and asked people to choose which was HD I think they would go for Cars.
sound, I have 2 issues here, firstly, again I was very under impressed by the overall sound quality, I have this film on standard DVD and know it sounds a lot better. I also know the 360 sound from games sounds a lot better. Im sure its becuase there is no direct output from the drive itself, and every is being shuffled through a USB cable then split up, but things just dont sound that great.
My biggest concern is the sound of the unit itself though, not the addon drive but the actual 360, this is the first time I have used it to sit down and watch a fiklm properly, and even with the home cimema setup on load, and especaly in a film with a lot of dialog, all you can here in the background is the whine of that flaming machine, I am a bit of a silence freak but it really does ruin the whole experiance.
so there we go, err not overally impressed, I will try it with a newer film, i have a couple more on the way but even if the picture and sound were great, I think I would still struggle to put up with the unit because of the noise, as it stands, I think im going to flog it and get a standalone HD-DVD player, one with dedicated outputs alowing me to use quality cables. and more importantly one that doesnt sound like a bloody hoover convention is going on in my living room
