HD-DVD drive - need convincing

Edz

Edz

Edz

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Thinking about getting one, but still can't convince myself their worth the cash :-/

I had a looky around at the weekend because I was under the impression that Blue-Ray had the more comprehensive catalogue at the moment, so would hold out until the PS3 comes down in price, but noticed that HD had pretty much the same amount of films and probably more my taste in films so I've gone off the blue-ray/PS3 idea and am now thinking the HD drive will do me. Problem is I've got so many DVD's and most films I want I get straight away on DVD so I'm not sure the HD drive isn't just a fad to say I've got one :(

Also I'm finding it hard to find out what films will be released on HD or Blue Ray. Which is making the decision that much harder :-/
Anyone know where I can get a list of forth coming titles for each format?
 
get a HD dvd drive if you have a HD TV and are going to buy HD-DVDs.

Im not bothered about HD DVDs so im sticking with just the 360 to play mine, wont get HD DVDs or drive until i get a 1080p TV, so wont be a while!
 
I think for the money they're well worth it, but i do think they are wasted on screens less than 32", and only truly impressive @ 1080p on a 37" upwards.

The crispness is definitely a huge step up from dvd, but its not quite so jaw dropping on a 26" at 720p. Just saying this is from my experience.
I would say, that you can't really go wrong with it though, because of the price. It was'nt so long ago you couldnt get a dvd player for sub £150 let alone an hd-dvd at the start of the products life.

Go for it, if you've not experienced hd movies by other means you will love it.
 
Chris1712 said:
I think for the money they're well worth it, but i do think they are wasted on screens less than 32", and only truly impressive @ 1080p on a 37" upwards.

The crispness is definitely a huge step up from dvd, but its not quite so jaw dropping on a 26" at 720p. Just saying this is from my experience.
I would say, that you can't really go wrong with it though, because of the price. It was'nt so long ago you couldnt get a dvd player for sub £150 let alone an hd-dvd at the start of the products life.

Go for it, if you've not experienced hd movies by other means you will love it.
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I would concur - I have already spent more on HD-DVd's than on the drive to play them (majority are imports from Florida) and I know that even my 32" Sammy doesnt do them justice but they look better than most DVD's I have

I wouldnt agree with the "wasnt long ago...." comment though - there have been sub £100 dvd players of decent quality for a couple of years, they are just getting more common is all :D

Cant agrue with the "at the start of a product's life" however

The only thing I would say however is that HD-DVD releases seem to be relatively infrequent - Im hoping with the release of the PS3 blu-ray wont be as slow (but looking forward to my free copy of Casino Royale either way)
 
i dont know what the set up is in regards to hd-dvd releases in different regions but i am finding that on some websites (movietyme for example..can i post that websites name?)they can have some releases ive never seen in a uk shop, let alone be advertised as being on uk release! i also got equilibrium on hd from an asian website..very pleased :)
as far as im concerned i havent regretted the purchase of the hd player one bit.
regards,
steve.
 
/\ thats a really useful comment...........

just elaborate a bit as to why you found it rubbish, the op can make an informed decision then :)
 
I think to sum up in one sentence - you really need a big screen. You still have to contend with the black bars on 2.35:1 aspect ratio films. I've been squinting at films on my 24" Dell, you can tell the picture is more detailed that DVD but it's too small to watch comfortably.
 
What i always find interesting is how everybody says BluRay is just so much more expensive, when i have been looking, the disks are cheaper/the same and even going by that site it is cheaper.

I personally wont be getting one for 2 reasons.
1. i have a PS3 so will probably choose bluRay as a primary format.
2. I don't want yet another a/c plug in my TV area. Its bad enough trying to juggle the consoles around, having 2 for one console would just become a total pain in the tights.
 
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Got mine last week and for the price I think its well worth it.

The DVDs are a rip off in the UK but you can get them for much less from the USA.

I am using a 42" plasma and the difference in quality over normal DVD is immense.
 
I use my 360 HD-DVD player with a 32" HD TV and the difference going from normal DVD's is great. I hate going back to normal DVD's now.
Can't really tell a difference with surround sound tbh.
 
andybtsn said:
I use my 360 HD-DVD player with a 32" HD TV and the difference going from normal DVD's is great. I hate going back to normal DVD's now.
Can't really tell a difference with surround sound tbh.
Click to expand...

Some well encoded dvd's still look great (like Sin City and SW:EpIII) but majority of the hd-dvd's I have got look brilliant (but will look even better on a huge screen)

360 drive doesnt decode all new audio formats and it also depends on the amp you are using whether it understands each one or not also
 
whoever says that the hd-dvd drive is not worth it, clearly hasn't seent he difference on a high res plasma/lcdtv

to put it short: it's brilliant
 
muzzler said:
/\ thats a really useful comment...........

just elaborate a bit as to why you found it rubbish, the op can make an informed decision then :)
Click to expand...

The choice of movies was poor.

The quality over a good quality DVD wasnt that massive a jump.

The unit was noisy when combined with the xbox 360, so i couldnt sit and watch a movie at night with the sound low.

It was asthetically unpleasing to look at in my AV setup.

It was a nuisance having to take a game disk out to load it (or go into the menu after the game was loading, either way it was a nuisance).

This was running on a Sony Bravia 40W LCD.
 
InwardSinging said:
It was a nuisance having to take a game disk out to load it (or go into the menu after the game was loading, either way it was a nuisance).
Click to expand...

What do you mean by that? :confused:

So you need to have a dvd in the drive to watch an HD-DVD??
 
InwardSinging said:
The choice of movies was poor.

The quality over a good quality DVD wasnt that massive a jump.

The unit was noisy when combined with the xbox 360, so i couldnt sit and watch a movie at night with the sound low.

It was asthetically unpleasing to look at in my AV setup.

It was a nuisance having to take a game disk out to load it (or go into the menu after the game was loading, either way it was a nuisance).

This was running on a Sony Bravia 40W LCD.
Click to expand...



The guy is bang on the money, whilst its better then DVD its not a huge leap, granted the bigger the TV the bigger the improvement.

But the noise is the killer for me, thats why I think ill be selling mine on.
 
I've been put off getting one by the noise the 360 makes, I couldn't put up with that during films, even in it's quiet mode with the DVD drive not spinning. Plus using something like >150W of power while playing movies is too much IMO. For the same reason I wouldn't use the blu-ray function of the PS3 if I had one.

I'm gonna wait for the players to reach affordable prices, and by then the format war hopefully will be resolved, and in the meanwhile use an upscaling DVD player.
 
JUMPURS said:
What do you mean by that? :confused:

So you need to have a dvd in the drive to watch an HD-DVD??
Click to expand...

No, but say you had a game disk in your 360 (as most people usually do all the time), if you have a disk in your hd-dvd as well, whatever you put in last loads up, so you have to cancel the loading, goto the desktop and pick which you want.

If your someone who always puts disks away after using them then its not a problem, if your very lazy like me, then you wont do that, and its annoying.
 
How come you don't just set it to always boot to dashboard then? You can choose whether to play game or play HD-DVD movie.
 
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