Some Questions about the 360 HD player...

[Video]

Ok, well, the HD player hit like $150, don't know if that's permanant, or a sale price, and I was seriously thinking of picking one up. But I got a few questions.

 

First, will this play regular DVD's (just looking ath the price of HD movies, I don't se my self gett ing meany any time soon)

 

Second, I heard this will NOT output in HD, and will only output in 720p under certain situations (my TV runs 720, so that's OK) but I heard you also have to have aspecial cable to get it to work too. like HDMI (not only does my TV not have that, the 360- also doesn't.

 

There's probably more, but I can't think of the mn ow.

 

Thanks for any help guys.

[pmpddytim]

Ok, well, the HD player hit like $150, don't know if that's permanant, or a sale price, and I was seriously thinking of picking one up. But I got a few questions.

 

First, will this play regular DVD's (just looking ath the price of HD movies, I don't se my self gett ing meany any time soon)

 

Second, I heard this will NOT output in HD, and will only output in 720p under certain situations (my TV runs 720, so that's OK) but I heard you also have to have aspecial cable to get it to work too. like HDMI (not only does my TV not have that, the 360- also doesn't.

 

There's probably more, but I can't think of the mn ow.

 

Thanks for any help guys.

 

Your 360 already plays DVDs and upscales them as well so the HD-DVD drive is only for playing HD-DVDs. I guess to could technically play DVDs in it but it won't do anything special to them.

 

It will uotput 720p and 1080i via component, you can only get 1080p via HDMI cable and then only if your 360 has the HDMI port (Which you said it does not). And 720p and 1080i are HD so if thats what your tv supports your good to go.

 

However, and I'm saying this as a cautious consumer and not a fanboy.......Wait, the format wars are not over, the future of HD-DVD is questionable right now. The HD-DVD camp just lost Warner and other studios may jump ship (Paramount, thanks AL). If you don't mind taking a gamble and possibly having a $150 piece of obsolete hardware go for it. Movies look fantastic on both formats, I'm just sitting on the fence and waiting.

 

_T

Edited January 9, 2008 by pmpddytim

[Albert]

However, and I'm saying this as a cautious consumer and not a fanboy.......Wait, the format wars are not over, the future of HD-DVD is questionable right now. The HD-DVD camp just lost Paramount and other studios may jump ship. If you don't mind taking a gamble and possibly having a $150 piece of obsolete hardware go for it. Movies look fantastic on both formats, I'm just sitting on the fence and waiting.

 

_T

It was Warner that just jumped ship, although rumor is now that Paramount is going to get back onto the Blu-Ray bandwagon. At this point I would certainly not buy any HD DVD players, even for $150.

 

..Al

[pmpddytim]

However, and I'm saying this as a cautious consumer and not a fanboy.......Wait, the format wars are not over, the future of HD-DVD is questionable right now. The HD-DVD camp just lost Paramount and other studios may jump ship. If you don't mind taking a gamble and possibly having a $150 piece of obsolete hardware go for it. Movies look fantastic on both formats, I'm just sitting on the fence and waiting.

 

_T

It was Warner that just jumped ship, although rumor is now that Paramount is going to get back onto the Blu-Ray bandwagon. At this point I would certainly not buy any HD DVD players, even for $150.

 

..Al

 

Oops got switched around there thanks for the correction, went ahead and fixed it in the original post.

 

-Tim

Edited January 9, 2008 by pmpddytim

[Video]

Cool, so it'll work with componant in 720, I knew there was something people said it won'd tdo without the HDMI, I guess that was full HD.

 

As far as waiting, eh...untell the next format comes out, I"m not really looking for a replacement to DVD honestly. But there are some cool stuff you can only get in an HD format, and most of what I am interexted in is currently only on HDDVD (A combo player would be nice, honestly, but when will that happen at a reasonable price?)

[JB]

Cool, so it'll work with componant in 720, I knew there was something people said it won'd tdo without the HDMI, I guess that was full HD.

 

As far as waiting, eh...untell the next format comes out, I"m not really looking for a replacement to DVD honestly. But there are some cool stuff you can only get in an HD format, and most of what I am interexted in is currently only on HDDVD (A combo player would be nice, honestly, but when will that happen at a reasonable price?)

Well, HD-DVD is essentially dead in the water at this point.

Just about everything that's HD-DVD-exclusive now, I'd expect to see on BetaRay within a year.

 

Unless the HD players SERIOUSLY crash in price, I'd buy a BetaRay player at this point.

While I wouldn't have said this even 2 weeks ago, it simply doesn't make sense to buy an HD-DVD player now.

 

 

The combo players likely WOULD have come down fairly fast, but... now I expect them to just disappear.

Edited February 17, 2008 by JB

[Video]

Well, I picked it up, the player I mean. I was in Walmart the other day looking at the absolutely crappy selection of HD (in general, not just HDDVD's) and thinking, "Wonder if I should just pay the $100 it costs now?" Went over and there was a sticker under it $50 SWEET, so I snatched it, and Blue Planet (the only HD movie I've really been looking forward to so far) and as soon as I find it, I'll pick up Star Trek, wich is a dual sided DVD/HD of the original series.

 

It may flop, already has according to many people (from the selection I've seen in stores, wich is shrinking in both formats, I'd say HD in general has failed, but anyhow) But I can say I got one, and hey, a lot, and I mean more than half the Library of HDDVD's will actually play in a standard DVD player anyways, so if your going to buy the movie anyways, why not kill two birds with one stone.

 

It'll be an interesting footnote in history anyways, either way. And one day, I may get a HD X-box, and a HighD TV, and actually get to see these things in their full glory.

[Shannon]

I mostly got one myself for historical reasons. Same thing with my PSP. I have ONE UMD movie. Although I've been sorely tempted to pick em up when they are going cheap.

[Mendon]

Well, I picked it up, the player I mean. I was in Walmart the other day looking at the absolutely crappy selection of HD (in general, not just HDDVD's) and thinking, "Wonder if I should just pay the $100 it costs now?" Went over and there was a sticker under it $50 SWEET, so I snatched it, and Blue Planet (the only HD movie I've really been looking forward to so far) and as soon as I find it, I'll pick up Star Trek, wich is a dual sided DVD/HD of the original series.

 

An EXCELLENT choice!!

 

I really wanted Star Trek but didn't want to spend $150 for a add-on player and $200 for Star Trek itself. But... when the price of the add-on fell to $50 and Star Trek fell to $90 (on Amazon) I jumped at the chance and bought them both.

 

They have done an incredible job with Star Trek... the special effects (the Enterprise, planets, aliens, etc) are awesome and the "Picture-in-a-Picture" background information on Star Trek is very informative, even to a long time "Trekkie". I especially enjoyed the parts where they pointed out the differences between the original and the re-make and why they did it. An example: many of the starbase window scenes in The Cage were daylight in the original but they changed them to night in the remake and tell you why. A minor change, yes, but they did have a reason.

 

I'm enjoying the add-on and don't feel I wasted any money at all, especially since I'm picking up HD DVD movies at $6 to $10 each, which is much less than a standard DVD costs in many cases.

 

I haven't seen Blue Planet but will highly recomend that if you get a chance, pick up Planet Earth... an incredible, incredible package.

 

 

 

Mendon

[Lord Helmet]

It may flop, already has according to many people

 

Its been officially canceled for a while now

 

Still has a nice selection of movies available now. With a proper HDTV you'll really enjoy it.

[Video]

Maybe it was Planet earth and not Blue Plannet. I don't remember.

 

As for Blue Ray...eh...they can have it. I'm not makeing any plans to dump DVD in favor of HD or antyhing. Just want one as a curiosity, and of the Two, HD has the better features and picture quality from what litlte I've seen that I could compare.

 

And for Star Trek, cool to hear someone has it and enjoyed it. I was wondering on video quality upconverting it to 1080p, yes it was recorded in 35mm, which is good for high res converting, but it was 'made for tv' meaning fairly obviously wooden and plastic models quiet often, even on the old low res broadcasts of the 70's (which I thhink was taken from either 16 or 8 mm tape....or worse, depending on what the TV stations used) Seing that plastic and wooden crap in glorious 1080HD probably doesn't help it any.

 

And for price, heck, I bought the whole thing on DVD years ago (yep, at 100$ per season for a total of $300) if I could have found it at the original price point, I probably would have paid it. I'll look it up on Amazon if I odn't find it befor much longer.

 

Thanks for all the info guys.

Edited April 13, 2008 by Video