I need help making an HD DVD player decision so please help me out!

[JTrotter]

Hey All,

Right now I just have an upconvert DVD player on a 60-inch Sony TV. While the upconvert does a nice job; Circuit City online has an HD DVD player for just $99 this week and it comes w/ 2 movies. I feel like this is a steal esp. since all of the HD DVD movies on eBay are taking a steep price drop and there is a big selection. Since I cannot afford a BLU-RAY player just now--what do you guys think? Should I just go for it? Does HD DVD look THAT MUCH DIFFERENT than BLU-RAY? My brother who is against the idea said, "Why don't you just go buy a Beta-Max while you're at it!" Then I started thinking how I heard Beta was better than VHS but VHS won the war. But I feel like it has nothing to do w/ that. I just look at it as getting the same technology (albeit discontinued) for a cheap price while I wait for BLU-RAY prices to drop and God knows when that will be! What do you guys think? Any help is greatly appreciated

--Trotter

[Pirate]

In most cases the HD DVD version of a film that is out on both formats looks identical to the Blu-ray version. There are still many HD DVD exclusive discs that do look great, but they'll all be out on BD eventually.

If you don't mind buying into a dead format, then by all means, enjoy HD DVD while it lasts. Do keep in mind, though, that the HD-A3 is not considered by professionals to be a superior upconverting player—although, I've spoken to many owners who seem to like it just fine.

[Taxi]

I would say wait. Any money you spend on HD-DVD now is wasted, IMHO. Save and wait. Prices will fall, and then you can put that $ into a system and discs that you can keep long-term.

[Ruined]

HD DVD and Blu-ray look the same. In fact there are more examples of compression artifacts on Blu-ray (meaning, macroblocking and whatnot, not master defects like EE/DNR) than HD DVD due to Blu-ray releasing more artifact-prone MPEG2 titles for quite some times.

To answer your question, I would have to say that the upconversion quality of HD DVD players is unmatched. I had one, and I miss it. The BD30 Blu-ray player I had for a while before I returned it looked like utter crap in comparison.

And, you will be able to enjoy discs cheap... HOWEVER... in time those discs may become a liability. HD DVD player manufacturing has completely stopped and the Samsung BD5500 combo was cancelled. New HD DVD players are getting harder to find. At some point that supply may dry up and if your HD DVD player breaks you may be stuck with an expensive repair or an eBay hunt to find a replacement player.

On the other hand, for $99 it does offer incredible output quality. My only criticisms would be that the Toshiba players are slow to boot and my personal reliability track record with them has not been the greatest.

#1: HD-A1 - Bought new, partial failure within 6 months (sporadic skipping, freezes), got free repair that did not fix the problem, got a 2nd free repair, eventually sold unit on ebay
#2: HD-A2 - Bought new, disc read errors right out of the box even on SD DVDs. Returned to Best Buy for a replacement. Replacement has worked perfectly ever since. Still have this one, which has been the most reliable of my standalone HD DVD players.
#3: HD-A35 - Bought new, complete failure in less than 3 months (constant lockups & unresponsiveness). Sold on eBay (after Warner announcement) brand new HD-A35 replacement Toshiba sent me since they could not repair the unit.

So I guess I'm 1 for 3 - or 1 for 4 - depending on how you look at it in terms of HD DVD players that did not break within a relatively short period of time. Why did I keep buying them? Again, as I posted originally the output quality is simply fantastic and nothing in the pricerange matched them at the time - in terms of SD DVD upconversion there is still no BD players that matches them under $500.

Your call, I guess

[ganthc]

If you can get an hd-a2, you will be doing fine (you didn't state what hd-dvd player is on sale at $99). I think as a player it can last for awhile. The upconvert on it is decent, and you should be able to watch hd-dvds via Netflix until May or thereabouts. After that, it can serve as a standalone player elsewhere in the house if necessary. If you find cheap discs, I would say it doesn't hurt to get a few if they are your favorite movies...if you can't wait for the blu version.

But really, if you are strapped for cash, waiting is the best option.

[Derb]

I still see the XA2 priced around $600 while the third gen units go for around $250 or less.

Anyway if you want your DVDs to look their best, currently any HD DVD player out will do a better job than the player you have now.

Problem is, you might want to wait for Toshiba's new SD DVD upcon player.

If you are buying a HD DVD player for the sole purpose of watching HD DVDs, I'd advise against it. For DVDs, its a wise investment.

[esc]

If its an A2, XA2, A30 or A35, I say go for it and take advantage of some of the cheap cheap HD discs that are going to be around in the next few months. They'll still look great in a couple years when HD is a memory, and you'll have a fantastic upconverter for $99.

but what do I know, I'm an HD fanboy after all.