I am deciding whether I should get a HD-DVD player, or wait until a clear winner in the HD and Blu-Ray battle is final. I'm itching to get one, but if I do and the other company wins, I'm screwed with a format thats dead. Should I go ahead and get the player? Should I get a Playstation 3 that has a Blu-Ray player? Should I wait until the price drops? Please help me reach a decision. I really like HD-DVD after some of the reviews I have read. Blu-Ray reviews have been pretty negative. Thanks.
Don't get either. Both formats are already outdated as HVD is finishing standardization. Frankly, you can get very-HD-like quality by simply buying an upconverting DVD player - many say while it's not quite HD, it's very close. Better to do that than play the sucker's game and re-purchase your entire DVD collection in a format that's going to be extinct in a few years regardless of who wins the format war.
regardless of the standardization of holographic video disk, the fact that production costs and hardware costs will continue to be so high for at least a decade should be reason enough to realize it won't be replacing HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. (At least, anytime soon) HVD will be much more useful for storage capacity than audio/video playback. Not to mention the fact that there is more than one type of HVD, so there's competition no matter what you're going to be buying. what has happened with hd-dvd/blu-ray combo players?
@princedvd: Think of it this way - if you're looking for a good upconverting DVD player then you will be mightily impressed by the HD-A1. I've seen several upconverters from Oppo, Denon, Samsung and Zenith and I can say the A1 blows them all away. Consider the flagship Denon is $1K and this Toshiba is now available for less than $499 if you look around. Just think of the HD-DVD ability as a bonus. If you have a halfway decent HD display then I think you'll be impressed.
I have the Denon 3910 and it's now semi-retired in favor of the HD-A1 upconversion. I use the Denon now only for non Region 1 SD DVD's
dont be talking about HVD because its stupid at this point? who needs all the capactiy. technogogy will only grow profiablty as demand grows. as of now, i dotn see any movie that needs 1 Tb of space! lol i say dont get either untill its clear that HD DVD is the winner lol im biased but read my sig.
Based on the history of DVD and other formats, HVD should be within the reach of the consumer within 5 years or so. The only likely cause of a delay is deliberate attempts by consumer electronics manufacturers and/or content providers to milk HD/BD a little longer. However, HVD has so many potential selling points (e.g. entire seasons of shows on a single disc, or 2-hour, hi-def movies on a disc smaller than an SD card) that both will have a vested interest in expediting this technology.
HVD, would be good for high bitrate HDTV. Uncompressed HDTV is about 1Gbps so you are looking at about a 50:1 compression now with the highest bitrate movies. Take that 1gbps and figure a 2 hour movie and you are looking at about 900GB of space needed. I would say that an HVD is perfect for storing an uncompressed HD movie. It is also good for UHDTV (7680x4320). However, I am not even sure if 1TB can hold an entire UHDTV movie compressed... As for it being put into mainstream, not until they sucked all the profit out of the current standards. I say, if you actually like the movies that are coming out now, you can go ahead and get one. I have seen the Samsung Blue Ray player and the Toshiba HD-DVD player. The Samsung is a piece of garbage (construction wise) while the Toshiba is very well built. The Toshiba is almost worth it if you want a good DVD player.
yeah and why that hell is that guy always advetising HVD ( not jaugargod), that crap is worthless literally, i mean raw panavison or super35 or what ever in digital form isnt even anywahere near half of a HVD so why teh hell do u even talk about it. i said it before: techonlgy grows with demand, where is the demand for HVD otehr than massive backups fo enterprise) peace
If you're from Europe you can expect Toshiba models coming in November and December - the HD-E1 and HD-XE1. Both are capable of decoding DD+, Dolby TruHD and DTS-HD all in 5.1. The XE1 also has 1080p and HDMI 1.3. Prices are 599 Euros for the E1 and 899 Euros for XE1. http://www.areadvd.de/news/2006/IFA_2006/010906_Toshiba_HD-DVD.shtml
Because HVD is the future, not BD or HD. A technology that can put full hi-def movies with extras on discs small enough to fit in an iPod or entire seasons of TV shows on a single disc is a worthwhile goal; another format war using outdated media is not. If you feel like being a sucker and re-purchasing your content only to have it outdated in a few years, go ahead. I find that as funny as it is pathetic that some folks will allow themselves to milked like a cow. I'm just not one of them.
The cost will drop in very short order, especially if produced in the volume necessary to satisfy consumer demand.
You can wait for HVD prices to come down but I'd rather enjoy my HD movies now while I'm still young. Who knows - I could die tomorrow.
Some have speculated that using optical media as a medium well become a think of the past in a few years. It is predicted that Internet downloads will snuff out all current and future disc based distabution formats once those industries mature. Ced
Like I said, if you want to re-purchase the same junk over and over and over again, be my guest. That's why Hollywood can afford to pay starts $50 million per movie.
@Dunker: You obviously don't enjoy watching movies. If you think everything that comes from Hollywood is junk then you probably have no business owning a DVD player or any media playback device. A music analogy: My dad owns all the Beatles albums in three different forms: vinyl, cassette and CD. If they came out in SACD or DVD-A he would have bought them too. I asked him why and he said because he loves their music. Some things are just worth having if they give you pleasure.
i was just about to point that out, since dunker didn't even bother to read what me or dblbogey had to say about HVD being popular for audio/video playback.
@Dunker, Disc-wise, HVD is less than half the price of Blue Ray (per GB), but about 3x the price of DVD. However, the high drive cost takes it out of the competition. Personally, I would have preferred HVD to the current formats. The reason being you can get about 3 hours of D5 quality video on the smaller discs. However, I would estimate that the player would cost $5,000 - $7,000 and the movies around $60. There is a chance that HVD can make it into the next gen movie race, but that is only if the format war is undecided and Blue Ray remains at about $1,000 for the player and $30 for a movie. Also, Studios would need to back it. The reason being that in 2 years I expect that a 300GB HVD would be priced at around $40 (this is of course only if it takes off in the mass storage market). That will most likely be around the same price as a 50GB Blue Ray media. If the drives drop to well under $10,000, it would make a $2,000 player with $30 movies possible. Combined with D5 quality, it would actually sell very well. However, I think that a winner will emerge before HVD becomes a possibility.
As I said, though, the prices will come down as more the technology becomes more accessible to consumers. I remember when CD and then DVD burners were still in the $5000-10,000 range, and I'm sure folks here remember when they were quite a bit more. @oofrome Please learn to read. You'll find that's the second time I had to post a a fundamental principle of economics - producing something in quantity (or for a large-quantity market) helps drop prices. I'll dumb it down a bit further if you need me to do so.
