Comments on: Top 2 HD Rentals Highlight HD Problem

By: Rob Walley

Rob Walley — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 13:07:11 +0000

The trick is to get any affordable HD player you can and DON’T buy the movies…instead rent. You can get HD-DVD players “dirt” cheap right now and my Toshiba player has a superior quality upscaler built in that make my standard DVDs look fantastic. You can always use these players for standard DVDs and at less that $100 in some cases they are a great value. But if you buy the media and then one folds, that’s where the problem lays. It’s tough for me to spend $30 on the Big Lebowski and wonder if I just threw money at a format they may no longer be here a year from now. In the meantime, Netflix has a great selection of HD discs in both formats and once you’ve seen the Big Lebowski in HD, you’ll never go back!

By: nbakid2000

nbakid2000 — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 03:18:44 +0000

Yeah I can see Disney pulling shit like that and it doesn’t surprise me. WB does the same thing on their DVDs – not allowing directors to put commentaries on there.

However, I don’t see any reason if Pixar REALLY cared about the TRUE movie fans why they couldn’t release a seperate commentary track or two online, completely seperate from the DVDs. They all have computers, all they need is a couple of 10 dollar microphones and a software recording program.

This is what the director of The Fountain was planning to do because WB wouldn’t let him record a commentary track.

By: AjaxLou

AjaxLou — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 00:33:18 +0000

TV that is.

By: AjaxLou

AjaxLou — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 00:32:12 +0000

I have a 56″ DLP 1080P and trust me you DEFINITELY see a difference with HD media.

By: Kryptonite

Kryptonite — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 22:24:02 +0000

I was totally with John on this one, refusing to budge until the Format Civil War was settled.

Until…

Last Sunday I walked into a Circuit City with my kids. There was a crowd around a 50″ plasma, so we walked over. They were playing Transformers on HD-DVD in 1080p.

GREATEST. PICTURE. EVER.

I was absolutely stunned. I own a high-def TV, with HD channels on cable. Hell, I used to sell home theater systems costing upwards of $100,000. But none of that compared to what I saw on that HD-DVD. And all I have to do is track down a $150 HD-DVD player? I’m there! I’ll stay away from Blu-ray until the players drop into the same price range.

Am I worried that one format will die, leaving me with a useless piece of equipment? No, since both players also play conventional DVD’s, of which I have hundreds. This guarantees that no matter what happens, I’ll get good use out of the hardware.

By: Kurt

Kurt — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:23:06 +0000

BTW, I’m on a 720p LCD projector with a computer driving the system. Since the PC automatically ‘upconverts’ the conventional DVDs, things look pretty good on my 100″ screen. Thus, no worries about upgrading DVD formats yet.

By: Kurt

Kurt — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:20:15 +0000

DarkKinger. Amen to that. I’m not moving anywhere until the players become Sub-$100, hell, even the computer ROM drives are too pricey for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. (And I’m aware of that WalMart promotion selling for a limited time an HD-DVD player for $99. But well, I don’t like Walmart and don’t want to give them my business.)

Pretty soon one format will win out over t’other and I can bide my time until then.

By: Cain

Cain — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:20:14 +0000

“(unless of course you want to be a sheep for corporate america and buy both systems). I refuse to be a sheep…”

John, if you don’t like HD, which we all know, that’s fine. Please though, don’t resort to namecalling on a subject you clearly are not well-versed on. I’m a gamer, so I bought a PS3. It happens to double as a Blu-Ray player (which is all I use it for since the games on the PS3 are pretty dire at the moment…). You can buy an HD-DVD player for $100-$150 these days, I got mine on sale at Wal*Mart for just $98.

Am I sheep for owning both? Remember how much we all paid for our DVD players back when they came out? I know I paid a least as much as I paid for the new formats. I now have a player for hi-def in the home, and there is no way I could ever go back. It IS as big a jump from VHS to DVD, dare I say, it’s bigger.

I’m ranting a bit, yes, but it irks me that you have these assumptions about HD (or it’s buyers) when you aren’t speaking from any first-hand experience.

By: DarkKinger

DarkKinger — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:54:47 +0000

See, I am already satisfied with my DVD player. I can watch The Matrix AND Pirates of the Caribbean on one format instead of buying two formats for each movie.

By: DJ Machismo

DJ Machismo — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:14:16 +0000

While I agree on the dislike of having two formats, there is already a tried and true success story for having multiple formats in a medium. Video games. For almost the last two decades there have been multiple consoles that have exclusive games for each console. There are also games that are on all/most available consoles. This is I believe the 5th generation of video games (going by Nintendo consoles) that have had competition, and that market is doing better than ever. In a way the competition could prove good for the HD movie market, time will tell I believe. Plus considering I’m an avid gamer, getting both HD formats only cost me $180, the cost of the HD DVD add on for the XBox 360. Not really that high of a cost to get both HD formats when you think about it.