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Almost bought an HD-A1 last night

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K4LK

K4LK

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Supporting Founder
Oct 17, 2003
265
1
Saint Petersburg, Florida, United States
I played with it at BB last night. The PQ is stunning. Watched the Samsung Blue Ray setup at CC. The PQ just didn't wow me. More manufacturers and studios are supporting BR but the quality of the initial BR titles are disappointing. I don't know what to do. I'm pissed at this stupid format war caused by greed. All it's doing is confusing John Q Public. I don't know whether to boycott it in protest or support one.

Thanks for your interest and opinions.

Dana
 
My one vice is life is my electronic toys -- so I went ahead and bought the HD-A1 last month. If the format fails, I'm only out $500 and still have a really good upconverting unit.

I will say that I'm bummed that there's nothing really new I can watch on it. The majority of titles out I've seen 5-10-20 years ago. I'm on Blockbuster's monthly e-mail program trying to get titles, but I can't get anything new or semi-recent hits like U-571 (which I already own on standard DVD) because the request line is way backed up. I'm not about to plop down $25-$35 for movies I already own or just want to view once.
 
landlocked said:
My one vice is life is my electronic toys -- so I went ahead and bought the HD-A1 last month. If the format fails, I'm only out $500 and still have a really good upconverting unit.
Click to expand...

I've read somewhere that the upconversion of SD DVD only works out the HDMI port, not component video. My 5-year-old Pioneer Elite monitor only has component inputs.

It may be time to start looking for a new monitor. So many choices.
 
I saw HD DVD at Sams Club yesterday. They were playing phantom of the opera, but they had the plasma zoomed in so the people were all thin. Probably trying to prevent the plasma from burning in the black bars.
 
K4LK said:
I've read somewhere that the upconversion of SD DVD only works out the HDMI port, not component video. My 5-year-old Pioneer Elite monitor only has component inputs.

It may be time to start looking for a new monitor. So many choices.
Click to expand...

Don't quote me on this (too late now?!), but I thought the HD-A1 will upconvert to 720p over component -- as long as that stoopid copyright flag isn't enabled.
 
mike123abc said:
I saw HD DVD at Sams Club yesterday. They were playing phantom of the opera, but they had the plasma zoomed in so the people were all thin. Probably trying to prevent the plasma from burning in the black bars.
Click to expand...
Do them a favor. Tell them to zoom that thing back out and pop in Van Helsing, its fullscreen.
 
K4LK said:
I've read somewhere that the upconversion of SD DVD only works out the HDMI port, not component video. My 5-year-old Pioneer Elite monitor only has component inputs.

It may be time to start looking for a new monitor. So many choices.
Click to expand...

Yes, in addition to being the best High Definition player available, it's also one of the best upconverting player I've seen. I had a Denon 1910 upconverting player that I put out on eBay after buying my XA1.

But, yes - upconversion of copy protected SD DVD is only permitted on a digital ouput with HDCP - either DVI or HDMI. You will be able to enjoy current HD DVD titles over component - supposedly it's 2010 or 2012 before the studios will start enabling a feature on BD/HD DVD discs that will prohibit high res (720/1080) over analog, non-HDCP compliant outputs (component). So, you have a couple more years of life for that component input only Pioneer Elite. ;)

But, with only 30-35 HD DVD titles out there, the upconversion quality of the HD DVD player helps fill in the void between new HD DVD releases. I've been enjoying re-discovering some of my Superbit DVD's this week. Legends of the Fall, Silverado, Starship Trooper Superbit upconverted look as good if not better than some of the HD Lite channels on Dish - TNT HD, HD Movie Net.
 
Good Question

Paradox-SJ said:
This may seem like a dumb quetions BUT...if your TV already upconversts everything to say 1080p why would one want or need an upconverting DVD player?
Click to expand...


Not sure why either...my plasma TV upconverts everything to 720p as does my MITS rptv LCD 2006 model....HOWEVER there is a very noticable difference (mostly in color saturation and sharpness) when I switch the Pioneer Elite 59i DVD player to 720p upconversion (an SD player). This is only one of the reasons I am able to WAIT until this HD DVD/BR mess is sorted out....also I am still waiting for bockbuster retail to make its mind up what they are going to rent...My local store did not even know either new format was out...or even what it was!
 
Paradox-SJ said:
This may seem like a dumb quetions BUT...if your TV already upconversts everything to say 1080p why would one want or need an upconverting DVD player?
Click to expand...

I was hoping someone more technically inclined was going to come along & answer this wone, but I'll give it a shot. Basically, TV sets don't 'upconvert', they 'enlarge' to fill the screen. For example, if you're watching standard definition TV and flip the button for your TV to display the 4:3 screen to full screen 16:9, the Sd picture doesn't look any better in detail, it's just bigger. 1080p TV sets do a great job of taking a 1080i signal from OTA HDTV broadcast or from an HD DVD player and converting it to 1080p. But that's not upconversion, just coverting the same resolution (1080) to refresh every line of resoluton every second (1080p).

But an upconverting DVD player uses a chipset to mathmatically calculate the missing pixels it needs to boast the resolution from 480 to 1080. The picture quality is amazingly better for a standard DVD when it is upconverted by a high quality upconverting DVD player. The primary focus of the camera in a scene looks much more clear & detailed, taking an almost 3-D dimension to it.

I watched a couple of Superbit DVD's on my XA1 this week - Legends of the Fall & Starship Troupers and upconverted they looked almost as good as anything TNT HD puts up. The main difference between HD DVD & upconverted DVD is HD DVD is much richer in detail, more clear - more like watching a movie in a cinema. An upconverted DVD looks . . . more digital, more artifical - because it is just digitally manipulated by the upconverting player.

Make any sense? :p
 
K4LK said:
I played with it at BB last night. The PQ is stunning. Watched the Samsung Blue Ray setup at CC. The PQ just didn't wow me. More manufacturers and studios are supporting BR but the quality of the initial BR titles are disappointing. I don't know what to do. I'm pissed at this stupid format war caused by greed. All it's doing is confusing John Q Public. I don't know whether to boycott it in protest or support one.
Click to expand...

Well, I decided not to sit on the fence any more and support the format. Got an HD-A1 and a few disks from BB Clearwater. Now I'm back at work with that new player still in its box. :(
 
K4LK said:
Well, I decided not to sit on the fence any more and support the format. Got an HD-A1 and a few disks from BB Clearwater. Now I'm back at work with that new player still in its box. :(
Click to expand...
Good choice, you'll be happy with it, I'll bet. :)

I had to sign up for Netflix because there is no local video store renting HD-DVDs (or BR either) yet. So far so good with Netflix, but I can recommend not going for the one at a time plan. I tried it first, but it take 3 days between getting movies, so with that plan you only can get up to 2 movies a week.

-John
 
I too was sitting on the fence and broke down and purchased an HD-A1 on 7/20 from ValueElectronics. Waiting for it to arrive now. Anticipation is one of the best periods of any purchase (as long as it doesn't take TOO long).
 
Just like the Simpsons!

Jacques: To the most beautiful moment in life, Better than a deed, better
than a memory, the moment... of anticipation!

-John
 
Just stopped by my local Wal-Mart (Fredericksburg - CP) and they had three HD-A1 units sitting on the discount rack for $400. I dropped by after reading a post that was posted on AVSForum last night...and they were still there. It was temping, but between my two Dish 622s (DishHD Platinum), and a Sony HD DVR and two OTA antennas, I couldn't justify the expense. It looks like I'm going to wait for the sub-$200 price point.
 

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