Hello it is mr. procrastinator again(LOL) once I get my ### moving on changing my system. I have a couple of questions 1)Blu-Ray or HD DVD or Combi player and why which format? 2)Has anyone heard the new surround formats and are they much better than plain ordinary DD or DTS?

PS3 anyway

I have never heard the new HD audio but those that have posted about have said there is a difference although marginal.

PS3 appears to be the way to go for BR and any HD-DVD player will work. The Toshiba's have been getting good reviews.

I think there just might be a permanent dual format that will stick around, as alot of folks are able to afford 2 different players with the prices dropping as fast as they are and Sony isn't likely to drop this like the beta format, due to the PS3.

I would get a HD-DVD player, the prices have dropped considerably in the past several months. It's still cheaper to buy a HD-DVD player and a PS3 than to buy a combo player.
I prefer HD-DVD over Blu-Ray, I have both, it's just my preference.
As far as the new surround formats go, Imo there is a significant difference for the better in the new formats. They are clean and crisp, almost like the difference between SD and HD.

I'm with HomeDad on this. I have both, though I've gotten more out of HD DVD, and I would rather it win for political reasons, as well as the fact that certain features were always a part of the spec and aren't being added on.

I have the low-end first-gen HD DVD player and the PS3. I'll probably end up getting a 3rd-gen HD DVD player and passing the first-gen on to my parents.

I agree on the new sound formats, too. They do seem to make a difference.

So far the only thing I dislike about the HD formats is the price of the movies. They really need to start dropping prices on at least the earlier titles.

I agree too. Once Blueray producers drop MPEG2 for good, they will win, but for some reaon, it seems like a very long term thing! Until then, HD-DVD can pack better audio.

Samsung has announced a combo player with the new Reon (or whatever it called) super duper chipset and it sounded like they wanted to make it under 1K$.

I agree with HomeDad and CV as well. I have both and hardware price drops are going to make long term survival of both formats more and more likely. I have A/B Dolby TrueHD vs. Dolby Digital on movies like Constantine and The Matrix trilogy, and TrueHD is hands down the winner. The major difference I heard was the TrueHD track was much less harsh and dialog sounded more natural. This is a decent article comparing all the various audio formats here - http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/J..._Explained/1064

As CV noted, Blu-ray when released was an unfinished spec, so people with 1st gen players may not be able to take advantage of some interactive features on upcoming releases. The HD DVD spec was finalized before any hardware was released, and further the format was a technical descendant of the DVD spec vs. the Blu-ray spec not being inherently backward compatible with DVD.

Additionally, BD are much more expensive to manufacture than HD DVD due to the costs of retooling production lines. Frankly, I feel Blu-ray would be dying a rather quick death had Sony not made the shrewd move of forcing it on the public via the exorbitantly priced PS3. Even so, they're not getting the disc purchase uptake they thought they would because it turns out a lot of PS3 owners primarily purchased their units for (go figure) gaming. Again, I own both formats and these are just my observations. I'm not dissing Sony or their new baby out of prejudice, but those like me who were around for "VHS or Beta?" aren't experiencing anything new.

If you want to keep up on HD disc news, press releases, disc reviews and forums, I highly recommend http://www.highdefdigest.com/ There is a mountain of information on this site, but beware that the forums are filled with rabid HD DVD and Blu-ray supporters.

The bottom line is that if you have a HD display and a way to listen to the new audio codecs, you are doing yourself a major disservice by not owning at least one HD disc player.

Is there any one particular format that has more titles out in stores? I've been debating on waiting for one of the dual format players to come down in price, it may be awhile. The HD players are really coming down in price it seems.

Granted, my Sanyo Z2 is 720P native, I think the quality of the picture would be pretty cool over my HTPC.

All of this positive HD DVD talk is going to make me go out and get one here pretty darn soon, it is nice that just about every comment I read on this and other forums is nothing but positive reviews regarding either of these two players. That's refreshing.

Randy, there is ton's of content for both formats out in stores and online. Some studios are backing only 1 format but many of the titles are now in both formats. Paramount will release 30+ HD DVDs next year and Transformers comes out Tue. on HD-DVD only.
My Toshiba is 720P native and the picture quality is awesome, I haven't even seen 1080p yet and not sure I want to.

I am borrowing an HD-DVD player in a week or so to do a Transformers movie night with a pick up of Transformers on HD-DVD via Netflix. I am excited and afraid at the same time. I think that once I see it, I won't want anything else, and I really can't spring for a new purchase now, or for the holidays even...

I wonder when you will be able to buy the combo-drive for a HTPC? I keep wanting to go HTPC anyway, so when I get to that point, maybe the combo PC drives will be readily available and for a good price.

As they say you only notice a real visual difference between 720P and 1080P is if the screen is large enough and you are close enough. I have had the opportunity to see 1080P and 720P side by side on a 37" LCD and the difference was negligible. But I could tell, which leads me to believe that on the larger screens the difference will be much more noticeable.

I think both have great PQ and AQ. I have the tos hd-xa2 that is a great upscaler for SD -DVDS for my sammy dlp. I have a lot of sd-dvds and have no playback problems nor with the hd-dvds. The ps-3 and the bd- players also have great pq/aq. I decided to go with the HD because of the finished specs. I think the bd new specs should be finished!!! around Nov.1. If I were going to get a bd player I think I would wait until then. Anyway enjoy the HD experience. Good luck!!

I have a Samsung DLP also. HLN617W. I only have an Oppo 871 upconverting for SD DVD's. I think the picture looks really great! I do hear now and then about people going over to HD DVD players...either format. Is your DLP 720p like mine or do you have 1080p? If it's 720p is the picture quality that much better when watching an SD DVD in a HD player?

I have the Sanyo Z3, which is 720p, and HD content is still AWESOME over SD DVDs even when upconverted. Once you go HD, you won't want to go back. That is why I am almost afraid to borrow a HD-DVD player for a Transformers HD-DVD movie night with "the guys"... I've seen HD at 720p on my projector via over-the-air TV, and WOW! Heck, I've caught myself watching pro-football games for teams I could care less about because the HD is THAT good!

Yes, I know that HD looks good on 720p! I watch it over cable all the time.

My question is: Will a high-def DVD player (either format) make a standard-def DVD look BETTER than an up-converting SD-DVD player does, such as the Oppo-971?

I have too many SD DVD's to replace them all with a high-def version. Too much $$$$! But, I may be willing to purchase a high-def player if it can make standard-def DVD's look even better. Then I can just start buying any new movies in the newer high-def format, and still enjoy my SD movies. Otherwise, I see no compelling reason to get a high-def player.

Depends on the player you want to get, the A20, A3 and A30 all use the same ABT upscaling chip for SD DVDs (a very good chip). The A35 uses a slightly better ABT chip for upscaling.

All in all, you probably won't notice a difference from the 971 upscaling (it may be slightly better), but your new player will be able to play HD DVD's.

I have the A20 and the upscaling is really, really good.

I do too, and I concur.

Also keep in mind that upscaling really is only an algorythm that is making "educated guesses" at how to create new pixels to simulate higher resolution. While there are some different approaches to this, it isn't a "new" idea, so they've got it figured out pretty well by now.

If you are looking at an HD format player just to do a better job of upscaling SD DVDs than a good SD DVD player, then save your money. It isn't worth it. I know that there are a TON of my movies that I will never buy on any HD format. I don't think that many people would completely change out a movie collection. I know of a few off of the top of my head that I would like in HD... Lord of the Rings trilogy (not out), The Matrix (just the first one), Star Wars, and Batman Begins would be on my short list of movies I already own that I would get again. The other 250 DVDs wouldn't get "upgraded".

Thanks for all the replies so far! I guess I will be saving my money for now and stick with my beloved Oppo!

But make no mistake, HD is HD, upconverted DVD's is not HD. You will never get that "wow" feeling of watching Transformers in HD that you will when only in SD DVD...it is seriously a different world.

My sammy is a 1080P and am going out to get transformers in a few minutes. I'll watch it and give my opinion on the pq/aq with the xa2 and the sammy @1080p. As for other sd's going high def, I agree on not getting doubles as the sd's pq are good enough for some movies. I have polar express coming in hd and have a sd and will give my thoughts later on the difference. I really haven't compared any movies of the same in different formats.(Wow; I guess I enjoy HD and the movies too much to really notice a big difference on conparing the two.)

I still think that for Transformers, I am just going to borrow a lower end (gen 2) HD-DVD player than try to find a way to buy an XA2 right now. I hear rumors (lots, and lots of rumors) of price drops closer to the holidays. Makes sense, but I want to have my movie night soon without having to feel like I could have saved $50-$100 or whatever by waiting a month.

I have Polar express and I believe the exras are in SD so you can just switch back and forth on the menu to compare PQ. Imo it is huge.

Nick, a second generation player should be fine in watching the Transformers, the real difference the AX2 makes Imo is on SD DVD's with it's reon processor. I would also suggest that you grab a couple more HD HVD's if possible just to see what it can do with different movies. I've read a couple reviews on the HD version of the Transformers and the rating of the PQ goes anywhere from an 8 and up, there are no Tru HD sound tracks on it, but the DD is supposed to be so well done that everywhere I've read gives the sound quality a 10.
I'm going out in a few minutes to find the movie also, perhaps we can all compare thoughts.

I was looking at the XA2 for the analog audio output (since my Pioneer Elite doesn't do the HD audio decoding), but I may just go with a trial test run on a 2nd or 3rd gen player, and save up for something else down the road, either a dual player that does the audio decoding onboard with analog outs, or a new receiver that does the HD audio processing... Something at least a year from now away unless prices REALLY drop. Better yet would be if I could ever build that HTPC that has a dual Blu-Ray/HD-DVD reader and a HD Decoder sound card, then I would get REALLY good SD upconversion, and have everything in one box, plus my HD OTA tuner, DVR, etc... Maybe for 2009...

I wonder how well the upconversion is with the "other" chipset than what the XA2 has in comparison to my Panny S97 upconverting DVD player. I think that my S97 does a really good job, so as long as I get that good or better, I am fine for now...