Buying HD DVD films?

jebusmusic

Hi, does anyone know where I can get some HD DVD titles, either online or in-store. I know amazon.com have them but I dont like amazon!

I have a Sony HD DVD player, but no HD DVD's!!

Calibos

You don't have a Sony HD DVD player because sony are the main backers of the rival BluRay HD Dvd format and you don't have a Sony BluRay HD dvd player because they haven't been launched yet. You don't even have a Toshiba HD-Dvd player unless you imported an Toshiba AX1 from the US because even they haven't launched in Europe yet.
Do you have an upscaling dvd player? In which case it plays normal dvd's and upscales them to HD resolutions. This is not the same as real HD however and it won't play real HD DVD discs of the Bluray or HD-Dvd format either.

Research! Research! Research! before you spend your dosh the next time!:D

jebusmusic

I have a Sony HDMI HD DVD Player, bought from the sony centre on o'connell st!

Has a HDMI output, so I presume it's HD?

jebusmusic

On further investigation, you are correct and I am an idiot!

It's one of these; http://www.sonycentres.ie/product.asp?did=103_5_192_3739

Upscaling but NOT HD DVD compliant!

My girlfriend picked it up for me, thinking it was HD.

It'l be going back tomorrow!!

slave1

Hi, is it the 76 model, if this is the case then you have a nice piece of kit, the upscaling improves DVD playback considerably.
It will be quite some time before reasonably priced HD DVD players hit the market with matching HDDVD's

Be careful when returning, if you bought it without asking the advice of the shop staff then the shop/piece of kit has done nothing wrong and you have no legal comeback for a refund

jebusmusic

It's the exact model in the link. I've played a few dvd's through it using a hdmi cable to the tv and it doesnt look any better than dvd's from my pc through a vga cable! (to the same TV)

Think I'd rather wait for true HD!

I know i've no legal rights, dont really want a refund anyway, I need a new surround system, so I'l try to exchange it towards that!

rOBeRt frETt

slave1 wrote:

Be careful when returning, if you bought it without asking the advice of the shop staff then the shop/piece of kit has done nothing wrong and you have no legal comeback for a refund

Slave1- It pissed on the Couch and Bit the Dog... and u should see the state of place..

slave1

At home now so I can follow your link, yeah thats the 76 alright
Surprised you could see no difference compared to your pc output?

You need to setup the menu system on the 76 to upscale to either 760p/1080i through the progressive scan button, if you do not do this you will be using it as an ordinary dvd player.

Have to say I saw a significant improvement and I also have my pc hooked up via vga to the tv.

Anyhow, as you say it might not be for you.
As a matter of interest it cost me €150

mossym

slave1 wrote:

At home now so I can follow your link, yeah thats the 76 alright
Surprised you could see no difference compared to your pc output?

You need to setup the menu system on the 76 to upscale to either 760p/1080i through the progressive scan button, if you do not do this you will be using it as an ordinary dvd player.

Have to say I saw a significant improvement and I also have my pc hooked up via vga to the tv.

Anyhow, as you say it might not be for you.
As a matter of interest it cost me €150

it depends if the tv has a better scaler than the dvd player he won't see any difference, maybe even worse if he turns on upscaling on the dvd player

jebusmusic

Yeah, cost me €150 too. Had the player set to 1080i but couldnt see any real improvement. Then again the resolution of the pc is at 1360x768, so thats pretty good already!

mossym

well you don't want it set to 1080i..that means you're taking a 480 signal..taking it up to 1080, and then back to your screens native resolutio...with the pc you're only converting once...

jebusmusic

But the screen is capable of displaying 1080i, it's a Hyundai a321, the Xtravision LCD tv.

mossym

it'll take a 1080i input, and then scale it to your screens resolution, which you said yourself is 1360x768. that doesn't mean you're getting 1080 lines..you can't..you've got a fixed number of pixels

Idleater

jebusmusic wrote:

But the screen is capable of displaying 1080i, it's a Hyundai a321, the Xtravision LCD tv.

Set it to 720p.

Just see if it makes a difference.

L.

jebusmusic

mossym wrote:

it'll take a 1080i input, and then scale it to your screens resolution, which you said yourself is 1360x768. that doesn't mean you're getting 1080 lines..you can't..you've got a fixed number of pixels

That resolution (1360x768) is for the PC only, i.e. the setting of the graphics card (highest possible) on the pc, connected to the tv with a vga cable. The tv has loads of inputs, then you just choose your source.

If the dvd player was set to 1080i, and connected to the tv with a hdmi cable then it should display 1080i, right?

mossym

no, that is the resolution of your screen..all 1080 content is resized to that reolution..

had a quick google..read the reolution section here, may they will explain it better than i will

http://www.dtvcity.com/lcdtv/lcdtvresources.html
basically your tv won't show 1080i natively..but don't worry, that's true for most lcds and plasmas....

Gilgamesh

mossym wrote:

no, that is the resolution of your screen..all 1080 content is resized to that reolution..

had a quick google..read the reolution section here, may they will explain it better than i will

http://www.dtvcity.com/lcdtv/lcdtvresources.html
basically your tv won't show 1080i natively..but don't worry, that's true for most lcds and plasmas....

don't talk rubbish, the only thing it isn't capable of is displaying a native progressive resolution of 1920 x 1080

better have a read of this


http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/hdtv.htm


pretty much, the issue is that most HDTV screens are unable to build up a Progressive HD resolution of 1920 x 1080, in a single pass, this is related to the processor inside it.

however it CAN produce the resolution, by using two passes for each picture (30 lines up and 30 lines down) which it why it is called interlaced. this means though for bigger screens (like my 40" bravia) that when you watch 1080i movies, you will get a light flickering on the top and bottom of the picture

Ciaran500

Gilgamesh wrote:

don't talk rubbish, the only thing it isn't capable of is displaying a native progressive resolution of 1920 x 1080

better have a read of this


http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/hdtv.htm

He's not talking rubbish, LCD's can only display one resolution natively. 720p for nearly all screens. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_resolution

This is also mentioned in the link you posted BTW.

mossym

Gilgamesh wrote:

don't talk rubbish, the only thing it isn't capable of is displaying a native progressive resolution of 1920 x 1080

better have a read of this


http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/hdtv.htm


pretty much, the issue is that most HDTV screens are unable to build up a Progressive HD resolution of 1920 x 1080, in a single pass, this is related to the processor inside it.

however it CAN produce the resolution, by using two passes for each picture (30 lines up and 30 lines down) which it why it is called interlaced. this means though for bigger screens (like my 40" bravia) that when you watch 1080i movies, you will get a light flickering on the top and bottom of the picture

am...i don't think there is any rubbish in what i said..fixed pixel displays cannot display a great resolution without rescaling...why don't you read some of your articles, then we can talk