Xbox HD-DVD

dave oc

Im just about to order a few hd-dvds online and I am looking at both DVDWorldUSA.com and movietyme.com as they seem to be the cheapest.

Anyone buy from these before? Which one would be better? I noticed dvdworld say they will credit any customs duty that may occur.....

iregk

I can see HD-DVD winning out. I unerstand the point about BlueRay being easier to say but lets look at it from a brand recognition point of view. HD-DVD will carry the DVD logo one that people are now comfortable with. The thing is, its not techies or anyone in the know that wins this fight its the average joe soap that doesn't have a clue what blueray means!

Look on your sky menu. You have Sky One HD, Movies HD, Sports HD. Couple that with the new tv they are about to buy and they get told its HD compatible. The new sky box they may get will be a HD box. Even blue ray is carrying its High Definition line. See what I'm getting at? Everything else has HD attached to it so naturally the average joe soap is going to buy a HD-DVD player as it will go with all the others. Blueray is someone of an outsider at the moment.

McDermotX

Dave6195 wrote:

Im just about to order a few hd-dvds online and I am looking at both DVDWorldUSA.com and movietyme.com as they seem to be the cheapest.

Anyone buy from these before? Which one would be better? I noticed dvdworld say they will credit any customs duty that may occur.....

DVD WorldUSA.......never had a problem with these, have used them for bringing in a good load of HD-DVDs and Blu-rays. Just be careful, when checking out as they have various options for delivery charges
Movietyme......used them for years for DVD and recently for HD-DVDs, if you can tolerate the delays they usually have moving stuff from order taken to shipped, they can be alright. Stock levels can be awkward as well, so sometimes a film can be sitting at order taken for a couple of weeks at times.
They also made a balls-up of the HD-DVD 360 Addon, took close to 3 weeks from the time of ordering to get a US one in.
MT will sometimes ship from the UK so customs won't be an issue/ sometimes ship from the US office (never been caught either)

monkeyfudge

Are US discs compatible with the players over here? Is there no region locks?

McDermotX

monkeyfudge wrote:

Are US discs compatible with the players over here? Is there no region locks?

No region locks on HD-DVD (360 or standalone) for the forseeable future (part of the reason for some studios not supporting the format yet, plus the almighty dollar).
Therefore your best bet is to import your discs online from the likes of Movietyme, DVD WorldUSA, Play etc etc......considering the availability and price of UK/Irish discs

dave oc

Thanks for the reply McDermotX.

Ill probally go with dvd world usa, in your experience with them what have the delivery times been like?

For instance with the free delivery it states between 8 - 18 working days for delivery....... Should I just pay the extra bit and get one of the express delivery options as I would like to have them for christmas?

Thanks in advance,
D

McDermotX

Dave6195 wrote:

Thanks for the reply McDermotX.

Ill probally go with dvd world usa, in your experience with them what have the delivery times been like?

For instance with the free delivery it states between 8 - 18 working days for delivery....... Should I just pay the extra bit and get one of the express delivery options as I would like to have them for christmas?

Thanks in advance,
D

Well,
ordered IceAge2, Kingdom of Heaven on Blu-ray a few of weeks back, shipped inside a day and received a week later with no customs charge. That was on the free shipping option. Other orders I used with the delivery charge in all honesty arrived in much the same timeframe (5 days or so).
Like ordering from Play etc, you can sometimes be lucky with the delivery times and sometimes slightly longer. We're on the run-up to Christmas now, so there will probbaly be a slowdown in the mail now.
Like all places you can really only judge them when you run into a problem like an order not arriving, never ran into this problem with WorldUSA or MT..

Ri_Nollaig

smyths in cork have the drive in stock now too, 200euros

spuddy01

Hi guys anyone looking for Hd Dvd discs should try Amazon.com if you buy 3 discs you get 10% off any other HD dVd discs for 12 months I ordered 3 myself & it worked out at €53 including postage Just have to get the addon for the 360 now :eek:

lafors

Well after a fair amount of use I've found loads to like....and dislike about the player!

Picture quality is fantastic, I like the interface, menus system, the in movie extras.

I have to say though I'm gutted by the quality of the sound...on the 360 it is atrocious (see avforums threads on it). Supposedly (on AVSforums) enough complaining has gotten a 360 hddvd insider (who posts in the forums) to say they are going to work on a fix.

Basically the digital output is terrible, watching king kong & batman, there is not oomph in the base or all round.

This is a big factor in changing to hddvd, sound was supposed to be excellent quality.
I've compared my batman dvd vs my batman hddvd and the sound on the dvd blows the sound on the hddvd away.....lets hope there is a fix soon.

Another thing I can get to work is the 'my scenes' sections (same idea as bookmarking), It saves them during the movie but when I turn of the 360 it seems to lose them?

Overall its worth it, if you have a hd tv, and want a cheap way of getting the next gen. Even with the sound issues I can see a fix coming out soon for it.

So what are you waiting for....go get one

projectmayhem

lafors wrote:

So what are you waiting for....

blu-ray tbh. it's hard to ignore the ps3, dell, HP and the fact that you can already buy a decent amount of blu-ray movies.

mainly the ps3 though, since it's built in, and the point of the 360 is that it's cheaper then the ps3, but as good. hd-dvd drive puts it up in cost, and as you say, the reviews aren't exactly stellar.

drumm23

projectmayhem wrote:

mainly the ps3 though, since it's built in, and the point of the 360 is that it's cheaper then the ps3, but as good. hd-dvd drive puts it up in cost, and as you say, the reviews aren't exactly stellar.

of what - the PS3..?!

TBH, the head to head reviews of HD-DVD vs. Bluray have pretty much entirely favoured HD-DVD.

McDermotX

drumm23 wrote:

of what - the PS3..?!

TBH, the head to head reviews of HD-DVD vs. Bluray have pretty much entirely favoured HD-DVD.

Well,
with the early Blu-ray titles I'd definitely agree......there were some terrible releases. Having said that, some of the more recent releases on BD are very impressive, Kingdom of Heaven, X-Men, Superman Returns, Ice Age2, Tears of the Sun are easily on a par with HD-DVD releases on the right hardware.
Superman Returns even features the same VC-1 transfer as the HD-DVD version, even though its on a BD50 disc (i.e. lot of wasted space, could have used a better transfer for the BD version, even lacks the TrueHD soundtrack)
On a side note, the PS3 handles its Blu-ray films better than the 360 Addon handles its HD-DVDs........much more impressive sound on the same setup, and is near silent when playing back.
Unfortunately, I think we'll have to deal with both formats for the forseeable future and market penetration may be slow (although quicker than DVD at the same stage in its life). Until all studios release multi-format, there will always be certain films you'll want that will be the other format. Multi-format player may be the way forward, as long as the legal implications are worked out.
The 360 addon is good value for entry to the high-end market, and hopefully MS will sort out the sound with future updates. But they'll only be able to do so much without resorting to HDMI output, or, less likely, analog outs.

Macker515

With all the reports that they were going to be hard to get I pre ordered one on the net but also managed to get one in Xtravision, Carlow...looking to offload it if possible, if not then the HTPC will be upgraded to HD DVD - at least the PC is quieter than my 360 (launch model)

savemejebus

Once the pron industry decides on which to go for the format war will probably be finished, i know it sounds weird but they had a huge effect on the take up of DVD in the states. It's a damn big industry

Ciaran500

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-5518574.html

They're as split as the rest of us.

projectmayhem

Ciaran500 wrote:

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-5518574.html

They're as split as the rest of us.

that article has some mis-information there. first off, warner are supporting both formats, not hd-dvd exclusively. and i recall reading an article (no idea where, not a pr0n site, i swear) that said all the "major" pr0n studios have already put their backing into blu-ray, because they think the general ps3 owner would be more interested in their "stuff"

Julez

I went into gamestop today, just asked about it not expecting them to have it and they did, didn't have tho money on me so they're holdin it for me till then. Gettin the Wii 2moro too... man I'm gonna be broke!!

savemejebus

projectmayhem wrote:

(no idea where, not a pr0n site, i swear)

It would probably be worrying if you were on a pr0n site reading hd dvd vs blu-ray articles

jesus_thats_gre

Blu Ray:

Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group (Owned by Sony)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer MGM (Owned by Sony)
New Line Cinema
Paramount Pictures
Universal Studios
Warner Bros


HD-DVD:

NBC Universal
New Line Cinema
Paramount Pictures
Universal Studios
Warner Bros



Breakdown here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Six_%28movie_studio_corporations%29

Gibrean

managed to get one in Athlone Gamestop in the end.

spuddy01

Picked 1 up myself today in Gamestop Mallow got home hooked it up to the Z3 & sat back & enjoyed King Kong in it's Hd glory:D Just have to wait for my other movies from amazon!

monkeyfudge

Gamestop on Liffey Street rang me today to let me know they have them back in stock.

justbringit89

how much ????

monkeyfudge

justbringit89 wrote:

how much ????

€200. But it's not that bad a deal. You get the full media remote with it and a copy of King Kong on HD. Remember this also upscales regular DVDs to HD and makes them look really nice, so it isn't just for HD DVDs.

But I agree with the others that the sound quality is lacking.

8T8

Smiths in Cork have 3 or had is probably better I got one another person managed to get second one as well don't know if someone snagged the third but bet I'd money they did.

Got Serenity and MI3 off Play.com last week and King Kong comes in the pack quite pleased with it the picture quality is excellent even on my meagre 26" HDTV no complaints about sound either but I'm not a sound buff so I don't really care about this.

Does anyone know if US HD-DVD's play in this the thread on the AVS Forum was kinda confusing in this matter as although there is no region encoding for HD-DVD's there was some talk about it but I think they were referring to the standard definition DVD aspect

I think I might buy a test US HD-DVD disc to see if it works if no one has tried it.

spuddy01

Hi 8t8 there is no region protection on the Hd Dvd discs @ the moment don't know if there will be in the future,I have ordered some US discs hoping to have them next week so you should be ok to order away!!

MarkR

Had 2/3 in gamestop in limerick today.

Davexirl

I got one the other day as a present and dont think I will really use it so. I will be happy to listen to any offers of one of you guys!!

justbringit89

will it be any good if u dont have a hd telly and just a normal one ... is it worth it in this case

Davexirl

Ya need a HDTV for it to be worth the money!

Snake Plisken

and a large screen, I got one and tried it on my 32" Tosh LCD, played the HD DVD King Kong and was playing the normal pal DVD on an upscaler DVD through HDMI, flicking between one and the other and up close to the screen you can see the additional detail, but if your sitting 2 meters plus from the screen I don't see much of a difference, maybe if you had a 40"+ LCD or Plasma there would be a greater difference.

I have to say that when I bought GOW I had been playing it on high end 100hz panny 32" CRT, but I stuck it in when I had the 360 hooked up to the LCD and wow was I blown away now that was a real difference that you could see!

Snake

TinCool

Snake Plisken wrote:

I have to say that when I bought GOW I had been playing it on high end 100hz panny 32" CRT, but I stuck it in when I had the 360 hooked up to the LCD and wow was I blown away now that was a real difference that you could see!

Snake

I totally agree. I picked up my xB360 on Friday, and was quite unimpressed by the fuziness and lack of clarity from the dashboard and in game displays using the supplied SCART adapter hooked up to my moderately sized 20" Philips LCD Screen. I then went and purchased the VGA cable, hooked up the xB360 and TV and whoa, what a difference, it's unbelievably clear. I have to say I'm really impressed by the whole xB360, the ability to stream your media from your PC to your xB360, class stuff.

Now to get the wireless network receiver.

TC

Grayarea

Anyone know any shops stocking the HD-DVD drive?

I wandered around henry street last night but no one had any and Game told me they were only available online?

Thanks,

Gray

eirebhoy

Grayarea wrote:

Anyone know any shops stocking the HD-DVD drive?

I wandered around henry street last night but no one had any and Game told me they were only available online?

Thanks,

Gray

Try Peats.

http://www.peats.com/cgi-bin/test_new/catalog.cgi?view_product=1&id=20062

McDermotX

Lads,
seen at least 2 in Smyths Liffey Valley not an hour ago......I think they are still charging the flat 200 Euro..

8T8

Just an update to confirm my own query I posted a while back the US HD-DVD's work perfectly in the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive.

I ordered US Superman Returns, Sleepy Hollow & Batman Begins from AxelMusic and they all arrived eventually (not the fastest delivery from Germany).

Of course should region coding come into future titles that will put a dampener on things but for now at least they are usable.

Kenny_D

Is there a noticable difference in quality between sleep hollow and the other two dvds? I heard that with older movies which are then released in hddvd format, the quality isnt as good and you'd be just as well getting the regular dvd version and letting the drive upscale it?

8T8

Sleepy Hollow was actually encoded with VC-1 not MPEG-2 but yes I can see the difference as upscaling cannot simply add detail to the picture.

There are three codecs used by both HD-DVD and Blu-ray;

MPEG-2 used on early HD-DVD and Blu-ray titles very inefficient in terms of space usage.

VC-1 now most common encoded content for HD-DVD currently has the best production tools for encoding which is why it is so popular now.

H.264 only one or two titles so far have used this it offers best quality at lowest bit rates but production tools are still in rough state.

All at HD resolutions offer very good quality most of the reviews online I've read are from seriously anal nit pickers about picture quality making mountains out of hole hills. All of the discs I watched so far there was a more detailed and clearer picture with the HD-DVD vs the DVD but that's just my personal opinion.

Kenny_D

Cool thanks for that. Trying to justify spending money I dont really have on the drive. lol

god's toy

Just got my HD-DVD 360 drive today! well happy with it. (Vista compatibility is a bonus)

Grayarea

I got one in Peats and I have to say the output quality on my 32" panny is not great. Seems to be 'grainy' on apollo 13 and Borne supremecy.

I am using component out and my DVD via scart is a better picture.

Given the sortcomming of using VGA (colour) it looks like I will be buying DVD for the forseeable future until Microsoft release HDMI lead.

Later,

Gray.

Julez

are you sure you have it set to 1080i, because if I have it on 720p it looks like what your explainingh but but it looks lovely in 1080i

Grayarea

Julez wrote:

are you sure you have it set to 1080i, because if I have it on 720p it looks like what your explainingh but but it looks lovely in 1080i

I do have my xbox set to 720p as that is the native res of the panny 32". I will try setting to 1080 and see what happens. Thanks for the heads up.

Later,

Gray.

Kenny_D

Grayarea wrote:

I do have my xbox set to 720p as that is the native res of the panny 32". I will try setting to 1080 and see what happens. Thanks for the heads up.

Later,

Gray.

Keep us updated. Havent heard many bad reviews on this yet so this is interesting

monkeyfudge

I noticed today that HMV have a selection of HD-DVD titles in their Xbox 360 section. They're charging about €35.99 each for them though.

SmashingPilot

Grayarea wrote:

I got one in Peats and I have to say the output quality on my 32" panny is not great. Seems to be 'grainy' on apollo 13 and Borne supremecy.

I am using component out and my DVD via scart is a better picture.

Given the sortcomming of using VGA (colour) it looks like I will be buying DVD for the forseeable future until Microsoft release HDMI lead.

Later,

Gray.

Just to let you know. There are no plans for Microsoft to release a HDMI cable. It would require too much work. At the moment the video output of the 360 is only analogue while HDMI is a digital connection. The 360 would require a hardware update to make it digital. A simple update via Xbox Live would not work for this.
This would not be in Micosoft's best interests as people with launch consoles would have to pay to upgrade. You'll probably have to get used to your component cable or VGA cable.

GrumPy

SmashingPilot wrote:

The 360 would require a hardware update to make it digital. A simple update via Xbox Live would not work for this.

rly? :rolleyes:

SmashingPilot

Irish GrumPy wrote:

rly? :rolleyes:

Yes.....You would have to do physical work on the console, e.g. replacing something and what not. A software update via Live wouldn't work.

GrumPy

I know this.

Hence the :rolleyes: