Opinions on HD DVD player

Dman001

I saw a review for this and it said the picture quality was poor. What are your opinions on the HD DVD player?

chrislad

Picture quality is fine. Just as good as the PS3. My only problem is that the fans on the Xbox get a bit loud but if you've the volume up, that won't be an issue.

Grayarea

My experiance is as follows;

If you do not have a VGA port on your screen then you firstly lose DVD upscaling which is nice to have, secondly you may not get a great picture. On my Panasonic 32 Viera which is using component, it looks grainy (even the standard DVD player looks better through RGB scart!)

If you have a VGA port on the screen then most people think it looks very good.

I have a PS3 as well and Blu-Ray through HDMI is very good, noticably better then standard DVD at about 7 feet viewing distance.

Later,

Julez

The sound is the only issue I have,although there may have been a an update, but my brother took a loan of mine so I haven't been able to check it out, I run it over component on a 32" panasonic and there's not too much of a difference between that and the ps3's blu-ray, not in my opinion anyway, the only problem is the lack of quality movies, blu-ray seem to have the better selection.

Oh btw, I picked up jarhead for €9.98 in Gamestop the other day, which is quite good value really! They had one or two others at that price too... just thought I'd let you all know! Brand new too!

johnnyflav

The picture quality on my 768line LCD is much the same from HD DVD and Blu Ray. The only real distinction is the noise form the XBOX, which was mentioned earlier.

Overall, the difference between DVD and HD DVD is really something, you'll be very impressed if you have a large HD TV. Now if I could only find the €9.98 deals I'd be sorted.

Julez

Yeah, it was in Gamestop in dun laoghaire where I got jarhead, think it was the bourn supremecy and maybe charlie and the chocolate factory too that they had, maybe soem others!

Stokolan

I have both the 360 HD DVD and PS3 connected to a 37" LCD. I don't have a great selection of bluray and have about 10 HD dvd. I find the HD DVD grand bar the noise as people are saying. I recently picked up The ultimate Matrix collection for it which I must say was a great watch

As for the Availability of HD DVD there seem to be less around in shops but are many to be found on the net

Dman001

Does it come with an A/C adapter or does it run off the 360 power?

Julez

Dman001 wrote:

Does it come with an A/C adapter or does it run off the 360 power?

It has its own power supply!

unklerosco

Availablity of HD-dvds is the only thing that annoys me.. buying them on the net is grand, but if im out in the shops n wanna buy one there's bugger all choice... Blue ray deffo has HD beaten here... way way way bigger in store choice. But seeing as sony have a huge catalouge(audio n video) its easy for em to sell em straigt into the shops.... Over here i think that'll be the difference that gives blue ray the big edge..

As for the Gamestop deal... It wouldnt suprise me if they where just trying to sell off all their HD stock as it wasnt selling

Dman001

Also is it region free and has anyone had any problems with third-party VGA adopters? Thanks.

unklerosco

region free, yep... i get most of my hd discs from the states. Try it using ur component first. The pic on mine is way better than dvd n im using the component. Then if u feel the need u can get the VGA

Dman001

But if the DVD upscaling only works with a VGA cable then I may aswell get one. Anyone notice much difference between normal DVD playback and DVD Upscaling playback? Thanks for all of the help.

McDermotX

Dman001 wrote:

But if the DVD upscaling only works with a VGA cable then I may aswell get one. Anyone notice much difference between normal DVD playback and DVD Upscaling playback? Thanks for all of the help.

To be honest Dman, the 360 ain't much of a DVD upscaler and has scored quite low marks in visual benchmark tests..
A relatively low-priced dedicated DVD upscaler will provide better results, so if DVD is really important to you, you're better off looking at one of them..

As for the HD-DVD addon.......its a decent HD-DVD player, but no more than that. PQ is pretty good, probably on a par with the first-gen Toshibas but lagging behind the 2nd-gen models and PS3's BD playback, although not terribly so.
Component and VGA is more so down to the display, as VGA connectivity with the 360 can vary from display to display. Some producing a detailed image, others producing an image lacking colour definition, its really a case of try and see.
If you plan to use the DVD upscaling, then VGA is obviously the way to go, but as I said earlier, I wouldn't recommend the 360 for that ahead of a standalone.

Two big issues with the addon are, as the lads said earlier, the noise of the 360 and how the 360 handles audio output.
The noise is rather subjective as it'll bother some people more than others, but it cannot be avoided. Personally, I cannot tolerate the 360 noise when a game is playing let alone a quiet scene in a film, so it is a major, major deal for me. Other people will say otherwise of course, so its a matter for the individual.
Audio output is the other bugbear. Bottom line is, if hearing the latest and greatest HD audio options such as TrueHD is a big deal to you. Then forget about the addon drive. It is impossible to pass these sound options from the 360 to your amp over optical/toslink. The 360 basically downmixes these options to a more "limited-bandwidth" friendly low-bitrate DD or DTS and there is no way around this.
If you're happy with the way DVD has sounded for the last few years with full bitrate DD and DTS tracks, that's a fairly good approximation for how the HD-DVDs will sound........so in other words, a lot of people will be OK with that.
Unfortunately, because the high-def era has increased the quality of sound output along with full 1080p PQ with the likes of TrueHD, uncompressed PCM, DTS-HD etc, optical outs are unable to provide the user with these advanced options, leaving either a downmixed substitute or a core DD track..

Standalones provide these over either analog outs or HDMI, so if its really, really important to you, you may want to consider other options.


On the plus side, the addon is still the cheapest, fastest booting HD-DVD option out there (as long as the person has a 360!) and given the uncertainty regarding the format war at this point (and the kicking HD-DVD has received this week, which although not fatal, does paint the future more Blu), it represents a safe option for the 360 owner to at least try out the format..
Its going to be a struggle for either format to really make a move on the mass public right now (especially with the 2 co-existing) and there are a multitude of teething problems (certainly around DVD/HD-DVD combo releases), so as a relatively early adoptor, you''re going to need to do you're homework to steer your ship in the right direction..


P.S. sorry for the long-winded post..

Dman001

Okay thanks.

Fingleberries

Apparently if you don't have a disc in the 360 DVD drive, and only have whatever HD-DVD in the add-on it helps to reduce the noise levels from the 360 a little bit when watching a HD-DVD movie.

NANOJO

just noticed this over on maxconsole

First Look: XCM Xbox 360 HDMI 1080p cable for original white Xbox 360

We have managed to score some exclusive information regarding XCM's 360 HDMI 1080p for use with the original white Xbox 360 console. The cable itself is nearly finished and will be completed in approximately 4 weeks and promises to allow 1080p output on a regular white original Xbox 360.



http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=18365