HD-DVD add-on now available - General Discussion (HARDWARE only)

[quote name='Koggit']The movies are 2.35:1 or 2.4:1, wider than 16:9 which is about 1.85:1. This is a big issue I have with HD DVDs - content wider than 16:9 is letterboxed, and the HD DVD player doesn't have a zoom. Unless your display has a letterbox zoom, you're stuck watching it at its original aspect ratio, which if you have a 720p display means you're stuck watching only 533 vertical pixels. 480p to 533p - worth the $200?[/QUOTE]

Why would you want to ZOOM any movie? you would lose the correct aspect ratio. I'm perfectly fine with all the ratios (except Full Screen). Even with NORMAL DVD. A 2.35:1 DVD has black bars....they NEVER took up the full screen. And, if you ZOOM, you lose picture image.
 
[quote name='Koggit']The movies are 2.35:1 or 2.4:1, wider than 16:9 which is about 1.85:1. This is a big issue I have with HD DVDs - content wider than 16:9 is letterboxed, and the HD DVD player doesn't have a zoom. Unless your display has a letterbox zoom, you're stuck watching it at its original aspect ratio, which if you have a 720p display means you're stuck watching only 533 vertical pixels. 480p to 533p - worth the $200?[/QUOTE]

WTF? Why the hell would you want to chop the sides off the picture? Christ, you can deal with 1" bars!
 
[quote name='Ruined']WTF? Why the hell would you want to chop the sides off the picture? Christ, you can deal with 1" bars![/QUOTE]

On my new projector, those bars are more like 3 feet below and above the image, and being a very bright projector, they are pretty noticeable. I guess I need to get some masking for my screen.

Still, it does suck that pretty much all 2.35 movies are a max of 533p.
 
[quote name='doubledown']Why would you want to ZOOM any movie? you would lose the correct aspect ratio. I'm perfectly fine with all the ratios (except Full Screen). Even with NORMAL DVD. A 2.35:1 DVD has black bars....they NEVER took up the full screen. And, if you ZOOM, you lose picture image.[/QUOTE]


[quote name='Ruined']WTF? Why the hell would you want to chop the sides off the picture? Christ, you can deal with 1" bars![/QUOTE]

I understand why some people would rather watch OAR, but I'm perfectly fine with 16:9. The only films that really need a larger aspect ratio are epic movies like Lord of the Rings, etc. Of course that's my opinion - and I'm not saying you're wrong to prefer OAR, so please don't say I'm wrong for preferring more detail.

In a 2.4:1 HD DVD, vertically, you have 800 pixels of video and 280 pixels of letterboxing bars. Now when you put this on a 720p display, such as my 56" DLP, you still have 26% of the image being dedicated to displaying letterbox bars - meaning only 533 pixels of your screen are displaying the film, which is only a marginal gain from anamorphic 16:9 DVD. With a letterbox zoom, you would see 720 pixels, an additional 187 pixels, a substantial gain.

Basically, if Microsoft would give us a letterbox zoom (which they should have), the user would be given the option - original aspect ratio, or an increase in image detail. Personally, I'd rather deal with 16:9 cropping for the gain in quality.

[quote name='doubledown']BLACK BAR are noticeable? Ummmmm....not sure what to say. Blacks should look BLACK not bright.[/QUOTE]

This is fairly common with front projectors, which is why most people matte their screens to whatever aspect ratio they watch most often.
 
[quote name='doubledown']BLACK BAR are noticeable? Ummmmm....not sure what to say. Blacks should look BLACK not bright.[/QUOTE]

On a projector, with my screen in front of a white wall, you can see a sort of halo, but it's hard to explain. Fire any projector at a white wall and try to display a black screen, same effect. It's hard to reproduce super dark black with a light cannon.
 
[quote name='Koggit']I understand why some people would rather watch OAR, but I'm perfectly fine with 16:9. The only films that really need a larger aspect ratio are epic movies like Lord of the Rings, etc. Of course that's my opinion - and I'm not saying you're wrong to prefer OAR, so please don't say I'm wrong for preferring more detail.

In a 2.4:1 HD DVD, vertically, you have 800 pixels of video and 280 pixels of letterboxing bars. Now when you put this on a 720p display, such as my 56" DLP, you still have 26% of the image being dedicated to displaying letterbox bars - meaning only 533 pixels of your screen are displaying the film, which is only a marginal gain from anamorphic 16:9 DVD. With a letterbox zoom, you would see 720 pixels, an additional 187 pixels, a substantial gain.

Basically, if Microsoft would give us a letterbox zoom (which they should have), the user would be given the option - original aspect ratio, or an increase in image detail. Personally, I'd rather deal with 16:9 cropping for the gain in quality.



This is fairly common with front projectors, which is why most people matte their screens to whatever aspect ratio they watch most often.[/quote]

That's why I like the fact that my Panny does letterbox zoom.
 
As mentioned earlier, I wonder what the sales numbers are on this accessory. 2 out of the 3 circuit city's within 25 miles where I work are sold out, and they each have been restocked at least once if not more.
 
Just got my Panny 50" 60U and going to get this in the next day or two. My only issue is that I don't have a VGA input on my display. I couldn't justify $500 more dollars for the 600U when the only extra things on it that I would use would be the nicer bezel and the VGA input (and I would only be using that for my 360). Hopefully it still looks great as a stopgap, at least until I get an HDDVD player with HDMI
 
im also hoping this thing is selling well....

i cant see why any 360 owner with an hd tv wouldnt want it.

Marketing as usual though kinda sucks. i havent even seen hd dvd microsoft commercials or anything.. i bet theres some 360 owners that dont even know it exists...

hd dvd in general needs to get their marketing shit together man.. thats what worrys me the most..

u go to fucking bb or cc and you see blu-ray.. you ask the noob workers which is better and they always say blu-ray
 
I think HD-DVD is going to wind up "the loser" (if there is one between the two) since the marketing is complete SHIT.

For 160 bucks though I don't care - I'll get the movies that are available for it now, and by the time I'm "forced" to switch to Blu-Ray the players will be much more affordable.
 
[quote name='KaneRobot']I think HD-DVD is going to wind up "the loser" (if there is one between the two) since the marketing is complete SHIT.

For 160 bucks though I don't care - I'll get the movies that are available for it now, and by the time I'm "forced" to switch to Blu-Ray the players will be much more affordable.[/QUOTE]

By the time you are forced to switch to bluray, I think dual format players will be common.
 
dont give up yet...

why would anyone want to support another "sony" format... cmon...

i tried to like umd... we all know how that turned out...

there is no reason hd dvd shold lose the war... but who knows...

they just need to fucking market.. they are already winning as it is...

it wll get interesting to see the war when ps3 is readily available though

im trying not to buy too many movies just in case..


i also dont expect this war to end anytime soon,.
 
what i HATE the most is that average JOE already thinks blueray is better.. i hate the morons that know nothing and do no research and are already convinced ps3/bluray is the future...

Every person i can turn over will be a step closer lol


I think hd dvd has this in the bag. All they need to do is market and drop the whole "combo" disk thing. Those prices are outrageous.

If they just drop the instore prices as well (amazon is decent) then we're talking
 
[quote name='guyver2077']dont give up yet...

why would anyone want to support another "sony" format... cmon...

i tried to like umd... we all know how that turned out...

there is no reason hd dvd shold lose the war... but who knows...

they just need to fucking market.. they are already winning as it is...

it wll get interesting to see the war when ps3 is readily available though

im trying not to buy too many movies just in case..


i also dont expect this war to end anytime soon,.[/QUOTE]

Nobody with half a brain is buying bluray. Sony is banking on selling a PS3 to every other person with electricity on the planet, which would make bluray win by default.

If the PS3 sells as much as the PS2 did, bluray will win.
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']Nobody with half a brain is buying bluray. Sony is banking on selling a PS3 to every other person with electricity on the planet, which would make bluray win by default.

If the PS3 sells as much as the PS2 did, bluray will win.[/quote]

Yes this worrys me as well.The system will sell regardless so people by default will already have blu-ray.

either way i see myself having a ps3 "eventually". when it is available normally at stores.. it will be the cheapes blu-ray player at 499..

hd dvd players need to keep getting lower...

THEY ALSO NEED TO PUSH IT WITH WINDOWS VISTA!!!! microsoft can play a big role in this
 
PS3 games suck so far, so until some AAA games come out for it, Im not so sure its going to sell as many units as te PS2 at its current price point.

Its about education until then. Tell your friends, tell your family, tell anybody you overhear talking about it on the bus. HD-DVD is a better format, but like AIDS, Blu-Ray can only be stopped by educating people.
 
Interesting article at Toms Hardware

exerpt:
Finally, Blu-ray and HD-DVD are in a fight to the death. Last year, when I learned that Blu-ray would ship with the Playstation 3, which had a market potential of over 30 million units, it was easy to call it the early winner. But as additional facts came in on price, availability, and technical problems, this situation changed. HD-DVD Xbox 360 accessories are selling very well and we may be able to call it the market winner shortly as a result.
Xbox 360 - What a difference a year makes

As we mentioned last week, the Xbox 360 is the most mature of the new generation of gaming platforms. This gives it a massive advantage in terms of available games and accessories. It also gave it a massive advantage in terms of available units. Early numbers (Black Friday, Cyber Monday) suggest that even though both the Nintendo and the PlayStation 3 could have outsold it, manufacturing limitations kept their true potential from being reached. In addition, parents who can't get either of the constrained systems are now apparently shifting their buying behavior to the system they can buy, the Xbox 360 - rather than giving their kids an IOU or paying excessively high Ebay prices.

This showcases the importance of actually having a hot product available in sufficient numbers when the buyers are ready to buy. Because of shortages of the Xbox 360 last year, both Sony and Nintendo got a little pop, while Microsoft could have sold more than four times the game systems it had in supply last year.

A year later, Microsoft has plenty of supply and the other guys are constrained. And, according to early information, Xbox 360 sales are ramping sharply, indicating that it will be the clear winner in terms of installed systems. This fact is critical as game developers are not religious about systems. Generally, they prioritize their efforts based on the number of potential customers in a given market. If Microsoft has several millions more of these potential users, they will get the cream of the games coming out from independent developers. And it is the games that make or break a system.

No matter how you look at it, this has all the earmarks of a solid win for Microsoft in the gaming space.
Click to expand...
...
HD DVD wins, Blu-ray loses

Much like it is with game systems; competing formats for video are not about the best technology. They are about the most prevalent technology. It is expensive to publish movies and, at least for now, you can't put Blu-ray and HD DVD disks into the same box.

With the Xbox 360 moving so strongly into the market and the top accessory this year being the $200 HD-DVD drive the battle may be over by year end. There is every chance that there may be as many as ten times more HD DVD players than Blu-ray players in the market by the end of the year - even if you don't factor in that HP, the current leader in PC sales, started shipping desktop computers with a $100 HD DVD option. This, coupled with a much lower overall cost for the stand alone players as well as better support for legacy TVs and dual mode disks (that have both legacy DVD and HD-DVD content on a single disk), suggests that HD-DVD is now the format to beat.

HD-DVD wins because of the Xbox 360 - which is ironic, given Blu-ray should have won because of the Playstation 3. Instead, Blu-ray has delayed the Playstation 3 to a point where Sony may have to wait until the Playstation 4 to recover.

BetaMax, Mini-Disk, MemoryStick, and now Blu-ray. At least Sony is consistent. Also, if there is one company that is really looking forward to a better 2007 more than Sony I don't know of it. Boy, when you couple in root kits and battery/camera recalls, you are talking about a really nasty run of bad luck for Sony this year.
Click to expand...
 
[quote name='Collectordragon']Does the HD-DVD add-on still come with King Kong?[/QUOTE]
Yes.
Can you use an American HD-DVD add-on with a Japanese 360? Will there be any HD-DVD 360 games or is the add-on strictly for movies?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure about the Japanese 360.

If games ever do come out for the HD-DVD add-on, I'm sure you will also be able to buy multi-disk DVD versions as well. There will never be an HD-DVD only game made.
 
[quote name='guyver2077']im also hoping this thing is selling well....

i cant see why any 360 owner with an hd tv wouldnt want it.
[/QUOTE]

already have a great progressive scan player/surround sound system that scales to 1080i via HDMI, and that pumps out incredible sound when I play games

no muss, no fuss

i'm cool with that for the next couple of years

the hd-dvd add-on is cool, but i don't need to buy one
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']If games ever do come out for the HD-DVD add-on, I'm sure you will also be able to buy multi-disk DVD versions as well. There will never be an HD-DVD only game made.[/QUOTE]

It'd be better not to do it the way Sega did with add-ons during the Genesis era. The Genesis and its two add-ons created four different formats for one console; Genesis, Sega CD, 32x, and 32x CD. It'd be smart for Microsoft to go the route with both formats on a single disc so people who will never get the add-on will still buy a certain game but people who do have the add-on can take advantage of additional content for that game. Any word of there ever being 360 HD-DVD games whether from unsubstantiated rumors or otherwise?
 
Tom's Hardware: HD DVD wins, Blu-Ray loses!

http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/11/29/enderle_on_christmas_trends/

HD DVD wins, Blu-ray loses
Much like it is with game systems; competing formats for video are not about the best technology. They are about the most prevalent technology. It is expensive to publish movies and, at least for now, you can't put Blu-ray and HD DVD disks into the same box.

With the Xbox 360 moving so strongly into the market and the top accessory this year being the $200 HD-DVD drive the battle may be over by year end. There is every chance that there may be as many as ten times more HD DVD players than Blu-ray players in the market by the end of the year - even if you don't factor in that HP, the current leader in PC sales, started shipping desktop computers with a $100 HD DVD option. This, coupled with a much lower overall cost for the stand alone players as well as better support for legacy TVs and dual mode disks (that have both legacy DVD and HD-DVD content on a single disk), suggests that HD-DVD is now the format to beat.

HD-DVD wins because of the Xbox 360 - which is ironic, given Blu-ray should have won because of the Playstation 3. Instead, Blu-ray has delayed the Playstation 3 to a point where Sony may have to wait until the Playstation 4 to recover.

BetaMax, Mini-Disk, MemoryStick, and now Blu-ray. At least Sony is consistent. Also, if there is one company that is really looking forward to a better 2007 more than Sony I don't know of it. Boy, when you couple in root kits and battery/camera recalls, you are talking about a really nasty run of bad luck for Sony this year.
Click to expand...
 
[quote name='KaneRobot']Side note - for those who did buy/are thinking of buying Terminator 3, keep in mind that although Terminator and T2 are both Blu-Ray exclusive for now, there IS a 1080p version of T2 that is readily available (for next to nothing...DDD has it for under 10 bucks). T2 Exreme Edition comes as a 2 disc set. The second disc has a Windows Media version of it on there that runs 1080p. Now that we can play WMV files through the 360 without having to have Windows Media Center...well, you can do the math.[/QUOTE]
After reading this, I gave it a shot. Unfortunately the 360 recognizes the disc as a DVD and won't let you check it for WMV's. After further investigation on the net, it seems that the WMV's are DRM'd and licenses can only be acquired using the damned Interactual software on the DVD. Then it turns out its version-checking script looks for WMP9 instead of WMP9+. So having WMP10, you need to download a patch to get it to work. After that, you can strip the DRM and burn it to a different disc to play or stream it via Media Center.

Mmm, hoop-jumping.
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']

If games ever do come out for the HD-DVD add-on, I'm sure you will also be able to buy multi-disk DVD versions as well. There will never be an HD-DVD only game made.[/QUOTE]

I doubt they would do two versions like that ever either, at least never at the same time. Honestly I'd think we'd see an HD-DVD only game before someone creates two versions. Like you though I don't think that will happen though. If one thing has proven true over the years it's that game developers and publishers hate making games that require the use of an add-on (latest notable example, Final Fantasy XI on PS2). The use of an add-on has worked well for games on very, very few occasions in the over two decades where console gaming has become increasingly popular. There's just too much potential for a loss, even if they started to build the HD-DVD drives into the systems I don't think we'd see ever see more than maybe one HD-DVD format game for the 360. I think the first platform to have games on HD-DVD will be PCs, mainly because that gaming market has essentially resided to having to make after market upgrades yourself, something that has never caught on in the console gaming market.
 
[quote name='Duo_Maxwell']I doubt they would do two versions like that ever either, at least never at the same time. Honestly I'd think we'd see an HD-DVD only game before someone creates two versions. Like you though I don't think that will happen though. If one thing has proven true over the years it's that game developers and publishers hate making games that require the use of an add-on (latest notable example, Final Fantasy XI on PS2). The use of an add-on has worked well for games on very, very few occasions in the over two decades where console gaming has become increasingly popular. There's just too much potential for a loss, even if they started to build the HD-DVD drives into the systems I don't think we'd see ever see more than maybe one HD-DVD format game for the 360. I think the first platform to have games on HD-DVD will be PCs, mainly because that gaming market has essentially resided to having to make after market upgrades yourself, something that has never caught on in the console gaming market.[/QUOTE]

Well Blue Dragon is supposedly something like 2 or 3 DVD's. I can see if that game does really well, they could possibly do an HD-DVD version of it. I agree with you, there won't be anything special about an HD-DVD version other than it comes on one disk.

Furthermore, seeing as how you can't play games right now on the HD-DVD drive, there may be something more technical involved in streaming game content, that at least the current version of the dashboard can't do.
 
Got to check out the hd wmv versions of t2 yesterday.. looked pretty good and no black bars :)

also got to see hd porn for the first time... looked damn good...
 
[quote name='guyver2077']Got to check out the hd wmv versions of t2 yesterday.. looked pretty good and no black bars :)

also got to see hd porn for the first time... looked damn good...[/QUOTE]


Great, just what I want to see, body makeup smudges, 5 o'clock pubic shadow, and more detailed phalic veins.
 
there is a post in the previous page for the decembers version of the coupon. So you can use that coupon to get the hd dvd drive in dec.
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']Great, just what I want to see, body makeup smudges, 5 o'clock pubic shadow, and more detailed phalic veins.[/quote]

lol yea check out island fever 3.. jesse jane is so fine..

ive never scene such nice scenery in a porn lol..
 
[quote name='DomLando']Damn no CC's in my area have this in stock. Is there any other deals for it?[/QUOTE]

Ebay seems to be going below $200....
 
CHRONOS HD DVD

The HD DVD's audio is great with 24bit/96khz DTS-HD 5.1 soundtrack, 24bit/48khz Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 soundtrack, and 24bit/48khz PCM stereo soundtrack. Personally I would have canned the DTS-HD and PCM soundtracks and instead offered lossless Dolby TrueHD5.1 24bit/48khz, but I can't complain as the audio is excellent :)

Video is MPEG2 but surprisingly sharp, likely due to the short 40 minute runtime of the film allowing for ample breathing room. I got up nice and close to the TV and did not detect any significant compression artifacting at 1080i. Colors are beautiful in this release! It may have been even better in VC-1, but with this type of flick I really can't complain either here.

This HD DVD completely destroys the prior standard DVD version I had. It literally is like the difference between VHS and DVD. I believe this is both due to superior mastering and superior encoding technologies.

Finally, interactivity makes the film even more cool on HD DVD. Don't forget to play around with the Locations and Annotations menu options while the film is running; they allow you to toggle locational information where each shot was taken as well as detailed information about the location and things being shown in the film, all in popup windows you can turn on/off at will.

Overall, for this type of film OUTSTANDING effort to the people who made the HD DVD. Often these type of movies get crap treatment but Chronos on HD DVD had some TLC put into it. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for fans of nature/landscape movies - or plain anyone who would like to see some gorgeous forces of nature put to Vangelis-style music! IMO, this is one of those films you should see at least once in your life - and what better way to do so than on HD DVD?!

http://www.amazon.com/Chronos-HD-DV...pd_bbs_sr_2/002-3491212-5125608?ie=UTF8&s=dvd
 
[quote name='guyver2077']Got to check out the hd wmv versions of t2 yesterday.. looked pretty good and no black bars :)[/QUOTE]
Yeah, no bars, but everybody's stretched vertically. And incorrect aspect ratios bother me like none other.
 
[quote name='dafunkk12']And incorrect aspect ratios bother me like none other.[/QUOTE]
I've got to think MS will fix some of this aspect ratio/native resolution stuff eventually....come on, no support for 1440x900 via VGA cable? There are a shitton of widescreen LCD monitors out there that are native at that resolution.

It's kind of sad that they clearly wanted to get this out in a timely manner (meaning before PS3 launch) so they shoved it out the door a tad early.
 
[quote name='KaneRobot']I've got to think MS will fix some of this aspect ratio/native resolution stuff eventually....come on, no support for 1440x900 via VGA cable? There are a shitton of widescreen LCD monitors out there that are native at that resolution.

It's kind of sad that they clearly wanted to get this out in a timely manner (meaning before PS3 launch) so they shoved it out the door a tad early.[/quote]

If we see 1440x900 in a future update, I hope we see 1680x1050 as well.
 
[quote name='Trakan']If we see 1440x900 in a future update, I hope we see 1680x1050 as well.[/quote]Add me in for another user hoping for native resolution support for the WS LCD monitors. Mine's 1920x1200...a slightly stretched 1080p.
 
Some DVD's to go with your player:

Ashura-no go Hitomi:
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-ye-49-en-70-1hk7.html

Shinobi:
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-ye-49-en-70-1e0i.html

Volcano High:
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-ye-49-en-70-1kg1.html

Brave Story:
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-ye-49-en-70-1n24.html

Note that most of these will be good for showpieces so don't mind the price as much. Also "Brave Story" is the FIRST Anime to hit the HD disc formats so PLEASE pick it up. These are all region free discs btw.
Too bad the American HD-DVD player doesn't work with Sony TV's as I'm starting to get interested in it since most of these are the discs I'm interested in and they are or have become region free. :whistle2:/
Now if only some Korean Drama's would come on HD-DVD as well as K-Pop star concerts.
edit: I wonder when a BoA concert will hit either format. Seems pretty likely, only question is when and if it will, HOPEFULLY, be in Korean.
Looks like Blu-Ray has one extra Anime and Air is coming. Funny since I didn't think a game that started out as a PC Hentai game would end up big enough to hit a next gen. format.
 
i would like to see improved support for the vga as well, I picked it up when i got the player, and the image was about 1/2 the size of my tv. My resolution is 1920 x 1080 pixels. I would hope they will have an hdmi accessory soon, as I would rather that then the vga cable
 
[quote name='ryanbph']i would like to see improved support for the vga as well, I picked it up when i got the player, and the image was about 1/2 the size of my tv. My resolution is 1920 x 1080 pixels. I would hope they will have an hdmi accessory soon, as I would rather that then the vga cable[/QUOTE]

What about the Sony problem? Personally I just find that petty.
 
[quote name='Sarang01']Some DVD's to go with your player:

Ashura-no go Hitomi:
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-ye-49-en-70-1hk7.html

Shinobi:
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-ye-49-en-70-1e0i.html

Volcano High:
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-ye-49-en-70-1kg1.html

Brave Story:
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-ye-49-en-70-1n24.html

Note that most of these will be good for showpieces so don't mind the price as much. Also "Brave Story" is the FIRST Anime to hit the HD disc formats so PLEASE pick it up. These are all region free discs btw.
Too bad the American HD-DVD player doesn't work with Sony TV's as I'm starting to get interested in it since most of these are the discs I'm interested in and they are or have become region free. :whistle2:/
Now if only some Korean Drama's would come on HD-DVD as well as K-Pop star concerts.
edit: I wonder when a BoA concert will hit either format. Seems pretty likely, only question is when and if it will, HOPEFULLY, be in Korean.
Looks like Blu-Ray has one extra Anime and Air is coming. Funny since I didn't think a game that started out as a PC Hentai game would end up big enough to hit a next gen. format.[/QUOTE]

You have to be joking, $50 shipped?!?! Listen I think we need to temporarily revoke your CAG membership and reeducate you on what constitutes "cheap". I mean are these even official releases (Region-free generally indicates that the studio and producers get nothing, ie a boot or semi-boot)?
 
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