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MS Xbox 360 HD-DVD Player: Who's getting it?
- Thread starter hgplayer1
- Start date
Awesomated
Member
I picked mine up at Target (BB and CC sold out) yesterday after much debating, hooked it up to my Viewsonic N3250w (32") via component, and proceeded to be thoroughly impressed. The picture quality is simply exquisite. After about 20 minutes of Kong, I popped a regular DVD into my Samsung HD-950 upconverter for comparison, and when the Warner Bros. logo popped up, my wife said, "Ewww." After 10 minutes of watching the regular movie, she said, "Can we put the other one back on now, please?"
That, gentlemen and ladies, is when I knew I had a winner on my hands.
That, gentlemen and ladies, is when I knew I had a winner on my hands.
I'm going to order Superman 1 and 2 on HD-DVD soon, but I must ask, is there any plan at all to release that super ultra cool neato boss Superman Collectors Set thingy on HD-DVD/Blu-Ray? Because it seems odd that the same time they release the first two and last movie on HD formats they decide to release a high-end lower quality (DVD) version of all of the movies. Are there any plans on releasing the whole set again on HD?EMBee99 said:
Hmm.. I dunno as the only OLD movie I have on HD-DVD is Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971 Gene Wilder) and it looks awesome even if not shot in HD. But of course that's not a movie to use as an example.
I got the HD-DVD version too. It does rock. But I have to ask. Anyone who has seen both the Blu-Ray and HD DVD version of this movie, are there any differences? In the quality, in the interface used for BR, anything, or are the two identical?
I am totally waiting for the Back to the Future trilogy. It's Universal! They GOTTA RELEASE IT AGAIN! It took so long to be put on DVD, can we beg them for one more try. I would kill for HD-DVD (Or even Blu-Ray) releases of the BTTF trilogy. (Just bummed out because I missed out on the UniversalHD showing of BTTF a few weeks ago and haven't seen it show up on the schedule again yet.)
plagiarize
Banned
the picture quality is identical according to all the reviews i've read, but the Blu-Ray release doesn't have a Dolby Digital Tru HD soundtrack on it. not due to any limitation of the format though. it's thought to be 'political' if you catch my drift. so, if you can get both, the HD-DVD sounds like the one to get, unless you're just watching it through your TV speakers or can get the blu-ray disc for cheaper.Jasoco said:
plagiarize
Banned
yes they will... though i couldn't tell you how much you'll notice the difference. HD-DVDs are a much higher bit rate than the 720p trailers meaning that they have much less compression artifacts and finer detail. the sound of dolby digital tru-hd is higher bitrate than the sound and video put together of those marketplace downloads.
hd-dvds (and blu-rays) are currently as good as high def gets for video content. they even look better than dvds on a normal tv set (though obviously it's not as big a difference as you'll see between DVDs on your 720p set).
hd-dvds (and blu-rays) are currently as good as high def gets for video content. they even look better than dvds on a normal tv set (though obviously it's not as big a difference as you'll see between DVDs on your 720p set).
Diseased Yak
Gold Member
rs7k said:
over VGA only
In other news... I cranked up Superman Returns the other night. My god what sound! Easily the best sounding movie I've screened at home. I thought the paint was going to peel from my walls during the airplane crash sequence.
Rabid Wolverine
Member
Was gonna wait for the HD-DVD offical launch in Australia but **** I want this now.
Question. Is King Kong still being offered for free with the Drive in US/Canada?
Question. Is King Kong still being offered for free with the Drive in US/Canada?
plagiarize
Banned
i got american werewolf in london and pitch black in yesterday. for all it's colour correction pitch black actually looks pretty damn nice. it doesn't have a tru-hd dolby digital track, but the track that it does have sounds at least as good as the DTS track of old. the crash sequence is still great sound wise.
awil... hasn't had the best reviews for picture, but i really like that the film grain is pretty noticeable on it. i love the look of film, and dvd didn't do it justice. so yeah it's a bit flat, and the colours are a bit muted (but they always were)... but i think both are a look that suits this film to a t, and my reservations after reading the reviews were washed away.
the transformation looks better than ever. 1080p is a lot kinder to practical effects than CG effects. i know i've said that before but comparing AWIL and Pitch Black restates that pretty emphatically. DVD didn't really hide the flaws of practical effects, and HD shows their intricate detail better. DVD hid the flaws of CGI to a degree, and HD really shows them up, even on recent stuff like Kong.
we'll get there in the end i know, but i really like the way classic films are looking (The Thing looks great too).
hurry up and release Psycho Universal!
awil... hasn't had the best reviews for picture, but i really like that the film grain is pretty noticeable on it. i love the look of film, and dvd didn't do it justice. so yeah it's a bit flat, and the colours are a bit muted (but they always were)... but i think both are a look that suits this film to a t, and my reservations after reading the reviews were washed away.
the transformation looks better than ever. 1080p is a lot kinder to practical effects than CG effects. i know i've said that before but comparing AWIL and Pitch Black restates that pretty emphatically. DVD didn't really hide the flaws of practical effects, and HD shows their intricate detail better. DVD hid the flaws of CGI to a degree, and HD really shows them up, even on recent stuff like Kong.
we'll get there in the end i know, but i really like the way classic films are looking (The Thing looks great too).
hurry up and release Psycho Universal!
Uncle Dukey
Member
So there's no way to pass through the original audio tracks right? I think it's kind of killer if it can't pass through PCM/TrueHD/DTS-HD to a receiver...
It might be a killer if you had a receiver that could accept and decode a True HD signal. My understanding is that there currently are no such receivers on the market. This is why you need a HD-DVD player with multi channel analog outputs (like the Toshiba HD-A1) to get full bandwidth Dolby True HD at the moment.
As had probably been mentioned in this thread, MS are working on an update for the 360 HD drive that will bring full 1.5Mbps DTS output to the player. According to MS, the solution will be identical to the DTS downmixing that goes on inside the Toshiba HD-A1 and similar players, in that it will downmix or cross-convert Dolby True HD or DD+to 1.5Mbps DTS streams.
I have not read many (actually any) complaints about the quality of the DTS downmix on the Toshiba A1 player, so I hope MS can deliver on their promise, and soon.
well this is the first time Ive posted in this thread since the HD-DVD drive launched and I just wanted to chime in and say I did pick it up soon after release and I love it!
havent actually watched a whole lot of movies on it but Im renting from netflix so Ive got nothing but HD-DVDs in my queue.
aside from the obvious upgrade in PQ one of the nice things about it is that you can keep a movie loaded in the player even if you decide to play a game.
I do wish the sound had a little more oomph but I have the same problem with HD television programming.
havent actually watched a whole lot of movies on it but Im renting from netflix so Ive got nothing but HD-DVDs in my queue.
aside from the obvious upgrade in PQ one of the nice things about it is that you can keep a movie loaded in the player even if you decide to play a game.
I do wish the sound had a little more oomph but I have the same problem with HD television programming.
Kung Fu Jedi
Member
rage1973 said:
Yes. All HD-DVD movies support 1080p
I'm watching King Kong right now to break it in. Works great, looks great (though this isn't a 720p movie, so it could look a lot better). I'm watching the copy of King Kong that came with it, but I'm getting tired of the pretentious direction, so I might just unload it and wait for the copy of Casablanca I ordered to come in.
bigmakstudios
Banned
I'm pretty sure that it was in the top ten (maybe even #1) at one point.
NerdEyeBlind
Member
Anyone else having issues with the player being louder than normal when playing non HD-discs? Just checking to see if this is a normal issue I should get used to...
plagiarize
Banned
for anyone that isn't aware, hd-dvds are currently region free. that means that certain films that in america are owned by blu-ray studios, can be bought on hd-dvd from europe and japan and played on the xbox 360 add on (or any other player).
i just ordered my first import hd-dvd from xploitedcinema.com. they don't have many titles (because they only have titles not available in the states already) but it's worth giving them a look and keeping an eye on.
i ordered John Carpenter's The Fog (not the remake), and I'll let you guys know what the service is like.
for anyone paying attention, The Fog is under the Sony owned MGM banner in the states and will NOT be out in America on HD-DVD unless blu-ray completely fails.
it's nice to know anyway.
i just ordered my first import hd-dvd from xploitedcinema.com. they don't have many titles (because they only have titles not available in the states already) but it's worth giving them a look and keeping an eye on.
i ordered John Carpenter's The Fog (not the remake), and I'll let you guys know what the service is like.
for anyone paying attention, The Fog is under the Sony owned MGM banner in the states and will NOT be out in America on HD-DVD unless blu-ray completely fails.
it's nice to know anyway.
Sgt. Killjoy
Member
hahahahah
$45 for Equilibrium? I don't think so.
$45 for Equilibrium? I don't think so.
Finally got my drive today, took a long time to find one here in France. Image quality is as good as expected (only tried King Kong), it really gets all the little blue screen glitches very visible 
And not a framedrop in the video as I was fearing. Thankfully the software player doesn't seem to use the same (sucky) VC1 codec as the dashboard.
And not a framedrop in the video as I was fearing. Thankfully the software player doesn't seem to use the same (sucky) VC1 codec as the dashboard.
f@luS
More than a member.
Blimblim said:Finally got my drive today, took a long time to find one here in France. Image quality is as good as expected (only tried King Kong), it really gets all the little blue screen glitches very visible
And not a framedrop in the video as I was fearing. Thankfully the software player doesn't seem to use the same (sucky) VC1 codec as the dashboard.
i know movies are region free, but does the drive work on another region xbox? pal drive with us system?
plagiarize
Banned
yes... the drive has no region. the region of your system overrides it. so a pal drive on a us system will play region 1 (US) dvds and any current hd-dvd. if hd-dvds start enforcing regioning, then it will play us regioned hd-dvds.f@luS said:
Robobandit
Member
SonnyBoy said:
$200
Tieno said:
you could always download one of the HD movies off of marketplace. I downloaded V For Vendetta and then about a week later rented the HD-DVD. from what I remembered the HD-DVD looked slightly better but the marketplace HD movies are a good indicator of what it will look like.
Tieno said:Video marketplace doesn't like Europe
in that case there are some HD video clips you can download somewhere at microsoft.com and then stream them to the 360 but I dont have a link at the moment. some of the clips have 1080p versions and thell play but theyll be squished so download the 720p versions.
edit: oh looky here I found them
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/musicandvideo/hdvideo/contentshowcase.aspx
looks like there are some new ones since the last time I visited.
Kung Fu Jedi
Member
Reading this thread is making it very hard to not go out and buy the HD-DVD add-on. It sounds excellent, but I've vowed to stay away from both HD-DVD and BluRay until there is a clear cut winner.
neondriver
Member
Do have the Z4 or Z5?jarosh said:VERY big
i suppose the screen is around ~100 inches
Both are really nice projectors though
(I own a Z5)Similar threads
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