@ Jesterrace. Seems like I hit a sore spot. For people that have new hardware it would probably be a good idea to get these options and a lot of people I know got new stuff over the holidays. Why get a capable TV and buy a 108i player? Doesn't make sense too me, might as well get a 108i TV and save money. Yeah the A-30 is HDMI 1.3 but not deep colour capable. Compare A-30 - A-35 . If you look at the price on the Toshiba link I gave the A-30 is $449.99 and the A-35 is $ 549.99. So they are not cheap either. Dan is right that the V 1.3 is not yet being used but will be in the future. Blu-ray still has the 5 free movie offer running since last fall.
I could do this until I was blue in the face as you have sided with the Toshiba. I am staying nuteral like I said I like both.
Btw no problems whatsoever with my Sammy other than too many FW updates.

The links that you have shown are horribly overpriced. You can definitely get both of them for much cheaper than that.

If this goes through and the console is kept at a decent price, HD-DVD could easily overtake blu-ray in the next year in total sales.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...0_brier31.html

*EDIT* For those who don't want to read through all of the junk:

"Xboxing

With video games becoming one of the biggest forms of entertainment and a focal point of consumer electronics and the digital home, Gates will probably share the stage with Bach, the Microsoft executive in charge of the Xbox business.

They're likely to remind the retail crowd the Xbox 360 is holding its own, and the number of games sold per console is much higher than it is for Sony's PlayStation 3 or Nintendo's Wii.

Saving the best for last, Gates could end his CES run with a bang by making a blockbuster Xbox announcement.

I've speculated on my blog that Microsoft may be preparing to license the Xbox gaming platform to consumer-electronics companies.

In particular, Microsoft could work with Toshiba to develop a digital video recorder with a hard-drive, high-definition HD-DVD drive and Xbox gaming capabilities. They're already allied against Sony and other backers of the Blu-ray DVD format, and Toshiba could help Xbox finally penetrate the Japanese market.

Microsoft could also make a splash by announcing plans to give the Xbox 360 an internal HD-DVD drive, putting it on par with Sony's PlayStation 3 that has a built-in Blu-ray drive."

I realize you probably have guessed it by now but both of the titles I have mentioned are on HD-DVD. As for 2001: A Space Odyssey I am really excited especially after reading the reviews on the picture quality at high-def digest. Reviewer states that he uses that title as a demo disc to show HD capabilities to his friends/family, ect. Really happy to hear that as I love the movie.

Yea, I saw the review. I visit HD digest every day. One of my favorite sites and I rarely disagree with their reviews. 2001 is on both Blu-ray and HD DVD, but, I'd likely get it on HD DVD. I have some gift cards from Xmas so I may go get it sometime soon. It's a great movie anyway, so, I can't wait to see it on HD.

I am seriously looking forward to my new LG drive arriving. For *me* the format war is non-existent. I simply don't care anymore. I'll support HD DVD as much as I can but in the end, I'm just going to enjoy my movies whatever format they end up on.

If any of those certificates are to Best Buy, you should get it this week on HD-DVD. HD-DVD are buy three, get two free this week.

EDIT: link - http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....at141500050001

They are indeed. That's pretty sweet. I work down the street from BB, so, I can swing over at lunch tomorrow and pick up some movies. Excellent.

I am wondering some movie like "2001" which was produced more 30 years ago where "HD & BR" technology was not in hand yet, how these movies being offered in HD or BR now?. I believe this is just advertisement gimmick.

HAHAHAHA, no. Not a gimmick at all. How do you think they did this for all the DVD transfers? You're taking analog data(the original film stock) and digitizing it. And then they run it through an extremely painful and complex cleaning process. That process has gotten a lot better over the years. Now, with HD & BR, you have much higher bitrates to play with. This of course is going to result in a much better transfer. Obviously the more data you have to work with, the better the results. This isn't a case of trying to move mp3's to SACD where the mp3 is already digital and has lost a ton of data already. This is more like taking a vinyl and converting it to SACD. You start with an analog source and convert that to digital.

Here's an article that discusses restoration. It's not the best article I've read on the subject but I can't find any of the good ones right now.

http://www.studiodaily.com/main/tech...ting/4342.html

You all need to check out Curse of the Golden Flower in BR or HD. Eye poping to say the least.

That won't be on HD DVD. Isn't that a Sony release? And yes, I want to see that on BR. I should rent it on Netflix. I enjoyed it on DVD.

You definitely have no clue about what you are talking about. I have stated it over and over again that actually older movies actually show the most improvement in HD since on DVD they often show the graininess and many of the imperfections of the original film print. In HD they make all of that virtually disappear. Not to mention the color has a brightness and clarity that is hard to be believed. After seeing such titles as Battle of The Bulge and Mutiny on The Bounty, it made a believer out of me. Can't wait for 2001 since supposedly it tops both of those films in terms of picture quality.

Film is film. 35mm film has the potential to reproduce several times more resolution than 1080. It's all in the transfer. The age of the film has nothing to do with it. The newest 4k transfer/mastering hardware can produce stunning detail from any film.

Indeed! If the restored Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and James Bond DVDs are any indication of what's to come for the HD formats in terms of restored and transferred material, I for one can't wait! The processes in place now are incredible. It's still painstaking, though. And expensive. But, you have to think for those movies the studios realize it'll be worth it considering all the "new" sales of old movies. There's no question I'd buy the Star Wars movies on HD. When they did the restoration of all the movies I just mentioned, I'm pretty sure they were all done using the 4k transfer process, so they are all ready for HD in terms of video. Audio is another matter in and of itself but it's far easier to deal with than video for the most part. Far too many people do not fully appreciate the difference between analog and digital. In this digital age it's just assumed and expected that digital trumps analog but that's not necessarily the case.

Please don't act like you know all and the others have to lesson what are you saying. Just restrain yourself and let others express their views also then you are entitle to yours.

When a guy comes out and claims that something is just a "gimmick" and doesn't even own any high-def players to even make such claims then yes, I get a little irritated as such things easily spread misinformation to other newbies who might be reading the thread. Do I know everything about HD? NO!!!!!!! Have myself and others stated several times (this thread included) that a number of older films look substantially better in high def? YES!!!!!!!!!

Is this still related to the thread? Sounds kinda OT to me.

I just want to repeat my opinion about that "horse race".
The solution to me is, as we have seen that before in the DVD area, some kinds of combo-drives & devices.
And, both BD & HDDVD sides shouldn't think there wouldnt be competition from elsewhere.... watch out for VMD. The chinese peepz could flow the market really fast & cheap.

TCAS, you have been around long enough to know our rules. If you have a problem with a staff member, then please PM an admin.

That said, I don't expect this to continue further here.

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Oh God no. We can't deal with yet another format! 2 is bad enough IMO. I've read about that format and I suspect it'll do very well in the Asian market but not so much elsewhere. I could be wrong, though. If it does become widely adopted elsewhere in the world, look for the HD market to fall apart. It simply can't support 3 formats, even with cheap players. Consumers can't even handle the 2 we have now. I'm an enthusiast and over the last 3 months I spent almost 1000 USD building a machine that's capable of playing both formats. There's NO WAY an average consumer is going to pay that much. And a stand alone combo player is currently in that ballpark. Prices need to drop significantly this year. But another format...just, NO.

SamuriHL,

don't panic!
VMD is so far only made for China and nearby countries.
But if they start to conquer a market like Japan & Taiwan, it could get worse....

Oh, I wasn't panicing, but, I just don't think the market could handle another format. What concerns me is that the cheap HD DVD and Blu-ray players are going to come from China. If they get the bright idea to add compatibility for this format, it may confuse the hell out of consumers in other parts of the world. We'll see what happens. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy my HTPC once that new drive comes. It'll then be complete to natively play both BR and HD DVD discs without the need for ripping from a console.

Wouldn't matter if the movie studios refuse to support it though.

You mean LG GGC20 or GGW20?

Kinda great choice!

GGC-H20L. I can't wait. I really can't.