The Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player is now selling for $299, with 5 free movies by mail.

Not bad: http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-HD-A2-HD-DVD-Player/dp/B000IJV4BC/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-9828304-4647063?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1175917051&sr=8-1

It will be interesting to see if this stems the shift toward Blu-ray with the introduction of the PS3.

What are the options right now for burning/authoring an hd dvd? We edit on PPRo with Cineform Aspect HD. Since we do weddings, etc. our final product is at least an hour.
I shoot with a Canon H1, sony FX1 and Canon HV10.
Thanks
Bruce yarock
www.yarock.com

What are the options right now for burning/authoring an hd dvd? We edit on PPRo with Cineform Aspect HD. Since we do weddings, etc. our final product is at least an hour.

The latest version of Adobe Encore reportedly supports Blu-ray authoring, and you can buy a Blu-ray burner for $599 or so. Render your finished timeline to HDV 1080i at 25 Mbps and you should be able to fit about two hours on a single-layer Blu-ray disc costing ~$10-15 each. I'm not sure what the best options are for authoring a Toshiba HD-DVD, but some people are rendering to H.264 and burning to standard red-laser DVDs (which gives you HD playback but no menus).

What are the options right now for burning/authoring an hd dvd? We edit on PPRo with Cineform Aspect HD. Since we do weddings, etc. our final product is at least an hour.
I shoot with a Canon H1, sony FX1 and Canon HV10.
Thanks
Bruce yarock
www.yarock.com


On the Macintosh side, the only option of making HD DVDs, as of right now, is DVD Studio Pro 4.1.2. The workflow is exactly like making a standard DVD--you can still make menus, chapters, multiple audio tracks etc.

However, there is no ability to take a take advantage of the sophisticated menus features in the new format[picture in picture type of stuff, menus popping up and overlaying the movie etc.].

The real rub with HD DVD is that there are no burners or media currently available that I see.

You can fit 30 minutes of HD on a single layer DVD-R. With a dual layer DVD-R, one can fit an hour of HD. [Never tried dual layer]

It's a good cheap option till true burners become available.

On the horizon, there is rumblings of even cheaper HD DVD players from China...might be the ticket to share family videos.

And of course, you have to put the discs in the new generation format cases to complete the package:

http://www.gadgetizer.com/2006/03/17/hd-dvd-cases-from-seastone/

http://www.seastonemedia.com/

Blu-Ray is blue---HD DVD is red.

Toshiba been offering 5 free DVDs for a while now and the reason for the HD-A2 being that cheep is because it isn’t 1080p. Amazon is selling it for around 307 to get rid of them because their probably hard to sell. The player that’s replacing it, the HD-A20 has 480p but the Amazon price is 460. For 40 dollars more you get a 20 gig PS3 that’s not only a 1080p Blu-Ray player but also a game system.

Toshiba been offering 5 free DVDs for a while now and the reason for the HD-A2 being that cheep is because it isn’t 1080p. Amazon is selling it for around 307 to get rid of them because their probably hard to sell. The player that’s replacing it, the HD-A20 has 480p but the Amazon price is 460. For 40 dollars more you get a 20 gig PS3 that’s not only a 1080p Blu-Ray player but also a game system.

What is the visual difference between 1080p and 1080i?

You quoted me before I got to fix my mistake. I meant 1080p not 480p.

If there wasn’t a difference then Toshiba shouldn’t be making 1080p HD DVD players.
Anyway, the biggest difference is when you’re watching a Hollywood movie shot on film because of the 24 frames per second.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2113937,00.asp

http://hdguru.com/?p=77