$100 HD DVD player

[Kevin Shaw]

Downloads will only win if the masses decide to watch most video content on their computers instead of on their TVs, or if they put a device with internet download capability in their living room. It just so happens that the best-selling Blu-ray player (i.e. Sony PS3) also happens to have internet connectivity, but I haven't heard of an HD-DVD player with similar capability.

And so it goes. HD-DVD is stuggling to survive, and the PS3 is the best multimedia/gaming device available today.

[Heath McKnight]

Apple TV, Windows Media Center, etc. Doing it on the TV like with iTunes. You can already watch movies on demand, which is similar.

Heath

[Heath McKnight]

Originally Posted by Kevin Shaw

And so it goes. HD-DVD is stuggling to survive, and the PS3 is the best multimedia/gaming device available today.

ps-I'm looking forward to playing Assassin's Creed at my friend's tonight. (Grin.)

heath

[John C. Chu]

Originally Posted by Kevin Shaw

It just so happens that the best-selling Blu-ray player (i.e. Sony PS3) also happens to have internet connectivity, but I haven't heard of an HD-DVD player with similar capability.

And so it goes. HD-DVD is stuggling to survive, and the PS3 is the best multimedia/gaming device available today.

All the Toshiba HD-DVD players have an ethernet port, it's part of the spec, in addition to some web enabled features of certain discs, it is also used for firmware updates.

[Michael Jouravlev]

Originally Posted by Kevin Shaw

Downloads will only win if the masses decide to watch most video content on their computers instead of on their TVs, or if they put a device with internet download capability in their living room. It just so happens that the best-selling Blu-ray player (i.e. Sony PS3) also happens to have internet connectivity, but I haven't heard of an HD-DVD player with similar capability.

The Ethernet port is a standard feature of HD-DVD players. Apparently, Toshiba and co. were aware of bandwidth issue and implemented disk-based player with connectivity used for additional materials as well as for upgrade. Even the crappiest DirecTV-grade MPEG-4 hi-def video requires at least 10Mbps, my internet cable connection can churn out about 1.2Mbps at its best, that is, at night. In the evening when everyone is browsing the Net, the speed falls to dialup levels.

Time for HD online video has not come yet. Video-on-demand is available for several dozens, maybe a hundred of simultaneous viewers, because video requires lots of bandwidth.

I don't know how Intel's chip is relevant at all. The problem is not in decoding, the problem is in the bandwidth.

All in all, even if/when high-quality streaming video is available, I will still prefer to have some movies right with me, on disks, tapes, whatever. It is like having your own book instead of borrowing from a library. No streaming video will change the habit to have ONE'S OWN STUFF.

P.S. I got the HD-A2 from Walmart too. I wanted a real thing, that is, the XA2, but for a hundred bucks I thought what the heck. And it is not that bad, it upconverts regular DVDs quite nicely to 1080i. My TV can lock onto 3:2 cadence properly, so even though the A2 does not produce 1080p output, I am losing nothing when I watch movies. Not bad for $100, not bad at all.

On the negative side, I find the way it handles subtitles very weird, unintuitive and downright unusable. Also, I can understand that it does not play DVDs from non-U.S. regions, but not playing region-free PAL DVDs, come on, this is not even funny. I will be using my old DVD player for PAL, other regions, for DivX and XVID. It is convenient that my TV has two HDMI inputs.

[Kevin Shaw]

Originally Posted by John C. Chu

All the Toshiba HD-DVD players have an ethernet port, it's part of the spec...

Okay, but do they have a web browser built in and a way to access web addresses so you could use them as an internet download device? The PS3 is a fully functional internet terminal with an optional wireless keyboard, so if internet downloads of HD content becomes the norm it's ready to go for that. Do any HD-DVD players have that capability?

[John C. Chu]

Originally Posted by Kevin Shaw

Okay, but do they have a web browser built in and a way to access web addresses so you could use them as an internet download device? The PS3 is a fully functional internet terminal with an optional wireless keyboard, so if internet downloads of HD content becomes the norm it's ready to go for that. Do any HD-DVD players have that capability?

Nope, not that I'm aware of.

I bought my HD DVD player to play back films and my own authored HD-DVD discs[footage from my HDV Camcorder.]

If downloading HD content becomes the norm, I think I would rather build myself a Home Theater PC/Mac with a HD tuner card and as many hard drives that I can stuff in it.

My Nintendo Wii has a web browser built in---but you will never find me surfing the Web that way...it's painful!

[Kevin Shaw]

Originally Posted by John C. Chu

If downloading HD content becomes the norm, I think I would rather build myself a Home Theater PC/Mac with a HD tuner card and as many hard drives that I can stuff in it.

With a little work you can also connect the PS3 to a wireless home network and stream video content from a beefy computer in another room, so you don't have to have a big computer box in your living room. :-)

[Heath McKnight]

I know you can load some version of Mac OS X operating system on the PS3, but what about the XBox 360 or Nintendo Wii? All three have processors from IBM, similar to the PowerPC that both IBM and Motorola (Freescale) made.

heath

[Paulo Teixeira]

I know there are people who bring up the fact that the A2 and the A3 doesn’t have 1080p but the reason that I use it is because I don’t think the price of a player that is capable of 1080p and have HDMI 1.3 should be compared to a player that doesn’t have those features. It has nothing to do with rather or not the player is a good value and its true that if you don’t have a 1080p TV and a high end surround sound system, the player is good enough.

Still, I believe that the A3 will be the last player that doesn’t do 1080p because if you look at today’s prices at Amazon for example, you can get the Toshiba A30 for $323.98, A35 for $412.27, and just for the heck of it, on the Blu-Ray side you have the Sharp BDHP 20u for $414.19, Samsung BD-1400 for $339.99, the Sony BDP-S300 for $399.98 and obviously the PS3 for the same price. Once the A3 becomes nearly discontinued, their will be a lot more 1080p TV sets in peoples homes and I bet that at least the A30 will be less than 200 dollars by then.

Even today, top featured 1080p TVs are getting very cheep such as the Sony 40” XBR4 with HDMI 1.3 and 24p support for just $2,199.99. Next year you’ll probably get an equally featured TV for around 1500 dollars or much less.



Now on the topic of using a PS3 as a multimedia device, as we all know Sony has a deal with DivX, and playing back those videos are good enough for a lot of people but I can imagine the deal going a bit further like having a Stage6 section of the PlayStation store. That’s sort of like the YouTube part of Apple TV. Like Apple, Sony also has a very good relationship with Google so it wouldn’t surprise me if you will see YouTube videos on the PlayStation store as well. Almost forgot, the PS3 will be getting an HD TV tuner/recorder.

[Matt Vanecek]

This is all really a moot point. If Disney's advertisements are correct, and their titles are being offered "exclusively on DVD and Blu-Ray" (pre their television commercials), then the 'war' is basically over, and Toshiba is simply unloading inventory. I have several consumer friends who will buy Blu-Ray players simply on the strength of Disney's advertisements. While they may or may not buy HD-DVD players, they will most certainly buy Blu-Ray players just because of Disney. Personally, I'm holding out only due to paying down credit cards used to by camera equipment--next year I'll get a PS3 and a BR burner (dual-layer is what I'm holding out for: I can store on entire project on one of those discs, and not worry about more HDD crashes).

TV isn't the greatest source of info, but lots of people go by what they see advertised.

ciao,
Matt

[Michael Jouravlev]

Originally Posted by Paulo Teixeira

I know there are people who bring up the fact that the A2 and the A3 doesn’t have 1080p but the reason that I use it is because I don’t think the price of a player that is capable of 1080p and have HDMI 1.3 should be compared to a player that doesn’t have those features.

I will agree with you on HDMI 1.3, but not on 1080p. The latter is merely a transport, take data from the disk and send it to a TV. Unlike upscaling or deinterlacing, no super-smart processing is needed. Reserving 1080p for "upscale" (are they really?) models is a pure marketing ploy.

Originally Posted by Paulo Teixeira

its true that if you don’t have a 1080p TV and a high end surround sound system, the player is good enough.

If a TV can detect segmented frames and recover them properly, there is absolutely no difference between 1080i and 1080p. This player will work perfectly fine for such a TV and will utilize its 1080 lines in full. Well, a correct statement would be, that a TV capable if IVTC will utilize 1080i signal in full.

I have to say, that the 720p mode delivered by this player is horrible, so I am lucky that my TV can properly detect and process 3:2 cadence. I bought this player for movies, so I don't have real need for 1080p output.

Originally Posted by Paulo Teixeira

Still, I believe that the A3 will be the last player that doesn’t do 1080p because if you look at today’s prices at Amazon for example, you can get the Toshiba A30 for $323.98, A35 for $412.27

If you read reviews you will find out that a30/35 do not deliver proper 1080p60 (one of them deliver proper 1080p24 though, go figure), just like A2 does not deliver proper 720p. To date, the only proper player from Toshiba is the XA2. Everything else is substitute. But I am ok with a substitute if it costs $100.

[Paulo Teixeira]

If it really doesn’t matter then why do all the new HD-DVD players except for the A3 claim to offer 1080p?

I understand that the A30 doesn’t have all the audio features of the A35 but the A30 does have 24p support so if your 1080p TV can handle 24p than the A30 would be an extremely smart choice over the A3. Also, I don’t know of any content that is offered in 1080 60p.

[Mike Teutsch]

Originally Posted by Heath McKnight

I may take the plunge...I wish I was shelling out $100 for it, but good analogy with the free movies. It feels like 1998 all over again, when you'd buy a DVD player and get a bunch of free rentals and DVDs (albeit, the DVDs sucked).

Heath

Yup, I was going to wait, but may jump in too. I hope the Sears Black Friday thing true and is going to be for sale on the internet with unlimited amount.

Mike

[Konrad Haskins]

The Sear's deal looks real here
http://bfads.net/Toshiba-HDA3-HD-DVD-Player-at-Sears although I'm sure Sears.com will end at noon. I'm going online at 5am EST.

Stand alones are nothing compared to game player consoles. It was only April 18 this year that HD-DVD stand alones passed 100,000 in total sales. The $100 sale this month pumped out 90,000 in one weekend.
See here for details http://www.engadgethd.com/tag/VideoScan/

I'm going to be very interested to see how the 1080P upscaling of SD DVD's works on the A3 with my 42" 1080P LCD. If it looks goodd less reason to buy HD DVDs.