I should be writing my paper due tonight right now, but what fun would that be to get it done early?
Excitingly, I ordered my new HD-DVD player last week, (a Toshiba HD-A3 720p/1080i HD-DVD Player), taking a chance on a product that could go the way of Beta or maybe luckily, VHS. I ordered it on Wednesday afternoon, paid roughly $15 for shipping via standard 3-5 day Priority Mail, so you can imagine my shock when it arrived on Friday evening.
That shock was short lived and quickly replaced with the utter joy of being able to set it up and have at the thing.
Setting it up
Of course the player was deeper and bigger than the old one, which required some nifty changing of the entertainment console, but I quickly found its place and started it up.
That’s when I realized I really need a new HDMI cable, because it required fidgeting to get it to work, but once it did, I was ready to go. I also needed to switch from PCM to Bitsteam audio on the player so the 5.1 surround sound would work over my optical audio cable.
The first thing you have to do with this player is connect it to your local network so you can download the firmware upgrade. I don’t know if it’s necessary, but the five HD-DVDs I have now all had little notes inside telling you to update it so you can ensure the HD-DVD you bought will display correctly.
It took about 20 minutes for the upgrade to process, so once it was over, I put in “300″ and sat back.
Enjoying it
The picture was awesome, the sound was clearer than my other normal DVDs and the special features were great. The movie comes with a little “picture-in-picture” commentary feature where you can watch the blue-screen version of the movie in a little bubble picture, while you watch the real one in 
the main area. The commentary provided gives you a nice overview of how they did it all, and it was pretty sweet.
(Here is quick screenshot of River from the Serenity HD-DVD –>)
The next thing we watched was “Good Fellas” rented from Blockbuster, one of only about 20 titles they had. The one close to us didn’t stock any, so we had to drive 6 miles to find the nearest one that did.
Another great experience. Sure, that old of a movie wasn’t necessarily filmed in the way they are now with the great cameras that are made for digital and high-definition, but it still looked MUCH better than a normal DVD.
First time seeing the movie too, but I’ll talk about that later.
The downside
Sure, there is a downside. I immediately realized that even though I liked a lot of the titles on HD-DVD, I was going to be jealous of the BluRay ones I couldn’t watch.
In going to Blockbuster and reading some old blogs, I saw a lot of movies on BluRay I want to watch. Like “The Lookout” with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Alas, it’s BluRay. Ugh.
There was a quick depression and a few “did I do the right thing” moments this weekend, but now I’m coming out of it. I put in “Lord of the Rings” and it looked fine upconverted, so I think I’ll be okay.
Besides, “Lord of the Rings” is supposed to be out on HD-DVD and Battlestar Galactica already has season one out, so I think I made the right choice.
I’ll keep you updated on anything else that happens, and also, watch for new HD-DVD picks in my weekly DVD picks blogs.
I’m jealous. But I refuse to make a choice until a winner is selected. I won’t be a Beta supporter! I won’t do it!
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I’m too impatient
Besides, as my friend says, once they pick a winner, even if it’s BluRay, you will be able to get combo drives for probably $200 or less by that time, so if you do own HD-DVDs, you can still play them and BluRay all in one player.
In the meantime, Serenity looks good!
Well, I’m onboard with Mike in this. At $220, it was too good to pass up, esp with 10 free HD DVD’s.
Mine just came yesterday. Set-up was fairly straightforward. I have an issue in that my surround sound receiver only has one optical audio port, so I’m waiting for a switch and cables so I can add surround sound, currently I’m locked in 2 channel hell, but it works. Picture is amazing. We watched Love Actually in SD and it upconverted nicely. 300 looked amazing, and I’ve just updated my BB queue, so that all new movies ship in HD where avail.
I haven’t added the network hook-up yet as I’ll need some additional wireless components, but that will be done soon.
Overall, the new HD DVD is great and if Blu Ray wins the day I’ll deal with that when/if it happens, until then I’ll be in HD heaven!
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I put in the Bourne Ultimatum in my Blockbuster queue as well, but it said “coming soon”…
Wonder how long it will take.
Dare I say, time to check Netflix?
Oh boy – this does not bode well for the HD DVD market…
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/01/04/warner_bros_opts_for_blu_ray_over_hd_dvd.html
Sorry about that Mike – looks like HD might be dead by the end of the year…
Yeah, thanks Shawn…I actually have a post started for that already…have to finish it
The really sad part will be that both will lose when all movies are streamed in a few years…
Probably right – but I’m not sure who all is going to do that. I do not know if I will jump on that bandwagon only because I do not want to spend the money on streaming a movie everytime I want to watch it. I would rather just walk over to the shelf, pick one out and pop it in the player.
Now my buddy Dan, he rips his movies to his iTunes account (he’s a Mac guy) and then we watched them streamed from iTunes through his AppleTV box onto his LCD and that is nice, but the quality still is not totally there. Granted those are Standard Definition DVD’s he is ripping and to rip the HD format would take a lot, but still – I like having the Picture Quality too much.
Well, you’ll be able to download HD movies for sure…
anyways, I have a post about that coming soon too
Wow – you are a posting fool. I guess I will try not to steal any more of your thunder.
By the way – Toshiba has also issued a press release in regards to Warner Brothers. I am sure you already know this, but in case you do not, you can get the information here: http://www.highdefdigest.com/
Have a great weekend!
[...] number 3 above is what you need to be thankful over. I truly believe that my decision to go ahead and purchase the HD-DVD player was the [...]