1. I just bought the Toshiba HD-A2 DVD player. I'm very pleased with it. High Def looks perfect and it does an incredible job of upconverting regular DVD's. Blows my Denon with the Faroudja chip out of the water. Plays all my home-brew HD-DVD's (HD-DVD format on *red* laser media) wonderfully.

Posted at 1:17PM on Dec 26th 2006 by Jim

2. Format wars. HDMI requirement making probably more than 80% of today's 1080i HDTVs defunct. Complete dearth of content.

Oooh, where do I sign up?


Don't get me wrong. I love my HD cable channels (what there are of them) but the way this whole HD disk snafu is playing out has got me copping a "Let me know when you guys get it figured out" attitude. I'm sure these guys have some other ways to display their utter contempt for the consumers, I just can't imagine how.

Posted at 1:59PM on Dec 26th 2006 by Bruce Findleton

3. I received a PS3 on release date. I am not much of a gamer so I got one for the socalled expanded Blu-Ray capabilities. So far I am disappointed in the features of Blu-Ray. I popped in Aeon Flux and went right to the DVD extras and found that it not only downscaled, but it went to 4:3!! I watch extras more than anything else on DVD's so this was a bummer for me. Fifth Element didn't even have extras. Yes the HD was pretty sweet on my Samsung HD TV, but content is more important than HD to me. I really hope that with the extra space of Blu-Ray they will have good content in the future. I have also been enjoying some Blu-Ray games like Project8 and Blazing Angels.

Posted at 3:31PM on Dec 26th 2006 by Ed Huber

4. Ive been to friends houses who either have HD DVD or Blu Ray players.

I like them both. Both have very nice image quality..but i like the fact that Blu Ray has more space on their discs

But i dont think id be ready to give up that much money for one of those players. I'll wait until the format war is over with and a new standard is used, to decide which i would format id add to my studio.

Posted at 4:28PM on Dec 26th 2006 by Denis

5. I don't have either! At first I was really excited about the new formats and what they will be able to do... but after experiencing these mew powerhouses, I don't think they are worthit right now. Most of the movies currently available were not filmed in HD, so to me the picture is only slightly better, and the sound is done exceptionally better with this new tech. But at the end of the day the price just doesn't make up for the fact that these formats don't really revolutionalize the way we view movies.

It seems hard for me to understand paying $500-$1000 for something that will only make movies look and sound a little better. Going with the consoles is a better bet, but you still have to pay extra over the price of a standard dvd. It seems like there is no real incintive to owning one of these formats.

I thought sony had a plan where they would put a game and a movie on the same disc and charge like $70-$75, but it seems like they want to make some money back on the hits they are taking on the ps3. MS made a smart decision in my opinion by not including the HD drive cause I can't see any benefit from having HD-dvd.

At this point I think both formats are going to do bad, because most people don't have HDTV's, and won't try to buy one until the prices come down considerably, and lets face it, the average consumer won't want to pay a large price for something that cost more and looks and sounds only a little better, until they can have the whole package.

I think the two formats will struggle through 2007, until one or both companies just deem it as a failed format, or unless someone on either side comes up with a gimmick like sony did by installing it in ps3, but games already cost $60, which to most gamers is pushing the boundaries of, "Too Much to Pay", and the movie industry is making crap movies, so I think if these formats have any chance of success, it will start in 2008. The trick is, which format can hold out for that long, and will they be replaced before then. This is not VHS vs. Beta, this is an endurance trial.

I expected the next jump from dvd to be something like a 3-d format, maybe the only way to get that is to have nintendo design it!

Posted at 6:59PM on Dec 26th 2006 by ACE5

6. This summer I replaced a dying laptop with the best I could purchase on short notice, The Toshiba Qosmio, and it came with an HD-DVD. That same day I went out and got the high definition version of Serenity. The resolution looks sharp on the 17" LCD but the "screw the customer" attitude of the media millionaires means that HDCP refuses to let me see it on any of the FOUR HDTVs that I have access to.

As they say- "If costing the customer thousands of dollars saves us just one dollars it will be more than worth it."

Posted at 8:10PM on Dec 26th 2006 by Clint Johnson

7. I really don't care. I just hope they pick one and populate it. I really don't like the idea of two disc formats being out there with some content exclusive to one or the other. Even the idea of a dual format player isn't so hot. Just pick one format.

Honestly though I really think this is going to be what laserdisc was in the days of VHS. A format for the enthusiast. Regular joe's will probably stick to DVD until a solid state format or download format takes shape.

Posted at 9:39PM on Dec 26th 2006 by Michael

8. How about C) None of the above. Didn't want 'em, didn't get 'em!

Posted at 12:02AM on Dec 27th 2006 by Navstar

9. I have to agree with Bruce. Who doesn't want HD disc to play movies or TV shows? But consumers are waiting for a standard, so we can start consuming. I have a 360, but can't see the benefit of having the HD-DVD drive until HD-DVD wins. I say a hybrid should come out. Take the best of both worlds and make something great.

Posted at 7:54AM on Dec 27th 2006 by Joshua

10. It's a lot easier to see artifacting and blocking on a 52" TV, so some kind of HD technology is needed.

However like most I am waiting for prices to drop and to see if there will be a clear leader in the HD formats.

Posted at 9:37AM on Dec 27th 2006 by homevideo101.com

11. I have an HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360.

Posted at 9:59AM on Dec 27th 2006 by Peter Chapman

12. I have the 360 attachment as well. Right now I've got about 10 movies. Can't argue about the picture quality. The best movies are those with the U Control feature. Miami Vice and King Kong are two of those. Picture and picture display of extra footage and material while the movie is playing.

The slight advantage I would have to say right now is the new release material out on Blu Ray. Blu Ray seems to be putting out the better titles and the newest releases. Seems like HD-DVD seems to be digging in the vault and putting out older releases instead of new releases.

Posted at 10:48AM on Dec 27th 2006 by Dawayne

13. I have HD-DVD for the 360 and I'm amazed at the Picture Quality. Love it!

Posted at 10:49AM on Dec 27th 2006 by cubbiechris

14. I do not have either, but am presently happy with my DVD player. Will wait till one winner comes out.

Posted at 11:14AM on Dec 27th 2006 by Glenn

15. I wasn't planning on getting involved with the format war initially. I was also a little concerned at the quality of some of the initial Blu-Ray transfers as the demo material used in BB looked either very grainy (i.e Eight Below) or about the same quality as standard DVD (i.e. House of Flying Daggers). In the case of the Eight Below movie, this could have had to do with some of the initial issues that were in the Samsung Blu-Ray player.

After doing quite a bit of research and reading lots of reviews on each format, it wasn't too difficult of a decision for me to go with the HD DVD drive for the Xbox since I already own a 360. The $200 price was also not too much of a gamble, even if Blu-Ray does win.

Since buying it, I have had no regrets whatsoever and the picture quality looks better than what I expected. Another reason for my decision to upgrade to HD movies is that I have DLP projector that puts out a very large image. At 116", you can easily tell the difference between standard DVD quality and the higher HD resolution. For very small TVs or where the viewing area is far from the TV, the difference is not as noticeable.

Lastly, regarding all the hype and/or marketing that seems to surround the different technical specs of HD movies (1080i vs. 1080p, HDMI, lossless audio), 1080p is only beneficial to those who have one of the newer 1080p native HD displays. Furthermore, the difference between 1080i and 1080p is going to be so small that most people won't notice it unless they have a very large screen AND they are sitting very close to the screen. As far as HDMI goes, I have hooked up HDMI, DVI, VGA, and Component and from a normal sitting distance, there really is not much, if any, difference in the quality of the picture. Regarding lossless audio or some of the other new audio codecs appearing on both HD DVD and Blu-Ray, most of the receivers on the market don't support these natively. The optical cable from my Xbox to my 7.1 receiver still seems to do a very good job of outputting the sound. While the sound on the Xbox with the add-on may need to be turned up slightly, the sound appears crisper and clearer to me than standard DVD sound.

As to when the format war will end, I think that if consumers take a real long time to take sides, then it could take longer for CE companies to ramp up production and bring costs down and studios may be less likely to introduce bigger blockbuster hits until more people adopt a format that is seen to be a winner

Posted at 12:07PM on Dec 27th 2006 by Jim

16. I have a PlayStation 3, so definitely Blu-Ray.
I think both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are both great. Now we're just comparing little things that I may not care much.

About quality, I love watching Heroes, Desperate Housewives, House M.D. on my HD TV, but if you ask me if it is a necessity, Not really.

I have my regular VHS and Laser Disc player and I still love to watch some of the old shows in the living room without being pissed off about the quality.


Back to the PS3, I bought it to play games. The Blu-Ray was just an extra thing. So, if I wanted to rent the new HD format, I had to go with Blu-Ray.

If HD-DVD turned out to be the winner within a couple of years, you can bet that I will also get the HD-DVD no problem.

Posted at 12:31PM on Dec 27th 2006 by Andre

17. One thing to keep in mind is that most people (in North America especially) sit way to far away from their television. If you have a 50 inch 1080p LCD and you are sitting ten feet away from it then you pretty much wasted your money. Unless you have VERY good eyesight you will not be able to tell it from 720p let alone 1080i- 20/20 vision can't resolve the difference any further out.

Standard definition sucks badly enough that anything closer than 15 feet shows an appreciable difference from 720p.

I have a 48 inch 1080i display as the primary TV and with a satellite HD PVR, their is very little I watch any more that isn't high definition... it would just be nice if the MPAA didn't treat us like the enemy by default so that I could watch my HD-DVDs on that rather than on the 17" laptop.

Time to get an xbox 360 and the HD-DVD drive I guess. Or I could just use a high definition video camera to record the image off the laptop and convert it to a format that I can actually use. I won't let it out into the wild of bittorrents but I am less prone to see pirates as the bad guys when the MPAA lumps me in with them.

Maybe we could just look at the money we lose getting a new display and then download the equivalents worth of ripped HD content to balance the scales? I don't even pirate MP3s but that's starting to sound fair to me.

Posted at 1:40PM on Dec 27th 2006 by Clint Johnson

18. Along that note, my stepmom records show on her TiVo at *basic* quality (which is absolute dog-food chunkiness). When I show her DVDs or HD material, she can't tell the difference!

So clearly, HD has a long way to go in getting anyone over 50 years old to upgrade.

Posted at 5:10PM on Dec 27th 2006 by Navstar

19. I do not own either format yet. I intend to get a Blu-ray player eventually. Here's the long and short people: Of course it's expensive now. So were DVD players when they came out. The only difference is available internet and blogging to bitch and moan! Here's some facts; Both formats can use Microsofts VC-1 encoding, yet only one or two movies have been put out on Blu-ray using it and most use it for HD DVD. This is only because of lack of software and Blu-ray being behind in the war. VC-1 is superior encoding to all the MPEG standards. And it's not really a war anyway. Obviously HD DVD doesn't have near the backing and that is because it is meant as a transitional format for movies and the average joe. Hence the Double sided discs. Obviously Microsoft wins either way, when they both use VC-1. By no means would any tech savy person not utilize the potential storage of BD's. That's a no brainer. Most who bought the first Gen. of either format are screwed in the long haul. Some players don't do full 1080p, some don't have ethernet ports, the HDMI debacle and lack of Full HDTV's that can actually connect to them sucks. So goes technology though. It's a fact that by 2009 every TV station will broadcast in HD. And basically you will have to own one. Also people piping about broadband streaming HD movies to your TV hard drive...come on guys! Yes things move fast but the average american or Earthling does not have broadband. I have 8MB download and it would take at least a couple days to download a movie. Oh and the side debate on that. Even by 2009 your cable box will NOT have some huge Terrabyte Flash chip in it. Also within a year the players will play both. So, like I said no War. No one gets stuck with a rack of Beta tapes to replace. And old people. In a few years when no one sees anything other than HD, you WILL notice a difference. Especially once all the transferring softwares are perfected and utilize the technology. In closing...Don't buy one now. Wait a few more months when there are a ton of titles out, a Blu-ray burner is standard in a nice desktop and Full HDTV's are even cheaper with whatever new HDMI is out. Then enjoy the newest technology...for a few years!

Posted at 3:56AM on Dec 28th 2006 by Subgenius Priestman

20. Playstation 3 = Blu-ray player. I'm all for Blu-ray, I love the PQ (Picture Quality) of the movies. I like how the discs are scratch-resistance giving it a smoother surface then other discs.

Posted at 12:07PM on Dec 28th 2006 by Steve