HD DVD on PC?

quote:

Originally posted by Fredrik_Fiske:
Will this be possible? I can't think I would want to buy the discs otherwise! Fredrik

Hi Fredrik,

It will eventually be possible but who knows when exactly. Microsoft have said they will support HD-DVD (as opposed to Sony's Blu-Ray) and I think it will be available first as an add-on to their X-Box gaming console. I've seen some pictures of vapourware HD-DVD PC drives (which looked exactly the same as a standard drive externally) from Toshiba on various forums so they are on the way.

Cheers
Scott

I think that I'll be getting a simple DVD drive again soon, and they are cheap. I am currently am unable to watch DVD with this (borrowed) PC. I guess it will be a while before HD DVD comes and even longer before it gets cheap enough for me. I don't need the quality, but sometimes a nice issue is only available in a new format. Aaaagh! Format Wars. How stupid!

Fredrik

quote:

Originally posted by Fredrik_Fiske:
Aaaagh! Format Wars. How stupid!

Fredrik

I'm in total agreement with you there Fredrik.

The Betamax/VHS war was all over by the time I bought my first VCR but in 1998 my first CD player finally packed it in after 13 years of good service. Having been partially drawn in by the whole home theatre thing I elected to wait a while before replacing it as 1) some friends lent me their CD player while they were overseas for a couple of years and 2) I'd begun to read about DVD-Audio.

Well it took until our friends returned a whole 2.5 years later before I could get my hands on one of these new DVD-Audio players and as it sounded pretty good I decided to take the plunge. In all fairness it is a good DVD player and the 6 disks that I own (yes count them - only 6 disks in 5 years) sound very good. But of course Sony wouldn't play ball and came up with their own high resolution format in SACD. The result no clear winner, no heavy promotion of either format and so what little interest there may have been was lost. Most sales staff in the music stores here in Brisbane had no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned either format and so only two of these 6 disks was actually bought here - the other four from the US/Canada via the internet.

I think HiDef is a slightly different type of format war in that I think the computer industry will drive the release as much as home/consumer electronics whereas only a few audiophiles even knew what DVD-Audio/SACD was. However I for one won't be going anywhere near HiDef DVD until 1) there is a clear format winner or 2) there are enough well known manufacturers with Universal players on the market.

I note that one of the studios (Warner?) has decided to release dual format discs. Not HD-DVD/Blu-Ray dual but HD-DVD/ standard DVD - the idea being you can buy a disk and play it on your DVD player and then when you upgrade the player to HD-DVD you don't have to replace the software yet again. I remain unconvinced.

Cheers
Scott

Dear Scott,

The conclusion for me is to do nothing and wait and see what happens! A DVD drive for the PC is peanut money, so it hardly matters, but if I were a serious Home Theatre customer then it begins to look like another silly mess.

I will continue to spend any serious money on two channel music, and that serious money would look like pin money to some, I suspect!


ATB Fredrik