AV2 + HD-DVD - Please speak up!

I couldn't speak from personal experience as I don't have a DVD5 but I can't see a Toshiba HDDVD player coming anywhere near the quality of the DVD5 on SD-DVD. I'ts just not conceivable (And if it were the case you'd read about everyone rushing out to buy £400 HD-DVD drives as supposed to £2,500 DVD5's!!!)

quote:

I can't see a Toshiba HDDVD player coming anywhere near the quality of the DVD5 on SD-DVD.......if it were the case you'd read about everyone rushing out to buy £400 HD-DVD drives as supposed to £2,500 DVD5's!!!)

Not on THIS forum you wouldn't. There's a fair body of blinkered views here...

Cheers

Don

if it is a superior player then i'm definetly ordering one!!!

I believe that the Korean giant LG are about to launch a machine that plays both Blue-Ray and HDDVD.

Also that some DVDs will come double-sided, ie with Blue-Ray on one side and HDDVD on t'other (bit like computer discs with Windows and Mac)

Might this be a compromise too far I wonder? such that the quality of a standard DVD, played via a DVD5, is better than a Blue-Ray/HDDVD disc played through the dual format HD machine from LG or others?

Cheers

Don

Mmmmmm,

I don't think that 'blinkered views' is fair.

I bought my DVD5 when they first came out as my 'last' SD DVD player.

Even then I thought the Meridian and top of the line Denon where in the same league over all. Where I thought the DVD5 excelled over them, in my system, was in audio - where it just draws you in, especially in terms of music.

While I am prepared to believe that newer HD DVD players may well be able to match the picture quality on SD DVDs I am not convinced they will be in the same ball park sound wise - even with the less/(potentially)none compressed HD algorithms.

More to the point for me is that I am NOT convinced that either of the new HD formats will 'win' the current market-place battle. I can easily imagine neither gaining customer traction, echoing DVDA/SACD. I am therefore not going to spend ANY money on the new formats for at least two years.

Until then I will happily bask in the SD glories of the SD - who knows, by then NAIM may have actually produced their oft talked about scalar, giving my not inconsiderable SD DVD collection greater longevity!

azjya, my advice would be to do home auditions - and then let us know what you find; should be interesting!


Martin

Hiya all,

I used to (well Actually still do for SD DVD) a Arcam DV88 which has been modified to run SDI into my Lumagen scaler and can say that the picture is top notch!!!

However, with the prices coming down so much on HD DVD players i bought one a few months ago, total price i paid was £430 that was for a Toshiba HD A1 + 7 HD DVD's (of my choice) delivered to my door.

I was a bit nervous but at the same time for that amount of money i was pleased to jump into the HD era and also stop havin to buy SD DVD's (as no doubt you'll only buy them again on HD at some point when released)

All i can say is WOW!!! Goes without sayin it depends what source your using as a PJ/Plasma etc. but now when i watch a SD DVD i cant help lookin at the picture picking faults!! Believe me this is soooo strange as before i had HD DVD i couldn't imagine a better picture than the one i had!!! The detail & sharpness is fantastic!! To be fair i havent ever seen the DVD5 in action but i shouldn't think its way out in front from the well respected SDI modified Arcam!!!

Then onto the sound, I used to run coax from arcam into my AV2. On my new HD DVD player i run 5.1 Analogue into the VIPS 1 & 2 on my AV2.

At first i just couldn't get the sound to 'sound right'. It just was detailed at all. I was used to pretty much plug in the lead and it sounding teriffic! This however isnt really the case BUT after a good few weeks of various combinations (and a SPL Metre lol) carfeull setup the sound IS BRILLIANT! through the AV2. Its so open and detailed, listening volumes tend to be higher on the setup (due to slightly lowe output on analogue it seems), i usually listen to SD DVD's on volume 45-50, now on HD DVD i listen at 55-60.

I have tried a couple of SD DVD's on the HD A1 player but to my untrained eye the picture was overall slightly better on the Arcam (though this may also be down to the Lumagen scaler) so i just use that for SD DVD and the new Toshiba for the HD DVD.

In relation to who will the HD war, I'd honestly say i dont know, i dont actually believe that anyone knows for sure BUT what i can say is over the years i've spent more money than this and got a lot less for it!!! I Mean realistic, if you take off the cost of HD DVD's it brings down the cost of my player to around £318 and that to me well justifies the purchase and being able to watch Some fantatic films in HD with HD SOUND.

I know that when you look at the price of the player you think well it cant be anywhere near as good as my £2k+ player, i was the same but thankfully its not the case, it really is in a differnt class when watching HD DVD and paired up with my AV2 im lovin it!!!

Lastly on a side note, I've always planned on gettin Blu Ray too simply due to gettin a PS3 when its released so either way your covered then as which ever one does eventually win (or they both just stay the same) i haev both

Just my 2 pennies worth.

Have a look at this link everyone, a joint BD/HD-DVD format, not just a player.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/01/04/warners_readies_total_hd_disc/

looks quite an interesting idea!!

Twan - here's a question for ya....


have you run the HD-DVD player digitally into your AV2, let it downmix Dolby True HD to DTS and listened to that???


Your current setup yields more detail, but is relying on the quality of the dacs and decoder in your player.

I'd like to know if the extra detail offsets the inherent quality of the AV2's DTS decoding skills.

Incidentally, I heard a rumour that True HD is effectively MLP with another name....

If that's the case, given that my n-Vi decodes MLP for DVDAudio, I wonder if it'll be software upgradeable todo this job?

Mike, Must admit havent run a digital connection to my HD DVD player, only from the Arcam.

The DAC's are supposed to be quite good in the Toshiba players (according to Avforum & Avsforum) but in relation to your commentabout True HD being effectively MLP, i've heard similar as you!

True HD is an extension of MLP, with a higher bit rate, support for 7.1 channels, HDMI, among other things (metadata, dialogue normalization, etc.).

quote:

Have a look at this link everyone, a joint BD/HD-DVD format, not just a player.

I wonder what colour the disk cases will be

Actually, I hope this doesn't take off. A single layer of HD on top of a single layer of Blu-ray. Sounds like a recipe for increased video compression and ommitting a lossless audio track. There are some good things to be said about competing formats - its kept the hardware costs down and is driving quality up.

Allan

quote:

Originally posted by dan scott:
I couldn't speak from personal experience as I don't have a DVD5 but I can't see a Toshiba HDDVD player coming anywhere near the quality of the DVD5 on SD-DVD. I'ts just not conceivable (And if it were the case you'd read about everyone rushing out to buy £400 HD-DVD drives as supposed to £2,500 DVD5's!!!)

Dan,

In that case you might be interested in the thread linked to below. Just for context, a Crystallio 2 video-processor/scaler alone costs > £3,000.

Toshiba XA2 vs. SDI+Crystallio 2

Looks like Toshiba's new HD-DVD player is also one of the best DVD players going. The XA2 should be available in the UK in the next few weeks and will be called the XE1.

Allan

Great player, unfortunately there's just no guarentee the format will last out...

I hate the format war!!!

Love to take the plunge but would hate to get stuck with a dead format!

quote:

Originally posted by dan scott:
if it is a superior player then i'm definetly ordering one!!!

Allan