CBR2200

I thought I was the only person left with an LD player. I just have the ghetto model where you have to get up and flip the disc halfway through the movie, very straining on the relationship. It was the shiznit when it was new over a dozen years ago, but oh how I coveted the two sided player that came out later. Most of my LDs got trashed in storage.

For what its worth, my money's on blu-ray. I think HD-DVD will go the way of Betamax eventually.

I have noticed an HD related slowness as well. My Tivo runs slow as hell when I'm watching an HD program and trying to use the menus, etc. It's really annoying when I'm trying to skip the commercials and it blows past where I hit the play button before it reacts.

walkabt

My money is on neither standard right now. Everything I have seen and read has stated the Blu-Ray is having picture quality issues because they are encoding with mpeg2. The picture is less than spectacular. C/Net recommends not to buy either player, Sound & Vision was the same and several other magazines I get say wait - it could actually be a DVD-A/SACD flub again.

I went back into Ultimate today, they pulled the units from the projector room and put them onto smaller TVs hoping to sell them. The BD player was on a 37inch and HD-DVD was on a 32inch LCD. The BD player had House of the Flying Daggers on it. That movie looks like crap on BD, really pixellated. Returns on the units are 100%, of the two sold they were both returned.

I did read that NetFlix is getting a bunch of subscriptions from people renting HD-DVD or BD movies that are canceled in the first 30 days - doesn't translate that people are buying the players, renting the movies (versus buying a movie they can't return) and then returning the player, but it is a possibility. Crossed my mind again today...which isn't the right thing to do, but still...tempted to do evil.

Of interest: Sony pushed back their player from July to August and now late October.

I think HD-VOD is going to be the true step. I think we'll see that happen before a winner in this format.

CBR2200

That's such a thing to do. That being said, I wouldn't mind seeing the quality on a big screen while you have it.

Funny you mention DVD-A/SACD. I was looking at CDs at Best Buy and noticed a banner on the shelf instructing me to take a look at their DVD-A section. I couldn't find it so I asked an associate and he was totally dumbfounded. He asked the manager and I got the same reaction. The manager came back to me 5 minutes later and showed me the concert DVD section. I explained to him what DVD-Audios are and he left again looking confused. The sign is still up. I have yet to find a product in either format that I want to buy anyway.

walkabt

I have both audio formats at my house. If you want to hear the best versions of the Police, Everclear or Boyz II Men you'll ever find let me know...that's about all they had in those versions...

I did hear that the Toshiba is by far the best upconverting DVD player out there for SD DVD.

jdowens

Just bought a Mitsubishi 62" HDTV at Ultimate Electronics. It was an open box, 10% off and salesman gave another 10%. Under $2500. Direct TV is here installing HDTV line and Tivo.

AZDavid

[QUOTE=walkabt,Jun 30 2006, 10:11 AM] I have both audio formats at my house.

walkabt

That was last year David. EVERY recent review is now stating the Toshiba...live in today's tech my friend.

Blu-Ray, which has been nicknamed Blu-RRY on AVSforums, is going to need some big help and the PS3 won't do it. Long conversation on that topic.

As for 42" plasma, I would skip - resolution is low. 1024x768 for ANY model at that size. Better to go with LCD or larger plasma to get a better pixel resolution. 42" plasmas have to do some recalculations for the lost horizontal pixels - you are giving up about 20% of your total pixels on a 42" plasma model. LCD doesn't share the same design issue at that size.

AZDavid

I corrected the Blu-Ray spelling. I did not know the OPPO had been beat. Thanks for the info.

The plasma is a 50" with a native resolution of 1366 x 768. I know that it isn't great but the AVS people have highly recommended this TV.

Here is a link to the tech specs:
http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/store...Vs&displayTab=S

What TVs would you recommend around $3,000?

Boofster

The Panasonic 8UK series rule all
They only sell them at Costco locally though.

I picked up my 50" from newegg.com and it's drool every time I watch Top Gear on it

AZDavid

I wish that TV had speakers for the same price. I have read the 9UKs will be coming out soon.