Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems The one of MANY HD-DVD threads (No bashing Blu-Ray)

Pardon me for coming late to the discussion with this question, but a keyword search didn't turn up a firm answer in previous posts.

Do any of the latest generation HD DVD players output native 1080p/24 (at which the discs themselves appear to be mastered) via HDMI, or do even the fanciest ones go through some sort of interlacing/deinterlacing process for HD DVD playback? That seems counterproductive to me, if so, and will stop me buying one for the moment, and I was looking forward to the Tosh HD-A20, coming out shortly.

(Slightly OT:

Although I swore I'd wait to jump into the new optical disc formats, and originally thought HD downloads might make both formats obsolete, I've noted the snowball rolling down the hill started by the millions put into producing and marketing the new formats by the major movie studios, and I've jumped on.

This began for me when my twin sons 'talked me into buying' a PS3, so I'm able to play Bluray, and I'd like very much to add a companion device for HD DVD. It seems possible to do both for a reasonable price, considering what I've already invested in Meridian and other equipment.

Being a good OCD collector type I've already started to buy software in both formats, particularly those Optimum and Studio Canal HD DVD releases in the UK and Europe.

Now, will someone please tell me how to region hack my PS3, so I can play European (Region B) Bluray discs?)

Regards,
Roger

Roger:

The newer Toshiba at ~$600 can do just that. I don't know if the XA2 can do that.

Cheers,

Hi John,

I guess you refer to the HD-A20, which I eagerly await!

Thanks.


Regards,
Roger

Roger,

Yes that's the model #; thanks for the reminder!

Best,

Unbelievably , I'm still waiting on my Toshiba HD XE1 which I ordered back in October

And the non-combo bulk of my 50+ discs remain unviewed as a result . Thanks to Toshiba's underhanded and overpriced selling off of the initial stock on their own website and their Irish 'distribution ' network's constant pushback of 4-6 weeks and now hiwayhifi.com sent me an e-mail telling me the unit shipped yesterday and I wasted a whole day sitting around waiting for it ( it was shipped to another customer who ordered a week after me

As a result I may have to relent and get an imported player unless anyone has heard any rumours about the Meridian offering that would cheer me up nicely

~M~

Is this news.

http://www.homecinemachoice.com/cgi-bin/shownews.php?id=9111

MOre releases.

Cheers, Chris

The XE1 finally arrived and I finally got around to hooking it up.

Quick observations - the RS232 control set is different to the XA1 so I cannot simply hot-swap the players without loss of control.

The XE1 doesn't support YCrCb from the Lumagen so one is forced to use DVI RGB. I didn't explore BTB/WTW issues.

Boot-up time was 45 seconds - which is a little quicker than the XA1.

Disc start time was about 20 secs - which again is quicker.

Conclusion: I'll stick with the XA1 in my cinema for now and put the XE1 under my 1080 LCD panel for use as a DVD player.

Disappointing.

Mark

This is one the things that prevent me from even wanting Bluray . The Sony effect. Came across another Hd-DVD/BD slugfest over at avs :

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=820430

It begins with this statement :

" Alison Casey, who analyzes consumer trends for London-based Understanding & Solutions, predicts that retailers will pull the plug on HD DVD sometime next year."

It references this article 'Bluray Ascending !:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03082007/entertainment/blu_ray_ascending_entertainment_lou_lumenick.htm


...and ultimately tracks it back to this company webpage :

http://www.uands.com/events/hdconference/

You will of course notice the Platinum Sponsor's name on the right of the page S-O-N-Y

I'd never buy so much as a battery from them again , but they are really entertaining in a sick way

With the PS3 coming to Europe soon , expect more hype/nonsense of this type on a daily basis .

~M~

Mark,
Maybe if you e-mail Toshiba about your problems they might include a fix in a future firmware update ? The latest one ( V 1.3 ) fixed some other DVI/HDMI related problems that they were informed about so there may be hope for you yet.

~M~

Manus- very interesting.

Mark- Im not sure I understand your component from the lumagen comment- wouldnt you want to be all digital?

best regards,
Jerry

Jerry, YCbCr is digital...?

Mark

YCbCr is, and has been very much analog