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

yep - right as rain; thanks Mark; I didn't realize this.
Another reason to just leave the Lumagen on permanently I guess...

ken

Thought you guys would like to know. I have ordered a Toshiba HD-XA2 and some HD DVD's. I selected a side! For now! Prices of the players are dropping and the new Toshiba seems to be pretty stable. I just had to get Planet Earth in HD and the XA2 is a quality player for a real good price.

Look at the HDDVD stories together:

http://www.highdefdigest.com/

seems BR claiming the war is over was a bit premature...

Equipment- aside from possible power drain issues ($/ environmental) IMHO its better to leave it on. Now, years ago I had a PS Audio power conditioner that could show the power draw of each component- many components drew the same power whether they were on or off. so............

once again- a big thanks to Mark for kick starting my HD addiction!

best regards,
Jerry

congratulations - you're gonna love it no doubt; enough to want to see the content from 'the other side'; enjoy....

ken

Well, I've only been watching HDDVDs for the last couple of months and they're great. My DVD solution is still in pieces until I get either a projector firmware upgrade (to fix the buggy SD processing) or I get my Radiance (to bypass the projector bug). Not sure which will arrive first and I'm not sure I'll want to play DVDs when they do!

Regarding the format war: Of course it's not over. I think it's no surprise that Blu-Ray had a sales peak which corresponded with the launch of the PS3. Now the PS3 hoohaa is over, IMO the comparative sales figures will start to become meaningful.

Another HD-DVD milestone today - HD Digital Video has finally shipped! Now more people will be able to properly calibrate their systems.

Ron, welcome to the club

Mark

If they can find the right test patterns... :rolleyes: I hate the DVE menu system!

The new release is reportedly much better in that respect. They also now sell a bundle together with the Pro (SD-DVD) version for a third of the price of DVE Pro alone...

Yeah, DVE's menus were appalling so I will also be looking for a major improvement. My favourite calibration discs, by far, up to now are the AVIA Pro discs.

Mark

I don't think DVE is meant to be used in menu mode. Isn't that why they supply the index card for direct title/chapter selection to the test pattern?

It would drive me mad using the menu - especially after spending the previous 10 minutes with the filter goggles in front of my eyes

I have no trouble watching DVD's (the good ones hold their own pretty well going through the VP50) - and I'm not going to buy again in HD-DVD all the titles I already have on DVD (well, maybe with a few exceptions ...).

But if it's available on HD-DVD I will buy that over DVD with my eyes closed. Which is painful at this moment. The Yes@Montreux DVD is already out and if I want to practice what I preached I still have to wait an yet undetermined amount of time before it's out on HD-DVD (it's on the coming soon list, but no date specified)

Tough times ...
The other (sad) news, is that I couldn't resist and took the PS3 bait ... (Disney would be the one to blame ...)

There`s some buzz circulating that Walmart have invested $100million in an order of two million Chinese HD DVD devices from Fuh Yuan who have opened a new manufacturing line in collaboration with TDK (a surprise as TDK are bound to Bluray).

http://www.ettoday.com/2007/04/16/320-2082635.htm

Although the article takes a guess at a $299 price point in relation to the prices of other players, this strikes me as unlikely given the prices one can now find the A2 for in the United States. I would expect something between $150 and $199. Even lower than $150 would be phenomenal. Either way, although details are still vague, the prospect that Walmart alone is putting in an order of two million (the article apparently suggests they`re considering a further order) is quite significant. This Christmas really is looking like a battle between lots of exclusive software new releases on the one side, and cheaper players on the other.