HD DVD Players

[Bannor]

Finally bit the bullet and bought a Samsung HLP5663 HDTV. Now I need a good video source. Been looking for a good HD DVD and heard about the Samsung HD-931. Anyone have good or bad experience with this box?

Also, do I really need that expensive $100 Monster DVI cable to get the max PQ?

 

[DRAKO]

dont know much about the player itself as I upconvert my videos with my xbox to 1080i (its a moded xbox btw)

as for the DVI cable, well, no you dont... DVI is all digital, just 1's and 0's as long as you have a signal even the worse cheapo DVI cable will give you the same exact picture quality..

same goes ofr optical digital audio cables (fiber optic) all digital, buying a "Monster" is just a waste of money (for analog is a different story though)

hope that helps

 

[squicken]

Do a search on avsforum.com. I'm sure you'll find lots of info on the subject. I'm a little weary of tying up my lone DVI connection with a upscaling DVD player, personally.

 

[Mark_AR]

I use component from the DVD to the HDTV and reserve the DVI for the 921 Satellite HD-DVR.

Save yourself 99 bux and get a DVI cable from ebay. They work just fine and I have told countless others the same. Mine was a buck.

My Zenith DVB-318 does an awesome job at upscaling to 1080i. They run 169-199 bux. It even plays copy protected DVD's in 1080i mode. I think it even rivals some of the high end Denon DVD players.

Just my $.02

 

[mini1]

visit pacificcable.com for all your brand new cable (including DVI) needs and super low prices, about 70% less than Monster in most cases. I buy everything from them now. best supplier of cables I have ever come across.

 

[Carl B]

The Samsung HD-931 DVD player IS NOT an HD DVD player. To the best of my knowledge, HD-DVD players are not yet available in the US (2006 last I read) because the format is still in dispute between two groups.

That said, I own a Sammy DLP (HLN507W) and a Sammy HD-931. Before I got my Dish 811 HD receiver, I had the HD-931 hooked to the Sammy via the DVI connection. With that hook-up only, the 931 upscales the 480i DVD output to a selectable HD output (480p, 720p, 1080i) to your HDTV monitor. Choosing anything but 720p is self-defeating with a Sammy DLP monitor as it injects another conversion into the loop. The Sammy DLP is 720p native. The results are pretty impressive. Not HDNET PQ, but as good as watching up-converted, old, movies on TNT-HD or HDNMV.

Since DVI switches go for over $200 and you need 2 more DVI cables, I chose to use my lone DVI input on my Sammy DLP for my Dish 811 and all the true HD content available via Dish and OTA. The HD-931 is now on a component connection and PQ is on a par with any other progressive scan DVD player. We only watch about one DVD per week versus hours per week of HD viewing via the 811, so this works well enough until a DVI switch can be had for a reasonable cost.

 

[slacker9876]

There is one HD DVD player available that I know of, I saw it at SoundTrack about 3 weeks ago, it was 2K. I'll have to pass on early adoption of that unit. Also they were running it on a 65" LCD by Mitsu. It up converts all content to 1080i. I'll update the model later when I get.

 

[Carl B]

It had to simply be up-scaling 480i to 1080i, like the Sammy HD-931 does. That isn't an HD DVD player, just a scaler, because there aren't any HD DVDs yet (at least not legally). Hollywood hasn't come to agreement with the electronics giants on an acceptable format with lots of copy protection.

 

[AcuraCL]

It had to simply be up-scaling 480i to 1080i, like the Sammy HD-931 does. That isn't an HD DVD player, just a scaler, because there aren't any HD DVDs yet (at least not legally). Hollywood hasn't come to agreement with the electronics giants on an acceptable format with lots of copy protection.

Meaning, they haven't figured out how to extract the maximum possible amount of $$$ from us without pissing us off so bad we never buy electronics again.

(What, you mean my current DVDs won't even PLAY in these HD DVD players???? ... this is one possible future ....)

 

[Carl B]

Yeah, just when you get your DVD film library so it completely replaces 15 years of collecting a VHS film library, they are going to start you over with HD-DVDs at at least $20 a pop. I don't think it will fly.

I think DVD progressive scan is probably enough PQ for the average consumer and they won't spend the money to replace their DVD film library. It will be like PCs. Once everyone who wanted a PC had one that was at least 500 MHz, sales bottumed-out. Now it is just a replacement market. Refrigerators to eskimos!

 

[slacker9876]

Wow this only took a month, sorry for the delay. The Denon DVD-5900 is a full grown HD DVD player

 

[TWD]

The 5900 is not an HD-DVD Player. It upscales.

 

[slacker9876]

The 5900 is not an HD-DVD Player. It upscales.

If you look at the photo it says HDCD right on it. It does in fact up-convert all video to 1080i ... since it is upgradeable though the DVI port, it will play HD-DVDs.

 

[iammike]

If you look at the photo it says HDCD right on it. It does in fact up-convert all video to 1080i ... since it is upgradeable though the DVI port, it will play HD-DVDs.

Hate to bust your bubble, but HDCD is an audio format not video. I'm pretty sure TWD is correct, the 5900 just upscales.

 

[DarrellP]

The ONLY HD DVD player in existence is the Sony Blu-Ray and it is only available in Japan. There should be several models available in the States next year. (Don't hold your breath). All other current models are upconverters.

 

[FiberOpticDude]

Hi, it looks like there is some confusion about the upcoming HDTV optical disc players. I will try to help clear some of this up.

There are existing DVD players that upconvert the DVD video to 720p or 1080i. This is not true HDTV since it is merely an upconversion (although it can look quite nice). The Samsung DVD-HD931 is an example.

There are two formats on the horizon that offer true HDTV output: Blu-Ray Disc and Advanced Optical Disc (AOD). Nine companies including Sony, Philips, and Pioneer created Blu-ray outside the DVD forum. AOD (formerly know as HD-DVD) was created within the DVD forum (spearheaded by NEC and Toshiba).

As expected, these two formats are not compatible. But players of these formats will be made to be compatible with DVDs and CDs. These players should start to appear in the US in 2005. Sony is working hard at getting Blu-ray movies available once players appear in the US.

Note: these two formats are designed at their conception to be recordable fomats. Blu-ray is approximately 25GB single-layer or 50GB for a dual layer disc. AOD differs for ROM and re-writable discs: ROM - 15GB single layer and 30GB for dual layer discs, Re-writable – 20GB single layer and 35-40GB for dual layer discs.

Sony has a Blu-ray player available in Japan that is very expensive and will not be seen in the US (unless someone brings one over). They will have a player in the US probably within the next six months.

Who will win the upcoming format war is yet to be seen, but as it stands Blu-ray has a head start on AOD and a mighty powerful group of backing companies. I will definitely be excited to see what HDTV looks like at 36Mbps (Blu-ray) as opposed to the upper limit of 19.39Mbps for over-the-air broadcasts.

Quick note: the Sony Playstation 3 will have a Blu-ray player in it.

For more info see: http://www.blu-ray.com/
And: http://www.fact-index.com/a/ad/advanced_optical_disk.html

 

[slacker9876]

Well I would not know ... I only know what i was told which is not necessarily true.

 

[dankgus]

dont know much about the player itself as I upconvert my videos with my xbox to 1080i (its a moded xbox btw)

What DVD playback software do you use? I run the Xenium modchip in my xbox and use regular DVD player for playback. I use XBMP for VCD/MPG and AVI playback.

I sure would like to try an upscaling DVD player though.

Thanks
--Dan