I really wanted to post this on the blu-ray forum, because I want to defend this format, but I know I'd be torn to shreds. :)

1. Titles. When I look at the movies out on both formats, there are only about 3 exclusive blurays out right now I even would want. I currently own nearly 30 hddvds. Seems most bluray movies are of a style that just doesn't interest me.

2. Homemade titles. Thanks to this forum, I've learned to make about 25 home brewed hddvds from transport streams, and they look amazing. I've needed no new special equipment to do this. Most are titles that are unavailable in either format, and some that will be bluray exclusives if they ever come out at all.

3. My player will still run even if hddvd loses the war. Hell, I'd even pick up a couple extra A2s on ebay for 10 bucks apiece and stash them away. ;)

Just my $0.02.

Chris

I'm still going to pick up a Minidisc player to play the media I have.

If HD DVD hits 600 titles this year that'll be 10x the amount of DVDs I own.

When I get a HD camcorder my player will easily playback its content in HD glory meaning my player will never become obsolete.

I'll be with you picking up HD DVD players for cheap. In fact I'm 22 discs strong and I'll never sell'em off. I'd just as soon pick up a Universal player and stock up on deals yet have that bridge for playing the movies of whatever format is victorious.

There's really such little downside of buying a player when the price drops under 200 bucks. Consumers are so brainwashed into thinking that they only have to consume prepackaged media. It's sad really.

Here's why I love HD DVD:

In the past couple days I've arrived home to the following titles

Running scared
Perfume
The Fog
Brotherhood of the wolf
Equilibrium
Renaissance
Harry Potter 4

And soon to be Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Precisely... even the HD DVD-9 format at $1 per disc is very handy for MPEG-4 content :-)

In fact many MPEG-2 Blu-ray exclusives lose nothing in quality when transferred to such 8Gb discs :-)

The ease of making HD-DVD9's is a MAJOR plus with me. And there's just so many more releases I like on HD-DVD than BD. I went so far as to buy a new receiver w/ HDMI inputs in the spring with the plan to but a PS3 and get into BD, until that is I check out the releases and realized, well, that there wasn't much of a point buying into the BD format at the time. That feeling hasn't changed much since then.

I'm happy to say that I love HD-DVD also! Excellent A/V quality and great titles to be had!

With that said, I love Blu-ray equally as much! No reason to deny good movies when they come, regardless of format. I'm glad I'm able to have both.

-Brad

fatherom, could you possibly send me a PM on how to make these home brewed HDDVDs? In fact, if any of you guys have info on that, I wouldn't mind hearing from you either. Thanks.

-Brad

fatherom, could you possibly send me a PM on how to make these home brewed HDDVDs? In fact, if any of you guys have info on that, I wouldn't mind hearing from you either. Thanks.

-Brad

There's a thread floating around here somewhere on it.

I really wanted to post this on the blu-ray forum, because I want to defend this format, but I know I'd be torn to shreds. :)

1. Titles. When I look at the movies out on both formats, there are only about 3 exclusive blurays out right now I even would want. I currently own nearly 30 hddvds. Seems most bluray movies are of a style that just doesn't interest me.

2. Homemade titles. Thanks to this forum, I've learned to make about 25 home brewed hddvds from transport streams, and they look amazing. I've needed no new special equipment to do this. Most are titles that are unavailable in either format, and some that will be bluray exclusives if they ever come out at all.

3. My player will still run even if hddvd loses the war. Hell, I'd even pick up a couple extra A2s on ebay for 10 bucks apiece and stash them away. ;)

Just my $0.02.

Chris
How did you burn HD DVD yourself???

How did you burn HD DVD yourself???
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=705146

I can’t even calculate the reasons I love HD DVD, but I’ll give it a try:

1. It’s all about the content and there is more in the way of exclusive HD DVD content that I want; Dune, Dazed and Confused, V for Vendetta, The Thing, Lucky Number Slevin, Children of Men and King Kong are all films that I consider “must have” and they are all HD DVD exclusives. BD has some exclusives I would like, but they either haven’t released them (Star Wars, Frailty) or they did, but they sucked (TFE).

2. Price; I purchased my HD DVD add-on for $199 and when I did BD players were still going for $799 at the lowest.

3. HD DVD spec is final; even if BD players would’ve been available for $199 and had the content I wanted I wouldn’t buy one because the BD spec isn’t final.

4. Imports, Imports, Imports. By the end of this month I will have the entire Underworld franchise on HD DVD, not bad considering Underworld is a Blu-ray exclusive.

5. Combos. I know they are hated around these parts, but I love my Combos. I’m watching The Departed in the living room in HD, the kids come home and I go to the bedroom to finish the movie in SD. I tell my friend how good Children of Men is, he borrows my Combo and saves $4 in rental fees.

I plan to go neutral eventually, but there is enough HD DVD content out RIGHT now, to keep me busy for the next two or three years. Then there are the PS3 fanboys that come on these boards and troll, flame and bait HD DVD supporters. Even if I wanted to go Blu tomorrow I wouldn’t just because of those PS3 fanboys and their comments; I don’t want to be associated with that type of ignorance.

1.imports. I've got 9 so far and have my eye on atleast 10 by september..

2.at the time and now my A1 was cheeper then anything blu-ray.

3.many options to Upgrade the firmware Iso disc, network conection. Or mail in disc.

4. I like more HDDVD movies then blu-ray.

But I plan on going blu as well. But am waiting for prices to drop a little more. Also want to see how BD+ gos and waht issues arise

Well, the three main reasons I love HD DVD are the variety of titles, the imports, and most importantly the region freedom. As I live in Sweden, because of those three proporties, I'm able to get most movies I want. These are arriving to my mailbox neext week:

1. Terminator 2 (french import, BD exclusive in US)
2. Mulholland Drive (french import)
3. The Graduate (french import)
4. Big Lebowski
5. Flags of our Fathers
6. Letters from Iwo Jima
7. Blood Diamond
8. Children of Men

-HD DVD has full specs and ALL players are capable of playing all content. First adopters are used to getting screwed in price...not capability...;)

-HD DVD has the movies I want. If it's on Blu-ray and it's a title I want, I'll import it. There is nothing on Disney/Fox/etc that I am not willing to wait for (when they go neutral...and they will!...:) )

-HD DVD is clearly the more mature format. Be it in specs, movie selection, or simply the maturity of the fanbase. Introducing the PS3 as the primary Blu-ray player has flooded that arena with an immature userbase that is all to focused on paper specs and ignore that in reality only one format is delivering a complete product.

-Homemade HD DVDs are a fun part, too. I've only burned a few but it works great. I've got lots of shows left to edit but my RAID went out and I've been spending too much on HD DVDs to get a new drive...:D

Didn't regret getting HD DVD... one things for sure, regardless of how the format war ended, I'm sure glad I didn't have to spend a lot to experience high-definition goodness at such an early stage.

Well, the three main reasons I love HD DVD are the variety of titles, the imports, and most importantly the region freedom. As I live in Sweden, because of those three proporties, I'm able to get most movies I want. These are arriving to my mailbox neext week:

1. Terminator 2 (french import, BD exclusive in US)
2. Mulholland Drive (french import)
3. The Graduate (french import)
4. Big Lebowski
5. Flags of our Fathers
6. Letters from Iwo Jima
7. Blood Diamond
8. Children of Men

70% of Blu-rays are region free, Terminator 2 for example.

Plus you have BD exclusive studios that, baring the odd exception, will only be available on Blu-ray.

US HD-DVD exclusives such as Scary Movie 4 and Bruce Almighty are BD region free in the UK, so it works both ways.

70% of Blu-rays are region free, Terminator 2 for example.

Plus you have BD exclusive studios that, baring the odd exception, will only be available on Blu-ray.

US HD-DVD exclusives such as Scary Movie 4 and Bruce Almighty are BD region free in the UK, so it works both ways.

Can you promise that it will always be that way. The fact is I could order mr. and mrs. smith right now with out collecting any background information and would be reasonably certain it will work in my region. the same can never be said of a BD release because of that region coding.

Yes, you can't assume when you buy a blu-ray import that it will work like with HD-DVD...

I was in the UK back in April, and explaining to some friends how the "war" was going over here. What I said at the time was that my head thought that blu-ray would probably win in the end, but my heart wanted HD DVD to win.

Just trying to remember all the reasons I gave back in April... I must admit, I didn't expect to be "in the game" quite so soon (I came on board with the $250 D2 at Costco).

1. Price of both hardware and software better on HD DVD (arguably except combos, depending on how you feel)
2. Actual titles available was much more exciting to me on HD DVD
3. Hardware ready - blu-ray STILL not finalised, and older machines not likely to be able to play all functions
4. Extras ported over on HD DVD - so many BDs lose all the extras
5. Region coding perpetuated by BD - a huge step backwards for those of us who have been region free for years. The flip side of that are some of the excellent imports becoming available to HD DVD.

Since I've come on board, I've also been appalled by things like

* Fox on BD, doing all over again the **** they pulled in the early days of DVD - higher prices than anyone else for underfeatured discs
* Buena Vista BD covers! God almighty!
* The biased reportage from once-dependable websites

While I may well also have BD down the road (though I won't touch it with a barge pole until their players head towards $300) right now I am HD DVD exclusive, and am very happy indeed!

I'm really surprised how many people don't know about the ease of making your own compatibile home made HD-DVD disks. It has to be a huge letdown if you spent up to $500-1000 on a Blu-Ray burner to learn that $20 disks are not compatible in all the players. In fact it's a letdown to me because I'm interested in authoring to BD as well.

Since we're singing our praises for HD DVD I'll chime in. :)

Short & Sweet: I Love My HD DVD!

I'd like to post my experience with home theater and HD DVD in particular.

My home theater experience started as a senior in high school (1990), when I rented my first laserdisc player and was blown away by the dolby surround sound and the idea of watching movies in their original aspect ratio. I purchased three laserdisc players over time, starting with the Sony MDP-333, then later a panasonic with flip-side play, and finally a Pioneer Elite CLD-99 with AC-3 output. I purchased the Pioneer for $1600.00 new and felt like I was getting a bargain, as the MSRP was $2400.00. I was more than happy to spend $49.99 for a good 2 disc Laserdisc release with a nice gatefold jacket. I put together a nice system consisting of a Snell Multimedia THX speakers and a Lexicon processor.
When DVD came out, I purchased the original Sony DVD player for $1000.00, and again it was a relative bargain. I still have it, and until buying my HD DVD players, it has been my only DVD player. Although I was an avid laserdisc collector, I never became a collector of DVDs. They provided no upgrade in sound over laserdiscs (and in many cases were a downgrade compared to 16bit PCM on laserdiscs) and offered a modest benefit visually over laserdiscs when comparing a non-anamorphic DVD to a letterboxed laserdisc. I was content to rent DVDs and wait for high definition media/programming to eventually come out.
I was an early HDTV adopter, purchasing a second generation rear projection Mitsubishi 65" television and a $799.00 set-top HDTV tuner/Directv satellite receiver and once I saw high-definition, I was even more entrenched on not amassing a collection of standard def DVDs. I later enjoyed high definition programming on my HD DVR cable box.
In May of 2007, I was ready to jump into the high definition disc market. I was certain I would buy into Blu Ray given its larger capacity and Sony backing. However, when I evaluated the titles on both formats, I found that HD DVD had many more titles I was interested in. Moreover, when searching for a high definition player, there was nothing close to the Toshiba HD-XA2 on the Blu-Ray side. A full-featured player with state-of-the-art DVD playback, internet connectivity, advanced interactive features, support for Dolby True-HD decoding, and excellent build quality. I looked at the PS3, but given its unconventional form factor, lack of IR remote control support, no guarantee of support for profile 1.1 and 2.0 at the time, and poor performance as a DVD upconverter (at the time, shortly thereafter a firmware upgrade was released that has improved its performance), there was no contest.
I have since amassed a collection of 100 HD DVDs, and purchased a second HD-XA2 for a secondary system. I have put together a home theater with a Sony black pearl projector, Aerial speaker system, and JL audio fathom subwoofer.
I have loved everything about HD DVD, from the look of the red cases on my shelf, to the HD DVD logo, to my wonderful Toshiba HD-XA2 players with their trouble-free operation and firmware upgrades including 24fps playback and bitstreaming of advanced audio codecs. My 100 HD DVDs have brought me countless hours of enjoyment, and I have only scratched the surface of their supplemental features. These titles alone will bring me years of enjoyment in the future.
I patiently waited for a Blu ray 1.1 profile player to come out and purchased the Panasonic player in November. While it sells for a similar price to my XA2, it has less impressive build quality, no internet connectivity, no onboard decoding of advanced audio, and poor DVD upconversion. While I have enjoyed my Blu-ray titles, many of which I purchased during Amazon BOGO sales, I do not have that emotional connection with Blu-ray that I have for HD DVD, and I doubt I ever will.
Thank you Toshiba and HD DVD for making such a wonderful, well though-out product. You have given me numerous hours of enjoyment and I look forward to enjoying your products for years to come. I wish that HD DVD could launch a comeback, but I am a realist. Although Warners decision does not really affect me as I have a Blu-ray player, it has affected me on an emotional level, however silly that sounds!

Amen to all the reasons already stated for loving HD DVD!

I love HD DVD and I look forward to watching many more HD DVD movies in the future!

Excellent! My sentiments exactly! My story is almost the same, except I went through about 6 DVD players ( upgrades ). My current players are an XA-2 and a Panasonic bd-30.

Very nice story - makes one wonder why more don't feel the same way.

Very nice story - makes one wonder why more don't feel the same way.

My story is similar as well, except I was a high school senior in.....:mad:....1970. Plus, I had many years of film collecting, even having a 35mm projector and about twenty titles. I, too, have an XA2 and a new BD30, and an Optoma HD80 front projector. The XA2 is the Rolls Royce of players. My feelings about HD DVD are the same as yours. Nice post.

Sorry this topic and other related has been beaten to death in the other forum. Please let's move on.

larry