one and only 360 HD-DVD Drive thread & LINKS - Page 9

Originally Posted by lordcloud

This is my first post, but I am no newbie. I have to agree that great audio is not a necessary component of HD. I have only my speakers in my television to hear movies through and I still love good HD. Great audio can add to the experience and then become an essential part of it. But video is forst and foremost when it comes to HD. Logcally, audio is just the second step, and great audio is not an necesarry one.

Originally Posted by union1411

Bought the 360 and the add-on last night.

King Kong looked way better than anything on hd cable (many of the scenes were 3D-ish).

Player worked great, love the menu, and load times were fast.

However, King Kong is a boring movie, as are many of the released movies (Phantom, Last Samurai, Vendetta, etc). So, I found myself skipping to certain scenes. I looked at the release schedule for HD-DVDs (and BluRay) and I wasn't excited. It's like 5 or so movies a month and I just can't get excited about a boring movie like Superman Returns or World Trade Center or whatever.

So, although the PQ was fantastic, the content is just not really there. So I just don't feel like I'm getting bang for the buck (one mediocre (plotwise) movie a week just doesn't do it for me).......

Originally Posted by Gspotter

Can someone please tell me what is used as the audio outputs? Optical, coax, RCA's? Thanks in advance

Originally Posted by oh_riginal

I'm debating on buying this drive, as I've gotten my hands on that $40 coupon for Circuit City, so the temptation is stronger than ever, lol.

My question is, should I even bother? I have a 50 inch Sony KDF-E2000, which only goes up to 1080i, not 1080p. Since I am unable to reach the full potential of the HD-DVD drive, I'm not sure if I should even buy the drive, and wondering if I should just stick with my upconverting NS75H Sony.

Any thoughts?

Originally Posted by oh_riginal

I'm debating on buying this drive, as I've gotten my hands on that $40 coupon for Circuit City, so the temptation is stronger than ever, lol.

My question is, should I even bother? I have a 50 inch Sony KDF-E2000, which only goes up to 1080i, not 1080p. Since I am unable to reach the full potential of the HD-DVD drive, I'm not sure if I should even buy the drive, and wondering if I should just stick with my upconverting NS75H Sony.

Any thoughts?

Originally Posted by union1411

Bought the 360 and the add-on last night.

King Kong looked way better than anything on hd cable (many of the scenes were 3D-ish).

Player worked great, love the menu, and load times were fast.

However, King Kong is a boring movie, as are many of the released movies (Phantom, Last Samurai, Vendetta, etc). So, I found myself skipping to certain scenes. I looked at the release schedule for HD-DVDs (and BluRay) and I wasn't excited. It's like 5 or so movies a month and I just can't get excited about a boring movie like Superman Returns or World Trade Center or whatever.

So, although the PQ was fantastic, the content is just not really there. So I just don't feel like I'm getting bang for the buck (one mediocre (plotwise) movie a week just doesn't do it for me).

As for the 360, I rented a couple of highly rated games, they looked good on my 50 inch 1080i display, but I got bored quickly and think the graphics are just overhyped. I like the graphics, quality, depth, and immersion of PC games much more.

So, for $600, I'm going to put my money towards something that will have more utility. Even my gf, who works in the tv industry, got bored after a few minutes of Kong and decided to vacuum the living room instead.

The experience reminded me of when I got into DVD-A/SACD a few years ago. Great quality but little content or demand.

Originally Posted by Gspotter

Can someone please tell me what is used as the audio outputs? Optical, coax, RCA's? Thanks in advance

Originally Posted by Damed

I have a 40" Sony Bravia LCD TV that does only 1080i, and I notice a HUGE difference from SD to HD-DVD, especially with the "really good" titles (Corpse Bride, Batman Begins, V for Vendetta, etc)

Your 50 inch should look fantastic.

Originally Posted by Gspotter

^

Originally Posted by MSpeed6

I have the 50E2000. @ 1080i, king kong looks amazing. Haven't seen my tv produce a better picture.

Originally Posted by Rhett_in_SoCal

I hooked up my HD-DVD drive to my Xbox360 last night, and watched "Aeon Flux" for my first HD-DVD movie experience. I have a 60" SXRD XBR1 and set my 360 to output 1080i.

I thought the picture looked really good. I'm no super-videophile, but I really enjoy my XBR1 and even now, a year later, I am very impressed with football games broadcast in HD. So the movie looked really good.

But not so much so that I was jumping up and down about it. I haven't watched a regular DVD in a couple of weeks, so maybe I need to do that in order to be more impressed. So let me say again, the picture looked really good.....maybe even really really good.....but not necessarily "OMG this is ridiculous" good.

For $200 I give it a definite thumbs up. Had i dropped $500 on a standalone, maybe I'm not so happy.

Originally Posted by PDonthate

Hey all -
Sorry if this has been answered, I tried to go through the 9 pages or so as fast as I could, but didn't see this addressed.

I'm a bit confused. I was always told that HD DVD's will down-convert / down-res over component video, the only way you could get true HD was across something like a HDMI / DVI input. Is this true? I'm a bit confused now.

Second question... I have a Samsung HLR.. 42 inch.. No VGA input.. Max 1080i.
My Xbox is of course hooked up with component since VGA is not an option.
Is this worth the buy? I was spooked about even venturing in on the add-on since I was under the impression that HD movies would not play HD quality over component.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
P

Originally Posted by PDonthate

Should I disregard what I have been told and start playing games in 1080i also?

Originally Posted by Rhett_in_SoCal

I hooked up my HD-DVD drive to my Xbox360 last night, and watched "Aeon Flux" for my first HD-DVD movie experience. I have a 60" SXRD XBR1 and set my 360 to output 1080i.

I thought the picture looked really good. I'm no super-videophile, but I really enjoy my XBR1 and even now, a year later, I am very impressed with football games broadcast in HD. So the movie looked really good.

But not so much so that I was jumping up and down about it. I haven't watched a regular DVD in a couple of weeks, so maybe I need to do that in order to be more impressed. So let me say again, the picture looked really good.....maybe even really really good.....but not necessarily "OMG this is ridiculous" good.

For $200 I give it a definite thumbs up. Had i dropped $500 on a standalone, maybe I'm not so happy.

Now the sound, that was really nice. I've been reading these threads about how crappy and flat the sound is from the add-on drive, but I liked it. A lot. There was only DD+ to choose, not TrueHD, and yes it gets converted to DD.....but the thing that made it noticeable was that my 8" surrounds were kept busy and that was excellent for the atmosphere of the movie.

So the bottom line is this: yea verily, I'm happy. I'm not, however, falling down ecstatic. And that is okay.

Originally Posted by PDonthate

Ok, went back and read a few more things, and the more I read, the more I am getting sold on this add-on for $200...

Now for hopefully my final question.

Even though my display can do 1080i, the native resolution of it is 720p. Whenever I ask anyone what I should play in I've always been told "Set the Xbox to 720p for games, that's the native resolution" - "Set the cable box to 720p" blah blah blah.

I see plenty of people here saying that they are playing the HD DVD in 1080i. Is that what I would stick with even though the native resolution is 720p?
Should I disregard what I have been told and start playing games in 1080i also?

Sorry, just a bot confused now.

Regards,
P

Originally Posted by BuGsArEtAsTy

Exactly. This is such an easy decision to make at $200, if you already have a 360. I'm still not prepared to spend $500 on a standalone.

Even with the TrueHD audio sync issues, $200 is OK, since I can just stick with the DD+ tracks and pretend the discs don't have TrueHD.

However, if I had spent $500 on a player and had these issues, I'd be freaking right out right now.

Originally Posted by eps3

audio sync problems with xbox 360 hd-dvd add-on

I noticed significant lip sync problems with "grand Prix" hd-dvd. To my eyes and ears the voices are delayed compared to video. It was so noticeable to me that i thought i was watching a dubbed foreign film. I can understand, however, how many would overlook it if they were not paying close attention. According to review of this hd-dvd at high-def digest website this movie has "dolby digital plus" soundtrack only. Their review makes no mention of audiosync problems, which makes me suspect that the 360 add-on is the culprit. Unfortunately, I do not possess a stand alone hd-dvd player to do a/b comparison. FWIW i am using official xbox 360 hd/av cable with optical into a yamaha receiver. sony 32" xbr1 lcd.