need HD DVD advice



Quote:
Originally Posted by Dontan /forum/post/0


I am building a home theatre. I will be using a JVC RS1 projector with an Panamorph motorized UH380 lens and will have a silicon optix outboard scaler. I am looking at getting and HD DVD player and a PS3 for Blueray. Any recommendations on which player to purchase? Also is there any reason to get a standard high quality DVD player or will the HD DVD player play all standard DVD and CD formats?


Any suggestions is much appreciated.

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I have the XA1, which I love. I can stand the slow start up! I think today the XA2 is the player to have. I don't have it, but most in this forum love it.


Also I'm not sure about the XA2, but my XA1 plays CD's. All HD-DVD players upconvert standard dvd's. The XA2 does the best job in this department, as of today.

Xa2 plays CD's.


Load times are great, open disc function is faster than any other hd player I have had, and upconversion is sweet.


If you are getting a HD DVD player, XA2 is the only way to go at the current price point.

Is the question about which format or which HD DVD player model? I have 4 of these things, the A2, XA2, PS3 and BD-P1200. On the HD DVD side. One of the primary questions is "do you have HDMI input on your receiver?" If not, then analog output may be more important to you and narrows your HD DVD choices.


The XA2 and and BD-P 1200 both use the Silicon Optix Reon chip and do a very good job of scaling Stantdard DVD's. The A2 does a good job and the PS3, well, it plays them. I pulled the the PS3 out of my home theater area, due to fan noise and lack of IR support for my universal remote. So if gaming isn't a factor, you may consider other options there as well. The PS3 is a great machine, but I didn't like it for movies. Others will disagree.

I agree (as most will) that the XA2 is your best bet.


I only have one personal caveat to that, which is that the XA2 will upconvert (de-interlace & scale) the SD DVD ouput to the chosen resolution you designate for HD-DVD (1080i/1080p etc.). Normally this would be great, except that with an outboard scaler, I prefer to let it handle the scaling, and just feed it 480p from SD DVD (or even 480i if that were possible, which it isn't on the HDMI-out of the XA2). The XA2 does not do dynamic scaling, e.g. outputting 1080p when playing an HD disc, and 480p with a DVD, rather all SD material is scaled up to the HD resolution it's set to at all times.


Don't get me wrong the Reon chip is very adept at scaling, but I get better results with my scaler. This is just my personal opinion, and don't take it to mean the upscaled DVD picture will be bad by any means.

Yellowcows,


The OP seems to say the scaler is future purchase. If you didn't have the scaler already and had the XA2 would you consider the cost of adding the scaler to be worth it? Just curiuos if it makes that big a difference that it would be worth the considerable cash for some of these scalers.

Are you asking if it's worth adding a scaler to the XA2, in other words just to scale the XA2's DVD output? No, I definitely don't think so. The benefit would not be worth the outlay, at all.


If you're looking for the absolute best picture from SD DVD, then the best solution, IMHO, is going with an SDI-modded DVD player into one of the better scalers out there, like the Crystalio II or VP50 w/SDI. I've heard great things about Oppo players (971 & 981 HD) that give the best bang-for-buck - many people have raved about the picture thru SDI from an Oppo player and a quality scaler.

LP30


It is interesting what you said about the PS3. I was planning on getting a PS3 for Blueray and games. On the other hand I could get an X-box 360 and a Blue Ray player and put an HD drive in my Media Center PC. I am wondering if I would get as good a picture that way and if it has all the features of a HD DVD player. I haven't looked to closely yet into the game console. It is mostly for my kids. Right now they have both a PS2 and an Xbox.

I think that will boil down to personal preference. I have an XBox 360, but not the HD drive. The 360 console suffers from significant fan noise as well and would not have worked for me. It's probably louder than the PS3. I would also look at it this way. If a game console is something you would like and a 360 or PS3 would work, then the BD-P1200 can be purchased for about the same price as the PS3. By the time you add the media remote to the PS3 it's definitely comparable. The A2 can be had for around 300 with 100 dollars worth of free DVD's which makes it close to a wash with the 360 add on drive and in that equation the 360 cost remains the same. Just another way of looking at it and still covers all the bases.