[Tenkaipalm]

I'm one of those guys that's fairly close to the "average" consumer when it comes to HT. I'm not J6P, but price is very important to me when buying. My setup is "budget", but satisfactory to my needs (I tend to spend most of my money on PC stuff, so that leaves me with less to spend on HT). I've had my HDTV for almost 3 years now, but haven't been viewing that much HD content on it, so I figured it was time for me to pick a side.


So, what mainly fueled my decision to go with HD-DVD was that I was able to get the A2 for 375 shipped from Amazon (with 3 free HD-DVD's). And having seen both, I'm the kind of person who can't see paying more for something that isn't really better. BD is awesome, but honestly, they are about the same in quality. So far, BD's increased disk size hasn't given it any real-world advantage. At least not any that the average consumer would care about.


I will admit that the thought that I made the wrong choice creeped in to my my head, but I am a gamer, and I'll buy a PS3 sometime in the future, so Blu-Ray will be there if I want it.


Having said all that, I'm now sure I made the correct choice. I ordered the unit before I read all of the problems with HDMI-to-DVI conversion (stupid of me), and was a bit worried. My TV is an RCA D52W27D- it only has Component and DVI with HDCP inputs.


However, I'm happy to report that I haven't had any problems with DVI. However, I am running it through a VideoStorm DVI/HDMI switcher. It displays everything @ 1080i with no issues. No "black crush", either. Looks outright stellar, and SD-DVD upconversion is much better than my HTPC with FDshow and theatertek. In fact, it nearly looks better than HBO and Showtime HDlite. The downconverted TrueHD tracks sound great. I'm sure that real TrueHD sounds better, but currently, it's more than satisfactory.


For 375 bucks, I couldn't be happier.


My only beefs are:


occasional loss of audio sync after FF/RW


No option to stretch 4:3- not a big deal, but I have a few DVD's that are LB on top of the 4:3 video, so the picture is rather small on the screen.


Feels good to be part of the family!

 

[boblinds]

Don't you think your handle constitutes exposure? Suppose people start asking what a tenkaipalm is? This is why I didn't select the screen name "topit" (that and the fact that it made me sound like a hobbit).

Seriously, welcome to the family.


Like you, I purchased an HD DVD player (A1) several months ago because I had to "find out what this was all about" and HD DVD offered the most reasonable entry price. Once I had the unit in the house, I fell in love with the thing, for its audio quality as much as its video quality. Plus, as you've seen, these are also outstanding upconversion SD players.


Is there a "zoom" function on your RCA HD TV? When I have 4:3 letterboxed content, I can use zoom on my Sony TV to expand the size of the image.

 

[MickB]

Welcome to the club and be sure to show your friends what HD DVD is all about.

 

[Tenkaipalm]

When people ask me what a "Tenkaipalm" is , I tell them it's an ancient Kung-Fu technique.

There is a zoom function on my RCA, but I'm not sure if it's enabled over DVI, as it's disabled over component. I'll try it today.