ImolaRedM

I have never seen people get more emotional over the topic so I'm almost afraid to ask. But with all the hype over Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD, quality vs. price, and who's dad can beat up who's dad I'm curious. With so many people here who appreciate quality what route did you take for HDM and why?

pinguhk

you forgot about both.
I would go for both.
I did a poll a few months back and it was about 50/50

C's Bimmer

Go with Oppo for now. Let the war end. Here's Oppo. It's not true HD, but get's the best rating by Digital Home Theater magazine as the best upconvert to 1080p. I have it and love it. People ask me all the time if the disc I'm playing is HD or Blu-Ray. When they learn it's Oppo (which most don't know of, unless you are a die hard home theater guru), they are amazed.

http://www.oppodigital.com/dv981hd/dv981hd_index.html

PS - I had the Toshiba HD-A20 DVD Player, the week it came out. I returned it 3 days later. The 1080p quality was not that great and the upconvert was terrible for older disks.

ImolaRedM

How big is your TV? Oppo seems expensive when you consider you can either buy an HDM player or get half way there for the price. The other consideration is the media itself, the Oppo is still working with 480i media.

kscarrol

I'm still living in the 90's! This reminds me of the Beta vs VHS years ago and watching my dad by the Beta machine because it was the better quality video. It wasn't long before he was back out buying a VHS because no one sold Beta anymore. With two small kids I don't get much chance to sit down and watch movies, high def or not. Figured I would give it a year or two and see if there is a clear winner in terms of format, then buy the machine...

C's Bimmer

My home theater consists of: New Sony SXRD XBR2 60" LCD, Paradigm Reference Series speakers (fronts, rears, center), Velodyne Sub. Marantz A/V Receiver. Rotel Multi-Channel Power Amp to run fronts only. Blue Jean cables (Fronts are bi-wired) and Oppo DVD Player. I'm pretty into it. Go on some of the big AV forums. See what DVD player most of them are running. You'd be surprised that most are running the Oppo for now.

The tv itself is rated one of the best picture qualities on the market currently. Therefore, nothing looks bad. As for the Oppo, the competitors just don't upconvert that well, that were half the price. They too, were part of this test by DHT Mag. They failed miserably. Sure, it's a lot for a standard upconverting DVD player, but it's still well cheap of the HD/Blu-Ray players and does a great job of coming close. It doesn't play in Dolby TrueHD, but then again, there's a only a few AV receivers out there currently that can process this audio signal. Dolby Digital is still fine. The key is that it has DCDi by Faroudja. This is what makes it upconvert so well.

But hey, if money is no object and you don't want to wait, I would get the Samsung dual player that plays both HD and Blu-Ray discs. I think cost is around $800-$900.

swajames

I agree, it's amazing how well some players can upconvert. The PS3 now upconverts to 1080p too, there was a software update a month or two back that added a lot of new functonality for standard DVD upconversion, and it does an absolutely stellar job.

C's Bimmer

But don't be fooled by some other upconverting DVD players out there that say they upconvert to "1080p". They do, but the quality lacks and it's obvious. There's also a reason they're in the $80-$129 price range, as opposed to the Oppo. Even my Toshiba HD-A20 didn't do a good job of upconverting...another reason why I ended up returning it.

But yeah, if you decide on the Blu-Ray route, the PS3 is a great choice.

Lancaster

I have been caught by Sony with Betamax and their stoopid Memory Sticks. I am never going to give them any encouragement in pushing their own standards again.
I have spent too much money on Sony equipment believing the quality hype but I have now learned that it is just that - hype.

They have been the most aggressive in pushing DRM (digital rights management), presumably because they are also one of the biggest music publishers. I spent a lot of money on a Sony surround sound system only to find it was region fixed, rendering half of my legitamitely purchased DVDs useless on that player. In the end I had to pay to chip the stupid thing, which on reflection, is no better quality than other cheaper units (probably made in the same factory), which just needed a few key presses from the remote control to unlock.

So Sony can stick their Blu-ray where the sun don't shine for me.

C's Bimmer

Tell us how you really feel about Sony.