very well said.
HD DVD was worth it for me to add on via the 360. Clarity is incredible. Check out Netflix for a HD DVD source. 300 came tonight
Dish HD vs HD DVD: price and quality comparison
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very well said.
HD DVD was worth it for me to add on via the 360. Clarity is incredible. Check out Netflix for a HD DVD source. 300 came tonight
Toshiba HD DVD players SD DVD upconversion...?
Wow everybody, thanks for all the GREAT comments!
So, it seems unanimous that HD DVD / BR is better quality than Dish HD. Very good to know.
Best Buy has a 750G hard drive on sale for $179 right now, and no matter what I decide on an HD optical player, I'm gonna want a hard drive for my Dish 722 box so that I can archive HD movies and tv shows. So I'm gonna pick that up for now and just record movies for free from Dish.
I'm hoping that after Thanksgiving the cheaper Toshiba HD DVD player will go on a crazy-sale. Someone here made a good comment that it's worth the price just for SD DVD upconversion...that is a very interesting thought.
On that thought...how good is that upconversion? I have the first ever upconverting dvd player (a Samsung that I got with my HDTV in 2004). The upconversion on that player is...less than stunning. Is the upconversion on the Toshiba HD-A2, for example, pretty good?
I have hundreds of tv shows on dvd that I will probably never repurchase in another format, so a good upconverting player really should be a serious consideration for.
(By the way, I wish that HD channels would start airing completed tv shows like Firefly and Star Trek in their entirety--like a few new HD tv show channels. That would rock. I see occasional tv episodes here and there on UniversalHD and the like, but for me unless I can get them all it's kinda pointless)
Wow everybody, thanks for all the GREAT comments!
So, it seems unanimous that HD DVD / BR is better quality than Dish HD. Very good to know.
Best Buy has a 750G hard drive on sale for $179 right now, and no matter what I decide on an HD optical player, I'm gonna want a hard drive for my Dish 722 box so that I can archive HD movies and tv shows. So I'm gonna pick that up for now and just record movies for free from Dish.
I'm hoping that after Thanksgiving the cheaper Toshiba HD DVD player will go on a crazy-sale. Someone here made a good comment that it's worth the price just for SD DVD upconversion...that is a very interesting thought.
On that thought...how good is that upconversion? I have the first ever upconverting dvd player (a Samsung that I got with my HDTV in 2004). The upconversion on that player is...less than stunning. Is the upconversion on the Toshiba HD-A2, for example, pretty good?
I have hundreds of tv shows on dvd that I will probably never repurchase in another format, so a good upconverting player really should be a serious consideration for.
(By the way, I wish that HD channels would start airing completed tv shows like Firefly and Star Trek in their entirety--like a few new HD tv show channels. That would rock. I see occasional tv episodes here and there on UniversalHD and the like, but for me unless I can get them all it's kinda pointless)
I've been recording Firefly for the last 4 weeks on Saturdays in Universal HD, in order, I believe.
Adavis,
There is no way you will get a Dual Format HD DVD, Blu-Ray Player with DVD A and Super Audio CD now or likely ever, but at the $500 price point, Baaa haaa haaa.
John
From mainstream companies who are in the pockets of the studios, this is true. However, the Helios 4000 will upconvert over component.
Helios Home - Connect to the future of digital home entertainment.
the upconversion on the hd a2 is awesome but it wont compare to a true hd dvd title but it will make exsisting dvds look hd quality
You also may want to consider if you will be watching on a 1080P resolution TV. If not, then the Dish external hard driive is probably the best choice. If you are watching on a 1080P TV then HD-DVD or Blu-Ray will yield the best PQ for movies.
how can it not compare to HD DVD title but look HD quality.
upconversion will not give you HD quality.
no upconversion will not give you true hd quality but for those who cant tell the difference it will be so close that they would think it was hd i was fooled the first time i put a regular dvd in the HDA2. thus my point of it will look hd quality
I'll go as far as to say upconverted DVD's on my sony player look about as good as Dish HD. Cleaner, anyway,
or they think it is SD and their HD source is bad.
There are too many other factors involved (display, viewing distance, content, etc) that we'll have to agree to disagree.
Yea, my tv is 1080i, and so that might make a slight difference. It has a good contrast ratio, though, and until this year I haven't seen any in the store that I thought looked better than mine.
I think I'll try to hold out on an HD optical player until the price hits bottom (please this Thanksgiving!), and then get that Toshiba 1080i cheapo player. Even if HD DVD dies in a year, I'll still have a great upconverting dvd player and some HD movies.
So far, Dish HD appears to me to be lower PQ than cable HD. I'm just using component at the moment (waiting for my HDMI switcher to arive), but I was only using component on the cable box too (because they don't even turn the HDMI port on!) and it seemed better. I know that each player is different, so some might look better or worse over component, but so far I'm disappointed with the PQ on Dish HD. I'm hoping HDMI will clear that up, and i'm going to pick up an OTA antenna to get local HD
Is there anything in the "settings" that I should do to optimize my 722 reciever?
I think I'll try to hold out on an HD optical player until the price hits bottom (please this Thanksgiving!), and then get that Toshiba 1080i cheapo player. Even if HD DVD dies in a year, I'll still have a great upconverting dvd player and some HD movies.
So far, Dish HD appears to me to be lower PQ than cable HD. I'm just using component at the moment (waiting for my HDMI switcher to arive), but I was only using component on the cable box too (because they don't even turn the HDMI port on!) and it seemed better. I know that each player is different, so some might look better or worse over component, but so far I'm disappointed with the PQ on Dish HD. I'm hoping HDMI will clear that up, and i'm going to pick up an OTA antenna to get local HD
Is there anything in the "settings" that I should do to optimize my 722 reciever?
Don't count on it. More than likely there will be no difference at all. I have a 1080i set and actually prefer component to HDMI, but this has more to with the TV inputs and settings than anything.
There is one other issue that affects the price side. Isn't it true that the external HD is currently locked to the box and not to the account? I know that DISH is promising to fix that "soon, but as a 508 owner that is still waiting for that promised NBR...
This is why I will not tend to do permanent archiving on my DVR. If the box dies, or I am convinced to upgrade, it is all lost. A DVD is a safer investment.
This is why I will not tend to do permanent archiving on my DVR. If the box dies, or I am convinced to upgrade, it is all lost. A DVD is a safer investment.
I was going to say something similar. My Toshiba A20 upconverts DVD's (e.g. The Last King of Scotland) to near HD quality without all the pixelation and macroblocking of HD-lite. I'm going to rent "A Bridge to Terabithia" on SD DVD (not Blu or imported HD-DVD from Spain) and compare it to the HD-lite PPV I spent $5 on. I bet the 480i disc will look better.
HDNet movies shows a lot of movies that are not available on HDM or even DVD. Moreover, they show the movies in their original aspect ratios. There's something to be said for that (*cough*, Cinemax, *cough*, TNT).
Re: that Venturer HD-DVD player being only 1080i--90% of the HDTV's in US homes are 720p/768p/1080i or less. (There are those weird sub 720p plasmas/LCD's as well as EDTV's that shouldn't even be mentioned.) Many first generation 1080P displays didn't even accept 1080P inputs. They only de-interlaced 1080i. So, there's reasonable demand for 1080i/720P sources.
I knew I shouldn't have bought an HD-DVD player! Dish HD looked really good until I got a taste of HD on DVD. Talk about a wow factor - HD DVD & Bluray (bought both)almost hurt my eyes.
Now the Dish HD channels are OK, but the wow is long gone for me. Problem is, I can watch a Dish HD program after a HD DVD, but real shock occurs when I try an SD channel. I have to dust off the old VHS & watch a few minutes of an old tape just to make SD not look quite as bad!
Fact is, the better quality sources we get used to, the more critical we all become.
Now the Dish HD channels are OK, but the wow is long gone for me. Problem is, I can watch a Dish HD program after a HD DVD, but real shock occurs when I try an SD channel. I have to dust off the old VHS & watch a few minutes of an old tape just to make SD not look quite as bad!
Fact is, the better quality sources we get used to, the more critical we all become.
First off, I'll say that I doubt the above will happen. You might get the player for that price but you won't get quality movies for that price thrown in. Yes, I realize they throw in free movies and will have some kind of deal, but I doubt it will be 8, and I doubt it will be quality movies. It will be the junk that doesn't sell. Plan on paying $25 a piece for the movies you pick and choose.
Having that said. I have both Dish, with the 622 DVR and a 750 external drive, and I have HD-DVD with about 25 movies. The HD-DVD movies look better than the Dish HD, but, if you are on a tight budget, you will get more out of the external drive by recording tons of movies and archiving them on an external drive. I watch a lot of Monster's HD on Dish and archive the movie marathons that I don't have time to watch as they air. The quality is good enough on Dish but HD-DVD is far better overall. This boils down to quality (HD-DVD) vs quantity (Dish with external storage). How often are you going to watch the HD-DVD movies? As a collector with over 500 SD DVDs and like I said 25 or so HD-DVDs, I rarely watch the movies more than 2 times each but collect them and as the years go by I may pull them out again and watch.
Budget wise, I would go with the external drive for the Dish in your case. I get more out of mine on a daily basis than I do the HD-DVD player.
Just my two cents.
