Have you seen the HD DVD in person yet?

[Acerone]

Anyone seen it in person yet? I hear some stores have it on display even though it's not officially out yet.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I saw it at CES. Looked GREAT, I wonder how good it looks in a real world setting.

 

[DTV TiVo Dealer]

I just got my HD-XA1 this afternoon. I am taking this beauty home with me tonight.

-Robert

 

[Ilya]

Did it come with any software?

 

[DTV TiVo Dealer]

Yes the demo disc. I am hoping to get a few master HD DVD discs.

-Robert

 

[samatha6]

Yes the demo disc. I am hoping to get a few master HD DVD discs.

-Robert

I guess the big question everyone is wondering about is if the Image Restraint Token is enabled on any of the new titles coming out. And if it is, how clearly do they mark that fact on the packaging.

 

[DTV TiVo Dealer]

My demo disc does not have IRT enabled. Each studio will decide if they will use IRT protection.

So the short answer is no one knows as of now.

-Robert

 

[Paradox-SJ]

I saw one at my local demo....I was not impressed at all.

It may not have been the players fault though...as they were using a Toshiba HDTV for the demo...nough siad...

 

[teamerickson]

It may not have been the players fault though...as they were using a Toshiba HDTV for the demo...nough siad...

Intresting! I believe Toshiba micro displays had the least amount of problems last year, and they rate amoung the highest in picture quality in HD.

 

[gross67]

I viewed an HDDVD demo disk at HHGREGG. It was being played on the new JVC 1080p TV. The PQ was over the top - it looked fantastic.

 

[DTV TiVo Dealer]

I think Toshiba's 1080p DLP HDTVs are excellent. No question their HD DVD players are outstanding.

-Robert

 

[Brewer4]

Robert I am already sold but getting excited. March 28th. Agghhhh.

 

[T2k]

I've seen it last Fall, at some consumer electronic show here, in NYC. I was impressed by its PQ.

 

[Walter L.]

I saw it last week at the IDF conference in San Francisco. They have it cconnected to the display using component cables. PQ looked razor-sharp.

 

[Tele-TV]

I just saw it yesterday at Fry's Electronics [City of Industry, CA] thanks to 'Ilya' 's demo tour listings. The King Kong trailer PQ was okay (nothing "special"). But the colors of the "40 Year Old Virgin" trailer really popped! (maybe its the authoring).

Thanks.

 

[calikarim]

Amazing!

I saw the toshiba at Frys in Woodland Hills, California, and i was blown away. I have never seen hd like this ever, the picture was so sharp, resolute,c olorful and detailed almost a 3 d effect. King kong was my favoirte, the picture was dynamic, pristine, sharp like a razor, and so lifelike. Every follicle of Kong can be seen. Movies have the same effect when i was a nine year old and walked in a theatre and was overwhelmed. I have the urge to buy movies again, no more netflix, i want to own these treasures in all their beauty. Gooooooooooooooooooooooo Hd dvd . i can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[jayn_j]

I saw a unit today at Ultimate Electronics in Denver. Was showing on a Toshiba 60" dlp display. I have to admit that I was blown away, especially by the depth of detail which gave a true 3-d effect. I was also impressed on black level detail on Corpse Bride and King Kong trailers. Also on how detail stayed intact on fast moving material. This thing had the same impact on me that my first expreience with a HD demo from the JVC tape. It was that much better than any other HD source in the store.

The one quibble I had with the demo was that the demo showed HD-DVD and "normal" dvd side by side. The normal DVD material was out of focus and obviously captured at a low bitrate. Basically, I would never have accepted a DVD at the quality they were showing for comparison. Hey, Toshiba, you've got a good product here. You didn't need to cheat.

 

[Ilya]

Last week I was able to catch the HD DVD Tour in Orlando at a local Sound Advice store. A Toshiba rep was showing an HD-XA1 player hooked up to a 1080p set with a demo disk.

The picture looked absolutely great! A very impressive demonstration! I looked hard, but haven't noticed any pixelation, mosquito noise or any other artifacts commonly seen on E* and VOOM. In one scene I did notice some softness, but I think that could've been the source, as other scenes looked very sharp. :up :up

One thing bothered me though: the Toshiba rep wouldn't let me play with the remote and would not open any menus. He wouldn't deviate from the demonstration script even a bit. Guess what was his reason for that? He admitted, he was afraid to lock the player or run into some firmware bugs! He said this was a pre-release firmware and not very stable yet! And that's 2 weeks before the planned released...

Perhaps it wasn't just the software that delayed the HD DVD release after all...

 

[BlackHitachi]

WOW GREAT PIC's thank you!!

 

[htguy]

Saw it in action at a dealer training conference in Minneapolis about 2 weeks ago. personally I thought the king Kong demo showed the most detail. I was more interested in a fully functional disc than a clip show so it really didn't blow me away.

Coming from someone that has over 5 tb of HD material I am interested in the fluidness or playback, speed of search, and copy protection / security measures which hopefully allow (multi room distribution) without too much of a headache.