HD DVD or no?

So I have an chance to get a HD DVD player next week but I'm now having second thoughts about it. Would you get one?

I got one with my new computer and it's ok. It's not a necessary thing.

If you have a nice HDTV, then by all means get one.  If not, then don't bother because it won't be any better than a regular DVD player without a Hi-Def television.  But honestly, I don't think HDDVD is going to be the winner in the format war, (I think Blu-Ray will pretty much dominate), but what do I know?

I have a nice HDTV so thats not a problem. As for the whole format war thats why I'm concerned. The only reason that I'm even reconsidering it is because of a deal wal-mart has appartently made to sell just HD-DVDs. Appartently Walmart sells 40% of all DVD's in the nation and basically if they only sale HD DVD it will hurt anyone who does not put there movies in that format. If anyone has the power to change the "format war" it would be walmart.

Of course I also dont want to have someone spend $200 on something that might be dead technology in 1 year.

HD DVD is the biggest ripoff in consumer products to date. If you have a high quality standard, you wont be able to tell the difference. My brother has a a HD TV and I couldnt really tell the difference between mine and his. Spend your money on drugs or something, at least you get what you paid for.RMage

Your money should be spent to have your eyes checked if you cant tell the difference between even an upconverted DVD and a HD-DVD.

I love mine, but it's not necessary at all to have. It's a big leap in picture quality, but it's not big enough to make you want to repurchase your entire DVD library.spazzx625

I agree, I dont plan on replacing anything in my DVD library only buying new movies as they come out. 

I dont understand why they are releasing older movies in HD-DVD generally speaking the source isnt good enough to get your money out of the format.

I have it since I got a great deal on it. The differnece in picture is significant on my HDTV 50" plasma. If you live in the US then I would get it for sure since you can rent HD movies already.

everyone is making this difficult. I dont think I've actually seen a poll where it is off by 1 vote. Anyone else have an oppinon? JoshChambers

You are not going to like this answer, but this is something that you are going to have to decide for yourself.  I do own the player and mostly because it was a relatively cheap purchase ($170) for me.  I just recently started buying more movies and own about 4 now (King Kong, Serenity, Batman Begins and Happy Feet).  Planet Earth is on the way and in the future I want to pick up the Mission:Impossible trilogy.  The quality of the picture is very good, but that will depend on the movie and quality of the transfer.  But it really has a lot more to do with your TV too.  If you have a good 1080p native TV and a 360 Elite, then this is a moot point.  But the picture still looks quite impressive on my 720p native (but 1080i capable) Toshiba.

One knock on the player, though, is that it can't support the new HD sound formats, only Dolby Digital.  But if you don't have a sound system capable of decoding those, as well as supporting a 7.1 or higher speaker format, that won't make one bit of a difference.

I'm not going to get into a big discussion about the format war.  I feel both will simply do decent and both will be around for quite a while.

So, again, its something that you will have to decide for yourself.  Its a good product for sure, you just have to decide if its worth it for you personally.

[QUOTE="spazzx625"]I love mine, but it's not necessary at all to have. It's a big leap in picture quality, but it's not big enough to make you want to repurchase your entire DVD library.tkemory

I agree, I dont plan on replacing anything in my DVD library only buying new movies as they come out.

I dont understand why they are releasing older movies in HD-DVD generally speaking the source isnt good enough to get your money out of the format.

I'd actually disagree with that last statement. I own both Goodfellas and The Jerk on HDDVD and they look great. Yeah, they don't look as good as a new movie, but they still look much better than their DVD counterparts. 

Another point of interest with the format war is that over here in Europe HD-DVD's are almost non existent,even if u find somewhere that sells HD-DVD's the catologue of titles is terrible.We dont seem to have even a quarter of the titles that u have.Counter that with the fact that BlueRay movies are everywhere here since the launch of the PS3.I think HD-DVD is dead unfortunatly.aphex5

HD DVD is the biggest ripoff in consumer products to date. If you have a high quality standard, you wont be able to tell the difference. My brother has a a HD TV and I couldnt really tell the difference between mine and his. Spend your money on drugs or something, at least you get what you paid for.RMage

Funny how the Mods will delete a post containing flaming and cussing but not delete a post blatantly telling some one to go buy "drugs".  Ignorance is bliss eh?  He could have been talking about cough medicine right? lol effin Mods. 

Any ways.  HDDVD BluRay w/e if you have the money and an HDTV why not.  I havent felt the urge to run out and buy a HDDVD player simply cuz Im a gamer and strictly game.  As long as I have my Games in HD I dont give a cuff like the eff werd reversed. 

I would say no just because it is still way too early to get into a new format. I have a Pro X360 but will not buy the HD-DVD add-on. I bought Blu-Ray movies just because my PS3 can play them. If it didn't I wouldn't go out and buy an add-on or whatever.

So you should just wait. 1080p HDTVs are gradually going down in price. High definition movie players are gradually going down in price. Time will show which format will be dominant. So waiting would be a very good choice, in my opinion.

I got both PS3 and the 360 add-on. When you're at Bestbuy shoping for your next-gen and see HD-DVD and Blu-Ray rack sitting side by side, you'll see that HD-DVD got a bunch of remastered older movies. Blu-Ray, on the other hands, got more new releases. I don't really justify my purchase toward my sony ps3 and I do like a lot of sony/columbia picture movies.

HD DVD is the biggest ripoff in consumer products to date. If you have a high quality standard, you wont be able to tell the difference. My brother has a a HD TV and I couldnt really tell the difference between mine and his. Spend your money on drugs or something, at least you get what you paid for.RMage

I don't know which you're talking about, but in either case you're blind. There is a night and day difference between HD and SD... if you fail to see this, then I pity you. If you're talking about comparing an upconverting DVD player to an HD DVD player, there is still a large difference but not an extremely dramatic one.

If you got a new HD monitor, I would purchase one.  You get King Kong, a 360 remote and the HD-DVD player.  Picture quality on a HD monitor look noticeably better, at a cheap price.

And if you like me, I won't buy many/if any new releases.  I always start out with favorites from the past like LOTR, Matrix, Apocolyse Now, Snatch, Saving Private Ryan.........(not that all of these will come out on HD-DVD in the next while, if ever)

Regarding the format war, roughly under 2% of all movies sales come from HD-DVD/Blu-Ray.  Anyone saying that one will win right now is just guessing.  If the rumor of Wal Mart getting out cheap HD-DVD players this Christmas is true, then HD-DVD will have a great chance at winning the format war.  If not, then as it sits, Blu-Ray has recently surpassed HD-DVD and could possibly gain momentum, but then again it could falter.

Oh, the choices of jumping aboard a new format???

If the rumor of Wal Mart getting out cheap HD-DVD players this Christmas is true, then HD-DVD will have a great chance at winning the format warAgentVX

I say get it but make sure you get Planet Earth with it.  It came in the mail today so I watched some while my wife was on her lunch break.  She said it was giving her chills.  It looked amazing.

Blu-Ray isn't outselling hd-dvd by very much.  Right now it's a VERY close race in terms of sales but I think that the matrix trilogy will put hd-dvd over the top.

I would suggest saing th cash for the big games at the end of the year and in the new year pick up a player for one of the formats.teebeenz

This isnt about saving money as my girlfriend would be buying it for me for my bday.

I find this topic quite intresting. I've seen the no's down by 5 or more and now the yes's are up by a few. It seems like most people are 50/50 on this.

[QUOTE="teebeenz"]I would suggest saing th cash for the big games at the end of the year and in the new year pick up a player for one of the formats.JoshChambers

This isnt about saving money as my girlfriend would be buying it for me for my bday.

I find this topic quite intresting. I've seen the no's down by 5 or more and now the yes's are up by a few. It seems like most people are 50/50 on this.

Blu-ray is a safer bet right now than HD DVD.

I've seen the no's down by 5 or more and now the yes's are up by a few. It seems like most people are 50/50 on this. JoshChambers

I would also recommend not getting it.  I bought one and regret it because there are simply so few movies available.  Also, when something does come out you may be intereseted in, it could end up being Blu-Ray exclusive.  In short, wait a year or more until more content is out there.jadkins555

yeah but I have netflix which has a ton of HD DVD movies. I'm thinking now after researching this I do want to get it. More thoughts are always welcomed though.