The number of televisions estimated that sit unused in closets.
The EPA estimates that nearly 100 million unused televisions are currently taking up precious, beautiful space. (source: EPA, July 2008)
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
I wouldn't call it a hack. There is no real hacking needed at all to get this working. Just knowledge about Windows XP, software installation and hardware compliancy.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8880622&&#post8880622
Thank You MadPoet for the confirmation of it working and what was needed.
Thank You CandyRocket786 for the great tips especially on how to order WinDVD8 Platinum from Japan!.
Thank You Monkeyboy1010 for the Blueprint UDF 2.5 driver for XP.
Thank You Microsoft and Toshiba for HD-DVD, the Xbox 360, All the great software (looking forward to Vista) and the Addon! Special thanks to AmirM and the MS AVS presence
Thank You Universal/Warner/Paramount for giving us awesome HD-DVD's
Thank You AVS for all the great information and for the Circuity City coupon bringing the total price down to $173 for the HD-DVD addon + king kong HD-DVD + remote
Link to Circuit City Coupon.
Below is a link to CandyRocket786's guide for ordering
CONFIRMED!!!! It's working with Batman Begins HD-DVD =)
It works and it works great!
Audio: Dolby TrueHD can be selected. When I have Intervideo WinDVD menu/setup/Audio Tab/Audio Output Configuration set to Analog sound card it does work but appears to be 2 channel only. When I switch to Digital S/PDif out to external processor which is what I typically use for DVD's, then i get nothing but static noise. Normal Dolby Digital works fine though with Digital S/PDif to ext proc.
Video: Looks great but not perfect =( Under Setup/Performance there's a slider for decode quality/compensation. Unfortunately it appears we are only getting 960x540 progressive right now? This had better be fixed by Intervideo soon. But for now I'm happy that it works. Software always gets better in the future. The video quality did look better from the HD-A1 and the Xbox 360 with HD-DVD addon connected. At this point definitely better than SD-DVD but not yet 720P or 1080I/P. Can anyone confirm what Cyberlink PowerDVD outputs?
Playback: Startup takes 30-45 seconds depending on what sequence of startup you use. From no disk in drive to first video (studio opening logo) it's about 37 seconds for me. If for some reason the drive decides to do a double read from autorun + WinDVD autostart it seems to add 5-10 seconds. With disk in drive and WinDVD program already opened but not playing it takes like 11 seconds =) Menuing system is instantaneous. Just as responsive as Xbox 360 and more responsive than Toshiba HD-A1. However I couldn't find how to operate U-Control within WinDVD. Maybe this is why it's not out in the USA yet? Just a side note, the Xbox 360 + HD-DVD addon is still the fastest startup from no disk in drive, 7-9 seconds for me.
DON'T run the Cyberlink Advisor if you are playing WinDVD HD-DVD at the time. The video in WinDVD disappears =( sound keeps working though. Stopping and restarting the player (without closing it) fixes it.
Related Software used:
MS Windows XP Pro SP2 (note this isn't WINMCE2005 or Vista atm but will upgrade to Vista later)
Intervideo WinDVD 8 Platinum ordered from Japan as per the above link.
BluePrint UDF 2.5 inf file for Xbox 360 HD-DVD addon drive (you may or may not need this driver)
*some screenshot software*
Related Hardware used:
Gigabyte K8N-UltraSLI motherboard
Enermax Liberty ELT-620AWT power supply
Athlon 64 X2 4600+ (Manchester core)
4 gigabytes of RAM PC3200
800 gig local HD (5 terabytes networked storage)
Creative Labs Audio 2 ZS Platinum Pro
ASUS EN7950GT (Nvidia Geforce 7950GT with HDCP support)
Xbox 360 HD-DVD addon drive connected via USB2 on Motherboard
Westinghouse LVM-37W1 1080P LCD connected via DVI1 (HDCP compliant) 1920x1080 32-bit 60hz
The below are 1920x1080P 32-bit screencaps, Jpegs though so some artifacts as you can tell from the full desktop capture. But the important thing is everything works =)
Report from WinDVD Setup/Information tab
Version:
7.5 B42.052
Navigation:
Type: HD-DVD
Region: None
Drive: H:
TV System: Unspecified.
Macrovision Level: 0
CGMS Level: 3
Video:
Hardware:
Vendor: Nvidia
Connection type: MEDIASUBTYPE_YUY2
Downstream renderer: CLSID_DisplayServer
Stream:
Type: VC1
Bitrate: 18.999 Mbps
Framerate: 29.970 Hz
Resolution: 960x540
Aspect ratio: 16x9
Audio:
Hardware:
Audio Device: directsound
S/PDIF: Present
Number of speakers: 8
Stream:
Type: DD+
Bitrate: 640 Kbps
Number of main channels: 5
LFE Channel: Present
Sampling Frequency: 48khz
Bits Per Sample: 16
Output:
Sample Rate: 48 KHz
Bits per Sample: 16
CPU:
Name: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600+
Family:15(Gen:15) Model:11 Stepping:1
Standard Feature: 0x178bfbff
Hyper-Threading: Not supported, Not enabled
Instruction support:
Intel MMX: Enabled
Intel SSE: Enabled
Intel SSE2: Enabled
Intel SSE3: Enabled
AMD 3DNow!: Enabled
AMD Enh 3DNow!: Enabled
AMD 3DNow! Pro: Enabled