HD DVD will win the format war. I already pre-ordered an HD-XA2 because I'm that positive about this particular format. I've seen a Blu-ray demonstrated at a local electronics store, and the criticism is accurate. Blu-ray doesn't look much better than an upconverted DVD. An HD broadcast via satellite looks better. I have not seen an HD DVD, but, the vast majority of the consumers are behind it, and they all confer that HD DVD looks better than a Blu-ray. Sorry SONY, but history repeats. (remember Beta?) The only thing is, $999.99 for this player won't help Toshiba. Another reason HD DVD will win this war is Toshiba's prices. All prior models are available for about $500 if you know where to look. But, eventually this model's price will drop too. Just like standard DVD players when they first came out.
$1000 MSRP is not the entry point price, you could always get the A2 for $500 MSRP...
XA-2 is looking better every day. The way I see it even if HD-DVD fails, I will have a great upconverting player for SD DVD and I will still be able to enjoy my collection of HD-DVDs.
I have both BD and HD-DVD currently and I totally prefer HD-DVD. They definitely deliver, which is not so with BD. HD-DVD has many more good transfers as a whole than BD, and the misinformation and arrogance that Sony and Fox have blabbered in the recent past make me wish they will eat their words.
“An engineer explained to us that hundreds of ear impressions were gathered in the name of research, and while each one obviously boasted its own unique shape and size, one single characteristic remained uniform across the board: the entrance into the ear canal is not a perfect circle, it's an oval.”
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HD DVD will win the format war. I already pre-ordered an HD-XA2 because I'm that positive about this particular format. I've seen a Blu-ray demonstrated at a local electronics store, and the criticism is accurate. Blu-ray doesn't look much better than an upconverted DVD. An HD broadcast via satellite looks better. I have not seen an HD DVD, but, the vast majority of the consumers are behind it, and they all confer that HD DVD looks better than a Blu-ray. Sorry SONY, but history repeats. (remember Beta?) The only thing is, $999.99 for this player won't help Toshiba. Another reason HD DVD will win this war is Toshiba's prices. All prior models are available for about $500 if you know where to look. But, eventually this model's price will drop too. Just like standard DVD players when they first came out.
$1000 MSRP is not the entry point price, you could always get the A2 for $500 MSRP...
XA-2 is looking better every day. The way I see it even if HD-DVD fails, I will have a great upconverting player for SD DVD and I will still be able to enjoy my collection of HD-DVDs.
I have both BD and HD-DVD currently and I totally prefer HD-DVD. They definitely deliver, which is not so with BD. HD-DVD has many more good transfers as a whole than BD, and the misinformation and arrogance that Sony and Fox have blabbered in the recent past make me wish they will eat their words.