Let the hive mind of Engadget get that for you.
"I just moved into a new apartment and have been reading about all of the new power strips out there, especially the green ones. I was wondering if you had any suggestions about which "green "power strips are out there with decent joules ratings. And when I say green, I mean power strips that have the remotes or switches to turn off all electricity flowing to certain plugs and with at least 2 plugs that are always on. I was looking specifically at sub $50 because I will need two, but if that is not possible I could be convinced otherwise. Thanks!"
Eh? Why "caveat emptor"? Do you even know what that phrase means? They're merely placing the focus on a function of a player that is now most likely to get it off the shelves. Nothing wrong with that, and there's nothing to "beware". We HD DVD early adopters have been saying since the $98 Wal-Mart fire sale that even if HD DVD died one big reason to keep our players is that it would still be an excellent upconverter -- and it is!
So, now the HD DVD format is at the funeral home awaiting burial at the end of March, but the player is still exactly what they said it is. What should the buyer beware?
This doesn't change the fact that up-converting is an industry wide scam. My $2000 HDTV up-converts any signal to it's native resolution just fine, I don't need a $90 DVD player from walmart or even a $300 one from Amazon to do it. Unless you bought a crappy HDTV (Vizio, Olevia) that simply sucks at scaling a 480p image to fit it's screen, there is no need for an up-scaling DVD player. It's an industry wide scam, and everyone falls for it.
Bull.
I see a **significant** difference in quality between 480i/p and 1080i/p on my LG HDTV when I switch resolutions on my HD-A2, just as when I did with the upscaler that my HD-A2 replaced. In fact, there have been a few times where I wondered why the "upscaled" picture looked so blocky only to look down at the player display and see that it was still in 480p mode. After switching it to 1080i (or 1080p with my previous upscaler) the blockiness of the picture was gone. It was a very smooth picture after that. The TV also responds to the resolution change. It does a 1-to-2 second switchover whenever resolution modes change, and it most certainly does that whenever I activate the upscaling.
So don't tell me that it's all a big scam. I've seen it for myself on two different upscalers on my 47" HDTV.
Beware of the big bad DVD player? The Toshiba HD-DVD players are known to be one of the best upscaling DVD players. You can buy one for less than 80 bucks, what should we beware of?
I would say these are great upscalers. I've watch SD DVD's straight from a DVD player on my A3000 (I'm sure it's not really the best scaling TV), upscaled at different resolutions from the PS3, and within the last few weeks, upscaled on my A30. The A30 makes DVD's look noticeably better. It's no HD, but it is better than what TV's and other upscaling players can do.
@Loban : Oh thank Jebus someone finally said it! I always wonder what the hell people would want a so-called upscaling DVD player for. I finally bought one (a high end toshiba) thinking I needed it to get the best picture possible (Sharp HDTV). Totally waste of money, my TV upconversion kicked its ASS. The picture was SO much better when letting my tv do the work. When you think about it, why would it not be that way?
Are you telling me a $100 DVD player is going to outperform a $2000+ product, I would certainly hope not!
I'm with you Loban, total SCAM.
It's a shame they don't continue business as usual advertising with this strategy and pricing. They would sell plenty if they were still currently supported, rebadge them even.
Sell a few million more, wait for the overly expensive, price gouging, lower specked BR cartel niche market to tank, and who knows what the future might have been.
So, um, wow, Loban, I've got a $600 TV and a $100 upscaler, and I fell for a scam, while a smart feller like you got a TV that does an acceptable job of upscaling at $2000.
You're right; I am such an idiot.