Brian@BBY's HDDVD Impressions

[BTBuck1]

(Day one) september 13,2006

I'm going to log this and treat this as an experiment. Because the way I feal seems too reminisant of another user here and his original thoughts which have changed drastically from his early experiences. (JTK)

First off, I think Everyone by now knows my position up to me buying this player. I have been and continue to be a firm supporter of the Blu Ray format. I feel the Blu Ray format is by far supported by better companies and the Hardware has a definate edge, I also feel that they will eventually prove why they are the next gen format to watch for and put your ducks in (if you have to make a choice)

That said, Let me tell you I couldn't have been more wrong (So Far) about the HDDVD format. Not so much on the software side of things because i always knew they had good software but more so on the hardware side of things. Oh has this player grown up alot since i last played with her thouroughly back in april. back then it was slow, unresponsive and just irritating to use. Now the only real quirky thing that doesnt even really bother me, it just makes me feel weird is the HDMI hanshaking that causes my tv to do this green flickering dance about 2-3 times between welcome and loading.

I must say i spent the better part of the day playing with this thing and it did not once skip a beat. I never had an AV sync issue, no black screens or anything. And i'm hoping I don't because right now i'm very happy with it.

I never ran a disc in this player one time on the pre-installed (Version 1.4) firmware. I immediately upon opening the box brought it into my office, connected it via component to my sony LCD 17" computer moniter and setup everything and updated the firmware to 2.0 (a proccess which btw takes about 45 minutes)

After that i brought her downstairs to her new home, connected her analog inputs up and set the resolution, HDMI on and speaker size/distance.

First off, I don't have any Dolby Tru HD movies so i've been limited to dolby digital + I'll have to say it sounds great, but not really any better than the DTS that it converts it to atleast over my system here YMMV.
From what I can tell, Uncompressed audio on Blu Ray sounds considerably better than DD+ and I look forward to testing a Tru HD track to see what these analogs can really do! But it is definately better than standard DD & equal to DTS IMO.

PQ, well...here we are...Blu Ray vs. HDDVD what does Brian@BBY think?
Well, to be real Brian with ya, I'd have to say that not once did I see anything questionable on HDDVD. I never saw a Macroblock, Film grain was minimal and every film just popped off the screen. But heres the thing, 1st, I own mostley referance titles....2nd I have seen macroblocking on HDDVD titles and lastly the BR titles I have seen it on it only lasted a few seconds on one or two scenes.

SO I'd have to say based on what I've seen so far In no way do I call HDDVD A complete Owner> of Blu Ray but it does seem to be ever so slightly more consistant. The "eight below" disc I saw on BD was on par with everything I watched today and it's soundtrack blew everything I watched today away. I'm really glad to be a part of both sides now so I don't have to take sides. I can grab what I want, when I want it and how I want it.

I'll post back occassionally and let people know how my impressions are holding up, but so far so good.

If I considered Blu Ray a B- up to now, it'd only be fair to give HDDVD a B+/(A- if it stays running solid) right now this is with all things considered (not just codecs etc)

Thanks guys!
Brian