The thing with both formats is that the decryption keys can change from release to release, so when you run into a title that doesn't work you may have to wait for an update.

 

SlySoft FTW. Too bad their price went up on 1/1/2008 for any suckers that didn't purchase it before that.

 

Wish I had known... I haven't bought it yet myself.

 

1 AnyDVD HD (license key)
electronic 79.00 EUR 79.00 EUR
approximately 116.17 USD

 

I've been viewing HD content at home for at least 6 years now. I'm spoiled. We've had two HDtv's since March '05. Jeff, there is some phenomenal tv programming available, don't get me wrong. I just know you do not watch sports. Channels like Discovery, HDNet, etc offer outstanding picture quality. Picture quality on all HD channels will outperform SD channels, but there are different levels of HD.

ESPN had a contract(and may still) with DirecTV stating that their HD programming had to have a minimum amount of bandwidth allocated just for them. This was a big deal. As I said earlier though, part of this problem has been addressed with many new satellites polluting space.

Which brings me full circle to my point: a stand-alone high definition player of either format will almost always render a better picture/sound quality than a broadcasted rendition of same.

Originally, Toshiba's cheapest HD-DVD players were better than Blu Ray's first offerings despite BD coming out nearly 6 months later and the oft-spoken-about slow startup time for the Toshibas. The PS3, available Nov '06, absolutely sucked as a player upon release. To make matters worse, the BD's released were crap. HD-DVD was the better format. BD had more potential, but in its infancy, it sucked. Now the two are near identical in quality(edge to BD because of capacity) save the price difference in hardware. BD releases have improved as have the players.

In one sense, the list of "reference" BD's on AVS is not misleading, but doesn't compare apples-to-apples wholly. Take a look and tell me how many "reference" BD's are animated films. Digitally animated films. I have viewed Cars in SD on my A1 and own Cars on BD. Same tv; same display settings... I literally could barely tell the difference. Why? It's very easy to "HD" animated films. I would like to watch, back-to-back, Pirates- World's End in both SD and BD to see how they compare.

Pirates-WE is a reference picture-quality BD. I must say, it is stunning. I'd like to do the same for The Matrix... HD-DVD and an SD copy. I have both. I could play both on the A3 and then play the SD on the PS3.

 

No sense in buying anything other than a PS3 right now if you must buy now. I think 2.0 is scheduled to debut in late fall '08 for BD players.

 

Skip, that would not be an entirely fair comparison though because your A3 upconverts SD DVDs. While I have no experience with upconversion I can't say to what extent if it all it improves the picture but it's a possibility if you are trying to compare formats it should be SD to HD, not upconverted SD to HD. Agree/Disagree?

 

Skip, I'm in no rush. No PS3 or standalone in the short term. I've got one CC left to pay off. I'm on the home stretch here...

 

Disagree. Even my A1 upconverts. I don't own a progressive scan dvd player... never did. That was one of the reasons i was an early adopter. The jump from a standard dvd player to the A1 was bigger than cassette tape to cd.

Also, I was trying to show that purchasing an HD-DVD player(or BD) that upconverts nicely is worth its price. One's current library of SD dvd's is that much better whilst being able to enjoy higher definition. The Oppo, long known to be the best upcoverting player under $200, was almost purchased, but by the time i finally was ready to buy, the A1's were available.

 

That is outstanding!

NERD file?