so yeah, once my xbox 360 has come back from being fixed, i'm thinking about purchasing a HD-DVD drive for it.

has anyone else looked at or bought one of these things?

does it do anything uber for normal dvds at all?

is it a waste of time and money and should i just wait til HD-DVD and Blu-Ray make their footholds in the market?

also, what do you think about which is superior?

do they have the same kind of display output (if you've seen both that is)

Blu ray has an extreme size when it comes to the disc, but the systems AND the discs both cost INSANE amounts of cash.

HD-DVD doesn't have the movie studio backing like Blu-Ray does (sony and sony pictures) but are there a decent amount of movies and if so which?

any input would be awesome.

I dont know much about the tech specs... but I know that im going to wait until a winner is declared.

Is the PS3 not a Blu-Ray and HD-DVd player?

as far as i know, ps3 is only blu-ray... unless they have changed it since about 3 months ago (the last time I looked at the specs)

ps3 is blu-ray, xbox 360 has a HD-DVD add-on drive (keeps the cost of the initial unit down)

ps3 in europe has less features than the one in the rest of the world too, in order to make it cheaper. (still costs £425)

its a bit... i dont know. i don't think i'll go with a ps3 til they do come down to uberly cheap.

i've got a ps3, so obviously i'm hoping the blu-ray format wins the war. i've seen both the HD-DVD and blu-ray on HD screens and they're identical.

my set up is a ps3 w/HDMI cable to a 1080i HD screen. blu-ray looks awesome, normal dvd's look the same as running them through a standard player.

What kind of TV?

if its 1080i then....

i'm guessing its a flatpanel LCD-TFT, widescreen, and over 32"

(then again my 26" supports 1080i but i prefer progressive scan)

by all accounts, we would not really be able to tell the difference from 1080i or 1080p.

what about the motion blur on 1080i compared to 1080p.

interlaced isnt as good as progressive scan at depicting moving imagery.

you can lways use soemthing else to clean up the image before it hits the TV, in which case you should have a much better image. If you sent a 1080p signal to a 1080i TV, would it handle it?

nope. and depending on the intelligence of the display unit, it could damage it.

i use another thing to clean up my image before it goes to my tv.

i have a yamaha RX-V657 A/V receiver.

98% of my audiovisual devices are plugged directly into that, which then puts the video signal out into my 26" HD flatsceen, and my 25" Tube TV.

pretty much everything goes in, other than the laserdisc. i seem to get better picture plugging that direct into my screen for some reason. i dare say it's because it's a strange device and transmits both pal and ntsc signals. i have to use the inbuilt conversion mode to take it from svideo to component and change the signal type. the conversion doesn't work all to well on the signal. which goes to show, sometimes it's better to go direct.

I need to change both my TV and Receiver. I have a couple of receivers I am looking at such as the Harmon Kardon AVR 245, Pioneer VSX-1016TXVK, and a couple of others. What I want is a receiver that I can p[lug everything into that will upconvert it to a HDTV signal. As far s TV's go, I can see me buying the Sharp Aquos 32" HDTV...Though I am curious to see what the new technology coming out of Australia is goign to look like when it gets released.

as far as receivers go, i can do nothing but praise the yamaha series. absolutely NO faults whatsoever. i'm on my second receiver, my first one was a dsp-a2070, a very old flagship model that the only flaw with, is that it needs to have its input selector and balance control fixed as over time they have failed. over time? yeah. the unit is about a decade old, and the switch on it is a physical switch which has after much use, come to end. i was given it by my friend who is a home cinema lover, he bought his new one after failing to find somewhere to fix the old a2070. passing it onto me i managed to get the thing working again for a while but after buying a 360 and getting many more devices with optical sound, i decided to buy a new one. so i shopped around for a while but never found anything up to yamaha standards. my amplifier runs 11.1 in speakers, with sound that is so crisp and pure i really cannot fault it in any way. it's got all the inputs i need, doesn't have HDMI sadly but i bought it before that came in below their top of the range unis.

i know yamaha make upscaling/converting receivers, and i do say, check out their range. not only are they impeccable in terms of performance, but setting them up is so easy. using the optimiser microphone unit, you just place it where you sit, around where your head is best, say on top of your chair (it has a very very long lead) and press go. leave the room, and it'll test your speakers size, layout, and power ratings, and set itself up for the best sound output from each speaker. brilliant.

as for display units, i've heard good of the aquos, but i must say i'm very very impressed by LG, and of course, theres loewe. which i'm sure need no introduction. Beovision as well, but they tend to just look pretty and have fancy functions rather than just pure performance. trueblack is something to look for, black is something alof of these have a problem with, and it's very important to look at black on your screen to see how it copes.

i'm sure you know, but i will say it for everyone else. cables are just as much a consideration as anything else. twin and earth =D the best. friend showed me a great website where they did extensive tests on all the best wires, from standard hi-fi cable, to the most expensive high grade ultimate audio cable on the market. and twin and earth cable, came out just as good as stuff thats up there at the top of the market.

though, i do use oxy free and loudspeaker cable. soon when my new cinema room is built i'll consider my options but for now i'm using about £4 per metre loudspeaker cable. for device interconnect, THX do cables, but they're rediculously priced. QED i have heard nothing but great reviews about, but obviously, expect to pay high for decent interconnect cables.

anywho, i should stop going on.

what series is better RX or HTR?

i'm not familiar with the HTR, i know yamaha europe do different model numbers to us/canada and japan, so i'll investigate and let you know as soon as i can.

in europe theyre all either RX or theres the DSP-AX759SE and the DSP-Z9 (ultimate flagship)

oh and another thing i didnt say about when we were talking, is "silent cinema" and "night mode"

silent cinema, is like a surround sound experience through your headphones. sit back and relax with your headset of choice and its just... incredible.

night mode, well thats a godsend. as i said, the yamaha can set itself up using the optimiser microphone to your position so you get the best sound. now with night mode, it adjusts the frequency output of the speakers so that the bass terminates at you. it doesn't fly off outside into the room next door, it stops. it works out how much it has to throw the sound through the speakers so that you still get great sound, but the bass doesn't escape your room. it kills off some bass frequencies so you don't get the ultimate thumping subwoofer tones you used to, but still a great experience without fucking off the neighbours when you decide to watch the matrix reloaded at 2am.

*edit in*

you know what, i can't decide. i think its really up to you to choose which you think is best. of course, there's always one thing that'll let you know, which is something i couldnt find out from their website.

price.

and you lucky buggers in canada get these...

http://www.yamaha.ca/av/Receivers/network.jsp

on yours. how i wish i could have that on mine.

They are really nice units from what I have read, i just have a couple of issues with them. it would be nice to see them add an up conversion and a HDMI interface. Also, it would be nice to see that I can run more of my media over the network to the machine and have it broadcast to the TV. Lastly, more inputs would really be nice. It would be easier to have my PS2, XBOX, Gamecube, 2 DVD's, VCR, and cable Tv hooked up. I know that is asking for a lot, but well...

as i said, they do have HDMI, they even have HDMI switching. 2 in, one out. and they have video conversion for standard signals up to 720p, 1080i (and 1080p on some models i think) i don't know what models you're looking at, but they do convert standard 540p signals up to HD, and have HDMI interfaces.

how many inputs do you want ? mine has 8 inputs and output line for recording, multi channel input for input from an external multi channel decoder or dvd player with 5.1 out but no optical or coaxial digital output, it has preamp input, 11 channels of audio output, pure direct amplifier and straight amp mode as well as effectual amplifier, it can output to two displays at the same time, has OSD for management as well as on the inbuilt display, two zones for having audio in seperate rooms, can display video from one source and audio from a different one, and mine is an obsolete model!