HIGH DEF DVD...WHATS THE LATEST NEWS?

Actually there are several manufacturers of HD-DVD players besides Toshiba and the deinterlacing will be worked out by the end of the year as a new crop of true 1080P input capable displays become available.

AS far as High rez audio- I was at both dolby and DTS demos and got that cool dts test disc as a freebie. There really isnt any difference between hi res audio and what we have now. No one that I sat with at CES- not one person-claimed to hear any difference. The advertising for the new hi rez audio formats is for "lossless audio transfer so you can hear it just like the audio engineers.'

Cool. The problem is that even with current DVD audio tracks, the fulldata rate capabilities are not being reached in most instances; simply put, there isn't anything to lose in most sound tracks.

Finally, a receiver has to be able to fully decode the new audio codec. SO put your hands up--Whose got one? Answer- just about no one.

I recently spoke with John at Theta Digital and asked him which format they will use. He told me this battle between the two Japanese firms Sony and Toshiba will get ugly and Theta won't commit until at least 2000 titles have been released in one of the two formats. He told me they R&D'd DTS and DD EX to have in the Casablanca lll and to this day there are less than 200 titles between the two. I have gone through the replacing all my media to a new format only to do it again a few years later. I am going to wait and when Theta's Compli or next gen transport for Hi-Def DVDs is out I will commit then. For now I'll stick with regular DVDs and CDs. Just my 2 pennies.

Rysa....your dead wrong on this and obviously heard a poorly set up audio demo.
I can easily hear the difference between double bit rate dvhs tapes and there sd dvd counterparts....and so can any average Joe who has ever heard the difference in my H/T.

Lossless 96/24 or in the case of Blu Ray, possible 192/24 7.1 audio will be absolutely better in every respect on any well done current movie soundtrack, and be even better for upcoming releases.

There are no 1080p players being built for hd dvd that have been announced or seen, and as a matter of fact, I don't beleive its in the actual spec for that format except as a possible future option.

With Warner now saying all movies on BD, and not just a limited amount as some Microsoft/hd dvd pr people tried to pitch, and add to that no support for hd dvd from
MGM
Miramax
Fox
Pixar
Lions Gate
Disney
Columbia Tri Star
Sony Pictures

This will all be over imo, by the first year after the PS3 release with Blu Ray being the winner.

Alrighty- How can you hear a difference when the receivers and firmware to decode the new audio codec don't even exist yet? And double bit rate dig-vhs isnt even the same thing. You appear to be commenting on something you have never heard. To be clear, if you havent heard DTS-HD and DOlby-HD-, which DTS and Dolby set up themselves by the way at CES, you can't really comment with any validity now can you? Also, lets look at this; what I am saying is that in most DVD sound tracks, the bit rate limits are NOT reached- increasing that rate with a lossless potential- the claim of DTS and Dolby HD is meaningless if the current limits aren't even reached. I have the DTS -HD demo disk for 2006- it sounds great- just like their "non-HD" demo from last year- over my 5.1 non-HD audio receiver- just like everyone elses out there. Again, there aren't really any receivers out there that are set up to decode the new hi rez audio codec- Some of the 2007 denons are set up to handle the firmware, and probably their 2006 stuff as well, when it becomes available.

All HD players will be able to output 1080P by then end of the year, hopefully at the same time the HDMI chipset standards get set and displays can accept a true 1080P signal. Rihgt now, its all a big discussion with no content out there and a complete lack of agreed upon standards and available technology.

Ears- better go back to the forum and round up some better ammo! hehe.

In addition, I just finished the extended version of Return of the King- All 4 hours of it. The audio is awesome- the increase in bit rate isnt going to offer that much more.

Also, for any format war to be meaningful, people are going to have to buy the players-- and at 1000-1800 dollars a pop- not included the increased cost of the Blu Ray discs themselves--dont hold your breath.