Warner and Blu ray?

*
I really don't care either way, as long as they keep making standard def dvd's. I prefer the 4:3 aspect ratio of the standard def discs for my movie screen. All of the hi-def discs that I've viewed are in the "letterbox" type aspect ratio. I personally like the upconverted standard discs in 4:3, that way I get much more screen area in a hi-def picture. The movie is much more immersive that way.

My Toshiba HD-XA2 does a killer job of upconverting the standard discs. I don't even buy or rent hd discs...because they don't play in 4:3. The upconverted standard picture I get is stunning in 4:3 on my 12 foot by 16 foot screen.
*

"South43":

It looks like Warner Brothers has swayed my decision as well. I was waiting for the longest time as to which way was I going to go (either HD-DVD or Blue-Ray). And now, it looks like that later on this year, Blue-Ray will apparently win out.

I am also going to wait and see what kind of player the other players (meaning brands in this context) are going to release before I finally dive in.

As it stands right now, I am looking at the Sony Playstation 3 Console (the 40 GB version..... I am not much of a game player, so it would be senseless to me to spend upward to about $800.00 for a console and I am not going to ever play any games on it) strictly for Blue-Ray DVD Playback and because it appears to have backwards compatibility (meaning I can still hold onto to my existing DVD collection (more than 300+ movies)). But since Denon appears to be closest to releasing their player, I am also going look at the Denon offerings first. But of the existing Sony offerings, I have read on other threads that their standalone Blue-Ray Players are having playback issues and that the Sony Playstation 3 does not, making it the best player in their lineup and at $450.00, also one of the cheapest.

But anyway, I am continuing to stand on the sideline at the moment, but I am leaning toward Blue-Ray right now.

My $.02 Worth.....

--Charles--

The Panasonic BD30 is getting good user reviews over at AVS. It goes for about $400 on Amazon. The cheapest Denon player currently planned will have a suggested retail price over $1k.

01-05-08: Onkyodude
Why buy a format that ONLY does 1080i?
Think of it that way.
1080p is ALOT better!
Right now, I don`t have either of them.
I`M waiting for
BLU-RAY RECORDERS!!!!!

01-05-08: Cruz123
Onkyodude, as a fyi, there are HD-DVD players that do 1080p.

OnkyoDude, where have you been? The only 1080i-only HD DVD players were the 1st-gen models released in April '06, and the entry-level HD-A2 and HD-A3 models.

And besides, why do you think 1080p is so noticeably superior? LCD, plasma, and DLP-based displays de-interlace 1080i signals and display them as 1080p anyway. The only thing that's noticeably better than 1080i is 1080p/24 fed to a display that refreshes at 120Hz. Toshiba HD DVD players other than the HD-A3 support 1080p/24 as well.

Funny that your alias is "Onkyodude", which bucked the Blu-ray trend and recently released an upscale HD DVD player.

01-05-08: Mitch4t
*
I really don't care either way, as long as they keep making standard def dvd's. I prefer the 4:3 aspect ratio of the standard def discs for my movie screen.

Enlighten me. I've never understood how a movie-enthusiast could prefer to watch films in 4:3 pan'n'scan vs. the original aspect ratio as shot and edited. On particularly wide screen films, sometimes offscreen noses are speaking to the empty space in between, which is all there is to watch.

Secondly, I have always played std. def DVDs in widescreen mode.