Question:
Hello, Big Picture Big Sound,
I have a new 1080p HDTV and now that I've seen what high definition looks like, I want more of it! I've seen ads for Best Buy and Circuit City with upconverting DVD players with 1080p or 1080i output on sale for $100 to $200. Are these the "HD DVD" players I've been hearing about? Will these turn my regular DVDs into high definition?
Thanks,
-Peter D.
Answer:
Hi, Peter,
We get questions like this pretty often. The answer is "No" - an upconverting DVD player is not an HD DVD player, and an upconverting DVD player does not turn your standard DVD into a High Definition DVD. Depending on the quality of the upconversion circuitry in the DVD player, you can definitely see an improvement in the video quality of your DVD movies, but it is not "true" high definition content.
"HD DVD" (HD-DVD) or "High Definition Digital Versatile Disc" is one of two competing high definition disc formats currently on the market, the other being "Blu-ray Disc." Toshiba is the primary supporter of HD-DVD with 3 players on the market, the HD-A2, HD-A20 and HD-XA2. With HD-DVD, movies, concerts and other content are stored on the HD-DVD disc in true high definition video quality (usually in full 1080p resolution) which gives you about six times the detail you get on a standard DVD. Audio quality is also improved over standard DVD with higher bandwidth surround sound formats such as Dolby True-HD and DTS-HD Master Audio, each a lossless audio format with much higher resolution than standard DVD or CD.
All HD-DVD players also upconvert standard DVDs to high definition resolutions (720p, 1080i, 1080p) via their HDMI outputs. Currently the HD-A20 and HD-XA2 are the only HD-DVD players that upconvert standard DVDs to 1080p resolution (the HD-A2 upconverts DVDs to 1080i or 720p resolution). The top-of-the-line HD-XA2 is particularly good at upconverting standard DVDs as it uses an advanced video processing chip from Silicon Optix to fill in the "missing" data in the standard definition DVD picture.
But even the best upconverting circuitry in the world can't match the quality of real high definition content that you'll find on HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc titles. So if you really want to get the highest performance out of your HDTV, then you should consider purchasing one of the new format players and buying some movies on the new formats. Both Blockbuster and Netflix
also now rent HD-DVD and Blu-ray Discs, so, once you have a compatible player, you can "try before you buy." Rent it and if you like it, then buy it on a site like Amazon.com
As of this writing, HD-DVD players are selling for as little as $250 and even the top of the line player the HD-XA2 is selling for under $600, so the hardware investment is fairly minimal compared to the cost of most HDTVs.
Regards,
-Chris
