Upscaling DVD players.

[televisionary]

I have a 42" Plasma, 720p. I need a new DVD player, was considering an upscaling model. Would it be better to just buy an HD player?

[steve f]

Amazon has the Toshiba A3 hd-dvd player for $179 with free shipping. The Oppo 980 upscaling player is listed for $170 and the Oppo 981 is listed for $229. Given those prices I'd say the A3 would be a better deal since the Toshiba HD players are very good at upscaling regular DVDs, and you'd also have HD capability. Even if Blu-Ray wins the format war down the road, you still don't have anymore invested than you would in good quality upscaling player.

[Jon Hiller]

I would either buy the A3 from Amazon or else I'd just go buy one of the $29.99 Walmart upscaling Magnavox models. I wouldn't buy an expensive upscaling player, in my opinion it would be a waste of money. Not that the Oppo players are bad, they're quite good, but just look at what you get for what you are paying. I picked one of the Walmart cheapies up just for grins and it works a lot better than I thought it would. BUT, it won't play HD-dvd's, it only plays standard ones. That said, Amazon not only has the A3 for $179 but they are running it with a 10 free dvd deal right now, you get two in the box with the player, then you pick 3 from a list on Amazon, then you can get 5 more free through the mail. Currently that's the best deal I've seen on the A3, and I've been watching them for about 3-4 weeks now. Check out www.avsforum.com - they have a great forum there on the hi-def players and there are current deal threads there too, so if something big is happening it gets put up pretty quick.

[arracado]

I don't think you need to upscale if your TV only does 720...that's standard DVD resolution. Upscaling is for 1080p TVs.

[denvertrakker]

Standard DVD resolution is 540i - not 720.

[Jon Hiller]

Standard DVD resolution is 540i - not 720.

Yep, this is correct. Also, Toshiba just dropped the list on the A3 model to $149, but they're already selling for less than that at a lot of places. Considering you get two free movies with it AND you get a mail in rebate for 5 more, that really drops the price on the A3 a bunch. On top of that, it's a great upscaler as well, so you get the best of both worlds. If you figure the average movie costs $25.00 and you get 7 for free, then you are actually buying the movies and getting the player for free. This is a great deal!

[denvertrakker]

This is a great deal!

...Except for the fact that Warners just decided to go with BluRay instead of HD DVD, so the handwriting would appear to be on the wall for Toshiba. War's over, they lost.:cry:

If it were me, I'd buy a cheap upconverting regular DVD player, such as LG or Samsung, and then in a year or two buy a BluRay player which by that point will be under a hundred bucks. IMHO.

OR: If you couldn't care less about BluRay OR HD DVD, and just want the best regular DVD player out there, look into the Oppo line.

[Jon Hiller]

I think the war is hardly over in the HD-blue world. Toshiba is dropping prices and there will be new movies released on HD. Toshiba's player is the best buy in a Hi-def player at this point. Blu doesn't stand a chance of beating regular dvd out unless they can come up with a sub-200 dollar player, in my opinion. Also, were it not for the PS3, HD-dvd players would outnumber blu players. Amazon currently has the A3 for $132.00, this is a great deal considering this is not only a great upscaler but also a nice hi-def player as well. And at this point it's a better buy than the Oppo. You also factor in the 7 free movies and how can you go wrong? Not only that, but Amazon has a pricematch policy so that if they drop their pricing within 30 days of you ordering it, just email or call them and they'll refund you the difference.

[saberry]

It with either be multi-format or Blu-ray, imo. Stop into your local Best Buy or Circuit City and see what they have on display - almost exclusively BR set ups. I've asked at several stores and the clerks have all said they are selling more BR players by a good margin.

The war may not be over, but I wouldn't want to be in the HD camp. The Warner announcement was quite a setback. Also, the fact that Blockbuster is only renting Blu-ray and not HD-DVD doesn't help.

While price is certainly a factor, at this point, you are still looking at early adopters and as a whole, we tend to be willing to spend a little more based on value not just the cheapest price. Sony could easily drop their prices and take a loss on their players and go into the red paying off studios, but so far, they have not needed to resort to those tactics. I think it shows some desperation on the HD camp that they have.

Again, this is just my opinion. I think they are both great products and would be happy to own either. I went with Blu-ray because that is they way the wind seems to be blowing.

[Jon Hiller]

It with either be multi-format or Blu-ray, imo. Stop into your local Best Buy or Circuit City and see what they have on display - almost exclusively BR set ups. I've asked at several stores and the clerks have all said they are selling more BR players by a good margin.

The war may not be over, but I wouldn't want to be in the HD camp. The Warner announcement was quite a setback. Also, the fact that Blockbuster is only renting Blu-ray and not HD-DVD doesn't help.

While price is certainly a factor, at this point, you are still looking at early adopters and as a whole, we tend to be willing to spend a little more based on value not just the cheapest price. Sony could easily drop their prices and take a loss on their players and go into the red paying off studios, but so far, they have not needed to resort to those tactics. I think it shows some desperation on the HD camp that they have.

Again, this is just my opinion. I think they are both great products and would be happy to own either. I went with Blu-ray because that is they way the wind seems to be blowing.

Actually, our local best buy has equivalent displays of both blu-ray and HD-DVD, and the manager of the dept. told me that since Toshiba has dropped prices, the HD-DVD players have been outselling standalone BD players at this particular store, almost 2-1. Sony DID pay off Warner, to the tune of 500 million dollars. The other fact, and I know this because I am a dealer, is that Sony is price fixing ALL the BD standalone players, including those of other manufacturers, which they can leverage because Sony owns the patents. For instance, the dealer cost on the newest Samsung combo blu/HD-dvd player just dropped to $599... Minimum advertised price on it stayed at the same $999.00 price. Sony does not want blu to be a market force as much as they do a profit force. Sony has already taken a huge bath by subsidizing blu-ray within the PS3, which in my opinion is why they are holding out profits on the standalone units. If you take the PS3 out of the total players figures, HD-DVD has 67% of the market share of standalone players. That's pretty strong, considering Toshiba is the only manufacturer of HD-DVD machines at this point. There are a couple other brands of HD-DVD players, but all the standalone players are rebadged Toshibas, regardless of the brand name on them. There IS rumor that this may change this spring, I have heard rumor of some of the China manufacturers coming out with a sub-$75.00 HD-DVD player. If this happens it could all be over for blu-ray. But both formats have quite a few fans, so it's hard to say, especially if you count all the blu-ray players out there in the PS3. Also, blu-ray still to this day does not have a profile 2.0 player on the market in which ALL the features work right, whereas HD-DVD has been 100% functional as far as features, from day one. And, HD-DVD players are firmware upgradeable via ethernet, whereas standalone blu-ray players currently are not. That said, players from both have been somewhat buggy, so neither is probably ahead in that department. You're right, both are very nice formats, however, Sony would like this format war to be over, but HD has sold strongly since the Warner announcement, and in some stores, even better. It has the best chance of being the next standard because it was approved by the international DVD forum, whereas blu-ray was voted down, so Sony simply tried to forge ahead and attempted to force their format on the public. Beta, anyone? HD-dvd can in fact be called DVD, whereas blu-ray legally cannot. HD-dvd players are also among the most highly rated at upscaling regular dvds on the market, rated much better in fact than any of the blu players are. This, combined with their lower pricing, gives them a huge advantage with regular joe guy. If Toshiba continues to get tons of players out there, the studios will follow suit, because they want to sell whatever format is moving product. With regard to multi-format discs, Sony does not have that as an option because they legally cannot put a standard dvd and a blu-ray on a combo disc, because Toshiba owns most of the patents on standard dvd. Toshiba and HD-dvd have a huge advantage there, HD-dvd can put a combo disc out with one side being standard and the other being HD-dvd, so it will play on either type of player. There are already quite a few movies out that are combo, however, where Toshiba has made a mistake with this is not making sure the combo discs cost the same, most of them that I've seen are over $30.00, which is more than a lot of people are willing to pay, even if it IS two different formats on one disc. If Toshiba could get the pricing down on combo disc media it would be a hard day for blu-ray.

What remains to be seen, though, is if some other format may come along and make discs obsolete altogether, which is not out of the question. Either something like downloads (on the same lines as Apple Tv.), or memory card players capable of HD. I personally prefer to have a disc in my hands rather than have my movie on a hard drive or just streamed, but I'm not so sure that I'm in the majority there, if you look at music, downloading is huge, and I could easily see movies doing the same thing. It will be interesting to watch it play out. Technology grows and changes so fast right now, it almost makes a person afraid to try any new technology.

EDIT: I got notice today that the MAP on the Samsung BD/HD-DVD player has dropped to $799, so Sony may be showing signs of letting up a tad on the MAP margins, although, that's still a higher margin than a lot of other electronics....

[saberry]

The format war is over... Blu-Ray wins, as Toshiba announced plans to abandon HD-DVD.
http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSL1627196120080216

[Vbrook]

So, if I have a 1080p TV that upscales all signals, would I get benefit from an upscaling DVD player? I would be sending an already-upscaled signal to an upscaler---which doesn't make sense....or does it.

I own neither yet but am very in the market for it.

[SpeedBallBlues]

Amazon has the Toshiba A3 hd-dvd player for $179 with free shipping. The Oppo 980 upscaling player is listed for $170 and the Oppo 981 is listed for $229. Given those prices I'd say the A3 would be a better deal since the Toshiba HD players are very good at upscaling regular DVDs, and you'd also have HD capability. Even if Blu-Ray wins the format war down the road, you still don't have anymore invested than you would in good quality upscaling player.

The Oppo is killer for 2 or 3 times the price. I don't have one but I've spent a LOT of time on audiophile A/V boards and it's the recommended player by nearly everyone for the under $350-$400 dollars.

[sahlomonic]

Hands down, Oppo 980. Unless you have a PS3, which for the price is unmatched for Blu-Ray and upconverting standard def DVD's. Don't even think about buying a Samsung or LG upconvert player, trust me. Honestly, and HD-format player will do an excellent job of upconverting standard-def DVD's. Unless you are a complete videophile, get an HD player and kill 2 birds with one stone.

[captain_orville]

Even though Toshiba has dropped out of the HD war.. their A3 from Amazon is a killer upscalling player. They are wicked cheap now to. I watched Band of Brothers on mine this weekend and it was pretty bad-ass.

[sahlomonic]

I bought my A30 for $100 on clearance at BB. Much better than the 360 HD drive. 1080p/24 is a wonderful thing. If your TV does 1080p, you may not need to get an upconverting player. Some TV's will upscale better than some DVD players, and vice versa. Depends on what you have, really.