HD-DVD add on [Archive]

mutelight

11-10-2006, 07:27 PM

I picked one up today and it is absolutely phenomenal. It came with a free copy of King Kong which was nice. The image quality absolutely blows my HD cable right out of the water, it truly is something to be seen. :cool:

MikeC78

11-10-2006, 07:30 PM

Very nice, glad you are happy!

Where did you get it?

Mike

mutelight

11-10-2006, 07:53 PM

My local Gamestop just got their shipment in today. I called both EB Games in the area, and my local Best Buy. EB Games said they would be receiving them in the next few days and Best Buy had no clue when they were getting them in stock.

Demiurge

11-10-2006, 08:15 PM

$100 right, and plays all HD-DVDs?

mutelight

11-10-2006, 08:20 PM

Its actually $200 but yes it plays all the movies, at 1080p as well.

polkatese

11-10-2006, 08:24 PM

$200 + King Kong.

I am still waiting mine from Amazon - Will be shipped on the 13th.

Demiurge

11-10-2006, 08:27 PM

Nice rate hike they did on that. Initially it was supposed to be a hunny. Either way, how does it compare to a regular HD-DVD stand alone? :confused:

mutelight

11-10-2006, 08:29 PM

MikeC78

11-10-2006, 08:32 PM

I have not seen the add on vs the Toshiba HD-A1 on the same display but I can safely say that the quality is just as good and dare I say (in fear of offending the Toshiba owners) maybe even slightly better.

:confused: How can you "safely" say that quality(PQ) is maybe slightly better than the Tosh?

Can you safely say that you get TrueHD also??:p

Mike

Shizelbs

11-10-2006, 08:38 PM

What is the output method for this? HDMI? Component?

MikeC78

11-10-2006, 08:40 PM

Component or VGA.

mutelight

11-10-2006, 08:53 PM

:confused: How can you "safely" say that quality(PQ) is maybe slightly better than the Tosh?

Can you safely say that you get TrueHD also??:p

Mike

Because I have seen them both in person. The "safely" is in regards to the quality being the same. Then part two is saying possibly better. Semantics are fun.

And no because Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD require a HDMI 1.3 connection.

I truly can safely say you are being smarmy. ;)

MikeC78

11-10-2006, 08:59 PM

You are wrong again...

TrueHD DOES NOT require HDMI 1.3 :) My XA1 decodes 5.1 TrueHD and passes it PCM to my receiver using HDMI 1.1. TrueHD can also be passed with the analog outs. No need for HDMI. Go do your homework bud! ;)

Glad you are happy with it! :)

Mike

mutelight

11-10-2006, 09:04 PM

You are wrong again...

You can go ahead and tell me when I was wrong in the first time. ;)

And right the player itself decodes the TrueHD not your receiver and the Dolby signal is not transfered over the interconnect the PCM signal is. So in a sense, I am not wrong at all. :D Also my homework has been done kiddo! Thanks for trying, come again.

Also I now see where all this is coming from, gotta defend the ol' Tosh, which is fine as they are great players.

MikeC78

11-10-2006, 09:09 PM

You were wrong in saying that the PQ is better than the Tosh.

You have no real-world proof for that. I'm glad you think it's better, my kid will enjoy HD better than me I guess? :) I'm sure he has better eyes, I'll report back later...

BTW, I'm not defending anyone of them. I have the XA1, Sammy BDP-1000, and the kid will have the Xbox HD add-on for Xmas.;)

Mike

mutelight

11-10-2006, 09:13 PM

Oh man, stop getting all defensive already. I said possibly and even then it would be my opinion. Which is also why I added about offending the owners which you hopped on immediately. Haha. That is like comparing image quality between HDTV sets, what really matters is what you like. So just take a deep breath, your player is very nice, you didn't make a mistake purchasing it, all is well. So yeah, wasn't wrong on either count.

MikeC78

11-10-2006, 09:21 PM

:D You are way to funny!! Enjoy your HD add-on.

Mike

Shizelbs

11-10-2006, 09:37 PM

People are going nuts over this at the Xbox forums. Now I want one.

Demiurge

11-10-2006, 09:52 PM

I'm definitely planning on getting one, but I'm going to wait a little bit before I do.

Shizelbs

11-12-2006, 12:33 AM

Alright, I want more updates. I can see you guys online watching HD DVDs.

mutelight

11-12-2006, 12:45 AM

Just had some friends over earlier and we watched MI:III. Throughout the entire movie they couldn't stop commenting on how incredible the image quality was.

mantis

11-12-2006, 07:51 AM

Man I picked up the wireless head set at Game Stop and they had no Idea when the HD DVD drive was coming out. I want one. I gotta make some phone calls today and find out if anyone has one.

Dan

polkatese

11-12-2006, 10:09 AM

Dan, I ordered mine through Amazon. It should ship tomorrow.

bdaley6509

11-13-2006, 08:40 AM

Bought the last one at our EB Games. Really nice on my SXRD Sony. Gonna have to get some more movies. I hope Pixar movies are on HD-DVD...those would look amazing. I traded my PSP towards it. Never played the damn thing...the DS lite occupied all my toilet time. RIP PSP.

Sami

11-13-2006, 11:14 AM

Just had some friends over earlier and we watched MI:III. Throughout the entire movie they couldn't stop commenting on how incredible the image quality was.
Friend of mine said his A1 wouldn't play MI3 over component, only if the HDMI was connected. Since the addon doesn't have HDMI you must be using component? His reasoning was that MI3 is using the copy protection bit which makes it HDMI only and I haven't been able to confirm this. He has been wrong before so I wouldn't be surprised if there was a hardware setup explanation for this.

MikeC78

11-13-2006, 01:00 PM

Sami-

The 'V' button on the remote toggles between HDMI and component output on the player. Did he have the newest firmware update FW2.0? MI3 will play over component and HDMI just fine on my Tosh XA1. The only protection bit for component is upconverting SD's. There is no problems with playing any HD's over component.

Mike

Sami

11-13-2006, 01:04 PM

That's what I thought but he insists of MI3 having the bit to prevent component output. I'll try it with my A1 when I hook it up to my projector with component but I would suspect he had his settings incorrect as I haven't read anywhere about MI3 being protected.

MikeC78

11-13-2006, 01:14 PM

You'll be fine... enjoy the movie Sami!:)

Mike

mutelight

11-13-2006, 02:50 PM

Friend of mine said his A1 wouldn't play MI3 over component, only if the HDMI was connected. Since the addon doesn't have HDMI you must be using component? His reasoning was that MI3 is using the copy protection bit which makes it HDMI only and I haven't been able to confirm this. He has been wrong before so I wouldn't be surprised if there was a hardware setup explanation for this.

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/8206/mi3pw6.th.jpg (http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mi3pw6.jpg)

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/9053/kingkongpb2.th.jpg (http://img174.imageshack.us/my.php?image=kingkongpb2.jpg)

:D

bobman1235

11-13-2006, 02:54 PM

mutelight

11-13-2006, 03:06 PM

Hmm... looks like even if you don't have a 360, you may be able to use the HD-DVD drive on your Windows PC (http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/home-entertainment/use-the-xbox-hddvd-drive-on-your-windows-pc-214306.php). Hmmm....

You can install the driver to read the UDF but I still have yet to see confirmation of playback.

bobman1235

11-13-2006, 03:12 PM

There's software for Windows to read HD-DVDs, so if you can read from a disc in the drive I don't see why playback would be an issue....

mutelight

11-13-2006, 03:25 PM

As long as you have a powerful enough machine to software decode it, I don't either.

Sami

11-13-2006, 03:50 PM

The link to the article where they actually connected one to a PC seems to be invalid.

EDIT: it's valid and I was able to download the drivers for it, maybe I should get the add-on...$169 if I get Amazon CC at the same time, not too bad for HD-DVD player (since I have a HTPC already.)

Sartori

11-19-2006, 05:32 PM

Hello

How are you guys running 1080P into your tvs? I haven't seen an lcd or plasma that does 1080p over component.

Home Theatre

11-19-2006, 05:51 PM

I read that the sound was horrible on the HD-Dvd add on. Could someone tell me is it really bad? They said it was really soft.

mutelight

11-19-2006, 06:23 PM

I read that the sound was horrible on the HD-Dvd add on. Could someone tell me is it really bad? They said it was really soft.

The sound is the same volume as any DVD. Also I have noticed when I switch over to TrueHD (Although it is not TrueHD) the volume increases and becomes slightly more detailed, so something is going on.

bdaley6509

11-19-2006, 07:56 PM

My Sony SXRD HD TV accepts a 1080i signal and upscales it internally to 1080p through component. The current gen SXRD TV's accept a native 1080p signal.

PoLk FaN

11-19-2006, 10:56 PM

Demiurge

01-06-2007, 04:11 PM

Hmmm, wtf...I was just commenting on how I don't have one of these last night as there was no real point in wasting the money, and now all of a sudden I got one as a late Christmas present at one of our family parties today....:rolleyes: LOL! Guess I'll be keeping it.

Well, I have it all hooked up, but one thing I noticed right away is that sound is heavy out of my Center and terrible everywhere else. In fact I can barely hearing it coming out of the other 4 speakers, and hardly any subwoofer action as well.

My games on the 360 sound fantastic. Am I missing something here? Any help would be appreciated....

Lsi9

01-06-2007, 04:23 PM

A friend told how when playing cds on his 360 there was NO bass, might it have something to do with toslink out?

Demiurge

01-06-2007, 05:40 PM

I got it working a little better....

tommyboy

01-06-2007, 06:19 PM

demi,

I asked you in the lsi 15 sale thread but you never answered.

I don't see them in your sig, did you get them? If so, you like them better then your 600i speaks?

That sucks about the HD-dvd. I guess with game systems you only get one or the other, not both.

(sorry for the derail)

BIZILL

01-07-2007, 07:58 PM

dave, the decoding the add on does through toslink sucks ass. it creates 'undynamic' sound. m$ will offer a dts option in the coming weeks/months. but i just up my speaker levels here and there and the sub as well and all sounds great. and the rumor/more possibly real new xbox with 120 gb hard drive and hdmi 1.3 are the only way to get the trueHD audio outta the bugger.

my issue with the add on is the fact that i have lip sync issues. i've got/had 20 billion things connected to my receiver and this add on is the only one with sync issues. it's another known issue. many have the problem on other forums. i've returned my first one and the second one is exactly the same. the video comes before the audio. no amount of delay in my receiver can account for it. this problem is more of an issue than the known 'undynamic' sound through the toslink. hopefully it will be rectified soon. i think some answers may come from CES.