Cool Tech Reviews

I’ve mentioned some high definition DVD players here (e.g. [1],[2]), but whatever the virtues, the biggest impediment remains the format battle between the Blu-ray and HD DVD camps. Earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show, some vendors tried to bridge the gap: Warner Brothers with a new format disk that had both Blu-ray and HD DVD versions of a movie on it and LG Electronics with a dual format “Super Multi Blue” Player that can handle both Blu-ray and HD DVD disks.

There’s nothing technically wrong with the Warner Brothers solution, but it requires the studios to agree to publishing the special disks which seems unlikely except for Warner Brothers themselves. More promising is is LG’s dual format player solution:

Following the commercial launch of the universal player that can tap both Blu-ray and HD DVD markets there are many more similar devices incoming according to technology research firm ABI research, which believes that such hybrid players will essentially end the war of formats. However, due to high pricing of blue-laser players their mass adoption is still far ahead.

ABI Research believes that by creating a player that accommodates both Blu-ray and  HD-DVD discs, the Korean manufacturer LG Electronics may have created a precedent that the rest of the industry will have to follow.

“We believe that universal players will come to dominate the high-definition DVD player market,” said Steve Wilson, the firm’s principal analyst of consumer electronics.

The research firm also speculates that Samsung is expected to release its own universal player “soon”, and others, including large consumer electronics vendors, may follow suit “before long”. ABI Research forecasts sales of 2.4 million players in 2007, rising to 55 million in 2011.

Many observers expect that the demands of supporting both formats would significantly increase the price of universal players. While there is some additional cost in the optical pickup and the LG player’s initial price is quite steep at $1200, Mr. Wilson expects these prices to drop dramatically as new manufacturers come to market with universal players.

“That $1200 price would seem to be more about matching Blu-ray player prices than about reflecting the cost of producing a universal player. There’s no reason universal players should cost significantly more than HD or Blu-ray players,” the analyst explained.

The LG players are available now in the USA:

The major consumer electronics maker LG Electronics has reportedly started to sell its “Super Multi Blue” BH100 player that is capable of Blu-ray disc and HD DVD playback ahead of the officially proclaimed commercial launch date in the U.S.

Apparently, BestBuy.com online store is currently taking orders on LG BH100 universal disc player, whereas at least some Circuit City stores have them on shelves. Officially, the LG “Super Multi Blue” player, the world’s first and yet the only device that can playback both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats, should be on sale starting the 1^st of February, 2007.

Here’s the press release for the BH100, but Gizmodo’s review points out some problems:

We got the LG BH100 in the mail yesterday. It does what claims to do — be the very first high definition disc player that is compatible with both Blu-ray and HD-DVD. But don’t waive the white flag in the format war quite yet. Our first grope reveals a few flaws that keep me from recommending this player as the ultimate peace keeper in the HD format war.

Right off the bat, I’ll tell you that the rumors that the HD-DVD compatibility is half-assed are absolutely true. One of HD-DVD’s strongest points is its interactive menus and video features, like the ones we wrote about in our Fast and the Furious HD-DVD review. This player didn’t support the menus on this movie, and some of the special features, like being able to repaint a race car in the movie, were only found when I manually skipped to the chapter. Even then, the only thing you can depend on is that the movie will play. Which may be enough for many, but not enough for those who want the most from both formats.

Secondly, I could not get the player to engage its 1080p mode via HDMI with the Sony XBR3 I’m testing. 1080i was all she would do.

But beyond that, she did play both discs. And the boot times were in the 30-40 second range for both HD formats. That’s a step in the right direction compared to many of the 1st gen disc players that took about a minute.

The HD DVD glitches are why the BH100 does not have the official HD DVD logo.

Bottom Line: The LG player just doesn’t seem ready for prime time yet, but once they work the bugs out the dual format player looks like it will take over the high definition DVD player market. Yeah, it’s more expensive than Toshiba’s moderately priced HD DVD-only players, but it plays everything.

Things are moving fast in the high definition DVD world although it’s still not clear whether Blu-ray or HD DVD or both will eventually get the nod from consumers. Anyhow, in the HD DVD camp after a very short run for the first generation players, Toshiba announced their second generation players (HD-A2 and HD-XA2) last September and while the HD-XA2 is just beginning to appear in stores, the HD-A2 has been available for a while and is getting uniformly great reviews.

David Katzmaier at CNET (from 2006):

The new player also has an improved remote control with keys arranged in a much more logical fashion than those of the HD-A1’s bulky clicker. Otherwise, the two players are identical: The HD-A2 has 1080i output, not 1080p; the HDMI jack still uses the 1.2 spec; and image quality should be exactly the same.

1080p and HDMI 1.3 are reserved for the new step-up model, the HD-XA2 (December, $999). The benefits of 1080p are hard to pin down–in fact, given a display that de-interlaces 1080i correctly, and most do, we expect the picture quality improvement from 1080i to 1080p output to be minor, if not nonexistent. HDMI 1.3’s chief video-quality benefit, according to its backers, is better color depth that’s less subject to false contouring, among other problems. It’s worth mentioning that you only get the benefit of HDMI 1.3 if you mate your HDMI 1.3 source to a display with HDMI 1.3, and as far as we know, no HDMI 1.3 displays will be available this year…

At first glance, the HD-A2 looks like a better player than the HD-A1, and hopefully the company has indeed addressed some of the first-generation player’s usability quirks. For HDTV owners with $500 to spend on a disc player that delivers phenomenal video quality, it looks like a solid value. The same can’t be said for the twice-as-expensive HD-XA2, which is obviously aimed at buyers who don’t mind paying a lot for cutting-edge features.

Also worth noting is that all 14 of the user reviews are “Perfect” or “Spectacular” except for two users who were expecting to use HDTV’s with only DVI input where there are currently limitations.

B. Greenway at the Home Theater Blog:

The Toshiba HD-A2 outputs 480p, 720p, and 1080i over HDMI and component and it up-scales standard definition DVD’s over the players HDMI 1.2a output. Dolby Digital Plus, DTS-HD (core only), Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital and standard DTS processing are supported. The player also sports a rear-panel Ethernet connection, slim-line design and greatly improved load times over its predecessors. The players build quality is still impressive even if it’s not the tank the HD-A1 was. The case is still made of metal and the brushed/stainless flip-down front tray adds to the players overall curb appeal.
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Standard Definition DVD Viewing:

The Toshiba HD-A1 and HD-XA2 were widely lauded for their standard definition up-scaling capabilities, so of course I was quite interested to see how well the HD-A2 performed the same task. The first disc up was my well worn and just as enjoyed Superbit edition of ‘The Fifth Element’. I wanted something familiar for this test and I can’t think of a disc I’ve viewed more throughout the years. The colors were vibrant and well saturated and the overall image was on-par with the up-conversion from my XA1.

I skipped forward to chapter eight where Leeloo is crawling through the air-ducts; the shadow detail, sharpness and overall detail were all spot-on. The motion was fluid and lifelike and the flesh tones were very believable. Overall I was quite satisfied with the A2’s standard definition DVD playback and I never had the feeling that I was missing something or felt the desire to pop the disc back over into the XA1.
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If you happen to go the HD DVD route, I can easily recommend either the HD-A2 or HD-A20 (I’m under the assumption it’s basically a HD-A2 with 1080p output) without reservation.

There’s much more by following the link, but the Toshiba HD-A20 mentioned is yet another second generation player announced earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show that adds 1080p output at a MSRP of $599.

To net it all out, the Toshiba HD-A2 seems to be a great reasonably priced HD DVD player for consumers who don’t need cutting edge features as long as you observe the usual caveats:

• Make sure your HDTV supports what the HD-A2 delivers. (I know it sounds obvious, but as seen above it’s a perennial problem.)
• Realize that that there is a format war going on and this is early days for a new technology so the HD DVD movie selection is limited.
• The technology is changing rapidly and while the second generation players seem solid, you can always expect better and/or cheaper a year from now.

Melissa J. Perenson does the honors at PCWorld:

HD DVD movie players are no longer your only high-def DVD living-room option: Samsung has shipped its $1000 BD-P1000, the first living-room player that uses rival format Blu-ray, and Sony Pictures and Lions Gate have released high-def Blu-ray movies to complement it.

Which type is better? We found little difference in image quality, but you’ll get a more elegant player with the Samsung Blu-ray device. However, it costs twice as much as one of Toshiba’s HD DVD players.

We put the Samsung player through its paces and compared it with two HD DVD models from Toshiba, the $499 HD-A1 and the $799 HD-XA1.

More by following the link, but it’s a little tough to do a head-to-head comparison since so far there are no movies available in both formats. I also found disturbing Perenson’s reports of display artifacts cropping up in certain titles in either format. She recommends reading user reviews of specific high definition DVD titles before buying to avoid disappointment. Taking all the factors into consideration, perhaps the best advice is:

The high-def DVD format war is far from over, and a slew of new hardware is due in the fall and winter.