With the near certain demise of the HD DVD format recently, you will probably find that stand alone players will soon be getting quite cheap as shops on websites try to sell off their remaining stock.
Sony appear to have won the format war this time (I’m just about old enough to remember the VHS vs. Betamax ‘war’, when the superior technology of Betamax lost to the better marketing skills of JVC et al when they abandoned Betamax in favour of VHS ). Anyway enough history on video tapes, back to HD-DVD. If you come across a player at a bargain price, that has good reviews, video and audio quality wise, it might make sense to buy one. Why? Well most (all?) of these HD-DVD players can playback DVDs and upscale the picture, so if your display is HD (720 or 1080 lines), the DVD picture will appear to be of a higher quality.
Of course, as a main player, Blu-ray really only makes sense, but if you have a TV in the bed room, or kitchen, and are looking for a disc player, the cost benefit of HD DVD players may make enough (short term) sense. For Playstation 3 owners, Blu-ray discs are already playable through their console, and although the X-Box 360 has a HD-DVD external drive available, it is still not clear whether a Blu-ray version will be released.
Mar 13 2008
Avoid HD DVD Players?
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