So I'm at my parents place and they have an HD TV that they somewhat recently installed and I really REALLY want to watch a bunch of HD dvds on it....now of course I put the dvds into their ancient dvd player and it won't read the disc at all.... so I'm thinking I'm going to get them a new dvd player but I'm a little confused as to what I need to do this and what all the various terms mean. For instance, how will I know if a dvd player will indeed play HD dvds, and does are there any things about the player I should look out for/make sure are a feature/not a feature? Does HDMI have anything to do with this? If the TV itself is good quality and has good picture then will it matter what DVD player I get?

9/14/2009 2:01:01 PM

There's so much carlface in that post, I don't even know where to begin.

9/14/2009 2:08:59 PM

Any ol' HD DVD player will work just fine.

Signed,

Betamax

9/14/2009 2:09:45 PM

OK....would it help if I prefaced this by stating that I am a total carl face when it comes to this shit? Just pretend (or don't) that you're talking to a home entertainment tech retard here.....

9/14/2009 2:18:52 PM

if this thread is serious, you are going to want to go with a Blu-Ray player... they don't make HD-DVD's anymore... it's a dead format.

9/14/2009 2:20:12 PM

Quote :

"Does HDMI have anything to do with this? If the TV itself is good quality and has good picture then will it matter what DVD player I get?"

The video quality on a "DVD" is going to be inherently inferior to an HD format, i.e., Blu-Ray. Yes, they make up-converting DVD players, yes these will sometimes have an HDMI connection.

Basically, the native format for a DVD is 480p. An "upconverting" DVD player scales the image, which may improve the quality of the DVD picture on an HD-capable television. It will not, however, give you an HD-quality picture: you need a Blu-Ray player + Blu-Ray discs to do this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upconverting#Upscaling.2FUpconverting_DVD

9/14/2009 2:25:54 PM

smath, yes, I am seriously, and I freely admit, seriously retarded when it comes to this stuff....and even more so when it comes to the differences between blu-ray and dvd. I really don't understand and I've googled and just get more confused. I was under the impression that dvds are played on dvd players, and blu-rays are played on blu-ray players and that they were interchangeable....do I have that part right or did I butcher that too?

9/14/2009 2:26:40 PM

Blu-Ray players use a blue laser to play discs - this is a shorter wavelength, and is backwards-compatible with DVDs, which use a red laser (longer wavelength -> bigger grooves). A Blu-Ray player won't play DVDs in high-def, though.

9/14/2009 2:28:51 PM

If you have HD-DVDs then you need an HD-DVD player or a regular DVD player that does upscaling.

Good luck finding a HD-DVD player as that technology got the boot. May be some used ones out there... somewhere...

For future reference, if you want high quality DVDs get Blu-Ray discs and a blu-ray player. These are the standard "High Definition" devices for DVDs and are NOT compatible with HD-DVDs, etc.

9/14/2009 2:49:37 PM

So then does this mean that my Planet Earth, HD DVD Collector's Edition is pointless? Assuming I bought an HD DVD player and played the disc, would the quality be vastly inferior to a Blu-ray version played on a blu-ray?

9/14/2009 2:58:29 PM

unless you can find an hd-dvd player. or they'll at least work in a dvd player that does upscaling.

and as for the HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray quality, yes Blu-Ray is better, but I don't think most people would be able to tell much of a difference (of course, this is still based on your TV's abilities and how close you are sitting, etc, etc).

9/14/2009 3:01:10 PM

So then something like this: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9260685&type=product&id=1218070353057
would be ideal because then I'd have blu-ray player but also still be able to play regular dvd as well as HD dvds that will have that upscale thing right?

9/14/2009 3:16:00 PM

that player doesn't support hd-dvd. upscaling dvd players and hd-dvd players are not the same thing. you're going to have a hard time finding a (new) set-top player that plays hd-dvd's

9/14/2009 3:24:18 PM

wtf? So HD dvds in general are completely useless???....unless you have a HD DVD player which only plays HD DVDs? WTF? I thought the whole thing was that the upscale thing took care of this? WTFUCKING FUCK

9/14/2009 3:28:13 PM

more or less. are you sure that you have hd-dvds?

[Edited on September 14, 2009 at 3:38 PM. Reason : .]

9/14/2009 3:35:53 PM

well it's a specific one....the Planet Earth series. mother fucking fuck......such a simple thing in life to want

9/14/2009 3:39:11 PM

when/where did you buy this?

9/14/2009 3:39:48 PM

from Discovery store (online)...a while ago. I bought it for my dad and now I'm in AZ visiting the rents and since they recently got a kick ass HDTV I thought, 'GEE! Wouldn't it be cool to watch Planet Earth on it!' and then I got my nephew (he's 3) all excited about it....so when the shit didn't play, I was annoyed...but now I'm even more annoyed. Although I would like to throw out a huge THANK YOU to TWW because I was about 30 minutes away from going to bestbuy to get a new DVD player but now realize that's a bad idea. So this thread just proves that even though many of those on TWW can be dicks, it's all good in the end

9/14/2009 3:43:54 PM

HD-Dvd=Betamax

Blu-Ray=VHS


Hope this helps.

9/14/2009 3:45:37 PM

yes....it does. Actually ALL the posts in here have helped....including the first few

9/14/2009 3:46:52 PM

just to be TOTALLY clear. you got something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Planet-Earth-Complete-HD-DVD/dp/B000MRAAJW

if so, then yeah, they're pretty useless these days unless you want to buy a player on ebay or something to play one series of hd-dvds. blu-ray won the format war a while back and very few hd-dvds have been made. support for hd-dvd is pretty limited too because not very many people bought into the standard to begin with. you may be able to find a combination hd-dvd/blu-ray player out there if you look for a while and that would play these discs as well as the current high definition movie standard (blu-ray).

9/14/2009 3:49:47 PM

yup Since I bought it so long ago I'm guessing I either totally didn't see the warnings, or they weren't there. Just to be certain, if I get a blu-ray with an conversion thing, then all my regular DVDs will still be playable right?

9/14/2009 3:53:42 PM

Quote :

"if I get a blu-ray with an conversion thing"

you're going to have to spell out what you mean here.

9/14/2009 3:54:31 PM

that link I posted before....to that blu-ray player...it has that upconversion thing which means that if I have a regular ole DVD (standard, not HD) then I can play them on that blu-ray player....right?

9/14/2009 3:56:24 PM

yes. it lists the supported playback formats in the "specifications" bit on that link.

9/14/2009 3:59:08 PM

OK...glad I at least managed to get that right.... where were you guys when my dumb ass bought the HD DVD

9/14/2009 4:05:10 PM

We were arguing it out over in this 46 page thread.

9/14/2009 5:41:24 PM

Well sure...but I would have had to read through almost 2300 posts in order to find out what I've managed to find out in less than 26

9/14/2009 5:46:33 PM

Well I didn't mean you should have read the whole thread. Just that the issue has been discussed ad nauseum on here. All you had to do was ask.

9/14/2009 5:56:22 PM

Well I did ask! Hence the thread!

9/14/2009 6:27:17 PM

Quote :

"and as for the HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray quality, yes Blu-Ray is better, but I don't think most people would be able to tell much of a difference (of course, this is still based on your TV's abilities and how close you are sitting, etc, etc). "

not true... in fact most hd-dvds have been found to have superior video/audio transfers (w/ a 1080p hd dvd player).i own both and only the most recent blurays have comparable video and sound quality.

if you have the room i suggest just finding a cheap used hd-dvd player off cl. they will play your hd dvds and also up convert better than most bluray players. i actually own more hd-dvds than blurays. they are cheaper (3$ vs 30$ for the movies ) and buying a used hddvd player is actually chepaer than the cost of replacing your planet earth box set, plus there are tons of movies available on hd-dvd that still aren't on bluray yet. last my favorite thing is that since it's a "dead" format you don't have to let friends borrow your movies.

9/14/2009 7:00:55 PM

do you have an xbox 360?

9/14/2009 7:21:27 PM

^ it's for her parents

9/14/2009 7:50:34 PM

carl face

i started to respond

but i can't even do it

9/14/2009 7:55:35 PM

^^to me it look like she holed up at the rents house with her nephew and is trying to watch a dvd or three to me.

9/14/2009 8:38:41 PM

no xbox....but last night, since.my dad has a WII, I asked if those play DVDs and he said, "no.....it's not like an Xbox "

The truth of the matter is that I just really want to watch Planet Earth on their HD and I happen to be in AZ this week and remembered so I got all excited and then quickly was ripped of said excitement because the thing wouldn't play...I wanted immediate gratification but it has now become more complicated because sure, I can let my parents eventually get around to getting either a blu-ray player or whatever, but my dad is always traveling and my mom is 100 times more tech retarded than me so unless I plan on spending $300 on a blu-ray player that I'm going to use for a couple days, I'm SOL.

Then I got excited through their TIVO you can order/watch movies from amazon as well as netflix...but of course, neither one of those places has PE

9/14/2009 9:05:34 PM

I'll send you planet earth 1080p .avimkv file (if your laptop has HD output) for a boob face shot.

Also, if you bought the $299 blu-ray player (ps3) you would also need to repurchase Planet Earth. Really the only way you can receive the immediate gratification you seek is to drop about 100 bucks on craigslist or find one of the neighborhood kids to let you borrow their 360+HD.DVD addon.

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/ele/1369560812.html

http://geo.craigslist.org/iso/us/az

Maybe ask to rent someone's player on CL?

[Edited on September 14, 2009 at 9:42 PM. Reason : .]

9/14/2009 9:40:08 PM

I used to think mytwocents had some smarts...now I'm not so sure.

9/14/2009 11:11:52 PM

trollllllllllllllllllllllllll

9/14/2009 11:24:23 PM

grandmaster.....I don't trust anyone on CL...especially in Phoenix...plus, my dad is going outta town tomorrow and I don't know how much he spent on the tv and the installation of it but I do know that when I was surveying the connections/ports trying to figure out where I'd plug the thing in (mind you I didn't see shit which I still can't figure out...) he walked in and without skipping a beat informed me that the only thing my hands were allowed to touch in anything related to the tv, was the remote. So even if I managed to borrow one, I couldn't set it up I mean, it's probably for the best...I deleted a favorite Dora episode of my nephew's and my dad was livid...and that was just damage I did with the remote

TKE....I got smarts.....just not when it comes to a select few things..... such as hooking up anything AV related or hanging up shelves (or anything that involve screws and lining little holes up) for instance. I know my limits you see....

9/15/2009 4:59:06 AM

i got the x-box HD-DVD add-on deal (drive and 7 HD-DVDs) for $14 toward the end of the format war...picked up the same planet earth series mytwocents has for $10

the HD-DVD player connects via USB and works just fine on my XP, vista, and win7 boxes...maybe you can find something like that on CL

9/15/2009 8:53:09 AM

This thread really brightened my day. It's good to know just how fucking stupid people can be sometimes.

9/15/2009 10:36:12 AM

Wow. It's amazing to me what the threshold is to measure a persons stupidity.

I think it would be enlightening to hear what it is about about this thread that illustrates "just how fucking stupid people can be sometimes".

9/15/2009 12:45:50 PM

^lol.

technerds think anyone who doesn't know techie stuff is stupid
autonerds think anyone who doesn't know auto stuff is stupid
entertainment nerds think anyone who doesn't know entertainment stuff is stupid
politiconerds think anyone who doesn't know political stuff is stupid
democrats think anyone who doesn't agree is stupid
republicans think anyone who doesn't agree is stupid

see the pattern?

9/15/2009 1:10:51 PM

Oh I see the pattern all right....at least there are the few people who actually care to help so if you are one of those people (and *most* in this thread are) then .

I'm waiting until there is a conficker thread so I can tell everyone how fucking stupid THEY are

9/15/2009 3:39:54 PM

i have a blu-ray player that can also play dvds. one time it didn't want to play a dvd and i had to break out my old dvd player and hook it up. so if you still have some dvds lying around, i'd keep the old dvd player as backup in case your fancy blu-ray player doesnt want to play it!

9/15/2009 4:01:48 PM

well of course, there's no point in throwing away a perfectly good DVD player...or the VCR I have either

[Edited on September 15, 2009 at 4:16 PM. Reason : k]

9/15/2009 4:15:10 PM

I hang onto my 8-track player in case my cassette-tapes don't play properly.

9/15/2009 4:20:13 PM

The problem is that people aren't looking at an HD-DVD and a DVD side by side and thinking Betamax and VHS or Cassette/Stereo 8 Vinyl/CD. The fact that they are two completely different formats gets somewhat overshadowed by their seemingly identical media.

9/15/2009 4:23:35 PM

Well that's the thing.... I look at it like an HD-DVD as being a 600dpi jpeg vs a DVD being a 72dpi jpeg...you can see both, use the same programs to see both etc with the only difference (at least for the sake of this example) being the quality of it... so the fact that the two have nothing in common other than they both have the letters DVD in them fucking gay. Because as a clearly uninformed consumer, if I go somewhere and see the Planet Earth DVD on sale for $40 and next to it is the Planet Earth HD DVD on which is on a for $40, I'd go for the HD one without question... In fact, I'm almost positive that at some point I did ask someone at Best Buy or something like that, and was told the only difference was the quality.....so....

9/15/2009 5:56:46 PM