HD-DVD: First Impressions

Posted by Brian C. Gibson (brian@filmschoolrejects.com) on May 4, 2006

I am the type of guy who has three high definition televisions in my home. I am the type of guy who went to go see Curious George because it was on the DLP screen at my local Cinemark Theater. I am the type of guy who has spent over $1000 in Monster cables alone, just to achieve the absolute best picture and sound quality for my components. Don’t believe me? Check out my credit card bills. Last but not least, on Friday I became the type of guy who went out and bought a High Definition DVD player, the Toshiba HD-A1.

Needless to say, I was like a 4 year old on Christmas tearing open my brand new toy. To accompany my new toy I also purchased a Monster HDMI Cable (M1000HDMI-2M). The first three HD-DVDs that will christen my new player are Apollo 13, Doom and Serenity. Since I already have two HD up-converting DVD players, my Samsung DVD-HD941 and DVD-HD850, I was curious to see what an HD DVD player could do with a standard DVD. As expected, the difference between the players performance was minute but subtlety noticeable. However, when I placed the first HD-DVD in the drive, the opening screen blew me away.

Experimenting a little, I hooked the player up first to my Toshiba 46” HD projection using Monster THX component cables. I placed Doom in the player and waited for the disc to load. The Universal Studios opening sequence panned across the screen, and I never knew the logo was as colorful as I was seeing it to be now. Then as the screen went white, the Universal logo disappeared as just a speck within the HD-DVD logo. The white logo shined as bright as any white I have ever seen. I was hooked. I played with the resolutions, jumping from 480P, 720P and to 1080I wanting to see every detail before I took the player to its new home.

Later, I connected the player to its permanent components. Now connected to a 46” Samsung DLP and my home theater, I knew I would see HD-DVD in its full glory. Brilliant! The picture quality reminded me of the very first time I saw HD cable on my projection. I felt as if my eyes were doused with awesome and I couldn’t blink. For me, to see that kind of quality on a DVD is perfection. For someone who just watches DVDs and maybe has HD cable or satellite, they might only be slightly impressed. Take a closer look though, and what do you see in the picture? The answer is nothing but HD quality resolution. My eyes search the screen for noise, distortion or artifacts but can not find anything of the sort.

One of the coolest features by far is the menus. “Did he say menus?” Yes I did. I hate having to stop the DVD to find a specific chapter, commentary, or extras. While watching Apollo 13 for instance, I can hit my menu button and transparent over the film is the menu. This feature will be shown off in full force later when commentaries go visual, such as in this screenshot of Batman Begins from DVDTown.com. Also, if you have high speed internet, you will be able to access trailers, the official movie website or firmware updates directly from the player.

HD-DVD is absolutely amazing, and I am glad that I have held out on buying King Kong. The value in HD-DVD is found in its reference level resolution. If you want the benchmark representation of Jarhead, you will only find it on HD-DVD. While HD-DVD might only start off as a niche market, there will be a demand for not only new releases but also for older films to be remade. My only fear is that my ever growing DVD collection (which is now at 427 copies and valued at $10,247) is now in jeopardy. I mean seriously, how many times will I have to buy Bring It On?

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