So, im too cheap to get a Blue Ray player right now, nor do I want to drop the money for a PS3. I do see lots of HD-DVD players for the 360 on ebay for pretty cheap...Is it worth it to get one? How much better are they then a standard dvd player...I know they dont make the HD dvds anymore, but a lot of the movies I like are available on that format....
I'm glad I got mine. Open box new Toshiba at a clearance store for $20. An example of the deals one can find getting hd dvds when available:
I got the Heroes season 1 box set for $6 after shipping..
I got the 360 HD-DVD add-on for like $40 bucks in Fry's. With it I grabbed Clerks 2 for $2.99, Pitch Black for $5.99, and Battlestar Galactica Season 1 for $8.99. Forgetting it's a great price for HD content. It's a great price for movies in general.
Go for it. No new movies, but a nice lineup of older stuff in high def and lots of places sell them dirt cheap. Why not, right?
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I guess I disagree with everyone else. I can't see dumping money into a dead media format. Sure, everything is really cheap at the moment, but eventually that supply is going to dry up, and you'll end up buying BluRay anyway. I'm not even convinced BluRay is going to be around for the long haul, but that's another topic altogether.
Don't waste your money.
Why can't he keep the HD DVDs when eventually he has to buy a blu ray player anyways? Its not like when eventually the supply of HD DVDs dries up that you have to sign a release to replace everything you have in that format with blus instead. You get as many as you can in the cheap format for about 1/10th the cost, then when you get a blu ray, you get stuff you can't get in red on blu.
That being said, if you do just want to go blu ray for the simplicity of not having multiple formats and players, there are some players for under $100 now. My local Wal Mart has an open box return of one of the $98 players in the clearance aisle for around 75.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that it really doesn't make sense to dump money into a dead format. Sure, you can get players and movies on the cheap, but eventually, you'll hit that wall where you just can't get anything worthwhile on HD DVD. You'll may eventually move to BluRay, and at that point you're buying a second player. Wouldn't it make more sense to just get one player and save yourself the money (and shelf space)?
If the savings on the disks cover the cost of the second player, then go for it. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother, or I'd pick up the BulRay player instead.
Money saved on movies though (average blu ray is 25 to 30 bucks new, vs 4 to 6 bucks for a HD DVD of the same thing online), 20 to 50 bucks for the player, you would come out ok in terms of buying a second player later down the road instead of buying a blu ray player now and paying higher prices for the movies. That's just the way I see it. He would still have high definition movies that would work even after gettinga blu ray player
DeltaOne:I guess what I'm trying to say is that it really doesn't make sense to dump money into a dead format. Sure, you can get players and movies on the cheap, but eventually, you'll hit that wall where you just can't get anything worthwhile on HD DVD.
Every format is a dead format when you think about it, because it will always be replaced eventually and then you will hit the wall. But even if you do, you still have a huge library of movies that don't magically stop working because the format is dead. Something like 450 HD-DVDs were released over it's lifespan. That's a pretty nice pool to select from. By the end of this month I will have 20 HD-DVDs and there are still plenty I want. You will hit the wall no matter what format you're talking about, the question is, how good is the library before the wall is hit. and here the library is quite nice.
DeltaOne: If the savings on the disks cover the cost of the second player, then go for it. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother, or I'd pick up the BulRay player instead.
When I got my HD-DVD player, I nabbed the player, A season of a TV show, and 4 movies for about $70. So yes, I'd say the saving make it worthwhile, since that's about 1/4 of the price that package would cost you with Blu-Ray. And as for shelf space, The 360 addon is about the size of a Wii, not really all that big
3-5$ movies and you are saying that it's a waste of money? How?
if you want to get those movies on bluray, they would run you 20$ each. 5$ on hd-dvd plus 40(or less) for the player, and you are saving tons of money. Not to mention that HD-dvd players are amazing at upscaling old dvds- they actually do look better.
I'm in the 'don't waste the money' camp. Sad to say that as I was rooting for HDDVD from the getgo. Anyways, my thoughts.
First, as noted above, there's a limited supply of HDDVDs. Granted there are some good ones, and some killer steals to be had, but there's a good chance you don't want all 450 titles that were made, so how many deals are there really?
More importantly, what stops me from getting one (short of having a PS3) is that it would be another piece of machinery on my already cluttered entertainment center that serves a severely limited purpose. Even if you got 30 HDDVDs, that's not a whole lot to warrant an exclusive piece of machinery that has no future.
Worse still, eventually, like all electronics, that thing is going to fail. Then what? 5 years down the road I'm sure HDDVD players are going to be harder to find, and the demand all but gone. What to do with those HDDVDs now?
I'd vote save your money for BluRay. It may not be the next VHS to DVD boom, but it's got a far brighter future than HDDVD does, and it's not terribly expensive. I've yet to pay over $15 for a brand new Bluray disc, and with Goozex trading now, I don't plan to. Get the player out of the way and the media isn't that pricey.
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GreenManGaming
Think of it as an upscaling DVD player that can play extremely cheap HD movies.
Although it cannot play all, or any of the current HD movies (Blu-ray), it can still play all DVD and HD DVD movies.
I mean you aren't limited to JUST HD DVDs (it CAN play regular DVDs) and if you cannot afford Blu-ray at the moment, why not buy an outdated but much cheaper player that will make all your DVDs look better anyways?
Maskim: I'm glad I got mine. Open box new Toshiba at a clearance store for $20. An example of the deals one can find getting hd dvds when available: I got the Heroes season 1 box set for $6 after shipping..
That's a pretty nice price. THe problem is long term, what if the HDDVD player breaks, what do you do w/ all those HDDVDs?
BRDs are FINALLY coming down in price, you can get some decent ones for $12.99 now. When they were originally trying to get $600 for a BRP and $35 for a BRD I along w/ many others thought HD DVD would win based on price alone.
Sony pushed hard and won the format war... but at what cost? People are still buying more DVDs than BRDs and the PS3 has been DEAD LAST since launch. Half of the general public still doesn't know what a BRD is and will likely never buy a BRP
Hexpane: Maskim: I'm glad I got mine. Open box new Toshiba at a clearance store for $20. An example of the deals one can find getting hd dvds when available: I got the Heroes season 1 box set for $6 after shipping.. That's a pretty nice price. THe problem is long term, what if the HDDVD player breaks, what do you do w/ all those HDDVDs?
