Some of you are visiting the site today because you opened your Christmas presents, found an HD DVD player amongst them, and are now wondering how to get the most out of it.

For those of you who came here looking for technical help, you should read this earlier posting about getting assistance using various internet forums.

This posting has basic tips for some common technical issues, and concludes with information about living in the HD DVD world you just joined and getting movies.

Connect it Properly
First off, make sure that your HD DVD player is connected to your HDTV via an HDMI cable, or with component cables that have the three jacks (red, blue, green) for video. If you’re using the single RCA jack for video (usually colored yellow), or an S-Video connector, then your HD DVD player is not going to deliver HD picture quality. You’ll still have access to the HD DVD interactivity features, but your picture quality isn’t going to be much better than what you get on regular old DVDs.

Also make sure that your player and HDTV (and receiver, if you’re using one) are all set up properly for each other. Don’t assume that all of these components automatically configure themselves to provide the best results. It’s quite common to discover that one of these components is cancelling out another, or that the wrong jacks are being used for audio, or that you need to turn on your HDTV or player first or last before they’ll “talk” to each other properly (HDMI handshake issues usually show up as garbled audio or video). Sometimes, all it takes is to plug your player into another HDMI port.

If you’re watching a “Combo” disc, meaning that one side is HD DVD and the other is DVD, make sure that you put the HD DVD side facing up. One way to know that you put the disc in properly is that the disc will load up and display some sort of HD DVD intro along with everything else it plays before the movie starts.

Disc Playback Issues
It’s likely that you probably got at least one movie, and some of you might have received more. While most people encounter no difficulties with their movies, a few people come up against discs that don’t play at all, or that play for a little while and then stop.

Some playback issues are caused by defective discs, just as with conventional DVDs. Some people have problems with “Combo” discs — these are the discs with HD DVD on one side and DVD on the other. It’s often something to do with simple manufacturing defects on those discs, and not necessarily something wrong about your player. For example, I had no problems with 300 or The Bourne Ultimatum, but some people have. You can usually exchange these discs, and some people have had luck by running the disc under hot water (don’t scrub the surface!), which seems to wash away the bad cooties that are messing up the disc.

Firmware Update
In some cases, discs have playback issues because something about that movie is a little different than your player was expecting, and your player needs a firmware update to deal with it. For example, perhaps that HD DVD has some internet or other interactivity features that go beyond what your HD DVD player already knew how to handle.

If your player is connected to the internet, you can perform the update directly from your player. These updates usually take more than 20 minutes, and since this is a busy holiday week, the servers may be a little busy, and you might find that an update takes even longer. Don’t turn off your machine until an update completes, or unless the machine decides to quit on an update itself. If the machine quits an update, then try again later. Oh, make sure there’s no disc in your player during these updates, or else the update might fail horribly enough that your player gets permanently messed up.

The other update option is to download the firmware directly to your PC and to burn it to a CD (not a DVD-R or anything else!). These are called ISO files, and are the fastest and most reliable way to update your player. The downlading is simple, but you’ll need to make sure that you have a CD-burning program that can handle these ISO files. You can also check out the “HD DVD Master Firmware Burning Thread” at the AVS Forum where most people’s questions about burning these CDs have been answerd.

Buying or Renting Movies
Alright, so your new player is working and you’re ready for some movies. Since this is a holiday week, it’s more than likely that you might want to watch your movies right away, and not order them at some website and have the movies arrive next week.

The most popular HD DVD of all is Planet Earth and you should consider looking into other titles known for their excellent picture quality or audio quality, such as Shrek the Third, King Kong, Hot Fuzz, and Transformers. Note that some movies are intentionally shot with “grain” added to them. The fact that you can see this grain proves that you’re watching them in the finest high-definition, because it would have come out as fuzzy stuff on a regular DVD. 300 is a particularly good example of a movie that’s been intentionally stylized in this manner. Read the “reference” PQ (picture quality) and AQ (audio quality) thread at the AVS forum so you can learn about more of the discs that will show off your home theater.

Best Buy currently has a “Buy 2 Get 1 Free” offer on over 200 HD DVD movies, and the sale runs until Saturday, December 29. Most people have a Best Buy near them, so head on over and bring some high-def goodness home right away.

What’s that? You’re balking at the high prices on movies, and would rather rent? This part is a little trickier. Your best bet is to rent online from Netflix. They have more HD DVD movies availble than you’re likely to find at any video store, and the monthly plans aren’t so bad. I’m on a $9 plan where we get to watch one movie at a time, but can watch as many as possible during that month. Because I’m one of those rare birds that devours bonus features, this plan has worked out to about three or four movies a month for me. Blockbuster also rents movies by mail, but the web is abuzz about recent rate hikes that make it seem like even Blockbuster wants you use Netflix.

For more immediate rental results, you’ll probably want to call around to the video stores in your area to find out if they rent HD DVD movies. Some of the bigger chain stores do offer HD DVDs, but you might have to be lucky to find one in your area. I went to a Blockbuster in my town that supposedly had HD DVDs, but discovered they only sell them. Even though they had the latest titles, none of them were for rent. Call your own Blockbuster to see if they do any better for you. Hollywood Video is another national chain that rents HD DVDs, but call ahead at your store to be certain. Click here for the Blockbuster store locator, and here for the Hollywood Video store locator. These locators have icons that tell you if the store has HD DVDs. In the case of Blockbuster, they’ll have a Blu-ray icon, and only some of those stores offer HD DVDs.

By the way, if you know that a particular video store, even a small one, rents HD DVDs, please share the store details in the comments or email the info in to editor at hddvd.com so that it can be added to a master list for future presentation.

Longer-term, the best ways to get HD DVDs is to keep an eye out for sales that come along. Most new releases cost closer to $30, and older titles can be found for $17-$20. If you look around this site a bit, you’ll notice that Amazon.com gets featured a lot. That’s because they offer just about every title at at least a 30% discount and are a pretty reliable vendor. While other sites might beat Amazon on a title here or there, in general, you can usually order from Amazon and not be overly concerned that you might have paid too much.

In Conclusion…
This posting has come to an end, but it’s the start of a new chapter in your high-def experience. The goal at HDDVD.com (which is not owned or operated by the official HD DVD organizers) is to be a useful resource for HD DVD owners. In most cases, it means you’ll get information about interesting shopping deals on movies and players, a disc review now and then, as well as coverage of other things happening in the HD DVD world. There’s usually something new at least every few days, so come by again, or consider subscribing to the RSS feed. Thanks for visiting, and we hope to see you again. Enjoy your HD!