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. Read about disc playback issues, firmware updates, and buying/renting movies…

Study results from the NPD group show that 73% of HDTV owners claimed to be satisfied with their current DVD player and felt no need to go high-def via either Blu-ray or HD DVD. Only 11% of them expressed a strong interest in buying a high-def player in the next six months, with 62% stating they’re waiting for prices to come down.

In an interview at Beta News, NPD analyst Russ Rubin points out that some consumers only start seeing the differences between up-converted movies versus those playing on high-def players when things are pointed to them.

Another executive NPD analyst said that “Once consumers become convinced of the superiority of high-def, and find a way to navigate the format issues, there will be a great deal of pent-up demand for HD DVD or Blu-ray content.”

These reports of consumer ignorance are consistent with news from a Best Buy study where it seems that lots of people enter into an HDTV purchase without really knowing what they’re getting into. The survey polled 1,012 customers from August 3 to August 5, and found that 89% of people admitted to lacking a proper understanding of HDTV technology. Nearly half (48%) of customers don’t account for the fact that they’ll probably also need to sign up for some kind of HD service from cable or satellite (and probably invest in a high-definition player too). (more…)

UPDATE: I’ve been debunked! It’s not really conclusive afterall. I originally meant this to be a satiricial kind of thing about making up numbers, but somewhere along the way, I lost that satirical vibe and presented it with the same bravado of those who really do officially present this kind of thing at conferences. I’m leaving the article up for your amusement or lack thereof. Meanwhile, I’ll go back and study Jonathan Swift a little more, and maybe more Jay Leno too.

Presenters from the high-def DVD camps are glad to bring out charts and stats that demonstrate how their own format is beating the other. You have to pay close attention to fully appreciate the data, or else it’s easy to get lost in the details and not understand what’s being presented. It also seems like every one of these reports comes from a flavor of the month research company, which leads to a lot of conflicting information. For example, how can two sets of reports for the same time period generate opposite results?

Data collected by a trusted source over a long period of time is probably the most meaningful. It’s even more useful when the topic is easy to understand (e.g. there’s no math). Show me a chart from an organization that everybody’s heard about, where the point being studied is simple to understand, and I’ll know for sure that somebody’s claims are for real.

I’m about to show you just such a chart. (more…)

Prominent high-def enthusiast Josh Zyber has taken a few moments to share his thoughts on all the recent commotion about last week’s Paramount news, as well as the hyping of disc sales numbers.

Some of Josh’s points have already been made in comments or articles at this site (and by a lot of High-Def fans on various forums), and it’s nice to see that these opinions are actually shared by a more authorative person like Mr. Zyber.

Pop on over to High-Def Digest to read his piece, and even post your thoughts for him to respond to over in the associated discussion thread in their forum.

Here are just a few of Josh’s points:

• Zyber’s early reviews of Blu-ray titles were negative because the studios were putting out lousy discs compared to HD DVD. He’d like to think that criticism like his has led to an improvement in Blu-ray quality, both formats are much more directly comparable today.

For some unknown reason, Blu-ray titles would come out in MPEG2 encoding, while the HD DVD version used VC-1.

• Comparing sales numbers between Blu-ray and HD DVD is “like boasting an ant is larger than a flea, just before the big shoe of DVD comes down to smoosh them both into oblivion.”

Josh is referring to the fact that DVD heartily outsells Blu-ray and HD DVD combined, and points out that 300 sold more copies on DVD in one week than both formats have sold of everything combined in 6 months of 2007. One format would have to start selling way better before trying to proclaim itself the winner.

• Business is business and if you’re going to point fingers at the Paramount deal, then don’t be hypocritical about Blu-ray’s deals.

He points out that Disney was a contributor to the HD DVD interactivity features, but “surprisingly,” they don’t even use this stuff because they’re Blu-ray exclusive.

• Both formats are going to be around together for a while, get used to it.

That’s how it has worked for many years in the video game world, and all of the competition forces everyone to make better products (at better prices too).

There’s even more food for thought in his article. To a Blu-ray supporter, Josh’s article is going to come off as an anti-Blu commentary. He promises that his next commentary will take on various problems with HD DVD. And I’ll be happy to report on that piece as well. Please do yourself a favor and read his article for yourself over at High-Def Digest.

• A War of Hype, and Paramount’s Big Bombshell

It’s been a tumultuous week in the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray world with the recent conversion of Paramount (who also distributes DreamWorks) to HD DVD-only instead of supporting both formats. Going forward, all Paramount discs will now only be in HD DVD. Blu-ray pre-orders for Blades of Glory and other movies will have to be refunded, and all existing Paramount Blu-ray titles are about to become collector’s items.

It’s natural to jump to conclusions about the motivations that people and companies have for doing what they do. In Paramount’s case, a certain part of that motivation came in the form of some special consideration, like free advertising, and other incentives reportedly worth $150 million. Many people have jumped to the conclusion that Microsoft was behind that sum of money – after all, even the man on the Moon knows Microsoft has tons of cash lying around.

Two noted Microsoftians have gone on the record to dispel these theories. (more…)

After a few items of not-so-great news in the last few weeks, the HD DVD camp just scored one of the biggest deals they could to ensure the format’s longevity.

Blu-ray fans are groaning that Paramount and DreamWorks were paid off in various ways, including free advertising promotions. So what? Do you think that the other guys haven’t been up to the same kinds of antics? Do you honestly think that stores freely “chose” Blu-ray with no special considerations whatsoever? Whatever millions any of these companies may have spent or received, it’s “chump change” considering the billions of dollars at stake in both hardware and movies.

It sucks that such shenanigans even have to happen in the first place. It would have been great if all movies had always been available in both HD formats, leaving consumers to make their own choices. It would have been even more wonderful if both formats were compatible with each other, or to have just one format. But it can never work that way because every party involved, even the consumer, puts their own interests first.

I’m glad the HD DVD group had the nerve to pull off such a great deal. (more…)

In recent news, we’ve heard that Toshiba’s upcoming HD-A35 and Onkyo’s DV-HD805 players will feature HDMI 1.3a which enables “Deep Color” output. It’s always nice to brag that your gadgets have the latest gee-whiz features, but it’s even better when you actually understand what you’re bragging about. It’s even more important to know whether you might have been misled about how cool or useful the feature is. “Deep Color” is one of those features that sounds great, but let’s see if it’s all that you think it’s made out to be.

Let’s make this a practical lesson so that you’re not left with more buzzwords and confusion. These steps are for Windows XP, but the same ideas apply to all computers.

Right-click on your desktop, and select the last item, “Properties,” so that you can examine how your video is set up. On the dialog box that comes up next, select the right-most tab for “Settings.” Here, you’ll see the resolution that your screen is currently set at – the higher the numbers, the more pixels and detail you get. Low numbers like 640×480 correspond to the picture quality of ordinary TVs and DVDs. Higher numbers, such as 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1900×1200, and so on, move you into HDTV territory.

“Color Quality” is at the bottom right of the dialog. The available settings depend on your video card and monitor. In the old days, this would be set to 8-bit graphics because some games only worked properly in that mode, and some computers or cards were so slow that 8-bit actually made things go faster. The other extreme is 32-bits of color, and there is usually a 16-bit “medium” option as well. These numbers refer to how much data it takes to represent a pixel – a single dot – on the screen. More bits means more colors (i.e. more shades for each color), but it also requires a little more speed and performance from all of the components involved.

Voila! You’ve just understood the basic principles about Deep Color. Standard HD DVD (and Blu-ray) discs are made for 24-bit color, and the HDMI 1.3a specification allows colors to be represented by 30, 36, and 48 bits.

Now for the “gotcha!” in all of this: (more…)

You remember the story about Goldilocks and the three bears, right? She would try out items at the bear residence, finding something of the mother or father bear’s too extreme in some way (too soft, too hot, etc.) and eventually settle on something of the child bear’s because it was somehow just right in the middle.

The Goldilocks story can be applied to consumer electronics pretty easily. You’re often faced with a bazillion choices when you go shopping. Some items are too expensive, and others are too cheap. Some have too many features, and others don’t have nearly enough. In the end, you purchase the one that’s just right for your needs. Something that fits into your budget and does what you needed it to do.

What are the problems with buying too much or too little of something? Well, buying the ultra-super-duper model means you better hope to enjoy all of those features before your friends pick up the same thing at half price a few months later. On the other end of the pricing spectrum, it’s always a great feeling to get a good bargain, but it’s never fun to end up with poor quality or insufficient features. After making several mistakes at both ends of the pricing and quality game, people tend to arrive at the strategy of getting something that costs a little more than the cheapest model, and is just a few features shy of the most expensive one.

The last few days saw a couple of articles that reinforce the zen-like practice of walking the middle ground when it comes to consumer electronics. One was a study of the warranty and service policies on some of the lowest-priced HDTVs, and another was a performance test of HDMI cables. (more…)

Did you know that the PS2 is still selling more units than the Xbox 360 or PS3? And that the Wii outsells the Xbox 360 and PS3 as well? A large part of the success of these items lies in their affordability. Most people want a quick and simple solution, and they’re not overly involved with or attached to brands or certain technologies. If you want to get a videogame system to keep an elementary school-aged kid busy over the summer, then you can get a new PS2 for real cheap, and your kids can choose from thousands of new and used games. In the end, your child (probably a young one — because I’m sure an older one child would want a 360 or PS3) gets a game system, and you get to keep more of your money for other expenses… like a mortgage.

The same thing applies to HD DVD and Blu-ray adoption. Despite monthly claims from Blu-ray and HD DVD representatives that “our side outsells the other guys,” the reality is that people are still buying standard and enhanced DVD players (those that up-convert standard DVD output to HDTV) in large numbers almost as if they are unaware of or don’t care about the high-definition formats.

In a Reuters news story, Steve Nickerson, a Warner Bros. spokesperson, pointed out that price-sensitivity is very important in regard to the success of the high-definition DVD formats. Nickerson said, “you can’t get to mass-market consumption until you get to mass-market pricing.”

In the same article, Olivier Van Wynendaele, spokesperson for the European HD DVD group, revealed that surveys indicate 70% of consumers would buy a high-definition player once prices fall below $200. He didn’t answer when Toshiba would cut their prices to that level, but he did acknowledge that this kind of pricing was coming in the future.

I’m sure that even Blu-ray players will one day sell at those price levels, but the question is how long are YOU going to wait for that happen? I think it depends on whether you have the $300 today to get an HD DVD player (or $500 for Blu-ray), AND how fed up you may be about not getting the ultimate and total use of your HDTV set.

As for me? I have a Wii and you can already guess which high-definition DVD format I own. I am not uninterested in getting a PS3 or 360, but my family gets enough fun and usage from our Wii that we’re not missing much by not having those other systems. The same is true about our DVD format choice.