Unimpressed by HD-DVD
 

I just purchased a large screen DLP HDTV. I have DirecTV, and the
HD shows look incredible. The impressive picture takes up the
entire screen. So far I've watched 3 movies played through my
XBox HD-DVD player, and the picture is NOT impressive. The
picture is shrunk to almost half the size of the TV, and the
resolution doesn't look as good. If I "zoom" the picture
so it's not so small, the picture quality gets even worse.
I have the HD-DVD player connected to my component video,
which I've read provides a picture almost indistinguishable
from the HDMI interface.

Does Blu-Ray shrink the picture to these small letterbox sizes?

Unimpressed by HD-DVD
 

"nospam" wrote in message
. ..
I just purchased a large screen DLP HDTV. I have DirecTV, and the
HD shows look incredible. The impressive picture takes up the
entire screen. So far I've watched 3 movies played through my
XBox HD-DVD player, and the picture is NOT impressive. The
picture is shrunk to almost half the size of the TV, and the
resolution doesn't look as good. If I "zoom" the picture
so it's not so small, the picture quality gets even worse.
I have the HD-DVD player connected to my component video,
which I've read provides a picture almost indistinguishable
from the HDMI interface.

No it doesn't. You MUST used the HDMI interface to get the full capability
of the HD-DVD player.


Does Blu-Ray shrink the picture to these small letterbox sizes?

Unimpressed by HD-DVD
 

Guy wrote:
"nospam" wrote in message
. ..
I just purchased a large screen DLP HDTV. I have DirecTV, and the
HD shows look incredible. The impressive picture takes up the
entire screen. So far I've watched 3 movies played through my
XBox HD-DVD player, and the picture is NOT impressive. The
picture is shrunk to almost half the size of the TV, and the
resolution doesn't look as good. If I "zoom" the picture
so it's not so small, the picture quality gets even worse.
I have the HD-DVD player connected to my component video,
which I've read provides a picture almost indistinguishable
from the HDMI interface.

No it doesn't. You MUST used the HDMI interface to get the full capability
of the HD-DVD player.

Does Blu-Ray shrink the picture to these small letterbox sizes?

I can't speak for the XBox player, but all the stand-alone players and
HD-DVD & Blu-Ray disks put full HD 1920x1080 resolution out the
component ports. No studio has activated the down-rezz flag for analog
output for any of their disks yet. If this is what you were posting about.

Does the XBox menu have an menu option for output to a 4:3 versus 16:9
TV? If the "picture is shrunk to almost half the size of the TV", that
sounds like a 2.35:1 cinemascope movie being shown on a 4:3 (1.33:1) TV
screen. This seems to happen WAAAYYY too often with people who get get a
widescreen TV, but never read the manual or check the setup on their DVD
player.

Alan F

Unimpressed by HD-DVD
 

nospam wrote in
:

I just purchased a large screen DLP HDTV. I have DirecTV, and the
HD shows look incredible. The impressive picture takes up the
entire screen. So far I've watched 3 movies played through my
XBox HD-DVD player, and the picture is NOT impressive. The
picture is shrunk to almost half the size of the TV, and the
resolution doesn't look as good. If I "zoom" the picture
so it's not so small, the picture quality gets even worse.
I have the HD-DVD player connected to my component video,
which I've read provides a picture almost indistinguishable
from the HDMI interface.

Does Blu-Ray shrink the picture to these small letterbox sizes?


hOMANY TIMES Can you troll this? I am sure people will answer this but here
we go again

Unimpressed by HD-DVD
 

I make a lot of HD-DVDs with still photographs as well as with prosumer HDV
camcorders, and I am here to tell you that HD DVD delivers stunning 1920 by
1080 full frame content in exactly the same format, resolution, and color
gamut as the MPEG2 encoded BluRay disks, and generally quite superior to
anything I can see on my satellite or HD cable box, both of which are
encoded at a much lower bit rate than the 25 Mbit/sec data coming from the
HD DVD.

You have either a bad connection, improper setup, a defective HD DVD player,
or bad examples of HDDVD disks.

Smarty


"nospam" wrote in message
. ..
I just purchased a large screen DLP HDTV. I have DirecTV, and the
HD shows look incredible. The impressive picture takes up the
entire screen. So far I've watched 3 movies played through my
XBox HD-DVD player, and the picture is NOT impressive. The
picture is shrunk to almost half the size of the TV, and the
resolution doesn't look as good. If I "zoom" the picture
so it's not so small, the picture quality gets even worse.
I have the HD-DVD player connected to my component video,
which I've read provides a picture almost indistinguishable
from the HDMI interface.

Does Blu-Ray shrink the picture to these small letterbox sizes?

Unimpressed by HD-DVD
 

How do you make HDV DVDs and what do you use to view them?

I have a Sony consumer HDV camcorder. All I have figured out so far is
to upload the tape to my PC, edit it, then download the finished product
to the camcorder and use it as the player.

Smarty wrote:
I make a lot of HD-DVDs with still photographs as well as with prosumer HDV
camcorders, and I am here to tell you that HD DVD delivers stunning 1920 by
1080 full frame content in exactly the same format, resolution, and color
gamut as the MPEG2 encoded BluRay disks, and generally quite superior to
anything I can see on my satellite or HD cable box, both of which are
encoded at a much lower bit rate than the 25 Mbit/sec data coming from the
HD DVD.

Unimpressed by HD-DVD
 

Sam,

The HDV from your Sony makes beautiful HD DVDs which play on the Toshiba
set-top players. You can use Ulead MovieFactory 6 Plus (about $60), or
Apple's DVD Studio Pro to create them, and I do it both ways. Also Ulead's
Video Studio 10+ does a very nice job.

Download the free trial of Ulead Movie Factory 6+ and capture directly from
your Sony. I use both the HDR-HC3 and FX-1 camcorders, and they both work
superbly well. Also, you can import still camera pictures from any digital
camera with more than 2 megapixel images and you will see the images on your
1920 by 1080 HDTV at full rez (roughly 2 Mpixels). The still picture
slideshows and camcorder videos can be mixed for a really nice wedding,
party, travel or other HD DVD.

Smarty

"Sam Spade" wrote in message
...
How do you make HDV DVDs and what do you use to view them?

I have a Sony consumer HDV camcorder. All I have figured out so far is to
upload the tape to my PC, edit it, then download the finished product to
the camcorder and use it as the player.

Smarty wrote:
I make a lot of HD-DVDs with still photographs as well as with prosumer
HDV camcorders, and I am here to tell you that HD DVD delivers stunning
1920 by 1080 full frame content in exactly the same format, resolution,
and color gamut as the MPEG2 encoded BluRay disks, and generally quite
superior to anything I can see on my satellite or HD cable box, both of
which are encoded at a much lower bit rate than the 25 Mbit/sec data
coming from the HD DVD.

Unimpressed by HD-DVD
 

"Guy" wrote in message
...

"nospam" wrote in message
. ..
I just purchased a large screen DLP HDTV. I have DirecTV, and the
HD shows look incredible. The impressive picture takes up the
entire screen. So far I've watched 3 movies played through my
XBox HD-DVD player, and the picture is NOT impressive. The
picture is shrunk to almost half the size of the TV, and the
resolution doesn't look as good. If I "zoom" the picture
so it's not so small, the picture quality gets even worse.
I have the HD-DVD player connected to my component video,
which I've read provides a picture almost indistinguishable
from the HDMI interface.

No it doesn't. You MUST used the HDMI interface to get the full capability
of the HD-DVD player.


Does Blu-Ray shrink the picture to these small letterbox sizes?

Your XBOX 360 is set up incorrectly. HD-DVD on the XBOX component is every
bit as beautiful as HDMI (which the 360 doesn't have).

Tell it you have a 1920x1080i widescreen in the display setup and it will be
beautiful, far better than the stuff you see on satellite.

Unimpressed by HD-DVD
 

I have the latest version of Sony's Vega, so capturing and editing is
not my problem. (I also have the HDR-HC3). But, I still don't
understand how you burn an HD DVD.

I don't have an HD DVD player either. But, if I knew I could burn HD
DVDs for such a set-top player that would give me the incentive to buy one.

Smarty wrote:
Sam,

The HDV from your Sony makes beautiful HD DVDs which play on the Toshiba
set-top players. You can use Ulead MovieFactory 6 Plus (about $60), or
Apple's DVD Studio Pro to create them, and I do it both ways. Also Ulead's


Video Studio 10+ does a very nice job.

Download the free trial of Ulead Movie Factory 6+ and capture directly from
your Sony. I use both the HDR-HC3 and FX-1 camcorders, and they both work
superbly well. Also, you can import still camera pictures from any digital
camera with more than 2 megapixel images and you will see the images on your
1920 by 1080 HDTV at full rez (roughly 2 Mpixels). The still picture
slideshows and camcorder videos can be mixed for a really nice wedding,
party, travel or other HD DVD.

Smarty

"Sam Spade" wrote in message
...

How do you make HDV DVDs and what do you use to view them?

I have a Sony consumer HDV camcorder. All I have figured out so far is to
upload the tape to my PC, edit it, then download the finished product to
the camcorder and use it as the player.

Smarty wrote:

I make a lot of HD-DVDs with still photographs as well as with prosumer
HDV camcorders, and I am here to tell you that HD DVD delivers stunning
1920 by 1080 full frame content in exactly the same format, resolution,
and color gamut as the MPEG2 encoded BluRay disks, and generally quite
superior to anything I can see on my satellite or HD cable box, both of
which are encoded at a much lower bit rate than the 25 Mbit/sec data
coming from the HD DVD.

Unimpressed by HD-DVD
 

On Apr 4, 3:25 pm, Sam Spade wrote:
I have the latest version of Sony's Vega, so capturing and editing
is
not my problem. (I also have the HDR-HC3). But, I still don't
understand how you burn an HD DVD.

I don't have an HD DVD player either. But, if I knew I could burn
HD
DVDs for such a set-top player that would give me the incentive to
buy one.

snip

What you _can_ do is burn a standard DVD with a hidef .MPG file. I
know this works as I have a pile DVDs of last years '24' episodes.
These discs play properly with ATIs MMC and also work correctly with
Windows Media Player on computers other than the one used to originate
the disc. The data rate is slow enough to play directly from the disc
in real time.

GG

Unimpressed by HD-DVD
 

I should have added one more fact. The disks you burn are normal 4.7 GB
DVD-Rs using a cheap standard burner. They hold about 23 minutes of HD
content for a single layer disk, and twice that for a dual layer disk. The
Toshiba plays them just fine. Ulead MovieFactory 6+ knows how to burn red
laser 4.7GB standard DVD-R blanks in an HD DVD format so all you do is
capture the HC3 content, edit and author the menus, chapters, etc. insert a
disk and burn it.

BTW I also use Vegas 7 to do editing and you can use Vegas 7 to render the
HC3 content into an HDV format mpeg2 file using the HDV 1080 template and
import the edited video into MovieFactory 6+ if you would prefer to do more
elaborate editing.

Smarty


"Sam Spade" wrote in message
...
I have the latest version of Sony's Vega, so capturing and editing is not
my problem. (I also have the HDR-HC3). But, I still don't understand how
you burn an HD DVD.

I don't have an HD DVD player either. But, if I knew I could burn HD DVDs
for such a set-top player that would give me the incentive to buy one.

Smarty wrote:
Sam,

The HDV from your Sony makes beautiful HD DVDs which play on the Toshiba
set-top players. You can use Ulead MovieFactory 6 Plus (about $60), or
Apple's DVD Studio Pro to create them, and I do it both ways. Also
Ulead's


Video Studio 10+ does a very nice job.

Download the free trial of Ulead Movie Factory 6+ and capture directly
from your Sony. I use both the HDR-HC3 and FX-1 camcorders, and they both
work superbly well. Also, you can import still camera pictures from any
digital camera with more than 2 megapixel images and you will see the
images on your 1920 by 1080 HDTV at full rez (roughly 2 Mpixels). The
still picture slideshows and camcorder videos can be mixed for a really
nice wedding, party, travel or other HD DVD.

Smarty

"Sam Spade" wrote in message
...

How do you make HDV DVDs and what do you use to view them?

I have a Sony consumer HDV camcorder. All I have figured out so far is
to upload the tape to my PC, edit it, then download the finished product
to the camcorder and use it as the player.

Smarty wrote:

I make a lot of HD-DVDs with still photographs as well as with prosumer
HDV camcorders, and I am here to tell you that HD DVD delivers stunning
1920 by 1080 full frame content in exactly the same format, resolution,
and color gamut as the MPEG2 encoded BluRay disks, and generally quite
superior to anything I can see on my satellite or HD cable box, both of
which are encoded at a much lower bit rate than the 25 Mbit/sec data
coming from the HD DVD.

Unimpressed by HD-DVD
 

One more factoid..... Toshiba (last week) dropped the price of the HD DVD
players to $349. They are beginning to become affordable, especially
compared to BluRay players...

Smarty


"Smarty" wrote in message
...
I should have added one more fact. The disks you burn are normal 4.7 GB
DVD-Rs using a cheap standard burner. They hold about 23 minutes of HD
content for a single layer disk, and twice that for a dual layer disk. The
Toshiba plays them just fine. Ulead MovieFactory 6+ knows how to burn red
laser 4.7GB standard DVD-R blanks in an HD DVD format so all you do is
capture the HC3 content, edit and author the menus, chapters, etc. insert a
disk and burn it.

BTW I also use Vegas 7 to do editing and you can use Vegas 7 to render the
HC3 content into an HDV format mpeg2 file using the HDV 1080 template and
import the edited video into MovieFactory 6+ if you would prefer to do
more elaborate editing.

Smarty


"Sam Spade" wrote in message
...
I have the latest version of Sony's Vega, so capturing and editing is not
my problem. (I also have the HDR-HC3). But, I still don't understand how
you burn an HD DVD.

I don't have an HD DVD player either. But, if I knew I could burn HD
DVDs for such a set-top player that would give me the incentive to buy
one.

Smarty wrote:
Sam,

The HDV from your Sony makes beautiful HD DVDs which play on the Toshiba
set-top players. You can use Ulead MovieFactory 6 Plus (about $60), or
Apple's DVD Studio Pro to create them, and I do it both ways. Also
Ulead's


Video Studio 10+ does a very nice job.

Download the free trial of Ulead Movie Factory 6+ and capture directly
from your Sony. I use both the HDR-HC3 and FX-1 camcorders, and they
both work superbly well. Also, you can import still camera pictures from
any digital camera with more than 2 megapixel images and you will see
the images on your 1920 by 1080 HDTV at full rez (roughly 2 Mpixels).
The still picture slideshows and camcorder videos can be mixed for a
really nice wedding, party, travel or other HD DVD.

Smarty

"Sam Spade" wrote in message
...

How do you make HDV DVDs and what do you use to view them?

I have a Sony consumer HDV camcorder. All I have figured out so far is
to upload the tape to my PC, edit it, then download the finished product
to the camcorder and use it as the player.

Smarty wrote:

I make a lot of HD-DVDs with still photographs as well as with prosumer
HDV camcorders, and I am here to tell you that HD DVD delivers stunning
1920 by 1080 full frame content in exactly the same format, resolution,
and color gamut as the MPEG2 encoded BluRay disks, and generally quite
superior to anything I can see on my satellite or HD cable box, both of
which are encoded at a much lower bit rate than the 25 Mbit/sec data
coming from the HD DVD.

Unimpressed by HD-DVD
 

Smarty wrote:

I should have added one more fact. The disks you burn are normal 4.7 GB
DVD-Rs using a cheap standard burner. They hold about 23 minutes of HD
content for a single layer disk, and twice that for a dual layer disk. The
Toshiba plays them just fine. Ulead MovieFactory 6+ knows how to burn red
laser 4.7GB standard DVD-R blanks in an HD DVD format so all you do is
capture the HC3 content, edit and author the menus, chapters, etc. insert a
disk and burn it.

BTW I also use Vegas 7 to do editing and you can use Vegas 7 to render the
HC3 content into an HDV format mpeg2 file using the HDV 1080 template and
import the edited video into MovieFactory 6+ if you would prefer to do more
elaborate editing.

Smarty


"Sam Spade" wrote in message
...

I have the latest version of Sony's Vega, so capturing and editing is not
my problem. (I also have the HDR-HC3). But, I still don't understand how
you burn an HD DVD.

I don't have an HD DVD player either. But, if I knew I could burn HD DVDs
for such a set-top player that would give me the incentive to buy one.

Smarty wrote:

Sam,

The HDV from your Sony makes beautiful HD DVDs which play on the Toshiba
set-top players. You can use Ulead MovieFactory 6 Plus (about $60), or
Apple's DVD Studio Pro to create them, and I do it both ways. Also
Ulead's



Thanks.
Got it now. Ulead Movie Factory is the key to this.

Got to find one of thos Toshiba players for $350.00


Video Studio 10+ does a very nice job.



Download the free trial of Ulead Movie Factory 6+ and capture directly
from your Sony. I use both the HDR-HC3 and FX-1 camcorders, and they both
work superbly well. Also, you can import still camera pictures from any
digital camera with more than 2 megapixel images and you will see the
images on your 1920 by 1080 HDTV at full rez (roughly 2 Mpixels). The
still picture slideshows and camcorder videos can be mixed for a really
nice wedding, party, travel or other HD DVD.

Smarty

"Sam Spade" wrote in message
...


How do you make HDV DVDs and what do you use to view them?

I have a Sony consumer HDV camcorder. All I have figured out so far is
to upload the tape to my PC, edit it, then download the finished product
to the camcorder and use it as the player.

Smarty wrote:


I make a lot of HD-DVDs with still photographs as well as with prosumer
HDV camcorders, and I am here to tell you that HD DVD delivers stunning
1920 by 1080 full frame content in exactly the same format, resolution,
and color gamut as the MPEG2 encoded BluRay disks, and generally quite
superior to anything I can see on my satellite or HD cable box, both of
which are encoded at a much lower bit rate than the 25 Mbit/sec data
coming from the HD DVD.

Unimpressed by HD-DVD
 

"Sam Spade" wrote in message
...
Thanks.
Got it now. Ulead Movie Factory is the key to this.

Got to find one of thos Toshiba players for $350.00


Amazon has it for $344 and others are a bit cheaper.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...activeda637-20

Unimpressed by HD-DVD
 

Smarty wrote:
"Sam Spade" wrote in message
...

Thanks.
Got it now. Ulead Movie Factory is the key to this.

Got to find one of thos Toshiba players for $350.00



Amazon has it for $344 and others are a bit cheaper.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...activeda637-20


I just ordered it from Amazon. It was 349.99. But, their overnight
shipping is about half what other places are, so it balances out.

Now, if I can only get onto the Ulead site. It is really having issues.

Thanks again for the heads up! The ability to make 23 minute HD videos
from my camcorder made the decision easy. ;-)

No more sitting out format wars.

I just changed 4 movies in my Netflix que to HD-DVD. ;-)

Unimpressed by HD-DVD
 

Sam,

Congrats!! You will be extremely impressed. Also try dragging some JPEGs
into the slideshow and see them pop up on the screen as crisply as they can
possibly appear on your monitor, at 1920 by 1080 if your monitor supports
it.

If you eventually want to get ***REALLY*** adventuresome, you can also
download Ulead PhotoImpact 12 trial and the DVD Menu Plug-In (free trial for
30 days) and make some of your own animated HD menus for your HD DVDs. The
sample menus which come with the trial are animated and really beautiful but
the selection is quite limited. The full blown version of the MovieFactory6+
comes with a much better variety, but for the ultimate is to make all your
own HD DVD menus. The companion PhotoImpact is a lot of fun to use and the
resulting are really stunning. MF6+ does allow some customizing but it is
fairly limited in this specific area.

It is quite ironic that Sony does ***NOT*** provide any path whatsoever for
distribution of HDV content on disk, and that BluRay authoring and playback
is way more expensive. There is no current way to make red laser menued
BluRay disks, and the cheapest authoring program from Roxio for menued
BluRay disks is $599. Then you need to buy a BluRay burner ($600), a BluRay
player (cheapest is the PS3 @ another $600) and blank disks at $25 bucks
apiece. For your total investment of $1800, you get to make disks which look
the same, no better or no worse, than the HD DVD disks you will be viewing
shortly for about $400 for both the HD DVD player and the HD authoring
software. Admittedly your disks will play for a shorter time, but how many
people want to sit down and watch a 2 hour home camcorder movie......?
(-;

Smarty



"Sam Spade" wrote in message
...
Smarty wrote:
"Sam Spade" wrote in message
...

Thanks.
Got it now. Ulead Movie Factory is the key to this.

Got to find one of thos Toshiba players for $350.00



Amazon has it for $344 and others are a bit cheaper.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...activeda637-20


I just ordered it from Amazon. It was 349.99. But, their overnight
shipping is about half what other places are, so it balances out.

Now, if I can only get onto the Ulead site. It is really having issues.

Thanks again for the heads up! The ability to make 23 minute HD videos
from my camcorder made the decision easy. ;-)

No more sitting out format wars.

I just changed 4 movies in my Netflix que to HD-DVD. ;-)

Unimpressed by HD-DVD
 

Smarty wrote:



Admittedly your disks will play for a shorter time, but how many
people want to sit down and watch a 2 hour home camcorder movie......?
(-;

No sane person. ;-)

I got the Ulead program installed once their web site started behaving.

(It pays to have a high-end, cable connection like I do.)

Unimpressed by HD-DVD
 

On Apr 3, 11:23 pm, nospam wrote:
I just purchased a large screen DLP HDTV. I have DirecTV, and the
HD shows look incredible. The impressive picture takes up the
entire screen. So far I've watched 3 movies played through my
XBox HD-DVD player, and the picture is NOT impressive. The
picture is shrunk to almost half the size of the TV, and the
resolution doesn't look as good. If I "zoom" the picture
so it's not so small, the picture quality gets even worse.
I have the HD-DVD player connected to my component video,
which I've read provides a picture almost indistinguishable
from the HDMI interface.

Does Blu-Ray shrink the picture to these small letterbox sizes?

In addition to what other people posted about setting up the display
on the xbox, also make sure that you flip the HDTV switch on the
actual AV cable where it plugs into the Xbox360. It is a small slide
switch that many people don't even know is there. This switch will
allow the correct High Definition output from the Xbox.
HTH,
DougS