Blu-ray and HD-DVD: The facts
Tip 3: The kit While it's gradually becoming more affordable, HD-DVD and Blu-ray hardware is still very pricey in comparison with standard DVD kit, and as such isn't really aimed at the casual movie fan. For those who want to crank things up a notch on the home cinema front, it's certainly worth investing in a player.
HD-DVD hardware is the cheaper of the two, with Microsoft's addon drive for the Xbox 360 available for a mere S$299 (US$220.14). You will, however, need a console to plug it into, and it doesn't support lossless surround sound at the moment, so it's not the best option available. More powerful, but still pretty affordable, is the S$999 (US$735.52) Toshiba HD-E1. This lacks a 1080p video output, but its 1080i picture is still beautifully detailed and it does support lossless surround--but only if you've an amp with an HDMI input. The main drawback is its sloth-like operating time, which means you'll be waiting around for minutes at a time while the player reluctantly wakes up from standby or ponders loading up a disc. Blu-ray The cheapest Blu-ray player around is the PlayStation 3, which costs S$799 (US$588.27). Home cinema snobs may balk at using a console to play movies, but it actually delivers a fantastic 1080p picture and is the fastest-loading Blu-ray player on the market. It will also output lossless surround sound via an HDMI cable. It's a great-looking piece of kit, too, and of course, it plays videogames, stores digital media content and lets you browse the Internet, so you're getting a lot for your money. Samsung's first Blu-ray player, the BD-P1000, is a more traditional disc spinner, and its S$1,999 (US$1,471.77) price tag certainly suggests it's aimed at the high-end market. It's a little clunky to use, but outputs 1080p picture, thanks to its advanced image-processing technology. It also comes with a 5.1-channel analog audio output, so it can decode lossless Dolby TrueHD, then output it to any receiver.
If you can't decide which of the formats to back, there's one other option available online: A universal player. LG's US$1,200 BH100 is the only one available at present, and while it does play both formats and has great picture and sound quality, it can't display the menu screens properly on HD-DVD discs, so it's hard to find the extras. It also lacks a network port, so getting any of the online extras is also off the menu. Samsung has announced that its own forthcoming multiformat player, the BD-UP5000, will fully support both formats and have a network connection, so waiting for that is another option. Sadly we have no release date or pricing details at present. Sony, Pioneer and Philips are among the companies that have Blu-ray players on the way and, as we mentioned in the previous section, there is talk of Chinese manufacturers preparing to unleash a wave of ultra-affordable HD-DVD players upon the rest of the world. One thing is for sure--the hardware will get cheaper and, as the range of movies available in both formats improves, more and more people will be replacing their standard DVD collection with HD movies. This story appeared originally in CNET.co.uk.
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1: Tip 1: The benefits
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