new DVD player priorities

I'm exactly in that situation, and I'm fairly convinced that I'll buy the new $499 sony blu ray player for the HD, the upconverting, and the HDMI 1.3 sound.

HD DVD with recording - I don't think so.

The high def disc adoption rate is about 1% so far. Only 30% of US households have HDTVs. Lots(most?) of studios are format exclusive. High def disc has a good chance of going the way of DVD-A and SACD.

The fighting and spin by the two format fans on the forums is unbelievable. I've been reading a good bit on the formats trying to decide and can sort of boil it down where it all stands-

Lots of speculation that HD DVD will have Chinese sub $200 players by the holidays but you can get the Toshiba HD-A2 for $255 off Amazon now. Toshiba has announced HD DVD recorders to be both built and available in China before the '08 Olympics in Beijing. Toshiba is starting to include HD DVD drives in 4 of it laptop lines and in '08 will start including HD DVD drives on all its laptops. At this point thanks to PS3(Playstation 3) Blu-ray leads in player and titles sold but HD-DVD has much high attach rates. Blu-ray players when you include PS3 are 5 to 1 to HD DVD players but only sell movies 2 to 1 at this point. HD DVD way out sells blu-ray when it comes to stand alone players. If HD DVD gets a sub $200 player to the market soon I suspect the videophile early adopters that already own Blu-ray will pick one up for the movies from HD DVD exclusive studios prolonging the format war. SD DVD is Toshiba's IP and Toshiba most likely will stay in the game long enough to win or to kill high def discs to keep those SD DVD royalties coming. Pulling the plug on HD DVD is going to have to come from the HD DVD exclusive studios.

In addition to leading in sales, Blu-ray has much better DRM for protecting the studios' content and has region coding. HD-DVD is region free and has already been cracked for copying/backing up. You can find some US blu-ray exclusive title on HD DVD from other countries. Japan is the only country sharing the the Blu-ray region that US(Canada?) has. Many think that most studios want the DRM of blu-ray. The big price cut, in the news last week, on PS3 turned out to be a clearance price for PS3 60GB and 20GB units. You can't find a 20GB unit anywhere. Once the 60GB are gone they will be replaced with an 80GB player at the pre-price cut price.

Blockbuster has gone Blu-ray exclusive in the stores but HD DVD is still available through Blockbuster on-line. Netflix also rents both formats. Only about one third of Blockbuster store will carry high def discs at this point. Reports are while the Blu-ray are there at Blockbuster stores the titles are very limited at this point. Both Blockbuster and Netflix charge more for a high def format discs which doesn't bode well for mass adoption by joe six pack.

As for me I decided I'm sticking with my Oppo for now.

Keep the dvd recorder in your PC. Much cheaper way to go and won't get in the way when you get the upgrade bug. I like a Tivo or Dishnetwork hard drive for recording tv. That should increase your choices & free up some budget.
Also, does your tv do HD? That may be an issue???
My last question is do you use this for audio also?

With that said, listen to newbie.

Many thanks to Newbie13 for his in-depth explanation. Thanks for taking the time on this. So if you own a Blu-ray player and rent an HD DVD, will it not be compatible and not work or vice-versa? I'm still a little confused. Sounds like the future of these technologies and formats are still uncertain. I'll probably go with a standard format CD player/recorder at some point in the future to finally get away from VHS tapes for good. HD will have to wait.

Elevick: One of our TV's is HDTV compatible but we don't subscribe to that service with our cable TV provider. We pay them enough every month and most of what's on is crap anyway. No I do not use DVD players for audio. I have separate CD players for my sound systems (NAD, Rotel, etc). Good question though. Thanks.

"So if you own a Blu-ray player and rent an HD DVD, will it not be compatible and not work or vice-versa?"

Correct the two formats are not compatible.

My Responses --

"Pdn":

With the state that HD-DVD and Blue-Ray DVD are in, I'll be pretty reluctant to make a commitment to either camp at this time, meaning I'll be sticking to Regular DVD for the time being (sticking with my Denon DVD-2910 until a winner between HD-DVD and Blue-Ray DVD emerges).

About the only way I'll upgrade from a conventional DVD Player is that a good hybrid player hits the market (and right now, the LG BH100 does not do it for me because it plays some formats of digital media, but not others).

And as for a High Definition DVD Player with recording capability?? From my experience with my Toshiba RD-SX34, I would say that I would buy such a machine for its timeshifting capabilities only (whatever they may be by that time),and that it would not be my main movie playback machine. I would have a separate player in place just for that. So then, my answer to that question is "no".

Hope I made some sense here.

--Charles--

Thanks everyone. I'll stick with my conventional unit for now but you cleared it all up for me. Appreciate your time and knowledge. Video is just not my strength vs audio.