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Great it looks like there is a war over which one will win. I've decided to wait to buy one until the war is decided. It would be my luck to pick the wrong one.

The only difference I can tell is one has more storage space because they both use blue laser technology. You can play normal dvds on both and even though the storage capacity is larger with Blue Ray they both have enough space on the discs to hold a 3 hour movie plus extras. They are both backed by major movie companies, so it will be intersting to see which one will prevail. Has anyone here made the jump yet?

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[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

I am definitely waiting until this latest techno battle is over! No use spending a big chunk of money on a new player or recorder unless its format is widely accepted.

If you'd really like to try it Babs I'd go for the Playstation 3, it has a Blue Ray player and it's actually cheaper than buying a Blue Ray player.  Mucho better deal than a stand-alone player.

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[shadow=white][scroll]Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass.....It's about learning to dance in the rain[/scroll][/shadow]

Oh great I bought my honey an xbox 360 for Christmas. After he opens it I'm going to ask him if he'd like to exchnge it for a Playstation 3. He likes both, but I got a deal on the Xbox. I'm thinking it would be worth the extra money now.

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

Yeah you might want that Playstation 3 instead. I was thinking of getting one.

Some differences I heard were that Hddvd was supposedly technologically superior. I heard that Blueray doesn't support displaying / using menus on the dvd. (I find that hard to believe so if any of you know otherwise let me know).

Another big factor is I believe Blockbuster - who many of us rent from has decided to only support and stock Blueray in their local stores. Not sure if you can order Hddvd from their online or not.

Hddvd's (Toshiba) goes for $299 whereas Blueray players start at $399.

I'll probably get one this coming year and will likely have an eye open for the after Christmas sales. Note that you can also get a standard dvd that has 'upconvert' capability to 1080i. It will take a standard dvd which is ED (enhanced digital quality - around 480p) and upconvert / interpolate to the screen of 720p or 1080i. I have a couple of these and they work surprisingly well on standard dvds to make them look nice.

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The Truth Is Out There

Good news for you Hi Def fans. Best Buy currently has all 3 of their third generation Toshiba Hd-dvd players at reduced prices. The A3 which outputs 1080i is currently $199 and comes with 2 movies but you also get a rebate that gives you 5 more HD movies in the mail. The A30 outputs up to 1080p (like the Blu-ray) and is currently $249. I think all of them come with the movies. The A35 is currently $349 I believe. It is the current highest Toshiba model available and supports 1080p along with enhanced deep color and 7.1 non-compressed audio support through HDMI.

I also saw the Sony Blu-Ray available at Super Target for $299. I believe it is the same price at Best Buy (at least at the local store) but appears online it is still listed as $399.

I just bought the A3 - but haven't hooked it up yet. I'll wait until this evening when the room is darker to see the full effect. I still debate as to if I should have gone Blu Ray or a 1080p model, but my Hitachi plasma only inputs 1080i anyway.

PS: Both the Blu Ray and Hd-dvd sets will upconvert standard def dvds as well. I've heard that the upconversion capabilities of the Toshiba is much superior to most standalone upconversion decks and rivals the Dennon players.

As for the format war apparently Blockbuster is carrying some Hd-dvds again. Looking at the shelves in Best Buy there are lots of titles out now in Blu Ray and Hd-dvd but some studios are only outputting movies in one particular format. As expected Sony is only going Blu Ray because they produce the Blu Ray player, and I believe there are some studios unique only to Hd-dvd as well. Some studios / manufacturers however have come up with a super disk that has Blu Ray on one side and HD-dvd on the other. Alternatively LG has a Hi Def player that will play either Blu Ray or Hd-dvd disks but they are expensive like $1000 to $900.

I'll let you know how mine looks.

Any of the rest of you gone with one of these Hi Def set ups and care to comment?

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The Truth Is Out There

I'm holding out to see who wins the format battle.

We decided to stay with the xbox 360 instead of exchanging it for a playstation 3. I figure by next year players will have dropped significantly and we'll have a better idea which format to go with. Our flat screen lcd tv is 1080p. It's amazing how the technology for lcd tvs is growing so fast.

The thing that is killing me right now is how much they want to charge for programming and upgrading my box. By 2010 HD is to be standard programming for everyone. They want $300 just to update my receiver box. Luckily enough I was able to talk them into about $128 off, so I won't have to pay for service for a yr. Plus they threw in a couple movie channels for free for 6 months. It is such a game.

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

I don't know if the format battle will ever be over. Probably eventually either players that play both formats will be cheap and common, or disks will have each format on one side as some are currently doing.

Xbox plays the same disks and quality that I have with my Hd-dvd. I was reading that to get the full quality because of copyright restrictions the most component cables will do is ED (Enhanced Def) or 480p. To get the full capability out of your Xbox you will need to use VGA cables (yes, VGA surprisingly). You can Google the subject to find out about it.

The other thing to consider is even though you choose one format player you still get to watch any format using the Standard or Enhanced Def dvds (regular dvds) which can be upconverted to near HD quality.

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The Truth Is Out There