HD-DVDs, real talk

[DJ_Tet]

Ok, so the format is dead and firesales are coming soon.  I have the HD-DVD add on for 360, got it in a pretty good deal and although I'm pretty heavily invested in the format with over 30 movies, I don't feel horrible about it's death.  I always felt that Blu held certain advantages like capacity and higher bitrates to make a potentially better picture that would make it a better victor. 

Now, I have a question on what I can do with these discs.  I understand that I can use the HD-DVD add-on with a PC, can I do other things with these discs?  Is it fairly straightforward to copy these movies to a media server?

I envision a future where I have a huge media server in my house that can stream my hd-dvds directly to any HDTV in the house.  Is this possible now and if so, what equipment are people using to make this happen?  Are you using 360's and PS3s to connect to the TV?

Is it worth my time to buy HD-DVDs for $5 to $10 if I never plan on buying another HD-DVD player?  Eventually the add-on will die, and it looks like a lot of the toshiba players have some problems except for the XA-2 I think.

[Mupepe]

I say it's worth buying more movies.  I mean, they're going to be cheap as hell and you've already invested this much, why not get what you can out of it?  Plus, I'm sure if your add-on dies, you can snag another one for REALLY cheap somewhere

[DJ_Tet]

Naa, if I'm stuck playing these movies ONLY on my add-on or other proprietary player, I'd say it's NOT worth anyone's time to buy a library.  Only if they are rippable and streamable over a home network would it be worth buying more of these movies, imo.

30/50/100 movies from a very limited timeframe is not a big enough library to buy players to support every hdtv I'll have in my house. 

[Mupepe]

I'm sure you can rip and stream them.  I've heard people talking about it on GAF.  Just not sure what the limitations are or how they do it.

[DJ_Tet]

Yeah, I'm hoping it's as simple as pulling out the DRM and not affect the quality.

[Bloodwake]

I will take advantage of the Fire Sale. I only have two HD-DVDs and I just got the player, might as well put it to some use.

[DJ_Tet]

Yeah, there are still some great exclusives on HD-DVD for the short time being.  For someone who has little to no movies I'd definitely recommend getting some of the best movies.

The movies I'm considering wouldn't be 'must have' for me.  At 30+ discs, I have most of the exclusives I wanted gotten in bogo deals and such.  There are probably 5 or so other must-haves I want that I don't have (American Gangster, Zodiac to name a few) but there are obviously a lot of others I'd consider at $5 a pop for 1080p hd.

[Rman]

What are the best exclusive titles out for HD-DVD right now.

Right now I have Hot Fuzz, Shawn of the Dead, Children of Men, and Zodiac on my to buy list.  Any others.  I want to pick these up for cheap during the fire sale.

[DJ_Tet]

The Matrix boxset is still exclusive, Transformers (although that might be out in a couple of weeks on Blu,) Children of Men, V for Vendetta, Bourne Trilogy, Zodiac, Star Trek Season One,  Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead are some of the exclusives that come to mind.

Some think that there will be exclusives on hd for some time, but I disagree.  I imagine that most of the studios will release their 'hd-exclusives' for Blu fairly quickly as the encodes are already done.  I doubt that many will get re-encoded to take advantage of the higher standards, but apparently Transformers has both a Blu and an HD encode.  I'll be interested to see the visual difference between the two if it's true.

One exclusive that I would probably pick up for $5 is Clerks II but they say that it looks soft.  For that reason even though it's one of my favorite movies of the past couple of years I'd hesitate on buying it.  At $5 it's a no-lose price though, even if they release a better looking Blu version down the road.

[ferrarimanf355]

Tet, if you're that heavily invested in HD-DVD, get one of those combo players while you still can. 

[DJ_Tet]

Well, the problem is all the combo players out are apparently pretty shitty.

I'm hoping Toshiba puts out combo players for a few years but we'll see.  I really don't want to have to buy combo players for every tv but that might be an affordable option in the future if Toshiba continues making them.

I'd much rather store the movies on a huge ass media server.

[DJ_Tet]

damn you people this is golf

[TVC15]

I just plan on ripping mine.  I'll keep the discs and drive in case I need to re-rip or whatever in the future.

[jobber]

I'm still buying movies and shit

fuck the sony fanboys.