Thread: Bought an HDDVD player, any Dolby Digital Plus Receivers avail?

I tried looking online if they sell receivers that have Doby Digital Plus or Dolby Digital True HD? My HD DVD player will only send a DTS signal when playing HD DVD's. I read that you have to use a receiver that accepts HDMI for sound in order to get Dolby and the others.

I bought an nice HD DVD player yesterday. It's a Toshiba HD-2A, got it from Best Buy for $387.99 (was $399.99). I had thought they were in the $600 and up range until I saw it. Let me you, the picture quality is incredible, even on my HD-Ready Mitsubishi 720p Rear Projection DLP TV. I noticed the selection for HD DVD's isn't as great as DVD but that's what happened when DVD started to replace VHS. I bought King Kong, V for Vendetta, and The Last Samurai.

Originally Posted by dsctaz

I tried looking online if they sell receivers that have Doby Digital Plus or Dolby Digital True HD? My HD DVD player will only send a DTS signal when playing HD DVD's. I read that you have to use a receiver that accepts HDMI for sound in order to get Dolby and the others.

I bought an nice HD DVD player yesterday. It's a Toshiba HD-2A, got it from Best Buy for $387.99 (was $399.99). I had thought they were in the $600 and up range until I saw it. Let me you, the picture quality is incredible, even on my HD-Ready Mitsubishi 720p Rear Projection DLP TV. I noticed the selection for HD DVD's isn't as great as DVD but that's what happened when DVD started to replace VHS. I bought King Kong, V for Vendetta, and The Last Samurai.

Well, one thing Toshiba did on their bargain HD players is removed the 5.1 Digital output, so any processing of actual soundtracks has to be done by an outside source. As of now, the players are far ahead of the receivers, so you'll have to settle for less than the best in the audio department, and there's no way around it.

I've actually been waiver on jumping into HD-DVD as well to become format neutral, but I just don't like what HD-DVD has done in this format war. I just can't see myself buying into a format just for Universal movies, which is the only studio that is outside the reaches of Blu-ray at this point. Here's hope that Universal goes neutral before I do, and then HD-DVD can co-exist as long as it can support itself, but I can get all the movies I want on Blu-Ray.

Which brings me back to selection. Don't expect big things on selection, ESPECIALLY when it comes to HD-DVD. Unless major changes occur, you'll never see a Disney DVD or a FOX DVD or a Sony/MGM/Columbia DVD on HD-DVD. None of those studios support HD-DVD, and have no plans on supporting in the near future.

It's quite possible that next gen DVD formats could be just a niche format, similar to what Laserdisc was. Most people who watch regular DVDs already "think" they're watching them in HD, when it fact it's just anamorphic video.

BTW . . . you should give some of your standard DVDs a whirl in the Toshiba. It is supposedly one of the best upconverting players on the market.

Should've gone with Blu-ray buddy.

Aren't you supposed to get 5 free HD-DVDs too.

I saw this player at Costco for 350 advertising the 5 free discs.

WalMart may be weighing in shortly on the whole format war thing:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/20/t...er-on-the-way/
http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/04/26...dvd-statement/

Just wanted to point out he bought KING KONG!! Primates PWN!

Originally Posted by Socrates

WalMart may be weighing in shortly on the whole format war thing:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/20/t...er-on-the-way/
http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/04/26...dvd-statement/

Mr. Johnson, why did you post the rumored report AND the retraction report?

A big factor is that with the blue laser diodes are dropping in price (and both formats utilize the blue diodes), and that means the prices are going to be dropping on both formats' players. Once the standalone Blu-ray players dip into the sub-$400 area, and Sony puts out the Spider-man movies, the Blu-ray user base is going to grow.

As dgrycan points out, the studio support lies clearly in the BR camp.

It's just a matter of the HD-DVD camp throwing in the towel before they lose anymore money.

Originally Posted by Unfiltered

Mr. Johnson, why did you post the rumored report AND the retraction report?

A big factor is that with the blue laser diodes are dropping in price (and both formats utilize the blue diodes), and that means the prices are going to be dropping on both formats' players. Once the standalone Blu-ray players dip into the sub-$400 area, and Sony puts out the Spider-man movies, the Blu-ray user base is going to grow.

As dgrycan points out, the studio support lies clearly in the BR camp.

It's just a matter of the HD-DVD camp throwing in the towel before they lose anymore money.

You are making no sense. The majority of Blu-Ray players out there are PS3s which is widely known to be sold for a loss.

Spiderman is not worth spending $400 for most people.

Anyway the consumer should NOT be in this dilemma. I am still waiting.

Originally Posted by go

You are making no sense. The majority of Blu-Ray players out there are PS3s which is widely known to be sold for a loss.

He makes plenty of sense. Diodes for these players used to be in the $125 per unit range. Now they are settling around $8. Joe-Six-Pack at Walmart isn't ready to make an impact in this fight yet. Rushing him in will be a mistake. He may or may not even have a display than can work with the format, and he more than likely doesn't even realize that his current cable/satellite/DVD that he watches now ISN'T high definition.

The biggest benefit of this format war has been to drive prices down like crazy.

As it stands . . . HD-DVD SHOULD be half-the price as Blu-ray. They will, in the long run, have half as many movies to choose from.

And Spiderman might not be worth spending $400 for, but add to it Disney's entire catalog, throw in some Jack Sparrow, throw in some Star Wars and James Bond - then you've got something. None of these will be HD-DVD titles unless studios change their stances drastically.