Sound Advice: HD DVD player beats Blu-ray in quality, priceSaturday, May 19, 2007 By Don Lindich
Q: I have a 46-inch Mitsubishi 1080 HDTV an need a new DVD player. Should I get HD DVD or Blu-ray? If Blu-ray, which one should I get, and why? If HD DVD, the Toshiba HD-A2 or HD-A20 and why?
AL SZCZEPANSKI, Minneapolis
A: You ask about the new, high-definition DVD formats as if they are your only choice. The fact is that the format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray is still far from being decided. It may be in your best interest to sit out this round and wait; perhaps not. I will bring you up to date regarding the two formats and offer my advice, as well as a few recommendations. Then you can decide for yourself.
For those of you new to this subject, HD DVD and Blu-ray are two new disc formats that can play high-definition content. They are battling to become the replacement for DVD.
About a year ago I reported on the rather dismal picture quality of Blu-ray compared with HD DVD's outstanding picture quality. At the time I could not recommend Blu-ray given the expense and poor picture quality, and gave HD DVD a conditional recommendation for serious movie buffs or those with a large budget. Since then Blu-ray has closed the picture quality gap, though HD DVD is still widely considered to produce a superior picture overall. Another recent development is a combo player from LG that can play both HD DVD and Blu-ray discs.
I still can't recommend Blu-ray because of the high cost of the players. Blu-ray players start at around $800. A HD DVD player can be had for $400. Given that the battle is far from being decided, I don't think $800 on a Blu-ray player is a wise investment for most consumers. The LG combo player is marred with functionality issues, so I can't really recommend that one, either.
The much lower price point of high-quality HD DVD players makes them much more viable from my point of view. You can get an excellent HD DVD player for $399, which is only $250 more than my favorite consumer DVD player, the $149 Oppo DV-970HD. An additional $250 to add HD DVD functionality seems like a pretty good deal to me.
This brings us to HD DVD and Toshiba's $399 HD-A2 and $499 HD-A20. The units are pretty much identical except that the HD-A20 outputs at 1080p, the HD-A2, at 1080i. You did not say if your Mitsubishi was 1080i or 1080p, but it would not affect my recommendation that you get the HD-A2 and save $100. With a 46-inch screen I doubt you would see a meaningful difference between the two, if you could see a difference at all. If you are a serious enthusiast, consider the top-of-the line HD-XA2 with its top-shelf video processing. It's a far, far better value than an $800 Blu-ray player. One thing I can assure you of is that with any of these HD DVD players, the picture will look spectacular!
Which brings us back to the Oppo DV-970HD. It is going to produce a spectacular picture on your 46-inch screen as well, though it can play only ordinary DVDs. You may just want to get the Oppo and wait a little longer for the prices to drop and for more movies to be available on both HD DVD or Blu-ray.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07139/787313-28.stm
