My First Week of HD-DVD

As I’ve recently mentioned, I recently stumbled onto a great Amazon deal for the Toshiba HD-A2–the cheapest model in their second generation of HD-DVD players. The player arrived last week before any of my three free HD-DVDs so I rushed to Best Buy after worked and picked up the Goodfellas HD-DVD. Armed with my cheap HDMI cable from Newegg (which thankfully arrived the same day), I cleared some space in my home entertainment setup and found a cozy home for the A2.

As for the HD-DVD experience, I was floored by the quality of Goodfellas. For a first generation HD-DVD and a film from the 80’s the disc looks amazing. The soundtrack wasn’t all that revolutionary, but then again I didn’t expect much given that the film isn’t exactly modern and my surround-sound setup isn’t equipped to take advantage of the new HD-DVD sound formats. You can find a full review of the disc here. It’s certainly a title I’d recommend every HD-DVD owner to purchase. I don’t know how they’ll be able to improve on this version of one of Scorsese’s greatest efforts.

A couple days later my free Amazon HD-DVDs came in: The Departed, 300, and The Fountain. I looked at some key scenes from the Departed and 300 and I knew for certain that jumping on this HD-DVD deal was a good idea. I’ve yet to watch any of these films again because soon thereafter I received a copy of the Planet Earth HD-DVD.

This has been stated countless times by many others, but if you’re looking for the must-have title to convince those wary of the benefits of high-definition this would have to be it. Even though I’m somewhat used to seeing broadcast HD by this point I was still shocked at the quality of Planet Earth in HD. It’s more than just the video quality–the overall package in Planet Earth, from the suitably epic orchestral score to the mind blowing cinematography, is one of sheer excellence. Planet Earth would make anyone a believer in high definition.

Thus far I believe making the jump to HD-DVD was a good one. Sure I’m limited to HD-DVD titles (until I get a PS3 next year), but there is definitely enough content around within this format to keep me happy. I’m looking forward to repurchasing Battlestar Galactica and Blade Runner in HD-DVD, and there are a wealth of new releases popping up fairly often.

My position has surely changed from when I was doubting the viability of the format a few months ago. I see things differently now because I’m certain now that this format war will never see one victor. In the end we’ll most likely see studios picking the format of their choice and the actual format won’t matter to consumers due to cheap combo HD-DVD/Bluray players. It may seem far fetched right now, but can you honestly imagine either of these formats completely owning the HD-media market? To me that seems like the more far fetched reality.