Will Meridian make an HD DVD player?

[deacongreg]

You know what though, I think the saving grace with SACD is that, you can buy some, that are Hybrids, and get to play them, that way. Now, some may think this is a poor alternative, but you have none with DVD - A. And Telarc, and their jazz label Heads Up International, all of their cds are hybrids. A good move by Telarc. And Mobile fidelity makes some hybrids too. Shaft, being one of them.

We would love to see it, but Meridian seems committed to their craft. Their not budging. Especially, what seemingly is the slow demise of both formats, anyway. Why would they do it now? But, what about a HIGH DEF player. Now that, i would like to see from a company like Meridian!!


kennyt, I know you do like some jazz I believe, you should check out Heads Up international. They have excellent jazz artists on that label.

[mitch57]

Originally Posted by deacongreg

You know what though, I think the saving grace with SACD is that, you can buy some, that are Hybrids, and get to play them, that way. Now, some may think this is a poor alternative, but you have none with DVD - A. And Telarc, and their jazz label Heads Up International, all of their cds are hybrids. A good move by Telarc. And Mobile fidelity makes some hybrids too. Shaft, being one of them.

Actually you do have alternatives with DVD-A. Most of them will play Dolby Digital 5.1 on any DVD Player and some also Play DTS and stereo.

[deacongreg]

Originally Posted by mitch57

Actually you do have alternatives with DVD-A. Most of them will play Dolby Digital 5.1 on any DVD Player and some also Play DTS and stereo.

True, but I have found that to be a little tricky. The Hybrid SACD camp I prefer better. I know some of my earlier DTS discs, for some reason would not play at all. But, that was some time ago.

[DaViD Boulet]

Is this questions specifically aimed at "HD DVD" or just "HD player" in general? I know that early on Meridian had mentioned a possible HD DVD player. My hope is that with the time that has passed that the company might produce a hybrid or Blu-ray player instead (given the obvious shift in the industry towards the technically superior BD). Is this site's bias towards HD DVD accidental or intentional? It seems that Blu-ray is often left out of germane discussion.

[kennyt]

DaVID Boulet,

I think I am one of the only ones here who is in favor of Blu-ray, though with all the BS I've been putting up with trying to keep firmware up to date with each new movie release I must admit I am starting to switch camps...

The HD DVD players I have work, some very slowly, but they work. I got FF Rise of the Silver Surfer from Netflix, and guess what? Won't play in either of my BRD Players so I am off to download firmware, which BTW is designed ONLY for PC users so us MAC fans have an entire other level of BS to go through to do this....

Yes, I feel BR has some obvious advantages, but so far the software transfers to HD DVD have in general looked better. NOTE I said in general, there are excellent transfers in BOTH formats and some not so good.... Classic case in point. Fifth Element was pretty lame, so lame SOny actually swapped them out if you got an older copy! An unheard of event!

[DaViD Boulet]

Yes, I feel BR has some obvious advantages, but so far the software transfers to HD DVD have in general looked better.

Actually,

the high-bit-rate AVC transfers on BD average noticably better picture quality than the low-bit-rate HD DVD transfers in general. Check out Dan's editorial piece at dvdfile.com. He even tallies the scores from other review sites to support his very careful and objective observations. Dan has a 1080p Ruby and has been completely format-neutral and taken great pains to make the most accurate observations without bias (and yet BD still, on average, is showing an improved picture quality over HD DVD).

I think I am one of the only ones here who is in favor of Blu-ray, though with all the BS I've been putting up with trying to keep firmware up to date with each new movie release I must admit I am starting to switch camps...

The HD DVD players I have work, some very slowly, but they work.

My PS3 plays all discs flawlessly. Dramatizing the rare need to apply a firmware update to play a particular title is suggesting a problem when no real problem exists. Anyone serious about appreciating the advantages of BD would be glad that BD-J issues are quickly and rapidly being worked out, and any need for updating will become a non-issue with the majority of hardware within 18 months.