I want my HD-DVD..sorta

I finally got my first glimpse of HD-DVD at my local Best Buy. A Toshiba HD-A1 was demoed on a 50" Pioneer Plasma. Unfortunately, the Pioneer's resolution is 1280 x 768 so it could not fully resolve the 1080 resolution coming from the Toshiba. Resolution aside, the demo was pretty impressive. Even with the downscaling, there was a noticeable difference in sharpness compared to Standard Definition material. It really did look "Hi Definition." However, the colors were over saturated, especially the reds and I could not make out a some of the shadow detail, but I suspect the settings on the Pioneer could have contributed. Looks like I'm going to have to find a more boutique vendor to get a better demo on a 1080p front projector like Sony's "Ruby" VPL-VW100. From my limited viewing experience so far, my initial impression is that an upconverted Standard Definition DVD (480i) on a decently calibrated video display can look very smooth and film-like but at the end of the day it is still Std Def being upconverted to 720p/1080i and will always appear "softer" when compared to a native Hi-Def image. I was skeptical from the pre-production reviews (again why I don't go to all the Electronic shows) but after seeing it with own eyes, HD-DVD really does take it to the next level. There is a discernable difference even on a 1280 x 720 display.

Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on how you look at it), the format war with Sony's Blu-Ray will keep me from buying for a while. This upgrade cycle could prove to be expensive as my wish list could end up being,

- 2nd or 3rd gen HD-DVD (with true 1080p output) or Blu-Ray (1080p output) player
- new surround processor with support for Dolby True HD & DTS-HD (more info)
- two additional Def Tech surrounds for full 7.1
- two channel amp for above Def Tech surrounds
(latter three may be low priority if HD optical disc titles continue to be released in Dolby Digital Plus 5.1)

Time to start earning extra brownie points with the wife..