DVD-player (software) that supports HD-quality

I've been looking for one as well.

The Apple DVD player will play it no problem.

I think the bigger problem is that a PC won't even recognize the disc.

I have found a plugin or player that will read/play an HDDVD created in DVDSP.

Frustrating. The technology at this point is basically worthless. I really want to go find out if the Toshiba HD DVD players that are out will even play them.

Only solution I've found that is any good is "flip for mac" that creates WMV HD format. Those seem to work just fine in the PC's and in certain set top DVD players.

Worth the hundred bucks or so that the plugin costs.

To my knowledge, there are no burners or players currently available.

There are some blu ray burners for sale on eBay at $4,000.00.
Blank discs, if you can find them, or $55.00.

DVD SP 4 will author HD DVD programs, that can be played on G5 Macs.

You might consider component out of a Mac to HD set if you know what you are doing.

The toshiba players do indeed work

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-2gu4xgR9Aht/cgi-bin/ProdGroup.asp?g=279850

and they play just fine in my powerbook and G5.

other than that, unless you go the flip for mac route there is nothing.

In testing the flip for mac stuff I've found it to be an awesome way of distributing DVD's that are meant strictly for PC's. We are working on code right now to have a standard DVD / wmv file and h.264 versions all play automatically depending on the device they are inserted into.

Bottom line is that the technology still isn't ready for prime time, but if our programmers come through on this I think we'll be a step ahead and ready for when HDDVD players become mainstream.



2.5 Dual 4GB Ram 8x512MB

Are the toshiba's true HD, or an upconversion through HDMI?

the listing isn't clear to me

TRUE HD, lets take a minute to get our terminology straight.

TRUE HD does not exist in the consumer market and probably NEVER will. The whole disc thing is a nightmare, bluray vs hddvd. Both kind of suck in my opinion. The bit rate from TRUE HD is about 8 times that of what HDDVD is capable of transmitting. Even my $8,000 array from HUGE systems struggles with true 10bit uncompressed HD footage. (Been looking at the new 4Gbit fiber stuff though)

OK, with that out of the way, the players do actually support TRUE HD Resolutions of 1080i/p 720p that are created in DVDSP4 as HDDVD's..... but they are not available YET.

The players will be out this month or next. The lowend one will sell for $499. Many places are taking preorders now. The HD resolutions will only play through HDMI.

http://www.toshibahddvd.com/
http://www.hddvd.org/hddvd/

I was kinda of asking whether these decks merely upconvert.

As to your other comments, it seems academic to me because broadcast HD is highly compressed anyway.

Precisely. HDDVD and BluRay should looks considerably better than broadcast HD which is actually very poor in comparison to the projects that run through our shop.

Just wanted to make sure you understood that TRUE HD is not the same thing as HD Resolution.

Just in case it still isn't clear. YES, the decks play HDDVD, not just upconvert.

Rather basic, they do say HDDVD all over them.

Wallmart is already taking preorders for HDDVD's that are due out this month as well.

Todd, I take it that DVDSP 4.x conforms to the HD standards, and HD discs created on it should play on these decks?

If not right off the bat, I'm sure Apple will release an update for DVDSP within days of the release.

The only issue as of right now has to do with the AACS and it's ICT "Image Constraint Token" recognition features. Not sure how and if that will even play a role in the DVD's that are being produced from DVDSP, but my guess is that it will be an ON OFF switch that can be enabled withing DVDSP in it's next update.

It will be interesting to see how it all goes down that's for sure.

I've been working with HD formats for several years now, and it's been a LONG bumpy ride. I don't expect things to settle down any time soon. The BLU RAY / HDDVD battle is going to do nothing for consumers. All these guys need to sit down and just settle on a format and run with it, similar to DVD's back in the early 90's. Back then it was guess who... Toshiba and Sony. It took them two years to come to a valid compromise, thus the modern DVD standard. I think the same will happen here, it will be another two years before we really see a NEW standard.

furthermore, I've been having MAJOR problems with Compressor and DVDSP. I can't get a decent looking mpeg out of compressor from our HD content. Sticking with FCP but pretty much going back to Digigami products (MegaPEG.X and MPressionist.X)

Good luck man....