Engadget HD Podcast 072 - 02.14.2008
by Trent Wolbe 
posted Feb 14th 2008 at 11:00AM
Ben's back from death's door, so we propped him up in front of the mic and recorded a podcast. In case you hadn't heard, a couple of big format war shots were fired right into the already-wounded HD DVD format; this time courtesy Netflix and Blockbuster. We'll see soon enough if this has an immediate effect in the VideoScan numbers, but HD DVD had a respectable showing last week. We suspect overall volume of HDM sales is down right now, and with non-announcements like we're seeing from both sides, it's understandable. If Samsung Blu-ray players have you mad enough to sue, then take a look at Apple TV -- the HD's not as good as HDM, but it's not bad, either. Just don't get your hopes up for the photo browsing. We rouse the audiophile rabbles by saying images trump audio, but let's face it -- people are more willing to spend money on eye-candy than ear-candy. Finally, the WGA strike is finally over, so use the "Ask Engadget" feature comparing DirecTV, DISH, U-verse, FiOS and cable to help you decide where you're going to get your HD programming from. Get the podcast
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Hosts: Ben Drawbaugh and Steve Kim
Producer: Trent Wolbe
01:07 - Comments from Engadget HD Podcast 071 - 02.8.2008
02:03 - Netflix picks Blu-ray, good luck renting an HD DVD soon
05:33 - Best Buy's pushing Blu-ray to the front
06:58 - Nielsen VideoScan High-Def market share for week ending February 3rd, 2008
10:32 - Warner's 2008 Blu-ray release plan
14:22 - Universal nixes plans for non-combo Land of the Dead / Dazed & Confused HD DVDs
16:28 - Samsung sued for defective Blu-ray players
19:58 - Sizing up Apple TV's HD
28:15 - VUDU review: the HD perspective
30:18 - Video is more important than audio
35:13 - Ask Engadget HD: Does cable, satellite, or fiber provide more HD?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
John B @ Feb 14th 2008 2:56PM
Ben, glad you're feeling better. Being a parent of three, some kind of cold or illness is just about perpetual. All it takes is for one to bring it home, and the month-long infection throughout the house begins. :(
The only thing in the podcast that I felt the need to comment on is that I don't understand the hate towards Best Buy.
I deal almost exclusively with three stores in Pennsylvania and Maryland because they're closest to my house or work. The guy who helped me with my HDTV was very knowledgeable and spent almost an hour going over the various differences and showed me the various differences in the Magnolia section. I bought a new refrigerator and my HDTV there. Both were delivered in the first 10 minutes of the delivery windows, and the delivery guys didn't have me sign anything until everything was plugged in, tested, and working. Also, after I bought my HDTV I got $300 back in price-matching over the following 60 days.
I won't go there for computer peripherals unless it's an emergency because NewEgg kicks their ass in prices, but I've never had any problems with BB -- and I spend a ton of money there. Whatever. Maybe I'm just lucky to deal with stores who have competent employees.
Ben @ Feb 14th 2008 2:58PM
John,
I hear you, there is a some great people in the Magnolia section of my local BB, but some of the other people amaze me with the BS they spew. Got in an argument one day with a guy who didn't believe that clear QAM existed. I finally became an a-hole and said, "listen, I write about this stuff for a living, you need to do some research." I did feel bad afterwards, but it aches me to think of all the people who are mis-informed from people like him.
At the same time there are good and bad experiences.
John B @ Feb 14th 2008 4:24PM
Oh, absolutely. There will always be idiots to match the saints in retail. And I know that people are 10x more likely to complain than to compliment. It just seems that BB gets a verbal smack down everywhere, but I've never run into any situation to join in on that. Oh, well.
Steven Kim @ Feb 14th 2008 9:14PM
Hear, hear! We don't hate BB at all, but we recognize that getting hold of knowledgeable staff there is sometimes a bit of a cointoss. Personally, I wish BB would put more resources behind finding, promoting and keeping the good staff who show initiative in coming up to speed and staying on top of their tech. Magnolia's a step in the right direction, though, for sure.
Preacherman23 @ Feb 14th 2008 4:00PM
Just got done listening to your Podcast today for the first time. Loved it. I will be tunning in on a weekly basis!
Grubert @ Feb 15th 2008 4:39AM
You wonder what happened with Transformers and Bourne Supremacy? Simple - they were part of a buy-one-get-one-free offer at Best Buy: http://forums.highdefdigest.com/showthread.php?t=38713
aaron @ Feb 15th 2008 10:07AM
i agree with your sentiments on the appletv (and xbox 360 which by all accounts should look even better than appletv since its 6.5 mbit vs 5). the quality difference is there but it compares very well to even the best of hd-dvd/bluray (from my xbox live download tests).
i think its close enough that the ease of use comes into play as an advantage over physical media. now it does have some flaws (which you mentioned). but the 360 service doesnt have the 30 day wait on many studios movies but costs $1 more. that said i dont think these restrictions will last long term and all will be fixed.
but really what i see winning out (and the first company that manages it will win) is the subscription model. where you pay 25 bucks a month (or some set fee) and can download from a library of movies in "realtime". imo its the best of both worlds where you have the cheaper access and business model of netflix and the instant gratification that downloads offer. that to me is game over in terms of physical media dominating the movie market and i would gladly deal with appletv/xbox live quality if the interface is vastly superior to physical media.
Larry @ Feb 15th 2008 4:19PM
Re: DishNetwork inequality.
I wrote you initially regarding the inferiority of a dish picture. I watched everything: NBC, ABC, CBS, ESPN, and other HD channels on my 1080i RCA HDTV. It looked fuzzy.
I don't know if because this TV was not directly connected to the box (secondary TV), perhaps that made all the difference. All I know is that we couldn't wait for the contract to expire before we returned to Cox.
P.S. - After speaking w/a Uverse rep in my area he mentioned that Uverse will allow 4 HD streams and 2 streams at a time in a few months. Up/Download speeds of 10 mbps. It's beginning to sound interesting again. But, seeing as I just switched back to Cox for HSI, I don't think I'll be changing anytime soon. I hope this provides you w/enough info to make an assessment.
locke6854 @ Feb 16th 2008 3:31AM
Ok, i found a solution for the on/off issue for the ps3, but you're not gonna like it! Schmartz.
http://schmartz.com/product.sc?categoryId=1&productId=4
its basically the nyko, but doesnt need batteries and conforms to the look of the ps3 chassis. Its also $50.
Theres a $35 version that lacks the on/off support... and theres also a catch with this as well. To enable on/off with a remote, you need to enable remote start. To do this, you need to own/obtain/borrow a PSP and sync it once.
Once you've enabled the remote setting, you never have to worry again. Its practically invisable, and batteries arent an issue.
The issue is $50, and finding someone with a psp.
Steve Jr. @ Feb 16th 2008 4:28PM
Hello,
As an owner of 3 HD-A2 units I am now moving from denial to acceptance stage of the end of the HD-DVD format. I can go and on about this that and other thing as to why BD is not a better picture than RED, and all that crap... the bottom line is is the content was not there fast enough from the Red studios... period. Like I said, what does it matter now, it's over and that's that. To answer the poll question here is the point I am at, I will switch over to Blu-Ray when the time is right and when is the time right? When they get players working the right way and they are under $200... PERIOD!!! I know I will succumb to having to go Blue, but not until they get their shit together and I will not be beta tester for them... I was willing to do that with RED, but there is no way I am doing that with Blue and SONY and all the other jerk-offs can GFY. I am now considering myself in the masses and as such I will wait and most likely it will not be this year. Ben... if you recall way back when I had to jump your shit regarding shopping at Wal-Mart... you can now OFFICIALLY consider me an EngadgetHD member that is now in the Wal-Mart CHEAP ASS crowd when it comes to Blu-Ray. No cheap player running 100% out of the box = no buy by me.
Thank you,
Steve Jr. a former HD-DVD fanboy
Steve Jr. @ Feb 16th 2008 4:58PM
Hello again,
Regarding audio versus video... here is the bottom line... $5,000 bucks is not enough to do both in any way that would do either justice, so the video has to be the primary concern. It comes down to this, are you doing a surround sound system or are you trying to do a Home Theater? If it's a surround sound system then $5,000 bucks would cover it with easily the majority going towards video and while I'm here nobody should be buying any TV that will be the primary TV under 50 inches... 42 is simply too small for a primary TV role.
If it's Home Theater you are chasing then the biggest possible and don't be surprised to keep a $10,000 budget in mind and if you are slightly under then it's a bonus, but one thing to keep in mind when you consider the audio is this: Obsolescence in audio is very very slow. Do not cheap out your audio, if you can't do it right then don't try to do Home Theater, just do surround sound and attempt Home Theater later when you have more coin to do it and do it slow and build it up over time. My suggestion is to have enough money to buy a good receiver (I have a Yamaha RX-V2500) and get a good center and subwoofer. I currently have Polk's for centers but I'm very close to getting the Klipsch RC-64 and I love my SVS cylinder subwoofer.
Thanks.
Steve Jr. @ Feb 16th 2008 5:08PM
Dearest Ben,
This should be my last post, but I just got to the end of this podcast and would like to say that I would buy a thousand dollar TV that does HUD, in fact our just over 1 year old Series3 cost us $1,500 bucks because we got it from Weakness.com and we got their top beefed up version at that time was the 750 gig drive (now you can get TB) and it cost us $250 bucks to buy 2 cable cards because Service Electric in Wilkes-Barre, PA did not offer to just pay monthly fee (they do now because I added two more stock sized TIVO HD units just before Christmas to the fleet and they use M-cards to boot... nice). That was one purchase that turned out to be the best thing we could have done because that thing is a work horse it's recording shit all the time. I actually wish TIVO had a unit with 3 or 4 tuners... actually 4 tuners would work because then 2 M-cards on a way beefed up TIVO HD unit would be perfect... 2 or 3 tuners recording and 1 tuner allowing live viewing. Ahhh some day. Thanks, Steve
Steve Jr. @ Feb 16th 2008 7:14PM
Big typos fixed in this... ignore the one above.
I wish we could edit our original posts.
Dearest Ben,
This should be my last post, but I just got to the end of this podcast and would like to say that I would buy a thousand dollar TIVO that does HD, in fact our Series3 is now just over 1 year and cost $1,500 bucks because we got it from Weakness.com and we got their top beefed up version at that time was the 750 gig drive (now you can get TB) and it cost us $250 bucks to buy 2 cable cards because Service Electric in Wilkes-Barre, PA did not offer to just pay monthly fee (they do now because I added two more stock sized TIVO HD units just before Christmas to the fleet and they use M-cards to boot... nice). That was one purchase that turned out to be the best thing we could have done because that thing is a work horse it's recording shit all the time. I actually wish TIVO had a unit with 3 or 4 tuners... actually 4 tuners would work because then 2 M-cards on a way beefed up TIVO HD unit would be perfect... 2 or 3 tuners recording and 1 tuner allowing live viewing. Ahhh some day. Thanks, Steve
locke6854 @ Feb 19th 2008 5:33AM
a television with a heads-up display. :P
tprice @ Feb 19th 2008 8:14AM
With all the focus on the Toshiba announcement I want to point out a technological breakthrough a spokesman for Verizon's FiOS HD cable announced today. A WSJ article, "Verizon's HDTV Pitch is Fuzzy" quoted Verizon Spokesman Eric Rabe. In response to a lack of HD set top boxes and DVRs from Motorola possibly slowing Verizon signing up new customers, Eric stated "Our standard definition looks better than the other guys' high definition anyway."
Now there is a technology breakthrough if ever I heard one!!!
haveacoke @ Feb 19th 2008 11:22AM
First off I own both formats, an HD-A35 and a PS3 and have over 250 titles, but with more HD DVDs. It is a sad day now the format war is over, because HD DVD so far has had better qualit all around, but Blu-ray did have a better strategy and didn't sit idly for months at a time. I hate that some of the first generation blu-ray titles are such bad quality I wonder why they even made the disc.
My question for you guys that you might be able to ask Universal and Paramount and Weinstein (if applicable lol) what will be their strategy in releasing new titles to the HD arena? I am sure they will want to put every title they have on HD DVD on Blu-ray, but I already have all those. I figure they will have new titles like Iron Man, but what about catalog titles yet to be released in HD. I will be ready to re-buy titles if they include more content or have better quality, but that's yet to happen.
Jeffrey Morgan @ Feb 20th 2008 10:04AM
Now that this format war is all over, I wanted to bring up a thought that I've been having lately... I am sure I can't be the only one to have thought of it, but I don't think I have read it anywhere before. It just occurs to me that if Microsoft had gone all-in with HD DVD on the 360 as Sony did with Blu-ray on the PS3, would Blu-ray have even had a chance? Clearly, the PS3 "trojan horse" strategy was quite helpful to Blu-ray, but the 360 had a one-year head start and a much larger install base. Obviously, integrating HD DVD in the 360 from day one would have increased the cost, but we know Toshiba has not been afraid to sink money into HD DVD by subsidizing players. My gut tells me if they had done that with the 360, with games and movies on HD DVD, they could not have lost. Any thoughts? (Obviously I know this was all about studio support in the end, but certainly the 360's install base could have swayed more studios to HD DVD).