No, you cant play HD-DVD's in a upconverter unless the disk is dual sided. Dual sided meaing it has DVD on one side and HD-DVD on the other.
dvd(or dvd upconvert) uses a red laser and hd and blueray uses a blue laser (thus the name BLUERAY). a blue laser is thinner than a red laser, so more data can be stored on the same amount of disc space. a red laser (standard dvd) cannot read a blue laser disk (hddvd and blueray) because of this. its like comparing apples to oranges, so to speak.
The upconverter is taking your 480p DVD source and is trying to mimic a resolution of 1920x1080. IMO, I don't think the signal looks anything like the true resolution of 1920x1080. Like gamename said below, they don't use the same laser, therefor the player cant read the disk.
Glad I bumped into this thread!! I was about to ask a similar question, and thought I take a look first. We have a Toshiba D-R400 DVD Recorder we got as a "family" Christmas present. It is nice to record some of our DirecTV shows onto either DVD-R or the DVD-RW media and watch again. I almost bought a HD DVD at Wal Mart last night to try it on our recorder. Good thing I didn't, else we would have a very nice collectors item, for us anyway. My gut instincts tell me that HD DVD will drop the prices of machines and HD DVD disks so much in the future that they will squash the Blue Ray competition, even though Warner just signed on exclusive to Blue Ray. I remember Sony Beta Max and VHS years ago. I bought a Beta Max because it had superior picture quality. It's drawback was the time it was able to play/record 90 minutes vs 120 with VHS, and the cost factor, together created their demise. Believe it or not, there are still professionals that use Beta Max for it's better quality.
The HD DVD players are backward compatible- they will play regular CDs/DVDs. Is the regular players that do not play HD discs.
only a hd dvd player with upscale can play both hd and reg dvds. so in order to play hd =hd dvd upscale=hd dvd plus upscale or just upscale
@voodooma Correct.I guess I missread his post. I thought he was worried about not being able to play regular DVDs in a HD DVD player...
I was worried that my normal upscale regualr DVD recorder, a Toshiba would not play HD DVD or Blue Ray DVD which it will NOT. But a HD DVD will be backward compatible with regular DVD's, it just will not have the fidelity and crispness that comes with the HD DVD. I suppose then that a HD DVD, like the one they have on sale at Wal Mart won't play Blue Ray disc then? Make one that plays both and you're GOLDEN!
There are already are hybrid players. http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/17/lg-bh100-hd-dvd-blu-ray-hybrid-player-in-the-wild-and-on-sale/ And I am sure is not the only one.
there is a toshiba hd+ upscale floating around for $179 if i recall correctly. either online or best buy. i think it was toshiba hd-a2 it only plays 1080i but it is an hd player also all hd player will upscale. best buy is selling a 1080p hd dvd player for $199 and a 1080i for $149
