I want to buy a really good dvd player, but I have no idea what to look for. I don't really understand anything about high definition, but my uncle has a great HD setup and it looks freakin awesome, so I want to go HD. Some time in the near future I plan to buy a widescreen TV that has HD capabilities. But I need to buy a dvd player now because my dvd player is getting old. I want one that can play all forms of media, such as avi and mpeg, and can read dvd+/-R/RW. I have heard that some dvd players can record, for example, if I saw a good show on tv I could turn on the dvd player and record the show onto a blank disc. If possible, I would like to have that feature as well. I need it to be capable of hooking up to a surround sound system. And of course, I would like to have the best high definition sometihng as possible. I just want to be able to play dvd's on a great widescreen tv in the best high definition possible. If anyone could help me out and point me in the right direction I would really appreciate it. I am sorry if this is in the wrong forum and I'm sorry if I did anything else wrong. I bought a camera last year and used a web site to figure out what to buy. It ranked the cameras in a bunch of different catagories and it helped me a lot. If anyone knows a good web site like this for dvd players let me know. Any information, tips and help is greatly appreciated.
hi, I'm in the same boat- I have a DVD player that's old so want a new one. basically you want a dvd recorder with HD (hard drive) so you can record onto the machine. Panasonic DMR-EX75 is meant to be good, costs about £380, see http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/dvdpvr/0,39030416,49278854-1,00.htm for full review. This dvd recorder doesn't allow you to record one show and watch another (as it only has 1 digital tuner) unless you have anintegrated digital tuner in your TV One issue is that if you want surround speakers you need to get an amp- my old dvd player had built in amp and surround speakers. The reason dvd recorders don't have built in amps is that dvd players can break easily so if amp is built in it costs a lot to get fixed. An amp on the other hand will last year and years.
I have a panasonic dvd recorder that will record to the hard drive as well as to dvd. Great investment...I don't believe in paying for a monthly fee for Tivo, it's just the principal! If I like the program I recorded, I just transfer to dvd, it's that simple. As far as HD dvd, I just purchased the Toshiba xa2 from Amazon. It is an amazing machine, it will play back pretty much all formats including dvd audio discs and standard dvds' look almost identical to HD!
good website to compare Blu Ray and Hd dvd is www.highdefdigest.com The site does hd and blu ray movie reviews and will also compare the two format's together providing the film is released in both formats.
I recomend the HD-XA2 or the HD-A20 from Toshiba. The XA2 has the reon chip which allows for excellent upconversion of SD DVD. If you want to go only HD disk, then compare bluray players to HD-DVD players. PS3 being the bluray choice IMHO. But if you are more interested in keeping you old collection and buying a couple HD Disk, then HD-DVD is really your only answer. And if you on a budget, a HD-A1 can be found for under $200 used, or $300 new.
