HD DVD Player as an upconverting player?

[mudrummer99]

I am going to pick up a PS3 because the more I learn, the happier I am. What I am also considering, since the bottom fell out on the price of these, is whether I should snag an HD-DVD player for a nice sum of $99 (BB dropped their price as well as many of the other CE stores) to use as an upconvert DVD player. I know that the PS3 will do this as well, but even though there haven't been a lot of issues of wear and tear on the PS3's I would still like to make it last as long as humanly possible. I do this knowing full well that this format is dead, but as an upconvert, is it worth the price? Wouldn't hurt to pick up a few 10-15 dollar HD movies as well, atleast the ones that won't be ported to BD very soon, during fire sales me thinks. Feed back would as always be taken for both sides of the arugment.

Mike

PS would the A-30 be worth getting for the extra $30, my tv is 720p but I am looking at upgrading sometime this summer

 

[Bluesmoke]

The HD DVD players are so slow though. I bought one and returned it. It upscales great but very unresponsive.

 

[Nomo]

I'll second that.
If you don't already own one I would not suggest buying one simply for the reason Bluesmoke gave.

 

[mudrummer99]

An addendum to this, are the problems stated above the same on the HDDVD addon for the 360? At $50 it seems tempting.

Mike

 

[j_garcia]

I do think it is a viable option to pick one up, because for the price they are decent players. Yes, my A2 is slow though. Sorry, can't help you on the 360 add on.

 

[rgriffin25]

The 360 add on is actually a pretty nice machine. It loads quickly, and from my experience it doesnt lock up at all. The downside is that you are stuck with Dolby Digital audio. The Xbox HD drive does not decode any HD audio formats an cannot pass them via HDMI.

For $50 its not a bad deal. (well except for the fact that its obsolete)