HD-DVD vs DVD: Let's compare Xbox 360 style

It's almost useless to use stills for this comparison, in my opinion. Sure, you can tell there's difference enough, but when you see DVD vs. HD-DVD in motion it's a whole new ballgame. Not to mention the overall difference in source material, even your best upscaling DVD players (of which the 360 does a damn good job) will show off all sorts of lovely compression errors and noise. On certain DVDs - especially after upscaling - it's almost laughable, all you see in scenes are tiled-out and pixelated images in fast-moving scenes.

Hell, I was even blown away by HD-DVD vs. HDTV broadcasts. Again, nevermind the resolution differences between 720p/1080i/1080p (I do happen to have a 1080p set), you can see all sorts of compression errors in even the best HD broadcasts. To watch a film with a visually flawless picture is really a new experience for me, so much so that the first couple times I watched something on HD-DVD I couldn't even concentrate on the film. Seriously, I spent so much time looking for (and not finding) errors in the transfer or a speck of dust or ANYTHING that I wasn't even paying attention to the movies.

So, uh, yeah... there's a difference - a huge difference - and I really hope people don't rely on these cheese-ass stills to make a decision on whether or not HD-DVD is a worthwhile improvement over DVD.

(and remember, kids, DVD = approx. 307,200 pixels vs. HD-DVD = approx. 2,073,600... more than 6.5 times the gross picture data per frame)

Amen Tucker.. Hey since you're schooled in the High Def movie thing. I've got a small question.. how do the movies compare to like the HBO & Showtime movies that are in HD? Cuz I'm not totally sure how HBO & Showtime movies are done..like are they just kinda upscaled or what. I mean they look great, but is it the real deal ya know?

HD-DVD generally looks better than HBO and Showtime. Not because those channels aren't using HD (they usually are), but because the cable/sat guys compress them to get them to you. Once they compress, you'll start seeing artifacts again. Some are worse than others, but I've never seen a case where a channel looks better than HD-DVD.

Sorry for the "cheese-ass" stills, but I was doing the best that I could to try and review the unit. Don't say that you can't tell a difference, cause there is one.

If you read the article, you will notice that I give the drive very favorable marks and tell people that this was the best I could do, but the camera could not capture all of the details. I am a big HD DVD fan, and having both this and a Blu Ray player, I would say that this is a better investement. I have my impressions of that up there too, and plan on doing a head to head to head in the near future.

If you like the article, Digg it!. Thanks for picking this up!

Hey Tek, You think you might be able to answer my question that I posted earlier?? about the HBO/Showtime HD Movies compared to HD-DVD/Blu-Ray HD movies?

Tek: one correction, HD-DVD is perfectly capable of 1080p. The data on the discs is encoded at 1080p. The 360 is also capable of displaying the content in 1080p.

The first HD-DVD players could only output 1080i, but the xbox and the second gen hddvd players do 1080p just fine.

DeadPlasmaCell - I can answer your question to the best of my knowledge. Generally when DVDs are transferred from the original film, they aren't transferred just at the resolution necessary for DVDs which is 720x480, or simply, 480p. Oftentimes they're mastered at 1920x1080 (1080p) or higher. Why? Well, why not? Maybe in foresight for the new formats. My best guess is that premium cable channels such as HBO procure access to these high definition digital transfers for broadcasting, which is why they look so much better than DVDs.

I have the hd-dvd drive and hbo, showtime, and starz HD channels. The HD feeds from cable are clearly superior to regular DVDs in terms of resolution and clarity, but they do suffer from horrendous artifacting caused by compression, usually due to bandwidth stinginess of the cable provider. Frankly, hd-dvd blows away any HD feed you'll ever see on a compressed cable signal. Why? Because of an enormously superior bitrate. So really, you haven't seen HD until you've seen HD-DVD (or blu-ray.. eh). And it is definitely worth the investment if you just gotta experience the best. And on a budget too! Hope this clears things up for ya!

just wanted to add, I have to agree with Tek's first comment on this post. HD-DVD really blows away anything I've seen in comparison. the first day I had it, I couldn't stop myself from walking right up to the screen and sticking my nose 1" from it and awing and the tremendous detail and the fact that your visual perception of the picture's quality does not degrade at all when you're THAT close. Try that with a DVD, even with an upscaler, and you'll see some nasty things.

if only the article linked on this entry actually had quality shots of the images. the differences is far more dramatic, imo.

Thanks for answering that question wei...I agree with what you said wholeheartedly.

In response to the correction comment by Ed, I know that the HD DVD drive is capable of outputting at 1080p and state this in the article. I only mentioned that my current setup is only outputting at 1080i.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Also, feel free to comment on my blog. I have so much traffic, but no comments!

I have Shaw HD Cable in Canada and the image quality is a joke compared to upscaled DVD, never mind HD-DVD. There are plenty of pixels, and some scenes look fairly detailed, but this is undermined by the horrific compression artifacts and the posterized dark colours (large areas of shadow flicker horribly as 'black', 'dark green', 'dark brown', and 'dark blue' fight for supremecy.)

HD DVD is quite stunning- the limiting factor restricting detail is how close I can sit to the screen.

Hi Tek, I think the comparison images would have been much more useful if they had focused on only part of the frame, i.e. use a macro lens or the 'macro' function on a digicam.

The screen was about 400 pixels high in your images; there won't be much visible difference between a 480p image and a 1080p image at that size (it's interesting that there was a difference at all).

Sit 20 feet away from your HDTV, and you won't notice the difference either.

I'd actually (and most of the UK lol) would love the chance to compare DVDs to HDDVDs but seeing as the stock of the drive is non-existant then will be pretty difficult. Was supposedly released on the 1st December.

Is there stock shortages in the U.S by any chance?

I have a 360 with HD DVD drive, 46" LCD, Canon 20D DSLR with macro lens, and some photography experience, so I should be able to produce some great close-up comparison shots. Only problem is there's not overlap between the DVDs and HD-DVDs that I own. Next time I can borrow or rent an DVD that I have in HD I'll put together some comparisons.

Jonesy, I don't know about the US but they are easy to find in Canada. They're priced at CAD$199, which us about US$180 inc. tax (Alberta). A bargain as it comes with a remote and King Kong (not my favourite, but shows off the image quality well)

Awesome info on the HD Cable Vs HD-DVD, I just might have to go get me one of them thar HD-DVD drives :)

I have some close up comparisons.

DVD:
http://www.buttheysaidthecommodorewouldwithstandanything.com/HDDVD-14-Boat2SD.jpg

HDDVD:
http://www.buttheysaidthecommodorewouldwithstandanything.com/HDDVD-13-Boat2HD.jpg