Jason Dunn
04-18-2006, 05:17 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,125431,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,125431,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Over the last week I've had a chance to use the HD-XA1 at home and while the choice of movies is still limited, the few available have given me a taste of how the player shapes up. In terms of picture quality, I'm pleased to report that the player delivered everything I've come to expect from high-definition. I played a few discs: The movies "Biohazard" and "Moonlight Jellyfish" are bundled with the player in Japan, and I also purchased "Zozakura," an HD presentation of Japanese cherry trees in full bloom that has the distinction of being the first commercial HD-DVD content on the market. All looked great. All three discs are encoded with the MPEG4AVC codec, which is one of three HD-DVD codecs. To be honest, I couldn't tell the difference between the HD-DVD disc and the MPEG2-encoded HD television that we have in Japan."</i><br /><br />The review goes on to talk about the slow boot time: it takes a full minute from pressing the power button until you're able to even eject the disc from the machine! Something like that would be frustrating for me in particular. Looks like a painfully 1st-gen product. Every product has to start somewhere, but this certainly doesn't seem like a very compelling first attempt. I figure they'll get it right by late 2007 or early 2008, but I wonder where the content will be at that time?