I got a taste of what HD-DVD looks like yesterday, and I can't wait to see more!

A local electronics store was hosting a demo of HD-DVD that was being given by a Toshiba rep. He brought the new "top-of-the-line" player with him.



And one demo disk that was playing a loop of trailers for several initial release HD-DVD movies. The one that really cought my eye was the trailer for King Kong. While I thought the theatrical movie flawed in several ways, the animation was nothing short of stunning on the modest Toshiba 50" DLP set they were using.

The backlit remote was well built, if a little oversized. Which is my assesment of the player as well. The player felt like it weighed about 11-12lbs and the rep said it was built with doubled walled aluminium and included extra damping. You don't get that with the entry level $499 player.



Connectivity was straight forward with an HDMI cable, and a toslink optical cable for the sound. Component, S-video, and Composite are all supported, along with 5.1 audio, and stereo. The top of the line unit also sports a RS232 port, and an eithernet connection. There's even a dual set of USB ports on the front panel for gamepads?!



I did get some good news though for all you component guys. (I'm one too) HD-DVD specs leaves it up to the software provider to decide if component will pass the full up HD signal. On at least some of the initial titles they may forgo the HDCP protecting that HDMI provides.

T- 4 weeks till blast-off!