Will HD DVD's play on a regular DVD player? If not, will the HD DVD play on a DVD upconverter?

Question

i have a hd dvd for my son for xmas and all he has right now is a xbox 360 so i may need a different dvd player

Answer 1

the xbox 360 has an hd dvd player built in. Regular dvd players will not work though.

Answer 2

HD DVD players are also upconverting DVD players; however upconverted DVD is only pseudo HD. That said, done right (on a good upconverter) the picture can be much better than plain vanilla DVD (although still inferior to true HD DVD). The issue is relative quality difference and the price to obtain it. I just answered a very similar question, so rather than repeat much of the info. have a look at the link (and read the article referenced there on why an upscaling player can be beneficial). I have an HD-A2 and I use it mainly as an upscaling DVD player for my 720p projector and 110" screen (I see little benefit to HD DVDs, at least not enough to be worth the high cost except for a few disks which would truely benefit from HD (for me disk rental isn't a viable option)). I therefore consider my HD-A2 to be a good upscaling DVD player that will also play HD DVDs for the few times I want to bother. To me it's worth the relatively small price premium over a good upscaling non-HD DVD player (e.g. Oppo 981, $229) simply to have the ability to play HD DVDs if I want to. Sure the price may be much more than a cheap upscaling player ... but those don't work well (see the article I referenced earlier) and are a waste of money. Anyway depending what you paid (e.g. the $99 sale price or the $300 regular price) it is more or less of a bargain. If I were buying today I'd consider the Venture model available in the US at WalMart for $197. It's a rebranded Toshiba HD-A3. Hope this helps.