So do you need a Betamax machine or do you have one?

I have a PS3 that is connected to a 1080P Samsung via HDMI and an optical connection to a Sony receiver.
I get a fantastic picture on the Samsung(Black Hawk Down is a great transfer).....but I can not get the PS3 to allow a setting of DD5.1 or DTS to be output via the optical to the Sony receiver?
Anyone have a solution?
RR

Mine worked (I think). PS3 with HDMI direct to Toshiba 72HM196 and optical to Yamaha RX-V1600.

In the PS3 -> Settings -> Sound Settings -> Digital Optical, select Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby DTS.

On my receiver, I have to hit the Straight Effect button to use the inbound Dolby rather than the receiver soundfield processor.

Of course, I could be talking out of my butt so YMMV.

Steve

Noticed something interesting in movie pricing. This week's Best Buy Canada flier shows Happy Feet available in three versions for next week:

DVD: $28.99
Blu-Ray: $29.99
HD-DVD: $32.99

Ended up getting the Blu-Ray of Happy Feet for $26.99 CDN - sticker price at Best Buy! For around here, that's pretty good.

Did not get that one and don't know if I will get it. I am kind of annoyed that WB makes on purpose lower quality BDs. Got Eragone and Warriors of heaven and earth today and most likely chicken little tommorow. Let us know how you like it.

I've got a big BD order coming up from the US - including Eragon and Chicken Little (already seen this - surprisingly entertaining). :-)

5 HD-DVD's use them for demo at showroom --be nice to get past this format mess and have a proper selection available -not just a bunch of leftover garbage

I'm at about 10 BDs and 6 HD DVDs. I've got a 360 with the HD player and a PS3. I'm in the BD camp though. All my purchases with be BD from now on, unless it's not available on BD, then it'll be HD. I figure they'll both be around for a while, but I also think that BD will win this one due to the PC and PS3 support.

Up to 31 BDs now :-)

I did finally get Happy Feet if anyone cares. saw parts of it, but at least I think my nephews enjoyed it over the Easter holydays.

As for numbers, I don’t count – let’s just say between 50 and 100 for now.

OK, so now I own two HD-DVD titles.

King Kong came with the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive I just picked up, and I picked up Serenity because I wanted something to watch and didn't know Kong was gonna be in the hardware box.

Of course I don't have an Xbox and don't intend on buying one. I was convinced by an article in Popular Science mag that the drive could be plugged into a PC. It can, and VISTA even recognizes it as a ROM drive. So far though, I haven't gotten any software to play movies off it. Any recommendations? Before I'll buy an Xbox to make it work I'll pop for a dedicated HD-DVD player.

You need HD-DVD/Blu-ray specific versions of DVD playback apps.

Thanks Daniel. It seems that even if a software DVD player application claims it will play HD-DVD, it "might not work" depending on the video card, processing power, Display, and display connection used (VGA or DVI or whatever). I'm already watching HD OTA programming on my PC so I know it has enough juice to display 1080 content. The content protection protocals the "industry" has imposed on HD-DVD and BluRay content makes watching them on a PC a 50/50 bet, at best.

The Xbox HD-DVD drive DOES play standard DVDs though. Of the 4 DVD player applications I have, one plays DVDs from that drive with the video "studdering" as if the film reel was out of sinc. One crashes when it tries to play movies from that drive. Media Player 11 works fine, as does VISTA's Media Center (which I'm assuming uses media center).

Is ANYONE actually watching HD movies on their PC with the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive? If so, please tell me what software you are using, what your Processor speed is, and what video card/cable/display you're using. Thanks

I bought CyberLink's PowerDVD Ultra as it claimed it would play HD-DVD movies. On my first try, it DID find and open the KingKong HD-DVD in my Xbox 360 player. It only played a second or so before it errored-out though. A check of their web site suggested that it WOULD work if I connected to my LCD via VGA instead of DVI. Sure enough, after changing cables to VGA and rebooting my PC, PowerDVD Ultra DOES play HD-DVD movies off the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive plugged into my VISTA Home Premium PC via USB.

That said, the playback is not pretty. My PC is a 3.0Ghz Pentium and my video card is last-generation. The software recommends at least a dual-core 3.2Ghz PC or better and a faster video card. Playing King Kong I would get perfect sound but miss 2/3 of the video frames. Very choppy, hard to watch. I have the standard DVD of King Kong and can play it smoothly at full screen on my 22" LCD at 1650x1050. Frankly, the standard DVD looks every bit as sharp and is MUCH easier to watch. Alas, I'll have to upgrade my hardware to be a true critic of HD-DVD. My PC just isn't quite up to the task.

Now if Microsoft had just put an HDMI output on that cheap HD-Xbox DVD drive I'd be in heaven. Of course it's a great idea and Microsoft is never quite up to being "great".