Does a HD DVD play in a DVD player

Bought a HD DVd at Walmart and it does not play in my OPPO DVD player
Read all of the posts but no answer.

If it's a combo disc, look in the center and it should say "This Side HD DVD - Other Side DVD" or something like that. If it is not a combo disc the HD DVD will not play in a DVD player any more than a record album would play in a CD player.

New technologies are sometimes backwards compatible: Play regular DVDs in an HD DVD player.

Old technologies are rarely future compatible: Never play HD DVD in a standard DVD player.

ALSO related... On another forum, a member asked the following --

Quote:
"Are you saying that if I use an HD DVD player with HDMI cables, that I can watch regular DVDs in HD??"

And I responded with this info...

No - DVDs are not "high-definition". They are mastered with 480 lines of resolution, vs the 1080 of hi-def HD DVD and Blu-ray discs.

But with an "upconversion DVD" player [$200 and less], the image can have a quasi-HD "look" [although artificial], with the internal processing chip "upconverting" the disc's 480 lines to either 720 or 1080 lines (depending on which mode you select in your player). The result is a cleaner, more defined presentation of the original 480 signal.

Of course, this is dependent on the disc's original mastering of the picture. Some standard DVDs look terrible, with added "edge enhancement" [or unnatural oversharpness, such as the Oscar-winner "Cold Mountain"], and although upconverted, the image is still not that great, and you will need to lower your display's sharpness control. Others have inferior color [not accurate] and/or oversaturated.

With the new HD-DVD players - not only do they provide playback for hi-def 1080-line HD DVD discs, but also the "upconversion" capability for standard DVD discs (as explained above). The upconversion can only be done with an HDMI cable to the TV display, although the HD DVD discs can be viewed in hi-def (1080 lines) thru either the HDMI or component input of the TV.

NOTE: Blu-ray players (including Sony's Playstation 3) also offer upconversion of standard DVDs.

Hope this helps. [END]

-Love Hendrix! (The Loverboy)

[Post edited by Love Hendrix! on Nov 4, 2007]

I have a Toshiba A2 and I've never had any of the problems while playing standard DVDs. They all look good almost as good as HD. In fact some like Transformer or so good I have not even thought of buying the HD version. That is not true of my Samsung BD P1400 it looks bad when playing standard DVD some even have black bars all the way around like letter box movies. It also will not play any of my Blu Ray movies. Still waiting for repouse from Samsung on it, it has latest update and still doesn't work.

[Post edited by Grog on Feb 16, 2008]