~Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD~

[Ulfhednar]

As I am actively boycotting Sony products, my first vote went straight to HD-DVD without question. After reading the article and learning a few new things about Blu-Ray (thinner layers with the option for more later sounds good), I am still leaning toward HD-DVD because the article made it quite clear that Blu-Ray will be more expensive (at least at first.)

 

[lokiju]

I'd pick HD DVD because I don't really care but seem to like what I've heard/read about it so far.

 

[Garet Jax]

This is hilarious - the underlying technological factors are irrelevant for 90% of consumers. They will buy a player, hook it up, put a disc in, press play and watch.

Just like VCR vs Beta, the ultimate winner will be decided by something less important than technology.

As it stands, it doesn't matter who wins, just let one win and then buy that player. The technology couldn't be more unimportant.

 

[destrekor]

Originally posted by: Garet Jax
This is hilarious - the underlying technological factors are irrelevant for 90% of consumers. They will buy a player, hook it up, put a disc in, press play and watch.

Just like VCR vs Beta, the ultimate winner will be decided by something less important than technology.

As it stands, it doesn't matter who wins, just let one win and then buy that player. The technology couldn't be more unimportant.

this is very true
the facts about each media will not be available to the general consumer, at least not the technical facts. whichever format has more movies will win, and generally that seems to spell, at least at this point, that Blu-Ray will win. More studios are supporting Blu-Ray then HD-DVD, and with 20th Century Fox being exclusive to Blu-Ray (to name one, other than Sony Pictures and its assorted studios), that's a big statement. They have a lot of sales.

 

[acemcmac]

I hope they both fail.

 

[DanTMWTMP]

i just hope that there will be a compromise .

c'mon companies. I'm a potential high-spending customer who does not want to ask questions. Make it simple for us (like In & Out's simple menu in lieu of Mcdonald's 100-item menu) so we can just go to a store, buy what we need/want, and get out happy.

 

[Garet Jax]

Originally posted by: DanTMWTMP
i just hope that there will be a compromise .

c'mon companies. I'm a potential high-spending customer who does not want to ask questions. Make it simple for us (like In & Out's simple menu in lieu of Mcdonald's 100-item menu) so we can just go to a store, buy what we need/want, and get out happy.

Nah, too easy.

This is why McDonald's is world wide and In n Out isn't.

 

[randym431]

HD DVD is already winning. The cost of the players are already dropping. BluRay are sticking around $1000 still.

This cost diff will kill Sony's little invention off, like beta max. Cost always wins out in the end. As for PS3, all I can say is... nice try Sony, but not good enough.

I just got the rca HD player that has dropped in price to around $300.
Now I will hook it up to the plasma and see if all the hype is worth it.

Netflix now rents both type DVD formats, so thats a big plus. You dont have to buy, just rent.

Zillions have DVD players, now. It took many a long long time to give up their VCR. But when you can get a DVD player for $50, and your VHS breaks down, you go with DVD.

Funai will make a HD DVD player well under $200 in 2007. And around the same price as a standard DVD player by next Christmas. I dont see BluRay following that trend. And it wont be long after you'll find HD dvd's in the $5 bin at wally world.

 

[SVT Cobra]

Nope BLu Ray is advertising a lot more! That's all I see, they even have Popular Science paid off to write an article about how good Blu Ray is over HDDVD (if you pick up the Veyron issue of Pop Sci last month you will know what I mean).

 

[iRONic]

Originally posted by: neutralizer
HD-DVD, just because it's cheaper to manufacture and it's not Sony.

 

[randay]

knew just about everything in that article, was for bd before vote and for bd after vote. but it is interesting to see people change thier minds.

im for bd and i believe bd will win because of the capacity advantage.

I recently watched Kingdom of Heaven Directors Cut on BD. It has about 50 minutes of extra content, which totally made it feel like a different movie. It adds a lot to the story and I recommend it highly. But back to the point, the directors cut brings the movie up to 3 hours 15 minutes, if a 25GB bd holds 4 hours, that means 18.6GB of data, which is above what an HD holds. I dunno what that means for a movie over 3 hours on HD-DVD, but it can't be good.

 

[Doom Machine]

u guys spoiled yourselvs, dvd on my old tv looks fine

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

It doesn't matter. Q2 of 2007 there will be players from LG, Samsung and others that will play both formats. Such is the nature of disc based technologies. Once that happens nobody will care. For a year or so the great debate will rage like it did when the DTS DVDs came out about which format is better but after a while nobody will care.

I already don't care. When the dual format players come out I'll buy one and be happy.

 

[Czar]

Originally posted by: randay
knew just about everything in that article, was for bd before vote and for bd after vote. but it is interesting to see people change thier minds.

im for bd and i believe bd will win because of the capacity advantage.

I recently watched Kingdom of Heaven Directors Cut on BD. It has about 50 minutes of extra content, which totally made it feel like a different movie. It adds a lot to the story and I recommend it highly. But back to the point, the directors cut brings the movie up to 3 hours 15 minutes, if a 25GB bd holds 4 hours, that means 18.6GB of data, which is above what an HD holds. I dunno what that means for a movie over 3 hours on HD-DVD, but it can't be good.

means 18.6gb of mpeg2 data, which blueray currently use, hddvd use mpeg4 right now it seems, 18.6gb is plenty

 

[Nutdotnet]

Originally posted by: Garet Jax

Originally posted by: DanTMWTMP
i just hope that there will be a compromise .

c'mon companies. I'm a potential high-spending customer who does not want to ask questions. Make it simple for us (like In & Out's simple menu in lieu of Mcdonald's 100-item menu) so we can just go to a store, buy what we need/want, and get out happy.

Nah, too easy.

This is why McDonald's is world wide and In n Out isn't.

In-n-Out is still privately-owned. It's not world-wide (or even nationwide) because the owner chooses so.

 

[TallBill]

I'll probably get blu-ray, because when I get back I plan on buying a PS3 and a XBOX 360. HD-DVD would cost more for an add on.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: Czar

Originally posted by: randay
knew just about everything in that article, was for bd before vote and for bd after vote. but it is interesting to see people change thier minds.

im for bd and i believe bd will win because of the capacity advantage.

I recently watched Kingdom of Heaven Directors Cut on BD. It has about 50 minutes of extra content, which totally made it feel like a different movie. It adds a lot to the story and I recommend it highly. But back to the point, the directors cut brings the movie up to 3 hours 15 minutes, if a 25GB bd holds 4 hours, that means 18.6GB of data, which is above what an HD holds. I dunno what that means for a movie over 3 hours on HD-DVD, but it can't be good.

means 18.6gb of mpeg2 data, which blueray currently use, hddvd use mpeg4 right now it seems, 18.6gb is plenty

Depends. There are some Blu-Ray discs that use the mpeg4 codec. However, Kingdom of Heaven is not one of them.

I agree though that the HD DVD capacity is plenty when using the mpeg4 codec. Just about every movie release thus far on HD DVD has been of the dual-layer variety - 30GB.

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Originally posted by: Czar

Originally posted by: randay
knew just about everything in that article, was for bd before vote and for bd after vote. but it is interesting to see people change thier minds.

im for bd and i believe bd will win because of the capacity advantage.

I recently watched Kingdom of Heaven Directors Cut on BD. It has about 50 minutes of extra content, which totally made it feel like a different movie. It adds a lot to the story and I recommend it highly. But back to the point, the directors cut brings the movie up to 3 hours 15 minutes, if a 25GB bd holds 4 hours, that means 18.6GB of data, which is above what an HD holds. I dunno what that means for a movie over 3 hours on HD-DVD, but it can't be good.

means 18.6gb of mpeg2 data, which blueray currently use, hddvd use mpeg4 right now it seems, 18.6gb is plenty

I agree, Blu-Ray's size advantage doesn't seem very useful for films, both media have ample storage when VC-1 or H.264 is used. To give you an idea, Microsoft's Live video store does movies in 720p in 4-5 GB on average, and apparently looks very nice. Considering that 1080p has roughly twice as many pixels as 720p, that leaves plenty of space for a great quality transfer and plenty of extras on both formats.

FYI, HD-DVD discs mostly use VC-1, and I believe recent Blu-Ray flicks are split pretty evenly between MPEG-2, VC-1, and H.264.

 

[Eug]

Just to clarify, for those talking about MPEG4:

AVC is not the same thing as MPEG4. AVC H.264 as used on HD DVD and Blu-ray is much higher quality than standard MPEG4 can provide at the same bitrate.

Of the HD DVDs we've measured, they range in size from 12.6 GB to 27.9 GB or something like that. ie. The vast majority are on HD30, which is 30000000000 bytes, which is a couple of GB less than 30 GB.

 

[simms]

Sony won't win the format wars.. I'm pushing for HDDVD also because of cost.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Originally posted by: simms
Sony won't win the format wars.. I'm pushing for HDDVD also because of cost.

Ditto. Cost (I want to get the HD-DVD drive for my xbox360 since it's actually affordable) as well as the anti-sony bandwagon on which I shamelessly sit.

 

[loup garou]

Best & Worst HD Discs of the Year
Wow. HD-DVD is owning that list.

 

[WraithETC]

Hd-DVD simply because its more recognizable.

 

[Xecuter]

HD DVD because Sony didn't learn their lesson the first (and second) time around

 

[Shawn]

that article is now almost a year old. isn't it time for a new thread?