HD DVD and Blue Ray....
 

Buying a few DVDs for people today and noticed the selection of HD DVD and Blue ray is about the same, but the HD DVD is about 7 bucks cheaper.

Is it too early to buy one or the other though?
The blueray players are like 1200 bucks, but the Xbox HD DVD player is only like 200.

and is the Toshiba HD A2 the only HD dvd player out besides the xbox one?

Xbox HD DVD $300 + $200 = $500
PS3 Bluray $500 (well, if you get it retail)

So bluray movies are $7 more expensive? they have better quality though right? (due to the more space on the disc)

Im waiting til a format is decided.I remember betamax lol

hd-dvd will be the format, remember sony made betamax and they are doing it all over again

No, blu-ray is not any higher quality. Potentially blu-ray discs can hold more special features because of higher space, but the quality itself won't be any better.

Which sucked cause Betamax was superior to VHS. Goes to prove better does not always control the marketplace.

Betamax is used by pretty much every TV station there is, because of it's quality.

Not true, blu-ray can hold true HD content, it's not compressed. HD DVD is still compressed.

BluRay for life! so much more space than HD-DVD to put shit in

HD DVD will play regular dvds correct? People like to still be able to play their old movies

Yah, I read that Blu-Ray discs have the ability to go as high as 8-layer (200 Gigs)... TDK is coming out with a 4-Layer Blu-Ray (100 Gigs) pretty soon.

This isn't true. Blu-ray supports ~52Mbit/s while HD-DVD only supports ~26Mit/s. This is important to the quality.

Also, the disc space allows for a higher bitrate, so it has the potential to have a higher quality. It's difficult to compare because they both use different codecs. Also, hd-dvds hold 15 gigs per layer (so dual layer will hold 30G) while blu-ray supports 25G per layer (dual-layer will be 50Gigs). In the upcoming years, I would believe that you would want to choose the better technologically format that we can 'grow' into in the next 5 or so years.

I believe this is why Sony chose the blu-ray format for the PS3.

Also, the betamax analogy is a bit specious. The blu-ray vs. hd-dvd is very different. There isn't the 'outside' support from computer companies and video game systems in the betamax era. This new media form isn't just used for watching movies.

It doesn't matter if it's 5,000,000 Mbit/s - Your eyes won't be able to tell the difference. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray movies look identical quality wise. As for HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray battle I could give a fuck less, I'm still fairly happy with DVD and that's not going to change anytime soon.

How much are the Blue Ray and Hd-dvd discs now? There are movies out on these things?

I think Blue-ray is far superior. But really it comes down to marketing as to who will win. I am gonna wait until it panes out. Don't need one right now anyhow.

Blu Ray will lose the fight. I bet anyone ten bucks right now.

Blue-ray looks superior to my eyes. There is this smooth, soft diffused glow in skin and sky areas, pretty damn cool.

Some of the earlier transfers to HD-DVD we're bad due to a rush to market also.

..both formats will survive for the short lifespam of the last gasp of physical media.
in 5 years no one will have DVDs of any kind, it will all be downloaded and stored.

you mean Betacam ....

I've been getting the HDDVDs for around $20 - 30 online. Best Buy has a few that cost $35 in the stores.

This was the case with a number of early BluRay titles, NOT with HDDVD.

Could be a matter of opinion then, check out "Rattle and Hum" & "Full Metal Jacket" in HDDVD, yuck.

To be honest right now the fight is a waste of time... It's so hard to even find one of these players in anyones home or on the shelves.

Sure the PS3 has a blue ray... but what only 500k people own a ps3?

+ with all the problems Sony is plagued with... on all other products ( Mainly battery recalls )

And then there is the blue ray catoied shortage...

Full Metal Jacket is on my list of ones to pick up. Now I'm bummed...was it really that bad? I hadn't heard anything like this with regards to HD, but plenty regarding BluRay.

Over the weekend I found out that there will be a PS3 under my Christmas tree, so I'm excited to be able to test both out myself. The XBox360 HDDVD has been getting lots of play at our house.

its only 300 + the 200 if you dont already have a 360.
I have had a 360 since last year around this time.


They are about 30 bucks CDN for the HD dvd, and about 37-39 for the blueray.

Thats what alot of people are saying.
The cheapest (non ps3) blueray player is 1200 bucks.
the cheapest (non xbox) hd dvd is 500.

While blue COULD be better, its still much more money.
Can most HD tvs even display the difference?
I stopped at best buy and they had bourn supremecy playing side by side on identical hitachi plasmas, (with a normal dvd in an upconverting dvd player too) and the difference from normal upconverted DVD to the blueray and HDdvd was huge, but I couldnt tell the differenece between the hddvd and the blue ray.

Here are some pre-Christmas sales stats for the two formats from Amazon.com. At this point, HDDVD has quite a lead.

http://www.eproductwars.com/dvd/

[Format founders and Managing Member]

BR:
Sony Corporation
Royal Philips Electronics
Apple Computer Corp.
Dell, Inc.
Hewlett Packard Company
Hitachi, Ltd.
LG Electronics Inc.
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
Panasonic (Matsushita Electric)
Pioneer Corporation
Royal Philips Electronics
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Sharp Corporation
Sony Corporation
TDK Corporation
Thomson
Twentieth Century Fox
Walt Disney Pictures and Television

HD-DVD:
Toshiba Corporation
Hitachi Corporation
Memory-Tech Corporation
NEC Corporation
Sanyo Electric Co.

Can't the Xbox HD-DVD only display 1080i?

with the latest firmware the 360 does 1080p

So your saying more big names have interest in Blueray then HDDVD?

Why is HD so much cheaper, and easier to find then?

Hd is cheaper because the production costs are much lower. They can 'modify' existing dvd-plants, where-as in blu-ray they pretty much have to start from scratch.

That's not true at all.
Both are compressed, you have any fucking idea how big uncompressed video would be?:1orglaugh

HD-DVD uses VC1 for it's video codec. Blueray is primarily using MPEG2. Even on a 50gig disc, MPEG2 doesn't look anywhere near as good as HD-DVD on a 30gig disc.

Both have the ability to use both VC1 and MPEG2(aswell as AVC for blueray), but since Sony owns the patent to MPEG2, they choose to continue to use an out dated codec.

HD-DVD has better audio with the lossless TrueHD and better user interactivity.

The ONLY thing blueray has is potential.
The extra space of blueray is useless as long as they keep using inferior codecs and overpriced players.

HD-DVD has better players on the market at better prices and is the only one right now that's worth investing into.

If your a Kubrick fan than you'll still enjoy the film of course, congrats on the PS3!

^ he speaks the truth

add to hd-dvd list microsoft. Just a FYI for my younger brothers and sisters, betamax for a better format than vhs.

Read it again, I said "can", not "does"... Blue-ray is expandable to 8 layers, or 200 gigs... HD-DVD is not. So HD-DVD has already limited itself to what it has now, Blu-ray has more potential for future codecs...

I edit video all day long, so I have an extremely good idea of how big uncompressed video is.

Also, Blue-Ray will be much better for non-video uses (data storage). The discs are much more durable than HD-DVD discs, and hold more data... So I am positive that Blu-Ray discs will be not be disappearing anytime soon. TDK already has a 4-layer 100 gig disc coming out next year.

Current players wont be able read them. Single and dual layers are the only specs for the current lasers used(for dvd, hd-dvd, and blueray)
Having to come out with a completely new line of players would do more harm then good to blueray on the comsumer market. Not that something like that would ever be used for movies anyways.

My girlfriend is the Sony fangirl. This "debate" goes on daily at our place. It doesn't really even matter to us, as we'll have both of them sitting under the TV in the next week. But sometimes it's fun to pick a "side" and go at it.

I love FMJ and with these new HD movies, it's been fun to pick up on little things that you might not have noticed when seeing them previously. I find myself pausing to read what might be written on a piece of paper in a scene, or exactly what book an actor might be carrying. It's such a HUGE difference in picture quality.

"Initial versions of Sony's Blu-ray Disc-authoring software only included support for MPEG-2 video, so the initial Blu-ray Discs were forced to use MPEG-2 rather than the newer codecs, VC-1 and H.264. An upgrade was subsequently released supporting the newer compression methods so the second wave of Blu-ray Disc titles were able to make use of this."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc

Also, H.264 is mpeg4 variant and it's really nice :)

Also, If anyone is interested in reading about the HD-DVD format, I am adding the wiki hd-dvd link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_DVD

Fuck Blu-ray.

And fuck Sony aswell for that matter... :winkwink:

Here's an interesting article I just found:

Taiwan makers: Blu-ray HD DVD stalemate may boost dual-format devices

Jimmy Hsu, Taipei; Adam Hwang, DigiTimes.com [Thursday 14 December 2006]

The stalemate in the Blu-ray Disc (BD) and HD DVD battle to become the mainstream blue-laser DVD standard may encourage makers to offer dual-format optical disc devices compatible with both formats, according to Taiwanese makers concerned.

While Walt Disney Studios and Twentieth Century Fox recently affirmed their support for BD, neither of the two next-generation blue-laser standards has gained the upper hand, the sources indicated. According to information on Amazon.com, there there are 203 HD DVD movies and 196 BD movies available for sale, the sources noted. In addition, consumers have seemed to be neutral about the two standards, the sources said.

Consequently, Samsung Electronics has planned to offer dual-format recorders that can record and play back BD and HD DVD movies, the sources pointed out. Hitachi-LG Data Storage (HLDS), a member of the Blu-ray Disc Association, is considering production of dual-format devices, the sources indicated, noting that a dual-format device would be more expensive than a single-format device.

http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20061214PD201.html

I believe you have to use the VGA cable to get 1080p from HD-DVDs. With component cables, you are limited to 1080i on the 360 HD-DVD movies. (although games will display in 1080P over component)

The 360 also upconverts regular DVDs over the VGA cable, while the component cables limit it to 480P.

Why argue, when you can just go for VHS? :)

Modern day example of this is how Windows dominates he PC market when Apple is so much better.

Mitch

as usual there is lots of confusion with the new formats, now i am wondering why things can't get a bit easier to understand, in the end, they are doing new improvements and they are making you believe that you NEED all these new tricks... take for example the Ipod from Apple.. i had one of the old ones, which still works perfect for the sole purpose it was designed, that is 'playing mp3s'. and i paid it like 250 euro. back to present, the new Ipod has way more features (also plays movies) only because they still have to keep the price high.... if it would still have only the mp3 player feature, then it would cost much less, but no, they have to squeeze us....like cell phones, sorry for the vent....

good post.

Fuck that! LASERDISC!!! :1orglaugh

thats fantastic now give me the money you owe me cockboy.