Blu-ray vs. HD DVD

[Wildflower]

I never said either format is superior. I forgot to mention that HD DVD can now do up to 60 gig disks and Blue ray can do 80 gig. There is only so much bitrate you can add to a disk before current players cant play it. As of now current blue ray players wont be able to play the 50 and 80 gig disks. Not sure if HD DVD players will be able to play the 60 gig as I have seen no information other than from toshiba saying it will. Either way now neither format is better. Plus when you talk to every single person who owns both players Every single one of them back HD DVD more than they do Blue ray and every single one of them say a spec of dust will render a blue ray disk unplayable. The encryption you talk of exists on HD DVD and it has yet to be cracked and same with blue ray it has yet to be cracked. All people are doing now is circumventing. Also the BD+ encryption of blue ray has still not been implemented on any blue ray movies currently out because they are having playback problems with it. It still remains currently HD DVD is better not because of the quality of the movie but because of things like features/playability/lack of bugs that blue ray has. That list you gave is true but 90% of that list all those theatres do is UPSCALE the movie rather than correctly "fix" the origional movie. Most formats of movies out are 4000p in the origional film and most of those blue ray movies just "upconvert" the 540p dvd rather thand "downconvert" the origional 35mm film. The upconversion is the reason you see more blue ray movies out than HD DVD titles. One problem blue ray has is Universal. They dont have them and Universal is a HUUUGGGEE company. One thing I like about Universal movies is if you pause and walk away for I believe its 5 minutes the Universal HD DVD's automatically start playing a screen saver . What is hilarious about Blue ray is they have all that space but lack "extras". It could be because most of the extras are 480p/540p instead of High def but I dont know that answer.

However right now mpeg2 is not superior to VC1 which blue ray is mpeg2 and HD DVD is vc1. I am not doubting that Blue ray will eventually be a better format but Sony needs to get out of the mpeg2 mode and get into at least VC1 mode or a better format than VC1 mode (I honestly dont know if there is a better one). Some studioes have put VC1 movies on the blue ray but I dont have the knowledge of what movies and what studios are doing so just that some are.

In conclusion currently if you go by playability HD DVD is the winner, encryption means jack and there would be less pirating if there was no encryption and the if the studios were smart they would offer people to be able to download movies for a price. If you just go for quality currently either will be as good as the other. However if you look at the future well its still up in the air as to which will eventually be better. It may be blue ray it may not be only time will tell. I will agree that if Sony can get their heads out of their *** Blue Ray will succeed in being a winner over HD DVD.

*edit oh and MT yes optical media would be DVD/hd dvd/blue ray basically anything that is read with an optical laser .

[Wildflower]

Originally Posted by ChemicalWarrior

Possibly, but I am doubtful. Sony has already put together a very sizable number of big corporations to get behind Blu-Ray. As I noted Blu-Ray sells have sky rocketed since oh about the launch of the PS3. HD DVD sales on the other hand have maintained a steady pace. Unless something major happens (like Toshiba or someone releasing an HD DVD player for $200 tomorrow, stand alone) then I am doubtful we'll see HD DVD win this.

I must have missed this. Did you even read my first post?????? Blue ray has higher sales because people are getting like 5 free Blue ray movies with every ps3 purchase. Those are included in sales figures. As of now Blue ray sales have actually started to drop off because people arent buying the ps3 as much. The stats you read are not the true stats. I mean Sony claimed 1 million consoles sold yet that was only to actual stores and not to true customers. I am sure they are over a million consoles now but still. Also one thing about sony is they are screwing the europeans by making the ps3 about 800 american dollars. If they lose the european market its hard to say the future of blue ray. I dont know much about the market other than what I read so I dont know how much "clout" the european market has. Hell to my knowledge the release date for the ps3 to europe is still not till april.

[{OF}Blong]

oh and Universal is slated to release 100 HD DVD's this year 60 of them have already been posted with release dates into June.

[ChemicalWarrior]

Blong, you've done nothing but prove yourself clueless.

With lines like this" "I must have missed this. Did you even read my first post?????? Blue ray has higher sales because people are getting like 5 free Blue ray movies with every ps3 purchase."

You do nothing but make yourself look ignorant. I'm sorry, but you do not get 5 free Blu-Ray movies with every PS3. Even if you did, it counts as penetration, which is very important. Toshiba themselves subsidized the initial cost of their HD DVD player in order to be cheaper than first generation Blu-Ray players. Its a common tactic used in markets where most of the money is made on software, not hardware.... consoles are a great example.

You know the top three market winners for movie studios have been? Disney, Sony, and Fox. All three exclusive to Blu-Ray. Then there's Warner Bros who is supporting both formats. While your love for Universal is odd to say the least, they are clearly not producing movies that are as popular as the top three, which again solely support Blu-Ray.

Then you once again prove just how poorly informed about the entire situation. Sorry, but VC1 is not an HD DVD exclusive codec, instead it is usable on both platforms. AVC/H.264 is on both formats, MPEG2 was used on early Blu-Rays due to a transfer in mastering techniques, it was cheaper but already this is being changed which makes it a rather useless arguing point other than bit rate. Which again is where Blu-Rays REQUIRED player transfer speed advantage will happen them in the future.

You are also uninformed with consoles. Sony and Microsoft both report units shipped. That's what it reads in the documentation on press releases, units shipped. Same as Microsoft, same as Nintendo, etc etc. That's the only truly reliable statistic that they can report. European launch for the PS3 is the 23rd of this month. Also, Microsoft used similar pricing tactics in Europe as Sony is. Sony also has a much deeper hold in Europe than US, its doubtful they will lose as much ground in Europe as they have in NA.

Finally, your fanboy like obsession with Universal will not save HD DVD. I am sorry, its one studio, one against larger studios of more number at that.

[{OF}MadD!]

So far I find Universal HD offerings to be good but they could have offered a few block busters.

Universals HD-DVD upcoming releases:

Children Of Men 3/27
Good Shepherd 4/3 (Want)
The Game 4/17
The Jerk 4/17 (Want)
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind 4/24 (Want)
The Nutty Professor 4/24
Alpha Dog 5/1
The Hitcher 5/1
The Hurricane 5/22
The 40 Year Old Virgin 5/22
Smokey And The Bandit 5/22
The Skeleton Key 5/22 (Want)
The Big Lebowski 5/29 (Want)
Dragonheart 5/29 (Want)
The Frighteners 5/29
Lost In Translation 5/29
Midnight Run 5/29 (Want)
The River 5/29
While there are some titles I want nothing really is a must have. I can actually wait and put off all of the titles on this list. As there are other tiltes from other studios I want alot more at this time. If Universal releases Battlestar Galactica this year I will buy that on release day!

[{OF}Blong]

someday chem will understand.

[{OF}MillerTime]

do blu-ray players play any type of DVD or only blu-ray?

[Harbinger]

I would think most (if not all) are also upscaling DVD players.

[{OF}Blong]

Originally Posted by {OF}MillerTime

do blu-ray players play any type of DVD or only blu-ray?

they play any dvd but the upscale is horrendous on them currently. I read it has to do something about the firmware. I wouldnt be quick to buy either format until they get the bugs figured out (which I havent seen any with the xbox hd dvd but thats the only player people dont seem to have problems with). Also its not known weather the old players will play the new size disks from blue ray (80 gig) and HD DVD (60gig).

What I think is funny is Fox just pulled all but 2 of their intended Blue ray releases. Wonder if they did that because sony cant get their ***'s in gear and actually implement a working BD+ encryption. One thing about Blue ray is 50% of the movies are upconverted compared to only about 5% with HD DVD (that would be the ones that were filmed like 20 years ago unlike some of the present ones on Blue Ray). Whats the point in going Blue ray if all the studios are going to do is upconvert the movie? Its like buying an overpriced DVD when they do that. The thing Blue Ray has is storage space and I have a feeling that Blue ray wont go away because of higher storage capacity.

[ChemicalWarrior]

Sigh, I feel no good can come of this thread and it no longer serves a purpose. Blong, I can only advise you to not believe everything you read on the Internet and that you should seriously reconsider being so zealous about a company or product.