Blu-ray vs. HD DVD Discussion Thread

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I'm going with....

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Just to add to the whole "Porn ignores Blu-ray" is nonsense.
www.theinquirer.net
Not my favourite site so also www.msnbc.msn.com (Which isn't either but hey ho..)
For those who want porn look no further than the internet. It will have only the slightest effect on the HD DVD and Blu-ray format war. Really the whole thing is bogus.
 
The downside of hi-def:

So I was watching Stargate on Blu-ray tonight. On the whole, looks great, sounds great.

But as the oldest movie I have on Blu-ray, the HD really demonstrates flaws in the original master. Or more specifically, the original print that the master is pulled from.

For example, this was the fledgling days of CGI, so most of the VFX were done the old fashioned way of optical compositing. The extra processing shows up quite vividly in HD as increased noise, reduced color saturation and lower contrast.

But what I found most humorous when watching the film were the parts at the beginning when they first arrive on Abydos. They're all outside, wearing these big, highly reflective sunglasses. On the DVD, you could make out stuff in the reflections.. big bright blur that would be a light or reflector, big dark blur that's the grouping commonly known as "video village" (the crew piled up behind the camera). In HD, on the other hand... I could actually make out the entire reflector in Kurt Russell's sunglasses.. down to the fabric it was made from and the way it was assembled. A fabric wall about eight feet by ten feet, divided into six or eight segments, made of a reflective silvery material (probably something akin to a projection screen). Surrounded by about twelve to fifteen individual people. You could even tell what some of them were wearing (one guy had a red shirt/jacket). And this was all in the reflections on the actor's sunglasses.

Would that be a good thing, or a bad thing? :) I mean, it's probably a good thing that I can make out that much damn detail. But the audience isn't supposed to see that stuff.. hehe.
 
More Blu-ray vs HD DVD indicators:


Also, only 1% of XB360 owners have bought the HD DVD add-on player.
 
http://www.ps3fanboy.com/2007/04/10/hd-dvd-buys-out-europe-blu-ray-foolishly-shrugs/

HD-DVD buys out Europe, Blu-ray foolishly shrugs

Posted Apr 10th 2007 5:00PM by Nick Doerr
Filed under: News, Culture, Blu-ray
Now, now, don't get all up in arms yet. The title is made to spin you guys into our web and listen to what we've got to say. First off, the "format war" has been debatably won by Blu-ray in the US and Japan (of course, "won" is sort of a poor term, but it's the preferred purchase by consumers with an HD set and next-gen format players), so everyone would think that Blu-ray would come to be accepted by consumers and movie studios alike in Europe, seeing as how they've been able to witness the superior format pull ahead in the tiny market available to it.

Not so. In Europe, it appears that over 35 movie studios, many of which are independent or small, have decided to join the HD DVD ranks and primarily distribute via that format. Blu-ray has about ten studios (which weren't named in the Next-Gen article). But, why?

Studio Canal's Chief Marketing Officer Rodolphe Buet said this: "I have met much more commitment from partners involved with HD DVD than Blu-Ray. I met Sony in mid-2006 but the support was far below what was offered by the HD DVD partners." Yeah, we're going to assume that "commitment" and "support" really mean "kick-backs". HD DVD may have abandoned the US and Japan, but they'll spend what they need to so they can get Europe.

Yeah, it's a blatantly fanboy viewpoint, but it's one that fanboys will probably take. It's just going to prolong the "war" and keep consumers indecisive and standoffish from adopting either format. DVD wins because these two just won't kiss and get married... so to speak.
Click to expand...
 
I wouldn't even rule Europe as a win for HD-DVD yet, keep in mind that the piece above was written on April 10th, less than a month after around 600,000 PS3 were sold in Europe.

That's a rather massive increase in the number of potential Blu-ray buyers straight away, even if half of them buys a Blu-ray film, that's rather a lot of units shifted. The PS2 was instrumental in the rapid rise of DVD as a format in Europe (being the first DVD player many people owned), next gen consoles may well prove to be the key in this round asa well.

On the flip side I don't personally know of a single 360 owner who has bought a HD-DVD drive. I think its also worth noting that European studio's will still want to sell discs outside Europe and that will mean using Blu-ray.

On a related note I was interested to see that the 360 Elite will not come with a HD-DVD drive as standard, a sign that MS are putting a bit of distance between themselves and the format.

Regards

Scaff
 
All excellent points Scaff.




FatAssBR
http://www.ps3fanboy.com/2007/04/10/hd-dvd-buys-out-europe-blu-ray-foolishly-shrugs/

Not so. In Europe, it appears that over 35 movie studios, many of which are independent or small, have decided to join the HD DVD ranks and primarily distribute via that format. Blu-ray has about ten studios (which weren't named in the Next-Gen article). But, why?

Studio Canal's Chief Marketing Officer Rodolphe Buet said this: "I have met much more commitment from partners involved with HD DVD than Blu-Ray. I met Sony in mid-2006 but the support was far below what was offered by the HD DVD partners." Yeah, we're going to assume that "commitment" and "support" really mean "kick-backs". HD DVD may have abandoned the US and Japan, but they'll spend what they need to so they can get Europe.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Anyone who takes even a mild look at European sales of DVD's, and especially worldwide sales, already knows that all the combined sales of DVDs from those 35 "studios" are but a very small fraction of the sales of DVDs from those supporting Blu-ray:
  • Warner Bros.
  • Paramount
  • Sony Pictures
  • Columbia Pictures
  • TriStar Pictures
  • 20th Century Fox
  • MGM
  • United Artists
  • Orion Pictures
  • Buena Vista Motion Pictures
  • Walt Disney Pictures
  • Touchstone Pictures
  • Hollywood Pictures
  • Miramax Films
  • Pixar
  • Lion's Gate Films
  • Artisan Entertainment
  • Republic Pictures
  • and others
They might as well have said over 500 European "studios" are supporting HD DVD, considering how few DVD titles they sell, its practically meaningless. It would be like a car dealer who mostly sells Yugo's announces they will not be selling any cars from Japan, US, Germany, UK, Italy, France, etc... Really? wow.... well that certainly is going to impact the market. ;)


Now, what is interesting is that despite being former exclusive supporters of HD DVD, both Warner Bros and Paramount are reported to be working with the studios that exclusive support Blu-ray to promote Blu-ray over HD DVD in European markets as the Hi-Def video format of choice:

HDTV UK
Blu-ray friendly studios join forces to promote Blu-ray in the UK

A number of home entertainment studios have joined forces to jointly promote the Blu-ray high definition disc format in the UK.

Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Lions Gate Home Entertainment, Paramount Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, and Warner Brothers Home Entertainment, have pledged to work together in recognition that by uniting, they have a better chance of getting the message across that Blu-ray should be the HD disc format of choice.
Click to expand...
 
Scaff
On the flip side I don't personally know of a single 360 owner who has bought a HD-DVD drive. I think its also worth noting that European studio's will still want to sell discs outside Europe and that will mean using Blu-ray.
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*points to TVR_Fan*

Personally, I've seen them everywhere on Flickr and the various Macintard forums (!) when I'm browsing game console set-ups. Not that it means much, since statistics-wise the add-on is bombing.
Digital-Nitrate
They might as well have said over 500 European "studios" are supporting HD DVD, considering how few DVD titles they sell, its practically meaningless. It would be like a car dealer who mostly sells Yugo's announces they will not be selling any cars from Japan, US, Germany, UK, Italy, France, etc... Really? wow.... well that certainly is going to impact the market. ;)
Click to expand...
Well said. 👍
 
Digital-Nitrate
They might as well have said over 500 European "studios" are supporting HD DVD, considering how few DVD titles they sell, its practically meaningless. It would be like a car dealer who mostly sells Yugo's announces they will not be selling any cars from Japan, US, Germany, UK, Italy, France, etc... Really? wow.... well that certainly is going to impact the market. ;)
Click to expand...
That's funny on multiple levels, and I'm unsure if you made it that way intentionally or not.
Scaff
On the flip side I don't personally know of a single 360 owner who has bought a HD-DVD drive. I think its also worth noting that European studio's will still want to sell discs outside Europe and that will mean using Blu-ray.
Click to expand...
My cousin breifly owned one, as he bought it under the pretext (which, if I recall correctly, was not exactly discouraged by the Gamestop employee he bought it from. At least, I think he got it from Gamestop...) that it would have HD-DVD games come out for it à la Sega CD. Needless to say, he was not amused when he learned that not to be the case.
 
Toronado
My cousin breifly owned one, as he bought it under the pretext (which, if I recall correctly, was not exactly discouraged by the Gamestop employee he bought it from. At least, I think he got it from Gamestop...) that it would have HD-DVD games come out for it à la Sega CD. Needless to say, he was not amused when he learned that not to be the case.
Click to expand...

I must confess that when it was confirmed that the 360 would not be supporting HD-DVD games I was a tiny bit surprised, as up to that point I had seriously been considering getting a 360. I do hope that at the very least they produce one that matches the 360 Elite, can you imagine buying an Elite (which does look good) and having to put the (in my opinion) butt ugly HD-DVD drive next to it.


Scaff
 
Scaff
I must confess that when it was confirmed that the 360 would not be supporting HD-DVD games I was a tiny bit surprised, as up to that point I had seriously been considering getting a 360. I do hope that at the very least they produce one that matches the 360 Elite, can you imagine buying an Elite (which does look good) and having to put the (in my opinion) butt ugly HD-DVD drive next to it.


Scaff
Click to expand...

The drive itself isn't butt-ugly... but when you have to sit it on top of the 360 on your entertainment rack, it looks like a turd in a punch bowl.
 
Duċk;2630256
The drive itself isn't butt-ugly... but when you have to sit it on top of the 360 on your entertainment rack, it looks like a turd in a punch bowl.
Click to expand...

Especially when your Elite is black ;)


Well Europe is always a year behind the USA and Japan concerning technology and trends.

That's why the success of HD-DVD's atm is meaningless imo.
Let's wait a year and then look at the situation again.
 
do you guys think that the success of PS3 and Blue-ray are together? as one grows stronger (doesnt matter which) the other will too?
 
Small_Fryz
do you guys think that the success of PS3 and Blue-ray are together? as one grows stronger (doesnt matter which) the other will too?
Click to expand...
I think so. As the PS3 becomes more popular people will start to buy BD movies to watch on it. And as the BD format grows stronger people will start to look for players for it, so why not get a PS3 that can do that and play games.

I know that was one of the reasons I got a PS2 in 2002, it was a videogame and a DVD player in one.
 
Small_Fryz
do you guys think that the success of PS3 and Blue-ray are together? as one grows stronger (doesnt matter which) the other will too?
Click to expand...

Personally yes I do believe they are linked, Europe is a good example of this, 600,000 new Blu-ray owners over a weekend (as in launch PS3 sales) is almost certain to make a difference, particularly as Sony is giving a good number of these a free film to get started with (I believe it was something like the first 100,000 UK PS3 owners who registered via the PS3). Currently in the UK if you are looking for a standalone Blue-ray player its around £500 at the cheapest, so the PS3 at £425 + £18 for the remote gets you a player and a 'free' games machine. AV magazines have also reviewed the PS3 very favourably as a Blue-ray player, rating it on par with £600-£700 machines (unlike the reviews the PS2 DVD player got).

Regards

Scaff
 
Scaff
600,000 new Blu-ray owners over a weekend (as in launch PS3 sales) is almost certain to make a difference, particularly as Sony is giving a good number of these a free film to get started with (I believe it was something like the first 100,000 UK PS3 owners who registered via the PS3).
Click to expand...

*strokes free BluRay copy of Casino Royale*
 
Im in with BD too, (only because of PS3) if I didn thave the PS3 tho I still would have backed BD over HD-DVD. The one thing I have noticed with BD movies (in some small cases DVD) is that the quality of the transfer is very noticable, and this reall does make a difference.

Take Mission Impossible 1 & 2 those films have a very soft look, while the third film is very crisp and very 3D in its apperance so making that all important purchase especially at this time in BD's life is a major factor in choosing to part with my money. I never really noticed this problem with DVD, and when I did it wasnt such a big change.

Famine when did you register you PS3? as ive still to hear word from sony about my copy of that film, and I registered at about 12:45am on the 23rd so I would have been one of the first lot to do so (i think).
 
Famine
This morning. The e-mail said to allow 45 days...
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Ah I know why you got yours so quickly, I've only just noticed you now reside in 'Security Checkpointed Yaawkshire', given that makes you 20 years ahead of all use silly western countries, you're post is obviously far quicker.

👍

Scaff
 
So Scaff, that means that your mailman must be The Slowest Man In The World and leader of The World's Worst Delivering Service.
 
AXL ROSE
So Scaff, that means that your mailman must be The Slowest Man In The World and leader of The World's Worst Delivering Service.
Click to expand...

He must of heard us talking about him, my copy arrived in the post this morning.

👍

Scaff
 
Scaff
He must of heard us talking about him, my copy arrived in the post this morning.

👍

Scaff
Click to expand...

Scaff when did you order it and how, ive registered the PS3 online via the ps3 store thing, did I have to do anything els? :ouch:
 
Sprite
Scaff when did you order it and how, ive registered the PS3 online via the ps3 store thing, did I have to do anything els? :ouch:
Click to expand...

I didn't pick-up my PS3 until late on the 23rd March, I would guess that I registered at around 8-9pm. I didn't do anything else, I got my conformation e-mail around 5 days ago and the DVD turned up this morning.

Regards

Scaff

BTW @Duck - The DVD does have a number of special features on it, I could not tell you off hand if its the same as the standard DVD version, but its certainly not just the film alone.
 
Scaff
I didn't pick-up my PS3 until late on the 23rd March, I would guess that I registered at around 8-9pm. I didn't do anything else, I got my conformation e-mail around 5 days ago and the DVD turned up this morning.

Regards

Scaff

BTW @Duck - The DVD does have a number of special features on it, I could not tell you off hand if its the same as the standard DVD version, but its certainly not just the film alone.
Click to expand...

cheers mate 👍

We are still waiting for the e-mail. who knows. :nervous:
 
Samsung supporting both Blu-ray, HD DVD

It's not as bad as it sounds:
hollywoodreporter.com
Samsung supporting both Blu-ray, HD DVD

By Thomas K. Arnold

In what HD DVD supporters say is a clear sign that the high-definition disc format war is far from over, Samsung Electronics, which last year introduced the very first Blu-ray Disc player, now says it will support the rival HD DVD format as well.

The Korean consumer electronics manufacturer said Friday that it is developing a dual-format player that will play both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD software. The "Duo HD" player (BD-UP5000), expected out in time for the holidays, also will support both next-generation formats' interactive technologies, HDi and BD-Java.

Dongsoo Jun, executive vp of the Digital AV Division at Samsung Electronics, said his company also "is flexible to market a standalone HD DVD player whenever consumers demand it."

"Our main concern is not technology but consumer choice," Jun said. "Consumers are hungry for more HD content but are currently confused about competing formats. Samsung's Duo HD player will allow consumers access to every HD movie title available regardless of the authoring format. Samsung is committed to making life simpler through technology and will market next-generation DVD products which will satisfy the consumer and market requirement."
Click to expand...

This part of the story does upset me a little...:
The announcement was hailed by Craig Kornblau, president of Universal Studios Home Entertainment and a key Hollywood supporter of the HD DVD format. The fact that Samsung, which for so long has been an exclusive Blu-ray supporter, is now going the dual-format route "is an acknowledgement of the tremendous value that HD DVD brings to the early adopter of high-definition packaged media," he said.
Click to expand...
First, the electronics companies couldn't agree on the technology. This take by Universal Studios President reminded me that the Studios could have united to support just one format as well. In the end, consumers lose.

I love the films Universal owns, as they are one of my favorite studios. But as long they stubbornly stick with the HD DVD format, I'll just have to get their DVDs on non-high def format. I mean, I could live with purchasing a PS3 or Blu-ray DVD player, then finding out that I can not purchase high def DVDs from one of the major studios, but what if you are uniformed comsumer who's purchased an HD-DVD player, and found that it was the other way around? Article didn't mention MGM, Columbia Pictures(yes, they are under Sony Pictures, but still....), or Disney, but they own a huge library of films as well, which are not released on HD DVD format. That can't be fun.
 
I just got my free copy of Casino Royal.

I'm impressed with the sound more than anything. It's so clear, the the base is so much more accurate! I thought the picture was going to be the most improved, but it just isn't. I'm very impressed! You have to experience it to believe it.
 

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