HD-DVD or Blu-Ray?

[Thorgs]

Which is better or are they the same thing?

[tha_con]

They are both pretty much the same thing as far as quality goes. And here's a look at the support they are getting from movie studios:

HD-DVD Jan - April release: 15 Titles

Blu-Ray Jan - April release: 57 Titles

I think it's very clear to see who's getting more support. And it also leads us on to better predict who the winner will be.

*note: from what I hear, Combined Samsung, Sony, Phillips, and Pioneer Blu-Ray sales are estimated to be nearly 10 times that of HD-DVD. Can anyone confirm?

[bob12345]

I can't confirm the sales numbers, but IMO blue ray is better than HD as of right now.

The only reason for this is that blue ray can actually do what they said it would. the players will push 1080p, where HD hasn't gotten that high yet. HD right now is nothing more than an expensive upconvert player.

HD is supposed to get 1080p out of their next release though. Another thing sony did right away was they released the rights to other manufacturers. I'm not sure if Toshiba has done that with HD or not. But that means that we're seeing blue ray from several manufacturers, and more options on the shelves. Since customers like a selection, even though most of the time they don't understand the differences from one to the other, having various manufacturers makes good marketing sense for sony.

[tha_con]

Using data provided by consumer research firm Nielsen VideoScan, Sony found out that:


Blu-ray has surpassed HD-DVD in cumulative sales.
Blu-ray titles outsold HD-DVD titles by more than a two-to-one margin during the first week of January (47.14 HD DVD titles for every 100 Blu-ray titles)
Blu-ray titles outsold HD-DVD titles closer to three-to-one during the second week of the month (38.36 HD-DVD titles for every 100 Blu-ray titles)

[Tony_Bolony]

Blu Ray has no porn though

[tha_con]

Originally Posted by AlTrOnX

Blu Ray has no porn though

Actually it does.

Turns out Disney owned the production sites that those porn industrys were asking to make their movies, not Sony.

[AlSi]

until BR stops using MPEG-2, HD-DVD is better in my book.

VC-1 or bust

[AlSi]

Originally Posted by bob12345

I can't confirm the sales numbers, but IMO blue ray is better than HD as of right now.

The only reason for this is that blue ray can actually do what they said it would. the players will push 1080p, where HD hasn't gotten that high yet. HD right now is nothing more than an expensive upconvert player.

HD is supposed to get 1080p out of their next release though. Another thing sony did right away was they released the rights to other manufacturers. I'm not sure if Toshiba has done that with HD or not. But that means that we're seeing blue ray from several manufacturers, and more options on the shelves. Since customers like a selection, even though most of the time they don't understand the differences from one to the other, having various manufacturers makes good marketing sense for sony.

well the movies themselves have been 1080p, the early players werent though. however, they were also 1/2 the price and had much faster interfaces/loading. the early BR players were absolutely horrible, the fact that they were a grand was an insult.

and it's not an upconversion player. it's not converting anything. it's native HD, no interpolation.

HD-DVD and BR do essentially the same thing

here's the rundown

BR = more data, more scratch resistant, has an extra PIA layer of copyright protection (DRM) BD+, still uses MPEG-2 for way way too many of their releases

HD-DVD = less data, less scratch resistant, less DRM, uses VC-1 (the very best PQ [picture quality] codec available) for their releases

it should also be noted, that if youre the type of viewer who likes the extras on the disc, Blu Wizard is pretty much garbage compared to IME (In Movie Experience)

that's basically what it boils down to.

[mike_sho]

One question I have is when will someone get a dual player , that has hd-dvd and bluray playing capabilites. Would it even be allowed or feasible. Wouldnt it just mean whoever renting out both technologies....

[05 tC]

Originally Posted by mike_sho

One question I have is when will someone get a dual player , that has hd-dvd and bluray playing capabilites. Would it even be allowed or feasible. Wouldnt it just mean whoever renting out both technologies....

The LG BH100 plays both, however it retails for $1,200 and doesn't support some of the interactive menus and video features of HD-DVD. You'd be better off getting a Toshiba HD-A2 ($409 on Amazon) and a 60gig PS3. The only problem with the HD-A2 is that it only outputs 1080i, not 1080p. However this shouldn't be a problem with a display that de-interlaces 1080i correctly.

[tha_con]

Just a few notes:

Nearly every Movie studio currently uses VC-1 for Blu-Ray films, in fact the only company still using MPEG-2 is Sony, apparently because they don't want to give MS a dime.

PS3 loads, plays, and displays better than any HD-DVD and Blu-Ray player on the market, which is rather disappointing from a consumer point of view, since stand alone players should outshine it, by far.

Blu-Ray looks to be the clear cut winner, so regardless of your choice of codec or price, my view is buying anything with "HD-DVD" on it is just a prime example of pissing away your money on a seemingly dead format.

As things stand right now, HD-DVD has more in common with BetaMax, Sony's long gone format, than Blu-Ray ever did, or probably ever will.

[AlSi]

wrong, just look at the list you posted. every studio that isnt supporting both formats sony's somehow convinced to stay away from it. even some that aren't MPEG-2 on HD-DVD somehow are on BR. almost every sony & lionsgate = MPEG-2 every fox = MPEG-2 1/2 paramount = MPEG-2 4/5 MGM = MPEG-2 Warner seems to be the only sane one using VC-1, also the only one ready to put out discs which can be read in both BR & HD-DVD drives.

btw, not sure if you noticed but about 1/2 of the movies on the release calander are sony flicks. fox, about 1/3. sonys churning them out at max speed to create this available movie appearance disparity for obvious reasons. fox, because they went to a lot of trouble to convince sony to use BD+. they want BR to win so badly, because apparantly; customers shouldnt be allowed to backup movies they own. dollars to donuts, if HD-DVD caved in and implemented BD+ and sony didnt you would see a dump truck of fox releases on HD-DVD right now.

and what kind of logic is that anyway? youre saying they dont want to give the best PQ because they would have to pay a royalty to MS. so what's the compromise, they make more money while the consumer gets a worse product. WONDERFUL!, what a great deal.

also the PS3 is the best BR player on the market currently, not the best overall HD player. the Toshiba HD-XA2 is the best HD player. the 360's HD-DVD drive also does a good job & supports 1080p over VGA for the 360 and DVI/HDMI via a computer. rev_atari posted a link somewhere showing the PS3 vs 360 HD-DVD that read even w/ component and 1080i, the HD-DVD looked clearer w/ better color reproduction nearly every time.

edit: found it
http://www.gamescentral.com/blogs/te...vd-vs-dvd.aspx

[tha_con]

Originally Posted by AlSi

wrong, just look at the list you posted. every studio that isnt supporting both formats sony's somehow convinced to stay away from it. even some that aren't MPEG-2 on HD-DVD somehow are on BR. almost every sony & lionsgate = MPEG-2 every fox = MPEG-2 1/2 paramount = MPEG-2 4/5 MGM = MPEG-2 Warner seems to be the only sane one using VC-1, also the only one ready to put out discs which can be read in both BR & HD-DVD drives.

btw, not sure if you noticed but about 1/2 of the movies on the release calander are sony flicks. fox, about 1/3. sonys churning them out at max speed to create this available movie appearance disparity for obvious reasons. fox, because they went to a lot of trouble to convince sony to use BD+. they want BR to win so badly, because apparantly; customers shouldnt be allowed to backup movies they own. dollars to donuts, if HD-DVD caved in and implemented BD+ and sony didnt you would see a dump truck of fox releases on HD-DVD right now.

and what kind of logic is that anyway? youre saying they dont want to give the best PQ because they would have to pay a royalty to MS. so what's the compromise, they make more money while the consumer gets a worse product. WONDERFUL!, what a great deal.

also the PS3 is the best BR player on the market currently, not the best overall HD player. the Toshiba HD-XA2 is the best HD player. the 360's HD-DVD drive also does a good job & supports 1080p over VGA for the 360 and DVI/HDMI via a computer. rev_atari posted a link somewhere showing the PS3 vs 360 HD-DVD that read even w/ component and 1080i, the HD-DVD looked clearer w/ better color reproduction nearly every time.

edit: found it
http://www.gamescentral.com/blogs/te...vd-vs-dvd.aspx

About 75 people on AVS forums disagree with you, and that article.

But it's whatever dude, back the losing HD-DVD if you want, waste your cheese, it's cool with me. but don't piss and moan when you have to re-buy your HD movies on Blu-Ray because your others are obsolete.