HD vs Blu-Ray

[Tossica]

For you Canadians.



$99 Toshiba HD-D3 and it includes 300 and Bourne Identity in the box with 5 free movies via mail in.

[Tikker]

1080p camcorder seems more appealling, nice

[Tossica]

WB goes Blu-Ray exclusive.

http://www.timewarner.com/corp/newsroom ... 83,00.html


That pretty much seals the deal for HD-DVD I think. Too bad.

As expensive and consumer unfriendly as Sony and BR are, I will stick with DVD I guess until prices come down.

[Harrison]

SLUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURP

[Tikker]

I still think it won't really catch on (ie laser disc) and downloadable content will end up winning

[Tossica]

I still think it won't really catch on (ie laser disc) and downloadable content will end up winning

I agree. Neither format would have replaced DVD at the current prices but HD-DVD had the best shot IMO. Cheaper manufacturing costs, combo SD/HD discs and cheaper players would have been the ticket. Oh well.

[Harrison]

They need to get off this propriety format bullshit in every market conceivable.

[Tikker]

the open source community doesn't generally come up with working prototypes first, so if you want someone to research new stuff, they have to have some sort of expectation of making money from it

[Jay]

Downloadable content won't be big for a while imo. Too many soccer mom's out there who barely can work the oven timer and think that the only good gift is a tangible one.

[Tikker]

iTunes is changing that whole philosophy tho

as much as I hate apple, they're at least helping to push the new paradigm

[Jay]

Yeah but then get that media on a television with the proper HD hookups. I don't see downloadable content taking over for at least 10 years if it's quick.

[Tossica]

Yeah but then get that media on a television with the proper HD hookups. I don't see downloadable content taking over for at least 10 years if it's quick.

I think On Demand type service will draw more and more people but downloads are a few years off yet.

[Tikker]

Yeah but then get that media on a television with the proper HD hookups. I don't see downloadable content taking over for at least 10 years if it's quick.

I think On Demand type service will draw more and more people but downloads are a few years off yet.

my company does it now

it's not wide open internet stylez on demand, but almost all of our movies, and tv listings are available on demand

[Tossica]

Yeah but then get that media on a television with the proper HD hookups. I don't see downloadable content taking over for at least 10 years if it's quick.

I think On Demand type service will draw more and more people but downloads are a few years off yet.

my company does it now

it's not wide open internet stylez on demand, but almost all of our movies, and tv listings are available on demand

Comcast does it as well and the quality is decent but nowhere near HD-DVD or BR quality.

[Tikker]

Comcast does it as well and the quality is decent but nowhere near HD-DVD or BR quality.

no, it's not 1080p yet

I'd wager less than 10% of people have 1080p TV's tho

[Tossica]

Comcast does it as well and the quality is decent but nowhere near HD-DVD or BR quality.

no, it's not 1080p yet

I'd wager less than 10% of people have 1080p TV's tho

The picture is usually fine, it's the audio that suffers.

[Tikker]

meh, 95% of people think apple ipods sound great, so I'm betting no one cares about that either

[Lyion]

Lyion,

Your entire post came directly from your ass.

Warner Bros WAS HD-DVD exclusive at the beginning and come Jan 2008 will be HD exclusive again.

Just for the Neener Neener effect, since Toss spent so many posts telling me I was wrong or full of shit in this post.



I also don't think this will be the death knoll for HD DVD. I think there's room to coexist, but Bluray is the better PC technology and I'm glad the better tech is more popular.

http://kotaku.com/341033/new-line-goes-blu+ray

New Line & LOTR also will be Blu-ray Exclusive.

[Tossica]

With Warner on the Blu side, HD-DVD has slim to no chance of becoming the DVD replacement. Sadly, neither does Blu. With no "war", prices will stay high on the Blu side and it will become another niche format like HD-DVD. Without Toshiba pushing Blu to drop prices and have constant buy one get one free sales on the media they will be perfectly content keeping prices high. The PS3 is the only BR player worth a shit and it's $400. There is no way they can drop the price on it low enough for the average consumer to be able to afford it. If BDA can come out with a full featured player in the next year and keep the price under $200, they might be able to pull it off.

[Lyion]

DVD had no competition, either, eh? Look at those astronomical DVD player prices!

Competition will push prices down. Blu-ray players prices are already going down rapidly and will continue to lower as production costs are cheaper. It's the same flow as DVD players. The PS3 is down to 399 and in another year will be even less expensive. New Technologies come out and as the manufacturing process improves and costs decrease, it goes to the end user.

This whole clusterfuck is due to Toshiba screwing up the format that Panasonic, TDK, and Sony were working on for years with others, and invited Toshiba to join, but they decided to do their own thing, and I hope they lose a truckload of cash with HD DVD dying. The format never should have been born.

Also, you can buy a Blu Ray player on Amazon for around 250 bucks. In a few months, I'm betting there will be a ton of low end 199 and cheaper standalones.

Game, set, match Blu ray! Well played!

[Tossica]

DVD had no competition, either, eh? Look at those astronomical DVD player prices!

Competition will push prices down. Blu-ray players prices are already going down rapidly and will continue to lower as production costs are cheaper. It's the same flow as DVD players. The PS3 is down to 399 and in another year will be even less expensive. New Technologies come out and as the manufacturing process improves and costs decrease, it goes to the end user.

This whole clusterfuck is due to Toshiba screwing up the format that Panasonic, TDK, and Sony were working on for years with others, and invited Toshiba to join, but they decided to do their own thing, and I hope they lose a truckload of cash with HD DVD dying. The format never should have been born.

Also, you can buy a Blu Ray player on Amazon for around 250 bucks. In a few months, I'm betting there will be a ton of low end 199 and cheaper standalones.

Game, set, match Blu ray! Well played!

The sub $400 Blu-Ray players are shit. They are not even 1.1 spec. The cheapest 1.1 spec is $400 right along with the PS3. Newly authored 1.1 BR discs will not even play on the 1.0 players. Boy, there sure will be some pissed off consumers out there when they realize their BR players are obsolete because these companies had to rush a piece of shit component to market.

You can't compare it to the DVD/DIVX war because the jump in quality is nowhere near as dramatic as the difference between DVD and VHS. The benefits are noticeable but not worth anywhere NEAR $400 and unless the players are dirt cheap, noone is going to buy it.

And you are wrong about Toshiba "fucking it up". The DVD forum, you know, the folks that developed DVD? came up with HD-DVD as a replacement for DVD and Sony and Co didn't want to sign on. So the "blame" for the clusterfuck lies squarely on the BDA.

[Lyion]

BR was in development for a long time, and Toshiba was invited to join the 'group' developing it.

Stop spreading bullshit about BR specs, since you are completely clueless. All players out now are required to be 1.1 spec. Not to mention 1.0 players will watch ALL movies fine. RTFM before spouting bullshit. Worst case scenario is one needs a firmware upgrade, probably for audio, If you're talking about BR audio format, that isn't predefined by the profile, also.

[Tossica]

BR was in development for a long time, and Toshiba was invited to join the 'group' developing it.

Stop spreading bullshit about BR specs, since you are completely clueless. All players out now are required to be 1.1 spec. Not to mention 1.0 players will watch ALL movies fine. RTFM before spouting bullshit. Worst case scenario is one needs a firmware upgrade, probably for audio, If you're talking about BR audio format, that isn't predefined by the profile, also.

Sony intended on making their own format and had no interest in working with the DVD forum to come together.


Check your facts on the BR spec thing before you start calling me clueless. NEW players released are supposed to be profile 1.1 compliant but there are only like 4 models announced with 2 of them being well over $1000. That doesn't stop them from pushing the piece of shit 1.0 profile players until they are all sold out. Those are the sub $300 players we are seeing now. No HD audio, no disc interactivity, no web enabled features, No thanks. The cheapest 1.1 player is $400 and still doesn't include the necessary hardware to make it 2.0 compliant when they finally decide on it. It will be another year or more before Blu-Ray gets their spec straight (2.0) and has a product that matches HD-DVD in functionality. The first HD-DVD player shipped had ALL of the functionality that the 2.0 spec in BR is "supposed" to provide. Sorry Lyion but a firmware upgrade is NOT going to provide a 1.0 player with an ethernet port, 256+MB of ram, a secondary A/V decoder and the ability to decode all of the HD audio formats available. If you bought a standalone BR player (not a PS3) that is 1.0 profile, you are fucked. You own a BR lite player with bare minimum functionality and can look at buying a new one in the near future if you want to see what BR is really capable of. Even if you buy a 1.1 player now, you are selling yourself short as the 2.0 spec provides more features that your player will not be able to take advantage of. They should have had all this hit worked out BEFORE they launched their first player. It's ridiculous.

[Arlos]

*shrug* Betamax was a better technology than VHS. The general public didn't care. They wanted to watch the one that had the movies they wanted to watch available for it. Even when early players were incredibly primitive. Remember having to use manual rewinders, cause the motors were so shitty that rewinding tapes would burn them out in no time flat? You'd think that would be something VHS would've worked out early too. I am sure early adopter VHS machines were just as expensive, relative to inflation, as full-spec blu-ray is now. Gadget-heads will get them now, and impress their friends, who will wait for the cheaper ones to show up in a year or so. Same general pattern.

-Arlos

[Tossica]

I am sure early adopter VHS machines were just as expensive, relative to inflation, as full-spec blu-ray is now. Gadget-heads will get them now, and impress their friends, who will wait for the cheaper ones to show up in a year or so. Same general pattern.

-Arlos

That's my point. The general attitude is that HD media is not anywhere near the ""MUST HAVE" that home video or DVD were. It needs to be dirt cheap or it won't fly. Sony appears to be in no hurry to make the technology affordable.