HD/Blu-Ray... Is blu-ray going to win?

_CreeD_

It's like watching SACD vs. DVD-Audio all over again. Both excellent formats that really pushed the quality envelope. An eager market that got tired of waiting to see which would be the victor and we ended up with the MP3/IPOD generation instead, a devolution in sound quality at least partly due to inept marketing and mutually destructive competition.
DVD worked because all of the major vendors signed on before it was released. It was adopted so quickly as the market was assured there wouldn't be a format war of any kind, and this held true. Now the exact same companies are ignoring that one blaring lesson.
People will hold off investing deliberately in HD/Blu Ray and then the vendors will say the lack of releases or progress to a unified standard/affordable multi-format player is down to the market not being ready....Muppets.

flogen

HDDVD/BluRay combo player for €400? Even to me (who lacks money, a HDTV and any appetite for upgrading my movie collection) that's tempting.

Not sure if this will be the end of the format war, but it's surely a step in that direction.

Mossy Monk

flogen wrote:

HDDVD/BluRay combo player for €400? Even to me (who lacks money, a HDTV and any appetite for upgrading my movie collection) that's tempting.

Not sure if this will be the end of the format war, but it's surely a step in that direction.

Very positive indeed. Price ain't bad either.

Snake Plisken

I think there's some confusion about that article, I've read on AV Forums that it was actually going to cost 400 Euros More then a standard Blu-Ray player which puts it in or around 1100 Euros. Proof will be in the pudding when its released.

Snake

flogen

Snake Plisken wrote:

I think there's some confusion about that article, I've read on AV Forums that it was actually going to cost 400 Euros More then a standard Blu-Ray player which puts it in or around 1100 Euros. Proof will be in the pudding when its released.

Snake

That would be a lot more negative, but at the same time more realistic.

After all, I think the bottom range of HD-DVD players are in the €400 range, so it's hard to see how they'd squeeze a BR diode in there at no extra cost.

copacetic

flogen wrote:

That would be a lot more negative, but at the same time more realistic.

After all, I think the bottom range of HD-DVD players are in the €400 range, so it's hard to see how they'd squeeze a BR diode in there at no extra cost.

hmmm, but 400 extra would be unrealistic price wise I would have said. It couldn't cost them anything like that much to added simple HD-DVD reading (w/o any extras support).

So I'd say 400 might be the full price. Lets be optimistic!

savemejebus

I don't thing 400 extra is that unrealistic. Remember the bottom range HD-DVD players can't output 1080p. The cheapest that does that is about 520 euro, cheapest Blu Ray is about 600 (and that's sold at a loss). So i'd say 400 extra is quite realistic.

However i don't want it to be , i'd love one of these 400 euro proposed machines.

Karl Hungus

Pfft, wait a couple of years and you'll have HDDVD/Blue Ray players in Aldi for €50.

copacetic

savemejebus wrote:

I don't thing 400 extra is that unrealistic. Remember the bottom range HD-DVD players can't output 1080p. The cheapest that does that is about 520 euro, cheapest Blu Ray is about 600 (and that's sold at a loss). So i'd say 400 extra is quite realistic.

However i don't want it to be , i'd love one of these 400 euro proposed machines.

yeah but you don't have to add the two together to get one that plays both.
This is a bluray player with added HD-DVD. The only extra parts are the front end to read the HD-DVD discs. All the backend display tech are pretty much identical

Snake Plisken

Here's the quote
"The Korean electronics company Samsung announced a Player, which is to be able to play the competitive Hp-Disc-formats Blu ray Disc and hp DVD on the meeting taking place at present in Hamburg to the coming international radio exhibition in Berlin (IFA). The combination model with the designation BDP-UP 5000 is equipped with a Ethernet connection, which according to Samsung both Hp-Disc-formats can use. The Player is able to spend video pictures in full dissolution of hp with 1920 × 1080 pixels alternatively with 60 or 24 frames per second. The BDP-UP 5000 appears after past planning of the company in October or November this yearly at a price not specified yet. Samsung meant to the costs of the interested user only that the price will be appropriate for about 400 euro over that of a “simple” Blu ray Players. Such an equipment wants to already have Samsung to the IFA (31 August until 5 September) on the German market, called for it however likewise still no price."

Rgds

Snake

copacetic

Well I may have been talking rubbish!

it looks like the rumour that it would be €400 all in came from a misplaced comma in the gizmodo article here:

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/hdtv/samsung-hybrid-blu+rayhd-dvd-player-rumor-confirmed-275625.php

"priced at $544, higher than a std player" when the comma shouldn't have been there.

Xcom2

Toshiba shipped 9.2 million laptop's in 2006,starting in 2008 every laptop they sell will have a HD-DVD drive.

Also Blockbuster's largest 250 store's in the US are to keep both format's as are there online rental service.

copacetic

Xcom2 wrote:

Toshiba shipped 9.2 million laptop's in 2006,starting in 2008 every laptop they sell will have a HD-DVD drive.

Also Blockbuster's largest 250 store's in the US are to keep both format's as are there online rental service.

not sure either of that means much, dell, gateway, apple, hp and sony laptops are all going to have bluray by the looks of it. Toshiba I think is 4th in the US and 5th worldwide out of those notebook sellers?

Also blockbuster trialed both formats in those stores to see which to roll out to the other 1200 stores, and they weren't the 250 largest just 250 spread out. Just because they decided not to throw away those HDDVD discs I'm not sure that means much?

Patricide

Ok one question, i just want to see if i got somthing right here, If hd dvd wins i wont have to rebuy every one of my films as bog standard ones get played in a hd dvd player.

And would i be correct in saying that if blu ray wins i would have to get all my movies on blu ray cause none of them would work in a blu rey player?

If im right im for hd dvd, if not id go blu ray.

savemejebus

that is not correct. Blu Ray players will play and in most cases upscale your standard DVD collection.

Patricide

well in that case, go blu ray disk.

User45701

im going hi def but ive got money on the dual formats willing out. bluray will be used for games and storage because no movie even with extras needs to be 45 gigs its just not worth it and bluray discs cost more than HD's so its cheaper to mass produce a moie for a sale or rent in HD and even tho it costs a little moe for bluray discs its worth spending the money on them for pc data storage and backups

Patricide

wait i thought blu rey had 80 gigs capacity?

Patricide

Patricide wrote:

wait i thought blu rey had 80 gigs capacity?

At the moment you can get 25gb, 50 gb bu ray discs. 100gb discs on the way.

Snake Plisken

Well Just watched MI3 on HD-DVD, picture qual is the same as Blu-Ray as is the soundtrack, but what beats the BD version is the interactivity, the picture in picture commentary with JJ Abramms and Tom Cruise is excellent, the pause the film to discuss scenes in more detail, its good to see their facial reactions while watching the movie. Very well done. I hope that the software update coming to BR will give similar options available to HD-DVD, but at the moment this is one area that HD-DVD comes out on top.

Snake

Patricide

one thing i noticed while checking the back of a blu ray disc the last day, didnt see any special peatures, whats up with that?

savemejebus

it varies from film to film just like with dvd. I have first blood, hellboy, casino royal and talladega nights, all of which have special featurs and commentary.

copacetic

Blu-ray - actually we are top in europe sales 95% to 5%..

http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/16/blu-ray-actually-we-are-the-top-in-european-sales/

engadget wrote:

The HD DVD Promotional Group recently claimed that 74% of the market share for European high-definition DVD players is held by HD DVD, but the Blu-ray Disc Association points out that they conveniently "forgot" to include PS3s and PC drives in their count. Including those puts Blu-ray in the lead instead, with almost 95% of hardware sales. HD DVD lobbyists contend that most who buy game consoles don't even use them for watching high-def movies, while everyone who bought an HD DVD player will do exactly that. The fact that the PS3 is still basically cheaper than many of the standalone high-def players (Blu-ray or HD DVD) means it's not exactly honest to discount them completely either. All we know is that the format war continues, but as long as prices continue to fall, it's tough for the average consumer to complain about that.

Pride Fighter

I think HD-DVD will win. It has a better name and with HD-TV you will get some people thinking Bluray wont work on them.

Snake Plisken

Patricide wrote:

one thing i noticed while checking the back of a blu ray disc the last day, didnt see any special peatures, whats up with that?

Yeah there are a lot of bare bones releases that have come out since the release, Hostel for example has none of the extras that the DVD's had, silly mistake by the studios, most early adaptors to HD want all the extras that come on the DVD editions, only benifit is u can pick these barebones for less then 20 euros or just rent them, also u can pick up a tosh HD player for around 280 Euros now which is a good thing, as most HD-DVD release come loaded with extras and some exclusives to HD as well.

Snake

savemejebus

unfortunately the cheaper hd-dvd players don't do 1080p, 1080i is generally the max.
I can't wait till the 1080p ones drop in price

Snake Plisken

savemejebus wrote:

unfortunately the cheaper hd-dvd players don't do 1080p, 1080i is generally the max.
I can't wait till the 1080p ones drop in price

Very little difference between the i & p, I must look to where I read about it. What TV set have u got???

Mossy Monk

I was always under the impression that there was a big difference between 1080i and 1080p.

The Denouncer

Practically no visible difference between 1080i and 1080p.
http://www.hometheatermag.com/gearworks/1106gear/

savemejebus

I think it really depends on your tv, i have a 1080p xoro 3742htl and i know that 1080i and 1080p look different on my xbox 360