HD-DVD / Blu Ray: just a stepping stone?

The Bollox

are HD-DVD's worth the money you're paying for them? I can personally see them as the Mini-disc of the film world, I'd say it's just a matter of time before all movies are on 'memory cards' for compatability proposes.

I have talked to few few people who say HD is a huge step up, and that they are worth the extra few euro and that it will only be a matter of time before they do to DVD's what DVD's did to cassettes. but that's what people said about the Mini Disc and look where that is now.

so what do you think? is the extra bit of definition worth re-buying your film collection?

Mossy Monk

I wouldnt rebuy my dvd collection. I would however buy a new movie on Bluray if I had the choice.

floydmoon1

well the thing with mini-disc is there was very few albums on it.i have got a ps3 mostly to play blu-ray.It really depends on the movie.wouldnt pay the extra if i can get it cheap on dvd but for things like planet earth on blu-ray would defo pay for the extra definition.

Karl Hungus

The Bollox wrote: »

so what do you think? is the extra bit of definition worth re-buying your film collection?

Honestly, I'm sitting on the fence for this one.

Re-buying my film collection? Well, that'd be a negative, with backwards compatibility of HD players, the DVD collection will be a keeper.

The Bollox

does the HD player improve the quality of regular DVD's?

robby^5

Rebuying a film collection isn't something someone just does over night, but i have noticed that ive re-bought a few films (although most are at pretty budget prices at this stage in hmv etc.) over the years because the cassettes were horrible quality.

But having seen the difference between a standard dvd on a hd tv and a hd-dvd on a hd tv, I cant say that I'm that impressed.

The leap doesn't seem to be so great as to warrant an extra 10-20€ for a blur-ray/hd-dvd. And buying one of the players will set you back a few bob too (even considering ps3 is still €499) most people can pick up a DVD player for feck all cash.

Tusky

The Bollox wrote: »

does the HD player improve the quality of regular DVD's?

nope.

Jello

There's no way I'd ever replace my DVD collection with HD ones, that'd be far too expensive.

Have a PS3 myself and the only thing putting me off buying a few blu-rays right now is the cost. Was in HMV today browsing through their sale items and had a look in their blu-ray section. I saw Sunshine for €41 and Blade Runner for €35 and was tempted, but ended up getting four DVDs (including Sunshine) for €38. So until the prices are reduced I can't see myself starting a HD collection any time soon - it'll just be the Xtra-vision rentals!

I do thing they look pretty good though - especially on a full 1080p HD screen, but for now it's not worth the cost.

The Bollox

do HD tv's still suffer from the 'drag' factor that lcd has ie. the image gets slightly blurred when the shot is panned (most noticably when watching sports like soccer or gaa)

Guy:Incognito

Not really a valid comparison with minidisc as minidisc is primarliy a recordign format (which dvd was never planned to be apparenty btw) with it does brilliantly and is still very much the journo's choice (anyone who's had the likes of Ray Shah come into their place of business looking to record a spot for the radio will have noticed the use of mindisc.

I've started buying any decent new actiony films on blue-ray rather than dvd. For brand new films in the shop it usually only works out about €8 more anyway. Only have 3 HD-DVD's (matrix trilogy) and wasnt overly impressed, much prefer Blue-ray personnally. Not sure how the hardware compares (xbox hd-dvd drive and p3s) and maybe thats whats letting my hd-dvd experience down because so far the ps3 has proven to be a top notch player.

Karl Hungus

Cost is definitely the thing that's hold me back. I rarely buy new releases these days, and generally wait for films to drop in price and get the for less than a tenner on play.com, or in HMV's 3 for €30 offer.

When I can get a HD format film for that kind of price, then I'd start buying them, but for now, DVD prices are just too good to sniff at, and although I do think there is noticible quality differences, it's just not worth it to me.

IamBeowulf

Tusky wrote: »

nope.

HD players upscale SD movies to 1080i/p. I have my PS3 hooked up to my HDTV. Blu-Ray does look amazing, but it also does a fantastic job on DVDs.

Whatever you do, don't buy from high street retailers. They're extortionists. Amazon is very good for prices.

Axwell

Tusky wrote: »

nope.

ya this isnt true they do upscale the dvd quality to 1080p in most cases see here for prices and examples

johnny_ultimate

Yeah really not into this whole format war: prices at the moment just aren't worth it, especially when one has a 50:50 chance of picking up a soon to be dead format. DVD is good enough quality at the moment, and still has a good few years left. Seems to me manufacturers should have held back the HD formats for a year or two when the consumer would be more willing to invest.

And yeah, upscaling is good enough for me at the moment. My 360 upscales DVDs excellently to 720p, which is more than good enough for me.

Hopefully when broadband connections speed up and movie studios get a bit of sense into their noggins downloads will remove the whole format nonsense. Although I am going to miss those purty cases and packagings

mathias

do HD tv's still suffer from the 'drag' factor that lcd has ie

Depends on the set , Plasmas have been generally considered the best for movement but there are good LCD's as well as Plasmas , the best ones ( panasonic , Pioneer ,) dont have the issue , most of the cheaper ones definitely do , and beware of interpolation , that causes smearing , which is even worst than motion blur.

As regards HD content , its not a case of Blu ray vs HD DVD , its a case of HD against bog standard DVD , until HD takes up a big proportion of DVD's sales the format is still at risk of dissappearing , nobody will keep pumping money into a format that isnt selling, and figures for both formats are less than impressive when compared to DVD.

For my money , I would say downloadable content will be the future of high definition formats , Memory cards cost more than discs to produce , are volatile , and will never survive in their current state as a fixed media format.
The big advantage of downloadable content is the distribution costs , which are virtually nothing.

wheresmybeaver

My whole take on the High Def thing: keep buying standard DVDs for standard movies, but splash out on BluRay or HD DVD (your choice) for the movies you really like or would appreciate the increased picture / audio quality. For example, I see no point in getting Knocked Up in 1080p HD with 22 surround sound or whatever. Comedy is comedy in HD, SD or on your iPod. But for a movie like Sunshine, with great photography and a tense, subtle soundtrack, HD will kick ass.

And I wouldn't rebuy my entire DVD collection either (thats what they want you to do!), although I decided to get the Final Edition of Blade Runner (Complete Collectors Edition) on Bluray and it does kick ass.

So, say no to the washy efforts of the studio that puts out a rehashed HD verson that is hardly different from the DVD version that was out a few years ago. I'll only be buying the stuff that offers a value proposition other than "it's in freakin HD!!!"

User45701

The Bollox wrote: »

does the HD player improve the quality of regular DVD's?

Tusky wrote: »

nope.

Actually for around 50 euro you can get a HDMI Upscaler it will upscale old dvd's to 780i.

I have a ps3 but im not going to go ****ing near bluray.
Its madness why would anyone back bluray? i intend to buy HD DVD player next month because ive already started buying HD DVD's even though i have no player.

Im backing HD so strongly because BluRay seems to be more for proffit/marketing control

Also there have been several reports of bluray discs rotting/rusting so the IT industry will never go near them. HD holds 1 GB more than BluRay because HD increased its max storage.

Bluray is just directed at people who will buy PS3's and anyone who belives the hype and buys a bluray player. I just hope HD wins

Jello

User45701 wrote: »

Its madness why would anyone back bluray?

Because since they were launched in 2006, 3.01 million Blu-ray discs have been sold compared to 1.97 million HD DVDs - so if someone decides they want to invest in a high-def player they might want to go for the one that's winning at the moment.

Ghost Train

My opinion is that HD-dvd and bluray will be around for a while. At the moment the price of the player and discs don't make it worth while for most people. But the prices will fall like happened with dvd and they'll become more mainstream.

Blu-ray and HD-dvd players are some of the best upscaling dvd players you can get, so thats another positive with getting one.

The only worry really is the two different formats, hopefully it will lead to good competition between the two brands and lower prices, and cheaper dual format players so that the consumer doesn't loose out when they go with one of the formats. Since both discs are phyically the same size and there are dual format player already, there shouldn't be as big a mess up as happened with betamax/vhs

robby^5

Meh whoever wins, this seems like something that will take a while to catch on, simply because of the cost involved in getting a HD setup (TV + Player + DVDS) will put people off.

I'll probably get the 360 HD-DVD player at some stage if it comes down in price, but i'd say the best way to go right now is buy one of the dual players so you dont miss out if a format fails.

I'll probably back HD-DVD, if for anything i wanna watch the Star Trek movies in HD someday and Paramount exclusively backs HD-DVD.

User45701

Sorry what i ment was why would you invest in a tech that is quote possibly flawed?

Its madness why would anyone back bluray if there disc's can rot/rust

User45701

i didnt know that robby

Jello wrote: »

Because since they were launched in 2006, 3.01 million Blu-ray discs have been sold compared to 1.97 million HD DVDs - so if someone decides they want to invest in a high-def player they might want to go for the one that's winning at the moment.

Sorry

Its madness why would anyone back bluray is the discs could rot/rust?

robby^5

Aye, Paramount, Dreamworks & Universal allexclusively back HD-DVD.

Blu Rays big exclusives are Disney, Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox and MGM.

These could be big factors at some stage, when they start relasing back catologues of films en masse.

monkeyfudge

wheresmybeaver wrote: »

And I wouldn't rebuy my entire DVD collection either (thats what they want you to do!), although I decided to get the Final Edition of Blade Runner (Complete Collectors Edition) on Bluray and it does kick ass.

Oh yes. Very little on either HD format interests me... and I have players for both.

But even though it was €35.. I just had to pick Blade Runner up... Haven't had time to sit down and watch it yet... but had a quick look at the opening and it looked simply outstanding.

But the amount of tripe being released on the formats is unreal... It's hard to browse through the HD sections in shops without vomiting up blood.

decob

User45701 wrote: »

Actually for around 50 euro you can get a HDMI Upscaler it will upscale old dvd's to 780i.

780i?? some sort of weird interlaced intermediate format?

User45701 wrote: »

I have a ps3 but im not going to go ****ing near bluray.
Its madness why would anyone back bluray? i intend to buy HD DVD player next month because ive already started buying HD DVD's even though i have no player.

Im backing HD so strongly because BluRay seems to be more for proffit/marketing control

And the HD dvd people are doing it for the good of man kind? they are both about profit and marketing control.

User45701 wrote: »

Also there have been several reports of bluray discs rotting/rusting so the IT industry will never go near them.

Can you back that up with proof with the IT industry will never go near them? It's a big statement to be making.

User45701 wrote: »

HD holds 1 GB more than BluRay because HD increased its max storage.

Not strictly true. Yes there is a spec for a triple layer HD disk that will hold 51GB.. But single layer Blu-ray hold 25GB and 50GB for dual layer. While HD DVD's hold 15GB for a single and 30GB for a dual layer. Now Blu-ray could add more capacity with addition layers, it's been reported that sony are working on 200GB disks.

User45701 wrote: »

Bluray is just directed at people who will buy PS3's and anyone who belives the hype and buys a bluray player. I just hope HD wins

So does that then also mean that HD DVD is directed at those who buy xbox360's wth the HD drive?

robby^5

decob wrote: »

So does that then also mean that HD DVD is directed at those who buy xbox360's wth the HD drive?

I suppose the main difference there is its an additional add on, not bundled with the console like the PS3's blu-ray playback, so in a sense PS3 & Blu Ray go hand in hand.

User45701

decob wrote: »

780i?? some sort of weird interlaced intermediate format?

Not that i know of...
perhaps its 780p or was it 720? im not too sure but you must have guessed that i was describing a device that upscales a normel DVD but not to the full 1080 so i have no idea what the point was. You must have had a pretty good idea what i was talking about

decob wrote: »

And the HD dvd people are doing it for the good of man kind? they are both about profit and marketing control.

Not that i know of...
But you can correct me if i am wrong but people following bluray are making a much more forcefull presence like Blockbuster (AKA Xtravision (i spoke with the irish director for extra vision about this several months ago)) and it has been confirmed that Xtravision will not be stocking any HD DVD's.

You see this angers me because there are several people who have no idea and will just see bluray and buy it because its in there rental shop and because it comes with ps3's so they think its good. Id be willing to bet if you questione devery single bluray owner and every single HD owner the HD's would have more knowledge about both formats, the differences ect.

decob wrote: »

Can you back that up with proof with the IT industry will never go near them? It's a big statement to be making.

It is and no i cant

I just dont see why the IT industry would use a possibly flawed tech, that allows its "cheap storage" discs to rot/rust, even a 1 in 1,000,000 chance of it happening the IT industry will not use those dics

decob wrote: »

Not strictly true. Yes there is a spec for a triple layer HD disk that will hold 51GB.. But single layer Blu-ray hold 25GB and 50GB for dual layer. While HD DVD's hold 15GB for a single and 30GB for a dual layer. Now Blu-ray could add more capacity with addition layers, it's been reported that sony are working on 200GB disks.

Have you checked out the offical bluray site? its a load of bollox and allot of the info on it is bollox. Thats another problem i have with bluray.

Also i didnt hear about the 200gb but same arguement from me who would use bluray discs for backup if they might lose data.

What else would you use one for? Bluray discs cost more to produce and could fail, also why produce bluray? you dont need 50gb or 200 gb for movies, you could fit a HD/Bluray Trilogy on that and the rest is a waste pof spcae. I would be worried if games started to need 200GB discs to install.

So i think thats a bit pointless to have a 200GB disc that might rot or rust.

decob wrote: »

So does that then also mean that HD DVD is directed at those who buy xbox360's wth the HD drive?

What robby^5 said
If sony had a non bluray model do you think its sales would be higher because its cheaper?

mathias

you dont need 50gb or 200 gb for movies

Ah but you will , a lot of people are assuming that 1080p is the stopping point for high resolutions , its not , we have Digital 2K and 4K to look forward too over the next couple of years ,

And all that about blu ray rotting , is FUD , there has not been one verifiable case of this happening , .... this is only Microsofts contribution to the HD-DVD promotion table , that is how that company does business !! It will be refreshing when they can say their products are actually better , instead of falsely rubbishing the competition , but even they dont have that level of cheek at the moment.

Guy:Incognito

User45701 wrote: »

you dont need 50gb or 200 gb for movies, you could fit a HD/Bluray Trilogy on that and the rest is a waste pof spcae. I would be worried if games started to need 200GB discs to install.

You were the one that brought up the subject of bigger capacities in the first place.

The Prestige seems to have had a bad batch of discs and is responsible for the "rot" issues, so meh, doesnt worry me.

johnny_ultimate

You see, these are the reasons why format wars are a burden. You can continue arguing back and forth about one over the other, but in the end it basically just turns into a pissing contest. People actually seem to have a personal vendetta against one or the other.

At the moment, it is ridiculous arguing over anything greater than 50GB. It'll be years before we need that much storage. A downloadable HD film at the moment is probably between 5-7 GB, so why are people concerned about which one has bigger storage? That extra 45 GB is completely superflous, unless studios cop on and start putting five or six films on the one disc, which tbh, I can't see happening anytime soon (trilogies maybe).

Ye really shouldn't be getting riled up. Its just a bunch of MNCs each wanting more money. The consumer isn't winning, and we're just in fact being taken for a ride.

Wait it out. A winner will emerge eventually.

Guy:Incognito

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

You see, these are the reasons why format wars are a burden. You can continue arguing back and forth about one over the other, but in the end it basically just turns into a pissing contest. People actually seem to have a personal vendetta against one or the other..

I'm favouring BR du eto personal experience tbh. I've had my PS3 for a few month now and havent been dissapointed by any film I've watched (have about 8. I watched the Matrix the other day on my XBOX HD-DVD drive and was underwhelmed.

I plan on buying the films I want on BR and just getting the exclusives I want that are on HD-DVD (transformers)

johnny_ultimate

Stekelly wrote: »

I'm favouring BR du eto personal experience tbh. I've had my PS3 for a few month now and havent been dissapointed by any film I've watched (have about 8. I watched the Matrix the other day on my XBOX HD-DVD drive and was underwhelmed.

I plan on buying the films I want on BR and just getting the exclusives I want that are on HD-DVD (transformers)

You see, these are valid reasons for picking one - personal experience. I know Im going to play the waiting game, but if someone honestly prefers one over the other, than buy away!

It is the arguements over quite frankly minimal differences that irritate me. If someone has a PS3, then I totally understand them backing Blu-Ray, but people get overly defensive over the whole technical mumbo-jumbo that ultimately has little effect on the viewing of HD films. It is those kind of reasons which are making this war a futile experiment.

Mossy Monk

I have a Playstation 3 so the Bluray player is there. i have bought some movies for that format but don't really care if HD-DVD wins out as the Bluray player will still be there for the movies I have bought. Wouldn't surprise me to see a dual format player at some stage.

decob

User45701 wrote: »

Not that i know of...
perhaps its 780p or was it 720? im not too sure but you must have guessed that i was describing a device that upscales a normel DVD but not to the full 1080 so i have no idea what the point was. You must have had a pretty good idea what i was talking about

i do and i was being sarcastic. Alot of the new dvd players/recorders now will upscale to 1080p but thats neither here nor there.

User45701 wrote: »

Not that i know of...
But you can correct me if i am wrong but people following bluray are making a much more forcefull presence like Blockbuster (AKA Xtravision (i spoke with the irish director for extra vision about this several months ago)) and it has been confirmed that Xtravision will not be stocking any HD DVD's.

You see this angers me because there are several people who have no idea and will just see bluray and buy it because its in there rental shop and because it comes with ps3's so they think its good. Id be willing to bet if you questione devery single bluray owner and every single HD owner the HD's would have more knowledge about both formats, the differences ect.

This has nothing to do with the blu-ray consortium, this is more to do with supply and demand in the irish market. Why supply it when there is no demand. A company like xtravision aren't going to waste thousands upon thousands on buying HD Dvd's if nobody is going to rent them. Of course this may change if HD DvD become more popular.

User45701 wrote: »

It is and no i cant

I just dont see why the IT industry would use a possibly flawed tech, that allows its "cheap storage" discs to rot/rust, even a 1 in 1,000,000 chance of it happening the IT industry will not use those dics

It hasn't been proven to be a flawed technology. One dodgy batch out of thousands doesn't make a technology flawed.

User45701 wrote: »

Have you checked out the offical bluray site? its a load of bollox and allot of the info on it is bollox. Thats another problem i have with bluray.

How is it bollox? What part of it is bollox? If you make a statement at least back it up with some facts, not conjecture.

User45701 wrote: »

Also i didnt hear about the 200gb but same arguement from me who would use bluray discs for backup if they might lose data.

What else would you use one for? Bluray discs cost more to produce and could fail, also why produce bluray? you dont need 50gb or 200 gb for movies, you could fit a HD/Bluray Trilogy on that and the rest is a waste pof spcae. I would be worried if games started to need 200GB discs to install.

So i think thats a bit pointless to have a 200GB disc that might rot or rust.

So are HD Dvd's completely secure? No! No disc based media is completely secure and safe.

As for uses, for instance i have a client who is looking to use either Blu-ray or HD dvd to back up all his video rushes. Hours and hours of uncompressed HD footage.

mathias

Wouldn't surprise me to see a dual format player at some stage.

They are already available ,

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/dvdnews.php?id=18747

http://www.trustedreviews.com/home-cinema/news/2007/04/13/Samsung-Confirms-Dual-Format-HD-Player/p1

LG can be bought now , Samsung have one coming pretty soon , Pioneer wont be long to follow. Id be surprised if anyone was still making single format only players by the end of 2008 ( if anyone is making them at all !! ) ..... So it really doesnt matter which format you buy at this stage.

This makes interesting reading , what came true and what didnt in 2007 ,

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,140886-c,techindustrytrends/article.html

particularly this bit ,

There was a lot of noise at the show about both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. The battling high-definition video disc camps both claimed an advantage over the other and asserted that 2007 would be break-out year when their respective format left the rival in the dust. A year on and not much has changed. Consumer indifference and confusion over the formats has led many to stay away, while prices have collapsed leaving some wondering if any of the participants will ever be able to make money on either technology.

One man who called the status quo was H.G. Lee, president of LG Electronics. Speaking at a news conference where he unveiled a dual-format machine from LG he predicted that both formats would be around for a good while longer and observed, "The growth of this exciting new technology and industry is slower than it could be." So top marks to Lee, but that's perhaps not much consolation. While he was right about the immediate future of both formats, his company's relatively expensive dual-format player wasn't the hit he hoped.

LG wasn't the only company trying to solve the format battle. Warner Bros. introduced its Total Hi Def disc that has a Blu-ray Disc layer on one side and an HD DVD layer on the other. The disc generated a lot of excitement because it would insulate consumers from the risks of backing the wrong format -- so it was a disappointment when Warner threw in the towel on the format before the year was out.

I predict that both formats are in dire trouble , with a paltry 3 million sales between them the HD format on disc thing would seem to be in a lot of trouble , as those sales mean a big loss for both format backers , no one is going to keep throwing good money after bad , and we may see both die a death if neither one makes big sales jumps this year.

HD sales ( both blu ray and HD dvd ) represent less that 2% of the total sales this year , DVD still shifted a huge 200 million plus.

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_7798076?nclick_check=1

I have a PS3 and have bought about 20 blu ray movies, all of which look stunning. It also does an excellent job of upscaling my dvd collection. I have had no issue with disc rotting etc. I heard that happened with some Night At The Museum discs alright, but it happened because someone at the factory f*cked up somewhere and that no other films were affected. I have heard of no other problems with the format.
From what I have seen on the various sites around the web, av forums for instance, blu ray has outsold hd dvd several times over and would already have won this format war if paramount hadn't taken a massive pay off from the hd dvd camp.

mathias

blu ray has outsold hd dvd several times over

Nope , it hasnt , its only about a little less than 2 to 1. See the links above.

I stand corrected, but it has still outsold hd dvd.

Neo#

Has anyone tried a blu-ray/hd drive in a pc yet? Is the quality very noticable?

GrumPy

Well I have an upscaling dvd player, a ps3 and an xbox 360 with a hddvd drive. So for me, couldn't give a toss what format "wins".

I think the real question should be if one format does "win" will it overtake, and eventually replace dvd at all? and if it does indeed do so, will it last as long as dvd has? or will it be overtaken by new media developed and mass marketed in the next 5+ years?


Personally, I cant see either "winning" in the near future, and see dvd lasting much longer tbh.


Just my 2 cents.

mathias

Has anyone tried a blu-ray/hd drive in a pc yet? Is the quality very noticable?

http://www.komplett.ie/k/kl.aspx?bn=10034

A quick look at the prices on the link above show Blu Ray burners still costing over 500 Euros , players costing about 179 , so I wouldnt imagine too many people would have them yet.

Downloaded HD content would be the most viewed on a PC , and it looks fine , but technically speaking , PC's have been high definition for years but with very small screens, so you wont notice the jump in quality like you do on your TV.

Neo#

Yep far too expensive for pcs for what your getting. Ive watched high def stuff downloaded. And it looks good but not amazing. Obviously the better monitor you have the better it will look.

kaisersose77

Komplett are rip off merchants (but they dont have the latest cheaper models)

You can get the LG ggw-h20l blu ray burner / hd-dvd player for about 260euros delivered off svp.co.uk

The bluray/hd-dvd version is cheaper naturally

I think dabs have it for about 280 and so do elara

For some reason UK sites are always the cheapest for pc optical drives (and a rip off for everything else!)

The price will probably go down a lot more over the next few months.

Biro

Stekelly wrote: »

I'm favouring BR du eto personal experience tbh. I've had my PS3 for a few month now and havent been dissapointed by any film I've watched (have about 8. I watched the Matrix the other day on my XBOX HD-DVD drive and was underwhelmed.

I plan on buying the films I want on BR and just getting the exclusives I want that are on HD-DVD (transformers)

Well, that really might say more about either the quality of the movie in question in the way it was converted to HD format, or it might also suggest that the X-Box HD-DVD player is not as good a unit as the PS3 is a Bluray player. You never know really. But technically, all either of them are is a format for storing info on a disk. So really, given the same movie in HD, burned to each disk in each format, there should be very little difference in either one on a high end player for each format.
I reckon downloaded content is the way forward, no media to loose and no media to accidently scratch and hence ruin the content. Also, given the length of time it takes to burn a dual layer DVD (fill it), I'm guessing that burning 50gb to a dual layer bluray or 51gb to a triple layer HD-DVD is going to take most of a day!

mathias

Also, given the length of time it takes to burn a dual layer DVD (fill it), I'm guessing that burning 50gb to a dual layer bluray or 51gb to a triple layer HD-DVD is going to take most of a day!

For a 25GB file a 1 X speed blu ray takes 1 hour 44 minutes to do the job , and 4 x speed drive ( commonly available ) takes 24 minutes , So , given the fact that your writing 25GB , thats not bad!
Id agree though , that downloading is the way forward for HD formats.

Snake Plisken

Sorry to buck the trend but I'm already rebuilding my collection in HD. Rather then sitting on the fence, i've opted for both formats. HD-DVD is winning in the amount of discs I've bought, thats because I can buy from the US and with Amazon recently running a couple of buy one get one free deals I can easily build up my collection, now I don't just blind buy, I make sure to check out review sites to make sure that the movies are a major step up from their SD versions, if not I won't buy, also I want HD soundtracks on my discs or else its a no buy. Do I buy in stores here, no too expensive, although I did pick up an ex rental of Xmen 3 in xtravison for 15 Euros .
Disc rot is an urban myth, been around since the dawn of CD's.
I don't buy DVD's anymore, and to me the step up has been worth it with HD versions of the Matrix, Blade Runner, 2001, The Thing, The Rock, Con Air and The Bourne Trilogy making it worth my while

Goodshape

Can't see myself ever 'upgrading' my current collection to either of the HD disc formats.

The next transition I make will be onto a harddrive.. if they're HD downloads then all the better, but I'm honestly not too bothered in most cases.

monkeyfudge

Deleted User wrote: »

I heard that happened with some Night At The Museum discs alright,

Honestly... that sounds like a blessing.

Me...

2 HD DVD
5 BluRay.

But 70% of my BluRay discs are films I will never watch a second time...

tman

DVDs look fantastic when upscaled by the PS3, so I'm not really all that fussed about it for now.

I bought a copy of Oldboy which comes with the film on both a Blu ray disc and a DVD, and to be honest the difference between the two wasn't all that great...
Perhaps if I had a decent 40"+ 1080p set instead of my 32" 1080i one, then my opinion might change...

User45701

decob wrote: »

This has nothing to do with the blu-ray consortium, this is more to do with supply and demand in the irish market. Why supply it when there is no demand. A company like xtravision aren't going to waste thousands upon thousands on buying HD Dvd's if nobody is going to rent them. Of course this may change if HD DvD become more popular.

I dont think your right, its my opinion that there is a deliberate effort to force people who have little knowledge of the format war to buy bluray because of the size of blockbuster. Has it not occoured to you that the reason bluwray sales are slightly higher is because places like extra vision only buy bluray, also because people get bluray with a ps3

decob wrote: »

It hasn't been proven to be a flawed technology. One dodgy batch out of thousands doesn't make a technology flawed.

No it does not but as i pointed out, what if 1 in ever 1,000,000 or even 1 in ever 10,000,000 bluray discs produced will rot/rust (i think the amoutn that would rust/rot is higher myself from the reports on the net but anyway) The IT industry or any sane person doing backups will not store data on something that could rot.

decob wrote: »

How is it bollox? What part of it is bollox? If you make a statement at least back it up with some facts, not conjecture.

Sorry, its a flash site, go to it, then find the section that compares hd and bluray, read it.Also notice there is no contact section, no way of asking questions ect.

decob wrote: »

So are HD Dvd's completely secure? No! No disc based media is completely secure and safe.

I don't know but i have not heard of anything happening to HD discs and out of all my DVD's i haven't had any that simply damage themselves.

decob wrote: »

As for uses, for instance i have a client who is looking to use either Blu-ray or HD dvd to back up all his video rushes. Hours and hours of uncompressed HD footage.

I work in ditribution and none of my customers have expressed any interest in Bluray for backup but these new Toshiba laptops with HD DVD roms selling them all out the door the second they come in because the demand was so high all the high street stores would have placed pre-orders. so when we got hd laptops in they all went out a few hours later.

monkeyfudge

tman wrote: »

I bought a copy of Oldboy which comes with the film on both a Blu ray disc and a DVD, and to be honest the difference between the two wasn't all that great...
Perhaps if I had a decent 40"+ 1080p set instead of my 32" 1080i one, then my opinion might change...

Again... like with the early days of DVD... you'll get a lot of very lazy transfer jobs being done.

But Bladerunner.. oh... there is love in that disc...