Paramount drops BluRay, adopts HD-DVD

[virometal]

Originally Posted by Davesrose

Here in the ATL, on demand is part of your cable package. HD programing all tends to be 5.1 DD.

That's what I assumed. That will keep me tied to shiny platters for a while. Lossless audio is a big attraction for me.

Originally Posted by flashnolan

I bought a PS3. I am a BluRay fan boy whether I like it or not, but I do like it.

Good attitude and good point about newspapers. People will probably desire physical media for a long time, but to think that downloading will never replace discs? We shall see. The music industry is already feeling the crunch. Once bandwith gets a little bit wider for everone, I think movies will be next.

I will be glad to see discs go. If you must have something to hold, how about flash drives instead to get rid of those nasty moving parts.

--

Originally Posted by Superpredator

My dream come true.

Did you ever post a scathing review of that flick? I love scathing reviews.

[flashnolan]

Originally Posted by kwkarth

My PS3 can play CD's, DVD's, DVDA's, SACD's, and BD's. What hardware would have to be modified to play HD-DVD's?

It would need something like one of these lasers: here

[Davesrose]

I thought HD DVDs and Blu Ray had different formats on the disc as well....ie a HD DVD was more like a DVD (and thereby cheaper to manufacture), while Blu Ray was slightly different.

Looks like they may or may not have the same video codecs....depends on the movie in question:

HD-DVD, MPEG-2, VC-1, and AVC: Blu Ray- MPEG-2, VC-1, H.264

Then of course there's HD-DVD having TrueHD being mandatory while its an option on BR players.

[unclejr]

Movies and such are great in hi-def, but there's nothing like a football (read: soccer) game on TV in HD. Amazing!

[kwkarth]

Originally Posted by virometal

Cool, firsthand experience with VOD. In my town (Cox country), things haven't advanced so rapidly.

I'm curious as to what audio formats are packed with the streamed HD movies? What is the pricing if you don't mind?

And relating back to Paramount and their grab the money and run directive, considering the above information, why should the studio's care? No matter the delivery method, disc, drive whatever, they'll get a piece.

I really wonder how long the studios will stay committed to the new formats if the sale's slice doesn't grow many times over, as in at least 20.

Audio formats so far are Stereo & Dolby 5.1, as far as I know. I haven't looked too closely. As Davesrose mentioned, in Georgia, the plan seems similar to what we have here in the silicon rainforest. Hd programming comes with basic cable. If you add any premium channels like HBO, for example, then you get HBO HD broadcasts as well for no additional charge. The standard digital pkg includes things like Discovery HD, TBC HD, and a few others. We have the full boat pkg. which is called the "Platinum" pkg. if I recall correctly. We get all the premium channels, Shotime, Cinemax, HBO, Encore, Starz, etc. and the HD counterparts for all of those along with that we get all of the VOD offerings for free from each of the premium channels along with the Comcast HD and SD VOD offerings. I even noticed VOD for NBC Action Sports where I whitnessed, I kid you not, bass fishing in HD. Then there's HD Music VOD, MHD, MoJo Music, and Music Choice VOD.

So there are literally 100's of HD VOD selections right now and this thing is still in its infancy. If I remember right, I think I pay around 200 bux a month for all that. We also have internet and phone service with Comcast and some of that might be in that price.. The wife pays the bills so I'm not sure exactly how much it is, but it's somewhere around there. Then there's the pay per view section which has 100's more selections on recent release movies in HD and SD. They're $3.99 24hours of access to any given title. So many of those movies are also offered in HD on the Premium channel VOD, so in all the time we've had HD cable, I think we rented one movie, everything else has been "free."

[analogbox]

Originally Posted by unclejr

Movies and such are great in hi-def, but there's nothing like a football (read: soccer) game on TV in HD. Amazing!

So does American football and baseball. You can almost see the steroid pills falling out of their pocket.

[Redo]

Originally Posted by Davesrose

I thought HD DVDs and Blu Ray had different formats on the disc as well....ie a HD DVD was more like a DVD (and thereby cheaper to manufacture), while Blu Ray was slightly different.

Looks like they may or may not have the same video codecs....depends on the movie in question:

HD-DVD, MPEG-2, VC-1, and AVC: Blu Ray- MPEG-2, VC-1, H.264

Then of course there's HD-DVD having TrueHD being mandatory while its an option on BR players.

HD-DVD is spec'd for mpeg4 as well. I know there are a few HD-DVD titles in mpeg4, otherwise the rest are VC-1. The only reason BluRay really needed 50GB was to accommodate MPEG2 movies. In order to have a MPEG2 movie @ 1920x1080, you need an INSANE amount of bandwidth. But with VC-1 and MPEG4, 50GB is a total waste (unless pushing 6 hours of video).

[necropimp]

this will greatly please me when they get around to saving private ryan and more importantly

INDIANA JONES

[flecom]

Originally Posted by virometal

I think we just found out who the real fanboys are in this thread.

Me thinks neither of the formats has to worry too much about you guys. Sounds like these lovable, good natured corporations have you in their pocket.

I'm a fanboy without a doubt. At first, I was an HD-DVD fanboy. Then things didn't look so hot on that side, so I turned into a Blu-Ray fanboy.

With this latest news, me thinks it's time to become a universal player fanboy.

I was thinking of something else. Let's say someone's been thinking of buying a HD player last July. They just saw and loved Transformers. They decide on a Blu-Ray deck thinking Transformers will be out around Christmas for their chosen format along with Spiderman 3. Yeah, this guy likes bad movies.

Not now. Paramount just said screw you to those people. Michael Bay has a point.

lol, i dont really care either way, i guess you could call me an HD-DVD fanboy, but really that isnt it... im just a sony hater, i hate sony, with a passion... they are an evil company that installs spyware on your computer and dosent want you to be able to do ANYTHING with the media that you legally purchase... which IMHO actually probably encourages more piracy...

i dont own a BR or HD-DVD player or drive of any kind, and dont plan to until they become cheaper (and the movies)

becuase quite frankly im still satisfied with DVD... its not like all of a sudden now that we have better formats, everything old sucks... no, its just that there is a better option and at this point in time i dont feel its worth the $$$ they are asking for it

[analogbox]

When are they gonna release 'The Lord of The Rings' on HD? Whoever gets this out wins my war.