[zotjen]

Quote:

Americans are much more willing to spend on TV/home theater than a good stereo system.

Case in point, the other day my brother and sister-in-law dropped by to check out my new plasma TV. They didn't seem to think too much of the fact that I spent well over $2K on it. I then let my brother take a listen to my RS-1's. When he found out they cost $700 he thought I was nuts.

Back on topic, a lot of people think the HD-DVD/BluRay war will be won by the PS3. What happened to all the people screaming that they would never buy another Sony product after the whole root kit fiasco?

 

[Sladeophile]

Blu-Ray... cool name, that is all

 

[iSleipnir]

I would like sony to win. The capacity of the blurry (I like calling em blurry discs

) is a big deal in my mind. It makes archiving easier. Plus its going to be in the PS3 that I will probably end up owning at some point, so it would be nice to be able to play movies off of it.

Really though, I'm just going to wait it out and let others burn money trying to push this tug of war one way or the other.

 

[dougmwpsu]

i tried to explain to my dad the other day why he's going to be seeing a new dvd format soon. i pretty much got a blank stare from him. he's a big movie buff, so if he doesn't get why there needs to be a hddvd's then the whole ship is destined to sink.

oh and here's a neat story from the NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/11/te...rssnyt&emc=rss

 

[vibin247]

I think it will be HD-DVD because of the cheaper manufacturing costs. However, there is still major improvements to be made to accomodate the current resolution standard used in the digitizing of film-based features, which is 2K (twice the resolution of HDTV). There's also 4K (four times the resolution of HDTV), which is now the premier resolution of digital cinema, and 6K, which is said to be the best resolution possible from film-based content using the finest film and lenses. I think we'll see a remarkable improvement over DVD once these formats are able to put on an economically feasible storage format. Interestingly enough, there's a DV format that's 16 times the resolution of HDTV. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UHDV

 

[Sladeophile]

I am most excited about the possibilities with movie audio. Audio on DVDs is pretty compressed and doesn't sound that great. I am excited to see how a br or hddvd sound more than how it looks. DVD really isn't that high quality in terms of what it could be, just as you said. The picture is actually super compressed. The problem is that there isn't enough medium to store pure hd, even on br or hddvd. It's quite a difficult and costly endeavor as you need to spray the data across 16 seperate hard drives to actually record in PURE hd. I am excited to see the progressions over the years though. I just hope these higher defs catch on with the masses like DVD did.

 

[Nospam]

Blu-ray is the technically superior format that will see strong adoption within the computer industry. With more and more computer/entertainment system convergence, this will help blu-ray adoption on a larger scale. Either that, or I'll be seriously ticked off if HD-DVD wins the format war

Quote:

Originally Posted by incognitoedleon ...I also believe I've read that due to some technical problem Bluray discs would not be able to do weave different audio tracks into a movie (ex: other languages, audio commentaries)...

This is the first I've heard of that. Doesn't make much sense from a technical standpoint, so until someone can show me PROOF of such an idiotic limitation, I'm assuming it's yet more FUD from the HD-DVD camp.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cire ...blu-ray is for the sony and DRM whores HD-DVD is for the practical, realistic people

Umm... I don't think the movie studios would be releasing anything on HD-DVD if it didn't have draconian DRM, just like blu-ray.

 

[dougmwpsu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vibin247 I think it will be HD-DVD because of the cheaper manufacturing costs. However, there is still major improvements to be made to accomodate the current resolution standard used in the digitizing of film-based features, which is 2K (twice the resolution of HDTV). There's also 4K (four times the resolution of HDTV), which is now the premier resolution of digital cinema, and 6K, which is said to be the best resolution possible from film-based content using the finest film and lenses. I think we'll see a remarkable improvement over DVD once these formats are able to put on an economically feasible storage format. Interestingly enough, there's a DV format that's 16 times the resolution of HDTV. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UHDV

hrmm, well it's nice that there's a format with 16 times the resolution of hd, but realistically, there's only so much resolution the human eye can resolve. quadrurpeling the resolution of your standard hd tv wouldn't do jack unless you quadrupled the size, without increasing your viewing distance. it's been awhile since my optics classes, but the means exist out there for the motivated to calculate how much resolution could be utilized in the ideal case in an image of a given size, from a given distance.

 

[vibin247]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dougmwpsu hrmm, well it's nice that there's a format with 16 times the resolution of hd, but realistically, there's only so much resolution the human eye can resolve. quadrurpeling the resolution of your standard hd tv wouldn't do jack unless you quadrupled the size, without increasing your viewing distance. it's been awhile since my optics classes, but the means exist out there for the motivated to calculate how much resolution could be utilized in the ideal case in an image of a given size, from a given distance.

Very true. The Wikipedia article stated that viewers who were tested watching the experimental clip of UHDV had gotten dizzy from watching it, because it was just too good

I'm satisfied with DVD right now, and haven't even seen what a great home theater is like. But I think it'll be great to finally see a digital viewing format that captures the true quality of film-based features, especially the 4K and 6K resolutions.

 

[zotjen]

Quote:

there's only so much resolution the human eye can resolve

I think this is what a lot of people don't fully understand. The picture may look great but you may not be getting the most out of it because of your screen size, viewing distance, etc. I think in order to fully resolve 1080p, you need to have at least a 50" screen at a viewing distance of no more than 6 feet.

 

[virometal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by felixkrull6 In the end, who knows...people who try and predict the future are invariably wrong.

Bingo! It's still fun though.

Give me Blu-ray for all the mentioned reasons...tech, supporting companies - manafacturer and content, and name.

If one wishes to replace dvd, why would they remind people of it with the name? HD-DVD is a horrible no ring cacophony. Anyone notice how hard it is to say out loud? Blu - Ray is smoooooooth with a little bit of cool behind it.

The failure of the recent high rez formats audio exemplifies this point. DVD-Audio? Cmon' what is that sellin'? SACD, umm Super Audio Compact Disc? Never remind someone of their last love. Who would date another Angela after they just left the recent one?

 

[Elec]

Hopefully they'll be careful about re-releases regardless of which format "wins". I think people may get pretty angry if they're immediately confronted with new and better versions of every DVD they've spent the last 5 years collecting. If I were in charge, I'd start putting out new releases in DVD and <new format> while also offering older movies that haven't hit DVD yet in <new format>. Then I'd slowly reissue the kajillion movies that are already on DVD. That MIGHT be able to keep people from feeling cheated, as you'd just have a transition from DVD to <new format> rather than a fast replacement.

Either way, I REALLY want to start seeing PC games come out in whichever format wins. It's so ridiculous most games still come on 2-6 CDs when DVD-ROMs have been standard issue on Compaqs and Dells for years and a DVD burner can be had for less than the cost of a single new game if you somehow don't have one yet.

 

[raaj]

There should be an option to vote for neither.

Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are like identical twins. Both formats support Managed Media Copy (MMC) that allows you to store one digital copy of the media discs you own on compatible storage systems (like a Windows Vista Media Center PC). HD-DVD and Blu-Ray support exactly the same maximum resolution (1080p) and the same set of audio and video codecs, in addition to a common set of draconian DRM schemes. HD-DVD supports AACS for DRM, whereas Blu-Ray brings along AACS, BD+ and BD ROM-Mark. That means more stringent DRM for Blu-Ray which is the reason for its overwhelming movie studio support. This is good for the studios, but more restrictive to the consumer.

Technically, HD-DVD mandates more of the supported audio and video codecs compared to Blu-Ray. See below for the codec support summary for both formats, and pick which is better. HD-DVD or Blu-Ray?:

Quote:

For HD-DVD: Video Codecs: MPEG-2, AVC MPEG-4 and VC-1 Audio Codecs: Lossless (mandatory): Linear PCM / MLP (Dolby True HD [2-ch] ) Lossless (option): DTS-HD Lossy (mandatory): Dolby Digital Plus / DTS / Dolby Digital / MPEG Audio For Blu-Ray: Video Codecs: MPEG-2, MPEG-4 (H.264/AVC), and VC-1 Audio Codecs: Lossless (mandatory): Linear (uncompressed) PCM Lossless (optional): DTS-HD Lossy (optional): Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD.

The only apparent "advantage" of Blu-Ray over HD-DVD is the higher storage capacity and the amount of studio support (partly due to the more restrictive DRM schemes). The choice for the consumer comes down to what format has the movies you want to see? Studio support will shift in favor of HD-DVD if it starts to sell in significant volumes. No movie studio would want to loose money if they can.

So, who is the winner here? The consumer is the loser in the end, with all this confusion.

 

[Trance-Addict]

I cant wait to see if it is possible to mod a blu-ray player so that you can see the disk spinning and the actual laser. Or it would be cool if a company made blu-ray players like this. That would definately push blu-ray over the top in the format wars.

ok im just kidding... or am i?

 

[Jorg]

I say HVD is probably going to be the best choice in a few years.

Wiki link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile_Disc