HD DVD vs Blu Ray

Either way the consumer is screwed over.

Yet another example of 'competition' having a terrible effect on the customer.

I don't reckon both will co-exist. People and publishers aren't going to be happy about having to support both mediums.

But different people are backing each format. It will be like VHS and Beta all over again.

I agree, Just like Cd & MD. I think that Blu-ray will have the advantage since it's coming out on PS3

Blu-ray will succeed since Sony and many other leading companies are supporting it, also because it has larger capacity. I hope this does not end up like console wars

If either have to win, I'm for HD DVD; otherwise I hope both fail and we hang on until a better format arrives.

The success of the format will be determined on the success of either Xbox360 or PS3. The console that sells the most will obviousy be the format that will be used. Very hard to say which, both have their advantages and disadvantages.

But bluray able to store 100gn will be ideal for episodes and boxsets

But bluray able to store 100gn will be ideal for episodes and boxsets

So would you rather have all your cds seperate? Wouldn't be more convient to have them all on one disc. Have also you forgotten that you watched them in order. I often go to watch my family guy episodes again but once I have watched them once I pick a random episode to watch. So when I want to watch another episode I have to keep switching discs. Don't care about that? Well forget disc swapping. How about having longer video of higher quality on a single disc. And How about for games, cd swapping? Also more space can be taken off the disc rather having to instal most of it on the comp...that is what consoles do with DVDs do they not?

About your collection though, I thought both were backwards compatible but both need new players to play them. HD for some random reason and Bluray because of the new laser. But why change a whole medium for a small advantage? I mean the upgrade from floppy disk to CD was huge, so was the cd to DVD. HD offers more space and bluray offers a lot more space. Why upgrade to something that will have a shorter life span? Bluray will take longer to be replaced.

Bluray will take longer to be replaced.

Bingo.

That's why I'd much rather BluRay won through.

HD-DVD to me just seems like another step in an increasing 'milk the consumer' market. What is it, 15/30GB? That's hardly progression.

Blu-Ray offers a much more 'next gen' capacity for media, in practice it'll be years and years before we need a new format, but with HD-DVD we'll see a new progression in no time.

Sadly our idiotic sheep consumers will probably lap up HD-DVD just because it has 'DVD' in the title (:roll, hopefully the dominace of PS3 manages to prove me wrong. Heck for the first year or two the XBOX won't have HD-DVD drives, no that comes later for more milkage...

( Edited on 03.10.2005 14:29 by nin10do )

But Betamax failed despite being the better format...

VHS won because it was cheaper...

We shall see, PS3 is a HUGE advantage to BluRay; but the support of Microsoft (and hence PC gaming) is also huge for HDDVD.

I'd rarther HD-DVD won, it seems cheaper and more practical. (Blu-ray has a lot of support though) However, if you ask me it'll take a long time for either to replace DVD's. Sure, all those with hige plasms HD TV's will lap it up, for your average Joe there doesn't seem to be much of an advantage, especially if half the films aren't coming out for one format.

^

That's why I don't mind the cost, by the time DVD's are being replaced in the mainstream cost shouldn't be an issue. Certainly by the time I'm HD and moving on from DVD, we'll we're talking next decade (ish) so no cost problems.

Heck I'll probably go BluRay with the PS3, I just find the far bigger upgrade to be far more logical/justified.

I for one am supporting HD-DVD. Do we honestly believe companies are going to fill a 100GB disk?

A current movie comes on a 9GB dvd, less than half of that is the movie. When you take out the options, the extras you'll rarely watch once let alone twice, the different language options, etc. you can fit the movie quite comfortably on a 4.7GB recordable DVD+R. Even with HDTV, a 30GB disc will be fine and cheaper. Also lets take a look down the years of format wars.

MP3/AAC/WMA vs ATRAC (Sony) - Loser: ATRAC
CompactFlash and MMC/SD cards vs MemoryStick (Sony) - Loser: MemoryStickPortable DVD vs UMD (Sony) - Loser: UMD

For years Sony have tried to push propriroty media and every time they've failed, their biggest success was when they used standard formats, CD and DVD, so anything backed by Sony from the offset is something I'll stay away from.

And the good old Mini-disc as well. .

Yep, Sony have failed quite a few times, but this time they have some major support for Blu-ray...

If I had to pick one of them I'd go with HD-DVD. As Gastrian said, there is no need for a 100GB disc that as far as I know isn't writeable. My prediction is that they will both die out and that DVD will remain the dominant medium as VHS did for years and years. It even took DVD a long time to oust VHS, who's to say DVD is going anywhere soon.

Question is, will people stand paying for films they own on DVD again? Its taken about 8 years for DVD to become THE format for new releases; can BluRay compete with the backward compatibility of HDDVD?

There's no point, imo. Between the jump of VHS and DVDs, you got a lot more advantages:
no tedious rewinding
scene skipping
frame by frame
subtitles/captions that can be turned on or off
zoom
menus

And even with all that, we didn't just jump on board the DVD train. It took years of slowly changing from DVD to VHS. People were reluctant but they saw all of the advantages and decided to go for it.
With the new formats, the only advantages is...you don't have to change the discs as often? A lot of movies only come with one disc as it is. It's only the collections and movies with a bunch of extra features that have more than one disc.

There isn't enough that makes the jump worth it. I'll be sticking to dvds as long as I can, thank you very much.

What was the point in the zoom features in DVD players?

It's just a novelty...but a novelty you can't do with a VCR

Also.

Arent we missing the fact that to get any real advantage out of HD/BluRay you need both a player AND an HDTV.

Outside the US and Japan that is a serious hinderance.

I often go to watch my family guy episodes again but once I have watched them once I pick a random episode to watch. So when I want to watch another episode I have to keep switching discs

How about for games, cd swapping?

I just find the far bigger upgrade to be far more logical/justified

I think Gastrian hit the nail here, Sony do introduce high quality products to the market, but they are just not needed; and constantly using larger storage space is not a good practice, it is far better to develop technologies that have better compression/speed, espescially in the gaming market where developers like to take the lazy way out (better game=new video card).

Gastrian.

I'm sure we'll agree that looking to the past doesn't = proof of what will happen.

Indeed unlike all Sony's failings they are really onto something here.

It isn't just an evolution of disc format, this is a revolution. They (and all other companies involved) are offering true next generation disc technology.

BluRay is here to stay, and as further proof of this Paramount, HDDVD's trump card, has just produced a detailed analysis of BluRay and revealed they are supporting it too:

"We have been intrigued by the broad support of Blu-Ray, especially the key advantage of including Blu-Ray in PlayStation 3.

"After more detailed assessment and new data on cost, manufacturability and copy protection solutions, we have now made the decision to move ahead with the Blu-ray format."

"We believe the unique portfolio of Viacom content coupled with this format will provide great benefit for consumers and our shareholders alike,"

BluRay FTW.

I think what they mean is...

" We dont want Microsoft winning, and we dont wanna piss Sony Tristar Columbia etc off"...