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analogue SPRINKLES · Dec 24, 2007, 05:11 PM

Ok since we are so off track here... serious question.

HD-DVD fans. Do you see HD-DVD BEATING BLU-RAY ever? Not a stale mate but BR actually calling it quits and HD becoming the only format.

How would this happen?

Seriously.

starman · Dec 24, 2007, 05:15 PM

At this point, I see both sides having SOME kind of aspect that might appeal to one side. eg: Star Trek on Paramount, Star Wars on Blu; HD-DVD with no region coding, Blu with higher capacity.

All I can say is that my PS3 wins, hands down, as the best HD and DVD-upscaler I own, so I lean towards Blu.

analogue SPRINKLES · Dec 24, 2007, 05:20 PM

I am just wondering because the PS3 seems to be the main seller for BR.

The month the PS3 came out with very few players on the market it still beat HD-DVD disks sales in 30 days and has held strong for a year.

In this past year PS3's have been selling more and more, BR players have dropped to $300, PS3's price drops to $399, profile 1.1 brings pretty much all the features that HD has... so what's left?

Unless studio's defect to HD they aren't going to win.

goMac · Dec 24, 2007, 05:34 PM

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES

HD-DVD fans. Do you see HD-DVD BEATING BLU-RAY ever? Not a stale mate but BR actually calling it quits and HD becoming the only format.

How would this happen?

Seriously.

Yes, if Warner sides with HD-DVD.

starman · Dec 24, 2007, 05:34 PM

I can't see Warner doing something that stupid. They'll be format neutral as long as they possibly can.

goMac · Dec 24, 2007, 05:35 PM

Originally Posted by icruise

Perhaps. But if my current video library was in an HD format and I wanted to make copies of it all, it would take 15-20 terabytes and (I'm guessing) several days just to physically copy the data to the hard disk. And I can't even view them on my iPod? I'm just not seeing the attraction of this feature.

It's the same sort of thing people do with DVD's. They rip them into their computer and stream them to their AppleTV.

Eug · Dec 24, 2007, 05:40 PM

Originally Posted by starman

I can't see Warner doing something that stupid. They'll be format neutral as long as they possibly can.

I suspect they'll go exclusive one way or another in 2008.

Pros for going Blu-ray - More current sales, and lots of PS3s out there, which can be updated to Profile 1.1.
Pros for going HD DVD - Better baseline hardware support (PiP, etc.), cheaper replication costs, and they have more intellectual property in HD DVD than they do in Blu-ray.

Originally Posted by starman

All I can say is that my PS3 wins, hands down, as the best HD and DVD-upscaler I own, so I lean towards Blu.

The PS3 isn't known as being a top tier DVD upscaler. That title belongs to players like the Toshiba HD-XA2 and the Samsung BD-UP5000, as well as other standalones.

starman · Dec 24, 2007, 05:46 PM

If Warner went Blu, it would prolong this stupid war (re: Paramount).

If they went HD-DVD, it would probably kill Blu.

icruise · Dec 24, 2007, 05:51 PM

Originally Posted by goMac

It's the same sort of thing people do with DVD's. They rip them into their computer and stream them to their AppleTV.

Yes, I do something similar, although not with an Apple TV. But I'm free to use that video any way I like (on iPods, etc) and I can rip them using an encoder that dramatically reduces the file size.

analogue SPRINKLES · Dec 24, 2007, 06:50 PM

Originally Posted by goMac

Yes, if Warner sides with HD-DVD.

Ok but if not there is no way for HD-DVD to win then right?

goMac · Dec 24, 2007, 06:52 PM

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES

Ok but if not there is no way for HD-DVD to win then right?

Nope. Not unless something weirder happened like Disney going neutral without Warner going HD-DVD.

analogue SPRINKLES · Dec 24, 2007, 06:55 PM

Originally Posted by goMac

Nope. Not unless something weirder happened like Disney going neutral without Warner going HD-DVD.

Lets hope they just look at Xmas sales and make a decision one way or another that just ends all this ****.

Eug · Dec 24, 2007, 06:56 PM

Yeah, if Warner went Blu, then the best HD DVD could hope for is a continued stalemate, but IMO it would be more likely that Blu would eventually win.
However, if Warner went HD DVD, then the best Blu could hope for is a continued stalemate, but IMO it would be more likely that HD DVD would eventually win.

I think Warner leans HD DVD, but will go where the (projected) money is.

I was hoping for hybrid players to appear at a low price to make all of this moot, but that doesn't seem likely any time soon.

mitchell_pgh · Dec 24, 2007, 07:33 PM

Originally Posted by starman

At this point, I see both sides having SOME kind of aspect that might appeal to one side. eg: Star Trek on Paramount, Star Wars on Blu; HD-DVD with no region coding, Blu with higher capacity.

All I can say is that my PS3 wins, hands down, as the best HD and DVD-upscaler I own, so I lean towards Blu.

I'm still open to either format, but I have a feeling that Blu will win overall. I could be wrong, but if I were to buy either format today, Blu would be my choice.

Eug · Dec 24, 2007, 10:51 PM

Well, that was a waste of time. I tried getting a $99 HD-A3.

First the website was fracked. Then when it got going again, 330 of them sold in 5 minutes, with the whole 400 sold out in less than 10 minutes AFAIK.

There are still 197 (out of 200) $349 Sharp BD players and 64 (out of 80) $299 Samsung BD players left.

mrtew · Dec 25, 2007, 02:49 PM

Well I found out why half the people with PS3's are watching SD movies on them! For x-mas we got a Playstation3 HighDefinition game machine which has a Blu-ray HighDefinition movie player, for our HighDefinition TV. But it doesn't come with a HighDefiniton cable!!! I can't believe it! I'm in shock! If I was a normal person I'd probably have just plugged it in with the cable that does come with it and played the games and watched the movies and that'd be the end of it. I don't know what my point is but I can't believe I waited a month to open it and now I have to keep waiting to use it! And I'm thinking about how my XBox360 came with a HD cable a year ago and it doesn't even have an HD movie player! Does anyone know where I can get a HD cable on Dec25th?

Eug · Dec 25, 2007, 02:59 PM

Originally Posted by mrtew

Well I found out why half the people with PS3's are watching SD movies on them! For x-mas we got a Playstation3 HighDefinition game machine which has a Blu-ray HighDefinition movie player, for our HighDefinition TV. But it doesn't come with a HighDefiniton cable!!! I can't believe it! I'm in shock! If I was a normal person I'd probably have just plugged it in with the cable that does come with it and played the games and watched the movies and that'd be the end of it. I don't know what my point is but I can't believe I waited a month to open it and now I have to keep waiting to use it! And I'm thinking about how my XBox360 came with a HD cable a year ago and it doesn't even have an HD movie player! Does anyone know where I can get a HD cable on Dec25th?

Not even component cable?

Anyways, FWIW, most hi-def standalones don't come with HDMI cables, or even component cables either.

It's just like USB printers that don't come with USB cables. This sort of penny pinching is par for the course.