1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.

HD-DVD and Blu-Ray - your opinion?

Discussion in 'Entertainment and Technology' started by Alex89, Jan 8, 2008.

?

So what about you?

  1. I own Blu-Ray movies (not just a capable device)

    4 vote(s)
    14.8%

  2. I own HD-DVD movies (not just a capable device)

    2 vote(s)
    7.4%

  3. I don't own a player yet, but I'm going to go Blu-Ray

    6 vote(s)
    22.2%

  4. I don't own a player yet, but I'm going to go HD-DVD

    2 vote(s)
    7.4%

  5. I'll wait until the bickering is over and go with the winner

    8 vote(s)
    29.6%

  6. I'll get a dual-format player like the new Samsung one that plays both!

    2 vote(s)
    7.4%

  7. I'll stick with DVD forever!

    3 vote(s)
    11.1%
Thread Tools

Thread Tools

Page 1 of 2
  1. Alex89

    Alex89
    Full Member

    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2007
    Messages:
    63
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Brisbane, Australia
    With all the recent news of Warner going Blu-Ray exclusive, the HD format war is going crazy with both sides chucking out sales numbers and statistics to confuse consumers and attempt to proclaim themselves as format winner.

    Here's a brief summary of what each format is offering at the present time:

    HD-DVD
    - 45gb on tri-layer disc
    - PiP (picture in picture)
    - Cheaply produced discs - existing DVD factories can make and sell them cheaply.
    - Internet connectivity - download new content
    - Exclusive support from Universal, Paramount, Dreamworks.
    - Official named successor to DVD by the world DVD Forum.
    - Supported by Toshiba, Microsoft, Intel

    Blu-Ray
    - 50gb on dual-layer disc
    - Recently added PiP (only certain players are able)
    - Recently added internet connectivity (only second generation players are able)
    - Exclusive support from Warner, Columbia, Disney, 20th Century Fox
    - Supported by Sony, Dell, Apple, HP

    And some current sales figures quoted from Toshiba:
    - 1 million dedicated HD-DVD players sold.
    - Attach rate (discs owned per player) rate 2:1 in favour of HD-DVD
    - 400 HD-DVD movies now available in the US
    - Transformers HD-DVD holds the record for fastest sale of an HD movie. Bourne Ultimatum HD-DVD outsold Spiderman 3 Blu-Ray on launch.
    - 80% of HD disc drives in computers are HD-DVD

    And from Sony:
    - 66% of HD movie sales are Blu-Ray
    - All PS3s have a Blu-Ray drive, pushing sales considerably.
    - Majority of movie studios making Blu-Ray discs.
    - Blu-Ray is now the "format winner" since Warner has joined.

    ~~~

    So what's your opinion?

    I personally have a preference for HD-DVD due to ALL HD-DVD players being able to support all HD-DVD features, instead of the current confusion as only the newest Blu-Ray players will support the new Blu-Ray features such as internet connectivity and PiP. Also, it's a lot cheaper. =) My main preference is due to HD-DVD being region-free, which is important to me since I live in Australia where we get DVDs sometimes 4 months after they're available in the US, so HD-DVDs can be shipped here straight away instead of waiting for the factories to make the Australian discs.
     
    #1 Alex89, Jan 8, 2008
  2. JSG

    JSG Guest

    #2 JSG, Jan 8, 2008
  3. davo-man

    davo-man
    Full Member

    Joined:
    Nov 24, 2006
    Messages:
    192
    Likes Received:
    1
    Location:
    Australia
    Ever since the whole war began I thought it would go BluRay's way. I mean really, they had a better marketting campaign, and I know that sounds stupid, but people are going to go for the product with a better marketing campaign, I mean look at iPods. Yes I know it may divide a lot of more technologically minded ppl, but everyone has to admit that they have the mest marketing campaign and from that has made it cool to get an iPod, showing that the better the marketing, the more chance of success. Back to the topic at hand, I have seen many advertisments for BluRay, that make it look modern, cool and awesome and have seen absolutely no ads for HD-DVD. I just think ppl are going to go for the better publicised one, which I think is what is going to happen particularly after WB and (possibly) Paramount going only BluRay

    So in summary, BluRay all the way (that should so be it catchphrase hehe)
     
    #3 davo-man, Jan 8, 2008
  4. Ty

    Ty Guest

    Well, TBH i really don't see much difference :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: im indifferent towards the situation - I'll just go with the flow ^_^

    /Ty
     
    #4 Ty, Jan 8, 2008
  5. Paul_UK

    Paul_UK Guest

    Joined:
    Nov 23, 2004
    Messages:
    6,885
    Likes Received:
    0
    Gender:
    Male
    I'll wait until one or the other becomes established. It seems that there will be a standards war with just about any new technology, and that's been the case for many years (VHS vs Betamax, Cassette vs 8-Track Cartridge, Sky vs BSB....).

    Price will probably be the deciding factor. Normally the cheapest wins, regardless of quality.

    If I had to choose now I would go for HD-DVD for the completely absurd reason that often it's the technology with the name beginning with B that loses!
     
    #5 Paul_UK, Jan 8, 2008
  6. Alex89

    Alex89
    Full Member

    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2007
    Messages:
    63
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Brisbane, Australia
    Uh, official comment from paramount is that they're still HD-DVD only, JSG.

    It's still only "possible" that they could switch, but so far have said they're definitely still sticking with HD-DVD.

    My predictions for the format war is: Blu-Ray takes a huge lead, but for the length of the HD movie generation's cycle both continue to be manufactured and sold. Similar to the last console war - PS2 outsold xbox 6-1, but xbox was never really "dead". Both just continued with their own supporters.

    Dual-format players will probably be very popular in the next few years.
     
    #6 Alex89, Jan 8, 2008
  7. Ilayis

    Ilayis Guest

    Idk,I was walking around looking for a movie the other day.Ran across one that I wanted and checked the price.$30.00!!!It was an HD-DVD,found the regular DVD for $13.00.Sorry I'm not paying that kind of money for one DVD,whether it's better quality and picture or not.Idk,maybe it's cause I only have money to make it by.Maybe if I had a ton of money to throw around,I probably wouldn't care.IDK
     
    #7 Ilayis, Jan 8, 2008
  8. Alex89

    Alex89
    Full Member

    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2007
    Messages:
    63
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Brisbane, Australia
    Over here HD-DVDs are the same price as new-release DVDs ($30 AUD), but Blu-Ray movies are $40-$50 AUD! =O I'm tempted to get the 360 add-on HD-DVD player, because you can plug it into any Vista computer via USB (official drivers are available), and my laptop screen is 1920 x 1200 resolution, so it can show the full 1080p HD...

    Very very tempted...
     
    #8 Alex89, Jan 8, 2008
  9. Jerr

    Jerr
    Full Member

    Joined:
    Jan 4, 2007
    Messages:
    833
    Likes Received:
    1
    Location:
    Hot Springs, Arkansas
    PS3.... lol


    and 10 HD/Blu-ray movies.
     
    #9 Jerr, Jan 8, 2008
  10. Alex89

    Alex89
    Full Member

    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2007
    Messages:
    63
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Brisbane, Australia
    It makes you wonder whether HD-DVD would be in the lead if it had been in the 360 from the start, because having Blu_Ray in the PS3s has helped it considersably.

    I bet Toshiba is cursing Microsoft for not doing it. =P
     
    #10 Alex89, Jan 8, 2008
  11. Kenko

    Kenko
    Full Member

    Joined:
    Jan 3, 2007
    Messages:
    1,378
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Canada
    Gender:
    Male
    Gender Pronoun:
    He
    Sexual Orientation:
    Gay
    Out Status:
    Some people
    I'm going to wait till the whole thing is sorted out. We got a new high def TV and we have an up converting DVD player. I don't find the improvement gained in going HD or Blu-ray over a quality DVD worth the cost.

    Plus something that drives me up the wall with DVDs is all the PUO (prohibited user operations) eg: not being able to fast forward through anoying messages and in some cases mandatory previews! To make a DVD that I bought usable I have to copy it to a DVD-R stripped of the PUOs.

    I assume when you pay for the privilege of Blu-ray or HD-DVD you are still forced to watch stuff you don't want to. And last I checked Blu-ray or HD-DVD recorders weren't inexpensive and blanks weren't $0.33 or less each.
     
    #11 Kenko, Jan 8, 2008
  12. Alex89

    Alex89
    Full Member

    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2007
    Messages:
    63
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Brisbane, Australia
    i don't think u can buy BR or HD-DVD recorders at all yet. None available for TVs and I haven't seen a single one that can burn in a PC yet....
     
    #12 Alex89, Jan 8, 2008
  13. Jerr

    Jerr
    Full Member

    Joined:
    Jan 4, 2007
    Messages:
    833
    Likes Received:
    1
    Location:
    Hot Springs, Arkansas
    There are br burners for the pc. have been for quite some time. (At least a year.)

    Thank you, AlienWare!

    I don't have a high def tv but I can see a difference from my blueray/hd dvds and my non.
     
    #13 Jerr, Jan 8, 2008
  14. dictionary

    dictionary
    Full Member

    Joined:
    Sep 4, 2007
    Messages:
    423
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Melbourne
    I'm pretty sure bue ray will win...

    Because they have secured deals with more film companys.... and thinking back to the ye old'e days of beta and vcr... vcr had more videos and ended up being sucsesfull...
     
    #14 dictionary, Jan 9, 2008
  15. Alex89

    Alex89
    Full Member

    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2007
    Messages:
    63
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Brisbane, Australia
    Interestingly, Paramount have "officially announced" that they will be making "no announcements" at CES, and that they have no intention of leaving HD-DVD. Don't you love announcements about a lack of announcements? =P

    I'm certain both formats will hold on until the end of their generation, despite larger sales in Blu-Ray. Most likely dual-format players will be popular, or even if in the end ALL studios move to Blu-Ray, HD-DVDs will still be produced by the studios currently supporting HD-DVD as well.

    So far the sales stand at 500,000 standalone Blu-Ray players, and 1 million HD-DVD players (360 add-on included, since its sole purpose is for HD-DVD playback). That's a pretty significant figure for Toshiba, Universal and Paramount / Dreamworks to just drop. HD-DVD players are still outselling dedicated Blu-Ray players 2:1, and prices of players are low enough now for Mr Joe Public to buy a dedicated Blu-Ray player instead of a PS3 solely for movies. This basically translates to more sales from movie enthusiasts for HD-DVD, but a lot lower still than PS3 gamers who buy a few Blu-Ray movies on the side as a bonus. It seems the format war won't be decided by people genuinely interested in pushing the format they prefer, but by the people who just have the capability to play HD movies as a bonus with their purchase of a games machine.

    Obviously a lot of the Blu-Ray format sales are through the PS3, giving Blu-Ray the edge in sales, but I don't think Toshiba and Microsoft will just drop HD-DVD they've spent billions on.

    Sales of HD movies are still at 2:1 Blu-Ray's favour, but it's not a significant enough gap for HD-DVD to just give up. If it was 10:1, it would make sense.

    If only Toshiba would do some advertising and smart marketing. I see Sony's Blu-Ray ads in every cinema now, but no real advertising for HD-DVD. This leaves the public with the impression that there is no competitor for Blu-Ray at all. Toshiba just needs to get its act together and be aggressive, so consumers know there IS a choice.
     
    #15 Alex89, Jan 9, 2008
  16. step49x

    step49x
    Full Member

    Joined:
    Aug 22, 2006
    Messages:
    1,010
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Michigan, USA
    I don't think I will be buying either until the format war is over. Besides, all my laptop can play right now are DVD's, so I think I'll just be sticking with those, for a while.
     
    #16 step49x, Jan 9, 2008
  17. SlickyPants

    SlickyPants
    Full Member

    Joined:
    Oct 6, 2007
    Messages:
    712
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Winnipeg, MB, Canada
    I have an HD-DVD player. I bought the Xbox 360 drive last year because I had a 360 and it was relatively inexpensive in comparison to standalone players at the time. One of these days I'll probably pick up a dual-format player when the price drops because I'd like to have both formats.

    My biggest complaint about the two formats is that there isn't enough selection. It's getting better but I'd still like to see more.

    I don't particularly think any format will "win" necessarily but I think Blu-Ray will probably be a little more successful because they have a stronger marketing campaign as mentioned earlier. I have seen only one advertisement for HD-DVD.
     
    #17 SlickyPants, Jan 9, 2008
  18. George1

    George1 Guest

    Joined:
    Jul 16, 2007
    Messages:
    1,329
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Melbourne, Australia
    Gender:
    Male
    Sexual Orientation:
    Gay
    Out Status:
    Out to everyone
    You didn't put in your first post that HD-DVD is 15GB single layer, 30GB dual layer and according to wikipedia it's 51GB for a triple layer.

    Personally I'm hoping BD wins seeing as they have the higher capacity. And especially since BD-ROM is 10GB more than HD-DVD.
    >_>; I just wish the war would end already and the players/disks go down in price so I can put my HD monitor to good use lol.

    I'm not sold on the 1/2x write speeds though..
     
    #18 George1, Jan 10, 2008
  19. George1

    George1 Guest

    Joined:
    Jul 16, 2007
    Messages:
    1,329
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Melbourne, Australia
    Gender:
    Male
    Sexual Orientation:
    Gay
    Out Status:
    Out to everyone
    And I forgot to mention that the triple layer HD-DVD basically has an extra 2GB of extra storage on each layer, and as thus it isn't certain if it will work on all existing HD-DVD players.
    =/ And the tri-layer disk hasn't actually been MADE yet, it's a proposal which was recently approved.
     
    #19 George1, Jan 10, 2008
  20. Jerr

    Jerr
    Full Member

    Joined:
    Jan 4, 2007
    Messages:
    833
    Likes Received:
    1
    Location:
    Hot Springs, Arkansas
    VCR won because it could hold two hours of film and most movies fell within the two hour period and beta could not. I believe they only held about an hour because the tape within was so big ALTHOUGH that did mean better video/sound quality... it didn't hold a movie so it wasn't worth poo!
     
    #20 Jerr, Jan 10, 2008
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)
Page 1 of 2