digitalfreaknyc

You won't need a universal player because Blu-ray has all the movie studios.

digitalfreaknyc

YUM

but make it blu-ray instead

ChrisHicks

I thought there was atleast 1 studio still exclusive to HD-DVD? Universal maybe?

Dan Average

Yeah, but current scuttlebutt has it that Universal will announce Blu-ray support either shortly before or shortly after CES ends.

dvd182

Thanks for all the info guys, I really can't wait. Prices won't be fun to begin with, but HD is ridiculously good. I never thought I'd be so disappointed with DVD; HD puts it to shame.

raven56706

but one has to imagine how much the PS3 will cost..... because if they lower the price of the ps3 and samsung and pioneer dont lower theirs, there could be a conflict of companys

since PS3 will also act like a player for the movies... this can be the start of a war

Josh Z

DiVx had a bunch of prominent studios behind it as well, including exclusive support from Disney and Fox, but when nobody bought the players it died and those studios moved to the DVD camp.

HD-DVD player: $500
Blu-Ray player: $1,000

Which do you think is going to temp more on-the-fence consumers?

jmj713

What is this obsession with the PS3? It's a game console. What has it got to do with movies? Not everyone plays games, you know.

greydt

But Divx had that whole "not really owning the movie" thing going for it, which is probably the main reason it died. HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray is different in that regard, in comparison to Divx vs. DVD.

jmj713 - The PS3 will be a Blu-Ray player out of the box. It would be a mistake to disregard this aspect especially the impact the PS2 had with DVD when it was starting out (esp. in Japan, which is a moot point in this conversation). If you want it simpler? Every PS3 owner = each pretty much a Blu-Ray user. As for game consoles, you do realize there are currently more than 100 million PS2s worldwide? (each of them basically a dvd player?)

Josh Z

I'm not disagreeing with this, but I am pointing out that studio support is not the only factor that is going to determine the outcome of this format war. DiVx had exclusive studio support from a couple of majors, and it still died a miserable death. The other factors made DVD more appealing to consumers, and may do so again (especially with regard to price).

This is not a valid assumption. The vast majority of gamers who buy the PS3 for its video games will not be connected to an HDTV and will have little to no interest in either high-def video format.

Bokasmo

Like I stated in a prior post, I will NOT give my money to either camp, until a clear cut winner is determined, and the other long gone.

I am officially pulling for HD-DVD mostly for compatibility issues, pricing, and overall consumer friendliness.

Down with Blu-Ray. Fast . Plz.

Adam Tyner

I'm not intensely anti-HD-DVD, so don't take this as me being overly argumentative -- while I understand the pricing argument, expand on what you mean by compatibility issues and overall consumer friendliness. In the way-too-many-hours I've spent reading about HD-DVD and Blu-Ray on this and other forums, I've never gotten the impression that one format had much of a leg up over the other in either of those areas. You put in a disc, hit play, and watch it.

nazz

So when I look at that Toshiba player link it states that HD upconversion is only available through HDMI. That's not a big deal to me since I have a Zenith that does it over component to my component only Mits.

My question is will I be able to get 1080i HD DVD through component?

Adam Tyner

With these early models (for HD-DVD, at least), all signs point to "no". All of the press releases and everything have made sure to say "720p and 1080i over HDMI". They haven't expressly said "no HD over component", but their wording suggests that there won't be.

nazz

So as an early adopter of a $3,000 HDTV I'm apparently SOL.

gutwrencher

I can't believe I was just saying the same thing over the past few years. I was even saying how dvd is good enough for now and how waiting the war out would be easy, especially with over 2,000 titles to choose from. Man, have I failed.

As the day gets closer...I find myself getting more and more pumped up. I've now decided although on paper I am pro BR...I'm still snaggin' an HD-DVD deck in March along with a few titles like Batman Begins and yes, even Twister since I don't own it on dvd anyway. On 2-11 I'll grab Lethal Weapon and Unforgiven...followed by Goodfellas, Matrix and Syriana...since it's the same release date for the dvd.

I'll play with HD-DVD for a while and then dive into BR heaven. I've decided to buy into it all because I want to see it all for myself.

I've moved from the communications tent in the back...all the way to the front fucking lines! Let's do it!

Qui Gon Jim

Yes, but I expect the bad feedback will change some minds (I hope).

Bokasmo

About the compatibility issue, there was an article that stated Hewlett Packard dropped out of the BD side, and into the HD side, due to incompatibility issues with PCs for java and copyright stuff. Not sure the exact content of the article. I will try and find this.

As for pricing, the prices (as already seen!!!) will always be better w/ HD-DVD. The factories needed to change very little to make this product, including the cost factor of the discs themselves.

Blu-Ray might be winning right now, but the pricing will determine the winner in the end. The majority of the country (world) goes with that ideal. As of right now, there is only a TINY fraction of the world that even wants this kind of technology, let alone a change this quickly (10years?? for DVD). That tiny fraction won't help on the prices, and by the time the rest of everyone else follows, they'll buy 'price' only. I'm not saying price for crap either. I'm sure a $500 HD-DVD player is not crap. Compare that w/ the already priced $1000 to $1800 Blu-Ray players.

As of right now, HD wins in my book.

Those DVD packinging for BD also look pretty shitty. Blue? Just a lil OTT.

Disney Lover

This may seem like a stupid question but in order to use a HD Dvd player and/or a Blu-Ray player do you absolutely need a HD TV? I'm just wondering cause the tvs are expensive as hell on their own right now. I already now I'm not converting to one wins over the other and the price of said player is in my price range but if you need an HD TV to use the player than I might not convert till those tvs go down as well and I'm sure that will take a while.


Tabbi <3

Big Worms

Short and simple, yes.

Adam Tyner

No, you don't, although most of the benefit fades away.

HDTVs don't have to be expensive, though. You can walk into Best Buy and get a 27" HDTV for $400.

greydt

I don't believe that studio support is the end all either, although it seems that Blu-Ray is slowing accumulating a snowball effect in terms of gathering studio support. A few studio holdouts on HD-DVD won't kill it, but it'll slowly bleed the format.

I'm not a big video game person myself, but I do like to keep track of the business side of it, and similar trends could be seen in the past few console wars.

I think the area you're missing is that you're comparing early adopter prices. Sure, one is $500, and the other is $1,000 - the on-the-fence-consumers you're talking about will likely buy neither. Early adopters will range from people who have money to burn, to those who will bargain shop...however, neither of these groups will be the ones who will ultimately decides which format wins.

That leads to:


Actually, my comment there was to jmj713, who was asking why the PS3 matters at all in this. The main point was that every PS3 = a Blu-Ray player (on the other hand, HD-DVD on the Xbox 360 = addon) The potential is inherently there with every PS3 sold.

While I certainly agree that not every PS3 owner will also be an HDTV owner, the potential is there. If a family already owns a PS3 for games, and decides to buy an HDTV, will they go with an HD player that's right there already, or invest in another player?

Not only will the PS3 act as an inexpensive blu-ray player (rumored at $500 at the moment), but it's also slowly building a blu-ray movie disc base at the same time...as part of a different industry (and PS3 is likely to win the next gen console war as well, when you factor in system power, game support, and the backward compatibilty to both PS1 and PS2 games, which lends it a painless upgrade status).

That's tens of millions of blu ray players over the next 4-5 years just on the console gaming side. That will likely snowball support over to the blu-ray side, just from the sheer potential user base...like you and others have been saying, the actual HD user base will be small, but the gaming base provides a staggering potential just by being there as a gaming system.

Whether that actual HD base grows is probably another debate, but the potential will be there.

Qui Gon Jim

Short and simple answer is NO. The max rez you'll get is 480i with a regular TV set but you would still get the advantage of whatever extras are exclusive to the new formats. You'll also be "future proofing" your collection.

Qui Gon Jim

This is an extremely debatable point. By the time PS3 comes out, XB360 will have had several months without competition in the marketplace as well as a signifigantly lower price tag. Also if Sony takes a $500 hit on every console, where do you think the difference is going to come from? The games. If MS can keep the supply flowing and drop to $300 before PSS3 comes and keep the game prices lower than PS3, then the may win this round.

PS3 is not a sure winner.

Big Worms

Sorry I guess I meant to say the same thing. Basically meant that if you want HD than you need HDTV. But yes you could still buy a HD player and and hook it up to SD Tv, but you would be watching the lower resultion. I guess like Qui Gon Jim you can "future proof".