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HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray vs. everything else free-for-all: Round two

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Old 08-11-06, 05:38 PM
  #76  
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Originally Posted by digitalfreaknyc
Robocop has been delayed. wonder if this means all the rest of the MGM titles will be delayed?

from TBB:
just a little Blu-ray-related FYI: Sony has informed us that because the distribution of MGM titles has moved to 20th Century Fox, they'll no longer be releasing the Blu-ray Disc version of RoboCop. It's been pulled from their schedule. Look for it to be rescheduled for release by Fox later this year, once Fox officially announces their first Blu-ray Disc releases.
My guess is it may have something to do with the terrible quality, after reading the review.


I don't mind switching discs. No big deal to me. I'd rather not, but it wouldn't turn me off....unless it was 1 hour into a movie like Spiderman or something, or even worse, just to see the last 20 minutes of a movie like that because of the size constraints of BR. That would be stupid.
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Old 08-11-06, 07:26 PM
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Originally Posted by kvrdave
I don't mind switching discs. No big deal to me.
Since everyone is giving their opinion on this...

I hate discs where you have to switch. I've held off for years in buying certain DVDs because they were flippers simply for this reason. That's why I didn't get the newest version of Titanic.

Needless to say I would not like to see my HD movies split across discs.

The only exceptions being movies with an intermission built in (i.e. Gone With the Wind, Ben Hur). And I did make an exception for LOTR EE editions... but I hope that doesn't carry forward into HD DVD all the same.
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Old 08-12-06, 11:11 PM
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Since HD discs (should) have the space, there is no reason to suffer anymore with 2 discs. I hope the industry finds a way to get these movies on one. I waited for years for someone to put out a changer with a quality picture so i could throw both discs in at once and at least save some trouble, but no one has yet and apparently never will. I just watched ROTK again today, it's just annoying to have to swap.

Although, I prefer the high quality video (like the LOTR EEs) and would rather have 2 discs than suffer crap. I have several movies on 2 discs, or flippers.
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Old 08-13-06, 12:05 AM
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I'm more concerned with 99% of the movies that are not 3+ hours. Blu-Ray is still having Video and Audio problems with those.

I have a feeling the theatrical cuts will be on 1 HD-dvd, while the EE's will continue to use multiple discs with better PQ. I have no problem with either, as long as they don't come out looking like Robocop did. Regardless of how they decide to do it the end result on my display is all I am going to care about.
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Old 08-14-06, 10:05 AM
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New Blu-ray Drive Can't Play Commercial Blu-ray Movies

Sony's Blu-ray format has had its fair share of problems recently, with news that the Samsung BD-P1000 player had a chip problem and the first head-to-head comparisons giving HD DVD a slight advantage.

But yesterday, Sony announced a desktop PC Blu-ray drive, the BWU-100A, that can't play commercial Blu-ray movies, according to CNet.

Sony officially announced its BWU-100A product at its "Experience More 2006" event in Sydney yesterday, all the while acknowledging that there's significant room for improvement before the product is viable for integration into media centre PCs.

Vincent Bautista, Sony's product manager for data storage, told CNET.com.au that due to copy protection issues and lagging software development, the drive will only play user-recorded high-definition content from a digital camcorder, and not commercial movies released under the BD format.

Bautista says that one of two reasons for this is the fact that commercial content is encrypted with High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP), which can only be decrypted using a HDCP-compliant graphics card that offers DVI or HDMI connections. Since there are currently no PCs for sale offering graphics chips that support HDCP, this isn't yet possible.
The drive will be available this month, costing $1399 Australian dollars.

Speaking of the format war, a research group has spent time and money determining that consumers will be confused and turned off by multiple HD formats.

Market research analyst Screen Digest also forecast that only $11 billion of the total $39 billion expected to be spent on video discs by 2010 in the United States, Europe and Japan will be generated by the competing high-definition formats, Sony Corp.-backed (6758.T) Blu-ray and Toshiba-supported (6502.T) HD-DVD.

"The net result of the format war and the publicity it has generated will be to dampen consumer appetite for the whole high definition disc category," Screen Digest analyst Ben Keen said.
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Old 08-14-06, 10:51 AM
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Originally Posted by digitalfreaknyc
New Blu-ray Drive Can't Play Commercial Blu-ray Movies

Sony's Blu-ray format has had its fair share of problems recently, with news that the Samsung BD-P1000 player had a chip problem and the first head-to-head comparisons giving HD DVD a slight advantage.

But yesterday, Sony announced a desktop PC Blu-ray drive, the BWU-100A, that can't play commercial Blu-ray movies, according to CNet.

Sony officially announced its BWU-100A product at its "Experience More 2006" event in Sydney yesterday, all the while acknowledging that there's significant room for improvement before the product is viable for integration into media centre PCs.

Vincent Bautista, Sony's product manager for data storage, told CNET.com.au that due to copy protection issues and lagging software development, the drive will only play user-recorded high-definition content from a digital camcorder, and not commercial movies released under the BD format.

Bautista says that one of two reasons for this is the fact that commercial content is encrypted with High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP), which can only be decrypted using a HDCP-compliant graphics card that offers DVI or HDMI connections. Since there are currently no PCs for sale offering graphics chips that support HDCP, this isn't yet possible.
The drive will be available this month, costing $1399 Australian dollars.

Speaking of the format war, a research group has spent time and money determining that consumers will be confused and turned off by multiple HD formats.

Market research analyst Screen Digest also forecast that only $11 billion of the total $39 billion expected to be spent on video discs by 2010 in the United States, Europe and Japan will be generated by the competing high-definition formats, Sony Corp.-backed (6758.T) Blu-ray and Toshiba-supported (6502.T) HD-DVD.

"The net result of the format war and the publicity it has generated will be to dampen consumer appetite for the whole high definition disc category," Screen Digest analyst Ben Keen said.
Well, at least we still have the PS3, which I'm convinced will put an end to world hunger and automatically cause gas prices to drop significantly.
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Old 08-14-06, 10:55 AM
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Originally Posted by Vipper II
Well, at least we still have the PS3, which I'm convinced will put an end to world hunger and automatically cause gas prices to drop significantly.
There's a delay on "the cure for cancer." They're hoping they can do that through a firmware upgrade but since none of them come with ethernet ports, you're going to have to download it.
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Old 08-14-06, 11:01 AM
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I thought this was an interesting post from Amirm. It brings up a lot of good points in one post and shows an insider's view of the BD/HD DVD situation:

Originally Posted by amirm
The entire history of the computer industry suggests otherwise. Extra storage and bandwidth always turns out to have more value than you would have imagined.
It does? I have been in computer industry for 25 years now and have seen many counter examples. The problem is that you are missing two factors in above: cost and manufacturability. In the 1980s I worked for a mini-computer company and we built CPUs ourselves. Our performance ("bandwidth/capacity" in your example) was 2X the best workstation from Sun Microsystems. Problem was, our cost was 10X higher so, we closed shop in a few years. PC processors did the same to SPARC based workstations from Sun.

If something comes for free, you are right. But if it does not...

Once we have BD50, there will be uses for it, assuming Blu-Ray survives/thrives.
"Having it" is not enough. It depends on how you get it. If it is produced in lab quantities of a few thousands, it doesn't mean anything in this context.

I also think that BD50 disks will be only marginally more expensive to manufacture than BD25 disks.
Is this a hope or based on scientific analysis? Yield curves do amazing damage to economic models. Take a delicate BS-25 process and add a layer to it and all of your tolerances suffer so much that you make far more coasters than real discs. Getting thing ultra flat as is required here, is very difficult and expensive.

This would also follow all previous trends for manufacturing optical storage.
And BD goes against the learnings there. We learned that by taking a CD and breaking it in half thickness wise, in the form of DVD, the two halves cool faster, allowing production rate to be higher than CD. BD puts the two halves back together.

We learned that putting the bits in the middle of the two layers, nicely protects the bits so that we don't need an expensive coating. BD puts the bits on the surface and then has to protect it with yet another surface material which reduces yields due to contamination, non-uniformity and bubbles.

We learned that by having two symmetrical halves in DVD, the two change equality in the face of humidity and temperature. BD goes to a thick substrate, causing it warp, requiring possibly an undercoat to keep moisture away from the bottom layer.

I could go on. But hopefully you get the picture. Pun intended .
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Old 08-14-06, 11:28 AM
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And, as someone already pointed out in that AVS thread, notice he says "BS-25."

BS, indeed.
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Old 08-14-06, 11:51 AM
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Originally Posted by digitalfreaknyc
New Blu-ray Drive Can't Play Commercial Blu-ray Movies
Just curious, but wouldn't any upcoming HD-DVD drive have the same problem?
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Old 08-14-06, 12:07 PM
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Originally Posted by joeblow69
Just curious, but wouldn't any upcoming HD-DVD drive have the same problem?
Why is that?

Ive seen advertisements in the BB ad for toshiba laptops with hd-dvd drives in them. I havent heard anything about commercial hd-dvd's not being accessible in them.
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Old 08-14-06, 12:11 PM
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Originally Posted by RockStrongo
Why is that?

Ive seen advertisements in the BB ad for toshiba laptops with hd-dvd drives in them. I havent heard anything about commercial hd-dvd's not being accessible in them.
I don't know... I assumed that HD had the same requirement for a HDCP compliant video card. It doesn't?
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Old 08-14-06, 12:47 PM
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Updated sales data:



Everything is still within the established range. Sadly, I have no past HD-DVD/Blu-Ray software data, so holes will appear here and there. I am tracking individual titles now and then doing a lookback, which might make the data a bit less accurate (as I don't track every single title), but it will be more consistent.

I also went back a bit further on the other chart I was working on (not pictured here). I basically weighted each studio's marketshare in HD/BR by their box office grosses from 1997-2006 (as of a week ago).

Here's how much each format has "earned" at the box office:
Blu Ray only: $25.8 billion
Both formats: $20.3 billion
HD-DVD only: $6.4 billion

If/when Fox or Disney or Universal switch over then the biggest group of studios will be those that support both formats. That might then give some added fuel to the remaining non-Sony studios to offer their films in HD.
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Old 08-14-06, 12:53 PM
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I still don't think Universal will switch unless HD DVD is dead or near death. I believe they hate Sony and is one of the reasons they stick with HD DVD only.
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Old 08-14-06, 01:22 PM
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Originally Posted by joeblow69
Just curious, but wouldn't any upcoming HD-DVD drive have the same problem?
The computer just has to deal with the copy protection properly. The Toshiba laptop has done this, and I would expect Sony's laptops to, as well. These are both all-in-one machines. But a standalone drive will not be guaranteed to work with your desktop and everyone else's. It is a mess, and we'll just have to see how it all plays out. There are such limited choices right now it hardly means anything.
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Old 08-14-06, 01:26 PM
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Originally Posted by Spiky
The computer just has to deal with the copy protection properly. The Toshiba laptop has done this, and I would expect Sony's laptops to, as well. These are both all-in-one machines. But a standalone drive will not be guaranteed to work with your desktop and everyone else's. It is a mess, and we'll just have to see how it all plays out. There are such limited choices right now it hardly means anything.
Yeah, I was thinking, maybe the laptop works without the HDCP video card because the only output is to the built in screen. I'm guessing you can't hook the laptop up to your TV and watch HD movies at 1080i.
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Old 08-14-06, 03:48 PM
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I guess PIP doesn't work on Blu-ray either.

With MI3 releasing on 10/30/06 in SD DVD, BD, and HD DVD, one wonders why the HD DVD version has exclusive extra features. From HighDefDigest.com:

However, included on the HD DVD version only will be an "enhanced video commentary" featuring exclusive video footage of director J.J. Abrams, Tom Cruise and other behind-the-scenes material.
One would assume that disc space would be the culprit which implies that BD50 will still be MIA at the end of October 2006. However this question comes up:

Is it not possible to do the "In Movie Experience" with BDJ or is it a function of disc space?
To which Amirm replies:

Originally Posted by amirm
BD added things like Picture in Picture too late to their spec for it to be incorporated into their players. Without Picture in Picture, one says goodbye to IME. Anyone who buys a Samsung and ever wants to watch such features, would by definition have to buy another player, and waste $1,000. Same may also be true of the rest of the BD 1G players.

There is also the space issue in BD-25 depending on how much data the main feature takes but per above, this is secondary right now.
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Apparently the the equivalent PIP functionality to mirror HD DVDs IME requires a player which supports the BD-Live profile which isn't madatory for BD players until June 2007.

So not only does HD DVD have a capacity advantage it has the better interactivity. Why is it that every advantage BD has been promoting has gone down the drain?

Last edited by awmurray; 08-14-06 at 03:58 PM.
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Old 08-14-06, 03:52 PM
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awmurray,

you might want to compile all these things and register www.bluraysucks.com or something

edit: OMG!!! IT'S ALREADY A WEBSITE!!!! ::
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Old 08-14-06, 03:57 PM
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Originally Posted by digitalfreaknyc
awmurray,

you might want to compile all these things and register www.bluraysucks.com or something

edit: OMG!!! IT'S ALREADY A WEBSITE!!!! ::
www.hddvdsucks.com already exists.

This is basically an anti-DRM website, and has nothing to do with HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray.
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Old 08-14-06, 04:00 PM
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Originally Posted by digitalfreaknyc
awmurray,

you might want to compile all these things and register www.bluraysucks.com or something

edit: OMG!!! IT'S ALREADY A WEBSITE!!!! ::
Hmmm... that site must belong to Vandelay_Inds :

Why you should boycott Blu-ray and HD-DVD

This page details all the things that are wrong with the next generation DVD players, and why you don't want any part of it.
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Old 08-15-06, 08:57 AM
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Re: bluray/hd-dvdsucks.com

DRM on movies doesn't bother me that much. Movies don't need to be "converted" as often as music. If you have a video iPod or a PSP, then yes, it might be nice to convert your DVDs to a portable format, but there's no need to convert your HD-DVDs in that case.

The ICT is an issue and I think you will see a good amount of backlash if its enabled anytime in the next four or five years. Piracy will always be a problem but if studios can come out with a great product at a good value, it won't matter as much.

Right now, I'm much more concerned about studios not supporting either format and having it languish than them exert some kind of crazy control over the media. As many have said, this is very likely the last major consumer format we will see before Video on Demand.
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Old 08-15-06, 09:37 AM
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Blu-ray Follies Continue, HD DVD Shines On
By Shane Buettner

In spite of all the posturing by the HD DVD camp over the last couple of years, the door was wide open for Sony and Blu-ray when it prepared to launch in June. Toshiba hadn't even gotten close to its plans to launch in 2005 with an avalanche of titles by Christmas. In the summer and fall of 2005 Warner and Paramount jumped shipped announcing they would also support Blu-ray, giving Sony's format a seemingly insurmountable lead with respect to studio support. Although Toshiba did manage to get out a $500 HD DVD player at launch, the players are plagued with slow response time and ergonomic bugs. The software has come out at a pace that can generously be described as a trickle. And yet as I write this, Blu-ray's launch is stalled in first gear for at least another month.

First, rather than wait until its own player was ready, Sony moved forward in launching Blu-ray software with only Samsung's BD-P1000 player on the market. In last month's eNewsletter I wrote how myself and virtually everyone else was less than bowled over with what we were seeing from Blu-ray on the Samsung player. Well, we found out one of the reasons why.

On July 20th it was revealed that the Samsung player had in fact shipped with an inherent defect. The noise reduction feature in the Genesis chip set used in the player's video processing suite was inadvertently switched on at a high enough level to soften the image, and ostensibly cause other artifacts that were clearly contributing to Blu-ray's poor showing. And before anyone could ask how this could happen, Samsung dropped the bomb that while a firmware fix is in the works, it won't be available until September!

Holy holding patterns Batman!

Ever intrepid, Sony and Lion's Gate are plugging along and releasing more and more Blu-ray titles throughout the summer—in spite of the fact that there will not be properly working player to play them on until at least September! In addition to Samsung fixing its player at that time we should also see players from Panasonic and Pioneer Elite, followed by Sony's own in late October.

So, thus far while Blu-ray appears to be serving as a model for how not to launch a format, HD DVD is looking more and more like the little format that could. While it's only got three studios behind it, two of those studios, Warner and Universal, are pushing hard. While Warner has something over twenty HD DVD titles available as I write this, the studio has gone on record as stating it will have as many as 50 more out by the end of the year, including a day and date with DVD release of The Sopranos: Season 6 in November. Universal says its number of HD DVD titles will reach a total of 60 this year, and while Paramount isn't stepping up with big numbers, they have just announced that the Tom Cruise vehicle Mission: Impossible 3 will debut on October 30th on DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray.

But numbers aside, HD DVD is setting a performance benchmark by providing consistently outstanding picture and sound quality. On top of the overall quality, just about every other title is mind-blowing, best HD I've ever seen type of stuff. Ergonomic foibles aside, we can forgive a lot when the performance reaches this level. Right now, we're waiting to see if Blu-ray can make a game of it.
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Old 08-15-06, 10:42 AM
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Originally Posted by joeblow69
Just curious, but wouldn't any upcoming HD-DVD drive have the same problem?
Yes, and this is why the story thats running is that of hillarity. The only drives that will play movies for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray out of the box are ones found in laptops that have HDCP enabled video cards and proper software. This Blu-Ray PC drive is just a plain drive, it does nothing but read and write discs. So if your PC has a HDCP video card (newer NVidia cards have it) and you have software capable of playing a Blu-Ray film (including some hefty hardware needed), then you can indeed play movies from this drive.

However, if a HD-DVD drive was released like this, everyone would be touting it as a storage solution and such an awesome addition, even tho it would need the EXACT same requirements to play movies on a PC being that all HD-DVD PC Drives are just reader/writers. Just another example of HD-DVD fanboys doing whatever they can to try and insult the format thats coming up.

Choo-Choo, baby. Choo-Choo.
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Old 08-15-06, 11:08 AM
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Of note, before we go off track with the war again:

Most current video cards would only need a firmware upgrade to be HDCP compatible. It wouldn't take a brand new computer to use these drives, once everything is actually shipping and available. Like I mentioned above, it is far too early to really worry about whether you can play a disc in your PC.
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Old 08-15-06, 11:26 AM
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Originally Posted by Blitz6Speed
Choo-Choo, baby. Choo-Choo.
Don't trains usually have some sort of forward momentum?
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