Very well said. I wholeheartedly agree.

Of course, he says that BD didnt really launch yet.

There are only a small number of those 15/9 combos. Supposedly, soon, they are going to be going to 30/9 combos. The standard HD DVD release is HD30. I'm just saying that for BD to be viable it's "standard release" should be BD50.

Factor those two together and you get VALUE. That's what the bias is towards.

And right now HD DVD wins in all three

It is very nice to hear good news for BD. I am hesitant to believe anything before I see it because I was promised all sorts of things before that didn't come true.
IF the PS3 is a good BD player, and
IF the PQ is finally improved, and
IF BD50 can work well,

I would be a dual format supporter. I don't really like Sony as a company (similar to MS), but if they are actually able to put out a product that is equal to HD-DVD, I don't see any reason I wouldn't support it as well. But it isn't one I will jump into. They have a worse track record of promising the world, and delivering dog poop.

There's nothing wrong with "cheap" if it means high quality at a minimal expense. That's what HD-DVD is delivering right now.

Blu-rry is 4 months into its launch and all I keep hearing is how great it's gonna look and sound. But that's the same thing I've been hearing for a year now.

Instead, all that format has to show for itself so far is a Samsung player that costs twice as much as the Toshiba HD-A1 yet offers no firmware updates and has a glitch that causes degrading in the video quality, no support for BD-50 discs, the continued use of the inferior MPEG-2 codec, and the absence of most if not all of the SD-DVD supplements on a lot of the titles.

Not to mention the movie selection on Blu-rry frankly sucks. Even Fox's announcement has only a handful of titles that interest me. HD-DVD meanwhile is delivering older films like The Searchers, Adventures of Robin Hood, and Spartacus while also offering day-and-date releases for newer movies.

I'm not calling this war in favor of HD-DVD just yet. But let's not kid ourselves. Blu-rry has all its eggs in the PS3 basket. If that system fails or underperforms as a BD player, it's over. Fox and Disney's loyalty to BD is a decided edge, no doubt. But those two studios are in it for the money, not because of an undying loyalty to Sony. If they change their tune and agree to support both formats, then "cheap" will be the deciding factor for the consumer. And a "cheaper" HD-DVD player will trump the allegedly superior spec sheet for the more expensive BD player.

... and "Grand Prix"...

... and "Blazing Saddles"...


But this could go on all day.

but I think that's the point, Warner is aggressively releasing both new and older titles for a broader videobuyer base than what Bluray is doing. (just my two cents there)

I, too, think that there is going to be too much emphasis on PS3 as a player. I mean out the door, with another controller and a game is going to be at least $600. If you think that consumers will then plop movies on top of that at the beginning, that's not really going to happen. It will give the PS3 potential to broaden the user base, but not much else. Considering HD-DVD has already outperformed Blu-Ray in nearly every aspect, makes this to look like an uphill battle for Sony. And considering Sony has never had to "come from behind" on a technology before, it will be interesting to see how they respond.

I do actually like some of those titles (Kingdom Of Heaven: DC especially), but I'll wait and see how they look.

Even then I won't even think of supporting BD until the players are under $200 and the majority of discs use advanced video AND audio codecs.

Warners have said many times they will be releasing all titles to both formats, so they really aren't a long term advantage for HD DVD.

They are if you care about superior sound and extra features.

Do you have anything which indicates WB will be dropping extras for their VC-1 encodes on BD? As to the sound issue I'm not aware what WB's plans are, but the other studios aren't short changing consumers on BD.

BD can't do IME at the moment. It's being dropped.

CJplay also said that whatever extras/sound formats need to be dropped to make it fit onto 25gb, they'll have to do.

So at the moment it's the one or so titles with IME that will lose a feature, while the rest may or may not lose anything.

I believe all the WB BD titles have lost a soundtrack although I can't be sure of that. Don't quote me

And as for IME...we already know of 4 that are definitely coming out with it: Batman, V, T3, and Charlie.

I think WB has 2 that are already out. I wouldn't belittle it. It's the best new extra feature on the HD discs.

I would love to hear how DTS HD sounds.

There are 4 titles coming with IME, out of the small number so far announced! That's quite an impressive commitment by WB to such a new market.

Fox have just announced the first BD-J discs, haven't they? I wonder if WB might not want to be left behind in that regard.

Forgot Poseiden. That's 5. And I may have missed others.

Ah, ever the wet blanket.

TDK INCREASES CAPACITY

http://www.redherring.com/Article.as...inmentAndMedia


To me I don't understand this, why increase the capacity when they can barely get a 2 layer BD out there door.

Cool feature. Sort of like a mini IMDB.

Yuck. Garbage and ads. One of the specs also includes chapter stops as a feature. LOL.

I gotta say, this thread started off very positive, with many having good things to say about the release slate, and general hope that we'll finally see what BD is capable of.

Then the usual suspects on both sides come in and turn this discussion into the same old BD v. HD argument.

This article refers to recordables, not ROMs.

It isnt WB, but MI3 is going to have IME where BD will not. Cjplay also alluded to Superman Returns having IME.

So, of the current releases from WB, picture quality has been slightly worse on BD. When they start using VC-1 this will probably go away. Also, the audio options are fewer and as we discussed, no IME.

Its undeniable that many WB titles are better on HD-DVD and probably will be for a few more months. I have no idea when WB is planning to use BD-J. That would be an interesting question for Cj.

Well the problem with BD50 is making it viable for mass produced prerecorded software. Companies like TDK, Verbatim and Ritek, for example, focus on consumer recordable discs. For all we know 99/100 discs could be $50-200 coasters, depending on disc pricing a news release like this from a company sparks speculation and helps the image of the company as being on the cutting edge of new technology.

Now I'm not saying 200GB discs are not possible someday for movies, as it would be great if they can get anything other than BD25 out in large quantities, but Sony has been working with Blu-Ray for a few years now and BD50 hasn't been rumored to be set up on any replicator lines.