According to sspears (on MI:3):

Here's what one reviewer had to say about the BD vs. HD DVD version link:


Why use MPEG-2, again?

I guess it is to get rid of those annoying "jellyfish" artifacts that Don Eklund the Sr. VP of Advanced Technologies, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment sees:

He's been right about his inside information more than other members on this board so I tend to trust him over ANYTHING Sony is saying: officially or unofficially.

Considering Sony has given us no official numbers as far as what they're definitely sending out AND their player has been delayed, it's entirely possible that even less than the projected 400k will go out.

Being that the general consensus is that these titles look exactly the same, why even bring up MPEG-2? I'd still like to see the data. If the VC-1 encode is averaging above 20, there is something wrong.

First off, you brought up MPEG-2.

So with 50GB total space on the BD side, HD DVD still has more features on the HD30 version (it has IME, BD doesn't).

EDIT: Didn't see that the HD DVD version also has 2 discs. Interesting. I suppose this gives weight to the idea that 2 disc versions are still going to be around regardless of space...

Composite cables?

Yes, but why did you get all negative about using it? When the results are the same, as they have shown to have been for all Paramount releases, there is no reason to speak of MPEG-2 like it was a bad thing.

And there is no way Blu-ray can be blamed for lack of TrueHD. That is all on the studio. When the HD-A1 came out, it didn't support it (fully?) yet titles were still released with the track.

Edit: to to mention that Legends of Jazz has a TrueHD track on it and has already been released:

http://www.hometheaterspot.com/htsth...?sequence=1603

Copyrighted Games on BD-Rs. ( I thought this was illegal)

No BD-50's insight

What is the extra cable for? I see USB, composite, ethernet, power, and ?

You missed that this a prototype. And Sony never said they would have BD-50 games yet.

Don't see either one as a big deal or a surprise. You don't say the origin of the picture.

Philips Blu-Ray player at Walmart.com: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=5270016

I don't have a link, but the picture's from IGN.

Well, that's my point: they don't have the same result. MPEG-2 takes up considerably more space and bandwidth. Even assuming PQ is equivalent.

But, if you're happy with MPEG-2, BD25 releases, I'm right there behind you. Personally, I hope they continue the trend.

I think the idea is that TrueHD isn't mandatory in the BD spec and isn't supported by the Samsung (isn't that true?). I don't know why they didn't give the HD DVD version a TrueHD track. The BD option would have been LPCM... maybe they didn't have enough space for it on the BD25.

So the argument would be that they supported the lowest common denominator. I don't know that I believe that... after all the HD DVD version still got IME even though the BD version lacked the equivalent.

Wonder why no BD50 on this one?

Prototype or Not.... I thought the pratice was simply illegal.

Lots of prototypes and demos are on recordables nowadays. Nothing new.

Not really. If the developer/publisher is releasing them like that its perfectly legal. We get prerelease games from developers all the time and they mostly come on CD-R and DVD-R's or ocasionally as downloads.

Well, with previous releases it has been.

Id be curious to know the size of it too. Along with running at a higher bitrate, I would bet that the MPEG2 version is also larger while both output a similar picture.

So, yes, they very well may be identical, but I can see why that would be a negative for MPEG2.

I agree....there is no proof of it right now.

I think TrueHD and lossless track inclusion is all coming down to the mighty dollar right now.

Im sure this title is gonna sound great.

The XBox 360 HD DVD player appears to be a hot item. It is ranked #1 on Amazon in its category.

I didn't expect it to sell so well. Everyone of them will be used for HD DVD movies. I wonder how much of a boost that will give to HD DVD sales.

That's the thing though, did it really take up that much more space? Both are two disc releases, though Paramount surely could have (should have) put this on a single BD50 if it weren't for the marketing. Blu-ray comes in the flavor of two BD25s, with the HD DVD version having a HD DVD 15 and 30. Even if they were to have used VC-1 on the Blu-ray version, it would have been on a BD25, so what was there to gain?

It will definately be a boost for hd-dvd sales....the big question is whether the PS3 will be a huge boost for BD sales.

Only time will tell.

After about a month off, some new updates on HDCharts.com.

I'm not going to keep doing the hardware graph. At this point, there's too many models coming on and the data is not very good at being aggregated.

Software, however, is still interesting. I changed the by-format graph a bit: now "niche" titles like Chronos, Guitarscape Planet, and A View from Space... are weighed less. Their occasional very low rankings were throwing off the overall numbers (and weighing down DVD quite a bit). Here's the result:



BD is now selling somewhat similar to HD DVD, even beating it (for the first time since I've tracked) on 10/18. I'm now starting to track a new wave of titles (Lake House, Unforgiven, Searchers, Phantom, Under Siege) but unfortunately I can't track all of the HD/BD releases: some don't show up.

New releases are still very HD DVD heavy, by a far margin. Check out some of the info at The DVD Wars.

I also added some more pie charts, including one of Sight and Sound's Top 10 poll. The first pie chart is by movie (each title gets 1 point), the second is by share (each appearance by a title on a list gets 1 point, so Citizen Kane is more of a heavyweight than Persona).



Along all these critical pie charts, there's one key to the puzzle: MGM. They account for an overwhelming majority of the BD-only titles in the AFI list, for example.

I thought the 360 add-on was sold out?

Also, don't know if this was posted:

If the total size of the feature was 20gb for hd-dvd and 24gb for bd, then its still a negative. Its still larger even with hd-dvd having IME.

The second disc might have been a nonfactor due to it being large itself or keeping them somewhat uniform (highdefdigest claims both hd-dvd are hd30). Who knows.

Right now, we just dont know. Its an interesting argument. I wish we knew the sizes. If anyone knows them, please post.

I wonder if WB will use the same cases that Universal seems to be using now. I like them better. They seem more sturdy.

My 12 Monkeys, Out of Sight and The Thing were all in them.