Sanitarium

Anyone else hate the combo discs and or think the upcoming TotalHD discs are a bad idea?

I hate the combo format because all it does is raise the cost of the disc. If you're buying an HD DVD you're buying it for the HD version of the movie and chances are you don't care about the SD version. I know I don't, which is why I haven't bought a combo format disc yet. $27 on average for one of those!?! Gimme a break.

I can only imagine what the cost of the TotalHD discs will be. I'd say $30+ on average. Seems like a step back to Laserdisc days only not quite as extreme.

If they want HD discs to sell they have to get the cost down to compete with the SD versions. Standard HD DVD and Blu-Ray discs are roughly $2-3 more then the SD version, that's acceptable IMO, but when you're paying $10-15 more for a disc which you're only going to use half of it's a total waste.

Also, I like my disc artwork as I'm sure many of you do as well.

Spiky

Yes, they've been almost universally ripped here. The other problem is they only offer one layer of each technology.

FantasticVSDoom

I know I, and most here dont like them, but they are trying to do whatever they can to make this the next thing. Is this the best way? Doesnt seem like it, but they would know better than most of us. Time will tell.

CinemaslaveJoe

I like the idea of combo discs. I don't yet have an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player, but I'm expecting to upgrade sometime this year, and it's nice to know that I can buy a disc that will play on the system I have now, and also on the HD system I'll have in the future. I agree that they should be only a few dollars more expensive rather than nearly twice the price, however.

-CSJ

clemente

I like the combo disks for one reason. I only have one HD-DVD player, and that's in my theater room, but I watch movies on at least two other TV's (not to mention is I want to watch it outside my house or lend it to my family members).

Paying a few extra bucks makes more financial sense to me that paying $10-15 more for a copy in each format.

But that's just me.

Adam Tyner

I've been told that that's not the case. What Warner is doing is a 'flipper' disc -- HD DVD on one side, Blu-ray on the other. (This isn't the 'hybrid' style with one BD layer and one HD DVD layer combined onto a single side of the disc.)

Theoretically, a 30 gig HD DVD on one side could be coupled with a 50 gig BD on the other. Expectations seem to be that they'll lean more towards a single BD layer, which seems to be working well enough for most of the cross-format titles available to date.

Spiky

Make an analog DVD copy. Blank DVDs are what, $.30?

HDDVD limited to one layer is pretty small, only 15GB. The reason HDDVD has been so successful (currently winning the war) is because they eradicated the size issue long ago.

Adam Tyner

Managed copy isn't in place yet for HD DVD.

...but there isn't any indication that these discs will be limited to a single HD DVD layer.

Drexl

He said "analog." Managed copy is digital.

tonyc3742

I don't think I like it either. I think a quality, affordable combo player would be a better option. With combo disks, there's be no way to tell which format is 'winning', at least with a combo player, HD vs BD software sales could be tracked, and people could still have accessibility of every title.

Adam Tyner

So unplug your HD DVD player, move it to wherever your computer is, run an S-video cable (or whatever) to an input jack, wait 90-120 minutes or whatever for the movie to record in real time, almost certainly lose any multichannel audio, possibly wait for the video to be resampled/encoded to an acceptable format for DVD, put in a blank disc, burn from there, and then move all your gear back to where it was in the first place? Sounds like an awful lot of hassle to go through. If you're going to have to move a player in the first place (I'd imagine most of us don't have our HD DVD players very close to our computers), why not just connect the HD DVD player to the other TV and cut out the middleman?

johnglad

Wanted to make sure I also put in my 2 cents against your initial response. I like the combo. They have been ripped by some (a very vocal minority), but are liked by many others. The use of them thus far and the high sales of Superman, Miami Vice and other combos show that buyers like them. I think the studios are missing out by not pushing the combo even more, with aggressive pricing, and even trying to sell them to current dvd buyers (thus helping to push them to upgrade their player).
If the studios just charged the SAME PRICE for combo discs, then eveyone would love it. In some ways this is akin to saying, "I hate audio commentaries on 2 disc sets because they cost more money." A dvd track on the disc is a VALUE. It can be used on other players, laptops, in the car, lent to friends, etc.

Engel07

I want my picture disc!!! The cost of what we, the consumers, are paying should include 2 discs. They decide to increase the price and save money by giving us only 1 disc. Unbelievable.

Supermallet

Actually, I'd imagine pressing one double-sided disc would cost more than pressing two single-sided discs with artwork on top.

waylonsmithers

The high sales of two new release films only available in a combo format do not indicate their popularity, merely that there was no other hd-dvd choice available.

DVDKrayzie

I guess Im the minority here but I wish every disc had both versions. There are 3 major rooms where I watch movies in my house depending on what Im doing and im not buying 6 players. Also i use my laptop to watch discs someimes and Im not buying 2 of those either just to watch movies. I have an hd-dvd player in the bedroom now but im not buying a ps3 for there and it really sucks when we want to watch a movie thats not on hd-dvd. If the blu rays had both versions then i could just watch it in SD on the bedroom. I also coudnt really care any less about the artwork on a disc if it meant I could have the SD version of the movie.

Also on amazon the discs are only $4 more ($3.60 actually) when they have both, not $10-15, i think that's pretty reasonable.

darkside

I really like the DVD/HD combos, but have no interest at all in the TotalHD discs. I can see using the DVD side, but I would never need a Blu-ray side and don't want to pay extra for it.

Patman

Can't wait for the new spiffy purple cases to appear!

RoboDad

Well, I'm afraid you totally lost me there.

The point of the Total HD discs IS NOT that someone might have a use for both sides of the disc right now. It is simply an attempt to allay peoples' fears about the format war, by building in a degree of "insurance," such that if one format goes away, you'd still have the other format available for playback on the same disc.

darkside

This is fine if these TotalHD discs are exactly the same price as standard HD DVDs. However, if I have to pay an extra $5 for a Blu-ray side I will never need then I have a problem with this technology. I'm not paying $5 a movie for format insurance.

HighSpeedOnIce

RoboDad

But that's the big question, isn't it? How do you know you'll never need the other side (I'm not trying to predict a BD victory -- the same could be said of not needing the HD DVD side). If you put all of your HD support behind one format, and that format fails, would you rather pay full price again to replace those titles?

darkside

Why would I need to rebuy them? My HD DVD player isn't going to self destruct if the format fails. Again, I will not pay extra money for format insurance. If I get a Blu-ray player down the road that is fine, but I will still have an HD DVD player.

Drexl

Yeah, I have no intention of re-purchasing titles from the losing format as long as I have a working player, unless of course, there's a compelling reason to do so like a remaster or something.

Centurion

Are you serious? HD-Ray?