Which format is winning?

[darkmenace]

Any more news on whether 1 format is winning outright over the other?

Anybody got an opinion based on real world tests/uses as to which format is better/more superior?

[phoenix]

Blu-Ray....

[Micksxboxmods]

wonder if Blu ray with be the next beta max, another fine quality product from the 'Sony Stables'

[jmc96]

Where ever I go I'm seeing BlueRay everywhere. Very little content on HD. Players are still too expensive to buy a standalone unit, for me anyway. I'm not gunna fork out $500 to $1000 just yet.

[truder44]

Just noticed the local Video-Ezy is renting out HD-DVD. No Blu-Ray movies there but they are renting PS3 games

(I have a PS3 )

[eaglem]

Because of the split in Movie companies that are going either with Blu Ray or HD I decided the only way to win out was to buy each player which I did.

[Crafty]

Well this is not very scientific, but with Sony giving away PS3's with some big screen TV's lately, I think they are trying to kill 2 birds with one stone. Increase PS3 useage/ownership in the community and also thereby increase people using bluray discs...

[Trance]

Sony won't be able to play the PS3 card effectively till a mod chip solution is found. (read that; leaked out by Sony)

[erhan75]

i'm going with x264

[Trance]

CNN video about the subject

[darkmenace]

Sony won't be able to play the PS3 card effectively till a mod chip solution is found. (read that; leaked out by Sony)

Perhaps Sony should make 1

I understand theres combo players out that play both formats but they dont fully support all the features of both formats (see interactive menus etc).

[Security Man]

Warner Bros. opts for Blu-ray over HD DVD
By Aidan Malley

Movie studio Warner Bros. has confirmed that it will switch to releasing HD movies only in the Blu-ray Disc format, potentially ending HD DVD's run in the marketplace and affecting the computer industry as a consequence.

Dropping the standard is expected to create a tidal shift in the balance between Blu-ray and HD DVD. While both formats have until now offered a similar amount of movies in their format, Warner's defection may place as much as 70 percent of all major-label HD movies in the Blu-ray camp.

[darkmenace]

I've just read an article on this myself. Sounds like HD-DVD is in real trouble!

Just imagine all those R&D dollars having been needlessly spent if it ends up disapearing completely.

[Padre]

BD has always been in front by about 2 to 1 in sales, however, many studios were not too pleaes witht he fct that sony, whch is a competing studio in its own right, leads the push for BD. In turn, many publishing houses ended up goign to HD DVD and offered exlusive titles, such as King King, Transformers, Matrix trilogy, 300, Troy etc etc
These re big name movies locked into a format which services less than half teh HD market.

With the imminent kill off of PS2 and price drops for PS3, certain studios have now decided that BD isnt all that bad.. in fact, technically, it is superior to HD DVD as it allows for bitrates up to 35mbps, as opposed to HD DVD 25mbps

In any case, some studios (as linked above) are now jumping ship to BD and thankfully we'll be seeing many more titles coming this way soon.

Sadly for Toshiba, HD DVD will probably end up being an optical archival format, but to be honest, with teh contracts already established, i dont see HD DVD dying for at least another 12 months. then again, it didnt even have an opportuinity to survive her in aus, as there wasnt much of a push for it to begin with...

[Trance]

Does this mean, Microsoft now will have to offer BD drives instead HDDVD in near future. By the looks of it, they never made their mind up about which format would win despite beign sided with HDDVD as they designed 360 with optional drive capability.

[eaglem]

I have the Toshiba HD E1KY HD Player and the Sony BDP-S300 Blu Ray Player and what annoys me about both is that they are region fixed to region 4. I can't find any hacks to mack them region free. This means I have to use a third DVD Player that's region free for my region 1 collection from Amazon.

[Padre]

Does this mean, Microsoft now will have to offer BD drives instead HDDVD in near future. By the looks of it, they never made their mind up about which format would win despite beign sided with HDDVD as they designed 360 with optional drive capability.

What does MS have to do with HD DVD or BD? If youre refering to XBox360 they specifically went with HD DVD simply becuase it was easy to install a driver and a hardware reader through USB for the XBox360, that and teh fact they wer counting on HD DVD "winning" the race as HD DVD production doesnt require too many changs in the printing plants compared to requirements for BD

Theoretically, the same can be done with BD (ie attache a BD player to an XBOX), but you wont see this happening simply because the licensing fees would be too high for them and it conflicts with the competitive nature of MS.

As for regions, i know that my BD movies are region free through the PS3. I dont understand why anyoen would buy a BD player at the relative same cost as a PS3 though. Whne running HDMI, there is absolutely NO DIFFERENCE between a standalone player or a PS3.
In addition, with HD DVD vs BD, if both discs are encoded to the same bitrates (which they usually are) and theyre both using the same codec (be it AVCHD or MPG2) they too should look identical if running through HDMI

There is no added benefit from either camp aside from storage capacity and bandwidth throughput

[connormmii]

In 5 years time Blu-Ray players will have dropped to ridiculous prices just like DVD players have done in the last 5.

[Security Man]

In 5 years time Blu-Ray players will have dropped to ridiculous prices just like DVD players have done in the last 5.

Whats your point? How does that help people deciding on what format to choose. Every new product drops its price after 5 years, thats if is still around.

Some people do not want to wait 5 years to purchase a unit.

[suffocator]

I have been following the war closely since the start and I do no think that the shift of warner to bluray exclusive will mean the end of HDDVD.

Here is a little info about the two formats.

HDDVD
Pros
* Cheaper discs/players
* 100% region free
* finalised format
* Still has Universal exclusive + some neutrals
* Interactivity via Internet
* Supports Pornography market (its a valid point)

Cons
* Lack of marketing
* 15/30gb per disc (not too much of a trouble)
* Some of the major studios are bluray exclusive


BluRay
Pros
* Higher player base (due to PS3 Consoles)
* Some good network signing incl Time Warner
* 25/50gb discs
* Being pushed heavily by sony
* Large Marketing campaign

Cons
* Quite expensive
* No locked in format, there is already Profile 1.0 (becoming useless), 1.1 and the future 2.0 , which is leaving players all over the place and not many complying
* Very restrictive licensing
* Region locking
* Doesn't approve pornography market (but did a backflip and said it wouldn't stop it)


All in all i think that both formats have their merits, HD-DVD I think is the more stable platform with a locked in specification and better long term goal where Blu-Ray is just trying to wow everyone in the short term (Sony's good at doing this) but with no concrete direction for the future.

I think that many companies will get pissy at sony offering the PS3 at a lower cost than most of them can sell their standalone players, once again sony shooting itself in the foot.

Only time will tell, but I dont think anyone should be selling up their HD-DVD collection anytime soon, and the existing HD-DVD's will always work and there is still 5 months for Warner to release titles.

Just my 0.02.

-Suff