BR vs. HD-DVD

[kevbeck122]

Anyone watch both enough to determine which is better.. or is it just best to go into Best Buy to see for myself?  Does Flanners have these players set up?

I just bought the HD-DVD drive for my 360 and King Kong looks excellent.. but now I just got my hands on a PS3.  I would like to only keep one of them.  Toys R Us' return policy states that I can't open it if I want a refund, so I want to know if Blu Ray is any better or worse than HD-DVD.. or about the same?

[Blitzburgh]

Anyone watch both enough to determine which is better.. or is it just best to go into Best Buy to see for myself?  Does Flanners have these players set up?

I just bought the HD-DVD drive for my 360 and King Kong looks excellent.. but now I just got my hands on a PS3.  I would like to only keep one of them.  Toys R Us' return policy states that I can't open it if I want a refund, so I want to know if Blu Ray is any better or worse than HD-DVD.. or about the same?

I would worry less about which is better and more about which is going to become the standard.

If HD DVD looks great but is obsolete in the near future what is the advantage of having it.

Beta Vs. VHS

[gparris]

Maybe VHS vs. Beta, but more like SACD vs DVD-A to me.:rolleyes:

Getting an add-on HD DVD drive to your XBOX 360 is good enough to go for trying out HD DVD movies for many, not a wasted effort, IMO.

Universal releases are the only ones with HD DVD, not Bluray.
If you were so lucky to get a PS3 (find one, unlike me) - keep it, or sell it to some fortunate someone, soon...but the BD discs are more plentiful with more studios out there supplying movies than HD-DVD.

Our forum offers a link to HD DVD and BD disc reviews and some BD discs are very good, equal to HD-DVD and the potential for HD audio is there, too.

Give it a chance with the PS3, it plays games, too, even if the BD would go away or sell it to someone who is dying to get their hands on one...it does Dolby TRUEHD and has the ability to support HDMI v1.3.

See the latest review of 3 BD players in the Sound & Vision magazine, January edition for comparison...nice article.

 Hope this assists you:D

[Paul S.]

Do both, thats what I'm doing!:D

[gparris]

Do both, thats what I'm doing!:D

Paul S:
I look forward to your future purchases of both as your signature does not reflect anything as of yet.

As for that whole FOX6 interview with you
(yeah, I had to bring that up) once you get your players:
Where is FOX6  now, for that "interview"?

(of course, nowhere to be found)
:rolleyes:

[kevbeck122]

I heard from a friend that PS3s were just sitting around at Toys R Us yesterday.. so I went at 11:30 last night, and sure enough there were some there.

BTW, anyone looking to get the 360 HD-DVD drive, there's a $40 off $199 coupon for Circuit City floating around the internet that expires at the end of the month.  Apparently people have been unsuccessful in some stores using it, but the Brookfield store accepted it when I got my drive.

[Bebop]

The hardware is about even, but right now movies encoded for HD DVD is much better.

Software just released to play both BR and HD DVD on your PC. Yes, you'll need two different players.

http://www.cyberlink.com/eng/press_room/view_1274.html

[Paul S.]

Paul S:
I look forward to your future purchases of both as your signature does not reflect anything as of yet.

As for that whole FOX6 interview with you
(yeah, I had to bring that up) once you get your players:
Where is FOX6  now, for that "interview"?

(of course, nowhere to be found)
:rolleyes:

But it does indeed reflect it. Look closer.

Fox is only interested in being a bunch of clowns. Nuff said.

[gparris]

Just joking, Paul S., as FOX6 is capable of so much more, but instead goes to the lowest rung on the jouralistic ladder with reports like those done with you.

So you got a HD-DVD add-on with your XBOX 360 and a PS3...didn't grab that right away, sorry.

Where the heck did you find yours?

I gave up on the PS3 since no one ever seemed to have one for the use on my SXRD, so I got the Panasonic DMP-BD10 Blue-ray player: It does everything except HD-DVDs and games.

Now, I got it as an early holiday gift, instead of the PS3...but I am still looking for the other HDTV set, however, maybe after the holidays.
(I have been "good", I guess, this year, huh?).

That is the way to go, if anything else, you have gaming left if the format goes.
Good job, I will bet a lot of HDTV owners that are in-the-know, with do the very same thing you did.

Now, all we have to have is a high def disc mini-thread in this forum with our "reviews" of discs that we got to see, eh?

[TheSpecialist]

I found some specs on the internet which give Blu-ray the advantage in two categories, storage capacity and bitrate (50GB and 40.0Mbps vs 30GB and 28.0Mbps).  
Blu-ray's web site (http://www.blu-ray.com) lists a bunch of specs and how they compare to HD DVD as opposed to HD DVD's web site (http://www.thelookandsoundofperfect.com) that makes no mention of any technical specifications which suggests they might be hiding something.  HD DVD's site mentions stuff about DVD/HD DVD hybrid disks, production costs, computer drives and a bunch of other junk that doesn't apply to performance on an HDTV.  
When I bought my TV back in August I saw it at Best Buy with Blu-ray material being displayed.  It looked amazing.  I haven't viewed any HD DVD content so I'm not ready to give up on it, but what I've seen on paper does not impress me.
Of course, I wouldn't buy either until they learn how to put audio decoders for Dolby Digital HD and DTS-HD in any of the players.  The specs on all the BR and HD DVD players, that I've looked at, contain disclaimers about not supporting these formats.

[gparris]

So sorry to hear that HD-DVD does not impress you, your loss, but HD-DVD with the right disc authoring, is fantastic...worth the watch.

HD-DVD and Bluray discs can differ in quality from movie to movie, just like DVDs, only with high def discs, it is more noticable, just like having an HD set watching analogue programming vs. HD.

As far as Dolby TRUEHD5.1 the spec you mentioned, the Toshiba HD DVD players had an upgrade disc or web upgrade (depending on perferance of user/owner) awhile ago and it now works in the HD DVD players for lossless audio, which is just as amazing as HD DVD video, believe it!:D

[mhz40]

[clip]I found some specs on the internet which give Blu-ray the advantage in two categories, storage capacity and bitrate (50GB and 40.0Mbps vs 30GB and 28.0Mbps).[/clip]

Great info!!!
IMO, it sounds like BR has a slight advantage.  It also seems to have more marketing horsepower behind it as they leave the marketing starting gate.
If I remember correctly, recording time became the biggest factor in the eyes of the general public in the 80's tape format war.  However; unlike the VHS/Beta war of the past, there is no underlying factor of recording time in the eyes of the consumer.  Until consumers begin mastering content, it is likely that storage capacity will not become an issue right now.  As usual, it may come down to price in the long run.

[SRW1000]

This will be an interesting race to watch.

In early comparisons I've read, HD DVD releases of identical material are of a higher quality than their BD counterparts.  And while Sony was planning on the PS3 providing a windfall of expectant customers, the Xbox 360 add-on has softened that blow.

Other than exclusive content releases, the next big factor will be player prices.  Since HD DVD players are roughly half the price of BD players, it seems like an early lead for HD DVD.

I'm going to predict that the first format to hit the market with player priced below $200 will be the eventual winner.  Once the ownership ratio begins to tip, the studios will adjust their stances.  I'm guessing this will be answered by next Christmas.

One nice factor for those of us who are often early adaptors, is that Netflix offers both HD DVD and BD rentals without any surcharge.  That eliminates the costly need of building a library title by title.  This will help accelerate consumer acceptance of this new technology.

Scott

[Bebop]

You can rent both formats from BB online too. Some retail BlockBusters will be offering both BR and HD DVD and Hollywood Videos will only offer HD DVD(but could change).

Ironically, the BR movies with bad PQ are offered by Sony. :confused: They chose to use  the old Mpeg-2 encoding to save a few dollars instead of using the best CODEC.

The 50Gig disk sounded nice, but very few movies used them due to manufacturing problems. So, right now HD DVD is better: 30gig double layers Vs. 25gig single layer BR.

It's going to be a stalemate until players are in the $200-$300 range.  I can see HD DVD player under $300 by the end of 07, but a combo player would be nice for $400

[TPK]

I'm still holding out for a (resonbly priced) combo player that will do both...  I will continue to hold out for a combo player unless one format or the other is declared the absolute winner...  To me, resonbly priced would be around the $300 range...  I guess Im gonna have to wait a couple of years on that....

In the meantime, my upconverting (720p) DVD player plays widescreen DVD movies superbly on my 50" 720p Samsung DLP, and I think I paid $75 for it (plus another $15 or so for the HDMI cable)..   I can still  tell its not really high definition, but its pretty darn close if you ask me (far superior to watching standard def content via digital cable)...   Most people I have over here watching movies say that they cannot tell the difference in PQ between DVDs and regular high definition content, and thats good enough for me, for now...