mario_jr Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 OK so some people are saying its worth getting a PS3 for its Blue Ray capabilities. Noting that its cheaper than an actual Blue Ray player, $600(PS3) Vs $900 and ^(B-R player). While others say that it will be a failed format and that HD-DVD is the way to go. Well 2 weeks ago I saw that first pricing for a Blue Ray player in a major electronics store ad. It was over $900 and you had to pre-order it, so technically it wasn't even out yet. So today the same store ad came in the paper today this time they had HD-DVD announced in it, saying that they had limited quantities, and it was priced for $500, less than a PS3. OK enough of that. So here is my question, What do you guys think is better, what has better quality for its price range? Which do you guys think will be on top 2 years from now? Any links to articles would be nice.
The3rdChildren Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 Duel format player. That's the way to go. Both are way too expensive, anyway.
Guest Jordan Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 I'd prefer HD-DVD, any disc thats locks itself to your drive exclusivly like Bluray is a waste of time. Its come to the point where they are hindering the consumer rather than stopping the pirates. Besides, they've already found a hack for copying HD-DVD's and Blurays... yeah really secure :P
david.dakota Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 I'm slightly against BluRay - simply due to the expensive manufacturing costs, which would be passed onto consumers at retail. I don't think its beyond the realms of possibility that Blu-Ray disks will sell at £25, which is far too high. HD-DVD will sell cheaper. That said, Bluray will open up the possibility of 1080p (which i doubt HD-DVD will have sufficient room for). I think with both, the problem of piracy will not go away. In fact, if Hollywood honestly wants to curb piracy it needs to close the format - its far easier to find a few people making illegal hardware than it is to find millions copying software.
Bogbas Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 I'd like to say blu-ray because it's generally better and more of a leap forward than HD-DVD. But Sony have managed to screw it up royally. So I'll say HD-DVD. Oh and the stuff that hollywood makes to make piracy harder is just making the life of an ordinary man/woman harder. The real pirates (that make some real money out of it) have equpiment that makes 1:1 copies of the original. So every copy protection thing stays intact.
Bluejay Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 I'd prefer HD-DVD, any disc thats locks itself to your drive exclusivly like Bluray is a waste of time. Its come to the point where they are hindering the consumer rather than stopping the pirates. Besides, they've already found a hack for copying HD-DVD's and Blurays... yeah really secure :P So, you can't take it round a friend's house and play it in their player? That renders it useless, especially for tv shows.
The3rdChildren Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 Is there -really- that much difference between 720p and 1080p?
AshMat Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 Im rooting for Hd DVD, and so will the average consumer, looking for the cheapest setup.
Ginger_Chris Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 Whats wrong with dvd's? Seriously, unless you have a hd-tv then its not a problem, and they aren't that widespead in the uk. CD's lasted ages, DVD's havent been around that long, but were taken up incredibly fast. But the only reason was that the alternatives were tapes. HD and Blue ray both have to compete with DVD, which offers already great pictures and is an established market. So im going to say that standard DVD's will win this one, maybe in a few years when the upgrade is more noticable and hd-tvs are more common, or theres a new ultra high definition or whatever, will something replace dvd's. No-one has thought about the prospect of them both failing.
Nintenchris Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 Im rooting for Hd DVD, and so will the average consumer, looking for the cheapest setup. So am i ... let be hounest... why buy Blueray when Hd DVD will do the same thing for less money.
Charlie Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 I haven't read any of the posts other than the first one so someone might have said this already... The PS2 was the first affordable DVD player, look how it performs in comparison to 'good' DVD players. I expect the PS3 one to be the same. I think HD-DVD will be the way to go, unfortunately Apple are supporting Blu-Ray, so in the future I'll probably have one of each. When I get a new Mac when they have them built in and just another HD-DVD player. This is 5 years down the line I'm talking abotu though.
Guest Jordan Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 With Microsoft not backing Bluray, obviously. Sony are screwed when it comes to Windows Vista. The drive simply wouldn't work, because you have to have Microsoft approved drivers on your system not to mention the drive simply wouldn't be supported. We can prey that someone comes up with a dual drive, like DVD. DVD is actually two formats. DVD+ and DVD- and both have lived together quite well.
Cube Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 http://blogs.zdnet.com/carroll/index.php?p=1579 Interesting read, and explains how, due to codecs and the reliability of dual-layer Blu-Ray, HD DVD could easily fit longer films on it, whereas Blu-Ray will struggle. edit: We can prey that someone comes up with a dual drive, like DVD. DVD is actually two formats. DVD+ and DVD- and both have lived together quite well. Someone already has. I'll try to find the link now edit2: http://www.dvdrecorderworld.com/news/386
BeerMonkey Posted July 16, 2006 Posted July 16, 2006 i remember reading on a differ thread that the difference on the screen between the two is hardly noticeable so i dont see why we need both formats :/ hd-tv will no doubt come out on top as the VAST majority of blu-ray owners will be PS3 peeps and once they find out that once the blu-ray disk has been used once it locks itself to that console that will turn off alot of people. Peeps like to trade in/sell there films/games to get new ones which you cant with blu-ray
Marshmellow Posted July 17, 2006 Posted July 17, 2006 I'm going for HD-DVD easily one because Microsoft supports it for VIsta and 360 reasons and two because i'm not gonna support sony in being weird and different even though different is cool;)
Fierce_LiNk Posted July 17, 2006 Posted July 17, 2006 While i was in GAME a few weeks ago, i overheard two people having a conversation about this. One was a consumer and one was a worker. The Consumer said that with the HD-DVD player, he could play his dvds on this player. With the blu-ray player, these dvds would not work, and you would have to rebuy your collection. The worker more or less agreed. Imo, Blu-ray is going the way of UMD movies, but on a wider scale. I don't see it taking off.
Guest Jordan Posted July 17, 2006 Posted July 17, 2006 If you guys want some great information, check out Major Nelson's podcast this week. http://www.majornelson.com/archive/2006/07/16/Show-183-WMA-The-one-about-HD-DVD.aspx EDIT: It would appear that most HD-DVD's are Hybrid disks. One side has DVD and the other is HD-DVD. This not only cut down costs for the studios but infact means that people will buy into HD-DVD if they already have the DVD/HD-DVD discs. Really smart... Also, the codec used on Bluray has a worse compression rate, meaning it needs larger discs. But due to this compression, the quality may actually look worse! Jeeze, Sony...
Bogbas Posted July 17, 2006 Posted July 17, 2006 But this would kill them both: http://in.tech.yahoo.com/060708/139/65pz8.html And the problem with the blu ray drive not playing normal dvd's is easily solved. They just need to put another laser in the drive. I haven't really checked the ps3's specs but isn't it going to use blu ray discs? And if that's the case can't it play regular dvd's?
Mr_Odwin Posted July 17, 2006 Posted July 17, 2006 As far as I know both hd-dvd and bd players are backwards compatible with regular dvds. With all this talk of codecs, it's important to know that both formats use the same codecs, but as there is a choice most/all of the current bd releases have gone with the older, less efficient codec. That's an authoring issue, something crazy that Sony have done, not an issue with the format. The HD-dvd standard supports 1080p too, just none of the current players do.
The Lillster Posted July 18, 2006 Posted July 18, 2006 i remember reading on a differ thread that the difference on the screen between the two is hardly noticeable so i dont see why we need both formats :/ hd-tv will no doubt come out on top as the VAST majority of blu-ray owners will be PS3 peeps and once they find out that once the blu-ray disk has been used once it locks itself to that console that will turn off alot of people. Peeps like to trade in/sell there films/games to get new ones which you cant with blu-ray That whole incident about PS3 games locking itself to a specific PS3 console is bollox and was proven fake. I Don't have a source, look on google.
Dieter Posted July 20, 2006 Posted July 20, 2006 Both formats are shitty, but Bluray is slightly shittier, because Sony are doing the physically impossible and are fucking themselves in the ass over and over. Do we need a new format? I'm all for technological advancements but face it: the leap from VHS to DVD was gigantic and necessary. No more decomposion of your movies, much more portable, much much better picture quality. But now, you have marginal quality improvements that'll cost you the same/more as the upgrade to DVD players would've cost you at 'launch'.
Domstercool Posted July 20, 2006 Posted July 20, 2006 I'm with Blu-Ray myself. The whole point of the next generation of discs is the space. Blu-Ray holds more and theyfor is the one that is of more use. This whole thing with locking is just people BLOWING it out of proportion. If you have a blu-ray player it will work fine. It's just so that all the companies that want to make the player will have to get the stuff from Sony so it works with it.
david.dakota Posted July 20, 2006 Posted July 20, 2006 I beleive that the differences between 720p and 1080p are noticable. 720p and 1080i are supposed to have a strong difference - being (i think) 720p is better for sport, whilst 1080i is better for Movies, Tv and other less fast images. Since i've not stood in Comet and compared the two (like I have the time or inclination...!), I'm only going on information from magazine and online articles. I think there is a justified advance in technologies here, and i'm all for it. As TV's get bigger (and they have been since they became mainstream in the 60's), Standard Def isnt going to hack it. Personally, anything over 28 inchs looks increasingly appalling, the larger you go. That said, I'm not planning to go High Def until a single format has established itself, and when I do, I'll probably be able to pick up a 72 inch screen for a couple of grand.
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