Ready for another injection of Truth Serum? I know you are and I have something in dire need of the injection. Because of the recent news about Warner Bros. (and supposedly New Line Cinema) opting to support Blu-ray, I thought I’d write another dose of Truth Serum to let people know this war is teh suck. So for all of you rejoicing in the so-called “end of HD DVD”, allow me to shed some light on just how your checking account will suffer.
First let’s start with the defintion of the two. Blu-ray is a new high-definition video disc standard that offers up to six times the visual detail of traditional DVDs. HD DVD is a new high-definition video disc standard that offers up to six times the visual detail of traditional DVDs. Wait a second Deacon, that sounds the same. That’s because they are the same! Beyond the storage capacity (Blu-ray) and a few additional features (HD DVD), these formats are mirror images.
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January 8th, 2008 at 8:24 am
I dont mind the small Bra Sizes LOL!! I agree there the same this is really just a war between Sony and Toshiba IMO.Like we said on the show if push comes to shove Microsoft has said they can make an external Blu Ray player no prob.
January 8th, 2008 at 8:25 am
Well said Deacon. Great job.
January 8th, 2008 at 8:31 am
One thing I always like to point out, is that people like to say BR will go down in price once they dominate the market. We are talking about companies like Sony here, they are NOT going to lower the price to be nice to the customer. Business is “war” according to Japanese companies, and they are not going to do anything for the customer, especially when they buy off and kill any competition. For example, the PS3 would have stayed at $600 for another 4 years if it wasn’t for MS and Nintendo.
January 8th, 2008 at 9:09 am
I have to agree… The winning DVD player/format is still your plain old DVD with a DVD upscaler…
January 8th, 2008 at 9:26 am
I love how blu-ray fan boys can only go on size… If size mattered than most of their girlfriends would have left them already!! HD is more directed to the consumer and its Region-Free coding is ideal for those who like purchasing foreign flicks i.e. anime and europe standard…
You also have to look at early adopters in both sides… Blu-Ray players purchased are already obsolete thanks to Profile 1.1. HD-DVD manufacturers were forced to allow firmware to be updated so early HDDVD adopters arnt just left in the dust…
My suggestion, if you dont have the add-on HD or PS3, just wait… Those current dvd players are SOOO damn big… Wait till they get slimmer and more pocketsized like regular DVD players… The biggest thing in your Home Theater should be the TV and the amplifier… NOT the dvd player lol
January 8th, 2008 at 9:45 am
They’ve managed to fit the amount of a Blu Ray disc on one HD-DVD. So size isn’t a factor.
January 8th, 2008 at 9:58 am
it’s even worse for consumers that hd dvd fail if that’s true then Jokar.
January 8th, 2008 at 9:59 am
@andy, well said.
January 8th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Good points, Deacon. As much as I would love HD-DVD to succeed, I almost don’t care who wins as long as we have one format.
***Side note*** Anyone with an HD-DVD player looking to get HD-DVDs not available in the US, (Terminator 2, Resident Evil, Band of Brothers, The Machinist, etc) go to xploitedcinema.com to import them.
January 8th, 2008 at 11:20 am
I never cared about who came out on top, I’m just glad to see this “war” is finally moving towards one format.
January 8th, 2008 at 11:34 am
I LOVE the Truth Serum segment!
Nu
January 8th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Yes Deacon, it sucks for us. Blue-Ray players are twice the price of HD-DVD players and the discs cost more to.
However this was a blessing in disguise for the HD-DVD camp. Sony spent Billions to win this format war and basically ruined their PlayStation market share in the process. Now that would be ok if Blue-Ray was the standard as long as DVD reigned, but I can guarentee with 100% certainty that won’t be the case. Hell some PC Hard drives already less than 200 dollars for 750+ gigs. With fiber optic Internet service speeds are increasing 500%.
Everyone is going to go digital distribution with in 5 years. Things like Itunes and Live MP will trump any discs, especially when anything you purchase can stay “attached” to your account for life and be re-downloaded. The only thing that needs to happen for this to become really mainstream is lower prices to purchase movies online. Once these stuido’s start passing on the savings of not having to buy Blue-Ray discs, manufacture, package, ship, retail profit share, etc… Then Blue-Ray will be finished and Sony will not recover those Billions they lost and might not recover from wrecking their playstation brand.
January 8th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
I figured SirHarper would be all over this by now
Anyway, I agree Deaconblade, HD-DVD is IMHO the superior format and is why I bought the HD-DVD add-on. I will be disappointed if it doesn’t come out on top, but there is nothing else I can do about it.
January 8th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
“Blue-Ray players are twice the price of HD-DVD players and the discs cost more to.”
The majority of Blu-ray movies are the same price as the majority of HD-DVD movies. As for the players, Sony’s 1080p Blu-ray player is $399. Toshiba’s 1080i HD-DVD player is $299 and their 1080p player is $399. So I really don’t see how it sucks for us.
January 8th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
HD DVD has failed in the movie wars but it’s so cheap and if I’m not mistaking it reads/burns faster than the B ray disc. It should be the next main stream computer drive thingamabob to store tings on! Hopefully Micrsoft stops with the movies and pushes the computer tings. Tings rock!
January 8th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
LOL sirharper…
January 8th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Xbox 360 let the HD DVD down.. if the HD DVD Drive came standard then the format war would be a deadlock.. IMO.. there aren’t many people who would go out and plop down 160 bucks for a HD DVD drive for their 360 on top of what they’ve paid already… but if it would have came standard, you would have all those people as possible supporters. It dramatically changes the outlook.
January 8th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
yep i agree DJ. had it been installed, it would be a different story.
January 8th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
I would hate to invest in either Blue Ray or HD-DVD right now because both formats has exclusive rights to certain movies.
So if I own a HD-DVD player and I wanted the Matrix Trilogys (which is by Warner Bros.) but I can’t get it because its exclusive to Blue Ray.
At the end of the day we the consumer actually have the last word in this war because if we don’t go out and support either Blue Ray or HD-DVD then nobody wins.
Until then I’ll stick to regular DVD’s.
January 8th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
@NuAngel, thx man
i like to have as many original features as possible so it adds some change up to the site.
January 8th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
See what I mean about the industry moving to digital distrubution. At CES today Comcast CEO announced that they have new technology that works with their exsiting infrastructure to allow users to have 160 mb speeds via Comcast’s broadband service. They are rolling out this year and hope to have it everywhere by 2009.
Thats amazing. The guy is even demoing it at CES today to download HD version of Spiderman 3 in 4 minutes.
Comcast talking about it.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/01/08/ces.comcast.ap/index.html
Technology behind it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOCSIS
January 8th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
@GameSkills,
right on spot with that man.
January 8th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
if the Video Marketplace EVER managed a download of a movie in 4 minutes, i’d trash my Blockbuster card and Netflix free trial. man that’s crazy…4 minutes?
January 8th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
If size doesn’t matter, then why did Paramount not offer a Dolby TrueHD or uncompressed PCM on the Transformers HD DVD (instead, they provided a Dolby Digital-Plus 5.1 which is probably fine for most, but HD folks imho)? They did not because they choose to offer supplements over the best audio.
Also, HD DVD discs are not cheaper. Just go to any Best Buy and compare the prices of HD DVDs versus Blu-ray.
HD DVD pimping downloadable movie trailers and the ability to purchase movie tickets online is the stupidest idea ever. That is not a feature. I would rather jump on the computer and do that all by myself, not from my TV.
I agree prices for Blu-ray players need to come down. That will happen; its just a matter of time.
HD DVD does not have the studio support; I want Predator; I want Pixar; the list goes on. If HD DVD cannot offer these, then it is all their fault and consumers will choose Blu-ray.
January 8th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Im still using good ol DVD’s
and probably will continue to do so for the next year or 2. HD-DVD’s and Blueray movies are too friggin expensive for me. A movie is a movie IMO, quality is just a bonus.
January 8th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
@Shamrock
Overly-compressed Marketplace movies (in HD) are not HD. Microsoft has simply compressed them too much. It is a scam. I mean honestly … 6.5 GB for a so-called HD movie versus 9 GB-ish for a regular DVD.
January 8th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
I’ve downloaded one HD movie off MP and I thought it looked very good (300). You guys need to understand that HD-Discs may never take off at all.
The jump in quality from VHS to DVD was amazing. Not to mention the convience of skip, chapter select, never having to rewind, etc..
This time it’s different. You have upconverting DVD players that look extremely good. Hell the 360 when setup with HDMI makes regular DVD’s (upscaled to 720p) look amazing on my 42′ HDTV.
I’m a tech guy and I can’t even justify buying Blue-Ray or HD-DVD, imagine what casual mainstream America is thinking.
January 8th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Well my brother bought the hd-dvd player for the xbox 360 and it actually works great (besides the fact that i keeps on disappearing from my dashboard). The quality definetly is nicer but i can’t really see the difference between hd-dvd and blu-ray at the moment so not much point in buying a blu-ray player. But personally i don’t really care who wins the format wars because even if blu-ray wins it just justifies our family to go out and buy a ps3 =D
January 8th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
I’m not buying till they make a decision and someone wins out. I don’t want to invest in a player only to find its not available for future products. I also perfer my HD player of choice to be enternal and not apart of my gaming setup. The HD addon or a possible Blu-Ray addon for the Xbox 360 is not out of the question, but one better be the victor for sure, when that time comes.
January 8th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
By the time there is a clear-cut winner, and many have just finished replacing their DVD collections with Blu-Ray or HD-DVD collections, streaming digital media will be all the rage and broadly available. Don’t buy either!
January 8th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Sadly, HD DVD is the best choice for the masses (the less-than-videophiles like yourself), but will probably not be available due to their wait and see approach. Believe me…I understand it, but have to be saddened that HD DVD won’t get the support it deserves because their consumer base is sitting back to watch Blu-Ray take over the market.
Good report though.
January 9th, 2008 at 5:57 am
Comcast can say what they want… and yes maybe their technology is improving… I bet the broadband cost on enduser will be substantial. To me cable internet should have dropped in price, much like modem access, but that isn’t happening when you have a monopoly(They are the only ones I can choose) on the technology.
January 10th, 2008 at 10:24 am
it appears as if HBO and New Line Cinema have switched to Blu-ray.
January 10th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Deacon, fan-ta-stic-mother-freaking-post. Seriously, what a great read. It’s sad but it appears that like with the PS2, Sony might be using it’s numbers to blind the un-educated and studios that just want more money (which is what they are in the business for) I guess for me it’s just hard to watch happen (again) and possibly give Sony another foothold in a market they have total control over. I’m glad I waited and will still be waiting for sometime now. Again, great post Deacon.
January 10th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
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