I think that's it, the Top Gear vid is H.264.
I had trouble (but still better luck than my Mac Pro) on a dual core (+HT) Pentium 4 PC running XP.
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HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray Battle Over? Warner Switches to Blu-Ray
- Thread starter hvfsl
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I think that's it, the Top Gear vid is H.264.
I had trouble (but still better luck than my Mac Pro) on a dual core (+HT) Pentium 4 PC running XP.
Whats with New Line being now Blu-Ray only? I'm sure it was "Both" the first time I saw the chart... Anyways I'm glad to see Blu-Ray is going to win this stupid battle, or at least is taking a good advance.
Some studios essentially belong to others. Warner owns New Line and HBO. So really IMO they should be one entity. In the opposite case, Dreamworks is stand-alone but works closely with Paramount but it doesn't show up in the pie chart separately.
Just curious but are the studios switching sides because Blu-Ray is better or is Sony just giving better deals to switch? What are the incentives. At the moment it is all marketing is it not. Why don't the studios release on both formats and make double the money?
That's weird, mine has lots of really fun games on.
(how can anyone ignore Warhawk?)I doubt it was planned to that extent, but if it was part of the game it just goes to show how badly MS played it with their approach to HD-DVD. Obviously Sony don't make all the games on the PS3, and they would've been ecstatic if 3rd party games weren't delayed and had come out earlier.. I think it's just fluke really.
And at least it's a good BD player / home media setup, with or without games. Especially when rigged up to DLNA servers.
^ Warner was doing both formats. Supporting two formats costs extra money and takes more time and effort. Kind of like making a program for both Mac and PC, not too many people can afford to do that. You aren't making double the money, and your costs are increased -- you have to potentially do two telecine transfers, two sets of menus, two sets of extras, two case designs, and then the logistics -- how many of each, the split of each, and where they end up. On top of that, it's really THREE formats you'd have to support -- HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, and DVD.
The market has been saying Blu-Ray 2/3 and HD-DVD 1/3 for most of 2007. Warner came down on the side of the fence that has the brighter future.
Now, on the other hand, Microsoft did pay Paramount and Dreamworks $150 million to stop supporting Blu-Ray a few months ago. They had been, like Warner, doing both.
The market has been saying Blu-Ray 2/3 and HD-DVD 1/3 for most of 2007. Warner came down on the side of the fence that has the brighter future.
Now, on the other hand, Microsoft did pay Paramount and Dreamworks $150 million to stop supporting Blu-Ray a few months ago. They had been, like Warner, doing both.
Superior Format?
How can you say that Blu-ray in the superior format? Do you have any facts to back up this claim? I am not a Microsoft lover by any means and bought my first Mac back in 2003, but HD-DVD is clearly the better format. I know the picture and audio quality is quite similar, but the fact is that HD-DVD is a finalized standard. How is Blu-ray the superior format whenever there are no 2.0 spec players out right now and this 2.0 spec is what would equal HD-DVD in features? People who buy some blu-ray players today are missing out on content and will not be able to view this 2.0 content once Sony finally pushes the new spec. Also, HD-DVD has less DRM restrictions and has a "managed copy" feature in the spec. Since when has Sony ever been one to think of the consumer first?
Sony is an arrogant company and I have no idea how the better format is getting laid out to dry. This is a sad day indeed.
How can you say that Blu-ray in the superior format? Do you have any facts to back up this claim? I am not a Microsoft lover by any means and bought my first Mac back in 2003, but HD-DVD is clearly the better format. I know the picture and audio quality is quite similar, but the fact is that HD-DVD is a finalized standard. How is Blu-ray the superior format whenever there are no 2.0 spec players out right now and this 2.0 spec is what would equal HD-DVD in features? People who buy some blu-ray players today are missing out on content and will not be able to view this 2.0 content once Sony finally pushes the new spec. Also, HD-DVD has less DRM restrictions and has a "managed copy" feature in the spec. Since when has Sony ever been one to think of the consumer first?
Sony is an arrogant company and I have no idea how the better format is getting laid out to dry. This is a sad day indeed.
I ordered a PS3 last Saturday on the Sony VISA + SonyStyle store deal. It came this morning. I have my free BD movies ordered, and a handful of others coming from Amazon.
I'm hopeful to see this thing decided now in favor of Blu-ray. I was sitting on the sidelines and not even buying regular DVDs anymore (this after amassing a 500+ DVD collection and usually buying 1-2 a week). I didn't even care which won -- I just wanted a single format to prevail.
Now I think I feel comfortable about buying BD movies. I'm certainly not shedding tears for MS backing HD-DVD. Now the software needs to start coming down in price.
I'm hopeful to see this thing decided now in favor of Blu-ray. I was sitting on the sidelines and not even buying regular DVDs anymore (this after amassing a 500+ DVD collection and usually buying 1-2 a week). I didn't even care which won -- I just wanted a single format to prevail.
Now I think I feel comfortable about buying BD movies. I'm certainly not shedding tears for MS backing HD-DVD. Now the software needs to start coming down in price.
You can try using nero showtime which support hardware acceleration. But you have to enable it first. I am not sure about the mkv support of it. So if you have bad luck you have to use mp4box to put the h264 into a mp4 file. Which could mean that you need to recode the audio stuff which is a big pain.
On the other hand I have heard that Videolan also supports pureVideo acceleration, but as far as I know the Mac Pro has an ATI...
Oh and another thing I noticed is that animated movies generally have more details which lead to a worse playing experience in h264. From worst to best Robbinsons, Rataouile and Shrek3. Personally I don't think that any Mac currently available is capable to play Robbinsons
At least under Mac OS X.jicon, I am SO with you on this point. HD-DVD players have so much more capability right now than their Blu-ray counterparts. Blu-ray is inferior. This goes to show you how throwing around hundreds of millions of dollars can pay off anyone.
I would imagine very little will change with the Xbox 360. If the end really is near for HD-DVD, I suspect we'll see an external Xbox 360 Blu-Ray drive and a software update for the system.
Just a general thought: I always find it amusing when Mac owners boast that better specs equal a better product, while not really discussing the implementation of the technology. Weren't we all crying "Megahertz myth" a few years ago, telling everyone in PC land that the effiency of our OS outweighed their faster processors.
If BRD is the winner, here, and frankly, let's hope it is, as I'm eager to plop down some bucks, but not when there was a good chance that I'd be throwing my money way, and ss appealing as BRD seems to be, with it's higher bitrate, larger capacity and nouveau spelling of "blue", implementation seems to have been a cluster-**** from day one. Between players that don't have internet connections and discs that don't play on all players, I hope those involved in the decision-making shape up their act, decide on a real profile and put out a product that, well, just works.
The only way they would make double the money is if consumers bought one HD-DVD version and one blu-ray version. Who the hell would do that?
Studios are losing money because consumers are waiting for a winner before they buy. That's what Warmer has publicly stated. Not trying to pick on you, but have you read anything in this thread?
HD-DVD supports both MPEG-2, MPEG-4/H.264 (AVC), and Microsoft's VC-1, and has all kinds of advanced features like HDi.
From Wikipedia:
That sounds a lot like MPEG-2 on a standard DVD. [/sarcasm] HD-DVD is a lot more complex than standard DVD.
Perhaps you do work in DVD authoring but it's pretty clear you haven't worked on HD-DVD.
The latter part is true, however; DVD plants have no problem being converted to HD-DVD plants.
Both HD-DVD and Blu-ray look identical and use the same file formats; Blu-ray just fits more, but has a bit more region locking/DRM. I really could care less about who wins; I've always been leaning slightly more towards HD-DVD, but I've been disillusioned by MS's tactics recently.
Whoever wins will have a huge effect on the industry, so I'm interested in the war, but I don't care who wins. Blu-ray's failure would practically doom the PS3 though. But I doubt it'll happen at this point, the war looks finished.
Could they make Blu-Ray backwards compatible to play on a standard DVD player. That way people that don't have HD can still watch movies but then when they upgrade they get the extra HD stuff on the disk.
Honestly I tried not to, so much crap being thrown.
It won't affect the XBox at all. The XBox 360 does not have a built-in HD-DVD drive, and XBox 360 games ship on standard DVDs.
Microsoft sells an external HD-DVD drive for the 360. If HD-DVD fails, Microsoft will stop selling the drive, simple as that. No affect on the games.
to each there own.
Blu-Ray 1.0 is a FINALAIZED Standard. They are extending it out. If you have a movie done in Blu-Ray 1.1 and you only have a player that supports 1.0 It will play but you won't be able to overlay the picture in picture option. 90% of the market won't care. It will play reguardlesss.
You are right about that. 2.0 Spec.. its a FUTURE spec. 1.1 is the current spec. Again. See above. You won't be able to access the Internet options on the disc. The PS3 is already released and it has all the required features for BR 2.0. Hardrive? Check, Ethernet? Check, Firmware Updates? Check.
Blu-Ray = AACS-128bit / BD+ / ROM-Mark
HD-DVD = AACS-128bit
It uses the same DRM but Blu-Ray has one addt feature to try and ensure that they don't get pirated. Which they will. It basiclly allows Blu-Ray to change the current encription number when it is hacked. As far as the Regeons? Yes HD-DVD has none. Blu-Ray? It has three and not nine that DVDs have.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Blu-ray_regions_with_key.png
Take a look.. US/JP and TW. So we can import all of the Hong Kong/Japan Imports.
They are switching because Blu-ray has maintained a 2:1-3:1 lead in movie sales over the past year in the US, 73% in Europe, 9:1 in Japan and 5:1 in Australia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_high_definition_optical_disc_formats#Sales_data
Warner experienced between 2:1-3:1 sales in favor of blu-ray in the US alone. Warner looked at their sales numbers and wanted to put an end to consumer confusion. I've talked to a number of average consumers in video stores who were confused about the formats and compatibility.
Marketing certainly played a part in the higher sales as people became aware of Blu-ray, that it was 1080p and that a number of high profile fox and Disney/Pixar/Buena Vista titles were being released on it. The name clearly conveyed that it was a new format different from DVD.
The HD DVD name was confusing to some people who thought that it was a DVD that would playback in their upscaling DVD player if they had a HDTV.
for somebody who isn't native english that may be a requirement (especially if some directors like having characters talking gibberish which is more easily understandable in the dubbed version)
Oh, the more restrictive anti-consumer format is winning! Joy! The region locked player developed by a company with a history of screwing consumers is winning. Rejoice!
I don't even have an HDTV let alone an HD-DVD player, but if Blu-Ray does "win" the format war, I don't see myself upgrading anything at all until a new format comes around that isn't controlled by Sony. I'll stick with standard TV and DVD's.
I don't even have an HDTV let alone an HD-DVD player, but if Blu-Ray does "win" the format war, I don't see myself upgrading anything at all until a new format comes around that isn't controlled by Sony. I'll stick with standard TV and DVD's.
Maybe you should at least try to read the wikipedia links people have been providing. If you don't believe me, look at the sources I provide.
To me it seems so last century to have to walk to your player, put in a disk, walk back and mess with remotes, not to mention the trouble of actually obtaining a disk, just to watch a movie... To me iTunes and the Apple tv is the way to go I don't care if it's not HD right now or the choice is not that huge right now. It will get there, just like with the music.
I don't care if it's not HD right now or the choice is not that huge right now. It will get there, just like with the music.