HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray Battle Over? Warner Switches to Blu-Ray

[Richardlol]

It's just not that much better than standard DVD

When DVD first came along, the picture quality was so much better than VHS that it was an easy sell to get people to accept the new format. I've seen the same movie on a good, upscaling standard DVD player on a 106" 1080i HD screen and on a Blue-ray player and the small difference is just not worth the price. Upscaling software has really come a long way and, for me, it is killing the new HD formats.

Let's face it, only hot new releases will show up on Blue Ray for quite a while. I doubt that they are going to go back and remaster The Bride of Chucky in Blue Ray an time soon. So since these new releases will also be released on well-produced standard DVD that will upscale and look great on a 1080i screen, I see no reason to jump to a new format. The movie data and the player should all be just software. I'll skip this format and see what happens with streaming soon. Once streaming hits, the physical player becomes much less important.

 

[uNext]

Well I was thinking. what in the world would possibly happen if HDDVD won. i mean, the ps3 games are on an actual blu-ray disc right?? so ifblu ray dropped then that would have to mean that the ps3 would have to drop as well.......right?

I dont think so sony is a major player with a lot of power. tHEY WOULD JUST USE THE BLU RAY FORMAT STRICLTY FOR THE PS3 sameway they do with the psp and their umd format.
if blu ray had failed then it would be just another failed format under sonys belt. Their list is long by the way.


But since they won Sony will get paid left and right from other companies
that will be forced to use blu ray discs. (microsoft etc)

The future is now and unfortunetely a propietary insane company won rights to future distribution of media dvd is out blu ray is in.

So many limitations on blu ray-this war was not won by the public greedy companies looking out for their best gains sealed the deal on this war.

At the end the message is-They dont care about us and they will manipulate us into believeing other wise. But if a final decision is to be made no sales or popularity in the world will seal the outcome of something unless they feel is to their benefit.

THE REVOLUTION STARTS-is all a cycle man vs the greedy corporations will continue.

WELCOME TO PIRACY 2.0 IN HD

Toshiba developed upscale software as plan b and the outcome is phenomenal
some upscale dvd movies look awesome. Trust me i have both HD DVD AND BLU RAY
and the diffrence is very minimal.

Once streaming/digital format video become widely accepted
expect for dvd/blu rays fate to go out the sameway physical cds did.

 

[janstett]

Last night Bill Gates made a jab at Jobs about the Apple TV being Apple's "Hobby."

It's not much of a jab. Steve Jobs himself is the source of calling Apple TV a "hobby". He said it at the D5: All Things Digital conference last May. He said
Apple has three businesses (Mac, iPod, iPhone) and a hobby (AppleTV). He said a lot of people tried to make it work in that business (I used to work for one of them) and Apple is trying but don't be the farm on it yet.

“We’re in two businesses today, we’ll very shortly be in three, and a hobby”. ... “The reason I call it a hobby is a lot of people have tried and failed to make it a business. It’s a business that’s hundreds of thousands of units per year but it hasn’t crested to be millions of units per year, but I think if we improve things we can crack that.”

 

[megfilmworks]

Last night Bill Gates made a jab at Jobs about the Apple TV being Apple's "Hobby." Hopefully Apple will just release HD Downloads on iTunes and I really won't have to deal with this format war anymore.
And yes, Blu-Ray is a cooler name.

Maybe if Bill Gate's had called the Zune a hobby he would have been more accurate. I'm glad as a stockholder that SJ was honest and right about his sales projections....unlike MS.
Blu-ray sounds like a laser treatment for acne.

 

[zedsdead]

Maybe if Bill Gate's had called the Zune a hobby he would have been more accurate. I'm glad as a stockholder that SJ was honest and right about his sales projections....unlike MS.
Blu-ray sounds like a laser treatment for acne.

Not saying that Jobs was wrong about the fact that it was a hobby, but Apple really needs to give some attention to the Apple TV, that's all...even without updating the unit at all, Apple can provide HD and rentals to iTunes. I really want the HD, but there haven't even been any rumors about it at all, only the rentals so far.

 

[Algalli]

Blu ray/HD

I don't ever expect to get a DVD for high definition. I will get all content on line.

 

[Nugget]

I don't ever expect to get a DVD for high definition. I will get all content on line.

That's a nice thought, but I don't expect to be able to buy broadband that can effectively deliver HD content any time soon. The best I can buy here is 6Mbps down and that's woefully inadequate for HD content.

 

[DMann]

Road Map

Not saying that Jobs was wrong about the fact that it was a hobby, but Apple really needs to give some attention to the Apple TV, that's all...even without updating the unit at all, Apple can provide HD and rentals to iTunes. I really want the HD, but there haven't even been any rumors about it at all, only the rentals so far.

The Apple TV will evolve as quickly as things fall into place..... HD streaming utilizing new codec, Penryn processors....... 1 down, 1 to go....

 

[zedsdead]

The Apple TV will evolve as quickly as things fall into place..... HD streaming utilizing new codec, Penryn processors....... 1 down, 1 to go....

Penryn has nothing to do with iTunes getting HD content and Apple already has h.264. Microsoft has had HD for a while with Xbox marketplace. There I'd no excuse for Apple to not begin offering HD.

 

[Cooknn]

Microsoft has had HD for a while with Xbox marketplace. There I'd no excuse for Apple to not begin offering HD.

Although I'd like to see Apple offer HD as well, streaming HD at 720p still won't look nearly as good as a Blu-Ray (or HD-DVD) at 1080p. Once more titles get in the pipeline, I'll fire back up my Netflix subscription and watch all that I want for a very reasonable monthly subscription.

 

[zedsdead]

Although I'd like to see Apple offer HD as well, streaming HD at 720p still won't look nearly as good as a Blu-Ray (or HD-DVD) at 1080p. Once more titles get in the pipeline, I'll fire back up my Netflix subscription and watch all that I want for a very reasonable monthly subscription.

The Apple TV HD is only at 720p with a Max Bitrate of 5 Megabits. The current HD discs are encoded around 30 Megabits and at 1080p. Apple cannot probably handle 1080p downloads yet on a mass scale through their servers, not to mention the files would be gigantic.

I've downloaded some Apple TV compliant HD trailers, and they looks amazing on the Apple TV. When you are just sitting back and watching, there is not a major difference between the two (I have HD DVD as well).

 

[DMann]

Apple TV

Penryn has nothing to do with iTunes getting HD content and Apple already has h.264. Microsoft has had HD for a while with Xbox marketplace. There I'd no excuse for Apple to not begin offering HD.

h.264 codec will evolve soon into an even more efficient format which will greatly reduce the size of near HD quality files. At this time, HD files take way too long to download, let alone stream, for this venue to really take off. A faster dual core processor will assist in rendering HD while streaming. Once Apple inks the deal with the major movie studios, things will begin to fall into place.

 

[zedsdead]

h.264 codec will evolve soon into an even more efficient format which will greatly reduce the size of near HD quality files. At this time, HD files take way too long to download, let alone stream, for this venue to really take off. A faster dual core processor will assist in rendering HD while streaming. Once Apple inks the deal with the major movie studios, things will begin to fall into place.

Penryn is not much faster than the current Santa Rosa...and what codec are you talking about?

I agree that the files will take some time to download, but they will work...

 

[CWallace]

Although I'd like to see Apple offer HD as well, streaming HD at 720p still won't look nearly as good as a Blu-Ray (or HD-DVD) at 1080p.

Baby steps, sir. Baby steps.

 

[Flynnstone]

Apparently you can put HD on a regular DVD, but only about 30 minutes.
HD-DVD players can play these.
Can Blu-ray play these?

What codec?

 

[TMay]

Apparently you can put HD on a regular DVD, but only about 30 minutes.
HD-DVD players can play these.
Can Blu-ray play these?

What codec?

I can tell you for a fact that videocameras that support AVCHD can have their files copied to DVD's and played on Blu-Ray. AVC is supported under both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, but the same AVCHD container may not be readable in both.

 

[TMay]

How about this one

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ea637496-bd8d-11dc-b7e6-0000779fd2ac.html

Looks like Paramount might have an escape clause (if Warner goes Blu-Ray) and Dreamworks may have a similar clause.

Game over if true.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Apparently you can put HD on a regular DVD, but only about 30 minutes.
HD-DVD players can play these.
Can Blu-ray play these?

What codec?

Yes. Both formats have that ability. Both call them different things. HD DVD calls it "3x DVD" (because it stores data at 3x the normal bit-rate of standard DVD, and therefore needs to be read back at 3x speed,) Blu-ray calls it "BD9" (because it is storing Blu-ray content on a "9 GB" disc.) These formats are meant for storing user-generated content; they both also have a 'professional' version called "HD REC" and "AVCREC", respectively.

But, at least the 'professional' versions need to be created differently for each format.

Edit, missed your second question. I believe the consumer versions both require H.264 (aka "AVC",) and both formats can read the same discs, including ones created by AVCHD DVD-based camcorders.

The other nice thing is that both formats can read ATSC-format red-laser DVDs. (Meaning you can burn your over-the-air-recorded HD content straight onto a standard 4.7 or 8.5 GB DVD with no codec translation, and it theoretically should play just fine on both an HD DVD player and a Blu-ray player.)

 

[twoodcc]

Yes. Both formats have that ability. Both call them different things. HD DVD calls it "3x DVD" (because it stores data at 3x the normal bit-rate of standard DVD, and therefore needs to be read back at 3x speed,) Blu-ray calls it "BD9" (because it is storing Blu-ray content on a "9 GB" disc.) These formats are meant for storing user-generated content; they both also have a 'professional' version called "HD REC" and "AVCREC", respectively.

so how would you go about making one of these? can you on a mac?

 

[Anonymous Freak]

so how would you go about making one of these? can you on a mac?

Not a clue. I've been trying to figure that one out myself. I know DVD Studio Pro can do it, but haven't a clue on how to do it with 'consumer' level software.

 

[twoodcc]

Not a clue. I've been trying to figure that one out myself. I know DVD Studio Pro can do it, but haven't a clue on how to do it with 'consumer' level software.

i wonder if there is software that can do this on windows?

 

[adrake86]

I'm just so sick of the blu ray is better no hd dvd is better...war. Consumers taht don't set on the net reading all day are really gonna be screwed if they really want to actually make the upgrade.

 

[nagromme]

The war was lost when Paramount went over to HD-DVD right before the 2007 holiday shopping season began in earnest... sending Shrek 3 and Transformers, two of the three top grossing films of 2007 into the camp of the perceived loser (a gesture that would have ended things immediately had it gone the other way).

And now Paramount--the largest remaining slice of that HD-DVD pie--is apparently switching to Blu-Ray:

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2008/january#mon-07-ft_bluray

EDIT: See a better link 6 posts above I searched for Paramount and for some reason didn't find that post.

 

[TMay]

i wonder if there is software that can do this on windows?

No export of AVC (yet) from Apple apps, but Sony, Ulead, Pinnacle and Nero all seem to support AVC editing and export, but the hardware requirements tend to be 2.2 Ghz and above Core 2 duo machines. I read on one of these threads that AVCHD / Blu-Ray support quad processing of each of a 1080P frames quandrants, which could make ingesting and editing quite a bit more productive.

Apple may preannounce Final Cut Studio support at MWSF especially if there is a Blu-Ray announcement by Steve.

I have a 1080i Panasonic and I look forward to AVC and Blu-Ray burning.

 

[Cleverboy]

And now Paramount--the largest remaining slice of that HD-DVD pie--is apparently switching to Blu-Ray:

http://daringfireball.net/linked/2008/january#mon-07-ft_bluray

EDIT: See a better link 6 posts above I searched for Paramount and for some reason didn't find that post.

Funnily enough, I was telling a friend this the other day. Ever since I'd read that Fox had made a deal with Apple that was contingent on Apple signing a determined amount of additional movie studios, it seemed clear to me that Paramount would have an exit clause in the contract... unless the contract was negotiated by IDIOTS. Their exclusivity was too tempting for the HD DVD consortium not to jump at it irregardless. Moreover, the sober comments by Toshiba at CES pointed to JUST that manner of unannounced reality. You could smell it. I'm even betting Universal has a "last man out" clause, which just feels like the inevitable fall of dominoe at this point to Toshiba. Game over.

~ CB