Blu-ray, in General

[Gigi M.]

Written by:
Henning Molbaek


First online:
Dec 7, 2006

A new study compiled of 17,664 postings on social media sites, blogs and discussion boards between Oct. 1 and Thanksgiving shows that HD-DVD is winning more hearts compared with Blu-ray.

"The report compiled by Cymfony Inc., a Watertown, Mass.-based market analytics firm, found that positive online discussions about HD DVD were 46% greater than Blu-ray" according to Home Media Retailing.

The report also shows that gamers might in fact hold Blu-ray as a negative thing when it comes to the PlayStation 3.

"Sony forces you to buy Blu-ray," read a post at forums.adventuregamers.com. "MS doesn't force you to buy HD DVD. It's about giving the consumer options."

More numbers from the study can be found here.

[The Invunche]

"Sony forces you to buy Blu-ray," read a post at forums.adventuregamers.com. "MS doesn't force you to buy HD DVD. It's about giving the consumer options."

What? Sony doesn't force you to anything. You chose to buy the console and it happens to be equipped with a next generation drive. Why would you want old technology? It surely can't have anything to do with money considering how much each game will cost you anyway.

Gamers.

[Cinesimilitude]

So Invunche, when's the last time you bought some "old" technology? such as a dvd or a cd? Is that really the only argument you could cull from that post which states an unbiased fact that HD-DVD is preferred?

[The Invunche]

I think you missed my point completely. I wasn't responding to the perceived popularity of HD DVD.

I, and I thought it was clear, was responding to the idiotic statement that putting a Blu-ray drive in the the PS3 console was somehow robbing the consumer of options.

[Cinesimilitude]

I think you missed my point completely. I wasn't responding to the perceived popularity of HD DVD.

I, and I thought it was clear, was responding to the idiotic statement that putting a Blu-ray drive in the the PS3 console was somehow robbing the consumer of options.

But it was. the PS3 was delayed due to shortage of the lasers, so that limited options by way of limiting who could and could not have one by christmas. Also, games out so far are not even using more than DVD sized capacity, and apparently they don't look as good anyways, so blu-ray was more than people needed, but they still have to have it just because Sony only sells it that way. Regardless of what you think or say, when the cost of 2 items (an Xbox 360 and an HD-DVD add on) are less than the cost of 1 item (the PS3, as a direct result of the BD Drive) The consumer has more options on the former. If the 360 was made exclusively with HD-DVD, it would be a non-issue. It's not because sony did a bad thing, its just because the competition did it better that people are complaining.

[The Invunche]

the PS3 was delayed due to shortage of the lasers, so that limited options by way of limiting who could and could not have one by christmas.

Oh come on. You don't even believe that yourself. I know I don't believe that's what the gamer meant when he was talking about limited options.

Regardless of what you think or say, when the cost of 2 items (an Xbox 360 and an HD-DVD add on) are less than the cost of 1 item (the PS3, as a direct result of the BD Drive) The consumer has more options on the former.

So Nintendo's Wii is actually the console that gives the consumer the most options because it costs less? Anyway, how many games can you purchase for the price difference between X-Box360 and PS3?

[jcelwin]

The PS3 has a Blu-ray player in it. It is part of the console because Sony wanted to put it in. Don't like it? Too bad. What do you expect them to have done?

[The Invunche]

Don't like it? Too bad.

Yes, and this is where the potential PS3 buyer needs to decide whether or not he wants a PS3. Don't buy one and then act like Sony forced the BD drive on you. Besides being wrong it's incredibly whiny.

[Cinesimilitude]

So Nintendo's Wii is actually the console that gives the consumer the most options because it costs less? Anyway, how many games can you purchase for the price difference between X-Box360 and PS3?

If you factor in accesories, that may be the case, but 1 system, regardless of price, is 1 option for my argument. Wii can't really be factored into this discussion as I am approaching it at a purely HD level.

The cost of a 360 is 400$ canadian, as opposed to the PS3 which is 660$. you could easily get 5 games for the difference, or the HD-DVD player for 200$.

the thing for me is that the Xbox 360 and the PS3 are the same thing. A Gaming Console. The HD abilities are only side dishes to what the systems offer. Sony's inclusion of a blu-ray player upfront would only be justified if their launch titles were taking advantage of the space available on a blu-ray disc, which none so far have, as developers for the games are hacing a tough time developing games for it. Microsoft has had many advantages with launching a year before PS3, because Microsoft may have gone with an HD drive right off the bat if it seemed feasible to them, and they'd be in the same situation. I think historically Sony's problem is that they give consumers more than what they need, and by the time they need it, sony has moved on and other companies have taken the reigns. everything in terms of video formats that they've released is technically impressive, yet it fails because the companies that put out the software don't know how to take advantage of the format.

In short, Xbox 360 offers more bang for your buck with the current software/hd-dvds/community available. Lots of factors effect it, but when giving a consumer the choice to pay less to play HD games that are the same on the other system, and the ability to upgrade to HD for the same cost as the competition, it's just far more appealing to the wallet.

The PS3 has a Blu-ray player in it. It is part of the console because Sony wanted to put it in. Don't like it? Too bad. What do you expect them to have done?

I expect them to have developed better games that take up more space than a dual-layer DVD. To play games, which is what the system is for, blu-ray is unnecessary.

[The Invunche]

Not that I disagree with your assessment but you can talk about the pros and cons of both consoles for as long as you like. I don't really care which one is the best because it has absolutely nothing to do with my initial post on the subject. I was merely commenting on the whiny statement by that gamer about being forced to buy a BD drive. Now had the gamer said something about the X-Box being better value for money I wouldn't have objected at all.

[jcelwin]

Sony gave consumers what they wanted to give consumers. They spent a lot of money on the blu-ray format, it would be a stupid idea to not include it. I don't understand what people are complaining about. They created a console that you either buy, or don't. It was their choice to make it, your choice if you buy it.

Also, PS3 and 360 are being touted as 'entertainment' systems, while the Wii is strictly a gaming system. Just because the games don't fill the disc would be a stupid reason not to include the drive.

[The Invunche]

Just because the games don't fill the disc would be a stupid reason not to include the drive.

And Just because the games don't fill the disc now doesn't mean they wont later.

[porquenegar]

Forthcoming Studio Canal HD DVD Releases

Graduate
Ran
Le Cercle Rouge
L'Armée des Ombres

Now we're talking.

[Cinesimilitude]

Forthcoming Studio Canal HD DVD Releases

Graduate
Ran
Le Cercle Rouge
L'Armée des Ombres

Now we're talking.

nice! I just ordered La Haine HD-DVD from amazon (15 pounds with shipping!) and as long as that plays fine I'll probably pick up both the Melvilles.

[porquenegar]

Forthcoming Spanish HD DVDs. I got this info from a poster at AVSForums. Not sure where the original scans came from

DeAPlaneta

The Good, Bad, Ugly, Piano, Leopard and others

Filmax

The Pianist and others.

[Cinesimilitude]

Some good titles there, and It's always great to see blu-ray exclusive titles being released on HD-DVD.

I wonder if the HD brothers grimm is better in Japan or Spain, or if they are both the same. I definitely need me some Monica Bellucci in HD...

here's some IMDB links for the films that aren't as noticable...

Man About Town(the ben affleck one)

Tirante el Blanco

An american haunting (maleficio)

[porquenegar]

Corrected my links. Thanks for the heads up.

[Cinesimilitude]

This microsoft site has a pretty good list of upcoming HD titles, and might be a great source since microsoft probably licenses out their VC-1 codec on a per title basis.

[Ornette]

To those who've planned using your computer for HD playback (in this case Blue-ray), AnandTech has done some testing. The tests are based on a H.264/MPEG-4 AVC encoded Blue-ray movie (X-Men: The Last Stand), with a listed bitrate of 18 Mbps and even "reaching a bitrate of over 41 Mbps at one point".

The gist of it:

As for recommendations, based on our testing, we would not suggest anything less than an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 for use in a system designed to play HD content. The E6400 may work well enough, but not even the 8800 GTX can guarantee zero dropped frames on the E6300. ATI owners will want to lean more towards an E6700 processor, but can get away with the E6600 in a pinch. But keep in mind that X-Men: The Last Stand is only one of the first H.264 movies to come out. We may see content that is more difficult to decode in the future, and faster processors are definitely a good place to pad your performance to ensure a quality HD experience on the PC.

[Cinesimilitude]

I ordered the HD-DVD of Shinobi from Japan and it plays perfectly as expected. I really hope they keep HD-DVD region free, It will make life so much easier.

Babel comes to HD-DVD ad Blu-Ray on February 20th.

[obloquy]

I ordered the HD-DVD of Shinobi from Japan and it plays perfectly as expected. I really hope they keep HD-DVD region free, It will make life so much easier.

Are HD-DVD players region-specific?

Edit: What I really want to know is whether they ignore region encoding on plain old DVDs. Obviously that would be awesome.

[Cinesimilitude]

DVD's are still region locked even with an HD-DVD player, but all HD-DVD's are not region locked, so you can get them from aywhere and they will work on your hd-dvd drive.

[porquenegar]

I ordered the HD-DVD of Shinobi from Japan and it plays perfectly as expected. I really hope they keep HD-DVD region free, It will make life so much easier.

Are HD-DVD players region-specific?

Edit: What I really want to know is whether they ignore region encoding on plain old DVDs. Obviously that would be awesome.

No. Region coding is enforced on SD DVDs. On the other hand, HD DVDs are not region-coded. I'm eventually hoping for a hack to make the player multi-region for SD DVDs.

[jon]

Is that a realistic comparison of HD to regular DVD?

If so, HD is much more powerful than I had imagined. It makes the regular DVD image look like VHS.

[Cinesimilitude]

It's even more powerful. That transfer of Fellowship I assume was taken from the TV broadcast in HD, which, If I have my facts straight, has a 15 megabytes per second(or around there) limit, where as HD-DVD's are about 25-30mbps(with the exception of combo discs which are single layer HD, resulting in something that would look very similar to the HD Broadcast quality shown there).

PS. just noticed his comments at the top state he used an Mpeg 2 capture card, which would make the image look even worse, as the VC-1 codec form microsoft which HD-DVD uses is what allows it to tower over blu-ray's mpeg2 encoding in the PQ department.