So confused... HD-DVD or Blu-ray??

[kbehm29]

I hate the times where they delay the release of Blu-ray discs a month or two past the release of standard DVD.

Today I bought the standard DVD version of Shooter because the Blu-ray version isn't due out until July 31st. What a horrible business decision that was! I would have bought it if it were available at the same time.

[DarthPrime]

Didn't know that Shooter wasn't available on Blu-ray today as well. That is a pretty bad move, but maybe they are adding additional features that were not ready at the time of the DVD release.

[ichabod]

from: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/a633 ... -2008.html

Movie giant Warner is to delay the release of its Total HD dual-format discs until 2008, according to videobusiness.com.

Total HD, which was originally planned for release in 2007, features Blu-Ray on one side and HD-DVD on the other.

The discs are designed to offer users the opportunity to play either format, depending on what hardware is owned.

"Our research shows that there is demand for each of those products," said Warner executive Dan Miron. "We are trying to evaluate [how to best treat] each one of these releases."

A release date for Total HD is yet to be announced, but marketing VP Steve Nickerson said: "There is no expiration date on the viability of this concept, so we’re not in a rush to do it". He added: "We’ll do it when it makes sense and when it's right."

[DarthPrime]

from: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/a633 ... -2008.html

Movie giant Warner is to delay the release of its Total HD dual-format discs until 2008, according to videobusiness.com.

Total HD, which was originally planned for release in 2007, features Blu-Ray on one side and HD-DVD on the other.

The discs are designed to offer users the opportunity to play either format, depending on what hardware is owned.

"Our research shows that there is demand for each of those products," said Warner executive Dan Miron. "We are trying to evaluate [how to best treat] each one of these releases."

A release date for Total HD is yet to be announced, but marketing VP Steve Nickerson said: "There is no expiration date on the viability of this concept, so we’re not in a rush to do it". He added: "We’ll do it when it makes sense and when it's right."

to Total HD discs. Putting HD DVD on one side and Blu-ray on another is asking for trouble. Universal and Warner have had problems with the HD DVD/DVD combos, I can only imagine what this will cause. Also you loose the disc art, and I'm sure these will be more expensive than a individual HD DVD or Blu-ray release.

Now we will have a HD DVD, Blu-ray, and a Total HD section. Way to not confuse future HD customers.

[kbehm29]

to Total HD discs. Putting HD DVD on one side and Blu-ray on another is asking for trouble. Universal and Warner have had problems with the HD DVD/DVD combos, I can only imagine what this will cause. Also you loose the disc art, and I'm sure these will be more expensive than a individual HD DVD or Blu-ray release.

Now we will have a HD DVD, Blu-ray, and a Total HD section. Way to not confuse future HD customers.

I doubt it will happen. There has been a new article every day about the upswing of Blu-ray, and the bets are on that HD-DVD will be gone shortly after Christmas.

Right now, everyone is just waiting for Universal to announce that they'll be releasing in both formats....and then Blu-ray's victory will pretty much be sealed.

[2099net]

i don't doubt for a moment Blu-Ray will end-up being the eventual "winner", but I think HD DVD will be around long after the holidays. There's so much money been pumped into both formats, and so much to be potentially gained in the future, don't expect the HD DVD side to cry "uncle" any time soon. Especially while sales are going up. Blu-Ray may be getting between 0.7 and 1.0 times the sales of HD DVD, but while sales for both formats are laughably poor, it doesn't really mean much in the large scale of things.

I think this delay is probably more down to cost and/or physical restraints. After all, originally they said the discs would be HD DVD 30 and Blu-Ray 25, which as you can imagine to little to win the Blu Ray crowd over their initial hostility.

Personally, I like the HD DVD combo discs. But living in the UK, it doesn't cost me a huge premium to buy them thanks to the 2 dollars to 1 pound exchange rate at the moment. I certainly get more benefits from having a truely portable release which I can play in my living room, in my bedroom or take to friends and family members. I had issues with Children of Men, but they were quickly sorted out and solved without me incurring any extra cost.

I don't really see any downside to TotalHD. I don't think it will confuse customers. How can it? You buy a disc, and it plays on your High Definition format of choice. All that matters is the cost (I don't care about disc art). It needs to be the same or as close of possible to a non-THD release. Again, this is the main reason I suspect the format has been delayed.

[DarthPrime]

Not putting anything against Blu-ray, but all the Blu-ray has won/HD DVD will die before the end of the year articles are false in my opinion. Universal going neutral right now would kill HD DVD, but I see it happening just as much as all the rumors that used to go around about Fox and Disney going neutral. I don't think it will happen anytime soon.

I think Blu-ray has a better chance to win in the long run, but HD DVD is doing fine right now. Like 2099net said it will be around a long time after the holidays.

I hope the combos if they do go that route will be priced well.

[Paka]

If HD DVD hangs on tenaciously through 2008, all I can say is it had better be a obscure as hell - little to no shelf space, a wisp of presence, etc. The less confused Joe Six-Pack is about the whole thing, the better. Blu-ray's real climb is against DVD; the first step in that challenge is a singular high-def format. >_<

[dvdjunkie]

A plus for Blu-Ray is Blockbuster Video's decision to only stock Blu-Ray titles in their HD sections after July 1, 2007. This will be a plus for the manufacturers of the Blu-Ray and will give them more ammunition to pursue those studios not yet on the bandwagon of the Blu-Ray DVD Disc.

[DarthPrime]

The Blockbuster deal is a plus for Blu-ray, but only for in store rentals. They will still offer HD DVD though the online rentals.

Why should HD DVD be obscure and have no shelf space? Neither format is ready to challenge DVD yet. Their sales are horrible compared to DVD right now. Toshiba is putting HD DVD drives in all their laptops, and lowering the price of the HD-A2 and HD-A20. If anything HD DVD sales will probably increase. Blu-ray in a few years may be the winner, and it looks like that will occur sometime. However it want happen in 2008 in my opinion.

I think the only solution right now is dual format players that are affordable, or either some studios switching sides and killing off one of the formats. The LG and future Samsung are still too expensive to sale the dual format players. You can get a separate HD DVD and Blu-ray player cheaper than the dual format players. If they can get the dual format players around $400 to $500 then they would be worth the purchase. Either way both are bound to be a niche product unless something major happens in the next few years.

[DarthPrime]

Just saw the most unbiased review of the formats ever on TV tonight. On our local news they showed HD DVD and Blu-ray. Compared them (didn't get into all the technical stuff, so it was obviously a review for the general public), and then interviewed some people about their thoughts.

The people were interested in buying, but confused because of two formats. One guy really wanted to buy, but couldn't make up his mind which he wanted.

Anyway the review basically said that image quality on the two was about the same. They mentioned that HD DVD was cheaper as far as buying a player, but said when choosing you needed to look at the movies available and pick your side from that. They showed a combo player for $1,200 and said that "these new players that play both formats might help, but come at a high price".

I was shocked to see a review like this. Not one time in the whole segment did it say Blu-ray is better because of space and more studio support, or HD DVD is cheaper and region free.

Why can't we get more reviews like this?

[DarthPrime]

I have a Blu-ray question for PS3 owners. How is the PS3 with BD-Java discs like Pirates? I've heard some major lag issues with some standalone players, and I'm wondering if the PS3 has these issues.

Circuit City is dropping the price in two weeks for the PS3 to $499 for the 60 gig. So far it looks like this might be a permanent drop for the PS3 everywhere. That and the current 5 free Blu-rays by mail is actually making me consider picking one up sometime in a few months.

I would love to see Pirates, Transformers, and Spider-man 3 later this year in HD instead of just getting the DVDs. I'm sure there are a few games I'll pick up as well, and I always have Final Fantasy to look forward to. I've been a HD DVD fan for over a year, but a deal like this is making me see Blu.

[2099net]

Circuit City is dropping the price in two weeks for the PS3 to $499 for the 60 gig. So far it looks like this might be a permanent drop for the PS3 everywhere. That and the current 5 free Blu-rays by mail is actually making me consider picking one up sometime in a few months.

By "everywhere", you do of course just mean the US, don't forget Europe still has a "gimped" PS3 selling for £425 (or in dollars $850!) WITHOUT any free movies.

Not that it matters to me so much being as I have a PS3 - but it just shows for all those how decry the format war, the competition with HD DVD (as well as the Xbox360/Wii) is helping to force the price down on the PS3. (There's virtually zero competition with HD DVD in the UK).

As for your question, the PS3 is fine for BDJava. There are slight pauses when initialising a disc with BDJava on, but I think this is going to be the case with all hardware which supports it; after all the BDJava is creating and running on a "virtual" machine which has to be created and then load the software.

I don't know if this is true, but the Pirates disc may have cause problems on people who had a very early version of the PS3 firmware (I have read some rare odd reports of issues on forums) - but being as you have access to the internet, it's child's play to update the firmware on your PS3 - be it directly over the internet or downloading on a PC and then copying to a CD or memory card/stick - so I really wouldn't worry about this.

Also, although it has not - to my knowledge - been officially confirmed, I'm pretty sure the PS3 will easily be upgradeable to BDLive specifications. Not only is it Sony's flagship product which would result in a huge humilation to Sony were it not to keep up with the BD specs, but it is basically a huge, powerful computer, with many more resources than a normal hardware player, and able to be programmed.

There is plenty of "anecdotal" (but not firm) evidence the PS3 can decode two 1080p streams at the same time - already making it capable of supporting BDJava Profile 2.0. Additional internet features on top of this should be a doddle.

[DarthPrime]

Circuit City is dropping the price in two weeks for the PS3 to $499 for the 60 gig. So far it looks like this might be a permanent drop for the PS3 everywhere. That and the current 5 free Blu-rays by mail is actually making me consider picking one up sometime in a few months.

By "everywhere", you do of course just mean the US, don't forget Europe still has a "gimped" PS3 selling for £425 (or in dollars $850!) WITHOUT any free movies.

Not that it matters to me so much being as I have a PS3 - but it just shows for all those how decry the format war, the competition with HD DVD (as well as the Xbox360/Wii) is helping to force the price down on the PS3. (There's virtually zero competition with HD DVD in the UK).

As for your question, the PS3 is fine for BDJava. There are slight pauses when initialising a disc with BDJava on, but I think this is going to be the case with all hardware which supports it; after all the BDJava is creating and running on a "virtual" machine which has to be created and then load the software.

I don't know if this is true, but the Pirates disc may have cause problems on people who had a very early version of the PS3 firmware (I have read some rare odd reports of issues on forums) - but being as you have access to the internet, it's child's play to update the firmware on your PS3 - be it directly over the internet or downloading on a PC and then copying to a CD or memory card/stick - so I really wouldn't worry about this.

Also, although it has not - to my knowledge - been officially confirmed, I'm pretty sure the PS3 will easily be upgradeable to BDLive specifications. Not only is it Sony's flagship product which would result in a huge humilation to Sony were it not to keep up with the BD specs, but it is basically a huge, powerful computer, with many more resources than a normal hardware player, and able to be programmed.

There is plenty of "anecdotal" (but not firm) evidence the PS3 can decode two 1080p streams at the same time - already making it capable of supporting BDJava Profile 2.0. Additional internet features on top of this should be a doddle.

Sorry but yeah US only. Should have posted that. Circuit City and Target have it listed at $499 in a few weeks, and rumors have that being the new permanent price. Of course Sony is currently denying it, so we will have to wait until E3 to find out for sure I guess.

Thanks for the info on BD-Java and the PS3. I know some players have no problem, but I saw one report (with some YouTube videos) that the new Sony player took almost a min and a half just to get to the Pirates menu on the Blu-rays. Thats just a tad to long. Of course the new Panasonic didn't have these issues, so maybe it can be fixed with a new firmware or something.

Take the price drop as a rumor until its official I guess, but I find it odd that two stores have the 60 gig listed for $499 in a couple weeks. I honestly didn't expect a price drop until at least the holiday season if we got one at all.

[2099net]

Well, it does take time - but start up a Java App on a PC when viewing a webpage and it takes time to initialise. It's (partly I think) just the nature of how Java works in general.

But while it takes time, it's never taken over, say, 30 seconds for either Pirates disc to initialise on my PS3. Hell, even if it did, the opening trailers you have to skip over are much more of an annoyance... trust me.

[deathie mouse]

link

[2099net]

Sony finally announces their Movie Download system on the PS3
http://news.filefront.com/scea-announce ... e-for-ps3/

[DarthPrime]

At E3 it was announced by Microsoft that Disney, Touchstone, and Miramax movies will be offered in HD though the Live Marketplace.

Although it might be jumping to conclusions, but I wonder if this will have any affect over Disney and Blu-ray? Yeah I know its downloaded movies and not an actual disc, but Microsoft is supporting HD DVD. Interesting...

[2099net]

Lionsgate are - reportedly - making almost as much profit (or perhaps turnover) on their XboxLive Marketplace downloads as they are from their Blu-Ray discs. But they show no sign of going neutral.

I don't think you can read anything into Marketplace sign-ups and potential HD DVD publishing.

[I am the Doctor]

Well, it does take time - but start up a Java App on a PC when viewing a webpage and it takes time to initialise. It's (partly I think) just the nature of how Java works in general.

But while it takes time, it's never taken over, say, 30 seconds for either Pirates disc to initialise on my PS3. Hell, even if it did, the opening trailers you have to skip over are much more of an annoyance... trust me.

Glad I'm not the only one who's more than a little bit tired of having to skip over all those previews at the beginning of the Blu Ray Pirates discs. Thought it may just have been my Blu-Ray player (I own the LG BH100 dual format player), glad to know it's not.