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

[Fflewduur]

I've not forgotten the format - indeed I was expecting to get Meet the Robinsons on Blu-Ray next week, but I've just found out the UK release has been delayed until the second week of November (so now its the same as the US release I think) despite the fact the DVD was released here yesterday and BVHE UK announced the Blu-Ray for the UK Day and Date release.

I've read on another forum that a lot of folks are getting Amazon.com emails saying their pre-ordered Blu-Ray shipments of Cars, Ratatouille, and Pixar Shorts V.1 will be delayed. (I haven't received any such notification myself, and I've had all three pre-ordered since practically the moment they became available at Amazon US.) There is some speculation that recent Disney/Pixar Blu-Ray pre-orders have outpaced Amazon's initial allotmentof product. One fellow intends to call Amazon for some clarification on this issue because his shipment, according to Amazon, will be delayed until 2020, which is obviously a mistake. If anything interesting comes of the query, I'll post it here.

I realize there's no obvious connection here---different film, different country---but I find the timing interesting.

[2099net]

Well, universal seem to be living up to their promise on the Web Enabled content front: the Heroes download center now has storyboards for "Heroes Vol 2 Episode 2" up for grabs. The whole episode is split into 3 downloads.

[Commander-Dan]

Digitalbits.com reported yesterday that Toshiba's offer to Warner was made at the same time as their payoff to Paramount, and Warner passed.

I wouldn’t rely on the digital bits for accurate information, since Bill Hunt has openly stated he supports Blu-ray and is doing everything in his power to push BD to the forefront via his website. Nothing wrong with that, if that’s the route he wants to go. But as such, Bill can’t be considered a reliable or unbiased source of information.

As far as the Paramount “payoff” is concerned, it has never been confirmed, and indeed Paramount has outright denied it. That’s not to say that Paramount has not received “incentives” from Toshiba and/or Microsoft, but make no mistake, these are the same type of “incentives” that Disney has likely received from Sony.

[Fflewduur]

I wouldn’t rely on the digital bits for accurate information, since Bill Hunt has openly stated he supports Blu-ray and is doing everything in his power to push BD to the forefront via his website. Nothing wrong with that, if that’s the route he wants to go. But as such, Bill can’t be considered a reliable or unbiased source of information.

Okay. How about Warner Home Video president Ron Sanders?

The Los Angeles Times reported this week that Warner has received a "lucrative" offer from HD DVD supporters to back HD DVD exclusively in the format war. Paramount last month stunned the industry by announcing that it would support HD DVD exclusively. (Four major studios back Blu-ray only.)

But Sanders tells TWICE that  Warner will "remain committed to both for the time being."

"We're talking to both sides and it’s crazy right now," he said. "We’ll see how the fourth quarter plays out. The consumer is still kind of divided, and we still believe that we should offer the content in both formats. Now, we will watch the marketplace very closely, and see how it plays out, but for now we are supporting both."

Interestingly, Sanders didn't deny the premise of TWICE's question: "Have you received offers from HD DVD or Blu-ray to be exclusive with either format, as Paramount recently did with HD DVD?"

Instead, he avoided a direct answer by saying  "we're talking to both sides" and that Warner will "remain committed to both for the time being."

Story <a href="http://www.tvpredictions.com/warner091207.htm">here</a>.

As far as the Paramount “payoff” is concerned, it has never been confirmed, and indeed Paramount has outright denied it. That’s not to say that Paramount has not received “incentives” from Toshiba and/or Microsoft, but make no mistake, these are the same type of “incentives” that Disney has likely received from Sony.

As for Toshiba-Paramount & Sony-Disney (from Variety this time):

In August, Par abruptly decided to support only HD DVD for the next wave of Par and DWA tentpoles it is releasing, including "Shrek the Third," "Blades of Glory" and "Transformers." Reports at the time said a payout of $150 million, nominally for marketing support, accounted for the move.
Asked about a payout at a later session, Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman didn't deny the allegation. "I won't comment on that number," he said.

and

"We believe it's a no-brainer that the industry should be behind Blu-ray," Iger said. At a lunch panel, Iger offered veiled criticism of the Viacom move. "We haven't taken any money (to choose Blu-ray) because we think it's far and away the best business," Iger said.

Story <a href="http://www.variety.com/article/VR111797 ... 1">here</a>.

And as CEOs of publicly traded companies there could be legal consequences to lying to the public about these matters, which makes Dauman's non-denial that much more salient.

[Mr. Toad]

Well my mother offered to buy me a blu ray or HDDVD player for Christmas for Christmas so Toadie is joining the Blu Ray generation.

Any thought on which one is best? I here the cheaper Sony one has excellent picture and up conversion but is slow to load and updates are difficult.

[DarthPrime]

Well my mother offered to buy me a blu ray or HDDVD player for Christmas for Christmas so Toadie is joining the Blu Ray generation.

Any thought on which one is best? I here the cheaper Sony one has excellent picture and up conversion but is slow to load and updates are difficult.

Honestly, in my opinion, the PS3 is your best bet right now even if you never play a game on it. It has fast load times compared to the stand alone players, and also has the most potential to be upgraded to the newer specs that are going to be released.

Recent upgrades to the PS3 has also made it a great player for DVD up conversion.

[DarthPrime]

So Toshiba is now going to make the chips for the PS3. Am I the only one that finds this odd?

http://www.forbes.com/markets/2007/10/1 ... ets04.html

[2099net]

As far as I know, the Cell was always a Toshiba/Sony/IBM joint project. I don't know who paid the most money for the development (but I suspect it was IBM) but Sony has certainly contributed to both the development AND the manufacturing plants. I would expect Toshiba to have paid a similar amount.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Toshiba using Cell technology in lots of their entertainment devices in the next 2-5 years. It was, after all, mainly designed for rapid number crunching (such compressing/decompressing audio/visual datastreams) rather than general purpose computing.

But it was rather amusing when Sony was losing money on each PS3 sold and having to pay a small licencing fee to their High Def Media nemesis Toshiba at the same time for each console sold.

Now I'm going to make an announcement which may shock some people. But as of last night, I have disabled the network functionality on my HD DVD player (and Xbox 360 add-on).

The returns are simply not worth it, being as the implementation seems to be buggy (discs often fail to load unless you delete any persistant storage items downloaded and attached to the disc first). However, I am expecting a HD DVD update from Microsoft soon (just as I am expecting their Fall Xbox 360 Dashboard update soon). Hopefully this will remove the bugs and also open up the full hard drive for storing content - meaning it may actually be worth downloading all those Knocked-Up deleted scenes etc.

As for Blu-Ray I have got Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer recently and the Spider-Man Trilogy is waiting for me to pick it up from the post office tomorrow.

Fantastic Four is one of the first discs to use BD+ copy protection. I am happy to say that there are no issue with the disc on my PS3. It also has "advanced" Java content, but what's on there isn't any big step forward really. I haven't seen the movie yet, but enjoyed the Silver Surfer comicbook documentary. These Marvel comicbook character documentries are excellent (see also Elektra, Ghost Rider, Fantastic Four Director's Cut etc.) and I look forward to more on other Marvel films when they come to home video. However, it also makes me even madder Sony chose to omit the Ghost Rider one from their Ghost Rider Extended Edition Blu-Ray release (making me import the US 2 disc DVD set to get it).

I have however flipped through the disc and it sure looks good. I also tried the trivia quiz which plays over the movie briefly and although it will get scorn from many people, it looks like it will be an enjoyable 90 mins or so on a second or third viewing of the film. It may no add to the film exprience, but all the questions seem to be based on the history of the comicbook so its a topic close to my heart.

[DarthPrime]

I've heard some issues with the online content for Transformers using the 360's HD DVD drive. Is this common with all players, or just with the 360? I'm sure a update will fix it, but who knows when one will be available.

[2099net]

I don't know if its common on all players, but on-line bugs are common on the 360 add-on. Warners 300 and Blood Diamond seems bug free, but every other on-line title requires deletion of the files downloaded before the disc will run. The final straw for me was when this happened with Knocked Up.

I'm sure a update is due in the next month or so - the Fall 360 Dashboard is due soon, and normally a HD DVD update has followed soon after, and I'm also sure when the update comes, it will fix the problem.

[TheSequelOfDisney]

Hey all! Now this might seem a redundant (sp?) question, but do you think I should wait until there is another (better) player that can play both Blu-ray and HD-DVD, just go ahead and buy a Blu-ray player (that's what I think I'll primarily buy) or just stick with my DVDs until this war is over? I'm totally stumped on this question and don't know what to do. Do I wait and just have all of this HD pass me by, or jump right in to experience HD? I already have a high-def television, but it seems kind of pointless to have it if I can't watch anything in HD. I'm so confused, so if anyone could help, thanks!

[Paka]

Go ahead and get a Blu-ray player, Sequel... the PS3 is currently the best and most versatile player out there. Plays BDs, DVDs, CDs, SACDs, has internet connection, hard drive storage for files (photos, MP3s, etc.), and incredibly easy firmware updates to keep up with the latest BD features. Of course, it also plays games.

There are only two outcomes to this war - Blu-ray wins, or a stalemate occurs and high def discs fade away. The former scenario is more likely at this point, but even if high def formats cancel each other out somehow, you will have a huge selection of Blu-rays already in your possession to play, as well as upscaled DVDs. HD DVD won't be around much post-2008, so you're making a safe investment.

[JamesDFarrow]

I was just thinking. If, in a couple of years, HD-DVD wins the war, Disney will have to put out all the films, etc.. (which will already be on Blu-Ray), on HD-DVD. And everyone will be "dipping" again. LOL!

Seriously, I hope Blu-Ray wins but I bet there are people at Disney, etc... that hope the above happens. They get to sell all the stuff again to the same people over and over again.

James (who will wait a while longer to see what happens before going one way or the other)

[kbehm29]

I've read on another forum that a lot of folks are getting Amazon.com emails saying their pre-ordered Blu-Ray shipments of Cars, Ratatouille, and Pixar Shorts V.1 will be delayed. (I haven't received any such notification myself, and I've had all three pre-ordered since practically the moment they became available at Amazon US.) There is some speculation that recent Disney/Pixar Blu-Ray pre-orders have outpaced Amazon's initial allotmentof product.

Any more info or update on this? I received no delay notification, and it's release day and my order has NOT been shipped. I find it's getting harder and harder to rely on Amazon.com to provide timely release shipments. I used to get my stuff the day of release, now it's taking a week or more past release date.

[TheSequelOfDisney]

What would the cheapest PS3 be? I don't plan on using it to store anything, just to play the DVDs/Blu-rays (if I buy them), CDs and some video games (I only have 4). I do have to questions. Would those video games for PS2 still work on PS3 w/memory card? And secondly, the descriptions say that it will upconvert the DVD quality to near high-def quality. What is the "near high-def quality" and is there really a difference from standard-def and high-def? (I guess that was kinda three questions... )

EDIT:

Sorry another question. I was wondering if all of the Disney Blu-rays still retain all of the bonus material from the DVDs? Thanks.

[DarthPrime]

The new 40 gig PS3 is $399 and comes with a 1 disc Spider-Man 3 Blu-ray movie. It does not play PS1 or PS2 games, but still does Blu-ray and PS3 games. Unless you can find one of the discontinued 20 gig models the 40 gig is the cheapest PS3 right now.

The PS3 is also eligible for the free Blu-rays by mail offer.

If you want to play PS1/PS2 games on a PS3 your best bet is to track down one of the discontinued 60 gig models. They offer hardware backwards compatibility with PS1/PS2 games. It should be around $499, and depending on your location they might be hard or easy to find. The 80 gig model for $499 comes with Motorstorm and software backwards compatibility. Its not 100% compatible with all PS1/PS2 games, but still get most of the "main" titles.

Personally if I had a working PS2 I would keep it for PS1/PS2 games and get the new 40 gig PS3.

Also recent Disney Blu-ray have all the features of the DVD and sometimes additional games, etc... that the DVD does not have.

[DarthPrime]

HD DVD vs. Blu-ray and the winner is a stalemate?

Thats what a Sony CEO is saying. The way the formats are going neither will win in the long run.

I thought this was pretty interesting...

Howard Stringer, Sony Corporation of America's CEO, told the AP news agency that he believes the two formats are now at a stalemate. "It's been a difficult fight. We were trying to win on the merits, which we were doing for a while, until Paramount changed sides." However, Stringer said that he believed it was mainly a matter of prestige, and that it would ultimately not matter which format won out in the end.

So its ok now if Blu-ray doesn't win? Sony has bet a huge stake in this, even the PS3 is based off Blu-ray. I just don't see how it would be ok to lose now. Are the cheaper prices of HD DVD players (as little as $99 recently) really making the Blu-ray only studios think about jumping ship on Blu-ray? Who knows, however I do agree with Stringer. If things continue the way they are neither format will "win".

I think if either format wins its going to come down to which format is adopted by the consumers. This will come down to title selection and price. The recent $99 HD DVD players in my opinion are the "magic" number for price. However a lot of people will not buy into it until all movies are on one format. Which will not happen until one format "wins".

Either way DVD is here to stay unless something changes. In my opinion this "war" is killing both formats, or at least drastically slowing them down.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6182612.html

[2099net]

The new 40 gig PS3 is $399 and comes with a 1 disc Spider-Man 3 Blu-ray movie. It does not play PS1 or PS2 games, but still does Blu-ray and PS3 games. Unless you can find one of the discontinued 20 gig models the 40 gig is the cheapest PS3 right now.

Actually Mr Prime, I think they can play PSOne games - because this has always been done in software emulation on the PS3 - I'm not 100% sure but I think even new PS2 now just use software emulation for PSOne titles.

Remember, the PlaystationStore sells PSOne games. I'm sure PSOne games will always been playable on all PS3s.

[deathie mouse]

Howard Stringer, Sony Corporation of America's CEO, told the AP news agency that he believes the two formats are now at a stalemate. "It's been a difficult fight. We were trying to win on the merits, which we were doing for a while, until Paramount changed sides." However, Stringer said that he believed it was mainly a matter of prestige, and that it would ultimately not matter which format won out in the end

Notice that the word "stalemate" is a fabrication and interpretation from the article's author. Not quoted. How they love FUD them writers.

This last week's sales were more than 70:30, Blu vs hdddvd



I got Cars, the shorts, and Ratatouille on Blu this week and couldn't be happier . They look amazing.

Btw the PS3 is firmware upgradable so it will evolve.

[DarthPrime]

The new 40 gig PS3 is $399 and comes with a 1 disc Spider-Man 3 Blu-ray movie. It does not play PS1 or PS2 games, but still does Blu-ray and PS3 games. Unless you can find one of the discontinued 20 gig models the 40 gig is the cheapest PS3 right now.

Actually Mr Prime, I think they can play PSOne games - because this has always been done in software emulation on the PS3 - I'm not 100% sure but I think even new PS2 now just use software emulation for PSOne titles.

Remember, the PlaystationStore sells PSOne games. I'm sure PSOne games will always been playable on all PS3s.

I didn't know that 2009net. I guess that makes since if it can still play PSOne games. Thanks for the info.