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

[TheSequelOfDisney]

Alright, I have more questions (I'm putting the PS3 on my Christmas list so the more stuff that I know about it, the more I can push my parents to buyin it, or have them pay for some of it and I pay for the rest). What is firmware and what is near-high def quality? I know that DVDs have 480p and high-def is 1080i or p (I really don't know, is it both?). So what would near high-def be? Somewhere in the middle? Thanks to everyone who is helping me with my questions.

[2099net]

Alright, I have more questions (I'm putting the PS3 on my Christmas list so the more stuff that I know about it, the more I can push my parents to buyin it, or have them pay for some of it and I pay for the rest). What is firmware and what is near-high def quality? I know that DVDs have 480p and high-def is 1080i or p (I really don't know, is it both?). So what would near high-def be? Somewhere in the middle? Thanks to everyone who is helping me with my questions.

the PS3 IS HD - its 1080p compatible, but I would guess unless you have a new HDTV you will be using 720p or 1080i.

When you say "near High Def" I think you mean how it upscales normal DVDs. Just think of this as like resizing a picture in Photoshop on your computer. It makes the picture bigger and smooths out any blockyness that that may cause when multiplying the pixels, but it doesn't actually add any detail - it can only use calculations to "guess" what the information between each pixel it has could be. This normally results in upscaled images having a blurry quality to them as they smooth out colours on the edge of two "known" pixels.

[2099net]

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).

An Xbox 360 HD DVD update has been issued (which I have downloaded) and I am now turning back on the network functions. I hope this fixes the known issues.

[2099net]

The Network issues with the Xbox Add-On since the update seem to be fixed. I've had no problems with any of my on-line enabled titles, including Transformers. Now, if only they could make the downloads faster...

OK a few updates on some titles:

I recently recieved Cars and Pixar Shorts on Blu-ray. I would, of course have ordered Ratatouille at the same time (especially as I would have got a discount for doing so) but it is region locked. For non-US citizens, region locking on Blu-ray is a big issue, and its the main reason I still lean to the red side, despite being "neutral".

Anyhow a quick summary of recent discs in both formats:

Pirates of the Caribbean: World's End Blu-ray
I've only flicked through this, but generally its a disappointment. Extras are "fluffier" than the previous two films, the Blu-ray exclusive feature is confusing to operate and the picture quality isn't up to the last two films either. I don't actually blame the format or encoding for the picture quality, I accept its just how it looked in the theatre.

Cars Blu-ray
First things first - this is without a doubt the best looking HiDef disc I have ever seen. CGI movies tend to look good, but Cars is outstanding. Again, I've only dipped in and out of the film to date, but each and every scene looks amazing.

Blu-ray extras wise its a bit of a mixed bag. The car finder game is - surprisingly - very good. Its the first game on DVD, HD DVD or Blu-ray which is actually worth playing, and will actually entertain you for more than 5 minutes. Well done Disney!

But the Cine-Explorer gets a thumbs down from me. It's a little haphazard and doesn't feel unified. On the plus site, the images which are constantly displayed are bigger than those found on HD DVD U-Control, but they don't really show much. It's a shame they don't have more context, especially the production art.

I will say, the critisisms I'm making of this Cine-Explorer track can easily be applied to most HD DVD IME/U-Control tracks too - often they are thrown together with little thought to context or a logical progression. However a few IME tracks have done it right, and I'm sure Disney will with their Cine-Explorer technology in the future. These are whole new ways of presenting information, and its only fair to allow disc creators to learn how to best use the technology.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix HD DVD
I broke down and bought the UK version of this - because its two discs unlike the US version, and has all of the extras of the Blu-ray disc and the IME and on-line features.

I've watched the movie and on the whole its exceptional quality. Some of the night scenes are grainy, but again I'm sure this reflects the source accurately. I've quickly checkout out about 5 mins of the IME and watched the "Hidden Secrets of Harry Potter" (which is missing from the US HD DVD, but on the Blu-ray) and... well, to be honest it's a bit boring.

Hairspray Blu-ray
I got the UK version, distributed by EiV (the US disc is region locked) but it appears both share the same authoring. They certainly share the same supplements. This is a wonderful set, packed to the brim with features (all in HD). The Picture-In-Picture suffers from being unfocused and repeating content from the other special features, but that's hardly a crime with the other supplements are so good.

Transformers HD DVD
I got the UK version of this and I've flicked about in the main feature (looks good) and downloaded the widgets. Not viewed the Picture-in-Picture at all yet, and only briefly looked at the widgets. It appears we are behind on the downloaded content over here, with the US having downloadable menu-skins which are still unavailable at the moment.

Pixar Shorts Vol 1 Blu-ray
Not even put this in my PS3 yet. Sorry.

[Fflewduur]

Here are a few good reasons to choose Blu-ray (for Disney fans, at least):

(from a two-day media event sponsored by the Blu-ray Disc Association and Walt Disney Home Entertainment on October 29-30)

It wasn't all technology talk, though. At a mill-and-mingle breakfast, Dan Bradley of TheManRoom.com and I sat down with Disney exec [Gordon] Ho [Executive Vice President of Worldwide Brand Marketing and Product Management for Walt Disney] and talked new releases. "Sleeping Beauty" had been previously announced as the first classic animated title to be released in Blu-ray, and Ho said that after that October '08 release, Disney would be releasing three to four "Platinum" titles every spring and fall. With noticeable passion he talked about how breathless all the studio brass were when they got their first glimpse of "Sleeping Beauty" on Blu-ray. Ho didn't say so, and there's obviously no timetable, but a big screen demonstration we watched at the "Ratatouille" release party the following evening listed these Disney titles as forthcoming in Blu-ray:

"Aladdin"
"The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe"
"Cinderella"
"Dumbo"
"Freaky Friday"
"Lilo & Stitch"
"The Lion King"
"The Little Mermaid"
"The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh"
"Monster's Inc."
"National Treasure"
"101 Dalmatians"
"The Parent Trap"
"Peter Pan"
"Pinocchio"
"Pocahontas"
"The Princess Diaries"
"The Rookie"
"The Santa Clause"
"The Santa Clause 2"
"The Shaggy Dog"
"Tarzan"
"Toy Story 2"

I know I missed at least one, but hey, the slide with the names on it flew by as quickly as those young women dressed as carhops skating through the crowd with malt-shop trays in the "Cars" room.

Story <a href="http://www.dvdtown.com/news/the-latest- ... 0">here</a>.

As mentioned, there's no timetable available, but we can hope Disney will announce additional titles for 2008. <i>Sleeping Beauty</i> & <i>Finding Nemo</i> are already slated for 2008 and it's a safe bet we'll see day & date BD releases for <i>Enchanted</i> and <i>WALL-E</i>

In addition:

Fans will also be pleased to hear that <i>A Nightmare Before Christmas</i> has just entered the production pipeline at Disney, so look for that animated jewel sometime in the middle to fall of next year.

From a story at dvdreview.com (click <a href="http://www.dvdreview.com/news/viewnews. ... 9724">here)</a>.

And while no plans have been announced yet for a North American release, Disney France has revealed that <i>Who Framed Roger Rabbit?</i> will be coming to BD in 2008 (link <a href="http://www.disneybluray.fr/planningsortie.php">here)</a>.

[Mr. Toad]

The answer to the original question is still apparently neither.

Pirates sold 8,000,000 on release day plus 160,000 on Blu Ray.

That is 2% of the DVDs and Blu Ray is still selling way more than HD DVD.

[2099net]

Paging TM2 Megatron. Paging TM2 Megatron.

You can buy into HDM now, your request has been answered!

[Disney Duster]

Ho said that after that October '08 release, Disney would be releasing three to four "Platinum" titles every spring and fall.

With noticeable passion he talked about how breathless all the studio brass were when they got their first glimpse of "Sleeping Beauty" on Blu-ray.

"Cinderella"

THANK YOU FFLEWDUR!!!! Is that how the name is spelt, that minstrel from The Black Cauldron?

I hope Cinderella gets a Blu-Ray restoration that looks better than the DVD's, mainly that the Disney dust and outlines are more visible (i.e. remain intact from how they originally were...).

It's good news for Aladdin, which was thought not to be a Platinum anymore and had a staggering lack of sales (and the company took it as a lack of popularity)! And it's also very good for Dumbo which may now get it's due!

But WTF The Little Mermaid just came out last year...

I am slightly...skeptical about if this is a good move, though. How will they have time to give each release the care it deserves in restoration, bonus features, menus, etc.?

[TM2-Megatron]

Paging TM2 Megatron. Paging TM2 Megatron.

You can buy into HDM now, your request has been answered!

There's a drive from LG, as well, that a couple computer stores in the area are selling for around $270-280. Thinking about picking one up as a Christmas gift to myself, lol. It's just a pity the ones that burn/read Blu-Ray and read HD-DVD arent' cheaper yet; that would be the ideal choice. My computer monitor isn't HDCP-compliant, however AnyDVD HD bypasses that well enough.

[DarthPrime]

The answer to the original question is still apparently neither.

Pirates sold 8,000,000 on release day plus 160,000 on Blu Ray.

That is 2% of the DVDs and Blu Ray is still selling way more than HD DVD.

Thats a huge difference and I honestly don't see it changing anytime soon. These formats, while great, look as if they are destined to become niche formats.

[TM2-Megatron]

Thats a huge difference and I honestly don't see it changing anytime soon. These formats, while great, look as if they are destined to become niche formats.

That certainly seems to be true for the immediate future, however it may change in the long run. I guess it depends how fast a next-gen format emerges to displace them.

However, already both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD have received considerably more exposure and consumer support than the similar DVD-A vs. SACD "format war"; and that one's been going on for many years now. I doubt now that either of the newer audio formats will ever break out of the niche market, but I wouldn't say the same will be true of both HD formats for good.

It certainly isn't the price of the media that's stopping them from taking more of the market from DVD; the price difference between movies on DVD and Blu-Ray/HD-DVD is usually no more than $2-4... I wouldn't even say it's the prices of the players, as you can get players for both formats now for moderately reasonable prices.

It seems to be primarily the cost involved in getting a good HDTV and audio setup that's holding the HD formats back. After all, you can't take advantage of them without that stuff; and good equipment is prohibitively expensive. Sure, you can buy an HDTV now for under $1000, and a surround sound system for around $100 if you really look around. But IMO, the added benefit you get from such equipment isn't worth the cost of upgrading. A good multichannel receiver, excluding speakers, costs at least a couple grand alone. A decent (non-projection, 1080p, etc.) 46" or higher flat-panel TV should still set you back at least $2000, if not more.

Considering those prices, I'd rather stick with DVD for the most part as well.

[2099net]

However, already both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD have received considerably more exposure and consumer support than the similar DVD-A vs. SACD "format war"; and that one's been going on for many years now. I doubt now that either of the newer audio formats will ever break out of the niche market, but I wouldn't say the same will be true of both HD formats for good.

Personally I don't think there was ever enough demand for high end audio. I know other people disagree - including UD's own Deathie Mouse - but the demand was for portable music. Ever since the Walkman and the Discman, that was obviously the main trend. The fact that dozens of DVD players are capable of DVD-A and/or SACD, but demand for the formats has never really gone up justifies this in my mind. Had there been one High end audio format it may have gotten more sales, but would always be a niche.

As for High Def movies well, there's two stumbling blocks.

The first is people don't feel a need to have high def content yet. Some of this is down to lack of equipment and some of this is down to HD TV broadcasts which are better than standard definition, but not as good as the quality of the content served up on disc. HD TV is setting people's expectations for High Def content, and people's expectations aren't much above SD media "upscaled".

The second is perhaps the most ironic. You can't easily rip High Def Media. Now, I'm not advocating piracy at all, but just like the trend for music was for portability, so is the trend for video. Not so much to play "on the move" - but a lot of people do have portable video players - but to reuse around the house. I know I want to buy a movie and be able to play it in my main room and TV, but also in my bedroomand also - perhaps - on my Zen media player. With a DVD I can do that. With a HD disc, I can't. Other people may have portable DVD players in their cars, Sony PSPs, family members they lend discs to who only have DVD players etc.

It is imperetive both formats sort out their managed copying. Blu-ray talks about putting 340x220 encoded files on for portable media use but as far as I know, no BD has done this yet. And even then both solutions (extra encodes, managed copy) wouldn't help at this point in time because few people have HD format drives in their computers.

It's ironic that the current saviour of HDM media (its copy protection/file size/non DVD physical media) is also its killer.

But as acceptance of HD equipment grows, I'm sure both formats will grow with it.

[TM2-Megatron]

The second is perhaps the most ironic. You can't easily rip High Def Media. Now, I'm not advocating piracy at all, but just like the trend for music was for portability, so is the trend for video. Not so much to play "on the move" - but a lot of people do have portable video players - but to reuse around the house. I know I want to buy a movie and be able to play it in my main room and TV, but also in my bedroomand also - perhaps - on my Zen media player. With a DVD I can do that. With a HD disc, I can't. Other people may have portable DVD players in their cars, Sony PSPs, family members they lend discs to who only have DVD players etc.

That's true, I guess. The only particularly easy solution for ripping a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD to your hard drive at the moment is AnyDVD HD. And even then, all you've got is a folder on your drive stripped of the DRM (except BD+, though they're working on that one). At the moment, there's no consumer-level software solution for converting the main movie to something else, or anything like DVDShrink that would allow you to make a backup of the movie on single-layer blank (if it's a 30GB or 50GB, respectively). I've got Sony Vegas Pro 8, which is supposed to be able to open and work with m2ts files. I'll have to see if it can open a Blu-Ray rip once I've picked up a computer drive. There's still no solution at all for HD-DVD's evo files, though.

However, I'm not sure what the point would be of using HD media as a source for conversion to a portable device. None of the portable media players in common use today (and for a long time to come, I'd think) support HD resolutions. The most any of them seem to manage is 640x480... which makes standard DVDs the optimal source for conversion. Also, trying to transcode HD-quality H.264 or VC-1 media would take an eternity, even on a computer using the latest Intel quad QX9650 45nm CPU.

[2099net]

However, I'm not sure what the point would be of using HD media as a source for conversion to a portable device. None of the portable media players in common use today (and for a long time to come, I'd think) support HD resolutions. The most any of them seem to manage is 640x480... which makes standard DVDs the optimal source for conversion. Also, trying to transcode HD-quality H.264 or VC-1 media would take an eternity, even on a computer using the latest Intel quad QX9650 45nm CPU.

The point would be you buy the content on the best format once, and reuse it on your other players. Why if I do desire to view "Cars" on a device other than my PS3? Should I pay a premium for a Blu-ray disc, and then pay for a SD DVD just for the right to reuse my own movie? What if I want to watchit in my bedroom? Or on my Zen on the way to work? And I can't even download Cars on iTunes either, being as it filled with DRM and unplayable on anything but an iPod.

[Just Myself]

Question (sorry if this sounds stupid) : Does your Blu-ray player need to be hooked up to an internet connection to update the firmware, or can you download it onto your computer and transfer it to the player?

Cheers,
JM

[DarthPrime]

Question (sorry if this sounds stupid) : Does your Blu-ray player need to be hooked up to an internet connection to update the firmware, or can you download it onto your computer and transfer it to the player?

Cheers,
JM

I think the PS3 needs to be connected, although I'm not completely sure on that.

Other players you can download the firmware from the manufacturers website, and then load it onto your player. I think all you need to do is burn it to a cd, and then load it up on the player.

[Just Myself]

Alright, sweet. Thanks for the help DarthPrime

Cheers,
JM

[2099net]

the PS3 can be updated by internet connection or downloading the file from an internet connected pc and saving it to CD, DVD or a memoary card.

If updating off-line, you have to save the file in a specific file and folder path, or else the PS3 won't recognise it. I can't remember what this is, but the page on the Sony website where you download the update clearly states what is required.

[DarthPrime]

Move over Blu-ray here comes Super DVD.

Seriously what is Toshiba thinking. Its basically just a upconverting DVD player. I guess if marketed right it will confuse customers a lot, and slow Blu-ray sales. I just don't understand this at all.

http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/20 ... t-blu-ray/

[2099net]

It's called keeping your finger in the pie. Toshiba makes a lot of money from DVD sales, and not so much from Blu-ray (although it will still get money coming in from players, being as they are licenced to play DVDs). But I guess Toshiba doesn't want to see its income slowly drop to almost nothing. it doesn't really affect Toshiba negatively if Blu-ray fails, in fact, if people stick to DVD, Toshiba is better off - it gets money for every DVD authored.

I'm sure it will be the best upconverter yet (they're pretty good now, and technology only improves and gets cheaper), but I'm also sure that once the image is moving, it won't hold a candle to a proper HighDefinition source.