I skimmed through most of this thread, and all I know is that you are BUGGIN if you can’t see a noticeable difference btwn a regular DVD and an HD-DVD on an HDTV.
I personally own an HD-DVD player, but I can care less, mainly because I don’t purchase movies, I download them. I’ll cry about it later I guess.
AK said:all i own is a ps3 my room mate has the flat screen, fuckers ballin
I own em both LC-52D64U + WMVHD = fck optical media. Only new dvd player I am investing in is an up converter for my current collection of DVDs. oppo 40$ +
Sy said:
The porn industry wasn’t the reason VHS bested Betamax. People like to claim it had a major impact on the outcome because it makes for an interesting discussion.
actually you are wrong. The availibility of vhs recorders, camcorders and the cheap duplication allowed for an industry to boom. Historians and economists would disagree with you. The difference now is that the internet has hurt sales of porn in vhs and dvd form.
Have any factual information to back up your porn argument other than claiming historians and economists would disagree?
More important factors in that war were recording time, price points and Sony trying too hard to maintain control of a proprietary format.
Porn didn’t swing the pendulum into VHS’ favor. The industry followed the format that the consumer preferred.
Like I said in my previous statement, pornography played a factor, but most certainly was not a death blow to Betamax.
Will anyone answer my previous question, goddammit? porn’s cool and all.. but focus, dammit.
My question though, for you HD aficionados… if I’m watching a movie on HBO HD, is it really just standard DVD quality being broadcast through the signal into my home, or is it actual High Definition as if I had an HD DVD player playin the flick? I know this goes back to the old statement about the quality of the camera filming, but sometimes I just can’t tell, and don’t know if it’s my untrained eye being impressed by low quality standard definition.
Amen said:Will anyone answer my previous question, goddammit? porn’s cool and all.. but focus, dammit.
My question though, for you HD aficionados… if I’m watching a movie on HBO HD, is it really just standard DVD quality being broadcast through the signal into my home, or is it actual High Definition as if I had an HD DVD player playin the flick? I know this goes back to the old statement about the quality of the camera filming, but sometimes I just can’t tell, and don’t know if it’s my untrained eye being impressed by low quality standard definition.
how u gonna have 4 eyes + friends w/ 4 eyes & STILL cant none of them peepers tell u if u watchin standard mess or hd mess??....btw, happy new year dude!!
Amen said:Will anyone answer my previous question, goddammit? porn’s cool and all.. but focus, dammit.
My question though, for you HD aficionados… if I’m watching a movie on HBO HD, is it really just standard DVD quality being broadcast through the signal into my home, or is it actual High Definition as if I had an HD DVD player playin the flick? I know this goes back to the old statement about the quality of the camera filming, but sometimes I just can’t tell, and don’t know if it’s my untrained eye being impressed by low quality standard definition.
The Financial Times is reporting that Paramount is preparing to use a get out clause in its HD DVD exclusivity deal, and go back to Blu-ray, about 4 months after ending its dual-format release schedule. The move would be a result of Warner’s switch to Blu-ray, using a “get out” clause in Paramount’s promotional agreement with the HD DVD camp. No details on what it might take to rip up the contract and make Michael Bay very, very happy, but if the rumor proves true this could make the slow death he predicted for HD DVD a very, very fast one.
AND
How many “death blows” will it take for Blu-ray to finally win the format war against HD DVD? I’ve been hearing that phrase (and writing about it) since July 2007. Well here comes another one. Following in the footsteps of Warner Brothers’ abandonment of the HD DVD format, reports are surfacing that Paramount is headed to Blu-ray as well.
This is huge news not just because it would leave just one major studio (Universal, plus the mini-major DreamWorks) producing HD DVD content. It would mark the first time in the high-def war that a studio has abandoned one exclusive format and switched to another. Warner was producing both HD DVD and Blu-ray discs and merely dropped the HD DVD ones. Paramount will have to switch entirely to Blu-ray, which it has not been producing up to now.
According to the Financial Times, Paramount has a clause in its contract with the HD DVD camp allowing it to switch to Blu-ray in the event that Warner was to do so. And exercising that clause is what’s about to happen. It’s also theorized that DreamWorks will follow Paramount, since the studios are closely tied together.
Nothing’s been announced yet, but this should be wrapped up in fairly short order. Stay tuned.
AND
Paramount is poised to drop its support of HD-DVD following Warner Brothers’ recent backing of Sony’s Blu-ray technology, in a move that could sound the death knell of HD-DVD and bring the home entertainment format war to a definitive end.
Paramount and DreamWorks Animation, which makes the Shrek films, came out in support of HD-DVD last summer, joining General Electric’s Universal Studios as the main backers of the Toshiba format.
However, Paramount, which is owned by Viacom, is understood to have a clause in its contract with the HD-DVD camp that would allow it to switch sides in the event of Warner backing Blu-ray, according to people familiar with the situation.
Paramount is set to have a bumper 2008 with several likely blockbusters, including the latest instalment in the Indiana Jones franchise, slated for release.
Paramount joining the Blu-ray camp would leave HD-DVD likely to suffer the same fate as Sony’s now obsolete Betamax video technology, which lost out to VHS in a similar format war in the 1980s.
Warner’s decision last week to throw its weight behind Blu-ray saw it join Walt Disney, 20th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as backers of the Sony format.
The Warner move gives Blu-ray about 70 per cent of Hollywood’s output, although the format’s grip on film content will increase further when Paramount comes aboard.
It is unclear whether DreamWorks Animation has the same get-out clause in its contract with the HD-DVD camp. However, Paramount and DreamWorks have a close relationship, with Paramount distributing DreamWorks Animation films.
The two companies also signed their HD-DVD contracts at the same time.
Meanwhile, Universal has declined to comment on its next- generation DVD plans following the Warner move.
Sir Howard Stringer, chief executive of Sony, yesterday held out an olive branch to its rival in the next-generation DVD format wars following Warner’s decision to back Blu-ray.
Sir Howard said the company would be “open to dialogue” with the rival high-definition HD-DVD camp to “grow the market”. The move came as new figures showed that Blu-ray had opened up a decisive lead over the rival home entertainment format.
Sir Howard said: “We are not going to push people around. We’ll talk to anyone . . . we have a lot of work to do to grow the market. We’ll be systematic and open to dialogue at all times.”
He added that Sony still had “a lot of work” to do to get Blu-ray “widely accepted” among American consumers.
Paramount Denies Report It Will Drop Toshiba’s HD DVD (Update2)
By Andy Fixmer and John Liu
Enlarge Image/Details
Jan. 8 (Bloomberg)—Viacom Inc.‘s Paramount Pictures denied a newspaper report that the studio is poised to follow Time Warner Inc. in abandoning Toshiba Corp.‘s HD DVD technology.
``Paramount’s current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format,’’ Brenda Ciccone, a spokeswoman for Paramount, said in an e-mail today.
Toshiba, the leading promoter of the HD DVD format for high- definition video discs, fell in Tokyo trading after the Financial Times reported Paramount is poised to adopt Sony Corp.‘s Blu-ray format instead.
Paramount can defect because a clause in its contract with the HD DVD camp allows the studio to switch to Blu-ray if Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. dropped its support of Toshiba’s standard, the newspaper reported today, citing unidentified people familiar with the plan. Warner Bros. said on Jan. 4 it would drop its support of HD DVD.
Keisuke Ohmori, a spokesman for Tokyo-based Toshiba, said the report is speculative. Masayo Endo, a spokeswoman for Sony, declined to comment on the report.
Toshiba’s shares fell 0.1 percent to close at 782 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange after dropping as much as 1.3 percent. Sony’s stock rose 3.4 percent.
At the Consumer Electronics Show two years ago, shortly after Microsoft announced the HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360, the company’s then-Xbox marketing executive Peter Moore admitted that a future add-on that would play Blu-ray discs was not out of the question, if the need for one arose.
With Warner Bros. last week committing to produce Blu-ray movies exclusively, many industry watchers predicted that Sony’s high-definition disc format—a prominent feature of the PlayStation 3—had scored a knockout punch on Toshiba’s HD-DVD. At this year’s CES, Microsoft’s Xbox group marketing manager Albert Penello told Reuters today that the Warner move wasn’t the end of the format wars, but acknowledged that his company is still keeping its options open.
“It should be consumer choice; and if that’s the way they vote, that’s something we’ll have to consider,” Penello told the news service.
While Penello downplayed the potential impact of the Warner deal on Xbox 360 sales, he acknowledged that it wasn’t something the HD-DVD backing Microsoft had wanted to see.
“You can’t say it’s not a bummer, not a setback, but I’ve seen this battle declared over so many times,” Penello said, adding, “I want consumers to have a voice in this and I think there are a lot of consumers who bought HD-DVD who are going to have a say in how this shakes out.”
The first format to come out with a unit that is under 200 dollars will win the war.
Yes. Blu-Ray has a larger capacity and over all is a better product. But looking at history, Sony backed Beta-Max was superior to VHS (and we all know what happened to that product). WB could very well go back to creating HD-DVD if they become installed in more households. If we factor in the fact that Blu-Ray discs traditionally cost more to product then HD-DVD’s (the data is written I believe .5 mm’s deep into the disc and because of this the machines manufacturing the product must be modified driving the coast up) we see that HD-DVD has appeal in that it is ultimately cheaper. Regardless, I agree with Tone with the fact that Blu-Ray winning would be better. larger capacity means less discs need for content (imagine having the entire series of The Wire on one disc!).
However, anyone who is investing in these players at the moment is a fool because of the expense. People are better off getting dvd player that up-scales to near HD quality. The reasons?
1. DVD’s have a larger back catalog
2. They are cheap as fuck (3 dvd’s for the price of one Blu-Ray or HD-DVD disc)
3. These players are also cheap (I’ve♠ seen a DVD player that up-scales to 1080i for 34 bucks at Best Buy or one including the HDMI cable for 60 at Costco).
also addressing the complains of HD Cable service, a lot of the time the programing is just upscaled. That’s most likely why your underwhelmed by the picture quality.
Oh and on a QN5 note, Substantial your album is the shit
HD-DVD has blu-ray by 1gb. capacity means nothing at this time since they arent filling the discs to their capacity.
you wont be able to fit the whole series of the WIRE onto one HD-DVD if you have it at the full 1080p resolution, right now 2hrs of film is averaging about 30gigs.
and none of the season’s of The Wire were filmed in HD so any 1080p resolution won’t be true HD. I don’t know if that compromises the file size significantly, but still I ultimately feel that more space will mean less discs.
word.
The Blu-Ray standard as of today is 50GB, while HD-DVD is 25GB.
btw. That TDK prototype is 100GB. The 2X indicates it can record information at twice the speed as regular 50GB BRD’s..
Why is having a triple layer 51gb somehow better than a dual layer 50gb. Especially given the fact that toshiba has already tested blu-ray discs at 8-layer 200gb. Problem with both is that the cost of more layers is almost equal to creating single layered discs.
Also i thing blu-ray is getting more support from the porn industry.
The main problem is that they are fighting over who has best storage capacity when things like holodisc (300gb singlelayer) or holodisk (1000gb) are on the horizon. Even worse is the fact that streaming digital downloads look more viable than ever.
since this is an old thread i’d be interested to hear updates from you all.
i wasn’t convinced blu-ray would last when it first came out. i thought it’d flop like the mini disc. but it seems 3D blockbusters are helping the format alot. since i’m not into blockbuster movies would it be worth switching to blu-ray? someone mentioned The Departed (it’s one of my favourite films), do i really want/need to see the “whiskers on jack nicholson’s face”? is blu-ray better for more action and special effects oriented films?
also i’ve noticed alot of double-play and triple-play releases. i don’t get why they sell the blu-ray, dvd and digital copy all together! i get its to help the blu-ray sell, but surely if you have the blu-ray you’re not gonna want the other two? anyway, they’re still really expensive where i work, but the other day i was on amazon and the blu-ray version of a film i was looking at was only about 2 quid more than the dvd so it made me seriously start considering the switch.
so was just wondering, now you’ve all had a few years with blu-ray, wether it’s worth it or is streaming in 1080p just as good (and cheaper)? and any recommendations on equipment would be welcome.
I watched some random movie on blu-ray on my friend’s 50+ inch TV once and.. it was a bit too much. Maybe it was his TV’s settings, but it felt way too bright/sharp/clean. Not even like.. nice.. everything just looked odd.
Blu-ray just seems like another way to get folks to give up an extra 10 bucks and buy a $200+ player so they feel they’re still “hip” to what’s kewl in the tech world. But maybe I’m wrong. Or not.
houstonz said:I watched some random movie on blu-ray on my friend’s 50+ inch TV once and.. it was a bit too much. Maybe it was his TV’s settings, but it felt way too bright/sharp/clean. Not even like.. nice.. everything just looked odd.
Blu-ray just seems like another way to get folks to give up an extra 10 bucks and buy a $200+ player so they feel they’re still “hip” to what’s kewl in the tech world. But maybe I’m wrong. Or not.
Not sold.
I usually pick and choose with Blu-ray. Planet Earth and Shark Week on Blu-ray. Mega yes. Concert films and animated features are also a yes.
Otherwise, I get picky and buy depending on the movie’s “who, what, when, and how”. Certain stuff look awesome, while others just look too clean and shiny. Some things just weren’t made with HD and all that jazz in mind.
houstonz said:I watched some random movie on blu-ray on my friend’s 50+ inch TV once and.. it was a bit too much. Maybe it was his TV’s settings, but it felt way too bright/sharp/clean. Not even like.. nice.. everything just looked odd.
Blu-ray just seems like another way to get folks to give up an extra 10 bucks and buy a $200+ player so they feel they’re still “hip” to what’s kewl in the tech world. But maybe I’m wrong. Or not.
Not sold.
Yeah it must have been the settings. When you get an HDTV, you MUST google the model number and get optimized settings. Light sources and viewing distances have to be taken into account as well. Especially for movies. I’ve programmed different settings for movies, sports, games, etc. Took a few hours, but totally worth it.
That’s only half of the equation, though. The Blu-ray itself must be processed properly. I go to blu-ray.com to read reviews on releases before buying any disc.
With the right settings and a good disc, the result is a hundred times better than a standard DVD, IMO.
Besides, just get a PS3 and your killin 2 birds with 1 stone. And blu-ray discs arent that much more expensive than DVDs nowadays anyways so I says go for it.
g8torsbizktai20 said on Jan 07, 2008:
aNiMeMaN14 said on Jan 08, 2008:
ill_spec said on Jan 08, 2008:
jess the albo said on Jan 08, 2008:
AK said on Jan 08, 2008:
bry said on Jan 08, 2008:
jess the albo said on Jan 08, 2008:
Sy said on Jan 08, 2008:
nova norway said on Jan 08, 2008:
Amen said on Jan 08, 2008:
bry said on Jan 08, 2008:
see jane rhyme said on Jan 08, 2008:
nova norway said on Jan 08, 2008:
Amen said on Jan 08, 2008:
bry said on Jan 08, 2008:
g8torsbizktai20 said on Jan 08, 2008:
Krafty said on Jan 08, 2008:
bry said on Jan 08, 2008:
Krafty said on Jan 09, 2008:
nova norway said on Jan 09, 2008:
Krafty said on Jan 09, 2008:
JLee said on Jan 09, 2008:
nova norway said on Jan 09, 2008:
bry said on Jan 10, 2008:
snowy said on Jan 10, 2008:
StayTrue said on Dec 12, 2011:
houstonz said on Dec 12, 2011:
JLee said on Dec 12, 2011:
worm9103 said on Dec 13, 2011:
Incaspic said on Dec 13, 2011: