The battle between HDDVD and BluRay is over.
 

Of course, I knew it was over once Sony put out Playstation3, and Toshiba had no reply. That is of course the real reason why Sony put it out. The final blow was when Wal-Mart announced an HD-DVD-free zone for all of its stores.

I didn't realize it was this close. We just got the PS3 and I gotta say the Blu-ray is incredible. I only have 2 movies so far, but I ordered 6 more already. Special effects are awesome.

Not sure what to make of it. I remember going Betamax and getting hosed in the end. Best Buy and a number of big box stores are still trying to sell HD players without disclosing the info. Same for HD TV. People are being scared into buying what they don't need.

I'm amazed that Toshiba stock went up when they admitted defeat and cried "Uncle." I mean, sure, we all know investors hate uncertainty, but you would think that admitting certain defeat would be worse for a company.

The only thing I was ever able to think of was, "didn't anyone learn anything from the VCR format wars?"

I'm all for capitalism, but when you're talking about something as pricey as a hi-def DVD player, it is a disservice to the public to put them in the position of having spent a bunch of jack on something that will suddenly cease to be available once the Market decides which standard wins.

How are the people who adopted HD DVD supposed to view Toshiba and the apparent disregard for their decision-making? "Thanks for buying our shit, now you're fucked..."

Plus, Bill Gates is gonna be pissed. Doesn't X Box 360 have an HD DVD player built in? Its not nice to fool Mother Nature...err...Microsoft.

The general public will fall head over heels for any new gimmicky bullshit. It's like selling candy to babies.

who won?

this is not a flip question--I can't tell from the posts. or the media. or anything.

As long as regular DVDs still exist (and it will be a looong time until the buy/sell/trade shops run out of stock) I don't give a fuck. How can I miss something being "better" if the thing I have now works just fine? I'm not convinced that spending more money will equate to a "better life" for me.

Blu-Ray, which is made by Sony. Toshiba has announced they won't make any more HD-DVDs.

and I just saw something that said that Warner Bros, who sells 20% of the dvds in the US, is discontinuing the HD DVD format.

So . . . what is this blu-ray stuff? I think I'm confusing it with blu-tooth. ?

Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD

No...it was an accessory you could (apparently still can) purchase.

thank you.

So when will late adopters "have" to buy into this nonsense?

Unless you buy a HD TV it is not relevant to you

So I guess that's when broadcast tv goes digital or I subscribe to satellite tv.

In either case you do have the option of sticking with your current TV. But over time the benefits of HD will be more and more obvious. To a nearsighted person it's like walking around without your glasses and then suddenly finding them and putting them on. The question for late adopters will be how long they want to live in a blurry world.

I guess I need to research this, I thought the two were tied together.

I regularly thank the baby Jesus for my HD tv. I feel sorry for you blind fools still watching your crazy standard def. pffft.

I have noticed that many broadcasts are now framed for the wider aspect ratio and are just rudely cut off on the edges for standard def broadcast.

Our broadcast signals are generally bad enough that the high def is of no value. I've been given to understand that when the broadcasts go digital we won't see anything at all on most of our stations. At that point we have to decide whether we want television for anything beyond a dvd monitor.

Most of the stuff on TV is better, seen blurry.

The only thing I've really seen in hi-def thus far is sports...and it's awesome stuff! But I'm not running out to buy an HDTV just yet...we have digital cable on both TVs, so we won't lose anything. And I'd like to see the prices on them come down a bit more.

I think Microsoft is wrong on this one. They tried the integrated home media center idea already, and people weren't ready for it. They still think of it as a game machine that plays DVDs, and the XBox 360 has effectively just become a game machine that can't play DVDs.

And even for the early adopters, Netflix already does downloadable movie content better anyway. Now, if Microsoft were to buy Netflix... well, I would be very sad.

hmm. should I not buy any more DVDs? and get a blu-ray player instead?

I do have an HDTV . . . but can't watch HD stuff on it because I'm unwilling to pay extra to my cable co for it.

I think that once the porn industry picked a format, the loser was doomed.:rolleyes:

Last year, Sony snubbed the industry, which was forced to put movies only on HD_DVD or support both formats if they could find another company to make copies.

This was as of late 2007. My guess is that Sony found a way to supply the porn industry.

Simply get or make an antenna. I was experimenting with some rather simplest designs that appear to make the ghosting problem less problematic. Parts came from Lowes, Walmart, a hobby store, and the grocery store. Was surprised how good the reception was. However the antenna only works well in its pointed direction.

i don't want my porn in HD......

Why not?

This whole DVD-HD/BlueRay thing pisses me off. This is an attempt to get more control, make more profits, and get us to all throw away a bunch of good DVD's that work perfectly well. I believe it is all about preventing people from making copies of movies and music as well. We are all sheep bleating over the edge of a cliff.

Regular dvd's all play on a blue ray player (PS3) - It just doesn't work the other way around.

Is it really better than HD? I mean really. Can it play movies copied from your computer on a blue ray player?

Zits and cellulite.

Nice. Not. Pass.

Not sure what you mean.. Blu-ray discs can hold about just under twice what HD-DVD discs could (HD-DVD is effectively dead as Toshiba no longer supports it). HD-DVD: 15gb single layer, 30gb dual layer; Blu-ray: 25gb single layer, 50gb dual layer. From that standpoint, Blu-ray is superior because high def movies take up quite a bit of space. Esp. when you are shooting for full 1080 size videos. Sometimes people get tripped up over the names of HD-DVD and Blu-ray. The reason those two are tied to the HD format is because these two new disc technologies give you more available storage on one disc, allowing full HD (1080) videos to be stored and played back with ease. "HD" does not mean HD-DVD, it means "high definition".

Whether something burned onto a blank disc on a computer can be played in a particular player depends on the codecs used and supported. Codecs are "compression schemes that store audio and video more efficiently, optimizing for either low space usage or quality per megabyte. There are both lossy and lossless compression techniques." If you use the wrong codec(s), the device you want to play the disc later on will not be able to play the video. It's like asking a person to read aloud something from a French or English textbook when all they can read is German and Italian.

Blu-ray burners are available, though they are kind of pricey and slow at the moment. DVD's work perfectly well for backing up data (I wouldn't want 25gb of data on ONE disc anyway.. talk about all your eggs in one basket), so I will not be abandoning DVD anytime soon. What I look forward to is the roll out of streaming high def sources like Netflix, which currently only offers standard def video. I have an Xbox360 which can act as a media streamer for Netflix videos if you have a Netflix account. No discs to get lost or damaged, just instant video whenever you would like streamed to your Xbox360 hooked up to your high def tv (or any other tv or monitor for that matter).

You're right it is. Keep an eye on what develops with DRM (Digital Rights Management) technologies. Sony has no qualms about using DRM in whatever way it wants and since Blu-ray is THE HD disc format for the forseeable future, it will have great weight to throw around in terms of DRM. Currently, DRM is used to limit what the consumer can and cannot do with the data on the disc he has purchased. Sometimes it is rather loose, other times it is extremely strict (See EA's new game Spore). DRM is used on all types of media, games, videos, music, ebooks, etc. There are sources of DRM free media, but they aren't always the easiest, cheapest, more most legal means of getting it. It is unfortunate that the rise of new technologies like Blu-ray are being used for furthering the industry goals instead of benefiting the consumers, but it's their tech so they can do what they want with it.

In raw data numbers - yes. But with all technologies included, both technologies stored about the same. Had bean counters and lawyers again been kept out of the room, then a superior Sony LED combined with a superior Toshiba recording algorithm would have resulted in a next generation DVD. A product superior to both Blu-ray and HD-DVD. This time, the myopic refused to deal with their counterparts and the computer industry this time did not force them to compromise. This time, it was all about power – not about making a superior product.

Yep. I've read a few places that had HD-DVD been allowed to blossom, it's capabilities would have overshadowed Blu-ray's significantly. But that said you're right the emphasis was not on compromise and making the best product possible for the industry and the consumer. It was about $$$.

The moral of the story is that if you put some variation of the word "blue" in the title the product will succeed.

Blue blue blue...I'm so confused what movies have to do with video game systems. Sheesh...I just want to watch some TV and an occasional movie.

Until they invent a system that will pop some popcorn and hand me a cold beer and won't bogart...I'll stick with what I have (not much) until the wars are over. See also: economic disruption (or how to plan for a rainy day without even knowing it by not needing the best of everything.)

The thinking is that Blu-ray now has the toughest fight of its life: it has to compete against downloads.

Blu-ray player = $250
Blu-ray films = $20
Downloadable Amazon Unbox HD to Tivo or Windows: $14.99
On-demand HD from Verizon FIOS: varies, like $6.99

Yeah, but some of us aren't interested in spending $100 plus per month for FOIS. It's $30-$40 more than it should be, IMHO, and that's a lot.

I'll stick with DSL, copper phone lines, Netflix, and over-the-air tv for $65/mo combined. I might eventually switch to Blue-Ray, once prices come down more.

i bought one blue ray disc (Iron Man) to play in jinx's blue ray player on her computer. It was a great picture, but I didn't really enjoy it any more than regular dvd. not worth the extra, in my opinion.

From what I've read. You won't benefit from BluRay unless you have a large flatscreen tv running at 1080p.

Since we're still using our old analog sets, I think we'll wait and see how things go. I suspect that UT is correct and many people will leapfrog Bluray to online.

Thanks Bullitt.