50 GB More expensive to produce and distribute
[list]
[*]Sony
[*]Philips
[*]Dell
[*]HP
[*]Samsung
[*]Sun Microsystems
[*]Texas Instruments
[*]Thomson
[*]Fox
[*]Disney
[*]Electronics Arts
[*]Vivendi Universal Games
[/list:u]
HD-DVD
30 GB Cheaper to produce and distribute
[list]
[*]NEC
[*]Toshiba
[*]Warner
[*]Paramount
[*]NBC Universal
[*]New Line Cinema
[*]HBO
[/list:u]
My opinion:
This is going to be much more involved then the DVD+ DVD- format differences that largly went un-noticed to the general public. I’d like to think that Blu-Ray will prevail…I hope the companies see that the initial higher costs will eventually pay for itself in the near double capacity of the Blu-Ray over the HD-DVD. Depending on the costs of the units and the availability of discs, I may or may not wait for a decent dual device.
Surprisingly, I think the issue is a non-starter. The killer app for DVDs was movies. They were a quantum leap in quality over VHS tapes and had a number of significant improvements. There’s nothing like that for either HD-DVD or Blu-Ray. Better video quality? Most people don’t have TVs capable of displaying the difference. Better audio? Again, most people have all-in-one surround systems they bought at Best Buy. Nobody will be in a rush to dump their DVD collection for a brand new format. I have a feeling they will be as tough a sell as SACDs and DVD-As are now.
I agree although DVD does have it’s annoying limitations. The dual layer pause is a fecking joke and surely players that don’t pause should have been available by now (unless it is a permenant hardware restriction). Also the fact that we still have big movies on more than one disk (Ok LOTR is a bit of an extreme example) is also a pain. I think if they can come up with a new medium which gets around both of these, but also enables them to build DVD players that are backward compatible then I think this will happen. High definition TV in Europe is on the way although still some way off. They will need this technology for this and as such I think it will start gaining ground as and when HDTV starts to happen.
Just to confirm there is news that EA Games have been sniffing around Blu-Ray which is encouraging.
As a final note, I doubt either technology is likely to make it into X-Box 2 or PS3.
Having to deal with the layer pause or two discs for a long movie may be a pain but certainly less of a pain that having to have two different players to handle all the studios. “No honey you have to put that disc in the OTHER player”.
Why can’t these f**kers ever get together on anything? Why are we the ones to suffer because of this stupidity?
I have decent equipment and I am not looking forward to this format war. What is the average consumer supposed to do? Most won’t bother simply because it means new equipment that won’t improve their picture or sound and because of the confusion.
This just pisses me off to no end (in case you couln’t tell!).
By the way, I didn’t vote. I may not support either format until I see a clear winner whichever that might be and all the studios jump on one or the other. For the forseeable future they will still release standard DVD and I will just keep buying those.
I am still waiting for an HD Stand-Alone Tivo. There are a lot of limitations dealing with a standard Tivo when you have an HD capable system. I guess the market doesn’t support it yet. Blu-Ray/ HD-DVD might find the same limitation.
[quote author=“VAIO Jet”]I am still waiting for an HD Stand-Alone Tivo. There are a lot of limitations dealing with a standard Tivo when you have an HD capable system.
Tell me about it. I just upgraded an old front projection system which was about 8 years old and really showing it’s age in terms of resolution. The new projector is 1280x720 with a 4ftx7ft screen and the DirecTV I always thought looked so good looks like crap. I see compression artifacts all over the place.
An HD DirecTV Tivo is $1000. I don’t really see enough programming on DTV yet to justify the cost since I don’t get any of the movie channels. Local channels are out of the question unless I spring big money on an antenna and installation-my roof is too high!.
DVDs look fantastic on the new screen but regular TV is less than spectacular.
I’m just going to wait for duel format players to come out. As it sits right now I like Blu-Ray much better (higher capacity mainly) but I know there will be content avalible only on HD-DVDs that I will also want. But either way I really hate these format wars, it takes so long for everybody to stabalize onto one standard or the other.
[quote author=“VAIOfreak”]Actually PS3 will have Blu-Ray in it. Confirmed by Sony.
1) This already shows the backwards compatability with new formats and existing ones… last i heard the PS3 was going to support DVD playback. This was last i heard I’m not sure how accurate it is.
2)Why are they planning on using such a large format disc? The fact that it is costing so much to produce will boost up the prices. Also, in order to fill up HALF of 50GB would take about 10 years of source code… I hope they dont expect us to wait that long for the newest bestest release
[quote author=“OnMyWayUp”]2)Why are they planning on using such a large format disc? The fact that it is costing so much to produce will boost up the prices. Also, in order to fill up HALF of 50GB would take about 10 years of source code… I hope they dont expect us to wait that long for the newest bestest release
I’m sure both movie studios and game developers can use the space…just think, all 6 star wars movies on one DVD…or all Grand Theft Auto’s on one DVD…
I am sure when DVDs came out people thought, what games would need that much space compressed (dont forget games on DVD {PC} are compressed and decompress on your PC)...well, they use it.
[quote author=“tifosiv122”]I am sure when DVDs came out people thought, what games would need that much space compressed (dont forget games on DVD {PC} are compressed and decompress on your PC)...well, they use it.
It would be nice if more than a handful of PC games came on DVDs. By the time we see Blu-Ray drives in PCs, I wouldn’t be surprised to see games coming with 15 CDs like King’s Quest VII floppies back in the Olden Days.
[quote author=“tifosiv122”]
I’m sure both movie studios and game developers can use the space…just think, all 6 star wars movies on one DVD…or all Grand Theft Auto’s on one DVD…
I am sure when DVDs came out people thought, what games would need that much space compressed (dont forget games on DVD {PC} are compressed and decompress on your PC)...well, they use it.
Erik
O yea definetly true with RPG’s where there are long and drawn out animated scenes to watch… it would save the gaming unit the expense of decompressing the files so greatly.
[quote author=“Drachen”][quote author=“tifosiv122”]I am sure when DVDs came out people thought, what games would need that much space compressed (dont forget games on DVD {PC} are compressed and decompress on your PC)...well, they use it.
It would be nice if more than a handful of PC games came on DVDs. By the time we see Blu-Ray drives in PCs, I wouldn’t be surprised to see games coming with 15 CDs like King’s Quest VII floppies back in the Olden Days.
I miss those days…but yeah, we’re basically there at the multiple CD problem. Now there’s a game that would be nice to remake…King’s Quest…but not in first person…good old 3rd person may suffice. Or a remake of Legend of Kyrandia would be good too! “Ahh….smell that dairy air…”
