Bilnick wrote:Disc size doesnt really matter because a HD movie only needs about 25 GB of space anyway. For PC applications sure, the extra capacity is a plus, but for movies it is a non factor. The HD DVDs I own generally have more features than the Blue Ray despite the increased capacity of the disc. Seasons of TV shows wouldn't fit on one disc anyway, so it is really a difference of getting 3 Blue Ray discs instead of 4 or 5 HD DVDs for that Season 6 of "Friends".
25GB is for a 2hr movie so, yes, it does matter. I would much sooner have my Lord of the Rings, Titantic, and other movies that would exceed the 30GB cap HDDVD had on 1 BR disc rather than on 2 hddvd's.
Another thing is that Companies are already talking about adding Video Game demo's onto the discs that correspond with the film, or of upcoming game releases. This is something else that will eat up space.
Correct.... not all HD DVDs were dual format, but ZERO Blue Rays were dual format. It sure would be nice to buy a $30 dollar movie and play it in my HD player and my old standard DVD players, PC DVD player, minivanDVD player, etc without buying another disc, or renting and copying it. I bought Meet the Robinsons on Blue Ray...decent movie, but if the kids wanna watch it in the minivan on a trip, they are SoL, a dual format disc is a very nice feature. ALL HD DVDs should have had this feature, they screwed up big time. It is kinda like buying a PS3....you don't really buy it to play your old PS2 and PS1 games, but it is a nice feature to have.
Personally, I would not take my more expensive HD format discs into my vehicles to play and why would you elect to play them in standard format in your old dvd players elsewhere in the house instead of on the best format? Thats the whole purpose of buying it in HD in the first place.
HD DVD players have upgradable firmware via the HD discs themselves or via the internet, if you have a Blue Ray player other than the PS3 you are screwed for any features added in the future. It was stupid to release a format where all features of all movies wont work in all players.
True, up till now.. some newer model BR players have internet connectability for future firmware upgrades. Older players do not, I agree, it was stupid. Sometimes thats the price you pay for being first in buying new technology. Just like most early model DVD players won't play DVD-R's & VCD's or most early CD players won't play MP3's.
The extra features HD DVD had arent huge things, little pop up factoids (they can be toggled off), director comments that pop up in a picture in picture, internet connectivity, etc. But none of my Blue Ray discs had these at all.
Again, True, up till last month.. Disney and other companies are now using the same (profile 1.1) technology in their BR titles so most movies from here on out will have those same features.
Not to mention the HD DVD players cost quite a bit less.
Valid point, but it hasn't been that way from the start. HD-DVD's have had huge price drops mostly in the past year. Prior to '07 the players were extremely expensive in both formats.
Once the players come down in price, HD format will start to do much better since the media itself isn't a big jump from DVD. I've paid over $22 for only one title so far out of 10 brand new Blu-rays and that was Pirates 3 for $24 off amazon on release day. 7 of the 10 titles I got for less than $20. In comparison, I paid $19.88 for Transformers & Blades of Glory on standard DVD at Wal-Mart so paying $4-6 more for a better experience is well worth it. Getting the Blu-Ray players under $175.00 will be the key to making the media more of a success.
Recordable media? Both formats are pretty expensive. Doesn't everyone just use DVRs anyway? Instead of copying a program from a DVR to a HD disc, I would think a more likely method of moving a program from one machine to another will be via the internet or home network.
I don't use DVR, I use a DVD recorder to record programs instead. Eventually I'll use a BR recorder once the technology becomes more affordable and variety of HD programming becomes broadened.
In my opinion the main reason the Blue Ray disc won is due to the PS3. Sony screwed many loyal videogame customers by jacking up the price by including a drive that most videogamers don't want, but they sold enough of them to give Blue Ray a solid head start for the home movie battle. They basically sacrificed the videogame market for the HD home movie market, and it worked. The real question is whether Blue Ray can beat standard DVD. DVDs still sell over 90% of all movies. Until a Blue Ray disc is the same price as a DVD I do not think they will beat DVD. Who really needs to spend 25-30 dollars to see Napoleon Dynamite in HD, when an upconverted DVD looks pretty good???
I think the PS3 was a driving force in winning the battle but I believe Disney going exclusive was the biggest initial blow to HDDVD and its been on the downhill ever since.
I think DVD will still have the market for at least another 5 years but not because of price points necessarily, but because the majority of households still have non-HD televisions. Once more HDTV's make it out into the homes, people will want to buy the best media for them. Watching HD movies on standard TV's is pretty pointless.
People will want to experience HD and won't want to play VHS or DVD's on their new setups, they will want HD libraries, yes, even shit like Napolean Dynamite. Just like you wouldn't wanna buy a new 7.1 surround stereo system to hook up the old Phono to it so you can play Hall and Oates LP's instead of hooking up your iPod or CD player and hearing even the crappy stuff sound like "crap in concert".
The one single thing that I liked about HD-DVD over Blu-Ray format was the fact that there was no region coding on it. Sucks that BR has it but since I don't watch imported flicks, I could care less. For the consumer base that does though, they are losing out by HD-DVD being beaten.
Aside from the cost of the media players themselves, AT THIS POINT, HD-DVD is not the better format... a few months ago? yes, they were, because BR was dragging ass behind on features. That wasn't the medias fault though, that was lazy publishers and hardware manufacturers not putting out the same quality product across both formats.