Yeah, and her concert will be published on Blue-ray :)

I've been burning BD with Adobe Encore with my Panasonic BD writer with Mac Pro 8 Core.

Slightly off-topic, but curious; Now that Microsoft is probably also switching to Blu-ray:

http://www.smarthouse.com.au/Gaming/Console/J7L7H2R4

And Toshiba indicating it will drop HD-DVD (which pushed it's stock btw):

http://www.reuters.com/article/techn...080217?sp=true

What will happen with the HD-DVD pledged studio's?

I'm disappointed because I got an HD-DVD player for Christmas. Had I not already shipped the UPC code in for the free movies, I would have taken it back when Warner Brothers announced their defection. I'm happy with the player and for $150, I'm not complaining, I'm just sad that I won't have any content soon enough. I'm going to hold off buying until the prices are down below $200 for a full spec player.

Generally such studios have contracts that have termination dates. Actually some of the studios that announced switches did so at points nearing the termination time. Of course they may be released from their contracts earlier.

As somebody who does production/postproduction I've been thinking how to demo my work with my Samsung 46" 1080P monitor.

Given I can burn HD DVD to DVD-R with Apple DVDStudioPro, I might be able to pick up a Toshiba HD DVD player for VERY CHEAP and use it for just such purpose. Very cheap = $50 or less.

Realistically who's going to be running down to BestBuy to buy one now. They're going to have to dump them.

mate, just quietly Smarthouse isn't very well respected in Australia and they have a reputation for making things up.

That said, I'm sure Microsoft have said in the past that they are always prepared to back a winner when it comes to HD formats.

I don’t know if I could see Microsoft benefiting that much if they release a Blu-Ray attachment for the X-BOX 360, although the BDA would.




http://gamerscoreblog.com/team/archi...18/557448.aspx

I sure hope that people aren't stupid enough to not realising the any HD format is just a transition from any laser discs to online distribution - this is the only real way of the future.

The 360 already has a movie rental service and hopefully in the future you'll be able to plug your digital box to any movie online distributer that will not only rent but sell movies, which means no trips down the shop, no massive plastic box collections, etc. Now this will be something.

HD laser discs are just an excuse to rip-off consumers into re-buying their whole collection on HD, give me a break. I have over 150 DVDs, that would be $3000 to upgrade everything to Blu-ray/HDDVD, right.

If they any of the two formats had come instantly with a burner that would be something else, but as it was it's a waste of money.

Well Dave, after following this thread since inception as a moderator with no intention of posting, your harshly worded opinion hit enough of a nerve to warrant comment. I won't say it is "wrong" but I will say it is rather a "soda straw view." If a Blu Ray player is a waste of money for you, great, don't buy one...in which case, who exactly is ripping you off by offering a better technology? Nobody. I'll bet new titles will still come out on DVD for a number of years yet. Not even corporate giant Sony is going to make you replace your DVDs with Blu Ray discs. Play your 150 DVDs and enjoy them for years to come.

I, too, eagerly await the day when the infrastructure exists widely enough and economically enough to make download a primary means of HD content purchase. But as others have already posted about, that's most likely a number of years off yet and at least for now a bit uncertain as bandwidth throttling etc gets sorted out.

I'll bore you with my personal take. I guess that from at least the time I got an 8-track player for Christmas so many years ago, I had a realization that any given format wouldn't last for ever. Nowadays, not counting the kiddo's videos, we own maybe 15-20 DVDs of some of our favorites. Otherwise we rent DVDs if we're having a movie night. My wife got the bug to get a Blu Ray player a while back and I wouldn't go for it until this unfortunate format war was over one way or the other. Well, guess what she got us as a Valentine's present? We'll do the same with Blu Ray as we have done with DVD...buy a few that are timeless favorites to us and then rent for movie night. Someday we'll download for movie night. I suppose I'll get around to second-handing whatever few DVD favorites we do replace; others we will still enjoy up-rezzed by the player to 1080...not as crystal clear but better than plain ol' DVD and good enough.

BTW, one of the first movies I did replace was "2001: A Space Odyssey." Did I feel ripped off when the bones went flying with stunning clarity during the early scenes just because I already have it on DVD? Heck NO! It is spectacular! Even though we are spoiled with quite a few HD channels on TV, the Blu Ray is stunning in both sight and 7.1 sound. (So would HD DVD have been spectacular, but it didn't win).

So no, the members here aren't stupid enough to fail to realize that both technology and marketing march on eternally. We each simply have our own manner of making use of them.

But that future is quite a long way away for many people. Upwards of 20GB for a movie (to be of acceptable quality) requires approx 14 hours to download on a typical 3Mbps DSL connection.

Only people living in major metropolitan areas will have a chance of coming anywhere near the bandwidth required. But even typical FIOS packages would require 3 hours or so, completely tying up your connection.

There's a lot to be said to checking a list of movies on line and have them arrive the next day as real discs so that you can pop them in the DVD player and put the computer aside for a while.

Until late last year, my only options were dial-up, ISDN or satellite. DSL finally arrived.

Quit whining and buy an upconverting DVD player for your old discs and a BluRay player for your new BDDVDs.

I wish I had that option back when I had 450 VHS tapes that I blew about $10-12,000 on back in the day... I've reformed and currently do online rentals by mail for all my DVD needs. Works out to about $2 per viewing, which is a much better deal than $25 for a DVD that I'll watch at most twice.

Quit whining?? You quit whining about replacing your VHS tapes.

I already have an upconverting DVD player and am very happy with it - another reason not to waste money on HD.

Just checked VUDU.COM and it's the way of the future. Splash all your money on Blu-ray stuff for all I care, you seem to enjoy getting ripped off.

the ideal format
 

Dave's comment is a bit too harsh, imo. Nobody is forcing anybody. I remember, about 3 years ago, we had a client from mainland china who got married in our country. When I finished the DVD, they asked if I could make a VCD version! Well, 99% of our players come from mainland China! And it's not that the DVD players are out of their reach or not available. They just used their VCD and didn't care for DVD!

Last year, the sister of the bride got married and we shot their wedding too, and they didn't ask for a vcd copy at that time :-)

In short, nobody is forcing anyone to shift. You can even still use cd-r or VCD if you want. The standard is still there. In our country, VCD discs are still available and these are legal copies. Nobody buys them though, because if they took Dave's position, it is obvious that the vast majority don't think they are being ripped off by the newer technology.

"Ripped off" is a personal thing and you can't apply it to everybody. Are people in our country excited about BD? Well, most don't even know there are 2 standards. One thing is for sure, local distributors and vendors here are smart enough not to jump early. Nobody, AFAIK, is pushing either. Well, maybe in 2-3 months, since the war is over, we'll start the push for BD players.

"Ripped off" is a strong word to make and to generalize to everybody, because we are in a global market. Although some tastes are similar, some can be so different. The concept of renting is not new to us here in Asia, but having a disc to play is valued more. It's not just the infrastructure, it's the sociology/psychology of having something to hold and "own." It's also the psychology/sociology of instant playback anywhere anytime. When you have children and they want to watch The Little Mermaid or Shrek for the 2,000th times, you'll understand the value of a media to have.

Finally, I think BD is still a transitory media. In fact, all these technologies are all interim and transitory. If you ask me, the rise of the SSD and cheap SD cards, are already forebodings of what might be 5-10 years from now. Think of a 100gb 300x SD card for U$5-10 vs the bulky 5.25" disc. But of course, it takes more than technological superiority for a standard to become mainstream. So, I won't rack my brains forecasting 5 years up. I'd go along with BD till the next wave comes along and we start all over again.

What is more or less certain is that, except for tapes, the disc players seem to be all backward compatible. This means, nobody is forcing you to switch as you can play your older discs with the newer players.

Now, I hope the mini-dv tapes are also future proofed by newer cameras so they can still be read or at least that format or casing is still used in the future. As far as archival goes, I still have lots of confidence and respect with tapes. BD discs still have to prove their archival reliability. It's just a pain havint to transfer things to tape as you do a 1:1 work to get them there.

Of course, archival issues are another matter. If we limit ourselves to movies how they are presented or viewed, well, BD is here to stay. You like them or you don't, but I'm sure that Dave's position isn't shared by majority of the world. Marketing hype or not, it's the consumers who will vote with their wallets or cards and no amount of bashing is going to change that.

Okay, easy does it folks -- let's cool off please -- thanks in advance,

BD and DVD
 

Sorry about that Chris. I was speaking matter of factly. The tone is normal, not excited, not angry or offended, nor combative. Too bad people can't hear me with typed words :-)

In any case, I hope Sony, et al can finish the menuing and get the authoring softwares/standard with BD ready in 6 months or less. Aside from waiting for the BD players price to go down, we wedding shooters or even serious amateurs want to have the ability to make those menus that we do in DVD. I hear there are some improvements and additions with the new standard.

In our country, BD will take a bit of time to take hold maybe compared to the USA. Too many variables in the value chain still not in place. It's not just the players, or the availability of titles, w/c I am sure will follow suit quite easily. There are already some titles, but the momentum isn't there. I think, in our country at least, there is still the hurdle of getting those HD tvs or monitors aside from the player issue. I think, it will be past 2nd half of 2009 if there are any momentum we can have as far as the high def TVs or monitors aren't that affordable yet for many. There are U$200 19" LCDs with HDMI but they are not TV so that's the problem right there. HDV tvs are about 2.5-3x as expensive and that is a big issue right there. I think it has something to do with taxes for TVs. I'm sure the tuner itself isn't that expensive. I have a USB tv tuner for my notebook w/c I paid U$40 only. Non-USB are in the U$25-30 range. So, a U$400-500 19" LCD TV is too expensive with only the tuner that is added considering the LCD as a monitor costs only U$200.

Toshiba is having a press conference at 5 PM Japan time (3 AM EST 2-19-08); it's expected that HD DVD support will end.

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh..._Expected/1479

heath

LCD TVs have different backlights than monitors to provide brighter pictures. They also have different panels than monitors for wider viewing angles. Dead pixels are not tolerated, so the yield is lower. It's more than just the tuner. And yes, taxes might enter into the equation as well.

Back on topic, when Warner made their announcement, I was pretty sure BD had won, but I'm still amazed at how quickly the dominoes fell.

Toshiba to announce HD DVD pullout on Tuesday: report

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080218/...hiba_nand_dc_1

It's officially over, Toshiba have formally announced it!

Sayonara!! Rest in peace.

This informative podcast concerning HD-DVD sums it up quite good.

Here's the final news on HDDVD.... its a done deal now
 

Well, now that it's all official, I guess I'll just have to wait until I like the 1080p TVs that are out there. They're still not up to the standard I'd like - and I'm hoping that OLEDs will meet the colour requirements I'm aiming for, though I may end up having to purchase an interim TV when they switch to digital broadcast.

Once I get a 1080p set, I will undoubtedly get a Blu-Ray player to take advantage of it - unless someone announces a 4:4:4 1080p format for home viewing (maybe Red will say something about this at NAB?). But I will never be buying a collection of discs. This will be a rental player only, and maybe hooked up for gaming on occasion.

-Steve

I hope Sony sends them a fruitbasket at least, which a note saying:
"Good form, it was a splendid battle"
and in the basket would be a blu-ray player

Toshiba has withdrawn from the market
 

From the Wall St Journal:

Toshiba Exits HD DVD Business,
Ceding Market to Sony's Blu-ray
By YUKARI IWATANI KANE
February 19, 2008 11:37 a.m.

TOKYO -- Blaming the loss of support from a key movie studio, Toshiba Corp. said it is pulling out of the HD DVD business, handing victory to Sony Corp.'s Blu-ray technology in the fierce format war over high-definition DVDs.

Toshiba said Tuesday that it would cease production of its HD DVD players and recorders immediately and close out the business by the end of March.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1203...-Business-News

There could be a silver lining in the press announcement:

> "On Tuesday, Toshiba also formally announced that it will invest more than 1.7 trillion yen to build two flash memory factories.

One will be located in Kitakami, Iwate Prefecture, and the other in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture.

The plants are scheduled for completion in 2010. Construction will begin in spring 2009.

Demand for flash memory chips, which are used in digital cameras and other products, is growing worldwide.(IHT/Asahi: February 20,2008)"

This could mean higher densities, faster speeds and lower prices for solid state memory.

Here's my conspiracy theory:

Hollywood is the driving force behind the victory of Blu-Ray.
Indy productions are somewhat of a threat to Hollywood's market share.
Blu-Ray, after many years, has no realistic software for indy producers.
Could it be that Blu-Ray is purposefully resisting indy productions?

I don't totally believe this, but the thought did make me wonder...On the flip side it doesn't make sense for Sony to block indy producers since they sell us cameras.

Also in today's Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1203...ub_marketplace

conspiracy theories...
 

Conspiracies are wonderful to speculate about. However, I think that ordinary ineptitude is sufficient to explain most of the problems we are seeing.

Personally, I'm not planning to have this part of the HD food chain functionally until late fall of this year, when profile 2.0 is available. And after Apple announces support for blu-ray in DVD SP and elsewhere.

Yeah, I think it will speed up the process for us. To me it's a huge bummer that HD DVD didn't win because at least they had their act together for our industry.

I guess I don't understand what you are referring to when you say HD DVD had their act together for our industry. I have had a Blu-Ray burner for months and have been able to record my HDV video to Blu-Ray without compromising quality. While I never have seen or heard of any HD DVD burner on the market. From the first time I saw some of my HDV footage. My goal has always been "how do I preserve this quality for my clients?" At least Blu-Ray gave me a burner.

Its nice that I have to now worry if my Blu Ray player is up to date and will work with all the functions that its supposed to have and if it play all my dvd's..list goes on

thats my 1/2 cent.

I think you are misinformed there - BOTH systems use EXACTLY the same codecs!

Forget the war [correction, since the war is over]for a sec--just pretend that it doesn't exist.

Amazon just lowered the price of the Toshiba HD DVD player to $109 shipped free. [And it still comes with 5 free movies via mail] The means, the player is essentially free.

Just think of this as an awesome upscaling DVD player.

And think of it the great HD you can put on a cheapo DVD-R[with the proper authoring tools].

I just ordered one to give my folks/sister to share some of the HDV footage that I've shot of the kids.

If you can get over the fact, that's it not Blu-Ray.... it's a sweet deal.

Just an FYI Greg, but many of us have been doing that for 1 1/2 years on HD DVD, no need for expensive media and burners for up to 44 minutes of 25 mbps HDV on DVD/9 media, fully working menus as well.

I have a PS3, but I still think HD DVDs had much better movies, and the xbox360 has better games. It doesn't even look like blu-ray will start releasing good movies or games anytime soon. So I'm all set for the quality,
but they're draggin their feet.

Blu-ray authoring is easy using Adobe CS3 and blank discs are down to a few bucks each, so for small run projects Blu-ray is already quite usable. If you need an inexpensive way to play personal videos in HD just put them on a flash drive and attach that to a Sony PS3, or connect a laptop to your HDTV. Now that HD-DVD is officially dead there won't be much point in making any further discs in this format, since the players will be hard to find a few years from now.

But what price BR authoring? (with apologies to Chicken Little)
 

Interesting stuff from the Digital Production Buzz podcast.

http://www.digitalproductionbuzz.com...ate=2008-02-14

The interview with Bruce Nazarian (DVD Association - dvda.org) at 20:32 picks up on some concerning numbers:

An 'industrial' or 'non-broadcast' BR-DVD title incurs fees for authoring and for replication - $2500. Mandatory copy protection $3000 per title.

So if you're wanting to make a Sell-thru title or release an Indie film as a self funded project, you're toast. It would dent (!) the budgets of the vast majority of corporate DVD projects.

Okay, so there are fees associated with DVD production and in fact anything that involves MPEG, but they tend to kick in at far higher numbers.

Are there going to be different strata of BR projects? Will most corporate/wedding BR titles exist either as 'possibly dodgy if not actually illegal and therefore blockable' titles or confined to a feature limited set with strict limits on numbers of units?

I don't want to sound like Chicken Little but there appeared to be concerns over the many restrictions and DRM within BluRay that would i) stop people ripping movies and selling them, and ii) stop people making legal BR disks of their own content and selling them.