Tons of Blu-Ray/HD-DVD news
 

http://news.com.com/Sony+details+Blu...l?tag=nefd.top

http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/01...edia/index.php

http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/01...hiba/index.php ($500?!--I'd rather wait and buy an Xbox 360 when it ships with an HD DVD deck--or just wait until the HD DVD/Blu-Ray noise dies down and is settled.)

hwm

so, is everyone going to replace their DVD collection? i only have about 100. i will definitely be replacing all of it as the titles come out =).

This is rich kid stuff...for now. These players will sell for between $799 and $499. In contrast, DVD players sell for as low as $28.00 right now, so that should give us some idea as to how long this HD DVD will have to come.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060105/...eration_dvds_1

But of course, Sony will have the bigger advantage, since the PS3 will all ready have Blu-Ray.

I was an early DVD adopter, but even I waited a year to get one (Christmas 1998 was the day). It was a cheap $249 Toshiba that was slow at the time, but I remember being thrilled. I had waited 4 years, since I saw a show with a DVD player on it in 1994 and they said it'd come out in 1997 in the US. The Japanese already had it then.

Since it's such a format war, I may do PS3 and maybe an Xbox 360 with the HD DVD player in it.

heath

I wouldn't replace any titles unless they're collection packs of big-name stuff like the Matrix Trilogy, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Harry Potter Collection (after all of them come out), Alien Quadrilogy, Terminator collection if they make one, and some TV shows like Buffy and Angel. Otherwise the DVD's are good enough. I wouldn't mind buying new movies in HD-DVD and/or Blu-ray, Peter Jackson's King Kong should look just as amazing as when I saw it in the theatres. Some other movies like Dogma would be good too if they added even more features but if the movies only have the same DVD features but they're in HD, I'd pass on the update.

Now for delivery, I'm still torn. I would be safe and go with HD-DVD as Sony has messed up quite a bit with formats. The Betamax thing was downright thievery but then VHS killed it, so all was well. What I think will hurt Blu-ray is that it will be delayed a little bit after HD-DVD comes out, alternatively, what I think will hurt HD-DVD and could very well kill it instead of Blu-ray is that there's apparently a lot more advertising for Blu-ray than for HD-DVD and somehow many of the younger crowd have heard of Blu-ray more than HD-DVD from one source or another. Also, last time I looked, Blu-ray holds more data than HD-DVD and that could lead some to believe that Blu-ray is better.

What I think is the deciding factor in this whole format war is one little thing, price. Whatever is cheaper, will ultimately win out.

What I think is the deciding factor in this whole format war is one little thing, price. Whatever is cheaper, will ultimately win out.

Well, perhaps not.

Obviously people are going to make VHS/Betamax parallels… which I think are all invalid due to the fact that not only media playback is at stake here. The winner between HD-DVD and Blu-ray will also dominate in the computer industry. To this market end, a Blu-ray victory would benefit everyone exponentially more than an HD-DVD, which is why I hope they win out. Right now, the disk storage sizes are 15 and 30GB, and 25 and 50GB for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray respectively. I think HD-DVD is developing a triple layered disk capable of holding 45GB of data, while Blu-Ray disks with four or even eight(!) layers are in development. Just imagine… 200GB on a single disk.

Also, one of the big supporting factors with HD-DVD was the fact that they were easy to manufacture with current technology. Logically, I would then think that they would be easy to rip and pirate as well. We all know how painfully serious the industry regards security, and that may, in the end, be a deciding factor.

VHS gave us 2 hours, Betamax 1 hour. Blu-Ray's specs call for more space than the HD DVD.

It's going to be an interesting year.

heath

Playstation 3 will include Blu-Ray player and will cost $399. Toshiba will have external drive for Xbox to play HD-DVD movies.

I've heard two things about the Xbox 360, one was confirmed from their Japanese chief:

He doesn't want to put games on HD DVD, rather on regular DVDs. I don't think or know if this will happen. More space on HD DVDs means more quality and features.

This is a rumor:

They will have a built-in HD DVD player but those who bought the 1st gen of the Xbox 360s will have to buy an add-on.

heath

Sony's Blu-Ray titles (thanks to imdb):

Titles Announced for First Movies Released in Hi-Def Format

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on Tuesday announced the first 20 titles that it will release in high definition for its Blu-ray Disc system. They will be released as soon as the first Blu-ray players hit the market in the spring. Among the titles are The Fifth Element, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Desperado, For a Few Dollars More, The Guns of Navarone, Hitch, House of Flying Daggers, A Knight's Tale, Kung Fu Hustle, The Last Waltz, Legends of the Fall, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Robocop, Sense and Sensibility, Stealth, Species, SWAT and XXX. The company also said that, in the future, it plans to release high-definition versions of all movies being put out on conventional DVD. Meanwhile, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment said today that it, too, plans to release 20 films in the Blu-ray format this spring. The films, it said, will include Fantastic Four, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Behind Enemy Lines, Kiss of the Drago and Ice Age. In a statement company president Mike Dunn said, "The release of our films on Blu-ray will provide consumers with in-home entertainment beyond anything they have imagined."

I already own three copies of RoboCop, because I'm a sucker, so I may not buy that. But I'll probably stop buying new DVDs soon that aren't HD.

heath

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the XBox 360 has an HD DVD player built into it.

EDIT: I just read your last post Heath.

Some of those titles don't make any sense. Do they honestly think that movies like "Knight's Tale" and "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" will fly off the shelves?

HD DVD releases:

http://news.com.com/HD+DVD+backers+p...l?tag=nefd.top

hwm

They were probably easy to release for technical and/or legal reasons. It's just another tool in the war.

The movie division will win either way, since they'll have to release the movies in whatever format wins. In fact, the movie division makes more money if the other side wins, since they get to sell the movie twice to the same people.

i didn't get a DVD player until last year!!!! =). that means i won't get a BluRay/HD-DVD universal player until 2013-2015!

i've always been a HTPC guy since 1999. i love convergence. i think the first player i'll be getting will be a BluRay/HD-DVD-ROM drive or a burner if it's cheap. i've shot a wedding in HD that i would love to burn BluRay/HD-DVD to see how it looks =).