Next Gen DVD Race...where are we?

Jarek Zabczynski

Jarek Zabczynski

Veteran
So where are we in this thing? I haven't been following.

Bluray vs. HD-DVD

I know the technical aspects of both well.

I just want to know how there are doing.

I'd like one to fail so I can safely invest in the winner.

On the other hand, how is HVD doing?

It'll be nice when HD video becomes as accessible as DVDs.
 
If there was a choice to make right now, BD looks like they will be clear winner, but well see how '09' works out for BD
 
I also say Blu Ray seems to be winning. Either Blu Ray or some new format will probalby win the race.
HD-DVD = Sega CD
 
Look around, there are plenty of Blu-Ray burners available for use with PCs and Macs, and not a HD-DVD burner in sight. You can get Blu-Ray disks easily enough, even rewriteable disks so you don't create expensive coasters while refining your workflow.

The only way to create HD-DVD disks right now is using red laser drives and regular DVDs. That's great for experimenting, but not very useful if you want to put anything but a HD short on it, and even then compatibility is iffy.
 
I don't believe any platform, as yet, is a "clear winner."

It's still too early. Sales are pretty close, but blu ray has the edge.

For me, I think HD DVD looks better than blu ray
 
I am just saying that there is a clear edge... small but clear... and that's all they need as it will snowball. Blue Ray is bigger and what I want is storage for archiving... on regards to quality... mhe... if it is HD that's good enough for me. So I am picking sides hoping to help make this balance tilt one way already.

Besides I like Vegas... so there.
 
David S. said:
I don't believe any platform, as yet, is a "clear winner."

It's still too early. Sales are pretty close, but blu ray has the edge.

For me, I think HD DVD looks better than blu ray
Click to expand...

What I've read about this recently is that since January Blu-ray discs (movies etc, not blanks) have outsold HDDVDs by 70%-30%, or more than twice the amount. Combined with Blu-ray's much more robust studio and manufacturer support, not to mention its storage capacity advantage, it looks like it's more than "close" to me.
 
Dick Campbell said:
I saw where Pioneer just announced a $300 Blu-ray burner. Might give them the edge
Click to expand...

That's for a bare computer drive, and there's some confusion as to whether it's a burner or just a reader. Later indications appear to suggest it's read only. With PS3's being $500 that would make it a bit less than a breakthrough.
 
The Matrix collection just came out on HD-DVD, the Bluray one will soon follow though. As far as edge goes, that was it for HD-DVD at the moment.

I'm very shocked that there are no HD-DVD burners, that's what will really kill it. Even if regular DVD+/-R/RW drives can do HD-DVD's they aren't marketing that very well at all.

However, I'm still waiting to see how the whole download service is going to go before investing in Bluray or HD-DVD wholeheartedly, we've got an Apple TV, what's next?
 
Walmart is going to sell the HD-DVD player for around $300, that should get the
HD-DVD market back on track.

If one or the other would have just came out early with a $500 burner,
everyone who needed one, would have bought one. That would have been the quickest way to establish dominance.

No one has done that, and now, both are about the same.

Blue ray is not as good from a picture quality standpoint, but it is better from a capacity standpoint.

If content PRODUCERS such as US, were able to burn content to a $500 burner,
it only makes sense that if we made content and offered it to our clients, then they too would have to buy that format player.
Repeat this a thousand times over and you have established dominance, weather or not it is better than the compitition.

That is how VHS won.
The home market bought the cheaper VHS (because beta was too expensive)
Contnet producers bought VHS (because beta was too expensive, and consumers had VHS)
Soon, everyone was doing porn on VHS, and price created a dominance.

The playstation 3 trick seemed like it would spur a means to put blue ray in the hands of most consumers, while also selling them to sony games.

Unfortunately, that segment are not necessarily movie purchasers.

I feel that most people have price points for purchases,
$1,000 is out of the reach of most people who just want to see a good movie at home.

$300 for a good player, and $500 for a burner is the price point that I feel needs to be met.
 
Green Hornet said:
Blue ray is not as good from a picture quality standpoint, but it is better from a capacity standpoint.
Click to expand...
That is a common misperception based on the encoding used by early releases.

Both HD DVD and Blu-Ray support the same three codecs, and the early Blu-Ray disks all used MPEG2 encoding, whereas some HD DVD titles used H.264. The quality advantage that HD DVD enjoyed early on has essentially evaporated.
 
The PS3 cround does sometimes buy DVDs but not often... however they can rent them! And why not have your friends over and watch some good movies in HD. That would help a bit, but not much. The real limiting factor isn't whether they like to buy or not but how much money they have to spend.

Now an actual DVD player for $300 would be appetizing to their parents. That would help significantly by creating a real demand. < This is the key

Then the $500 burner us... It would then create a spike in the availability of HD horror movies at block-buster, and a few others. Studios would flood the isles when the $300 DVD player reached a hundred thousand sales anticipating word of mouth and what not...

It doesn't matter how it will happen really... just that it does asap... and the $500 burner is not something many of us want to buy... not because we can't afford to be stuck with it if we pick the wrong one, but because there aren't enough people we can hand those copies to.

THoff said:
That is a common misperception based on the encoding used by early releases.

Both HD DVD and Blu-Ray support the same three codecs, and the early Blu-Ray disks all used MPEG2 encoding, whereas some HD DVD titles used H.264. The quality advantage that HD DVD enjoyed early on has essentially evaporated.
Click to expand...

That's good to hear, cause that means we will have all available benefits in one of the two.

Blue-Ray! Blue-Ray! :D
 
USLatinContent said:
I am just saying that there is a clear edge... small but clear... and that's all they need as it will snowball. Blue Ray is bigger and what I want is storage for archiving... on regards to quality... mhe... if it is HD that's good enough for me. So I am picking sides hoping to help make this balance tilt one way already.

Besides I like Vegas... so there.
Click to expand...

Storage for archiving? You need to keep your eyes on those Holographic discs!!
 
Do you know what sells players? Movies.

Blu-ray has the studio support that HD-DVD does NOT.

Blu-ray studio support:
Paramount
Warner
Sony (Columbia, Tri-Star)
Disney (Miramax, Buena Vista, Touchtone, Pixar)
Fox
Dreamworks
New Line
HBO

HD-DVD studio support:
Paramount
Warner
Universal
Weinstein Company
New Line
HBO
Dreamworks

Bold = Exclusive

Exclusive Blu-ray titles:
Star Wars
Pirates of the Carribean
Spider-Man
James Bond
Rocky

Exclusive HD-DVD titles:
Jurassic Park (And until Spielberg gives the "OKAY", these, and pretty much every Amblin/Dreamworks titles that Uni released, will be in limbo.)
The Mummy
King Kong
Bourne Trilogy

Bold = Mega hits

Heck, HD-DVD could turn it around, but it doesn't seem likely. Blu-ray COULD win THIS format war, but then not be able to hold it's own in the market. (Just for the sheer fact that MOST consumers don't know the difference, and THINK that just because they have an HDTV, and an upconverting DVD player, they're watching HD content.)
 
Last edited:
unfiltered said:
Do you know what sells players? Movies.

Blu-ray has the studio support that HD-DVD does NOT.

Blu-ray studio support:
Paramount
Warner
Sony (Columbia, Tri-Star)
Disney (Miramax, Buena Vista, Touchtone, Pixar)
Fox
Dreamworks
New Line
HBO

HD-DVD studio support:
Paramount
Warner
Universal
Weinstein Company
New Line
HBO
Dreamworks

Bold = Exclusive

Exclusive Blu-ray titles:
Star Wars
Pirates of the Carribean
Spider-Man
James Bond
Rocky

Exclusive HD-DVD titles:
Jurassic Park (And until Spielberg gives the "OKAY", these, and pretty much every Amblin/Dreamworks titles that Uni released, will be in limbo.)
The Mummy
King Kong
Bourne Trilogy

Bold = Mega hits

Heck, HD-DVD could turn it around, but it doesn't seem likely. Blu-ray COULD win THIS format war, but then not be able to hold it's own in the market. (Just for the sheer fact that MOST consumers don't know the difference, and THINK that just because they have an HDTV, and an upconverting DVD player, they're watching HD content.)
Click to expand...

Yea... from the eyes of blockbuster walking consumers this is like 50% with the other 50 being the cost of the players (and availability).

Again, this is a Blue-Ray edge:

Columbia, Tri-Star, Miramax, Buena Vista, Touchtone, Pixar, Fox
vs.
Universal, Weinstein Company

it is sad... I mean, just give up! Then again you would thing that it makes sence that they actually did give up, and since like 6 months ago they've only been putting as much effort into this race as is justifiable by the delay of the dominance by the competition... which would mean they in fact have stopped competing and from now on all moves are foreseeable and will be played out at a leisurely pace since spending more money to stomp HD-DVD will only be money wasted to get the candy now... instead they know they won, and they are haply planning the way to squeeze as much cash out of the way they handle their patents...

Blue-Ray, Blue-Ray!

What sucks if that is true, is that without competition it will take longer for HD to hit DVDs and those of us with HVXs who got in the HD game early would benefit more from HD in DVDs NOW than if it happens in a year...
 
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