Blue Ray and HD-DVD

[whmacs]

Guys,
I was just looking at another post that listed all the DVD's that come out on Nov 23. This got me thinking about the next generation of DVD formats vs the next generation of audio formats (SACD / DVD-A). When CD's were released it was a quantum jump over records and tapes. The same happened with DVD's. A huge improvement over video. We now have SACD and DVD-A, the problem being that people aren't buying them because they don't have the gear (which isn't readily available at least in Oz for example) to appreciate the sound improvement. I'm a bit concerned that Blue Ray and HD-DVD will go the same way. People think that DVD picture quality is amazing, but unless they have a HD capable device (which are still very expensive here at least) the improvement will be missed. Another point is the standard HD that is available here in Oz is 720p, while a PAL DVD can already be viewed at 576p from standard DVD player. People on this forum would have the equipment to appreciate Blue Ray and HD-DVD, but the general population may not. I don't know alot about these formats, but can they be played in a standard DVD player for example (at the lower standard 480p or 576p for example, this would certainly help acceptance)? What do people think, will Blue Ray and HD-DVD go the same way as SACD or be generally accepted (I hope so)?

cheers,
Stephen

[George Bellefontaine]

If I recall correctly HD DVD will play both standard and HD dvds, but the Blue Ray won't. Either way you will need a new player. The real problem here is what format will the Studios support. Sony ( Columbia Tri Star, etc.,) is Blue Ray. So if HD DVD wins out ( I believe Warner is one of the players here) where does that leave Columbia ( Sony). The whole thing is gearing up for a format war. Look at SACD and DVD A. Neither are really taking off or being supported in any big way by the labels, and the average Joe is confused. Let's hope the same thing doesn't happen to dvd.

[David Meek]

This will all depend on who blinks first, Sony/Matsushita or Warner. After looking at all the specs (and trying to interpret what some of them are 8O), I'm leaning towards BluRay - just from a purely "audio/video quality" standpoint.

[George Bellefontaine]

Yeah, spec wise the Blue Ray does seem the better. But what I don't like, unless they change things, is the fact that a Blue Ray player is not backward compatible and you will need two dvd players in the rack in order to play all your older standard def dvds. Now with my dvd collection in the 1000 range, I would definitely need two players in the rack. If you use component connections and your monitor or PJ only has one set of inputs, you will also have to add a switcher to the rack. All possible of course, but a pain in the neck IMHO.

[whmacs]

Thanks guys for sharing your thoughts, I was hoping that when the new formats come out that at least the DVD layer would play on a standard DVD player and you would only need a new player to access the 'Hi Res' version on the disk. This would at least help with take up. The other nice thing would be if they could roll in a hi res audio format, so we could have one format that does it all.

[Bam!]

When CD's were released it was a quantum jump over records

how so ?

[Paul H]

Because they're smaller than LP's ..

Paul

[rockethouse]

Hello all, My first post here. I did some research on blu ray a while ago and believe that they are making players that do cd and dvd (sacd) with different lasers in the unit that rotatate as required.

With regards to which format will win...most of us would remember VHS vs Beta with the inferior winning. One factor against blu-ray is that companies have to re-tool their entire factories whereas with hd-cd they are only looking at around 40%.
Dont quote me on the 40% my research was done quite a while ago and all things blu-ray are a bit foggy. There is a lot of up to date info out there if you want to search for it and it's not hard to find.
Cheers

[David Meek]

Hi Simon, welcome to The Guide. :welcome:

As it stands, egos and potential profits will cause us to wind up with two formats again. :roll: One will be of somewhat lower quality that the average viewer - or person with minimal equipment availability - will gravitate to based on cost, and one will be of somewhat higher quality but more expensive and more inconvenient to configure in a system and that, the purists will back.

Having said that, the research into dual-pickup devices sounds promising to me, as long as there isn't a compromise required in the display quality to achieve that. Based on the success that Sony had with the dual-pickup layout in their 7000 series DVD players, this could be a good thing.

Hopeful in Houston....

[Shane Martin]

Blu ray is going to make it really interesting soon.

Supposedly the PS3 has a Blu Ray drive in it and next year HP is adding Blu ray drives to their PC's.

If only we didn't have a format war would I just jump right in but given the looming war, I'm going to wait a bit.

[rockethouse]

Thanks David,..and G'day Shane,

David, your right economics and simplicity are the major issues when dealing with average consumers when it comes anything like this but I remember reading somewhere that in this instance it may well be the powers in hollywood that end up deciding. With this I dont know how much of those cost factors I mentioned come into it.

Shane,

The ps3 is going blu-ray, and waiting is wise for lots of reasons.

Cheers!