HD-DVD vs. Blue Ray

[Lantyssa]

Try 8.5 GB, which is the capacity for dual layer DVD's.  4.7 is the capacity of single layer DVD-R's you buy in 100 disc spindles.

Again, though, it's irrelevant because very, very few games are even coming close to filling 8.5 GB.  By the time they do we'll be at the end of this gen's lifespan anyway.

Computers will never need more than 640k of memory.

[Sky]

It's all just program bloat.

[schild]

I bought about 10 Blu-Ray movies when Tower Records was going out of business. They cost about $2 more on average than DVDs. I've started dumping DVDs I know will be released on blu-ray (Paramount, Columbia and Sony Classics action & comedy). I'm running a 720p native 37" LCD that scales down using the faroudja deinterlacer. Gotta tell ya, difference is night and day - especially on stuff with old school special effects. Species was great for the titties, but the clarity hurt the effects. I might stick to post 1998 actiony/horror movies on Blu-Ray. Gotta tell ya though, holy shit does Silent Hill look amazing. I would even go as far to say as it's a reference disc. I have Fifth Element on Blu-Ray also - Silent Hill thrashes it in every way imaginable. Fog and ash shouldn't look that good. If it were on a CRT (and could thusly hit nearly true black) instead of an LCD, Silent Hill would probably be the best image ever to hit my house.

[Yegolev]

Awesome, looks like I'm going to have to buy Silent Hill on BRD.  I thought it was a great movie.

[Viin]

Now that I just learned that Netflix is offering HD DVDs ( and soon BluRay ) I decided to take a peek at the available HD players out there.

So as far as I can tell I have two options:

1) get the HD drive for the XBox 360 which is only $200 (which is great, but I have it in the office and don't really want to move my xbox into the tv room and get a wireless connector for it)
2) a Toshiba HD-A1 or XA1 or A2 (they are all $500 it seems, which isn't too bad)

Anyone have a Toshiba or other HD player?

Also, since I currently have a Dream system from Sony (DVD player + amp in one) I'll need to get an amp, so if anyone knows of a short a/v amp let me know!

[Yegolev]

I had a Toshiba DVD player, and I think they are not very heat-tolerant since it died 13 months after I bought it.  I think I am not a Toshiba fan; they also made my TV.

[Furiously]

Looks like PowerDVD 6.5 + Xbox 360 HD-DVD = 1080p output.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=748426&page=18&pp=30

I'm trying to convince myself why I shouldn't do this now....

[Furiously]

I convinced myself, NETFLIX for the win!.

[Sky]

That's pretty hot.

[stray]

Gotta tell ya though, holy shit does Silent Hill look amazing. I would even go as far to say as it's a reference disc.

Superman Returns

Not the biggest fan of this movie, but the title credits alone look dope. Great visuals (especially at the end). Great audio.

[EDIT]

There's a slight bloomed/soft effect to it though. But that's just Singer's style. I'd like something a little more realistic and sharp, not cg heavy, not too heavy stylized, lots of motion, but still filmed with recent equipment...

Kingdom of Heaven maybe?

[Furiously]

Well - I watched Batman Begins last night and it was pretty impressive. The Matrix looks like it might be very good. King Kong has some problems, the picture in picture keeps coming up. It's not a totally mature process yet.

If you have a computer with at HDTV compatible card and a DVI/HDMI cable and a decent enough processer to handle everything, it's pretty impressive.

Plus now I can play BF2 with no issues on my TV.

Does this make sense for most people. No. You can buy a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player a lot cheaper then the cost of building a computer. On the other hand. If you already have a HTPC, $200 isn't that big of a risk that you pick the losing format. (Especially combined with Netflix offering HD-DVD's).

Overall I'm impressed with Microsoft allowing the HD-DVD to be compatible with Windows. And I'm very happy watching movies in 1080.

Edited to add: Also - the Nvidia driver is soooo much better for setting up with a HTPC. It just works. It has a built-in resizing tool so you don't have to manually set your over/under scanning. It really is nice.

[Miasma]

Warner says they will be putting out discs that play both Blu-ray and HD-DVD.  I'm not sure how they would do that but if the two formats are so similar that they can both be put on the same disc they should really just settle on one and share the licensing fees.  Or maybe warner is burning an HD image onto one side of the disc and Blu-ray onto the other?  I don't know, sounds expensive though, they would have to pay both consortiums' licensing fees...

[Sky]

Edited to add: Also - the Nvidia driver is soooo much better for setting up with a HTPC. It just works. It has a built-in resizing tool so you don't have to manually set your over/under scanning. It really is nice.

Yummy. I'm hoping to get stupid next month with a 8800.

[schild]

Stray, Superman Returns and Kingdom of Heaven are both shitty movies.

Shitty movies that don't look as good as Silent Hill. :)

As an aside, I gotta admit, I can't wait for Resident Evil 1 and 2 to come out on Blu-Ray - which they are in a couple months.

There is NO EXCUSE as to why Sony Classics isn't pumping out movie after movie after fucking movie.

God damn them.

[squirrel]

schild - knowing your prediliction for compulsive hardware purchases, do you have the HDDVD 360 add-on and if so have you bought Serenity in HD? Just curious - I thought King Kong was an amazing visual HDDVD title but Serenity alone was almost worth the $199 for me.

[stray]

Stray, Superman Returns and Kingdom of Heaven are both shitty movies.

I disagree about Kingdom (don't read too much into that though), but damn, Superman puts me to sleep.

Still pretty though.


Word is that Seabisquit is a good disc. I've never seen the movie, but I'm curious.

* Just as a reminder: I'm looking for a film that's realistic, down to earth, not cg heavy, but has a good deal of action and motion in it.

[EDIT] Crap, that's not even on Blu-Ray. Nevermind.

Btw, I'm sure Silent Hill is cool looking and all, but it's the exact opposite of what I'm looking for in this case. It's all still and slow camera movements, transitioning between a lot of greys and a lot of dark red and browns.

Plus, I only like the last scene really. ;)

[schild]

Aeon Flux? Ultraviolet?

Sure, some CGI, but not in every scene like Silent Hill.

[stray]

Some interesting news about Samsung's BD player

Samsung Wages Blu-ray Price War on Sony PS3

Samsung has launched the first volley in what's likely to be a move to keep its product competitive with Sony's PS3. It's the first first price drop of its BD-P1000 of the New Year. The reduction is only by $100 at retailers like Best Buy and Circuit City. But, Amazon.com has dropped the price even more reducing it by an amazing $330 US dollars.

[HaemishM]

As an aside, I gotta admit, I can't wait for Resident Evil 1 and 2 to come out on Blu-Ray - which they are in a couple months.

Why? The first one was bearable and mildly entertaining if forgettable, the second was a trainwreck in slo-mo. Even the beauty of Milla and that other chick couldn't make that thing watchable.

[stray]

Could be cool news. Maybe.

Sony Pictures Entertainment will include portable files on Blu-Ray DVDs that can be transferred without a download, David Bishop, head of Sony's home entertainment unit, said in an interview this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

[Murgos]

Could be cool news. Maybe.

Sony Pictures Entertainment will include portable files on Blu-Ray DVDs that can be transferred without a download, David Bishop, head of Sony's home entertainment unit, said in an interview this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

This from the company that thought it was a good idea to use a root kit to try and enforce their DRM on CDs.  I wouldn't get to close to those portable files if you want your recordable media to keep working.

[Yegolev]

What would a non-portable file be like?

[sissygirlman]

Could be cool news. Maybe.

Sony Pictures Entertainment will include portable files on Blu-Ray DVDs that can be transferred without a download, David Bishop, head of Sony's home entertainment unit, said in an interview this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

This from the company that thought it was a good idea to use a root kit to try and enforce their DRM on CDs.  I wouldn't get to close to those portable files if you want your recordable media to keep working.

AMEN

[Sky]

Dual-format players.

From CES:

War over. Movie studios declared fucking retards for not agreeing on a standard.

[stray]

I think they were close to agreeing on HD-DVD until Blu-Ray came out and offered better features.

Doesn't matter at this point anyways. Not exactly a lot of HDDVD holdouts.


Anyways, I wonder how much that drive costs..? Their stand alone player will supposedly be $1199. Bah. To top it off, it's fugly as hell.

[schild]

January 16, 2007
Employee of the Month (Lionsgate)
GoodFellas (Warner)
Gridiron Gang (Sony)
Resident Evil: Apocalypse (Sony)
Scooby-Doo (2002) (Warner)
January 23, 2007
Alien vs. Predator (Fox)
Black Rain (Paramount)
Casanova (Buena Vista)
Chicago (Buena Vista)
Courage Under Fire (Fox)
The Guardian (2006) (Buena Vista)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Buena Vista)
The Manchurian Candidate (2004) (Paramount)
Men of Honor (Fox)
Saw II (Lionsgate)
Saw II (Unrated) (Lionsgate)
Saw III (Lionsgate)
We Were Soldiers (Paramount)
January 30, 2007
Beerfest (Warner)
Flyboys (Fox)
Hart's War (Fox)
Open Season (Sony)
The Wicker Man (2006) (Warner)
February 06, 2007
American Psycho (Lionsgate)
Failure to Launch (Paramount)
First Blood (Lionsgate)
Reservoir Dogs (Lionsgate)
Running With Scissors (Sony)
The Tailor of Panama (Sony)
February 13, 2007
Broken Arrow (Fox)
Chain Reaction (Fox)
The Departed (Warner)
Entrapment (Fox)
Ladder 49 (Buena Vista)
Marie Antoinette (Sony)
The Marine (Fox)
Phone Booth (Fox)
Planet of the Apes (Fox)
Reign of Fire (Buena Vista)
The Sentinel (Fox)
The Usual Suspects (Fox)
February 20, 2007
Babel (Paramount)
The Prestige (Buena Vista)
Vertical Limit (Sony)
February 27, 2007
Bullitt (Warner)
The Getaway (1972) (Warner)
Nine Inch Nails Live: Beside You in Time (Interscope)
Stranger Than Fiction (Sony)

That's January and February for Blu-Ray.

January 16, 2007
Clerks II (Weinstein)
Lucky Number Slevin (Weinstein)
The Mummy Returns (Universal)
Poseidon (Warner)
Pulse (Weinstein)
Scooby-Doo (2002) (Warner)
The Sting (Universal)
January 23, 2007
Black Rain (Paramount)
Brokeback Mountain (Universal)
January 30, 2007
Beerfest (Warner)
Half Baked (Universal)
The Wicker Man (2006) (Warner)
February 06, 2007
Failure to Launch (Paramount)
Hollywoodland (Universal)
February 13, 2007
The Departed (Warner)
February 20, 2007
Babel (Paramount)
February 27, 2007
Bullitt (Warner)
The Getaway (1972) (Warner)
Nine Inch Nails Live: Beside You in Time (Interscope)

That's HD-DVD.

March forward isn't much better for HD-DVD. Games decide the systems? Movies might actually decide the format for once.

[Sky]

Anyways, I wonder how much that drive costs..? Their stand alone player will supposedly be $1199. Bah. To top it off, it's fugly as hell.

There'll be a plain black model from Lite-On in another year or two at about $100, mark them words. In three years hybrid drives will be $30.

[stray]

Maybe. That'd be good.

Then again, Sony or Toshiba (or any company on either the Blu-Ray or HDDVD boards) could swallow up LG in one bite. Korean companies are too competitive for them.