BluRay vs. HD-DVD redux

[damonrpayne]

Amazon.com is taking pre orders for BluRay discs (BD) and players. Its been a while since I've even thought about this but it bears another visit.

Early on I was a fan of BluRay because on paper it appeared to be slightly better technology. Putting BluRay players in the playstation 3 seemed to assure that BD would crush HD-DVD. The PS3 would put BD players in many homes who otherwise might not care about high definition video. It would also exponentially accelerate the economies of scale for BD players. Consoles sell at a hardware loss anyway and the manufacturers make it up over time through licensing and accessories. A few million PS3s would make it very cheap to produce BD media and players in much a shorter time than demand for BD players and media alone could. I also predicted that if Time Warner and NewLine go on board BluRay it was over. These two firms have released many of the "staple" action films in the past several years, LOTR series, The Matrix, etc.

The PS3 is nowhere in sight. Some analysts are predicting it may not even come out in 2006, Sony is very tight lipped which seems to indicate they've hit a snag. Without the PS3 early adopter factor I wonder if BD will last more than a year. Many of us have large media libraries. I certainly don't plan on replacing a significant portion of my own library but having 1080p versions of a few films with increased space for discrete sound tracks would sure be nice. Thoughts?

[JJkizak]

The articles I have read said there is no difference in the viewing quality of both systems.

JJK

[ottscay]

Funny - I have always preferred Blu-ray, but I thought the time to market lead of HD-DVD was going to be decisive (back when they were going to have a Q3-Q4 2005 launch). But they have totally blown their lead; They missed extra market penetration during the Christmas season, and they seem to be hemoraging support left and right. They only have one exclusive movie studio, while Blu-ray has several. Outside of Toshiba there are essentially no HD-DVD players announced (save one rebranded OEM version by Thomson).

Worse they are now expecting a late March launch, which is like no lead at all over the April launch of several BD players. Also, I'm not sure where you're getting your information on the PS3 from, because everything I've read expects the PS3 to lauch from as early as March to as late as May (2006). So BD players may actually be out before HD-DVD players.

With a gaurantee of half a million BD playing PS3s, better studio support, more content early on, and more players announced, I can't see how BD can lose at this point. Also, the largest adult-content movie company just announced exclusive support for BD, and while that sounds like something to snicker at, history shows it is an important determiner of early market penetration (pun not intentional), as it helped VHS beat Beta, and aided iin the early adoption of DVD. It also plays a small role in this thing called the internet...

Anyways, I have to eat crow, as I thought HD-DVD was a shoe-in back in September. But they failed to execute, and now it seems that the format war is Blu-ray's to lose.

[damonrpayne]

We'll see who's dining on crow, since I originally thought BluRay couldn't lose and now I'm not sure. I would still rather see BluRay win.

[JJkizak]

I have also read that the major movie studios have hedged their bets in the contracts they have signed. Kind of like "Puts" and "Calls". So for them it's a win-win and for us it's a loose-loose.

JJK

[ndskyz]

The first to market thing is now a non issue. As they both will hit about the same time. Sony showed their Stand alone BluRay player at CES last month for a BLAZING 1300 bucks. Having said that the PS-3 wont hit the States until Fall of 06' If it comes out in the Spring of 06 it will only be in Japan. Sony has always released the PS in Japan first to work out any bugs before they release it in the US...6 Months later. BluRay will win this format war simply because if the PS-3 comes to market at 500-600 bucks as some are predicting, what better and faster way to get a BluRay player in peoples home, than attaching it to the latest Game Console.

[MrMcGoo]

A format war is something to stay away from IMO. Both formats require an HDMI monitor and receiver. I am going to hold off on the newer TVs till the technology gets closer to stability. For example HDMI v 1.3 will be needed for the new sound formats form Dolby and DTS. Current receivers and processors do not yet have HDMI 1.3.

My take is that a format war will produce nothing but loosers. It looks like the two sides are trying to do a deal for a single format. Hence delays seem to be due to negotiations.

Bill

[KaptainKlipsch]

They better get it together because there is a proposed new holographic disc that is supposed to hold 8 hdtv movies on 1 disc. That might kill off both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.

[wally flick]

I certainly don't plan on replacing a significant portion of my own library but having 1080p versions of a few films with increased space for discrete sound tracks would sure be nice.

I might be wrong on this, but don't think HD-DVD will do 1080p out of the box (initial versions) while BluRay will. I'm pulling for BluRay as well. From what I've seen at other forums, Holographic discs are several years off, at best.

[Petrol]

...From what I've seen at other forums, Holographic discs are several years off, at best....

heck, considering that it took me years before I dumped my 8 tracks in favor of compact cassetts... even more years before buiying my first CD player (I still play albums for time to time... on my turntable!!)... and even longer before I regulated my beloved VHS VCR to the third string 'computer room' tv in favor of installing DVD players in our living room and 'men's club'...

maybe I'll just take a 'wait & see' approach, LOL