I’m glad I didn’t fall for one or the other yet.  Of course I’d need a hi-def TV first…

Ya, you and me both. I still think the HD DVD or Blu Ray is an oxymoron anyway. Isn’t a DVD High Definition? Well compared to prior media anyway.

This was a VHS vs Beta war all over again.

Yeah I concluded that I’d stay out of this whole thing until things are decided. Though I also don’t have an HD-TV so that is another factor.

The problem is that both might just be the Laser Disk of this generation. Hopefully people are just waiting for one format to win out over another, but the numbers of disks being sold by both formats are very puny right now.

Oh, and my HD TV does not want either. I asked it.

Sad thing is that in a few more years there will be something else that will come along to replace blu-ray before it even really fully takes off.

I think it is over already WB is pretty much the final nail in the coffin for HD DVD in my opinion.  If the adult fim industry decides to go with Blu-ray it is al over but the shouting. Of course there will be something better before long but I think the DVDs are here to stay for quite awhile.

I have a 1080i HDTV, but I don’t care about hi-def media right now. An upconverting DVD player is good enough for me. The players and movies in HD are still too expensive for me to justify it. I’ll buy in when everything gets cheap enough. Until then, DVDs and downloads are fine.

Isn’t a DVD High Definition?

Compared to VHS, DVD was a marked improvement in that the media is digital and had a picture that is 480 interlaced lines horizontally. Most DVD players sold today are still 480 lines but those lines are progressively scanned in, resulting in a better picture quality if you have a tv with Component Video jacks (pretty much anything over 24” in the last year and 36” in the last 3). VHS had somewhere in the ballpark of 250 if my memory is right. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray upped that to 1080interlaced or 720progressive.

The problem is, Most homes are moving towards HD but aren’t there yet. I know lots of people with HDTVs in the living room but no use for one in the bedrooms, kid’s rooms, etc where all the other tvs are. But people still have DVD players in those rooms to watch movies, just no incentive to pay twice as much to upgrade.

I’ve always been a fan of Blu-Ray since it’s storage capacities are much higher (50gb vs 30gb are the maxes for Blu & HD respectively, as I know it). However, the DRM on blu-ray is much more restrictive, the discs themselves are much more expensive thanks to an almost completely different process involved in manufacturing versus the original DVD (HD-DVD used roughly the same technology, just better compression and more layers), and the fact that I can buy 1tb of storage space in HDD form right now for about $250.

Alot of people say this will all be a moot point as Video-On-Demand gains traction. The only problem is everyone loves having a movie collection and showing it off. When everyone “has” the same movies available all the time what happens then?

By the way, just did the math and 1tb worth of 25gb blu-ray discs at 9.99 a pop, equals about $400. Why have discs when you can have external HDDs at almost half the price?

supercore: actually HD/Blu-ray go to 1080p.  Also the disc costs.. yes they’re more then DVD for now, but most HD-DVD and Blu-ray movies are priced about the same.  Your wording made it sound like HD-DVDs cost about the same as standard DVDs, and they don’t (usually.. they both have sales and stuff of course).

I have both a ps3 and a HD-DVD drive for my 360 but I haven’t bought a whole lot of movies in either yet.  I only get movies that I think benefit from the improved image and sound.. like a good action flick or something, but not with comedies and such (though I did get Simpsons in blu just for kicks).  I have maybe 10 HD-DVD and 30 Blu-Ray total so far (yes, that’s only a few to me.. I have >1000 DVDs, so nyah). 

Thus far I was leaning a bit more for Blu-ray because it has higher capacity and higher transfer rates… other then that they support the same video and audio codecs so are basically the same.  Some people complain about Sony and the rootkit fiasco from awhile back, but with Microsoft on the HD-DVD side (and helping to get their HDi spec and VC-1 in there) neither side is really a great choice.

Since I’ve been leaning Blu I’m happy at this news.  Ending the “war” should help make adoption rates increase, and costs should plummet due to economies of scale.  Eventually it might supplant DVD for awhile.. then something new and better will come along too. 

Next thing will likely be downloads.  The bandwidth just really isn’t there yet for downloading HD content (most TV stuff is compressed way more then movies on the discs are, and even at the good rates I know I see pixellation a lot) in a timely manner.  The storage size is there, but there’s the worry of losing data via crashes, not to mention the media companies will likely make sure consumer devices will allow for them to charge per view or have the ability to pull things.  I personally like having a physical disk that I can use and easily take to another house or let someone borrow it.  I have bought some stuff off of iTunes and have an Apple TV… it’s better then TV quality but not HD (yet), but I still prefer stuff on disc when possible.

Oh and I know it’s anecdotal, but I’ve had issues with HD-DVD playback and interactive stuff, as well as playback problems and scratched disks.. and nothing but flawless Blu-ray thus far.  Some details here if anyone cares.

I like physical media in *theory* but as it turns out, in practice, I’d rather just store files on a hard drive.  I just don’t have the space, or time, or patience to sort through all the cases anymore.  I have piles of DVDs and CDs all over the frigging house and I’m sick of it.

I would kill to have one huge, massive file server with a lovely redundant raid system and all that.  Movies, TV, music...it can all go on there as far as I am concerned.

One day I will have a few bucks and build *such* a file server the likes of which would make Google jealous.  ;)

Yeah, discs can be a pain.  I have tons of shelves with them right now, but I keep them alphabetical (yes initial sorting sucked) and do leave piles from times to time that I have to fix.  Mix in games from consoles and it can get messy. 

I do think we’ll eventually get there to.. where we’ll have a big server like you say, and for most stuff it’ll be great.  I’m sure there will still be some stuff some of us will want to have on disc for higher quality… until storage gets huge (and I mean today’s storage will seem small).  Right now most options for copying discs tend to compress too much for good display on a large set (I have a 65” set from 2001 now, looking to upgrade to a 72” soon) and lose the surround.  When I watch a movie, I tend to get picky on quality, but really prefer the surround.

I also think most consumer based, plug and play units (think tivo like) will probably have all kinds of restrictions on them: pay per view for a lot of things, or content control, etc.  People like us with the ability to put together a home grown (like some do with myth now) will be able to have unrestricted copies (hopefully full quality, most stuff you can get now off the net tends to suck IMO), but most people will have to pay the way the media companies want.  Unless there’s a major change in how things work compared to now.. business and political thinking wise.

Like now, iTunes works pretty well for most TV shows.  I’ve done a few seasons (like I have BSG S3).. but still get the DVD set for shows I really like, for the (slightly) better video quality and much better surround sound.  Sure glad I passed on BSG S1 on HD-DVD thus far though.. everything I’ve read makes it look like Universal went uber cheap on it.

I actually really hope that eventually even TV as we know it mostly dies soon and we can buy just “channels” or shows that we want a la carte.  I only watch a handful of the channels I pay for and would love to be able to sign up like you can for iTunes for some shows that have been cancelled, but could likely survive in that kind of system.  I’m actually kind of surprised that no one has signed up to take a shot at it yet, especially since there have been a few shows in the last couple years that had decent sized fan bases fighting to get them back on the air (and they succeeded with Jericho). 

My family and friends already borrow from me a ton and say I’m their Blockbuster though… still not sure how that’ll work (if at all) with hdd/download based systems.  Maybe we’ll have large enough (and fast enough at copying) storage for short usage on other’s players. 

Oh, on the Eureka Season one DVD set (one of the shows I got on iTunes then bought DVDs too) one commentary track for the pilot has some chatter on this.  Apparently one of the producers has 7000+ discs!  His wife made him put them in a self-storage place down the road though. :)

Looking forward to the day that I can rip my discs (without any compression at all) and access them all from one box though.

That’s code for “We don’t think HD-DVD is gonna make it either.”

See, I don’t think that’s what that means at all.

I think it means “We saw everybody flip their shit over the price of the PS3 and thought that we’d be ever-so-slick by underpricing them, despite the fact that after you buy the external drive and subscribe to XBox Live for a year, the 360 is more expensive. But, uh… well, you didn’t want to watch those HD movies anyway, did you?”

But I guess it’s fair, since so many console purists will turn their noses up and say “Well I don’t want a movie player with my game system anyway.” Well, I guess they’re happy. I’m pretty happy being able to watch Casino Royale and Pirates 3 in hi def on the PS3, for cheaper than the lowest-priced blu-ray player currently available, so hey.

Rann:

I never got that attitude about keeping the console movie free either.  Right now I don’t even have a DVD player hooked up.. I use my PS3 by default.  I don’t have enough inputs even if I wanted one at this point (PS3, 360, Wii, Apple TV, Tivo S3).  Already have a 4 port component video switchbox (and another switchbox for toslink… there weren’t remote controlled boxes that did both when I bought these a couple years ago). 

I’m itching to upgrade my TV and Receiver to use HDMI to save on cables and remove the switchboxes.

I still think MS screwed up royally but not using HD-DVD internally from the get-go.. just for more data storage.  They really screwed up with the “you can’t require an HDD and use it for caching and stuff” choice too.  Mass Effect was a cool game but had some horrid load times here and there that likely could’ve been helped by putting a bunch of data on the hdd vs needing to read off disc all the time.  Sony made the right choices there with blu-ray and hdd standard in all units. 

Other then that, I think they’re pretty equal for games.  I have more 360 games right now, mostly because PS3 was still catching up a lot, and the xbox live stuff with gamer scores is kinda cool.  PS3 seems to have more potential though.. but is harder to take advantage off I guess.  Uncharted was the first exclusive on there I’ve played that was just seriously beautiful and played really smoothly.

BTW, before anyone makes some comment on all the stuff I have… yes, I’m single and make decent money.  I likes me toys… sue me. :P

I think 480p DVDs look nice on my 50-inch HDTV. These new formats are simply another excuse for the studios to rehash their catalogue anyways. How long before we start seeing Bluray “special editions” or “anniversary releases” with “never before released (i.e. withheld) content”?

All of this will, of course, be moot very soon.

IMHO, the death knell for physical media will be
the wireless receivers for streaming net content.

Not the silly ITunes crap they’re pushing now,
mind you.
I don’t see people shelling out that kind of
cash for something you’ll only be able to get
ITunes stuff on, after paying for it.
I mean, isn’t that like paying $300 for a box that
allows you to get the same on-demand service you get now, just with a larger selection?

No, I mean the 3rd party, unfiltered boxes that
are sure to follow, that allow you to stream any web content you choose.

HD-DVD and Blu-Ray can both kiss my ass.
That is what I’m waiting for.

I really doubt that we’ll ever see the end of physical media, just like no one will ever give up actual pen-and-paper RPGs for MMOs like WoW or online customizables like Neverwinter Nights, and just like online shopping will never actually replace shopping malls and such.

Because people like to have a physical representation of what they’re buying.

I’d say the next step to doing away with CDs would be something like memory sticks, maybe with a proprietary format. Plug it into your computer or car radio and bam, there’s the Eagles album you bought. Could see something similar for movies… just a high-density memory stick with really good relay time.

Because a lot of people will simply never be comfortable with the idea of just having a digital copy, even if you retain the right to download it again and again. They want to see a physical representation of having PURCHASED something, some way to hold it up and say “See this? I own it. It’s mine.” (Despite the RIAA-bought lawmakers essentially answering “No, it isn’t.") You can’t really do that with a downloaded file.

I highly doubt that either hi-def DVD format is going to be “the next laserdisk”, either, because laserdisks failed for far more reasons than just being a new technology that didn’t catch on. Rather, it was because of those reasons that it didn’t catch on. (If you really want to simplify it, you can take it back to the Porn Explanation. It’d be a lot harder to hide porn laserdisks from the wife than porn cassettes.) These HD formats are essentially just a step up from DVDs, combining all of the positives of them with enhanced video quality, so it would be very unlikely for one of them to not catch on.

IMHO, the death knell for physical media will be
the wireless receivers for streaming net content.

I don’t think it’ll be wireless until HUGE strides are made in wireless networking.  Remember that wireless suffers from being half-duplex and unless there’s some kind of system where nearby nets use different frequencies, nearby units will slow each other down, there’s only so much bandwidth available and it’s all shared, even if you’re just ignoring someone else’s encrypted signal, you can’t broadcast at the same time.

Even a “ok you listen to the same signal your neighbor is already using because it’s the same movie and you’ll get 20-100% then can get 0-20% after” type of system would run into issues when several people in the same area all get different movies.  Similar huge demands at times for bandwidth even with wired systems today (like cable) can’t yet handle the demands.  Imagine if 100 people in the same neighborhood (sharing a local node from the cable company) all requested different HD/Blu-ray level quality movies around the same time, so they overlapped.  They’ll either kill the system or just slow to a crawl. 

Wired will get there eventually… wireless at those speeds for HD/Blu-ray quality with that many at the same time?  Seriously doubt it’ll be within even a decade.  Existing 802.11 networks can slow down or lose connectivity to the network you want if you have neighbors with them too.  My dad’s network degraded a ton when the signals you could see in their family room went from one weak neighbor to 6 neighbors, some pretty strong… so he had to move his router, and it’s still slower then it was when he first got it and had barely any neighbors with wireless.

miguelito,

My fault, I guess, for not being more clear.
You completely misunderstood what I was talking
about.

Just beaming wireless media through some online
subscription service like Netflix or something
would be stupid. That’s not much difference from
what we have now with in-demand, really.

What I’m talking about is.... how do I put this?

...ummm.... like a bluetooth for your TV.
An aftermarket device that allows your TV to
wirelessly recieve and decypher any digital
visual media into a viewable format.

Not just streaming web stuff… but stuff on
your ipod, or stored already into your PC,
or whatever.
(and without licensing restrictions, either.)
So you download a movie (I don’t care how you
got it. I’m not asking questions.) then turn on
your transmitter and **voila**… it’s playing
on your big-screen Hitachi.

Hey, I bought an FM transmitter for $18
last week that allows me to play my mp3s through
my existing car stereo without any expensive
additions to it…
And my stereo wasn’t built to recieve digital
signals… my TV, however, is.
(through a digital cable reciever.)

So would it really be that difficult?

Ah.. I see what you’re saying.  That’s almost here already… not a simple consumer device totally yet, but if/when the wireless HDMI stuff comes out (ignoring the HDMI groups claims that there is not such thing… officially) a PC or even existing things like an apple TV or HD Tivo will be able to do pretty much what you said.

Yeah, there are some restrictions yet, but if you have a myth TV setup on a PC instead.. then not really.  I’ve got lots of toys.. S3 Tivo, Apple TV, PS3, and can basically do what you’re saying now, just not wirelessly between the devices and TV.

So yeah, you’re dead on that we’ll get to that.  Unless companies try to block it.