Members Rabid Posted January 16, 2007 Members Share Posted January 16, 2007 I know this topic has been posted before, but things move fast in technology and I Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members echoshock Posted January 16, 2007 Members Share Posted January 16, 2007 I don't see how consumers can make a commitment either way right now, and that in turn is probably going to hurt manufacturers on both sides. Although I do have an xbox 360 so HD DVD would be an easy option for me right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted January 17, 2007 Members Share Posted January 17, 2007 My allegiance is always to the "most open" format... Honestly, I still haven't forgiven Sony-Philips for not using the pre-existing 48 kHz digital audio standard (OR for not putting a place for TITLES in the original CD-audio format). My rule of thumb is: If Sony backs it -- I'm against it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted January 17, 2007 Members Share Posted January 17, 2007 I don't see how consumers can make a commitment either way right now, and that in turn is probably going to hurt manufacturers on both sides. Although I do have an xbox 360 so HD DVD would be an easy option for me right now. PS... One of the main reasons suggested for Sony selling all those game boxes at a $300 loss (each) this Christmas was to get a bunch of Blu-Ray capable players into the market so Sony could claim they had "won" the format war. They are truly a pathetic company. (Maybe I'm must bitter because neither Sony's version of Sound Forge or CD-Architect work on my system -- though Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge DID. Maybe it's because my Sony VCR has a far inferior picture to the 12 year old Panasonic it replaced. Maybe it's because the Sony headphones I bought are the most painfully uncomfortable headphones I've worn since junior high language lab -- or that they sound twice as bad as the Koss headphones they replaced that cost half as much. Maybe it's because Sony was my FIRST TECH LOVE but it's been going downhill since the very expensive cassette deck I bought in the 80s that turned out to be a total, crabass POS. Maybe I'm just a bitter old man... ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rabid Posted January 17, 2007 Author Members Share Posted January 17, 2007 PS... One of the main reasons suggested for Sony selling all those game boxes at a $300 loss (each) this Christmas was to get a bunch of Blue-Ray capable players into the market so Sony could claim they had "won" the format war. ... I notice that you can go into most any Walmart now and pick up one of those PS3's, but ask for the Nintendo Wii and you get laughed at. The biggest thing they have going early on is owning Sony Pictures which will not release HD-DVD movies during the format war. Knowing Sony's past history they will still blow it and in a couple years they will release everything on HD-DVD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blue2blue Posted January 17, 2007 Members Share Posted January 17, 2007 Yeah... I'm not a game guy (last time I was was Doom II era... I got my fill) but I'm told that, even though the Wii has the least advanced graphics of the big three that some of its exclusive games are the most fun. Me... it was all about marvelling at 3D graphics and blowing things in half with shotguns. And, ultimately, that got old. (Also, as the game engines got better, I started getting motion sickness, claustrophobia and heavy "game-fatigue" quickly. I never made it much into Quake at all.) Agreed on Sony's tendency in recent decades to shoot themselves in the foot more often than not. I remember when I first heard about SACD (or do we have to call it DSD now? ). Intrigued, I went to Sony's website and read a few pages of some of the worst tech writing I've read in along damn time. I walked away shaking my head because it was just so stunningly bad writing. I couldn't figure out the first thing about how it worked. Several years later, after it became clear that SACD would go down as one of the more minor footnotes in audio format history, I stumbled onto a hobbyist/audiophile's OWN quite straightforward explication of the sigma-delta conversion schema that SACD was based on... It was strikingly easy to understand. And, of course, once I knew it was based on sigma-delta sampling (a fact I'm not sure Sony bothered to mention, since, I suppose, it might have seemed like using existing technology would diminish their image as an "innovator") it was easy to get more info on it and read discussions of the technology, its advantages and its drawbacks. Anyhow, after I read some commentary by engineers (including converter legend Dan Lavry) about SACD/DSD/sigma-delta sampling and the aliasing issues from using the super-high sampling rate I decided it probably wasn't ever going to take any kind of place in my life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pumpcat Posted January 17, 2007 Members Share Posted January 17, 2007 I haven't bought into either format yet, but if I was a betting man my money would be on HD-DVD. I was just reading that most of the "adult" content providers are planning on using this format. They chose VHS back in the day, and look at how that turned out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members aliengroover Posted January 17, 2007 Members Share Posted January 17, 2007 It's funny, Rabid, 'cause I was thinking of reintroducing this topic for the same reasons you did. Early on, HD was the clear winner, with BR discs being inconsistent from movie to movie, but that seems to have been ironed out and the discs are reportedly stunning. As far as the players, if you're counting the PS3 (which Sound and Vision says is a remarkable Blu-Ray player), then you can have either format for $500. I think the features/interactivity of HD-DVD may well help it to win out, though, but I can't help but hold out hope that somebody's going to take good advantage of the Blu-Ray format. And even if not, I still believe as I did when it was announced that Blu-Ray would go the way of DAT, in that it could possibly become a popular storage medium in the audio and video worlds. Probably the best news is something I don't believe we've had before in a format war: dual format players. Okay...LG's player is $1200, but it effectively removes the need to choose right away. The only real downside is that it won't be able to take advantage of all of HD's interactivity. It will, however, with BR. On a similar note, Warner Bros. has developed a dual format disc. Whether or not they will be stripped down versions and lack the extra features apparently remains to be seen.Peace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rabid Posted January 17, 2007 Author Members Share Posted January 17, 2007 I have about 300 movies on VLD, those 12 LD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members paintkilz Posted January 17, 2007 Members Share Posted January 17, 2007 i have a ps3 that i watch blu-rays on...i have 5 movies now... but i also have a 360 and plan on gettin the HD drive addon...i hvanet watched anything that definitively made me choose...kingdom on heaven and superman returns looks GREAT on blu-ray though..but army of darkness and fear and loathing are big movies for me, and as far as i know, are only available on hd-dvd..but $200 for an addon drive is def. worth it. so in the next few months ill have both...just cant wait for the releases to catch up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rabid Posted January 17, 2007 Author Members Share Posted January 17, 2007 Netflix seems to offer both in their rental program. At least that is a way to try without buying. I may pick up the $200 drive for my XBox360. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Monkey Mouse Posted January 18, 2007 Members Share Posted January 18, 2007 I think it will be sometime in 2008 when the winner of the war is declared - then if you want to buy, at least you will pick the right format. No one wants to get stuck with the "beta" of 2006. I do think that the format with the 1080p (Blueray as I understand) will be the winner as 768p is going out the window really quickly in terms of being state of the art. Then again, the best format in terms of quality is not necessarily the winning combo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rabid Posted January 18, 2007 Author Members Share Posted January 18, 2007 From what I understand, both formats are recorded at 1080p. HD DVD 1080p players have not yet been released. Microsoft has announced a patch for 1080p for their XBox 360 add on drive, but not a new connection. 1080p will be transmitted over component jacks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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