Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD (2006) - Page 6

Hm... all fry's have this demo or only the selective ones...? I was at Fry's last weekend, and I didn't see anything special...... Would you happen to have a website that indicates HD-DVD events?..

TIA

http://www.toshibahddvd.com


Click on the lower right HDDVD Tour link to see if they're coming close to you. Now keep in mind these tour reps are from Toshiba. You are likely to have stores that will demo the same Trailers disc.

Beware of the "simulated" SD portion...I found it to be a poor test because the SD side looks worse than what a properly encoded DVD of good source material would look.

The Trailers though are nice. Why the chose Dukes of Hazzard though is beyond me. It's clearly the lowest fidelity of the group.

Thanks.... Looks like I can catch the demo on the 14th.....

Has this been posted yet? .

From olympics.reuters.com:

Porn Business Driving DVD Technology
Sun Jan 9, 2005 02:02 PM ET

By Ben Berkowitz

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - As goes pornography, so goes technology. The concept may seem odd, but history has proven the adult entertainment industry to be one of the key drivers of any new technology in home entertainment. Pornography customers have been some of the first to buy home video machines, DVD players and subscribe to high-speed Internet.

One of the next big issues in which pornographers could play a deciding role is the future of high-definition DVDs.

The multi-billion-dollar industry releases about 11,000 titles on DVD each year, giving it tremendous power to sway the battle between two groups of studios and technology companies competing to set standards for the next generation.

"It's sort of like the buzz around the campfire," said Peter Warren, DVD editor at industry bible Adult Video News.

One side of the divide is a standard called Blu-ray backed by consumer electronics heavyweights like Sony Corp. (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) , Philips Electronics (PHG.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) and Thomson (TMS.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) and movie studios Fox and Disney. Blu-ray offers storage up to 50 gigabytes, enough for nine hours of high-definition content.

On the other side of the fight is HD-DVD, which has much the same structure as current DVDs and, backers say, is cheaper and easier to manufacture as a result. Supporters of the disc format and its 30 gigabyte capacity include companies like NEC (6701.T: Quote, Profile, Research) , Toshiba Corp. (6502.T: Quote, Profile, Research) and Warner Home Video.

Adult film producers want the higher quality picture as well as extra space for creative expression -- like giving viewers choice of camera angles.

Pornographers weighed in on the coming battle last week at the industry's Adult Entertainment Expo, which ran parallel with the largest U.S. technology fair, the Consumer Electronics Show, and had many of the same technologies -- sometimes a generation ahead.

Sentiment about the format rivalry varies, depending largely on the size of porn producer.

Smaller outfits seem to prefer HD-DVD for its lower cost, while larger outfits tend toward Blu-ray for the capacity.

"We're kind of riding it out a little further to see where the trend goes," said Jackie Ramos, an executive in the DVD division at leading porn producer Wicked Pictures. But if he had to choose, Ramos said, "Blu-ray technology sounds pretty attractive."

Paul Hesky, chief operating officer of Multimedia Pictures Inc., one of the smaller groups, disagreed.

"Most of the DVD manufacturers in my business do not want the Blu-ray format because it requires new capital investment," he said, adding, "I know for sure one format or the other will be out (on the market) by this time next year."

Others say they want to see what consumers prefer.

Adult Video News's Warren said HD-DVD production would be a "fraction of a fraction of the price" of Blu-ray, but that the latter format could not be dismissed.

"Blu-ray is going to be very expensive for anyone to do but it is going to be a player," he said.

Blu-ray supporters, however, argue that the increased cost of its processes are negligible.

Hollywood has begun lining up on both sides of the battle as they have watched the growth of DVDs slow. They will want a new standard in place soon, to accelerate again.

Many are watching the porn industry to see what happens.

"That whole business has driven technology adoption of several platforms," said one major studio executive. "A better, more intense experience is a good thing for porn."

(Additional reporting by Gina Keating in Los Angeles)

Didn't mean to stop the thread by mentioning Pr0n? It was just interesting reading that was relevant to the topic.

From the Digital Bits...

3/06

"Finally, Video Business has a good story up today on the so-far sketchy launch of the HD-DVD format, which is supported to make its big debut on 3/28. Toshiba's first two players, the HD-A1 ($499.99 list) and HD-XA1 ($799.99), are expected on that day. A number of titles from Warner are expected on 3/28 as well, but... despite the press releases to the contrary... there's been little to no retailer confirmation of the titles so far. There are a grand total of ZERO details about the HD-DVD titles up on WHV's studio retailer site, this with less than three weeks to go before they're supposed to street (by comparison, in-depth details of most standard DVD releases are announced to retailers on the studio site months in advance). Toshiba's nation-wide HD-DVD promotional tour continues this week (click here for the latest dates and locations from Toshiba's official format site - you'll also find them in this PDF file), but I'm told by those who have seen it that the only thing Tosh reps have to show is a demo disc of movie trailers - no final product HD-DVD software is ready yet.

On that front, I've spoken with a number of my contacts within the industry - at various production and authoring houses, as well as the studios - and nearly all of them expect that the titles will end up getting delayed. I'm told that the authoring is just a mess right now - the format is being pushed to launch too quickly, and there are many problems getting the movies to work properly. Part of the problem is that the software used to author discs is still in the beta stage - not surprising given that the AACS portion of the HD-DVD spec was only finalized last month. Even IF Toshiba and Warner are able to get both hardware and software titles out on 3/28, they'll basically just be ports of existing DVD releases, with HD video and maybe a few new special features at the most. The iHD interactivity isn't really going to be a factor on the software releases until later in 2006 (after the authoring software is finalized and functioning, and HD-DVD check discs can be vigorously tested on actual player hardware). We'll have more on all this soon."


3/13

"Sony has also officially listed their first Blu-ray Disc titles on their retailer website. Set to be released on 5/23 (as expected), they include 50 First Dates, Hitch, A Knight's Take, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, The Fifth Element, House of Flying Daggers, The Last Waltz and xXx. SRP for each is $28.95. There's no word yet on extra features.

It's worth noting that WalMart has apparently stopped taking online pre-orders for Warner's HD-DVD titles (which had been planned for release on 3/28 ) until the official release details become more solid. WHV division president Ron Sanders is now confirming what we've been expecting - that there's likely going to be a delay from the planned 3/28 date of at least one or two weeks (the exact timeframe remains unclear). Neither Universal or Paramount expects to street HD-DVD titles before April (and neither has announced their specific plans to retailers either). Toshiba, however, says that they'll still have some 10,000 HD-DVD players in stores by the end of this month. One good thing for the HD-DVD camp - LG now says they're going to support both HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc and will release players later this year."

I would probably get House of Flying Daggers, and The Fifth Element on Blue Ray right away. I already own both on DVD (5th in superbit), but those are two fantastic flix with dramatic scenic elements that would definitely be worth seeing the upgrade. All my flix with Zhang Ziyi will be updated soonest based on availability.

I just have to wonder if they will do something with the additional space in the future? THey pull that crap with regular DVD's already, and it pisses me off.

I'd pickup 5th Element as well, and I too have it on DVD already. Key is what Blu-Ray players will be available and at what price. I'd much rather have a Mac Mini with Blu-Ray drive attached to the TV that a single purpose Blu-Ray player, but I doubt I'll be so lucky at first.

In fact a single HD device with TiVo, disc burning, Blu-Ray, and media streaming would be killer! Why need anything else?

Sorry Onlooker but the Zhang is mine...the gosh darn girl is mine!


Close

I'll take a Blu Ray/HD DVD Universal Player with HDD and Tivo UI with 802.11N Wireless networking.

That would be lovely if macmini adopts Blu-Ray drive, but I think the movie playback quality will still be very poor compared to the stand alone players unless apple starts investing in writing a good dvd software player and update the GPU that can satisty minimum requirements for the videophiles. Apple can easily charge $899 for it and people will also flock in to get the mini over the windows based htpc. I wouldn't mind the extra cost for the BD Titles, many retailers will run 1st release date discount. Aleast BestBuy and Circuit City do this for all the new releases.

This sort of sums up my argument that HD-DVD would be absolutely nothing without Microsoft. . . and Microsoft is only in it because Sony is in Blu-ray.

I may not have to worry about it. LG seems to be scuttling their previous plans and moving towards delivering a Universal Player this year. If I'm going to spend nigh $1k on a player I'd like to have a UP over anything.

I'm not giving her up without a fight. What... You think I'd just hand her over to you?

Sony announces their Blu Ray products



Cool! Didn't think they'd be shipping a BD enabled Desktop/Laptop so soon.


Nice but the price of the DL media is going to have to come down rapidly. 50GB BD-R is scary...that's an expensive coaster.


Great legacy support.

Blue movie will win!8)

HD DVDs Delayed 3 Weeks...

Image CEO: Hi-Def DVD 'Very Cost Prohibitive'

Scroll down for the second article.

I wonder how much it costs to press an HD-DVD?

Even with a universal player I feel that the competing standards are going to work against widespread consumer acceptance of either HD or BR. Both formats are starting to look more and more like niche products.

A lot more. Guy over on AVS said his own personal quote as $50k for Blu Ray and like a tenth of that for HD DVD for a small run. If you're not a big studio you're not going to get subsidized and then you will feel the effects of the higher costs.


Only until someone purchases a HDTV and see's what quality they get. I thought ComcastHD was good but HD DVD was better in every way.

I bet once the HD DVD comes out, full 1080i HD-DVD title on 1080p display will look better than on the 720p displays and can end the 1080p vs. 720p display discussions... lol

As much as I want a High Definition movie format, I would hesitate to purchase HD-DVD alone player, but I would buy a BD alone player(I must be biased towards BD.... not sure why),...... However, the universal player will come as my first choice.... Hope one of the company makes a decent one under $1K, possibly around $600....

After reading this article:
http://news.sel.sony.com/pressrelease/6582

Blu-Ray is my choice!

I see the "New PowerMacs" (Mac Pro?) to be the first Blu-Ray on the Macintosh.

Bestbuy is now taking preorders on the Sony BD-player. ETA on the website states 7/2/06 to 7/10/06..... much earlier. However, $1K for uni-format player is hard to swallow. I'll definately stand on the sideline and wait for the reviews on the player first. I would expect the player to breeze through some of the videophile performance requirements at $1k price tag. Well, if it also plays SACD better than my Denon2900, then I might bite to the early adopter path...

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....19&lid=P1_m31a

I've found Comcast's HD service to be hit and miss. I can't wait for Blu-Ray so I can satisfy my lust for HD content!

I'm not sure when I'll by a player, but I can say for sure that I won't until there's some discs out there. I'm glad Netflix is supporting both disc formats though.

After seeing the HD DVD demo's I'm certainly looking forward to a Blu Ray roadshow with some quality demos

100GB discs are not part of the spec and thus will probably never come to market. (The spec for movies cannot be changed at this point to maintain backwards compatibility. Maybe someday there will be 100GB data-only discs, but I doubt it.)

When I think of HD, sitcoms are not exactly on the top of my list...

In theory you could put TV shows on a lot fewer discs, but the price will end up the same and people will complain about paying $40 or more for 1 or 2 discs.

The maxtrix movies came out already in like a 7-8 disk box set that I own(called Ultimate Matrix). Once re-released in hd nothing will be added, just the same stuff on less disks.

For movies that they pulled out all the stops on once released on dvd it's kind of unrealistic to expect them to add MORE footage. No one is gonna sit down again and make mor bts that simply do nothing but re-iterate the original stuff.

I wish, but won't happen.

Oh I don't know about that. I'm sure in the HD version of Star Wars George Lucas will replace Grand Moff Tarkin with his brother-in-law or something.

it's a 10 disk set.

My bad I didn't count my disks. \

i to have have that matrix collection.

im' sure they could find some crazy shit to add to the series.

anyways, i'd just like high definition versions of those films.




i'm for HD-DVD still.

go, Blu-Ray, go go go !!!!

This just in: Reuters reports Toshiba is thinking about pushing back their release date for HD-DVD players.

Article here.

They probably need to. Doesn't make much sense to buy a player that won't have enough movies to play.