HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray.

Which one is gonna win the battle of the formats? The next VHS vs Betamax...hehe. And of course which one do you guys think is better and probably better for the future of consumers?

 

Option for none of the above?

 

more company support blu ray... and i heard about blu ray since like 2003... i just heard about hd dvd when it come out on the street...

 

Sony owns Blu-ray so it can put it's HD player on all the consoles, laptops, and make deals for their movies to be exclusively blu-ray; although HD DVDs are coming out as triple-layered, supporting 75GB. Personally, I think neither will win, and 1 TB solid state drives will become small enough that you can easily transport them, storing digital media on basically a large flash drive.

 

I placed my vote for Blu-Ray. First, a lot of companies have backed up Blu-Ray, so you'd see it more frequently on the market and re-tailer stores than HD-DVD. And because of this, there'd be more choices for high definition 1080P movies on the market based on Blu-Ray rather than HD-DVD. It also has a cool name..(lol)

 

HD DVD for me.

All from: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=132331&page=2

check it out since we pretty much had this discussion already.

 

I'm looking for quality. Personally, I think the Blu-Ray will have better quality than HD DVD.

However, the battle raging for HD DVD and Blu-Ray is still going on. So it's not exactly "Smart" to purchase HD DVD or Blu-Ray. Just wait till the battle is over, or, buy a player that has Blu-Ray and HD DVD in 1.

 

One is not a higher quality than the other. They are storage mediums. If you mean the media on the disk as in movie quality then they are equal. Its both 1080p stuff most of the time, they even use the same video codecs.

If you mean medium quality, HDDVD is higher quality is much more durable and longer lasting. One scratch on a bluray can ruin it forever, if you manage to scratch an hddvd to the point of not playing, buffing it out with a disk fixer can repair it, but bluray doesnt have enough plastic on it to allow for a major or multiple repairs.

When you seriously list out all the pro's/con's bluray has nothing on hddvd at all except for the max storage space, untill you NEED that space it has no advantage.

 

I was about to buy a new laptop with HD-DVD in it . . . then Blockbuster announced last week that they will only be stocking Blu-Ray discs and soon soon . . . no HD-DVD for Blockbuster . . . I get all my movies there!

So, I didn't order either HD-DVD or Blu-Ray for my new computer. Have bought a new DVD play for the 50" Pioneer Plasma TV yet either . . . I am waiting the heavyweight fight out!

But if I had to choose one now . . . I am going with Blockbuster and choosing a Blu-Ray.

I still have an old beta system in my basement in a box . . . shows you how smart I am!

 

The blockbuster choice is huge!

Personally, I see Blu-Ray winning the race, I have said it from the beginning.

 

Come on, doesn't anyone else remember Betamax or even Minidiscs? Beta was way better than VHS, but it still failed.
From Slashdot:

'Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. One of life's more satisfying ironies, however, is that the same fate often befalls those who fixate on history... ...Obsessed with owning proprietary formats, Sony keeps picking fights. It keeps losing. And yet it keeps coming back for more, convinced that all it needs to do is push a bigger stack of chips to the center of the table.'​

Sony FTL.

 

Neither will win, but I am getting both in the mean time. As a consumer I don't have to pick sides

 

Anyone who says one will win for any reason is wrong. It's far too early to tell who the winner will be. If you're going to make a choice, go ahead and do it -- we probably won't see much in terms of results for a good year and a half to two years, I'd bet.

People have been saying 'this is the death keel for Blu-Ray!' or 'this is the end of HD DVD!' since the beginning and have repeated themselves anytime news favorable to their side comes out.

In the end, my guess will be that HD DVD wins simply because of the name brand recognition. Sony didn't exactly pick a very industry-savvy name. People see and heard 'HD DVD' and go, 'oh, that's a high-definition DVD' the majority of the time. People see and hear 'Blu-Ray' and go, 'what's that?'

People know Blu-Ray because of the Playstation 3. But I personally think it was a major folly in Sony's plans to include such an unproven medium that drives up costs for the console, and it seems sales figures for the Playstation 3 are indicating as much. Sure, you help boost Blu-Ray figures for a small amount of time, but you're hurting yourself in the long run. Integration is great, but you have to play it smart.

I also haven't seen much of a campaign for Blu-Ray by Sony's part, but HD DVD has had a pretty strong campaign in DVD releases, in theaters and on TV.

It's premature to say any sort of winner, but again, the guess (and trust me, it is a guess, as no one can really tell at this point) I'm making will be that HD DVD will come out on top in the end, because its something consumers can get behind, and doesn't necessarily base itself primarily on brand loyalty as Sony seems to be doing with Blu-Ray.

Either way, high-def is in safe hands with either format. Neither one is leaps and bounds over the other, so it's not a very big deal.

Then again, a wave could come where a number of major studios side with one or the other that will turn the tide of the battle. That's the only way I can possibly see a winner being declared in the near future -- is if a few major movie companies say 'We're siding with [insert high-def format here]' on the same date or around the same time.

 

Yeah, Sony loses all the format wars. Betamax, minidiscs (which I was stupid enough to get). They did help in pushing out DVDs though. So we gotta give them that. With players coming out that will have both lasers, there's no reason it won't be a giant tie.

 

I suspicion it won't be a tie in time . . . one will sell to the other eventually . . . but that Blockbuster choice of Blu-Ray sure leans the battle in that direction!

 

blockbuster is not a big deal, net flix has double the sales of blockbuster... why do you recently think they ripped off the netflix method and started there own version of it?

And netflix has hddvd and bluray:
http://www.netflix.com/BrowseSelection?sgid=2442

I serously think both of them will co-exsist, they use the same tech so dual players are already avalible and about the same price as a single format only player... so who wouldnt get a dual player??

Then there is alot already in the hands of both formats. Microsoft is behind hd-dvd so its not going down easy...

 

Not really useful but i find Blu-Ray sounds cooler

 

sounds like a baseball team to me :/

 

I was dumb enough to fall for minidiscs too. Oh well.

 

blockbusters online store still will send me HD dvds only there RETAIL stores will be blu ray exclusive, and that excludes the ones who have already been testing both,

pr0n chose HD DVD

enough said....

 

bluray no contest

 

microsoft is backing HD-DVD, there is no point going against the will of god.

 

Just because the name "High-Def" will not always attract consumers of "oooo, it's High-Def".

Blu-Ray seems to have a name that is more unique. It will make the consumer question about what it is, and look into it. It's a superb technology.

 

they're not really "backing it"
as far as I know they're just providing a player for the 360

 

No they are backing it, MS supports HD DVD. They should for good reason too. Its in there video game system and its the best format for PC use and they obviously have a strangle hold on the pc market with there OS and other software.

 

@ lottdod - i'd call that backing it.

another thing. a few of the major studio's that initially only supported blu ray are now supporting HD-DVD as well. that leads me to believe that there will be quite a few more movies available on HD-DVD format than first expected.

Heck HD-DVD has cost going for it. seeing as they are so similar in their purpose, cost plays a major part.

 

There was nothing wrong with minidisc except sony. They purposely made the format so that you could never drag and drop files from a computer...which it turned out is exactly what they would have needed for the format to survive. Typical sony. Great hardware, horrible execution. I still can't believe how good my old minidisc player sounds when recorded from an optical source.

 

If they really want to be cut throat, they could have vista only compatible with HDDVD somehow. I say somehow because I don't know how.

 

That would have been a bad idea on Microsoft's part as a number of PC Manufacturers are in the Blu-Ray camp. As others have pointed out, Microsoft is backing HD-DVD, but made the smart choice by keeping it as an add-on, which of course gives 360 owners another option should Blu-Ray win out. I currently have the add-on and it works great. As for HD vs. Standard quality... its definitely noticeable, I find myself cringing when having to watch a regular DVD. Anyhow, I've noticed the selection for Blu-Ray is twice the size as that of HD-DVD (at least at my local Suncoast store), and the storage size is making a difference, as Blu-Ray extras are starting to appear in 1080p as where most of HD-DVD extras are still in regular 480i/p quality.

 

The 360 HDDVD player works for pc too ^^ its the cheapest hddvd player you can get I think. Seen it for 160$ with a cupon.

 

Just because microsoft backs up HD-DVD doesn't mean it's "against the Will of God"

Most major companies -> Warner Bros, Pixar, and other movie industries are actually backing up Blu-Ray rather than HD-DVD.

 

Still thats all movies, Microsoft is computers.

When you need a succsessor to DVD's for a medium to burn your data on I think HDDVD is far supperior so it make sense for MS to be behind it and I am sure they will keep it alive on the computer side of things.

 

I would pick HD-DVD as I can't see Sony winning this war for the sheer fact that they’re completely arrogant in expecting Blu-Ray to win just because it’s force-fed down people’s throat alà PS3. This is tantamount to insanity. Also, lower cost for newer tech drives adoptability and drives prices further down so HD-DVD wins on that front.

We could also argue about disk size all day but the long and the short of it is, we do not need a double-sided dual-layer 100GB disc to watch a two hour movie in 1080P. Yes it would be great to backup your existing HDD to disc, but the cost of the PC drive and disc in which to do to this would be cost prohibitive.

 

One other good thing going for HD-DVD is that it is apparently region free. Blu-ray has 3 regions which is much better than what DVD had but still region free is one nice plus.

 

from the computer perspective, storage density would be hugely important.

if cost was equal between blu-ray and hddvd, why would you want hddvd for your computer. it would be much more practical to fit more data on a disk than less...

 

because hddvd is about 5x more durable... whats the point of putting all your data on one disk that a single scratch will destroy???

plus bluray will most probably have a higher fail rate when you burn it because is more data dense and thus more sensitive to mistakes. Do you like 50$ drink coasters?

You do know that HDDVD and Bluray are the exact same thing right??? ones not more technically advanced than the other. Same format, same media, same laser (thus why you have dual players) the difference is bluray is much more data dense. So much to the point where they had to make the plastic coating that protects the data layer much thinner just so that the laser can read it.

Id rather have HDDVD to backup my stuff on even if it was 1/2 the size, plus I dont want too much data on a single disk anyways.

DVD makers can easily change over to making HDDVD with just a few equipment changes (the laser and stuff) but to make bluray they have to build whole new facilities it requires a totally difrent manufacturing process because its so sensitive to flaws/errors. If its that hard to make it... imagine what happens when you have a home burner.

HDDVD just makes more sense than Bluray its the logical sucsessor of DVD for burng data too. Bluray is not any better when it comes to movies, just the market has gone on the side of bluray and so there are more movies there... but there is nothing phisically keeping those same movies from working on HDDVD. Infact you can burn them to HDDVD if you wanted.

 

as for movies, the region free thing is a nice thing to have. i hate having to ensure i reset the region code thingy on my drive and it really makes no sense other than to ensure local divisions of the major movie and tv companies are able to sell their stuff at the prices they wish to in a particular market.

here in Dubai, i wanted to get a season of 24, it cost $75US yet in the US it's under $50 and in NZ it was around $40-55.

 

where did that come from. isn't it illegal to change the region code/remove the region code, thats what i thought it was there for.

 

lol i can see how they could arrest someone for doing something when they cant catch them lots of DVD drives these days are region free too.

the region free thing on new media is a big plus i say

 

The difference is that both Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs use two different aperture sizes in which to store their data, thus providing Blu-ray with a larger storage capacity. The difference in the thickness of both discs also contributes to the difference between both formats and the way in which each player reads their respective discs.

This is one of the reasons why there are not as many dual-format players proliferating the market as one would like.

 

uhh, what dont you understand? You just restated what I said in different terms. I was just keeping it simple without pulling out big words like "aperture"

Simply put *again* bluray and hddvd are nearly identical they use the same materials, they are the same size, they use the same laser. Bluray is more data dense so its harder on the laser to read it properly so to get things working correctly it required thinner plastic protection over the data layer as to not disturb the laser.

 

I think it'll be another couple of years before Blu-Ray becomes standard. Heck, I still have some VHS taped

 

The fact that you said they are the "exact same" is what I had an issue with. If they are the "exact same" then they cannot be different.

MYK - I agree that for any of the new formats to become standard it is going to take a few years at least.

 

well the medium is the same, besides the plactic on the outside. People seem to think bluray is totally different than hddvd thats the point im making.

 

Point taken.

It should be interesting how the LG and Samsung dual-format players do when they become readily available. Although the price tags for both are insanely high, at least this should hopefully be the start of things to come.

 

I've heard LG dual format's, but for now it is only for home entertainment player, namely SuperBlu.
LG showed it up on CES.

 

It's also available at several online retailers right now. At approx $1200 it is still too expensive a solution for those who prefer to stay neutral and buy both HD-DVD and Blu-ray discs.

 

Hmm I thought they were as low as 500$ now, maybe it was my imagination.

It will be cheaper given some time.

 

if u lived in switzerland it wudnt matter how much it costs, you would still HAVE to buy it to stay true to your country

 

This poll should be a blowout. Blu Ray is currently crushing HD-DVD thanks to blockbuster and the Playstation 3.