Topic: hd-dvd or bluray

[OFOTD]

give it time, media will drop once the players start dropping.  it'll all come together. 

I thought the same about dual layer DVD's and unfortunately they're still not cheap.   

[dunebug81]

give it time, media will drop once the players start dropping.  it'll all come together. 

I thought the same about dual layer DVD's and unfortunately they're still not cheap.   

If you keep an eye out you can find good quality ones for about $1.50 a disc.

[rasta]

I spoke to a PS3 rep at sony and he said they were going to release a firmware update in a couple of months alowing it to upscale DVD's.

[Ed.]

http://www.gamerawr.com/2007/03/27/current-blu-ray-players-obsolete-by-october/

Here’s the deal. Blu-ray was rushed out the door in order to stay competitive with HD DVD. The Blu-ray Disc Association has only recently finalized the formats specifications, which most current players do not conform to. This includes the Playstation 3, and all of Sony’s own Blu-ray players. The lacking features include PIP support, part of BD-Java technology. Many players that even support BD-Java, do not support picture in picture.

What I find most humorous is that Crank and The Descent placed two versions of the film on the disc, one with and one without PIP, to get around the limitations. Although a creative workaround, it hinders the bit rate and space for bonus features.

After October 31, 2007, picture-in-picture (via BD-J) will be mandatory for players to carry the Blu-ray logo. New specification requirements also include 256MB of persistent memory storage, and a required 1GB for players with an internet connection. This new memory requirement is also part of the BD-J picture-in-picture spec.

So what does this mean for your current Blu-ray player? A simple firmware update, right? Well, a firmware update obviously won’t give you memory that isn’t already there. Andy Parsons, senior VP of advanced product development at Pioneer Electronics, believes picture-in-picture is too complicated to be fixed with an update.

Blu-ray playerGiven the nature of the PS3s hardware, it’s reasonable to assume PIP will eventually be supported. Other players wont be so lucky. What is likely to affect all Blu-ray users is the content. With such diverse hardware, it will be very tricky for content providers to provide a common user experience from one player to the next. PIP and other premium content may be skipped since it wont be usable for all customers.

Even if your Blu-ray player isn’t up to spec, it is promised you will be able to watch all Blu-ray discs in the most basic form. But come on, half of this HD marketing mumbo-jumbo is not just the superb picture quality, but the next-gen viewing experience.

There is always a price to pay for being an early adopter, but is this going a little too far? It’s not a matter of the specification changing, but it was clearly never finalized when the first players shipped. Many are now left with gimped players that won’t benefit from all of Blu-ray’s features.

I’m not trying to feed the flames, but I feel it’s worth noting that even though HD DVD shipped first, their spec was finalized. Picture-in-picture and all.

Sources: High-Def Digest & Video Business

Not really a big deal, but that sucks if you dropped $1k on player to find it obsolete after a year.

[dunebug81]

Ya that kinda sucks if you didnt buy a ps3.  Really, who cares about pip?  I cant imagine wanting to watch 2 things at the same time especially if im trying to pay attention to a movie. 

[Ed.]

I think when they're talking about pip, they're talking about the little pop up video commentary blips similar to what hd dvd has.

From what I've heard, its a nice little feature for the common movies you've seen a bunch.

I was looking into a PS3, but think I'm going to opt for the 360 elite.  The modders have done more with the 360 and it seems more media machine reliable.

[John Kelly]

I think when they're talking about pip, they're talking about the little pop up video commentary blips similar to what hd dvd has.

From what I've heard, its a nice little feature for the common movies you've seen a bunch.

I was looking into a PS3, but think I'm going to opt for the 360 elite.  The modders have done more with the 360 and it seems more media machine reliable.

The Mallrats original DVD had this option - it made the commentary even better than it was before (and it's probably the second best dvd commentary of all time, only behind Spinal Tap).

[dunebug81]

I think when they're talking about pip, they're talking about the little pop up video commentary blips similar to what hd dvd has.

From what I've heard, its a nice little feature for the common movies you've seen a bunch.

I was looking into a PS3, but think I'm going to opt for the 360 elite.  The modders have done more with the 360 and it seems more media machine reliable.

Ohh, ok that makes sense.  That would be kinda cool then.  I should get an HD DVD that has the pip and check it out.  I like the PS3/Blu-ray set because there are better movies out for blu-ray then on HD-DVD...but I do enjoy my xbox for games and the occasional HD-DVD movie that I do rent.

[Ed.]

Got a 360 Elite this weekend and with it I bought the hddvd player.  It came with King Kong and I bought Friday Night Lights with it as well. (Explosions In The Sky did the soundtrack and its awesome).

I gotta say, I'm very pleased.  Right now my setup is 360 Elite HDDVD > HDMI > MarantzSR7001 >HDMI > Samsung HL-S6188W 61" 1080p DLP HDTV.

Watching the action scenes of King Kong and FNL I didn't notice any macroblocking or pixelating whatsoever.  The picture was crystal clear and the quality was unbelievable.  Very nice.

One thing I found odd, I still had black bars on the top and bottom of the screen.  I thought with a 1080p tv and a 1080p player, the image should fill the screen perfectly?  Both movies have the same aspect ratio and both say widescreen, so maybe thats what it is.  I dunno, looks good though and everything is proportionate it seems.

Now I just have to figure out how to get streaming video to play on the 360 properly.

[John Kelly]

Got a 360 Elite this weekend and with it I bought the hddvd player.  It came with King Kong and I bought Friday Night Lights with it as well. (Explosions In The Sky did the soundtrack and its awesome).

I gotta say, I'm very pleased.  Right now my setup is 360 Elite HDDVD > HDMI > MarantzSR7001 >HDMI > Samsung HL-S6188W 61" 1080p DLP HDTV.

Watching the action scenes of King Kong and FNL I didn't notice any macroblocking or pixelating whatsoever.  The picture was crystal clear and the quality was unbelievable.  Very nice.

One thing I found odd, I still had black bars on the top and bottom of the screen.  I thought with a 1080p tv and a 1080p player, the image should fill the screen perfectly?  Both movies have the same aspect ratio and both say widescreen, so maybe thats what it is.  I dunno, looks good though and everything is proportionate it seems.

Now I just have to figure out how to get streaming video to play on the 360 properly.

It's very rare to find a movie that is shot in 16x9, which is what widescreen televisions have as a ratio.  Most movies are 1.85:1 or 2.35:1, the former being a bit more common.  Because of that all movies will still have black bars, even in HD and even on widescreen televisions.

[OFOTD]

So does anyone that has both HDDVD and BluRay have an opinion on the better format?  Not the vehicle (360 vs. PS3) but on the audio and video quality?  I see that the BluRay and HDDVD forces are both proclaiming themselves the winner but whats the reality on them.....

[John Kelly]

So does anyone that has both HDDVD and BluRay have an opinion on the better format?  Not the vehicle (360 vs. PS3) but on the audio and video quality?  I see that the BluRay and HDDVD forces are both proclaiming themselves the winner but whats the reality on them.....

The reality is that they're technically pretty equal at the moment. BluRay has a theoretical advantage with larger disc space, but it's not likely going to be a big advantage to most people.

[OFOTD]

So does anyone that has both HDDVD and BluRay have an opinion on the better format?  Not the vehicle (360 vs. PS3) but on the audio and video quality?  I see that the BluRay and HDDVD forces are both proclaiming themselves the winner but whats the reality on them.....

The reality is that they're technically pretty equal at the moment. BluRay has a theoretical advantage with larger disc space, but it's not likely going to be a big advantage to most people.

+T  Thanks.

All I ever see for the most part on other sites are people in one camp or the other mostly based on it either being a PS3 or 360 instead of the true technical merits of the formats. 

[Ed.]

I've never seen bluray yet, at least not on a real tv in someones home and I don't trust the ones in the big stores cuz you never know how they're really hooked up.  From things I've read though, they're pretty equal.  It seems that bluray is taking off now that the shortage of ps3's is over as more movies are coming out for it and their sales are going up.

I've read that a new larger storage version of hd dvd is coming out though later this year and that the players will just need to update their firmware in order to play them.  I guess that will take care of the disadvantage of the smaller storage on them.

I've read that Walmart is buying a ton of $300 hd dvd players to sell and promote in their stores, however, I also read that they currently have one for $350...so its not that big of a deal really.

Personally, I'd wager that next year at this time you'll be able to get a combo player that does both formats for under $200 and burners that do both for under $400.

John, you're right, both are 2.35:1

[John Kelly]

That timeline is a little aggressive, however those $300 HD-DVD players will go on sale for $199, which could be a HUGE deal this year. 

My guess is that combo players will be $500+ still next year, and combo burners will be even more.  The former would be a drop of 50% in price, and the latter doesn't even exist yet.