Topic: hd-dvd or bluray

[Ed.]

The best I've seen in ways of cracking is streaming the 360 HD-DVD drive to a computer and copying the file that way.  You have to have a beefy computer, with lots of hd space and a nice vid card to do it though.  I think the best they've did with BD so far is copying the disc with the ps3 running linux, but they haven't cracked it enough to be able to burn a playable disc.

*shrug*

A universal player will definitely make things take off though, at least thats what I'm waiting for anyway.

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

The best I've seen in ways of cracking is streaming the 360 HD-DVD drive to a computer and copying the file that way. 

Is that through the component output?  The studios require HD content be transmitted over HDMI only.  Breaking HDCP is not going to be trivial.

[John Kelly]

A universal player will definitely make things take off though, at least thats what I'm waiting for anyway.

Well hope that BluRay starts to really take a hurting, then.  Because if it doesn't there's no way Sony's going to change their licensing. 

[dmonterisi]

is it just Sony though?  i thought bluray was a consortium of multiple manufacturers?  or is sony really controlling it?

[John Kelly]

is it just Sony though?  i thought bluray was a consortium of multiple manufacturers?  or is sony really controlling it?

Sony is partnered with some other companies, but it's really their baby.  And they have almost full control of the format.

[dmonterisi]

i wonder if at some point the other companies will finally sack up and make sony realize how important it is to build a universal player.

of course, i also believe that it will be better for the technology in the long run for a format to be decided upon so that the different manufacturers can compete, bring new features to the market and work independently to perfect one technology over the other.  so i'm not sure really which is the better way to go, to be honest.

[Ed.]

The best I've seen in ways of cracking is streaming the 360 HD-DVD drive to a computer and copying the file that way. 

Is that through the component output?  The studios require HD content be transmitted over HDMI only.  Breaking HDCP is not going to be trivial.

I was wrong, it looks like you can only get 720p/1080i out of the 360 drive when you transfer it over analog.  Or maybe thats all the guy was trying for, I can't tell.
http://www.jakeludington.com/hddvd/20061203_how_to_copy_hddvds.html

I don't have a 360 or a hd-dvd addon, but I've read that it does 1080p and doesn't have hdmi out.

here's talk about ripping BD on PS3
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/748/748723p1.html

[Ed.]

HD-DVD compared to upconverted dvd

I didn't know that HD-DVD uses a new compression format. 

[dmonterisi]

actually, i thought both formats supports mpeg-2, mpeg-4 and vc-1 and each movie studio chooses which format to master a particular movie in.

[BJ]

i still running a fuggin VCR...no joke....still have many movies (shows) on vcr that I watch...
after reading this...i know I am SOO out of the loop on all of this stuff...i just recently got HDTV...loving it...but really only for sports (which is about all i watch anyway, besides movies from netflix)...
I inherited an HDTV set from my father in law, becuase he wanted to go to 1080p (hes an early adopter of everything) so i took his 65 inch pioneer that was only 2 years old...figured i would try HDTV (best 3 months of sports EVAH!)  my DVD player actually sux...but i bought it on rec's for audio anyway (4960)  I cant stand the video coming out...but i am too lazy to switch, or something..cause its been in there a while..but its really showing its ugly head on the new tv...
I cant imagine getting a hd dvd or blueray anytime soon.  infact, other than my father in law (and now me)..i know noone who has HDTV here...I know i am small town, but are these techs really going to take off for mainstream market ever?  I have friends/coworkers who argue DURING THE GAMES at my house, that they can't see enough difference b/w HDTV and reg to justify the costs...(i  switch channels b/w HD and reg..i see it easily)  but this is a common theme...of course..they are all still over EVERY weekend to watch the games on HD...
I guess i just don't see it taking off until they stop producing anything in reg DVD format, and FORCE people into the switch...

[John Kelly]

i know noone who has HDTV here...I know i am small town, but are these techs really going to take off for mainstream market ever?  I have friends/coworkers who argue DURING THE GAMES at my house, that they can't see enough difference b/w HDTV and reg to justify the costs...

Well in 2008 they'll have no choice - they'll have to go digital or buy a converter box.  And if you're going to buy a digital TV, an HDTV isn't that much more expensive.

Then again, I'm guessing cable will still use analog so maybe they wont have to change.  But anyone getting OTA programming will.

I guess i just don't see it taking off until they stop producing anything in reg DVD format, and FORCE people into the switch...

That's not likely to happen for many years (minimum of 5, but I think it's more like 10).

[OFOTD]

Just to add a little flame to the fire.  I've been really lucky to see a side by side comparison of both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.  While the differences are VERY minimal in picture quality the Blu-ray has the smallest of edges on that front.  The two noticeable differences for me were the storage capacity (Blu-Ray wins) and the speed of the player (again Blu-ray wins).  When I say speed I mean how long does it take to put a disc in and start watching a movie. 

While I love the more open licencing of the HD-DVD format that really seems like the strongest feature of the format.  Otherwise Blu-Ray has it beat all around. 

Here is a snippet of a news story on Blu-Ray that addresses licencing as well as who is in on the format.

"The companies that would start disclosing specifications for the Blu-ray Disc format are: Hitachi, Ltd., LG Electronics Inc., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., PIONEER CORPORATION, Royal Philips Electronics, SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD., SHARP CORPORATION, Sony Corporation, and THOMSON multimedia. The nine companies will be called 'Blu-ray Disc Founders", and they will pursue a broad acceptance of the 'Blu-ray Disc" format. "

I think that distribution will be key.  Right now the two biggest players are the PS3 and XBOX360.  I would suspect that many people are sour on Blu-Ray because the PS3's are so expensive and hard to find.  The HD-DVD sales for the 360 have been very slow as my local BestBuy has had a ton of them the last few days with little indication that they were selling any of them.

The next big test will be courtesy of Dell.   Dell has started shipping their XPS laptops with the Blu-Ray option.  That is a huge distribution channel right there.   Also we'll need to keep an eye on blank media manufactures.  Remember what a big deal dual layer discs were.  Great idea but the discs were just so damn expensive and hard to find. 

[dmonterisi]

Just to add a little flame to the fire.  I've been really lucky to see a side by side comparison of both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.  While the differences are VERY minimal in picture quality the Blu-ray has the smallest of edges on that front.  The two noticeable differences for me were the storage capacity (Blu-Ray wins) and the speed of the player (again Blu-ray wins).  When I say speed I mean how long does it take to put a disc in and start watching a movie. 

curious...when you say side by side test...was it the same title on both and was it an HD title or was this a SD DVD being upsampled?  do you happen to know which players they were using?

[OFOTD]

Just to add a little flame to the fire.  I've been really lucky to see a side by side comparison of both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.  While the differences are VERY minimal in picture quality the Blu-ray has the smallest of edges on that front.  The two noticeable differences for me were the storage capacity (Blu-Ray wins) and the speed of the player (again Blu-ray wins).  When I say speed I mean how long does it take to put a disc in and start watching a movie. 

curious...when you say side by side test...was it the same title on both and was it an HD title or was this a SD DVD being upsampled?  do you happen to know which players they were using?

I watched Mission Impossible III from both players.  I don't have the model numbers on the two players but will find out tonight for you.  They were both hooked into a Pioneer PDP-6071HD plasma via HDMI.   It was my understanding that MI:III was/is one of the very few non-upsampled movies out on both formats right now. 

 

[dmonterisi]

Just to add a little flame to the fire.  I've been really lucky to see a side by side comparison of both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.  While the differences are VERY minimal in picture quality the Blu-ray has the smallest of edges on that front.  The two noticeable differences for me were the storage capacity (Blu-Ray wins) and the speed of the player (again Blu-ray wins).  When I say speed I mean how long does it take to put a disc in and start watching a movie. 

curious...when you say side by side test...was it the same title on both and was it an HD title or was this a SD DVD being upsampled?  do you happen to know which players they were using?

I watched Mission Impossible III from both players.  I don't have the model numbers on the two players but will find out tonight for you.  They were both hooked into a Pioneer PDP-6071HD plasma via HDMI.   It was my understanding that MI:III was/is one of the very few non-upsampled movies out on both formats right now. 

 

cool...no need to get the models, just curious if you happened to know.  i guess i've heard some mixed things about the first tosh hd-dvd player and i'm not sure if the second gen one is on shelves yet.  didn't realize that any movies had been done in both hd and bluray yet.  thanks for the info.