Comments on: My thoughts on HD-DVD vs Blu-ray http://www.JamesMBurke.com/2006/07/17/my-thoughts-on-hd-dvd-vs-blu-ray/ A personal web log Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:54:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: HD-DVD soon at jbctech’s web log http://www.JamesMBurke.com/2006/07/17/my-thoughts-on-hd-dvd-vs-blu-ray/#comment-19151 HD-DVD soon at jbctech’s web log Mon, 06 Nov 2006 06:21:59 +0000 http://www.jbctech.com/2006/07/17/my-thoughts-on-hd-dvd-vs-blu-ray/#comment-19151 [...] Back in July, I posted my thoughts on HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray.  Personally, I’ve chosen to go the HD-DVD route with the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive.  I pre-ordered it on Amazon, and it ships this week.  I’ve seen many articles comparing the two, and I still see HD-DVD as ruling the format war, at least in the short term.  There are four main reasons for that: 1) It’s cheaper - at least until the PS3 rolls around  2) The ability to have HD on one side of a disc and SD on the other really appeals to home users  3) The standards are higher for HD - required ethernet capability, required multiple video streams for Picture-in-Picture, quicker menus, etc.  4) The compression format - again, Blu-ray is using a 10 year old compression algorithm (MPEG-2) hindering its storage capablities.  HD-DVD has been using the brand-new VC-1 by Microsoft since day one. [...] [...] Back in July, I posted my thoughts on HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray.  Personally, I’ve chosen to go the HD-DVD route with the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive.  I pre-ordered it on Amazon, and it ships this week.  I’ve seen many articles comparing the two, and I still see HD-DVD as ruling the format war, at least in the short term.  There are four main reasons for that: 1) It’s cheaper - at least until the PS3 rolls around  2) The ability to have HD on one side of a disc and SD on the other really appeals to home users  3) The standards are higher for HD - required ethernet capability, required multiple video streams for Picture-in-Picture, quicker menus, etc.  4) The compression format - again, Blu-ray is using a 10 year old compression algorithm (MPEG-2) hindering its storage capablities.  HD-DVD has been using the brand-new VC-1 by Microsoft since day one. [...]

]]> By: jbctech http://www.JamesMBurke.com/2006/07/17/my-thoughts-on-hd-dvd-vs-blu-ray/#comment-8018 jbctech Mon, 31 Jul 2006 04:53:23 +0000 http://www.jbctech.com/2006/07/17/my-thoughts-on-hd-dvd-vs-blu-ray/#comment-8018 I disagree. The jump from standard definition to high definition is enormous! Not only that, but the new players will continue to play the "comprehensive DVD collection" that they already have -- AND upscale them to fit widescreen HDTV televisions. See, my current problem is that with DVD's, I hate having to try to make it fit my TV, by stretching it to Full and still having letterbox on either the side or top/bottom. With the upscaling, it still loses some quality by stretching, but it stretches it to fit correctly. Maybe I'm just picky. And, on capacity -- it's really not that big. I heard on that podcast that most films are filmed at much higher detail and end up taking almost 1 TERABYTE of space. They still have to compress it and lose 95% of the detail to fit on a Blu-ray or HD-DVD disc. Imagine the loss to standard DVD. In due time -- the Blu-ray is rumored to have the capability of a quad-layer with 25GB each, that's a total of 100GB! I think they'll catch on much quicker than you think...I'm most certainly on the Hi-Def bandwagon, and I know I'm not the only one. I DO think that $500+ is ridiculous, but that'll come down too. I remember when CD-ROM drives were expensive and CD-R drives were $1000+. I disagree. The jump from standard definition to high definition is enormous! Not only that, but the new players will continue to play the “comprehensive DVD collection” that they already have — AND upscale them to fit widescreen HDTV televisions. See, my current problem is that with DVD’s, I hate having to try to make it fit my TV, by stretching it to Full and still having letterbox on either the side or top/bottom. With the upscaling, it still loses some quality by stretching, but it stretches it to fit correctly. Maybe I’m just picky.

And, on capacity — it’s really not that big. I heard on that podcast that most films are filmed at much higher detail and end up taking almost 1 TERABYTE of space. They still have to compress it and lose 95% of the detail to fit on a Blu-ray or HD-DVD disc. Imagine the loss to standard DVD. In due time — the Blu-ray is rumored to have the capability of a quad-layer with 25GB each, that’s a total of 100GB!

I think they’ll catch on much quicker than you think…I’m most certainly on the Hi-Def bandwagon, and I know I’m not the only one. I DO think that $500+ is ridiculous, but that’ll come down too. I remember when CD-ROM drives were expensive and CD-R drives were $1000+.

]]> By: Wyvern http://www.JamesMBurke.com/2006/07/17/my-thoughts-on-hd-dvd-vs-blu-ray/#comment-7186 Wyvern Fri, 21 Jul 2006 10:58:18 +0000 http://www.jbctech.com/2006/07/17/my-thoughts-on-hd-dvd-vs-blu-ray/#comment-7186 IMO there's no absolutely compelling reason to change from DVD to the new formats for video, unlike the transition from VHS to DVD or cassette / vinyl to CD. Most consumers have a comprehensive ( and expensive! ) DVD collection already, and even the jump to HDTV gives a huge improvement. See the fate of SACD, DVD-Audio... I think the capacity is a little too high for most consumers ( who can't afford ridiculous prices ) and the disc still can't back up a full hard drive. I think it will be a while before they catch on, and by the time they do they may even be out-of-date. Greetings from a fellow Toaster Pusher ;-) IMO there’s no absolutely compelling reason to change from DVD to the new formats for video, unlike the transition from VHS to DVD or cassette / vinyl to CD. Most consumers have a comprehensive ( and expensive! ) DVD collection already, and even the jump to HDTV gives a huge improvement.

See the fate of SACD, DVD-Audio…

I think the capacity is a little too high for most consumers ( who can’t afford ridiculous prices ) and the disc still can’t back up a full hard drive.

I think it will be a while before they catch on, and by the time they do they may even be out-of-date.

Greetings from a fellow Toaster Pusher ;-)

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