Blue Ray or HD DVD?
 

So is it still to early to tell which of the two will take off and be successful??
Any thoughts?

Blue Ray I think will be the way to go.

i say HD TV. So much cheaper, but who knows

I have HD-DVD mainly because the add on for Xbox was only $200. I think it kicks ass and the earlier Blu-Ray titles looked like ass. I think it will be awhile before either one takes over. Sony seems to think DVD will be gone in a few years. I hate their way of thinking and I hate Sony. Warner Bros is actually coming out with a dual disc that has Blu-Ray on one side and HD-DVD on the other. It almost comes down to what movies you want and of course if you have a HDTV. I have to say though, The Departed is pretty kick ass in high def.

I say none. I am happy with dvd and cant justify spending hundreds of dollars for the players plus more money for the media. I would not get either until there is a clear winner which will be decieded by us the consumer. I keep saying this but I have several mini disc players,curse you sony.

if your talking about which one make more money, i think hd-dvd because of the name, HD seems more appealing to people than Blue ray, but to be honest i see no difference between regualr dvd and blue ray

I wouldn't spend the $500-1000 that some of the players cost, thats why the xbox add-on was perfect. I still enjoy dvds and the xbox hd-dvd drive actually upconverts the dvds to a higher resolution. There is a pretty big difference between high def and standard, but you kinda gotta be constantly watching the two. If you watch a t.v. show in standard def. and then switch over to the same show in high def., there is a huge difference. I'm not replacing my dvds, but any HD-DVD movie that comes out that I dont already have, then I buy it in HD.

I agree with Venom.

Sorry, but the real world viewing difference between 480p and 1080i or 1080p is not exactly mind blowing. It is an improvement, but nothing staggering

DVD took off because it was far more convenient than VHS. No more rewinding, more compact, easy to use, able to skip chapters. The resolution and Sound capabilitys really were just the whipcream and cherrys.

BlueRay and HDDVD offer no new conveniences, just better resolution, and the difference between the resolution on DVD and Either HD format is only impressive on paaper if you ask me. In real life viewing it looks better, but not not massivly so, and audio sounds exactly the same. All it is is slightly better visual resolution.

I think both are good formats, but i think this format war is a bit premature. Owners of HDTV's are not exactly in the majority, i dont know what the current count is but i would bet less than 25% of households have HDTV.

Venom is a perfect example of your average consumer in this, most are going to shy away and wait to see who wins. If nobody adopts, both formats become a novelty

This is not really the same as the Betamax vs VHS wars back in the 80's. Back then there were 2 choices for watching movies at home, either Betamax or VHS. One of them HAD to win, cause there was nothing else.

Right now there is already DVD which most people still dont even have a TV capable of getting the most out of the DVD.


Sony made a damn good move with making thier PS3's Blue-Ray, good way to get blue ray into the homes of consumers. Although i see more HDDVD content than blueray and the players are cheaper.

My prediction is neither format take off, they will both simply be a novilty like DVD-A and SACD (what are those??.. exactly!) and 10 years down the road a new format will come in and beat them both, but for now DVD still has not run its life.

All in all, i wouldnt sink much money in either format.

DVD really does look good enough for 95% of consumers.

I think that Blue Ray, if any thing will def. win if there is a winner. Like Jack said, the difference between the two and dvd is very minimal to the average consumer, and wouldn't make a difference. Spec wise there is a HUGE diff. but not to the average eye. Hell, people are still wasting $ on crap lcd's just cause it'll hang on the wall. As far as the price goes, Blue Ray will be coming down in price and most likely sooner than later. When DVD was just introduced I paid $600 for my player in like 1999 and a similar player with the same technology (no pro scan or anything) can be bought in Wal-Mart for what? $50? I say give it some time and enjoy your dvd's till the price drops considerably! Same thing I did when I bought the 360 instead of the PS3, sad to say 'cause I work for SONY. PS3 price will come down and more titles will be avail. till then I'll enjoy what I have.

Remember, to see BluRay you need a 1080p monitor. It would amaze you how many people I talk to think every TV that says it is HDTV is capable of displaying 1080p LOL

I am in the custom home theater business so I deal with this question day in and day out LOL

I think HD-DVD, I have the 360 add on that was $200 and the picture and sound is just amazing, + the name HD-DVD I think a lot more people will go for the HD-DVD then the Blue-ray, Unless you have a HD-TV that supports 1080p which alot of us that already have a HD-TV only have 1080i or less.. HD-DVD FTW!!

You don't need 1080p to see Blu-Ray. Thats just the highest resolution that it offers, same with HD-DVD. My t.v. only goes up to 1080i, but I enjoy watching my HD-DVDs on it. I agree, no format will win for a long time if any, but I do think HD will take over. They are already stating that by 2009 all networks will stop broadcasting in standard definition. Now if you dont have a HDTV then no its definitely not worth it. But, if you own a Xbox 360, then $200 really isnt that big of a deal if both formats flop. I'll be stuck with some kick ass movies in high resolution that I can continue to watch.

Jack - I hear what you are saying that HD and Blu-ray dont really offer anything new besides picture quality, but it does have a little perk if your into it. You can access all the menus and chapters and things like that while watching the movie, so you dont have to stop it, go back to the menu and everything. It all pops up while your watching.

You dont NEED 1080p to watch blueray discs, you just need 1080P to get the full potential.

That being said, how many people out there even have a 1080p capable tv? And seriously, unless it is a BIG ASS TV, what is the point in 1080p?

people dont see in digital, we have the supreme HD vision, however, screen size, pixle size, and distance are all major factors as to weather or not we can even percieve the increase in resolution.

Neither me or my buddy could tell the difference between ED and HD (1081i signal being sent to both ED and HD, ED showing 480p resolution) on Panasonics Plasmas which are onlt 42 inches and i was less than 10 feet away.

The average consumer cant percieve much of a difference between 1080i and 480p. The only dreastic improvement is what is on paper

If i had to pick though, i would say HD DVD all the way.

Sony always ****s up thier new competing technologys with bitchy licencing agreements with manufacturers.

Thats what I meant....what is the purpose of buying a bluray and not using the bluray?? (meaning 1080p) so in my mind yes you do need a 1080p monitor LOL Otherwise you have a really expensive HD DVD Player LOL


Just wait for the recievers that up convert everything to 1080p...cheaper and good enough really...



whats everyone gonna do when quad 1080p hits the market??

They will still broadcast in standard definition, the agreement is that all broadcasters will be sending out a digital signal rather than analog signals.

The only real drawback for that is that you have to have a digital tuner for each tv in the house, while as it stands now with comcast you need a reciever for digital cable, but you can still get the full basic analog (50-100 channels) lineup on any other tv in the house.

Why spend the money if your not gonna use it? I guess that was my point

I don't think its that hard to tell a difference between 480p and 1080i. My friend has a crappy PS3, plays it on a regualr t.v. and the picture is alright. Nothing amazing for paying $800 for all the PS3 crap. Now take my Xbox 360, playing on a 1080i DLP HDTV, and wow, there is a huge difference in picture. I guess it comes down to preference and what people see with their own eyes. 1080p your only really gonna notice on a gigantic t.v. so your not really losing anything by watchin a high def. movie in 1080i on say a 42" screen.

My reciever already upconverts all its signals to 1080i (denon 3805), that doesent mean my standard def signals will magically improve at all. Im sure there is probably some algortithmic intelligence that smooths things out, but 480p upconverted to 1080p wont look anything like a native 1080p source. lol.

quad 1080p? WTF? ive been out of the AV game a while i guess.

any improvements over 1080p im sure will be featured in IMAX theaters and other high end theaters.

There is a culture surrounding computers that they become obsolete after 3-4 years. Consumers wont accept the same culture when it comes to TV's. Tv's are meant to be used 15-20 years.

lol

I will say this -- 1080p to me (when done right) looks amazing. Sony didn't do it right IMO.

Maybe cause I am in the business and sat in the Westinghouse Booth at CES and watched the 1080p content on their TVs...so yes, I can tell a difference in 480p, 720p, 1080p. I noticied it big time when I came back to my house and watched a 480p DVD LOL


But I will agree the average consumer will not see a huge difference (a big enough one that means spend thousands on the 1080p monitor).

I wonder if jjtgiants knew he was gonna get this big of a discussion from such a simple question.

How about this:

Do you think downloadable movies will become a factor in all this format war crap? Like what Microsoft is doing with Xbox live and also what they will be doing with there on-demand like service this holiday season. Do you think people will just want to be able to download a movie off of the computer or t.v. instead of going to the store?

yeah, the up convert looks better....but of course its not gonna be true 1080p...good enough for the average consumer.

Yeah quad 1080p is already in the planning stages (I have seen one model..it was a 57" LCD) and 1080p hasn't even got big LOL

Thats the problem with the A/V world...it moves way to quick for the average consumer

Yeah, the ability to tell a difference in resolution is all determined by screen size and distance from screen.

When i was plasma shopping i saw the ED model and HD side by side both with a 1080i signal. If about 3-4 feet from the TV i could tell a difference, from 10 feet back they looked basically the same with a very slight edge to the HD model, but not an $800 difference. lol.

next plasma i buy will definatly be HD, and 50in. But im pretty impressed with the ED image on a 42in.


Now therein lies the issue. I dont know about any of you but i seldom see apartments in colorado that have enough room for a 50-60in HDTV. A lot of HOUSES dont really have much room for that stuff.

So, if your average consumer can not afford a place with a big enough room for a 60in 1080p HDTV, then how the hell are they going to afford a $600 player? let alone a 60in 1080p HDTV

There gets a point of diminishing returns with this stuff.
Pay 2000 for setup A and you have a great setup.
Pay 4000 for Seup B and it is 30% better than setup A
pay 8000 and it is 50% better than setup A
pay 16,000 and it is 60% better than Setup a.

Higher and higher prices, for less and less improvement. that is one of the things that finally made me kick my audiophile quest. I got about a 10k setup and i would have to drop another 5,000 to see an evern remotely significant improvement. Just aint worth it.

To the average consumer which is unfortuantely the majority right now, the difference just isn't drastic enough to justify the price difference.


Perks? Checking out menu's WHILE watching a movie? I would want to kick the screen in if I'm enjoying a good movie and someone decides to pull up a menu, a freakin' menu? in the middle of the movie. For what?

That is all marketing though. The VISUAL aspect has increased yes. Think about it this way, 100 yards. At the 0 yard line is Standard TV, at the 100 is perfect recreation of what we can see. 1080i HTDV jumped to the 75 yard line. 1080p is scrounding for an extra 5 yards. every increase we see is going to be huge on paper, but less and less dramatic in perception

However the entire audio side, conveniences have been put in play, but you would be hard pressed to find any audio setup that could match the clarity of a pair of 20 year old Klipsch La-scala or hereseys and a 20 year old McIntosh tube amplifier.

If anything, the actual fidelity of the audio has decreased. While there are surround setups now with the gee whize bang aspect, most home threater setups suck for anything but movies.

We went from Tube amplifiers that could heat a house and coffin sized speakers that produced some of the best sonic clarity ever, to transistor run cheap ass electronics packaged into a crappy reciever with these bullshit satallite speakers that produce 15,000-2,000hz, and a "sub" that doubles as a woofer and handles 500hz down to 50hz. Crap. That is missing a good 1/4 of the audible hearing range. lol.

not to be knocking solid state amplification, thats is what im running, but i also use a 10 year old outboard amplifier that kicks the shit out of the internal amps of my 7.1 surround denon 3805. I worked hard to get my home setup to do movies and music equally well, and i tell ya what, there are comprimises because movie and music fidelity are entirely different beasts.

The only thing that has gotten better in AV is the V. Audio just got gimmicky and lost fidelity.

While computers actually double and triple performance every few years, AV moves nowhere near that pace, it just jumped a bit in the past few years and we will see things ebb again.

I agree with you Jack on not spending more money just for a slightly noticeable better picture. Thats why I spent $900 for my Samsung 42" DLP HDTV. I think the picture is great, both movies and games look kick ass and the t.v. itself fits perfectly in my living room. Everything is old after about 6 months or so anyways, so you can never keep up with this crap. Same thing with cell phones, if I didnt get a certain amount off a new phone each year, hell I'd still have a phone that had a black and white screen.

lol... well at least with cellphones they usually break after a year or two so yer usually up to speed. lol

whoa, settle down there buddy. Didnt mean to get your panties in a wad. They arent perks for everyone, but some people actual enjoy being able to skip to a scene real quick or make some kinda of change without having to stop the damn movie and go to the menu. It doesnt harm anything if you dont like, and if you do like it, then its there for you.

Amen on that one.haha

Depends on the audio equipment you listen to.

There is a bunch of stuff out there that sounds amazing. And that is Home Theater stuff. It just depends on the speakers...like the system I have (yes..its a semi cheap system..but still very good). I throw a DTS DVD in of Eagles: Hell Freezes over tour...pop on 7 Bridges Road...Hotel California...or anything else on that CD and it sounds SICK. I mean just amazing for what I have it running through.

Granted there are a lot of high priced units out there that sounds piss poor for a 5k piece of equipment. All depends.

Like everything Best Buy/Circuit City Sells is for the normal consumer...most of it sound like pure crap to me.

The stuff I use is built purely for the custom home theater market...and yes I hear a major difference. The reciever I use is only 1000 retail...but it sounds loads better than most of the stuff twice the price. Depends completly on who makes it and how it is made.

whatcha running? Nad? Rotel?


lol... one system ive always wanted to hear is Krell Inferno. lol... check that out on thier site. i dont make enough in a year to afford that level of gear.


there are a lot of good bargain priced stuff out there, Nad, Rotel, Parasound, Adcom, systems that can rocksolid performance for the front end, B&W and KEF and JmLabs make some good speakers. unfortunatly they are not sold in most retail places and you have to go to the custom audio botiques to get them and deal with the snobby audiophiles that run the places. lol....