Anybody Made Plans to Attend the Funeral?

[Palmateer]

To hear some say it, HD DVD is already dead, defeated by Sony's Blu-ray!

Others say 'On-Demand' is the real future of HD, and video stores will continue to disappear.

[CactusJack]

I just read an article in PC World, I think it was, that said the HD DVD / Blu-Ray format war is pointless, because the future of HD movie distribution is via internet downloads. It pointed out that hard drive storage space has gotten cheap (it better be, cause not only will you need a lot of it, but you better have one or more additional drives to back up all those movie files!), internet transfer speeds will get much better (yeah, right!), and people don't want to "bother" with having to go out and buy that little disc, then have to actually load it into their player to watch a movie.

I don't know, though. If the movie distributors follow their current habits of compressing files and leaving out the extras, in order to make the file transfer times short enough for people to accept, what's the point? It won't match the resolution and PQ of HD discs. There's also the likelihood that they will price the downloads the same or almost as much as a "store-bought" disc. I guess in today's active lifestyle world, too many people prefer CONVENIENCE over quality, as evidenced by the mass proliferation of low bitrate music files, to listen to with your cheap ear buds.

Off my soap box now....

Jack

[bdraw]

Wait if you want, but meanwhile I'm enjoying the highest quality HD movies today. Sure one day we want have movies with discs, but one day my car will fly too, but for now the one with wheels will have to do.

[tampahank]

I'm curious to see if Toshiba's recent announcement might change the results a little.. If you hadn't seen, they're supposedly going to offer a HD-DVD player w/ 3 free movies.. for $99.

http://www.dvddossier.com/2007/07/a2-toshiba-hd-d.html
(I hope this is nation wide! Likely today's Sunday-adverts might share the facts on this one.. Guess I have to wait a few more hours for the St Pete Times to arrive out front..)

I'm an admitted Sony-Fanboy. If it plays (or will) Grand Theft Auto and GranTourismo, I own it.. so of course I already have a blueray player (ps3). But at the $99 dollar (with 3 movies) range, I could see picking one of these up.

hank

[FTBoomerIII]

I'm curious to see if Toshiba's recent announcement might change the results a little.. If you hadn't seen, they're supposedly going to offer a HD-DVD player w/ 3 free movies.. for $99.

http://www.dvddossier.com/2007/07/a2-toshiba-hd-d.html
(I hope this is nation wide! Likely today's Sunday-adverts might share the facts on this one.. Guess I have to wait a few more hours for the St Pete Times to arrive out front..)

I'm an admitted Sony-Fanboy. If it plays (or will) Grand Theft Auto and GranTourismo, I own it.. so of course I already have a blueray player (ps3). But at the $99 dollar (with 3 movies) range, I could see picking one of these up.

hank

Thanks for the heads-up. I too would pick one up at that price. I haven't made the leap yet either way so this is huge for me, Now, does BlockBuster rent HD-DVD or BR?

[tampahank]

Too good to be true, I guess:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/15/toshiba-selling-99-hd-dvd-player-with-a-catch/

Only attendees at the conference where they're announcing this get the deal. Booooo!

Might be time to hit up that $100 price break on the PS3 for those wanting HD content on disc...

hank

[JeffP]

I can wait. At present a good SD DVD source through a scaler looks better then the all of HD content served up on FIOS or DirecTV.

[bdraw]

I can wait. At present a good SD DVD source through a scaler looks better then the all of HD content served up on FIOS or DirecTV.

I'm glad I don't have your TV, cause on my TV DirecTV looks alot better than upconverted DVDs at least as far as sharpness, detail and contrast. As for sound and OAR, DVD wins, but not that it matters since Blu-ray beats both of them hands down.

[JeffP]

I'm glad I don't have your TV, cause on my TV DirecTV looks alot better than upconverted DVDs at least as far as sharpness, detail and contrast. As for sound and OAR, DVD wins, but not that it matters since Blu-ray beats both of them hands down.

TV is fine it's a 100" Samsung 720p projector. The quality of scaler you use makes all the difference. The DVDO VP30 or 50 does a fantastic job upscaling....You of course also need a player that sends the signal at 480i out to the scaler so the cheap internal processor doesn't trash the image.

I'm sure I'll eventually go with Blue-ray but the prices need to drop to a more competitive level and the players needs to improve a little more. I'm sure the 2nd generation of players will accomplish both.

Now if this deal came through for $99 to the public you can bet I'd be in.

[bdraw]

If you are trying to say that the upconverted DVDs look better because there aren't any compression artifacts like there are via other methods fine, but no scaler in the world can create the kind of detail that is present in HD, not even when DirecTV or whoever, over-compresses it. Even HD-Lite has alot more detail than DVD.

I'm not saying that scalers aren't worth the money, just that it isn't fair to say that a scaled 480i image looks better than native 1080i.

Also, both Sony and Samsung have already released their 2nd gen players and Pioneer's isn't far behind. Samsung has already announced their 3rd generation too. The PQ is already fantastic, it's the special features that aren't quite there yet.

[JeffP]

From what I view at home my 480i DVD's upscaled look better then the crap DirecTV or FIOS (i've had both) push as their HD channels. Now whether that is from compression or from the source not being HD to begin with and they are simply upconverting on their end I'm not sure. But side to side comparisons changing sources certainly shows the clarity is better from SD DVD.

Now a true 1080 source such as HD-DVD or Blueray there's no question it looks better.

Is there any update on this promo and what it might mean for average consumers?

[tampahank]

This can't be real... but I'll share none the less..

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/format-war/198-wal+mart-toshiba-hd-dvd-player-confirmed-by-spy-shot-315296.php

As they point out, it's blurry for no reason.. and the text on the box (well, the "HD DVD" portion in white along the top) seems non-uniform between the boxes.. and not in a way that light refraction would cause..

Maybe it's real, I don't know. While I liked the other deal better, since Bruckheimer (sp?) didn't keep his deal, and I'm a child of the late 70s... the Transformers movie on HD on DVD might make this a required purchase.

hank

[CANDY76MAN]

Personally, I hope blueray wins out....coming from a computer enthusiast point of view the superior storage capacity is a big deal for me.

[tampahank]

Looks like the toshibas above could be real.. lookie at an actual screen shot from Circuit City:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/27/toshiba-a2-hd-dvd-player-for-200-at-circuit-city/

I'm with you on BlueRay, C76M. Capacity GOOD. And the fact that I'm a self-professed Sony fan boy and own a PS3 has nothing to do with it. I actually saw an article recently that showed that BR disc sales have firmly surpassed HDDVD.. so hopefully it'll happen.

[bdraw]

Not sure what the big deal is all about, they are simply blowing out last years model at a discount, now if they were A3 at that price it'd be news.

[CactusJack]

My take on the whole Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD is get the price of dual-format players down below $200, and the studios can produce whichever format they prefer. With a dual-format player, I won't care which format a movie I want is in. Both formats produce a very high-quality picture.

Jack

[Palmateer]

I think the crux of the problem is with special features - the dual format machines tend to short-change the special features of one format over the other.

My take on the whole Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD is get the price of dual-format players down below $200, and the studios can produce whichever format they prefer. With a dual-format player, I won't care which format a movie I want is in. Both formats produce a very high-quality picture.

Jack

[CactusJack]

I think the crux of the problem is with special features - the dual format machines tend to short-change the special features of one format over the other.
True. Hopefully, that too will improve.

Jack

[HDJerry]

Walmart. Friday. 8 a.m. Toshiba HD-A2: $98.87!

[Palmateer]

Wow, reduced from the October $198 price!

And the movie HD-DVDs themselves for 14.96 each (while supplies last)!

Walmart. Friday. 8 a.m. Toshiba HD-A2: $98.87!

[pilotbob]

My take on the whole Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD is get the price of dual-format players down below $200, and the studios can produce whichever format they prefer. With a dual-format player, I won't care which format a movie I want is in. Both formats produce a very high-quality picture.

Jack

If that were the case the studios would choose the one with the lower manufacturing costs, and that would be HD-DVD.

BOb

[galbicka]

My local Supercenter in Lakeland still had about 10 at this 98.87 price at noon today and a selection of about 10 different titles at 14.96. Too bad the HDMI cable wasn't on sale as well!

[CactusJack]

If that were the case the studios would choose the one with the lower manufacturing costs, and that would be HD-DVD.

BOb
I disagree with that. The disc format was "created" first; the studios have had the option to go with the lower-cost format since the beginning. That has always been one of the arguments in favor of HD-DVD.

Jack

[Palmateer]

I'm reviving this old thread now.

Does it look like the time for the Funeral has finally arrived?

[CANDY76MAN]

I don't know but Warner Brothers studios definantly put a nail in the coffin.

blue ray seems to be gaining momentum

[bdraw]

I think it's just a matter of time 'til universal and paramount follow, possibly by the end of Feb.

[HDJerry]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=friS4OOcdgQ

[HDJerry]

Sorry. The video has been pulled already!