HD DVD format death knell...?

[boputnam]

Warner Brothers announced at CES they are only supporting Blu-ray format.

This is the PC World take.

Here is news from venerable FT.

[JBL 4645]

bop

Well as long as DVD stays in production I’m not touching ether format, be it HD-DVD or Bluray, sorry to sound cynical about this, but I’m sure you know where I’m coming from, and I needn’t spell it out. All I can say is it’s a pity and I think Hollywood should stop toying around with this, white elephant, so it has higher 50GB over HD-DVD all the trimmings in the word will not, seduce me into buying ether format, and I’m a film junkie, but not a moron to shall out close to £800.00 for a player.

[BMWCCA]

What are you talking about? :dont-know A Blu-Ray player in the states costs less than $260, even on Amazon.com, and our money's worthless! Buy a Playstation3 and get Blu-Ray, a great gaming console, and a PC all in one package for less than $400.

[hjames]

You got rid of your Beta for VHS,moved from there to Laserdisc, then to DVD ...
Its a continual path to higher performance ... there will ALWAYS be a new thing -
and the price ALWAYS gets cheaper once it becomes more common
(remember $1500 VCRs? I do)

BTW, have you seen the Screen cap comparison of DVD to HD DVD from Lord of the Rings??

http://www.cornbread.org/FOTRCompare/index.html

when you Mouse-over the images you see an HD screen cap, otherwise its a standard DVD screencap.

Just an FYI ... High Def DVDs WILL come, and its NOT a scam.

There WILL be a High Def DVD format, be assured of that - the ONLY question is how early to adopt it!

bop

Well as long as DVD stays in production I’m not touching ether format, be it HD-DVD or Bluray, sorry to sound cynical about this, but I’m sure you know where I’m coming from, and I needn’t spell it out. All I can say is it’s a pity and I think Hollywood should stop toying around with this, white elephant, so it has higher 50GB over HD-DVD all the trimmings in the word will not, seduce me into buying ether format, and I’m a film junkie, but not a moron to shall out close to £800.00 for a player.

[Tom Brennan]

"BTW, have you seen the Screen cap comparison of DVD to HD DVD from Lord of the Rings??"


No, I try to avoid anything that has to do with Lord of the Rings.

DVDs look pretty good, not as good as HD but good enough that when I go from HD to DVD I don't feel let down. I have John Ford's Cheyenne Autumn on HD on my DVR and also have the new DVD of the picture and can compare directly; HD is better, no doubt, but the DVD looks pretty damned good.

Cheyenne Autumn was shot in 70mm by Bill Clothier and has an amazing look with intense color and detail; IMO nothing looks better than a Ford-Clothier picture. Except The Searchers maybe; Ford and Hoch. I have that picture in HD on my DVR too.

I reckon I'm the market for HD discs; I have the dough and I've been into this hobby from the beginning and still use my LD machine. I have well over 500 DVDs and still have a couple of hundred LDs. And I haven't bought into HD discs yet.

[hjames]

Sure, I haven't bought into HD discs yet either ...

Again, "the ONLY question is how early to adopt it!"

I've got fine gear - I can wait ... probably you can too!

[Mr. Widget]

DVDs look pretty good, not as good as HD but good enough that when I go from HD to DVD I don't feel let down.

This is very software dependent... some DVDs look outstanding while others are unwatchable on a high-end projection system.

Unfortunately high rez is no guarantee of excellence either. If the conversion or disc authoring were shoddy the results are less spectacular.

I am glad this silly format war seems to be coming to an end, after the recent apparent loss of SACD it would be a shame for this war to force us to loose another high end format.


Widget

[JBL 4645]

Sure, I haven't bought into HD discs yet either ...

Again, "the ONLY question is how early to adopt it!"

I've got fine gear - I can wait ... probably you can too!

I’m with Heather on this one, I might consider it when the format war has ended and only when (ONE) is left standing to serve the consumer market place, not until then.

By the way I’ve never owned Betamax, only VHS which never gets played anymore.

So its laserdisc and DVD, I hope HD-DVD wins, I mean its logical, DVD has been around for 10 years, and I think it should continue with HD-DVD.

This image from Transformers is a direct screen capture from the region 2 DVD that I own.

The above is a region 1 DVD, I did have a HD-DVD image that some guy was sharing on the AVS site, but I’ve misplaced it somewhere.

[BMWCCA]

I hope HD-DVD wins, I mean its logical, DVD has been around for 10 years, and I think it should continue with HD-DVD.

If I didn't know better, I'd have to label you ignorant after such a statement!

How 'bout "may the best format win"? Why would you want to dumb down the whole industry just because of Microsoft? Not that they haven't already had that effect on the computer market.

[Rolf]

It will take a long time before I buy any HDDVD. I have a 52" Thomson back projector (is that right in English?), and it not HD ready. As I do not watch many DVD's, it is more than good enough. When more TV Channels starting to send in HD I will consider to buy a large LCD screen. 50" or bigger LCD is not on the marked yet, or they are so expensive. Hopefully when more TV channels transmit in HD, the price has come to "normal" on big LCD. I don't think Plasma will be around so much longer. What do you people think?

I don't care what format win, but I hope it will be the best. Witch one is the best anyway?

[JBL 4645]

It will take a long time before I buy any HDDVD. I have a 52" Thomson back projector (is that right in English?), and it not HD ready. As I do not watch many DVD's, it is more than good enough. When more TV Channels starting to send in HD I will consider to buy a large LCD screen. 50" or bigger LCD is not on the marked yet, or they are so expensive. Hopefully when more TV channels transmit in HD, the price has come to "normal" on big LCD. I don't think Plasma will be around so much longer. What do you people think?

I don't care what format win, but I hope it will be the best. Witch one is the best anyway?

Rolf

Rear projection TV my friend.

I did say I was bit cynical about it, I was cynical about computers 10 years ago but I’ve managed to get over that.

Yes may the best format win that, should suffice.

In one of the top consumer electronic stores in the UK, (Dixons) there isn’t one single CRT in plain sight! (LCD and plasma) and that’s it. I haven’t seen one HD-DVD or Bluray player in the store as of yet, and that debuted in the UK on December 2006.

Even ASDA store doesn’t have HD-DVD or Bluray players, only HD-DVD and Bluray discs, hardly anyone is looking at those. When I go walking around the store, everyone is looking at DVD, even thou some of the titles are £20.00 pounds for HD-DVD Bluray.

[Rolf]

Rear projection TV my friend.

Thanks!

In one of the top consumer electronic stores in the UK, (Dixons) there isn’t one single CRT in plain sight! (LCD and plasma) and that’s it. I haven’t seen one HD-DVD or Bluray player in the store as of yet, and that debuted in the UK on December 2006.

Even ASDA store doesn’t have HD-DVD or Bluray players, only HD-DVD and Bluray discs, hardly anyone is looking at those. When I go walking around the store, everyone is looking at DVD, even thou some of the titles are £20.00 pounds for HD-DVD Bluray.

Many shops here has Plasma up to about 60", and LCD stops at about 42". Prices from £500 (Not good) to £5000 (Very good). At least 3-4 different brands of Blyrays. Prices about £450

[JBL 4645]

Rolf

You see I don’t have a big issue with that price (£450.00) that was around the average cost of my first budget SONY DVD player region 2 of course, back around (1999 2000).


But what if, what if one of these high definition formats goes under, in the same way Betamax went, I read that the last Betamax player was manufactured around (2000 2001?) and rental libraries stopped stocking them, as far as I remember around late 1980’s if not mid 1980’s leaving only VHS on the shelves.

I know they make combo HD-DVD Bluray players which isn’t a bad idea but it’s the silly studios playing (silly buggers)! (FOX) (Paramount) (Columbia SONY pictures) (Warner Bros) major stupidity is what it really is, well as along as DVD is still around they’ve got a problem to sort out.

I mean I don’t recall them doing this when Betamax and VHS was around apart from Betamax had the better (line resolution) over VHS, what was it 50 line difference for Betamax?

[hjames]

Rolf
But what if, what if one of these high definition formats goes under, in the same way Betamax went, I read that the last Betamax player was manufactured around (2000 2001?) and rental libraries stopped stocking them, as far as I remember around late 1980’s if not mid 1980’s leaving only VHS on the shelves.

So - don't buy today, problem solved!
If you wait a year it should all be sorted out anyway - then its just a question of the economies of manufacturing driving the cost to the consumer down where it becomes common to everyone, much as CD players and DVD players are cheap and available today ...

High Def TV its much like audio - if you can't SEE (HEAR) the difference, don't upgrade any further.

Me, I have plenty of HighDef TV channels in my area so I have a High Def TV - but - I'll wait for the High Def DVD field to settle before I buy into either system.

[JBL 4645]

So - don't buy today, problem solved!
If you wait a year it should all be sorted out anyway - then its just a question of the economies of manufacturing driving the cost to the consumer down where it becomes common to everyone, much as CD players and DVD players are cheap and available today ...

LOL an average DVD box-set at ASDA may cost more than there cheaper DVD player which was around £30.00 I think last year, but don’t quote me on that.

Anyway hands up who on this site has a HD-DVD and Bluray player running with there JBL system now? Come on don’t be shy.