HD-DVD versus Blu-Ray

[Nate the Great]

Yeah, it's only literally THIS MONTH (that is, the last thirty days) that I've had a DVD player good enough to place confidence in (on my computer, the one I've had for years with my TV is a piece of trash). Thus it's only this month that I've started the progression away from VHS, which I still love.

[Celeste]

Eh, I ain't paying twice as much for a movie just so I can get it in "hi-def." DVDs are already way to expensive as they are.

[Nate the Great]

Depends on the movie and when you get it. For example, just by waiting six months or so after X2 came out, I got both of the X-Men movies on two disc DVD for only ten dollars apiece. Look back at the older VHS advertisements from the eighties. Twenty-five bucks for a videotape!

[Burt]

Nothing to see here.

[Burt]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

Depends on the movie and when you get it. For example, just by waiting six months or so after X2 came out, I got both of the X-Men movies on two disc DVD for only ten dollars apiece. Look back at the older VHS advertisements from the eighties. Twenty-five bucks for a videotape!

hehehehehehehehehe

'Twenty-Five Bucks'.
I forget sometimes that some (most) here aren't British.
American slang is cool.
Question: How much is a Nickle?

Blu-Ray sounds like a doomsday weapon. Which is cool.

[ijdgaf]

I dunno if that was a serious question, but a nickle is five cents.

Blu-Ray is indeed a cool name. Sony pisses me off often, but occaisionally they do awesome things. Like name formats after rayguns, or make a device as marvelously multifaceted as the PSP.

Seriously, I'm a Nintendo geek. But I loves the PSP.

[Nate the Great]

What, you Canadian types don't use the word "buck" to refer to a dollar? How about greenback, simoleon, or clam?

The best name for a doomsday weapon. There's a topic for a fun thread.

[Nate the Great]

And the Winner Is!

[ijdgaf]

Sony is the one who starts pretty much every one of these format wars. And they almost always lose it. But so far, it seems to me that Blu-Ray is the exception.

I don't really have any preference at all, as I'm not really *that* schooled on the specs and I don't really have any use for either anyway. Yet. I do think it'll be a year or two before high def content really takes off. And I'm honestly pretty excited about getting an HDTV and a 360 at some point. Probably the latter a bit sooner than the former.

But there's a lot of cost stuff in the way. And hopefully the industry will make things cheaper and my disposable income will increase at roughly the same point.

[Nate the Great]

Of course, the really annoying bit is the studios that only support one or the other. So what are our options, really? Buy a dual player, I suppose. Stupid stubborn studios.

[ijdgaf]

There's actually a better solution, as far as I can tell. And I hope it takes off (but not really sure how likely it is).

There's this Total HD format being developed by (I think) Warner. Sort of the opposite approach as a dual player, really. Instead, the discs themselves work for either type of player. So effectively, such a format would make the whole format war obsolete -- you could instead focus on getting the cheapest player.

[Nate the Great]

Yeah, but what does that solve? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The only way that would make the slightest sense is if the two formats actually had some quantifiable difference to them. Like, one works better if you have a kickbutt huge-screen HD TV and the other works better if you have a kickbutt surround sound system. But I doubt that's the case. I return to my original wistful plea that the industry would've chosen one or the other and stuck to their guns.

[ijdgaf]

Well the discs themselves have slight edges in storage space and read speed. Not sure how the Total HD will faire on that.

But whatever. I'm content with the notion that this silly format war is pretty much obliterated by a format that allows everybody to win. Except the petty execs who stand to gain by their respective format's staying power. Assuming of course the studios can get behind it. Here's hoping.

But really, who am I kidding. It'll at least be a year or two before I buy any of 'em. Perhaps longer.