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Hi-Def Media Lovefest: The war is over and we can all go home.

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ManaByte

Gold Member
Arde0 said:
I have a question for those of you in know about the HDDVD vs. BR thing.


I went to Best Buy on Tuesday to get my second BR movie (the first being the pack-in Rickie Bobbie crap). I decided to get The Last Samurai just because I like the movie...but when I found the rack for the Hi Def disc format movies the shelf space for both formats was the exact same. My question is why, if more movie studios support BR, that stores are dedicating the exact same space for both formats?
Personally, I have not decided which format I think is going to win but if BR really has such a lead on HDDVD then one would think the BR movies would be shown more prominently.

BRD has more studio support, but HD-DVD has almost (not exactly) as many releases due to it being out longer and the number of Universal and Warner catalog titles on it.
 
ManaByte said:
BRD has more studio support, but HD-DVD has almost (not exactly) as many releases due to it being out longer and the number of Universal and Warner catalog titles on it.



AHHHH...that actually make alot of sense. I just found it odd that they were so even (at least from what my BB carried, or decided to display).


Is there any word on some of the HDDVD exclusives being produced on BRD? In particular, The Thing and Children of Men? The Thing is one of my all time favorite movies...would love to own it on BRD (I dont have an HD-DVD player).
 

ManaByte

Gold Member
Arde0 said:
Is there any word on some of the HDDVD exclusives being produced on BRD? In particular, The Thing and Children of Men? The Thing is one of my all time favorite movies...would love to own it on BRD (I dont have an HD-DVD player).

The Thing and Children of Men are Universal, so no.
 

Suikoguy

I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
ManaByte said:
The Thing and Children of Men are Universal, so no.

I'd say the proper wording would be,

Not... yet. :)
 
"Ken Graffeo, executive vice president of marketing for Universal, the only studio to exclusively support HD DVD, conceded that Blu-ray would keep its lead until the fourth quarter. But he said HD DVD should perform well then.

“Fourth quarter is really going to be a telling time,” he said."

Oh Look! It's the Vice President of marketing at Universal! *golf clap* for his efforts on properly marketing Serenity and Children of Men. This guy is a complete moron, along with his emperor, Kornblau, who are taking Universal down the gutter with their steller leadership.

If HD DVD has any chance - it's now, fire on all cylinders and hope for the best, because by 4th quarter, all the BD-J stuff will be ironed out. Blu-ray will have a massive installbase due to the PS3 (and its pricedrop) and the standalone players will be pretty affordable. The trickle effect of Spiderman 1, 2, 3, Pirates 1,2,3, etc will be enough to catapault Blu-ray way over HD DVD.

What happened in 4Q of 2006? Blu-ray won handedly. And they weren't nearly in as favorable a position as they will be this Q4.

Kenny! You're doing a heckuva job! :)
 

Kleegamefan

K. LEE GAIDEN
DarkJediKnight said:
Oh Look! It's the Vice President of marketing at Universal! *golf clap* for his efforts on properly marketing Serenity and Children of Men. This guy is a complete moron, along with his emperor, Kornblau, who are taking Universal down the gutter with their steller leadership.

If HD DVD has any chance - it's now, fire on all cylinders and hope for the best, because by 4th quarter, all the BD-J stuff will be ironed out. Blu-ray will have a massive installbase due to the PS3 (and its pricedrop) and the standalone players will be pretty affordable. The trickle effect of Spiderman 1, 2, 3, Pirates 1,2,3, etc will be enough to catapault Blu-ray way over HD DVD.

What happened in 4Q of 2006? Blu-ray won handedly. And they weren't nearly in as favorable a position as they will be this Q4.

Kenny! You're doing a heckuva job! :)


BoomHeadShot.gif
 

Crayon Shinchan

Aquafina Fanboy
DarkJediKnight said:
Oh Look! It's the Vice President of marketing at Universal! *golf clap* for his efforts on properly marketing Serenity and Children of Men. This guy is a complete moron, along with his emperor, Kornblau, who are taking Universal down the gutter with their steller leadership.

If HD DVD has any chance - it's now, fire on all cylinders and hope for the best, because by 4th quarter, all the BD-J stuff will be ironed out. Blu-ray will have a massive installbase due to the PS3 (and its pricedrop) and the standalone players will be pretty affordable. The trickle effect of Spiderman 1, 2, 3, Pirates 1,2,3, etc will be enough to catapault Blu-ray way over HD DVD.

What happened in 4Q of 2006? Blu-ray won handedly. And they weren't nearly in as favorable a position as they will be this Q4.

Kenny! You're doing a heckuva job! :)

Bubububu cheap chinese HD players!
 

VanMardigan

has calmed down a bit.
U Control has been a pretty sweet feature. It's what separates HD DVD from DVD the most to me. Now if I could only control the size of the PiP box...............
 
The U-Control stuff is really sweet. Whether you will use it or not is not the point, the cool stuff you can do is just - new and it's really up to the imagination.

That's why it floors me when I see Disney doing Java games and other stuff with the half-assed BD-J 1.0. Can't wait to see what they can do with 1.1 Java on Blu-ray.

Btw, Ghost Rider cover. Didn't care for the movie, but if you liked it, well....

B000OVLBIU.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_V22567364_SS500_.jpg
 

Raistlin

Post Count: 9999
"Ken Graffeo, executive vice president of marketing for Universal, the only studio to exclusively support HD DVD, conceded that Blu-ray would keep its lead until the fourth quarter. But he said HD DVD should perform well then.

“Fourth quarter is really going to be a telling time,” he said."

Wait ... so they are openly stating that the only chance they have is if they have a substantial (50% or less) price advantage on HW versus BluRay? Basically, this Walmart deal is admittedly their last stand?!?

Dear god ...
 

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Onix said:
Wait ... so they are openly stating that the only chance they have is if they have a substantial (50% or less) price advantage on HW versus BluRay? Basically, this Walmart deal is admittedly their last stand?!?

Dear god ...

The hardcore BRD camp has been claiming that BRD is really cheaper for a long time using arguments like:

1. BluRay is a bargain because for only $100 more than an Xbox 360, (lol, good luck finding a 20GB...) you get a BluRay player as well.
2. Why buy a Toshiba HD-A1 (or later, HD-A2) when you can get a PS3 for the same price, which is also a game console?

and after the "PS3 is really $500" BS went away...

3. Xbox 360 Elite plus a HDDVD drive = $680.

The prices for standalone HDDVD units that have been thrown around lately make these arguments seem really silly, especially for non-gamers. More importantly, someone is much more likely to spend $200 on an impulse buy than $600. Or, later in the year, $200 vs. $400.
 

Zen

Banned
TAJ said:
The hardcore BRD camp has been claiming that BRD is really cheaper for a long time using arguments like:

1. BluRay is a bargain because for only $100 more than an Xbox 360, (lol, good luck finding a 20GB...) you get a BluRay player as well.

The Hardcore BRD camp never made this arguement, you seem to be mixing up the BRD camp with the PS3 camp who were also AV enthusiasts.

2. Why buy a Toshiba HD-A1 (or later, HD-A2) when you can get a PS3 for the same price, which is also a game console?

.. The PS3 which is a top of the line Blu Ray player that has the majority of Studio support and is also a game console.

and after the "PS3 is really $500" BS went away...

That was never BS seeing as you're 500 dollar PS3 was just as capable of a BR player as the 600 dollar model.

3. Xbox 360 Elite plus a HDDVD drive = $680.

The prices for standalone HDDVD units that have been thrown around lately make these arguments seem really silly, especially for non-gamers. More importantly, someone is much more likely to spend $200 on an impulse buy than $600. Or, later in the year, $200 vs. $400.

You mean the recent announced prices, you're argueing based on a vertical slice of old arguements and applyign the new situations to make them seem artificially outdated or innacurate.
 

djkimothy

Member
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/s..._Disc_Sales_Surpass_One_Million_Milestone/589

The Blu-ray Disc Association this morning announced that Blu-ray has become the first high-def disc format to sell more than one million discs.

Today's BDA press release points out that not only did Blu-ray reach this milestone before its high-def rival, but it did so in less than a year. The "less than a year" part is particularly notable since the HD DVD camp marked the end of its first year on the market last week by trumpeting a series of accomplishments in its own press release.

The Blu-ray release also includes newly released sales figures from tracking firm Home Media Research, which show continued sales momentum for Blu-ray, with the format accounting for 70% of all high-definition movies sold during the first three months of this year, with that lead growing each month since the first of the year.
 

VanMardigan

has calmed down a bit.
So, is May 7 THE date for the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on patch? I saw this date on the highdef forums attributed to the AVS forums (roundabout, I know), so I wanted to know if anybody here knew for sure. I'm looking forward to DTS audio as well as getting some kinks worked out (like bookmarks and certain issues with some discs).

Also, I was at my local Blockbuster last night and I saw 1 copy of Casino Royale BRD and 1 copy of Deja Vu BRD for sale. I asked the lady if she had any HD DVD movies for sale, and she said no. I'm not sure how they got those copies of BRD movies in the first place. uh-oh.
 
Quick question?

Can you only get 2ch PCM through the PS3 when using optical? That is what I'm hearing. So is it better to have the PS3 set to bitstream in the BD/DVD options and just play my BDs in DD5.1?
 

teiresias

Member
DoctorWho said:
Quick question?

Can you only get 2ch PCM through the PS3 when using optical? That is what I'm hearing. So is it better to have the PS3 set to bitstream in the BD/DVD options and just play my BDs in DD5.1?

Yes, you only get 2ch PCM through optical, you need HDMI for full channel PCM output.

If you're using optical out you may as well leave it set to Bitstream, if you select the uncompressed audio track in the BD set-up options it will be output as 2ch PCM even if you have Bitstream selected since PCM is always output as PCM.

Whether you prefer to listen to the uncompressed 2ch PCM audio or the DD5.1 is a personal choice dependent on whether you prefer to give up the multichannel mix to get the uncompressed audio. I tend to stick to DD5.1, but certain films I'll listen with 2ch PCM over optical, such as Chicago, or I'll turn it on just to hear the difference every now and then.

I can't wait until I can get a receiver that supports HDMI and I won't have to make the choice anymore. :D
 

Oni Jazar

Member
Is there a big noticable difference between DD5.1 and PCM to a non audiophile? We've been taugh to believe that DD5.1 is so amazing back in the day it's hard to imagine something sounding so much better.
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
Oni Jazar said:
Is there a big noticable difference between DD5.1 and PCM to a non audiophile? We've been taugh to believe that DD5.1 is so amazing back in the day it's hard to imagine something sounding so much better.
With right speakers there probably is. With my speakers, probably isn't :lol

I would like to know this as well, possibly a bit more technical... If we would compare the compression quality of DD5.1 (per channel) to an MP3 compression (again per channel) what would the equivalent quality be?

For example a 256kbps encoded MP3 which most people agree sounds pretty close to the source compressed material has 128kbps per channel. So if we would have 6 channels, it would take a 768kbps mp3 to have the same sound quality. How many kbps does DD5.1 have, and how advanced compression algorithm it uses?
 

Mrbob

Member
VanMardigan said:
So, is May 7 THE date for the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on patch? I saw this date on the highdef forums attributed to the AVS forums (roundabout, I know), so I wanted to know if anybody here knew for sure. I'm looking forward to DTS audio as well as getting some kinks worked out (like bookmarks and certain issues with some discs).

.

May 7 is the X360 spring 07 dashboard update, so it should be included then.
 

Bebpo

Banned
DoctorWho said:
Quick question?

Can you only get 2ch PCM through the PS3 when using optical? That is what I'm hearing. So is it better to have the PS3 set to bitstream in the BD/DVD options and just play my BDs in DD5.1?

Yeah you can.

Set it on bitstream for action movies with heavy 5.1 usage, and PCM for everything else until you get a receiver that takes HDMI.
 

mrklaw

MrArseFace
check out Sony's appalling Museum of the Low Resolution

Sony Europes attempt to show how things have moved on in the future to a point where the past 'low resolution' age is worthy of a museum. Shame our future computers have to put up with such shoddy flash pages...
 
http://gear.ign.com/articles/783/783545p1.html

April 25, 2007 - The recent pres-release-bickering between the HD-DVD and Blu-ray camps isn't terribly new, though most previous spats have gone down in the midst of large trade shows. The most recent squabbling began when HD-DVD celebrated the format's birthday by announcing that 100,000 dedicated players had been sold, preserving the format's hardware lead, not counting the PlayStation 3 (story). Blu-ray fired back, announcing that Blu-ray movie sales had reached the 1,000,000-sold milestone, and added a little salt to the wound with the data that 70-percent of Q1 HD-movie sales were thanks to Blu-ray (story).

Today, HD-DVD's representatives from Webersh & Wick public relations wrote to IGN Gear directly with updated HD-DVD news. According to their figures, HD-DVD movie sales lag only 2,000 units behind Blu-ray with 998,059 units sold. The firm points out that pre-orders of Planet Earth and The Matrix Trilogy will propel HD-DVD over the million-mark quite shortly. Representatives also stated that hardware sales have continued with strength in April, maintaining a 4 to 1 margin over Blu-ray.

Though consumers would likely benefit to a resolution to this format war sooner rather than later, it's looking like the struggle may continue for quite some time. The upshot of it all, however, will be a long and amusing PR battle. Honestly, it's rare in technology to get this much back-and-forth in claims, counter claims, dueling sales statistics, and one sided announcements of victory, so kick back and enjoy it, maybe while rocking some undeniably pretty 1080p movies on the format of your choice.

Blu-ray leads with 2K...the war is over!
 

Mrbob

Member
Yeah according to twisted spin numbers by HD DVD PR. Nice job IGN.

Of course we have official, 3rd party, non biased sources with the real numbers already.

Maybe they should go ask Sony PR reps about X360 hardware sales next.
 
I'm sure that The Matrix set will do well for HD-DVD, but they seem to be forgetting about the Pirates movies and Cars coming out, which all sell for a lot less.
 

djkimothy

Member
DarkJediKnight said:
THIS IS A MUST FOR ME!! Loved this film!!

Includes Dolby True HD in Japanese for you PS3 owners.

Hmmm... The premise sounds interesting from the back. I don't know how I missed this. :/

Great movie, but I don't think I would ever want to watch it again. No purchase for me.

Why is that?
 

Mrbob

Member
So close, yet so far away for HD DVD this past week. New release Smokin Aces couldn't put HD DVD past Blu Ray catalog titles for the week but it came close!

Week: Blu-ray 52 HD DVD 48
YTD 68/32
SI 57/43

Top 5 BD

1. Casino Royale 100.00
2. Happy Feet 50.60
3. The Departed 36.57
4. The Pursuit of Happyness 33.85
5. The Prestige 29.43

Top 5 HD DVD
1. Smokin' Aces 100.00
2. Batman Begins 14.79
3. The Good Shepherd 10.83
4. Children of Men 9.57
5. Happy Feet 9.34
 
I'm a bit baffled that HD DVD didn't outsell Blu-ray for the week of Apr 17. THey had far more releases. If the tables were turned Blu-ray would have outsold HD DVD by at least 2:1.

April 17 lineup.

HD DVD

Feast (Weinstein)
The Game (Universal)
The Jerk (Universal)
School for Scoundrels (Genius)
Smokin' Aces (

Blu-ray

Enter the Dragon
The Dirty Dozen.

Total numbers. HD DVD crossed 1 million mark. Blu-ray crossed 1.3mil.

SI 04.22 BD 1,340144,
SI 04.22 HD 1,031,223
 
DarkJediKnight said:
I'm a bit baffled that HD DVD didn't outsell Blu-ray. THey had far more new releases. If the tables were turned Blu-ray would have outsold at least 2:1.

Total numbers. HD DVD crossed 1 million mark. Blu-ray crossed 1.3mil.

SI 04.22 BD 1,340144,
SI 04.22 HD 1,031,223

Yeah, me too. Considering that Blu-Ray has 5-10X as many owners, It's just shocking that HD DVD couldn't quite outsell them last week.

[/sarcasm]
 

p_xavier

Authorized Fister
ChrisJames said:
Yeah, me too. Considering that Blu-Ray has 5-10X as many owners, It's just shocking that HD DVD couldn't quite outsell them last week.

[/sarcasm]

Well last week was "everyone's let's buy HD DVD day".
 
ChrisJames said:
Yeah, me too. Considering that Blu-Ray has 5-10X as many owners, It's just shocking that HD DVD couldn't quite outsell them last week.

[/sarcasm]

But PS3 owners don't buy Blu-ray movies and 360 add-on owners do, remember? Also, the cheaper HDDVD player price drop should have made it 60/40 for HD DVD at least.

Those numbers are DOWNRIGHT PATHETIC!!
 
JeFfRey said:
Well last week was "everyone's let's buy HD DVD day".

Oh yeah, forgot about that...

but to be fair, almost everyone bought HD DVD's off of Amazon which isn't counted in the Nielsen numbers. It probably would only be another 1-2,000 in sales, which might have been enough to at least make it 50-50 :lol
 

teiresias

Member
ChrisJames said:
Yeah, me too. Considering that Blu-Ray has 5-10X as many owners, It's just shocking that HD DVD couldn't quite outsell them last week.

[/sarcasm]

You know, I'd actually let you get away with that if the HD-DVD promotions people would stop sending out PR touting how much larger the HD-DVD stand-alone player sales are than the Blu-Ray stand-alone player sales.

And the "Everyone buy HD-DVDs from Amazon.com" day says hello.
 
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