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[VanMardigan]

EVERY Toshiba laptop in 2008 will come with an HD DVD drive:

Toshiba says it plans to put HD DVD drives in all of its laptops in 2008.

While the manufacturer currently provides optional HD DVD drives for its laptops, Toshiba Senior Vice President Hisatsugu Nonaka said today at a news conference that all Toshiba laptops will come with HD DVD drives next year. "The demand is there; people want to watch their favorite movies in high-definition on the road," explained Nonaka.

 

[Matrix]

From the AVS forums...

 

[StoOgE]

My point however, was that it doesn't make sense that the HD DVD version would have a better transfer. Why would Warner make two separate VC-1 transfers, and for no reason have the BD version gimped? Unless of course they really are an HD DVD double agent :lol

This movie has abolustely nothing to do with TotalHD, people just starting complaining about how this was somehow proof of why TotalHD is going to ruin movies.. Im against TotalHD too, but Blood diamond has nothing to do with it.. and the movie is going to be on a 30GB HDDVD.

We've also seen plenty of great looking HDDVDs that have HDi tracks, PIP, interactive menus, lossless audio, etc. So using the "HDDVD is breaking the BRD" is a pretty dumb argument. WB themselves have multiple movies throwing out a ton of bells and whistles on HDDVD that look stunning (Matrix, Batman, etc). The arguement that HDDVDs extra features caused the PQ to suffer are dumb.. because for that to be true, all HDDVDs with these extra features would have to suffer in PQ. The fact that there are HDDVDs that have all of this stuff and look great disproves this arguement.

Im also sure that HDDVD will get this same gimped transfer that BRD got.. Im sure there is one HD transfer and they'll both have the same one.. its just the 3-4 people that started shouting "OH NOES HDDVD has broken my bluray" that I was addressing. Its a bad transfer. Period.

 

[StoOgE]

From the AVS forums...

and in another stupid offshoot of this format war.. the sequal will be HDDVD only just like Sin City.

So if you want the first movie, you have to have BRD.. if you want the sequal, you have to have HDDVD. :lol

 

[captive]

and in another stupid offshoot of this format war.. the sequal will be HDDVD only just like Sin City.

So if you want the first movie, you have to have BRD.. if you want the sequal, you have to have HDDVD. :lol

By the time either one of those gets released to home video, the format war will probably for all intents and purposes be over.

 

[StoOgE]

By the time either one of those gets released to home video, the format war will probably for all intents and purposes be over.

Yeah, I cant wait for BRD to die, its dragging down both formats. One format future.

 

[Wollan]

I think someone mentioned a re-release of the Fifth Element a short while back, anymore news on that?

 

[captive]

Yeah, I cant wait for BRD to die, its dragging down both formats. One format future.

:lol

 

[StoOgE]

:lol

Dont laugh. Its truth.

 

[Raistlin]

This movie has abolustely nothing to do with TotalHD, people just starting complaining about how this was somehow proof of why TotalHD is going to ruin movies.. Im against TotalHD too, but Blood diamond has nothing to do with it.. and the movie is going to be on a 30GB HDDVD.

Ah, thanks

We've also seen plenty of great looking HDDVDs that have HDi tracks, PIP, interactive menus, lossless audio, etc. So using the "HDDVD is breaking the BRD" is a pretty dumb argument. WB themselves have multiple movies throwing out a ton of bells and whistles on HDDVD that look stunning (Matrix, Batman, etc). The arguement that HDDVDs extra features caused the PQ to suffer are dumb.. because for that to be true, all HDDVDs with these extra features would have to suffer in PQ. The fact that there are HDDVDs that have all of this stuff and look great disproves this arguement.

To assume that all extras require the same bitrate is a bit dumb in itself though

It is obviously possible that could be the problem, though the fact Warner would choose to compromise PQ for extras would be pretty stupid. However, stranger things have happened.


For multi-format titles, it is obvious studios will generally use the same transfer. So either the extras 'broke' this title, and they decided to cap the video bitrate to keep everything in ...

... or they just phoned in the transfer completely.



Either way, Warner dropped the ball total.

 

[Raistlin]

Yeah, I cant wait for BRD to die, its dragging down both formats. One format future.

:lol

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

Yeah, I cant wait for BRD to die, its dragging down both formats. One format future.

:lol Oh my god I seriously almost spit on my screen that was great.

 

[fortified_concept]

Yeah, I cant wait for BRD to die, its dragging down both formats. One format future.

:lol Are you trying to be as bold as you can just to make things look even between the two formats or you're just kidding? Trust me no matter how audacious your posts are, fact is HDDVD has by far less sales or support and the only thing keeping it alive is Universal.

 

[captive]

Dont laugh. Its truth.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/delusional

de·lu·sion Pronunciation Key [di-loo-zhuhn]
–noun
1. an act or instance of deluding.
2. the state of being deluded.
3. a false belief or opinion: delusions of grandeur.
4. Psychiatry. a fixed false belief that is resistant to reason or confrontation with actual fact: a paranoid delusion.

Seriously i cant wait to revisit these threads in about 6-12 months. Better or worse it should be pretty entertaining.

Spoiler

i'd bet its going to be for the better for blu

 

[Christopher]

Yeah, I cant wait for BRD to die, its dragging down both formats. One format future.

So wait the format who is constantly not outselling the other on a pretty wide ratio, and the other who is constantly dropping in price begging to be purchased is not dragging down blu-ray.

tsc tsc StoOgE keep the Team Xbox flame strong!

 

[StoOgE]

I dont think it sounds any dumber than all the people proclaiming HDDVD dead. The likelyhood that either format will be dead in the next 6-12 months is slim to none.

BRD might be outpacing HDDVD at the moment, but the numbers of discs being sold is so tiny compared to DVD at this point.. selling 30K of a new release versus 20K is hardly a mudstomping. Its not as though either format is established enough at this point to be very profitable for studios.. and to think that 6 months from now one of them will be that established is dumb.

 

[fortified_concept]

I dont think it sounds any dumber than all the people proclaiming HDDVD dead. The likelyhood that either format will be dead in the next 6-12 months is slim to none.

BRD might be outpacing HDDVD at the moment, but the numbers of discs being sold is so tiny compared to DVD at this point.. selling 30K of a new release versus 20K is hardly a mudstomping. Its not as though either format is established enough at this point to be very profitable for studios.. and to think that 6 months from now one of them will be that established is dumb.

If Universal bails out HD-DVD would be practically dead. Yeah Toshiba could keep it alive for much more but the game would be over.

 

[captive]

I dont think it sounds any dumber than all the people proclaiming HDDVD dead. The likelyhood that either format will be dead in the next 6-12 months is slim to none.

BRD might be outpacing HDDVD at the moment, but the numbers of discs being sold is so tiny compared to DVD at this point.. selling 30K of a new release versus 20K is hardly a mudstomping. Its not as though either format is established enough at this point to be very profitable for studios.. and to think that 6 months from now one of them will be that established is dumb.

No one said HD DVD would be dead, i said the quote "the format war for all intents and purposes will be over by then"

And yes it will be over, I will bet a month long ban that Universal has gone nuetral by one year from now.

 

[Captain N]

Still at the mall, but I did pick up a few movies.

Blu Ray
The Holiday

HD DvD
Clerks 2
A Scanner Darkly

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

This has probably already been posted but I thought it was a excellent and fair read on the reasons HD-DVD is over.

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/soapbox/soap060107.html

 

[captive]

This has probably already been posted but I thought it was a excellent and fair read on the reasons HD-DVD is over.

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/soapbox/soap060107.html

Lol i posted this elsewhere and i got the "bill hunt is an idiot/prick/full of shit etc" oddly enough pretty much everyone saying that were HD DVD only supporters, who then recomended HD DVD...

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

Lol i posted this elsewhere and i got the "bill hunt is an idiot/prick/full of shit etc" oddly enough pretty much everyone saying that were HD DVD only supporters, who then recomended HD DVD...

Its funny how that always works out.

 

[LM4sure]

Yeah, I cant wait for BRD to die, its dragging down both formats. One format future.

I agree completely. Can't wait!!!

 

[VanMardigan]

I think the main problem is that Bill Hunt was on the Blu Ray side anyway, so that "coming out" article was redundant and self serving.

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

I think the main problem is that Bill Hunt was on the Blu Ray side anyway, so that "coming out" article was redundant and self serving.

Hmm I didnt know that but even so it seems very well written and makes perfect sense. I guess if I had bought a HD DVD player I would be doing all I could to defend my purchase.

 

[DarkJediKnight]

I think the main problem is that Bill Hunt was on the Blu Ray side anyway, so that "coming out" article was redundant and self serving.

Bill Hunt praised HD DVD and heavily criticized Blu-ray last fall. Having followed his website for nearly 10 years, I'd say his reasonings for choosing Blu-ray is for a faster single format adoption. The same applies to me. I've always said that if HD DVD was in the position that Blu-ray is in, I'd support it over Blu-ray - specs or not. But right now it's looking damn bleak for HD DVD. My prediction is that it will be dead or near dead by this time next year, further solidifed by the abysmal performance of the Matrix.

 

[ManaByte]

Bill Hunt praised HD DVD and heavily criticized Blu-ray last fall. Having followed his website for nearly 10 years, I'd say his reasonings for choosing Blu-ray is for a faster single format adoption. The same applies to me. I've always said that if HD DVD was in the position that Blu-ray is in, I'd support it over Blu-ray - specs or not. But right now it's looking damn bleak for HD DVD. My prediction is that it will be dead or near dead by this time next year, further solidifed by the abysmal performance of the Matrix.

Um. You keep trumpeting that. Don't you think it's because people would rather buy the movies separately rather than be forced to spend $80 on the set? The Mission:Impossible boxed set on both BRD and HDDVD didn't burn up the charts; so Paramount got smart and released MI and MI:2 separately.

 

[captive]

Um. You keep trumpeting that. Don't you think it's because people would rather buy the movies separately rather than be forced to spend $80 on the set? The Mission:Impossible boxed set on both BRD and HDDVD didn't burn up the charts; so Paramount got smart and released MI and MI:2 separately.

Wasnt the MI box set the first high def title to hit 30k in one week? And it was before the PS3 was released if memory serves.

 

[DarkJediKnight]

Um. You keep trumpeting that. Don't you think it's because people would rather buy the movies separately rather than be forced to spend $80 on the set? The Mission:Impossible boxed set on both BRD and HDDVD didn't burn up the charts; so Paramount got smart and released MI and MI:2 separately.

I keep trumpeting it because I am in utter disbelief that 300k+ HD DVD players have been sold yet only 13k Matrix sets have been sold. WTF!! Remember, that unlike PS3 owners who may or may not have intentions to ever pick up a Blu-ray, HD DVD owners have all bought their players for the purpose of buying media. The Matrix is quite possibly the most important release next to Star Wars and LOTR for pure eye candy. It's the franchise that is single handedly responsible for mainstream DVD adoption. This is the set that's supposed to sell and sell to the Tech geeks who bought into HD DVD early. With all the promotions behind it, the player price drops, the free-bees with player purchases, I still can't believe the number.

 

[rubso]

EVERY Toshiba laptop in 2008 will come with an HD DVD drive:

Toshiba says it plans to put HD DVD drives in all of its laptops in 2008.

While the manufacturer currently provides optional HD DVD drives for its laptops, Toshiba Senior Vice President Hisatsugu Nonaka said today at a news conference that all Toshiba laptops will come with HD DVD drives next year. "The demand is there; people want to watch their favorite movies in high-definition on the road," explained Nonaka.

I think they will release their laptops that comes with HD DVD burners this year (?) .
btw, Acer is going to release it's Aspire 5920 "Gemstone" this July with equipped HD-DVD drive, and I'm looking forward to it .

cool, eh?

 

[DarkJediKnight]

I think they will release their laptops that comes with HD DVD burners this year (?) .
btw, Acer is going to release it's Aspire 5920 "Gemstone" this July with equipped HD-DVD drive, and I'm looking forward to it .

cool, eh?

Those look damn nice. But not for me, whether it had HD DVD, SuperHD DVD, Blu-ray, Pink-Ray, Purple-Ray, whatever. HD Movies = big screen, because anything less would be uncivilized.

 

[NR1]

Well this month just got a whole long more complicated for me...

I had originally planned to buy the Sony BDP-S300 when it was announced for $599, but switched to the Panasonic DMP-BD10A after it was announced last month with 5 free movies for the same price. Well now Sony comes up with the surprise $499 price for the BDP-S300 and I'm considering switching back to that player. :lol

Now can anyone help me answer the important BD-JAVA question? I'm trying to gain a comprehensive understanding of this feature and the issues that plague it at the moment, but I'm still a quite a bit lost on the subject.

Which player is able to support this feature? Both are just updated versions of the Sony BDP-S1 and Panasonic BMP-BD10, but I can't imagine both companies would allow these players to go on the market without being JAVA ready based on the October 31 deadline announced in April.

According to Wikipedia's BD-J entry, both of the original players support the feature. Plus, why would Panasonic package both Pirates movies with BD-J content with a player that can't play them?

Dragon's Lair has picture-in-picture commentary... does anyone know which players can use this feature outside of the PS3? Is it possible for firmware updates allow the other players to use this feature in the future?

 

[Kleegamefan]

Um. You keep trumpeting that. Don't you think it's because people would rather buy the movies separately rather than be forced to spend $80 on the set? The Mission:Impossible boxed set on both BRD and HDDVD didn't burn up the charts; so Paramount got smart and released MI and MI:2 separately.

So funny how this excuse pops up so often, now that the Matrix HD-DVD release has bombed...


Just a few weeks ago, it was HD-DVDs savior......wha happened?

Wasnt the MI box set the first high def title to hit 30k in one week? And it was before the PS3 was released if memory serves.

oh shi.....

 

[Raistlin]

So funny how this excuse pops up so often, now that the Matrix HD-DVD release has bombed...


Just a few weeks ago, it was HD-DVDs savior......wha happened?




oh shi.....

I sense much hate.

Spoiler

preach on

 

[captive]

Wasnt the MI box set the first high def title to hit 30k in one week? And it was before the PS3 was released if memory serves.

Nevermind, it was MI:3 that was the first to hit 20k in a week before the ps3 was released.
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/348

Anyway, Mana, i know how you like to try and quell the Blu-ray pride spreaders around here... so why arent you calling out the several HD DVD supporters who were trumpeting the Matrix triology as HD DVD savior, and how it was going to top Blu-ray for that week, or at least make it close.
After all you do claim your "format neutral."

 

[Bebpo]

WTF WTF WTF

In Japan they just cancelled the next theatrical anime blu-ray that was coming out: Tekkon Kinkreet.

It was originally going to street day and date on June 27th with the normal and LE dvds and it was up on the main site and now it's gone and play-asia and CDJapan have removed it from their databases.

http://www.aniplex.co.jp/tekkon/dvd.html
Blu-ray used to be there

This really sucks. I saw a screening of the film at a month ago and it was great with some really incredible visuals that have to be seen in HD. I was looking foward to watching this again :\

I guess Blu-ray's weekly sales of 5 are making publishers scared to put stuff out on HD. I remember something last year was pulled as well. Japan is not ready for HD it seems



*edit Looks like the Japanese release of Freedom on HD-DVD has been canned as well.


I seriously think both formats are dead at this rate in Japan, which is annoying as ALL ANIME NOW IS CREATED AND AIRED IN HD. Total crap. They need to resolve this fast.

 

[Rabid Wolverine]

Son Of A Bi*ch!

Fox has announced a director's cut of Commando which stars Arnold Schwarzenegger. The disc will be available to own from the 18th September, and should retail at around $19.98. As well as the original theatrical cut (90 minutes), the set will include an all-new seamlessly branched unrated version (95 minutes) as envisioned by director Mark L. Lester. Each version of the film will be presented in 1.85:1 anamoprhic widescreen, along with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround track. Extras will include an audio commentary on the theatrical cut by director Mark Lester, deleted scenes, a Pure Action featurette, a Let Off Some Steam featurette, and 4 photo galleries with over 150 images (Creating Commando, Domestic Bliss with John and Jenny, Kill Arnold, Kill!, and Trashing the Galleria).

Wheres the Blu-Ray version FOX you FU*KS!

 

[Bebpo]

Wheres the Blu-Ray version FOX you FU*KS!

Fox is out of the HD business for now it seems. Where was my Last King of Scottland in April? Buena Vista isn't much better post Pirates/Apocalypto with the Cars delay.

More and more it seems like people in the video industry are just giving up at this point and being "well if the formats ever pick up we'll release movies and make money". It's a really bad attitude and may just be the beginning of the end.

 

[AgentOtaku]

my fears expressed =(

 

[Captain N]

I stay up to watch The Holiday last night and boy do I wish I hadn't. That movie was a bit of a snorefest. The best parts of that movie didn't even have much of anything to do with the main four characters.

Quick question..are there any laptops that have HD DvD drives or Blu Ray Drives in them that I could buy sometime this summer?

 

[wasting]

Quick question..are there any laptops that have HD DvD drives or Blu Ray Drives in them that I could buy sometime this summer?

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&categoryId=8198552921644488277&parentCategoryId=16154

toshiba site is down but the Qosmio G30-163 has one http://www.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=513128

 

[VanMardigan]

Those look damn nice. But not for me, whether it had HD DVD, SuperHD DVD, Blu-ray, Pink-Ray, Purple-Ray, whatever. HD Movies = big screen, because anything less would be uncivilized.

I wonder how much of a difference HD would make on such small screens. Then again, the viewing distance is much closer. When I visit Chicago next month, I'll see if I can find any demos of HD-DVD or Blu-Ray equipped laptops to see if the difference from SD DVD is worth the price increase.

 

[djkimothy]

Quick question..are there any laptops that have HD DvD drives or Blu Ray Drives in them that I could buy sometime this summer?

Although not an internal slim drive, Other World computing are selling external Blu-ray read-writable drives.

http://eshop.macsales.com/Search/Search.cfm?Criteria=blu-ray&Manufacturer=

I'm not sure if you can playe movies though.

 

[Ignatz Mouse]

I think the main problem is that Bill Hunt was on the Blu Ray side anyway, so that "coming out" article was redundant and self serving.

I don't understand how it is self-serving. Yeah, he was already pro-BluRay, and this is really just making that explicit-- but unlike so many of the other advocacy pieces, he's a neutral party *and* he gives solid reasoning for his position. You can argue the specifics of his position, or the certainty of his prediction, but it's not like he's a paid marketing advocate for one side or the other.

Also, I find Toshiba's assertion that people want to watch thier HD movies on the go pretty funny. How big, exactly, if the HD-on-the-go market? It's a good move, but the justification is pretty silly.

 

[VanMardigan]

Also, I find Toshiba's assertion that people want to watch thier HD movies on the go pretty funny. How big, exactly, if the HD-on-the-go market? It's a good move, but the justification is pretty silly.

It's no sillier than folks spending money to get portable dvd players or watching their dvd's on their laptop. If you own HD DVD movies, why wouldn't you want your next laptop to be able to play them (in addition to your SD DVD's)?

And about Bill Hunt, I don't see the point of his article. "HAY GUYS, I PICK BLU RAY" months after people who read his site already knew that. A revelation that really wasn't.

 

[Suikoguy]

It's no sillier than folks spending money to get portable dvd players or watching their dvd's on their laptop. If you own HD DVD movies, why wouldn't you want your next laptop to be able to play them (in addition to your SD DVD's)?

And about Bill Hunt, I don't see the point of his article. "HAY GUYS, I PICK BLU RAY" months after people who read his site already knew that. A revelation that really wasn't.

So, going by your logic, when a company unofficially makes an announcement, something slips or is already known, they should never make an official announcement?

All Bill Hunt did was summarize what he thinks will happen, in an official statement.

 

[wasting]

Those look damn nice. But not for me, whether it had HD DVD, SuperHD DVD, Blu-ray, Pink-Ray, Purple-Ray, whatever. HD Movies = big screen, because anything less would be uncivilized.

Amazing reply, Im sure you pick the LARGE version of the trailer on apple instead of the 1080p one right? cause it looks the same on such a small screen? :lol

 

[Suikoguy]

Amazing reply, Im sure you pick the LARGE version of the trailer on apple instead of the 1080p one right? cause it looks the same on such a small screen? :lol

All he is saying, is the difference of High Def versus a SD-DVD is far greater on a big screen.
Personally, I'm really not sure if I would spend over $100 on a portable high-def drive for a laptop. On the other hand $400 seems reasonable for a home theater player.

 

[VanMardigan]

All Bill Hunt did was summarize what he thinks will happen, in an official statement.

The first part of the post didn't make any sense, so I'll pass on even addressing it. As far as what's quoted above, I agree that is what he did. Which is why it was redundant because we already knew that. I'm not saying he SHOULDN'T have posted that article, I'm just saying it was pretty irrelevant for those of us who read his site regularly

edit:

btw, I picked up the Matrix Trilogy for $52.33 SHIPPED with deepdiscount's 20% off. It wasn't in stock when I ordered it (which is why I didn't post it here), but it shipped today, so I feel like I got a really good bargain.

 

[jjasper]

btw, I picked up the Matrix Trilogy for $52.33 SHIPPED with deepdiscount's 20% off. It wasn't in stock when I ordered it (which is why I didn't post it here), but it shipped today, so I feel like I got a really good bargain.

almost as good as those people that got it for $20