Which to buy "Blueray or HD DVD"

[clevername2000]

Like the title states, i am in the market for a new dvd player. Currently i have a 56' DLP plasma (Samsung) and a Samsung un-converter dvd player.

Pretending Price is not an option and Buying DVDs is not an option what would be the best format.

Remember im not looking for model numbers im looking at whats the best format.

• Are there more movies being produced in one format
  Can there be better quality between the two?
  Is there better sound from one dvd to the next (I have a 7.1 sound system)

Whats our opinion?

[edDV]

Like the title states, i am in the market for a new dvd player. Currently i have a 56' DLP plasma (Samsung) and a Samsung un-converter dvd player.

Pretending Price is not an option and Buying DVDs is not an option what would be the best format.

Remember im not looking for model numbers im looking at whats the best format.

• Are there more movies being produced in one format
  Can there be better quality between the two?
  Is there better sound from one dvd to the next (I have a 7.1 sound system)

Whats our opinion?

1. You can look at the movie lists for each format and choose. If you have HD kids, Blu-Ray has a monopoly with Disney.

2. They both have identical video format specifications MPeg2, VC-1 and H.264. Blue Ray has more space per layer, HD-DVD uses two layers when necessary. Blu-Ray is currently using more MPeg2, HD-DVD uses VC-1 more often to fit a single layer.

3. Identical audio formats.

Plus some details differ for current players. Blu-Ray players are more expensive. HD-DVD has a red laser option for lower blank cost if you author your own disc. You can get Blu-Ray built into a Sony PS3. You can get an HD-DVD option for Xbox360.

As for me, I'm buying nothing and watching the action from center field.

[aedipuss]

if you are just looking for opinions then here's my take. they both support the same video and audio HD specs. they both offer about the same amount of GB space on a disc. they both probably can't survive together in the retail market. at some point one will most likely go the way of betamax. at the time of beta's demise sony owned the patents for both vhs and beta videotapes so they didn't really care which format survived. i doubt sony will let bluray go down this time. my money would go on sony for better or worse.

[MOVIEGEEK]

IMO HD DVD is better because it is a finalized format whereas Blu-Ray is under development...not to mention the players are cheaper.
I own a Toshiba A20 and I'm very pleased with it so far,the PQ is very good.
You might buy a dual format player to hedge your bets.
For more info go to www.avsforum.com or www.highdefdigest.com

[aedipuss]

i guess i should add that unlike eddv i am watching this battle from left field and hoping a third player will enter the fray - EDV. i wouldn't bet against the chinese growing some big balls and capturing the market with a low ball HD disc product. remember how dvd took off when apex brought in their $30 ad-1500 at a time when most players were hundreds more? they could do it again with EDV providing HD players for the masses!

[ntscuser]

at the time of beta's demise sony owned the patents for both vhs and beta videotapes so they didn't really care which format survived.

Sony didn't "own" the patents for VHS, they merely had a license from JVC to produce it. It's an important distinction. Nor is Sony the sole owner of Blu-Ray disc technology.

[aedipuss]

maybe sony owned the patent on the "shell" the tape was in. it's been awhile but iirc they are paid for every cassette manufactured vhs or beta.

sony probably has the most riding on it. with the ps3 at the forefront. if the reports are true they are losing money selling ps3s to get the bluray format on top.

[ntscuser]

maybe sony owned the patent on the "shell" the tape was in. it's been awhile but iirc they are paid for every cassette manufactured vhs or beta.

I think you are confusing video cassetttes with compact discs? Sony received one and a half cents for every compact disc sold in the world (as also did Philips).

[jman98]

Both formats are at risk of losing the format wars. Or then again, maybe both will sort of survive in the same way that DVD-Audio and SACD are both still alive, although both failed to supplant regular CD audio.

Quality is more or less equivalent. Early on a slight nod went to HD-DVD because early BluRay encodes were often botched.

It's impossible to say which has more movies. Each format has some studios that don't produce in the other format at all. Sony has engaged in all sorts of manipulation to obscure things, but it appears that HD-DVD in the USA has slightly better prospects in terms of sales.

You may or may not care about this, but HD-DVD movies can be ripped to your PC and converted to other formats. Older BluRay movies can also be ripped and converted, but the newest copy protection on BluRay can't yet be cracked and the moderator of the Doom9 website speculates that there is a chance that BluRay may never be cracked. If it ever is cracked, it will only be because someone made a mistake and let a key be sniffed. The newest copy protection is fiendishly clever and it can't be brute force cracked. The ohly way it will ever be cracked is if there is a big hole in the implementation, but the scheme itself looks to be rock solid.

[robertazimmerman]

Well, based on my experience, if it's made by Sony it's going to break prematurely. Therefore, go with HD DVD. You'll have less issues with non-playing discs and you won't have to deal with Sony's BS, "There's nothing wrong with your disc/machine", or "We'll try and fix your machine for only $350!" when the machine cost $250 to start with.

Search the Net - thousands of people are boycotting Sony. Don't fall for their hard working BS promo machine.

R

[CrayonEater]

I'm neutral as to the formats, but HD-DVD seems better quality-wise, and Blu-Ray's only theoretical advantage - more capacity - is gone thanks to dual-layer HD-DVD discs. And jman98 makes a point as to your ability to protect your investment by backing up your legally-owned discs. Still, I don't find any advantage in either format; you'd do quite well with a quality, upconverting (Oppo, maybe Toshiba) DVD player and preserve your existing collection.

What most people don't realize is that both HD and BR are really interim formats. There are much better storage formats already out there that allow up to 1 TB of storage (HVD, etc.) These will eventually (and within the next few years) be standardized with a video and audio system such as to make the puny 25-50 Gb of the HD/BR formats moot. You'll be able to have a full season of a TV show in hi-def on one conventional 12 cm disc, or a full hi-def movie on one miniature disc. That's where the real market value will be. Add to that is that higher TV resolutions are already under development, so your current concept of HD will look like 8mm film in a few years. To follow either current format would simply be to extract more money out of you to purchase the content you probably already own.

Again.

[SatStorm]

I.M.O., we don't know yet which of the two shall "win" and even if there is ever a winner on this battle.
On a personal level, today I prefer HD DVD because I can burn authored HD DVDs on regulars DVD-Rs and watch them on a HD DVD standalone player. The source of by burns are the (few) European High Definition DVB channels. I don't have yet this option with BluRay (yes, authoring is important for me).
A second benefit - as a European - is that HD DVD don't have regions. BluRay has.
But my needs are not the needs of the average Joe, so they don't count really. The fact is that we are very uncertain about the future of those 2 solutions.

[oldandinthe way]

In my opinion a purchase of either is premature.

According to the wall street journal, there are about 150 titles in each of the formats (even allowing for imports where they are not prevented by region codes).

If you are over 18 years of age there are very few choices.

Since you have equipment you can use with existing media, a purchase appears to be motivated by something other than need. Without knowing what you are actually trying to accomplish it is difficult to say what you should buy.

[rhegedus]

I own both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray products.

Currently, the numbers are on the side of Blu-Ray.

[Bondiablo]

Neither will ever be anything more than a niche market, like SVHS and laserdisc.

[Ollie6431]

I suspect that the quality of high-def (HD-DVD vs. Bluray) is probably dependent on one's HDTV. Unless one has a very large HDTV (more than 70'' may be?), it is probably not possible to find the difference between the two formats. I also have a TV/DVD-player setup similar to your own (Samsung 50'' DLP 1080i, Samsung DVD-Player with upconversion to 1080i). To my eyes, it is hard to see the difference in video quality between HD cable channels (either 1080i or 720p) and DVD movies played on this setup. Even more interesting, I cannot even see the difference in video quality between AVCHD footage (played directly from an AVCHD camcorder) and a DVD with the same footage downconverted to SD (and upconverted to 1080i by the DVD player, a bit confusing!). I have made an AVCHD-DVD from my AVCHD camcorder (using an SDHC card) and even though this DVD plays well on a Bluray player at the store (and on a PC with h.264 codec), I still do not appreciate any difference and do not see any point in buying a high-def player. Maybe someone with a large HDTV 1080p can share with me different ideas?

[edDV]

I can certainly see the difference between upscaled DVD and regular broadcast HDTV. HDV from my Canon HV20 looks like "Discovery HD" to me for similar types of shooting (e.g. reality shows).

In the stores, Blu Ray and HD DVD look great on cutting edge large HDTV displays but the difference is not worth it to me to jump in now. I will jump in only when I need a player to display my own HDV material and/or can record ATSC or QAM HD. Playing Blu Ray or HD DVD movies from Netflix is a secondary need. For that need the player would have to be dual standard.

In sum, I'm waiting for a recorder with ATSC/QAM tuner and HDV IEEE-1394 input that also plays both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD Netflix rentals. It would be nice if this recorder also has a hard drive accessible for in/out transfer from USB2 and/or Wifi.

[clevername2000]

In sum, I'm waiting for a recorder with ATSC/QAM tuner and HDV IEEE-1394 input that also plays both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD Netflix rentals.

Well the only reason why i'm asking this question is because i have nexflix, so getting the DVDs is not an issue (cost wise). After doing more research it seems both formats are the same quailtiy wise, but its a concern that one company owns the technology of blueray.

Quick question: Are all blue ray discs made by sony or have sonys permission to put movies on there disc. I would think it would be better to have an open format like cds and dvds, companies compete with each other. Like a previous post said; when the chineese gets a hold of this and makes a cheap HD player the market will explode.

[edDV]

In sum, I'm waiting for a recorder with ATSC/QAM tuner and HDV IEEE-1394 input that also plays both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD Netflix rentals.

Well the only reason why i'm asking this question is because i have nexflix, so getting the DVDs is not an issue (cost wise). After doing more research it seems both formats are the same quailtiy wise, but its a concern that one company owns the technology of blueray.

Quick question: Are all blue ray discs made by sony or have sonys permission to put movies on there disc. I would think it would be better to have an open format like cds and dvds, companies compete with each other. Like a previous post said; when the chineese gets a hold of this and makes a cheap HD player the market will explode.

Although Sony is the technology driver and owns pieces of all steps in the process, there are a number of companies supporting Blu-Ray, mostly companies wanting tighter encryption. HD DVD has the "official" DVD Forum blessing and more computer industry support including Microsoft. The corporate politics are much more complex and one can easily get the info over the internet.

The Netflix consumer would want a dual standard player. Those are expensive currently.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Quick question: Are all blue ray discs made by sony or have sonys permission to put movies on there disc. I would think it would be better to have an open format like cds and dvds, companies compete with each other. Like a previous post said; when the chineese gets a hold of this and makes a cheap HD player the market will explode.

1.Philips owns the patents on all CD media: www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.aspx?NewsId=19668
and the DVD Forum owns the patents on all SD DVD media and players: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FXG/is_n2_v11/ai_20179369
2.China already has endorsed their own HD format and it's called CH-DVD,the problem is they will only be available in China.
What I find ironic is most HD players(as well as most electronics) are made in China.
http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2007/09/china_announces_chdvd_format.html

[clevername2000]

Well thanks, this is why i love you guys. All questions are cleared up!

Thanks

[ntscuser]

Quick question: Are all blue ray discs made by sony or have sonys permission to put movies on there disc. I would think it would be better to have an open format like cds and dvds, companies compete with each other. Like a previous post said; when the chineese gets a hold of this and makes a cheap HD player the market will explode.

1.Philips owns the patents on all CD media: www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/News/Details.aspx?NewsId=19668

They wish!
The article relates to CD-R technology. The rights to Compact Disc technology are owned jointly by Philips and Sony. Although Sony's input in developing the format was minimal, Philips agreed to share the rights to prevent a costly format war. The total license fee is $0.03 per disc which is divided equally between Philips and Sony.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Disc