Taking Sides - HD-DVD or Blu-Ray?

They're trying to drum up traffic while the iron's hot, but:

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/02/15/hd-dvd-deathwatch-were-making-it-official/

annnnnnnnnnd its all over
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSL1637974620080216

our long national nightmare is over.

Only slightly bizarre that the announcement was made before Universal or Paramount could have a chance to announce their switch over to Blu-Ray, but still ... ha!

Apparently, some people are still in denial (cf. comments).

Nfinity
@ Feb 15th 2008 4:23PM
The two formats will co-exist.. as there is ZERO reasons not too.. the whole ONE FORMAT is needed is a bunch of bullshit. Simply why:

PS3 and Xbox 360 (I won't even count Wii but that's 3 FORMATS).. all COMPLETELY different technologies, have unique (exclusive games on each). In order for a person to play all those games, they have to buy 2 $300-$400 game consoles. Publishers, took consumer and business sense approach and most of them publish in both formats.

This is a simple reality. Anyone who says this isn't the same as Blu-Ray and HD DVD scenario is obviously supporting lying.

Here simple pointers:

PS3 = Blu-Ray
Xbox 360 = HD DVD

Electronic Arts, Activision, Ubisoft, 2kSports, Sony Games, Microsoft Games = Warner, Universal, Paramount, Fox, Disney, Sony, Weinstein.

Some games are exclusives on Xbox 360 - Some games are exclusives on PS3 = Some movies are exclusive on HD DVD, Some movies are exclusive to Blu-Ray.

PS3 = 3.5 million units in the States
Xbox 360 = 10+ million units in the States

ratio about 3:1

Blu-ray (with PS3) = 3.7 million units in the States
HD DVD (with add-on) = 1+ million in the United States

ratio about 3:1

The difference? PS3 and Xbox 360 are everywhere... Blu-Ray and media says that HD DVD should die?

Completely illogical? I think so.

SO I assumed Blu-ray was the Beta of the '00s but now Toshiba is dropping all of its HD DVDs and Walmart are going to sell Blu-ray exclusively. What the hells? I dont even know what a blue-ray disc looks like.

http://www.hkfilm.net/mkfatal.jpg

A Blu-Ray disc does not look like a little red x.

http://www.tonis-records.de/images/7-Vinyl-CB_A45000_blue.jpg

it looks like a cd

or a single vinyl

about a month ago i decided to call all discs that look like CDs "CDs" but i haven't put it into practice yet

I've seen some of these "HD" downloads and they don't look very good. Similarly, the on demand HD stuff from cable doesn't look nearly as good as HD programs. Going to get a PS3 within the next couple months for sure.

spencer it all depends on who what and where you're getting your HD from.

about a month ago i decided to call all discs that look like CDs "CDs" but i haven't put it into practice yet

I was just thinking the other day about how we call movies on VHS "videos" and movies on DVD "DVDs," even though they're both videos.

LaserDisc FTW!!

spencer it all depends on who what and where you're getting your HD from.

-- s1ocki, Tuesday, February 19, 2008 12:00 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

What would be best?

about a month ago i decided to call all discs that look like CDs "CDs" but i haven't put it into practice yet

-- Tracer Hand, Tuesday, February 19, 2008 10:18 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Link

I intermittently do this and it was not a decision, just woeful ignorance generally

What would be best?

-- Spencer Chow, Tuesday, February 19, 2008 8:09 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

a few sites did a side-by-side with apple's new service and apparently while it's not as good as blu-ray it's still pretty competitive.

OPTICAL MEDIA IS DEAD

Tom, so I love 2001. When will I be able to download the highest picture quality and all the extras that are on the BD?

WHAT DO YOU LOOK WITH THEN YR NOSE HUH?

burn

i have a feeling optical media will be around a lot longer than ppl think

I WANT TO DOWNLOAD MOVIES INTO MY FLYING CAR

obviously optical media is not actually dead. I still think blu-ray is this decade's laserdisc

i dig those Laserdisc though

i dunno everyone i know before they have an HD-TV is like "who cares DVD is fine"

after they get an HD TV they are all "OMG Blu Ray i luv uuuuuu"

i only have a regular tv so i'm waiting but that seems to be the pattern

there's definitely no reason to care about this stuff if you have a regular tv.

no offense.

I hope we'll start seeing some better movies coming out on blu-ray now. It's amazing how shit the blu-ray library is, honestly...

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/what-are-the-lessons-of-the-blu-rayhd-dvd-battle-a-freakonomics-quorum/

seriously the quality of what we consider an expert in this country becomes more depressing by the day.

and once again I would like to ask everyone to do whatever they can not to prop up Sony in any way whatsoever as their notorious hatred of consumers and death grip on a vast content library means only good things for whenever they're forced to relent

(this from a guy who bought the james bond ultimate collection (MGM/UA is all sony) but only on regular DVD and only at a steep discount)

LOL @ TOMBOT

:-P

BOOOOO

recommend me something currently on blu ray that will fascinate me.

planet earth ftw

^

Also, Verhoeven's Black Book

also, verhoeven's planet earth

also, planet book

i think the first blu ray disc I will buy will be A Bug's Life, because that was also the first DVD I bought, and it isn't anamorphic and looks like shit.

i kind of want to buy the neil young archives except I'm not that big a fan and can't imagine actually messing with it.

The thing about blu-ray that has brought me the most joy is seeing older films given a spanking hi-def transfer. Plenty of recent films look great on br, but watching stuff that I've only ever seen on tv or crappy old 4:3 VHS can be a true revelation. Specifically: The Thing, Mad Max 2 - The Road Warrior, all the Kubricks, and Black Narcissus.

I got the restored Godfather box set for my birthday. Haven't put it on yet, but I'm hoping it will be the one to finally make blu-ray seem worth the bother.

oh it's amazing, esp if you're used to the shitty dvds

the thing that should most be on blu-ray - "playtime" by jacques tati

it is!

you know what looks insane on blu-ray? Dr. No.