DVD, HD DVD & Blu-RayAlthough DVD is currently the main format for the moment, Blu-Ray is looking to be the future for this format. Anyway, as collectors and fans you can discuss your libraries, home theater setup, and current and upcoming releases here.
Consumer electronics maker Toshiba Corp said on Monday it is slashing prices of its HD DVD format players by between 40 to 50 percent as major Hollywood studios move to embrace Sony Corp’s Blu-ray format high definition DVDs. Toshiba America Consumer Products said it cut prices of its HD DVD players effective January 13 to boost market adoption of its next-generation DVD players by mainstream consumers after what it said was a successful fourth quarter in unit sales.
“While price is one of the consideration elements for the early adopter, it is a deal-breaker for the mainstream consumer,” said Toshiba executive Yoshi Uchiyama in a statement. Toshiba’s players will now start as low as $149 going up to $399 for the top-of-range player. The company said it is also stepping up its marketing drive with major initiatives including joint advertising campaigns with studios and extended pricing strategies. Toshiba said it will continue with on-going promotions including five HD DVD titles for free with any of its HD DVD player.
So they are not worried in the slightest that Blu-Ray have the upper hand then
Still better to buy PS3 and get the entertainment centre included with the games console.
How long will they keep taking losses before they give it up and tell Microsoft they can't produce it anymore and they will have to buy blu-ray from sony?
not yet but in a couple of years when everyone buying a new telly will be buying HD and freeview channels will be in HD ( from springish this year ) more and more people will want it.
The best bit about HD is that Blu-Ray and HD-DVD can upscale your SD DVDs to HD for you so its like watching a HD movie without paying for the film again.
So yes until the prices drop significantly and HDTV's become the norm ( not as far off as you may think ) HD to the average joe wont matter.
It is however a big thing to anyone who plays console games, has a gadget fad or just wants to experience films and stuff with a much higher watchability factor due to it looking so much nicer.
The one advantage Sony have over Xbox is they have a blu-ray player built into the PS3 whilst the HD-DVD for Xbox is an external accessory so every PS3 sold is one more person that may buy a blu-ray film to watch whereas anyone wanting to watch HD-DVD's needs to buy a separate player.
not yet but in a couple of years when everyone buying a new telly will be buying HD and freeview channels will be in HD ( from springish this year ) more and more people will want it.
The best bit about HD is that Blu-Ray and HD-DVD can upscale your SD DVDs to HD for you so its like watching a HD movie without paying for the film again.
So yes until the prices drop significantly and HDTV's become the norm ( not as far off as you may think ) HD to the average joe wont matter.
It is however a big thing to anyone who plays console games, has a gadget fad or just wants to experience films and stuff with a much higher watchability factor due to it looking so much nicer.
The one advantage Sony have over Xbox is they have a blu-ray player built into the PS3 whilst the HD-DVD for Xbox is an external accessory so every PS3 sold is one more person that may buy a blu-ray film to watch whereas anyone wanting to watch HD-DVD's needs to buy a separate player.
One reason why Sony's gamble on including BluRay in the PS3 at the risk of punters not taking it due to higher price seems to be paying off.
unfortunatley the bluray player in the ps3 is old technology. Only the very latest batch of bluray players now have dolby truehd 7.1 and dolby digital plus as standard while hd dvd players have had that from the beginning. I'm sure there ok for students and bedroom usage but i certainly wouldn't use one as part of a home cinema setup. Also hd dvd is region free which is great for us european's as we can get the films cheaper and quicker of off playusa or wherever.
I have no problem at all with the PS3 as a Bluray player - the pictures are beautiful at 1080P and it's upscaling is brilliant.
TBH I don't really understand (or want to know) what Dolby 7.1 is but the surround sound that comes out of it is great too.
+ As the BR format moves forward and we go to Profile 2.0 later this year, the PS3 may be the best way to keep up to date.
With a stand-alone player you're pretty much stuck but with the PS3 Sony can update it anytime with the PSN update to take advantage of the extra features.
Even for those players that can't it's not the end of the world as the new stuff that's getting added is superfluous anyway. They'll still be watching BR movies in HD with surround sound + browsing the disc menus, etc. which is all you need.
Edit: link here: "The only Blu-ray player which can upgraded to use all the features is Sony's PlayStation 3, because it comes with the right hardware built-in and online access." BBC NEWS | Technology | Blu-ray future limited for some
Last edited by RocKtheCasbaH; 16-01-2008 at 16:00..
Both bluray and hd dvd standalone players connect to the net and update their firmware or if your not on the net the manufacturer will send out an update cd.
I know this will sound stupid but I think it is their own fault they are not doing so good, if they just called it something different instead of just adding HD to DVD more people would go for it. The only reson i'm going with blue-ray is because I think the name sounds better lol.
I don't get what all the fuss is about, at the moment, besides those with more money than sense (if you've got so much make a bloody donation to TF), most people can't afford to swap from normal DVDs to the over priced new formats and their disks at the moment anyway, the jump in price per disk is stupidly high. But personally, I won't be thinking about it and certainly won't bother thinking about upgrading until such time as there is either an actal winner in the war of the next gen DVD, or a player comes out at an affordable price that both formats will play on as well as each other.
At the moment though, from a purely neutral point of view, unlike Harv who is clearly pro Blu-Ray and notsosilentbob who is clearly pro HD-DVD and from both whom i've had highlighting to me the backwards and forwards swaying argument of this particular war since it first began, from my own personal readings and research, it is seriously starting to look like Blu-Ray is going to win and possibly a lot sooner than was anticipated, especially seeing as Toshiba have taken what looks to be a desperate death breath by cutting their prices so, to me that just looks like they are full scale panicking. Putting Blu-Ray in the PS3 may actually turn out to have been a masterstroke of thinking, because the PS3 is gradually gathering momentum and a lot of people getting a PS3 console either as a gift or buying one themselves, will automatically side with Blu-Ray for the reason, they have a Blu-Ray player as soon as they have a PS3, so obviously with that, their first experience of high def DVD is likely to be a Blu-Ray movie and from that point on a lot of people will not bother looking at alternatives.
The death of hd dvd will probably done when/if paramount jump ship especially if its before they release the indianna jones trilogy around easter time. The biggest ball in blurays court at the moment is that 20th century fox are bluray only and they have the star wars saga in their back catalogue, but unfortunatley mr lucas currently prefers the hd dvd format as the sound quality is better and wont release them on high def format until bluray is up to his very high standards, that is also why the star wars trilogy took so long to come out on dvd first time round. At the moment its still cheaper to buy seperate machines than it is to buy a duel format player so hopefully buy the time i get round to upgrading my tv to a 50" full hd monster and get a hd sound system the war will be over.
If you have a media extender then you can buy a Blu-Ray/HD-DVD/DVD-R/CD-RW for £129 for your PC and stream that to your TV so if you really don't want to decide yet thats probably the best way to go.
As for dolby 7.1 i will quote you an article if i may
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dolby Labs
Dolby labs sends word that the Playstation 3 supports Dolby Digital 5.1 for games and Dolby TrueHD 7.1 for Blu-ray movies. SOUNDS good to me (sorry, couldn't help).
Dolby Laboratories, Inc. announced today that the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system from Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) will support Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound for next-generation entertainment, including games and movie titles in the Blu-ray Disc format.
PLAYSTATION 3 will feature interactive Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound for games, Dolby Digital, and Dolby TrueHD for decoding up to 7.1 channels for Blu-ray movie playback.
This powerful combination of Dolby technologies allows people to enjoy movies and games in discrete multichannel surround sound on the tens of millions of audio/video receivers and home theater systems worldwide that are equipped with Dolby technology.
“The launch of PLAYSTATION 3 represents the next chapter of gaming and entertainment,” said Izumi Kawanishi, Corporate Executive and Senior Vice President of Software Platform Development Division, SCEI. “Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital 5.1 complement the tremendous innovations delivered through PLAYSTATION 3, which offers the best possible high-definition entertainment experience.”
“In the age of high definition, games need to look and sound better than ever before,” said John Griffin, Marketing Director, Games, Dolby Laboratories. “Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital 5.1 will bring new levels of emotion and realism to movies and games. We think people will be amazed once they connect their PLAYSTATION 3 to an audio/video receiver or home theater system.”
Availability
Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound and Dolby TrueHD will be supported with PLAYSTATION 3, which will be available in Japan on November 11, 2006 and in North America on November 17, 2006. For more information, visit Dolby Games - Surround Sound for Enhanced Video Game Audio.
I thik i would prefer hd dvd anyway, i cant stand to think that you have to use a cartridge to load a blu-ray, it smacks of going back to the 70's to me. Doesnt matter that it can store more information, same as betamax was better quality than vhs, its ease of use for me.
Is there really a big difference in the quality? I know the most studios dont really pack their dvd's with much extras anyway so i dunno why the extra storage is a selling point, because the presentation dvd's u buy will still be underpacked with almost nonsense rubbish stock footage and drawings that really dont add much value.
Is there really a big difference in the quality? I know the most studios dont really pack their dvd's with much extras anyway so i dunno why the extra storage is a selling point, because the presentation dvd's u buy will still be underpacked with almost nonsense rubbish stock footage and drawings that really dont add much value.
Oh well, im cynical me
Yeah, there is a big step up in quality but still not worth paying 50% more for over DVD. I've got a few but I only splash out on real favourites.
When BR players come with upscalers that make your DVD's look like they're HD anyway there's no real need to. And there's a big variance in HD quality - same as with HD Sky. One film can be stunning and blow you away and the next just a slight improvement. I think it depends what HD resolution they are done in.
But A BR player or a decent DVD with upscaling is definitely worth the cash if you have a HD screen.
For now I'm still buying DVDs 'cos as well as being cheaper I can still share them. But that's one thing HD-DVD had over Bluray anyway - they all came with the normal DVD version on the HD-Disc so you could still pass movies around. Not that I'm saying get HD-DVD - I think the writing is on the wall there. Anyone who buys a HD-DVD player now must be nuts.
Last edited by RocKtheCasbaH; 18-01-2008 at 12:33..
unfortunatley the bluray player in the ps3 is old technology. Only the very latest batch of bluray players now have dolby truehd 7.1 and dolby digital plus as standard while hd dvd players have had that from the beginning. I'm sure there ok for students and bedroom usage but i certainly wouldn't use one as part of a home cinema setup. Also hd dvd is region free which is great for us european's as we can get the films cheaper and quicker of off playusa or wherever.
wrong. ps3 is supports both and has done since launch i believe, or soon after anyway.
Quote:
Originally Posted by notsosilentbob
The death of hd dvd will probably done when/if paramount jump ship especially if its before they release the indianna jones trilogy around easter time. The biggest ball in blurays court at the moment is that 20th century fox are bluray only and they have the star wars saga in their back catalogue, but unfortunatley mr lucas currently prefers the hd dvd format as the sound quality is better and wont release them on high def format until bluray is up to his very high standards, that is also why the star wars trilogy took so long to come out on dvd first time round. At the moment its still cheaper to buy seperate machines than it is to buy a duel format player so hopefully buy the time i get round to upgrading my tv to a 50" full hd monster and get a hd sound system the war will be over.
wrong again. infact alot of the time blu-ray has better sound quality on the disk because they can afford to fit them on there, whereas the 30gb limit on hd-dvd is a real hassle getting it all on there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RocKtheCasbaH
Yeah, there is a big step up in quality but still not worth paying 50% more for over DVD. I've got a few but I only splash out on real favourites.
When BR players come with upscalers that make your DVD's look like they're HD anyway there's no real need to. And there's a big variance in HD quality - same as with HD Sky. One film can be stunning and blow you away and the next just a slight improvement. I think it depends what HD resolution they are done in.
But A BR player or a decent DVD with upscaling is definitely worth the cash if you have a HD screen.
For now I'm still buying DVDs 'cos as well as being cheaper I can still share them. But that's one thing HD-DVD had over Bluray anyway - they all came with the normal DVD version on the HD-Disc so you could still pass movies around. Not that I'm saying get HD-DVD - I think the writing is on the wall there. Anyone who buys a HD-DVD player now must be nuts.
alot do, but not all come with dvd on other side of disk and you have to pay extra for those ones that do anyway.
Toshiba lowers prices in order to save HDDVD
not on my PS3 it isnt. Blu ray are standardish sized discs in slightly smaller boxes.
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