6.
Apr 10, 2007 10:04 AM
in response to:
PCWorld
Very sad review.
These reviews are really sad.
1. Blu-ray does not have a better picture than HD-DVD. At best, they are the same. If you compare any film released on both formats, they're going to look the same. It's like saying that a 1080p signal looks better than a 1080i signal on a 1080p television. Unless the TV doesn't de-interlace properly you can't tell the difference. You're getting the same information after all.
2. For SD-DVD upconversion, HD-DVD has always had a noticable lead over blu-ray, especially the PS3 game machine.
3. Price. Blu-ray is way over priced. A stand alone HD-DVD player can be had for $300 street price now. Closest that blu-ray has is the PS3 for $600 ($500 if you can find the 20GB version) plus the cost of remote and an HDMI cable.
4. Sound. I prefer the hd-dvd due to the fact that the player decodes the advanced audio formats which to date, only the PS3 can do. And to contradict the "article" True-HD is better than PCM because it sounds the same while using less space. PCM and True-HD will sound the same since there is no loss of information(LOSSLESS). When studios start using audio codecs like DD+ and True-HD for blu-ray movies, the current generations of blu-ray players are not going to be able to decode them. They'll have to use the standard Dolby Digital soundtracks.
5. interactivity - HDi, like the advanced video/audio codecs have been mandatory for HD-DVD from the beginning. Not so for blu-ray. The first gen. blu-ray offerings will not be able to handle BD-I and some BD-J features if any studios ever get them to work. New interactive features are already beginning to arrive on HD-DVD.
6. Space - if space were such an issue either HD-DVD would have been killed off already, or they would have started releasing the triple layer HD-51 discs. Even the 3+ hour King Kong fits on an HD-30 and it looks and sounds phenomenal.
So what this article is telling us is that despite the fact that blu-ray doesn't have a fully functional player yet (PS3 is closest) and is at least twice the price for at best a similar performance, blu-ray is going to be the "winner". Please. :roll: With all the PS3s that have been sold, blu-ray supposedly has 10x as many players available and they currently are selling ~ 2:1 movies over hd-dvd. That's pretty bad with such a large hardware advantage. And last time I looked at the numbers, hd-dvd was selling better for the recently released "Happy Feet" movie available on both formats.
So it's looking like we are just going to have to live with two formats and the dual-format players in the future. I just really hope all the studios go format neutral as to date, Toshiba is the only one that has their act together. It's just pathetic that with all the CE manufacturers that have released blu-ray players, that they don't have fully functional players yet. How are the people who already purchased blu-ray players supposed to feel when new features on future movies will not work with their players. Are they supposed to just keep buying new players? Just becuase they're willing to spend around a thousand dollars, doesn't mean they'll spend that much everytime theirs a new feature available for blu-ray.
Not to sound like I'm totaly against blu-ray technology, because I'm not. I fully expect to purchase a blu-ray player when one is available that supports all the features, decodes the advanced audio codecs and is priced comparable to HD-DVD. Mainly because I would like to get some of the Sony movies in HD and I think they'll be the last hold outs to release movies in HD-DVD.
