HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray Spot Check: There's still no good option
by Anand Lal Shimpi on January 5, 2008 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Anand
I was talking to Mike Andrawes last night (the inspiration for my earlier post on the high definition format wars) and we got on the topic of whether or not the Warner deal meant the imminent demise of HD-DVD. Admittedly, the longer the wars went on the more disinterested I became in what titles were out on each format. I refuse to start collecting either until there's a single format that has all content available (I guess I could make an exception in the event that universal players become the defacto standard).
I popped into Best Buy last night with Manny (the guy from the Home Theater post) after dinner to pick up some last minute CES gear, and we decided to do an informal survey of what movies we liked that were exclusive to each format.
| Blu-ray | HD-DVD |
| Spiderman 1 - 3 | Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy, Bourne Ultimatum |
| The Prestige* | Anchorman |
| Superbad | V for Vendetta |
| Casino Royal | Knocked Up |
| Life Free or Die Hard (I know) | The 40-Year-Old Virgin |
Now this isn't a comprehensive list at all, but what it does highlight is this: neither of us could, in good conscience, recommend either standard. Despite HD-DVD's more affordable pricing, you can't watch things like Casino Royal, Spiderman or Superbad in high definition on it, and that's just simply unacceptable. The same applies to Blu-ray, it doesn't matter what exclusive titles the format does have, because the ones that it doesn't are just as good.
Herein lies the problem I was outlining yesterday, this war is fought for industry members, it's fought for the Sonys and the Microsofts of the world, it's not fought for the people buying the movies. Honestly, the only options are to either support both formats or support none, backing one or another just doesn't make any sense unless you really hate all of the movies in one of the columns.
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Cogman - Saturday, January 5, 2008 - link
There is a problem with what you are saying, those different DVD standards where set by the same cooperation. Here we have 2 warring groups, they are not likely at all to come out with a Hybrid HD/Bluray player (betamax).Microsoft does have a fair portion invested in HD, but the failure of such would not mean the death of the Xbox 360. They where smart and didn't require you to buy the extra HD decryption module with their console thus allowing them to still sell their Xbox.
As well, Microsoft doesn't have a lot of investment in the movie industry (that I know of) so really, it is almost completely out of their hands what happens what happens in the format wars. They might be able to bribe their favorite companies, but they can't control everyone.
BZDTemp - Sunday, January 6, 2008 - link
As I see it there are two reasons Microsoft has decided to go HD-DVD.1. Sony is Blue Ray and anything that's anti Sony and especially anti PlayStation is worth putting money into if you're Microsoft trying to conquer the living room.
2. The longer the HD format war runs the better for Microsoft. Remember they are not really a hardware company and what they really want is for the world to give physical media and all use WMA files delivered on-line. The further was goes on the better the chance people will just skip physical HD media and instead become users of something Microsoft hopes to have more control over.
Just like all the other companies Microsoft want to make money. The only major difference is that we are all paying our Microsoft tax so they have a war chest enabling them to go for the long term gain.
MadBoris - Saturday, January 5, 2008 - link
Quote - "There is a problem with what you are saying, those different DVD standards where set by the same cooperation. Here we have 2 warring groups, they are not likely at all to come out with a Hybrid HD/Bluray player (betamax)."LG and Samsung already have dual format players available at local stores.
Samus - Sunday, January 6, 2008 - link
dual format players cost like $1000 bucks. You can have two seperate BD and HD players for like half that.Odeen - Saturday, January 5, 2008 - link
I've resolved not to buy another piece of media, nor another read-only media player until I can get a unit that plays HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, SACD, DVD-A (and outputs SACD and DVD-A in native format on HDMI), upsamples DVD's to 1080P, and plays CD's, MP3 CD's and MP3 DVD's - i.e. until I can have ONE box that plays ALL the shiny discs I have.So far, I don't believe any high-def video players support high-def audio, and Oppo players, which do no not support high-def video, decimate SACD back to PCM.
I don't care which format wins. In fact, I hope NEITHER format wins as competition is good for me, the consumer. But I want combo players.
SilentSin - Monday, January 7, 2008 - link
Actually I thought the PS3 already does all that, minus HD-DVD playback. But, now that I research it, it looks like SACD support has been dropped from the newest PS3 models (What the hell for?? That can't be connected in any way with the PS2 chips they removed...no idea).Would be interesting to see if you could get an xbox360 HD-DVD drive running on a PS3 linux distro. Couple that with an older PS3 model and you'd have a truly universal media powerhouse.