The HDDVD Ship is Sinking!

bsoko2 · January 2008

I also have HDDVD & BLU-RAYand am enjoying them both. Hell, by the time they have a clear winner in this format war, something else will have come along.

Bill

Grimster74 · January 2008

I'm so tired of every forum you go on now all you hear about is why all HD-DVD supporters are pissed at Warners decision to go Blu-Ray. Well, here is my take, ALL of us that have even purchased either or format (I myself supported both and still do) knew what we were getting ourselves into when we purchased the units. Knowing there was no definate winning at the time of our purchase, we still purchased our units for a reason. For many, it may have been for the audio side, the video side or maybe we just needed a new player and that seemed the way to go. Even after a winner is announced, whether it be BD (as it stands now) or if by some chance it's HD, I will still be able to enjoy the titles I already own on both formats. If the player's, both BD and HD were not able to play SD dvd's then yes, I would also be pissed but as it stands now, seems the HD-DVD players hold the edge on the upconversion of SD dvd's so worse case, you have one kick **** SD dvd player. Just my $.02

Texas42 · January 2008

I already have an HD DVD player but have been looking at adding a BD player as well. Maybe now is a good time as Best Buy has a sale this week for 10 free titles (5 immediate in store $34.99 or less and 5 mail in) for any blue ray player (except the Playstation 3). I guess the question is which is the better buy; a PS3 with 5 free movies (and you have the gaming machine) or a stand alone player with 10 movies? I keep hearing how slow the start up times are on the stand alone players but the PS3 is a bit quicker. Any one out there with a stand alone BD player they can recommend?

johnADA · January 2008

bsoko2 wrote: »

I also have HDDVD & BLU-RAYand am enjoying them both. Hell, by the time they have a clear winner in this format war, something else will have come along.

Bill

Ain't that the truth.
It'll be a year or two before one is declared the winner.
Maybe by then BDA will have nailed down a finished spec they'll stay with.
Next they have to unseat DVD. DVD upconverted is more than good enough for the average consumer, specially when players are still topping $400 for a unfinished spec machine and disc's are costly. Does JSP want to dump some serious cash to replace his library of SD discs and replace a machine with another that is a incremental improvement??
By the time this all settles, 09-11, optical disc's as we now know them will be becoming a thing of the past.

Sami · January 2008

johnADA wrote: »

By the time this all settles, 09-11, optical disc's as we now know them will be becoming a thing of the past.

If you're hinting that downloads are replacing them, that ain't gonna happen anytime soon.

johnADA · January 2008

Sami wrote: »

If you're hinting that downloads are replacing them, that ain't gonna happen anytime soon.

The infrastructure is now being put into place for downloads, but I didn't state that will be the end all, its just one that we KNOW about that will happen.

I said at current optical disc's that we have now.

HVD is one thats better, costly at this point, but better.

Media type cards are also on the horizon that we also know about.

When SD DVD's came out we didn't have a clue to what could be on the horizon. Hell it wasn't that many years ago, 80meg hard Drives would never be replaced, you couldn't fill one.

Technology is gaining speed every year compared to the past.
I'm not a techno freak by any means and I know the above exists and not by the forums posting it. I had found out this stuff just by being bored, looking into the HDM thing before I made a purchase and this stuck in my head to wait until at least HDM was affordable to a point that I wouldn't lose out if I decided to go that way and at least be able to upconvert the current library of SD DVD's I had.

I have NO IDEA on what else maybe coming out, but I know there's more and I believe HDM will no where near last as long as DVD's have and HDM still hans't unseated SD DVD yet.

Sami · January 2008

I'd say SD-DVD has 2-3 years left in its life cycle. HVD or any other format most likely won't emerge until 5 years from now, the earliest, and then it would be 2-3 years more for the current HD survivor (that looks to be BD at this moment).

Downloads will take some market share sometime in the future but they simply can not replace physical media completely. Even then HD media downloads will be a small segment for long time.

johnADA · January 2008

I don't see DVD's going anywhere in 2-3 years.
There are still plenty of people whom don't even now one yet.
That coupled with the fact you need a HDTV to go beyond SD DVD makes that even harder.
How long has HDTV's been around???
20% give or take own them currently and couple that with the length of time they've been out.

Now I did jump onto a deal with a Toshiba unit knowing full well I could lose on the format war. Losing didn't bother me at all since I picked up this player as a replacement for Oppo I paid more for and had a chance to try out HDM. I moved the Oppo over to the kids LCD.

Due to the hype and ideal I was faced with, I couldn't wait to get it and hook it up.

I get the thing, hook it up within 10 minutes of receiving it, put a movie in that came with it and was sorely disappointed. Ah the forums said it was the movie and type, try another. OK, I get another and another and now have seen over 25 HD-DVD's. I am not impressed with it so much I'll ditch the upcoverting SD DVD's. Yeah its better, but no where near the level the industry and forums have you believe.

People on forums then begin to:
Your Blind
Your Hooked up wrong
TV is to small
Distance is too far away to appreciate the difference.
And it kept going til I said WAIT A MINUTE!!

I got freaking cable TV.
SD movies on cable look like ****, but HD ones look great.
The player I have is a SD DVD and you say upconverting doesn't do much. Yeah it didn't do much to which I agree, but it was a chance I took and it was a "LITTLE" better. The level of improvement between a HD disc and a SD upconverted disc was NO WHERE near the level of improvement a SD and HD MOVIE cable broadcast was, WHY!!!!

No one could answer that with anything reasonable or solid.
Same TV
Same Sitting distance
HDMI on HD player but component on cable.
And I'm not blind because I saw it on cable.

Its still a stretch to the average consumer to go HDTV.
HD players and the war isn't over with as of yet, year or 2 left.
The average consumer will take just as long to purchase a HD player as it took them to purchase a HDTV.
Then if he sees what I saw and be a little disappointed that now he needs to spend much more money for movies, machine etc and tells his friends like I have, not sure if your really gonna like it that much.

Well to un seat the DVD market you have to beat it outright in sales. 2-3 Years, NOPE, NOT A CHANCE!!! 5+, much more reasonable and now convenience every year is being put in place of quality. 09-11, by then something will be announced as coming.

Thats without people giving thought to the purchase.
Like looking at the trends that are happening.

Tape, VHS-Beta cam out when??
DVD came out when??
HDM came out when??

Trend cycle is getting smaller and smaller.

That without computers and how far they have come in the last 10 years.
It used to be it'll be years before they improve.
Then, its outdated the day you bought it.
Now its outdated before the thought process and actual building it was made!!!

Sami · January 2008

It's not so much about the consumer picking the format, more about the manufacturers forcing them to go HD. That will happen in the next few years, don't even think it won't.

I watched SD-DVD through upconverting player in my bedroom set (61" 1080p) last night. If someone tells me it looks "as good as HD, or at least close", heck yes I'm going to call them blind.

Even HD broadcast looks much better than SD-DVD and it's not nearly as good as HD-DVD or BD. Some shows are decent but even on those the dark scenes reveal the heavy compression. Unless you are lucky to have Verizon FIOS HD TV which is a totally different case.

ben62670 · January 2008

I have straight up DVD. No loss hear:) I'm so ghetto:o

Monster Jam · January 2008

I'm not buying HD DVD or BluRay for a long time....

Admittingly my SD DVD player is not HD, but in comparison to the over-the-air HD content that I get, its pretty damn close.

johnADA · January 2008

Sami wrote: »

It's not so much about the consumer picking the format, more about the manufacturers forcing them to go HD. That will happen in the next few years, don't even think it won't.

I watched SD-DVD through upconverting player in my bedroom set (61" 1080p) last night. If someone tells me it looks "as good as HD, or at least close", heck yes I'm going to call them blind.

Yeah, the only way HDM has a chance is to "FORCE" the consumer. That I will not argue with, but its gonna be a hard sell.

Blind to HD was never mentioned, close to I'll will debate you to death on.
Many factors come into play with HD content over SD content.
You just happened to mention some of it.

First it depends on the TV.
Type is everything- Projections because of the nature need every ounce of resolution to look good.
TV's capability to take a signal and display it at its native resolution plays a part. The larger the gap, the more impressed one could be.
TV's size and native resolution also plays a much larger part than people understand. 42 inches and under at 6-8 foot, a 720 to a 1080, most won't even see a subtle change, 60+, same distance I had hope they would.
Native resolution of the TV plays a part, which goes with the above.
I got a 26 inch LCD at the end of my bed, at 6 foot SD **** broadcast look a whole lot better than my 47 inch 1080P TV at 12 foot.

Its not a straight up in your face ideal. Many, many factors come into play with your eyes seeing or not seeing a change or how much of one you can see.

Ricardo · January 2008

I'm PISSED!!!! I want my money back!!!!!!

Sami · January 2008

johnADA wrote: »

Its not a straight up in your face ideal. Many, many factors come into play with your eyes seeing or not seeing a change or how much of one you can see.

I agree it's dependent of many factors but I would hope people with 4x (which I consider medium to small size displays in todays world) would see at least little bit of the difference (for their sake). If someone sees a difference between a TOTL Pioneer plasma and one of the cheap models, I'm sure they have what it takes to see the difference between HD and SD.

As for HD-DVD vs BR, I didn't really care which one wins but I was happy there was, and still is a little, competition. I have PS3 and 2 HD-DVD players but I won't buy another BR player until they reach $100-150 price point, HD-DVD will survive until then and even if they don't there are plenty of movies for me to watch in the meantime.

Dave38 · January 2008

"The Financial Times is reporting that Paramount is preparing to use a get out clause in its HD DVD exclusivity deal, and go back to Blu-ray, about 4 months after ending its dual-format release schedule. The move would be a result of Warner's switch to Blu-ray, using a "get out" clause in Paramount's promotional agreement with the HD DVD camp. No details on what it might take to rip up the contract and make Michael Bay very, very happy, but if the rumor proves true this could make the slow death he predicted for HD DVD a very, very fast one".

BIZILL · January 2008

old news. and thus far, debunked.

Dave38 · January 2008

Looks like Blu-Ray will win out.

mantis · January 2008

No one is winning. Wait until it's official. I plan on using both untill everything is switched to one format.

I hate it as much as the next guy but it is what it is.

Dan

aaharvel · January 2008

No one will win. Both formats are f--ked!

BIZILL · January 2008

already a given, but new line is, effective immediately, blu-ray exclusive. official confermations hurt worse than rumors.

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/New_Line/Industry_Trends/New_Line_Details_Transition_to_Blu-ray/1351

powerlord · January 2008

What does this mean as far as the game consoles go?It seems that blue ray and hd are a big part of the two big console companies that are at war right now,if HD DVD is snuffed out do you think microsoft will opt for blue ray,or just remain a game console and phase out the high def completely? Seems hddvd's days are really numbered.

cheddar · January 2008

Microsoft's player was great on the video playback of HD disks but didn't compare well to the dedicated players in terms of things like audio options etc. It was the low price anchor for hd-dvd early on and even held a 50/50 split in hardware hd-dvd player share at one point. When toshiba dropped its prices, it effectively undercut the add-on as a competitive player since you got less for a relatively high price.

Blu-ray dedicated players are now streeting within $100 of the add-on's retail price. And a blu-ray add-on would probably be more expensive than the hd-dvd one. That, combined with Microsoft pushing movie downloads as its real money maker in the HD space, doesn't bode well for the 360 supporting HD packaged media going forward...

I think the ps3 would have to become more of a marketshare threat and Microsoft might put it out there more as a features/marketing thing...but I don't think we're there yet...

Dave38 · February 2008

mantis wrote: »

No one is winning. Wait until it's official. I plan on using both untill everything is switched to one format.

I hate it as much as the next guy but it is what it is.

Dan

Blu-Ray is winning out.