As another nail goes into the HD DVD coffin, New Line has confirmed in Variety Magazine that they will follow Warner Bros. and go exclusively to Blu-Ray. There are other film homes that could still go either way, but one would expect them to lean towards Blu-Ray now. With the thought of The Lord of The Rings Trilogy being in HD, this might be the pushing point for many consumers.
It's starting to look like there's only going to be one sheriff in this town.
5 comments:
Absolutely one of the worst things to happen to the high definition war. I think that even with my hatred of Sony, I'd be ok if Blu Ray won only if it were the better and more finished/polished media. However, that is not the case.
It is well documented that functionality inside of Blu-Ray isn't at the same level as it is on HD-DVD (see Ultimatum, Bourne and Potter, Harry). Hell, the format isn't even fully defined as of yet.
Once again, consumers lose out when large corporations make incorrect decisions. And to me, that decision is choosing one format over the other at this highly critical juncture.
I'm under the impression that Blu-ray has the better technology:
According to the Blu-ray team: "Because Blu-ray utilizes a lens with a greater numerical aperture than HD-DVD, the laser spot can be focused with greater precision to fit more data on the same size disc. This allows Blu-ray to hold 25GB per layer (50GB on a dual-layer disc), whereas HD-DVD can only hold 15GB per layer (30GB on a dual-layer disc). Blu-ray has also adopted a higher data transfer rate for video and audio (54Mbps vs 36.55Mbps)."
What am I missing that makes HD-DVD the better tech?
http://www.askdavetaylor.com/bluray_versus_hd_dvd_what_format_is_better.html
All of that information is great, however it's not in use now. Take a look at some of the extra features:
- In Harry Potter, both allow you to click when a camera shows up to see how the film was shot. In Blu-Ray, when this extra scene is done, you go back to the main menu. In HD, you're inserted right back where you were in the movie.
Long term, Blu-Ray may be the better format. But it definitely isn't NOW. The fact of the matter is is that this is just what Sony has done with the PS2 and PS3: They make something powerful, then it takes years to take advantage of it.
Blu-Ray does have the ability to be the better format, however they are not right now. They're still playing catch up with HD DVD so far as features are concerned. And the infighting that's going on with Blu-Ray companies it's made it hard for them to get on the same page with one standard to go with. They haven't taken advantage of all that space on the discs yet.
I do think that HD DVD was more consumer friendly (price wise), and it did sell more stand alone units than Blu-Ray. But with the PS3 price drop to $400 and people picking them up for Christmas, it gave the impression that people bought it for the Blu-Ray features alone. I'm curious if Microsoft had just put a HD DVD player in the Xbox 360 from the beginning, how this would have all shook out.
Well, if what you're saying is true, then I'm for the long-term best solution. This sounds like the best thing for consumers. The price will eventually come down like it did with DVD's. Maybe I'll get a PS3 one of these days.
I read somewhere that MS hinted at the possibility of an add-on Blu Ray player for the 360 if that format won the "war."
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