HD-DVD out this week???

[Orko Is King]

The player and a few DVDs were in today's Best Buy newspaper ad.

 

[Bat Attack]

How much are they? $400, $1,000?!

 

[The Lumberjack]

Best Buy's website says the Toshiba HD-DVD player is $499.99 and the DVDs are between $25 and $30.

 

[JLBats]

Conspirashy.

 

[black_dust]

Dont bother with it, the tv said its going to fall flat on its face same as blu ray . HDD will win the battle in the end

Found what it said

Because there's a third high definition format which may just end up coming out on top.

Hard drive recorders are already proving hugely popular as a means of recording off TV, the only way to receive Sky's new Hi Def service, for example, will be via a decoder box containing a Hard Drive recorder. And with the growing prevalence of Media Centre PCs we could soon be watching most of our TV via computers using the hard drive to record the stuff we want to keep. Removable hard drives are constantly growing in capacity while shrinking in size - iOmega already produce one that's smaller than an old audio cassette that can hold almost 40GB of data. It's not ridiculous to think of your local video shop's shelves being lined with those, is it!?

 

[Warhammer]

Could someone fill me in on what the exact differences are between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray compared to DVD?

 

[CConn]

Could someone fill me in on what the exact differences are between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray compared to DVD?

HD-DVD and Blu-Ray due to improved burning techologies can hold more data than a regular DVD meaning they'll be able to improve picture quality, special features, etc. With that said, however, the difference won't even be noticable unless you have a HDTV.

 

[CConn]

Dont bother with it, the tv said its going to fall flat on its face same as blu ray . HDD will win the battle in the end

Found what it said

Because there's a third high definition format which may just end up coming out on top.

Hard drive recorders are already proving hugely popular as a means of recording off TV, the only way to receive Sky's new Hi Def service, for example, will be via a decoder box containing a Hard Drive recorder. And with the growing prevalence of Media Centre PCs we could soon be watching most of our TV via computers using the hard drive to record the stuff we want to keep. Removable hard drives are constantly growing in capacity while shrinking in size - iOmega already produce one that's smaller than an old audio cassette that can hold almost 40GB of data. It's not ridiculous to think of your local video shop's shelves being lined with those, is it!?

Y'know honestly, that what I figure will be the next step for me. Already you can get video jukeboxes that can store 100 near-DVD quality movies on them.

 

[Alpha and Omega]

Best Buy's website says the Toshiba HD-DVD player is $499.99 and the DVDs are between $25 and $30.

That's less than I was expecting as an initial cost. I thought the dvds would range from lower 40's to 50's, w/ the players starting at 7 or 8. Those figures are slightly less than PS3 estimates; very nice.

 

[Orko Is King]

http://www.cornbread.org/FOTRCompare/index.html

Are there any other HD screencaps comparing to regular DVD?

 

[Orko Is King]

bump

 

[Mentok]

http://www.cornbread.org/FOTRCompare/index.html

Are there any other HD screencaps comparing to regular DVD?

Nice set of shots, but to really see the difference you need to see the shots in the proper resolution, not shrunk down like that.

I did have a site that had full images for both DVD and HD-DVD... I will have a look through my bookmarks for it.

 

[Danalys]

Dont bother with it, the tv said its going to fall flat on its face same as blu ray . HDD will win the battle in the end

Found what it said
Quote:
Because there's a third high definition format which may just end up coming out on top.

Hard drive recorders are already proving hugely popular as a means of recording off TV, the only way to receive Sky's new Hi Def service, for example, will be via a decoder box containing a Hard Drive recorder. And with the growing prevalence of Media Centre PCs we could soon be watching most of our TV via computers using the hard drive to record the stuff we want to keep. Removable hard drives are constantly growing in capacity while shrinking in size - iOmega already produce one that's smaller than an old audio cassette that can hold almost 40GB of data. It's not ridiculous to think of your local video shop's shelves being lined with those, is it!?

they'll never sell movies stored on harddisks in a store. price to manufacture DVD Blueray or HD DVD less than one dollar. price to manufacture 40 GB hardisk over 20 dollars.

it's more likely that a over internet system will start, removing the need for most local storage. not that the internet can handle HD movie streams at the moment tho.

 

[black_dust]

they'll never sell movies stored on harddisks in a store. price to manufacture DVD Blueray or HD DVD less than one dollar. price to manufacture 40 GB hardisk over 20 dollars.

it's more likely that a over internet system will start, removing the need for most local storage. not that the internet can handle HD movie streams at the moment tho.

Yeah but you could always have a portable HD and go to the store and link up download and take it home not saying you have to buy a HD everytime you want a film

 

[Rayne]

Hey all,

I work for Best Buy (I have to be there in 39 minutes!) and yes, the Toshiba HD-DVD player came out this week. I stopped by the store yesterday to grab a few things I needed and noticed it had been put out on display. It was delayed a few times, but finally arrived, although I didn't see any HD-DVD's yet, and I think we were playing a normal movie up-converted. It does retail for $499.99, but I believe that Toshiba has a higher-end model that goes for $799.99 that we don't carry at the moment. You can pre-order Blu-Ray players on the Best Buy website, but they won't hit stores until May, at the very earliest.

I don't have time to go into the differences, but to be honest, if you own an HDTV, especially a 1080p set, hold off on the Toshiba. All HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs will be 1080p encoded, but this newly-released Toshiba will only play them in 1080i. Quite a difference, if you ask me. Here's a link to answer all of your questions:

http://www.hddvd.org/hddvd/

Feel free to PM me or just post any questions you might have about the stuff in general and I'll be happy to help.

 

[XwolverineX]

Conspirashy.

CONSPIRACY, DUDE.

 

[Katsuro]

I really hate this whole deal with two formats. What's going to happen is i'm going to want different movies, and they'll be on differnt formats, so i'll have to buy players for each (well, my PS3 will be a Blu-Ray which is nice). And then, when one format fails (and it better happen soon) I'll have to rebuy all my films that i have on the failed format for the other format. Big hassle, and a lot of money. It's too bad they two companies couldn't come together and combine them.

The worst part is... I work at a video store. I can't even imagine how they're going to set up the store. Maybe we'll get rid of all our VHS, which'll open up space. I'm gonna hate explaining the formats to just about every customer, and doing refunds/exchanges when people buy the wrong format. Man... I need to finish college and get out of this job...

 

[Mentok]

Sonys format will fail again just as BETA, UMD and that really stupid floppy disc alternative they came up with in the early 90's.

 

[Zenien]

Wait for Blue Ray. It's technically the better format (high storage capacities, more future proofed, higher transfer rates) and the ACTUAL cost difference between the two is pretty small and they'll both migrate to DVD prices relatively quickly.

Blue Ray has the vaste majority (over 90 percent) of support from the studios, HD-DVD currently has much much less support.

Blue Ray also has the vast majority of support from the Consumer Electronics makers. THe reason the HD-DVD players are selling so low if because, to stand a chance against BR, HD-DVD makers are selling the players at a very slim profit margin. But the PS3 WILL be less expensive than any HD-DVD player or BR Player.

Both players have an identical pricing structure for the movies being released, so BR movies aren't going to cost X amount over the same movie on sale for HD-DVD.

So yeah, wait for November.

 

[Mentok]

Ignore Zeniens well thought out post.

 

[Zenien]

Mentok, you have signed your death warrent this day.

BR Players will be out in June, they'll carry a higher price tag than HD-DVD players partly due to being more advanced technology, but HD-DVD players are so low for a enw immerging CE technology because they fear the Playstation 3 as a Blue Ray Player. HD-DVD players are being sold at a very slim margin of profit, BR Players are priced higher like any new technology so the people who invested can actually recoup their R&D costs.

But the Playstation 3 will be noticably less expensive than any HD-DVD player, and it's coming out in November.

Toshiba will be lucky to sell 500,000 players this year. This is against potentially 1 million+ PS3’s, and several hundred thousand standalone BD players. 2007 is just this situation accentuated. Of course the the issue will be film content sales, with standalone players guaranteeing strong sales of conent + the casual buyers from the PS3 side it is Blu-Ray’s race to lose.

Studio support
Blu-ray-over 90 percent of studio support
Sony
MGM
Lionsgate
Disney
20th Century Fox
Buena Vista Home
Warner
Paramount
Digital Playground

HD-DVD-less than 40 percent of studio support(warner, paramount, universal)

CE support
HD-DVD- Toshiba, NEC
Blu-Ray- Sony, Pioneer, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Mitsubishi, HItachi

OEM support
HD-DVD- HP, Toshiba
Blu-Ray- HP Dell, Apple

Storage
Blu-ray - 25GB single layer, 50GB dual layer
HD-DVD- 15GB single layer, 30GB dual layer

http://www.engadget.com/2005/09/19/blu-ray-vs-hd-dvd-state-of-the-s-union-s-division/

http://www.blue-ray.com

 

[Mentok]

Hey Zen, Have SONY confirmed if PS3 will upscale regular DVD video yet?

 

[Zenien]

2.2 Will Blu-ray be backwards compatible with DVD?


Yes, several leading consumer electronics companies (including Sony, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Pioneer, Sharp and LG) have already demonstrated products that can read/write CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs using a BD/DVD/CD compatible optical head, so you don't have to worry about your existing DVD collection becoming obsolete. In fact, most of the Blu-ray players coming out will support upscaling of DVDs to 1080p/1080i, so your existing DVD collection will look even better than before. While it's up to each manufacturer to decide if they want to make their products backwards compatible with DVD, the format is far too popular to not be supported. The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) expects every Blu-ray Disc device to be backward compatible with DVDs.

I do not know, but I can check around for you. I don't see why not. Upscalling video is something the PS3 hardware could do with a hitch... But yeah no clue if it's confirmed.

 

[Mentok]

Ahhh, thats cool