Now I have'nt gotten into the HD era of movies yet (I just got my first DVD player less than a year ago!), since there have'nt been anything worth getting! Blu-Ray disc are expesive! $25-$30 and the only types of movies out right now to choose from is lame stuff like Hot Rod and Daddy Day Camp. So whats the point?
I hope that the format WAR ends soon though because its really tuff for non techie people like Grandma to choose which format to buy because they don't know the difference!.

Just to stay somewhat on topic, I'm about to put on Goldsmith's score to The Last Run!

The only two studios that support HD-DVD exclusively is Universal and Paramount....all other studios, including Disney/Pixar either only support Blu-Ray, or both formats, which I think it the better way to go.

While I believe Blu-Ray to be the better format in terms of bits and bytes as well as security, image quality across both formats is for the most part transparent.

If anything, this just makes the format war last longer, I don't think it decides it at all.

Wedge, I think your right. Universal has said they they are actually paid for their support, which is really dumb. It's like the days of payola for radio, something the FCC has actually done something about...maybe they should do something here.

The customers need to decide what format they want...or HD and Blu need to come together to find common ground...something that was tried but fell apart.

Sadly, money talks. And the studios are taking money hand over fist.

As for Bill over at "The Bits," I tend to agree with him.

--Brian

?????

Having Paramount/DW drop Blu-ray is a hugely significant momentum shift in the format war. Denying this shows considerable misunderstanding of the forces at work. Unless there is another point that wasn't made well by the word choice presented?

Spielberg movies can influence, but sooner or later there will be only one format. Having a studio drop Blu-ray, which apparently was a darling of the studios, is a serious blow. There is no denying this.

Fox stopped with Blu-ray titles, too.

Seeing that Paramount/DW is the box office winner thus far in 2007 adds to the blow.

Anyway.... interesting discussion. I think chips will begin to fall more rapidly now, and whichever format has the hottest PR dudes will make it clear, and quickly.

Dreamworks and Paramount wouldn't have done that unless they were given a monetary ultimatum - which they were. Microsoft paid them off, because MS backs HD-DVD.

I don't have money for Hi Def stuff, but I've done a lot of comparing at a friend's studio, where he's put both formats through their paces. Screw HD-DVD, in my opinion.

You better head on over to Digital Bits, because MGM and FOX just announced nearly 30 big titles for BD this year.

Blul-ray was "winning the war" until Microsoft got scared and paid off studios.

And PK, if Microsoft paid you 50 million in cold hard cash to back something, don't tell me you wouldn't. If they said "we'll give you a gazillion dollars, but you can't sell, mention, or breath anything about Goldsmith or Williams" you would do it.

I mean HDMI is HDMI, it works on SD, HD DVD and BLu Ray players. C'mon now.

And if you box yourself in to only one format, you might have a problem. Do you really think Sony is gonna start making 007 in HD DVD?

It really doesn't matter about the price of players, their dropping like rocks anyway. You can go out and buy a HD DVD player for 300 and a Blu Ray for 500. A year ago they were double that. And the combo players are dropping fast too. And with the next wave of players coming out soon, prices will continue to drop.

It's not a matter of what format you want, because you want both. You're gonna want your Indiana Jones on HD DVD and your James Bond on Blu Ray, it's that simple.

Blocking yourself into one format is dumb unless the other is knocked off the map and right now, we still have two of them.

That said, if either format wins, then knock yourself out, until then, I'd spring for both players and be happy your watching movies with insane quality.

--Brian

quote:

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Originally posted by PeterK:
It may mean that dual Blu-ray/HD players get cheap real fast because of the clear problem of having hi-def movies available in only one format or another

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It's same concept...play my format and I'll give you money.

It happened with radio...same thing here. In case anyone was wondering, it's illegal.

--Brian

For anyone who has been keeping up on The Digital Bits, it is clear that Bill Hunt has went over the edge, especially in his latest, childish rant (which stops just short of calling Microsoft and Paramount "poopy pantses"). He used to be so....sane.

I agree that the format war is not yet over, and that for some reason, Blu-Ray discs are selling 2 to 1 over HD-DVDs (take PS3s out of the equation, then what kind of numbers would we see?), but really...it should come down to quality. In my eyes, Universal, Warner, and Paramount have the best titles released/announced. Fox's hastily thrown together list of same-old, same-old catalog titles shouldn't thrill anyone. And who gives a crap about which format has better security? When was the last time a DVD player let someone break into your house?

Shaun

Another thing that pisses me off is that the ATSC digital TV standard is already obsolete before it's even mainstream. MPEG2 is a pile of old crap and I can't believe we're probably going to be stuck with it for decades until the next broadcasting standard comes along.

I fear you.

Goodness to be had by anyone that owns either player or both. And of course a television that will supper 720 or higher (preferably 1080p capable, really)... if you're gonna do it, do it right.

It's ultimately pointless to argue or discuss who's winning and who is not, there's no real, quantitative data to support anything - and we'll know who's won by the time that information *really* becomes available. However I do wish we could just fast-forward to the final verdict.

Jeron

But anyway, the reason both formats will fail is due to people not knowing what's going on. Microsoft knows this. They tried to find a company that's been losing money (which Paramount has been for 3 years straight now) that would switch sides for a price. They knew there was no way to get a Blu-Ray exclusive company to switch sides, so they went for a nuetral company. Magnolia films wasn't a large enough studio, so they wanted something bigger. Which leaves Paramount and Warner Brothers. Well Warner hasn't been losing money like Paramount has and Warner also wants the format war to continue to lower prices. So that leaves them with Paramount.

They knew if they could get Paramount over for long enough, it would kill both formats leaving one outcome. Downloadable movies. On Xbox Live you can download (crappy) HD movies and Microsoft has been pushing this for 8 months now. So basically, the 18 months is how long they think it'll be before both formats fail.

Luckily, Fox announced 29 titles that will be out by the end of the year so that kind of kicked Paramount in the butt. Also, Spielberg has announced that his movies will NOT be HD-DVD (hence Close Encounters of the Third Kind on Blu-Ray this fall/winter). Michael Bay has also talked about the foul taste this has left in his mouth and will not being doing Transformers 2 now.

One other problem though, is people who bring up a topic like this and don't know what they're talking about. Here we had someone post about how Blu-Ray will lose because of this. That is simply not true, and yes, if Blu-Ray dissappears we WILL suffer a great loss.

One of the things Blu-Ray has going for it is Uncompressed Sound. Something that doesn't fit on HD-DVD due to the 30gb discs. Don't even get me started on Dolby TrueHD, where the bit rate drops down past a regular DTS track.

Anotehr thing is format stability. If you go to any website and search for HD-DVD, you'll see the problems people are having. Ranging from highpitched noises coming from the HDMI outputs on their new players to discs just plain not working. I have 2 Blu-Ray players and they both work flawlessly. I have an HD-DVD player that works probably close to 3% of the time. Which is why I quit buying HD-DVD's.

But back to people being misinformed. One person also said that Blu-Ray isn't HD and that they bought an HDTV for a reason. You should compare how many HD-DVD players do 1080p/24fps to how many Blu-Rays do it.

Another thing to compare is how many Blu-Ray players output 7.1 sound compared to HD-DVD. HD-DVD has 1 player coming out this fall that will do 7.1 sound. Yes, HD-DVd does have some interactivity that Blu-Ray doesn't have right now. But with the case of 300 and many other films, it's obvious people don't really care about that interactivity. I know I don't. If it has it, great, if not, I don't care. I'd rather have a quality product that will work when I put it in my player. Anyway, that's just my thoughts.

Clayton

Jeron

Fox's BD press release yesterday appears as a rush job to spin against yesterday morning's news from Paramount/Dreamworks. Like I said, it's all about who's got the hottest PR dudes now, and Fox guys have stepped up fast.
http://www.foxbd.com/pressrelease-29titles.htm

Shaun

I'll wait a little while longer before I do significant investing in hi-def... I can wait. My non-hi-def 100% digital theater is still pretty damn good in the meantime.

quote:

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Originally posted by Shaun Rutherford:
Jesus, Clayton.

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Shaun