Crave Talk: When will the HD DVD vs Blu-ray madness end?
I have no doubt that by this time next year the skirmish between the two hi-def disc formats will be over. Who will win? I haven't got a clue, to be honest, but what I can comment on is what I like and what I hate.
I've seen slightly more of HD DVD than I have of Blu-ray. The Toshiba HD-E1 player has been in our office for a few days now, hooked up to a 50-inch Panasonic plasma, and I've been blown away by the quality. So far I've watched Superman Returns, King Kong, Happy Gilmore and most exciting of all, Serenity. I love the swish on-screen menu system on HD DVD -- it appears over what you are watching, which feels like a real improvement over clunky old DVD.
I've seen one Blu-ray machine too, in the form of a Hi-Grade DMS Xtc2 media centre PC and had a look at Black Hawk Down and Talladega Nights. I wasn't as impressed by these releases, something I suspect is mainly down to their being encoded in MPEG-2, rather than the slightly better VC-1 or AVC formats. And of course, PCs aren't much fun for media. We saw loads of judder (apparently an update may sort this out) and generally had a miserable time getting the PC to talk nicely to our spiffy HD Ready screen.
For now, HD DVD seems way ahead, and the fact that the porn industry has apparently plumped for this format seems like a significant shift in the balance of power. From what I've seen so far, HD DVD is comfortably (and indecently) ahead in terms of the technology, although Blu-ray has sold more hardware -- mainly in the PlayStation 3. But it's early days -- stay tuned for more news in the format war of the decade. -Ian Morris
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AnonymousWed 24 January, 2007 3:30pm
Blue-ray or HD-DVD it doesn't matter, what matters to the customer is the content you get on the formats. I've read the three bigest film studios on revenue support Blue-ray and the fourth is surporting both formats. Looks like to me that there will be more High-Def content on Blue-ray.
AnonymousThu 1 February, 2007 4:35am
@david
said like a true fanboy. this isn't about the ps3 vs 360, look around for reviews on both hd and bluray movies. the hd dvd always win audio and video hands down, i still haven't seen a bd movie win in a comparative review. but you can live in your imagenary world that the ps3 is the best thing since the invention of electricity. how old are you. i hope you are no older than 18
AnonymousWed 16 April, 2008 3:56pm
hmmm
AnonymousWed 16 April, 2008 3:59pm
amber says.....
Blu Rays are so awesome. I bought one the very first day that they came out and now all of my friends have them. They are expensive, but american's spend most of their time watching their televisions, so why not invest in something so worthwhile in the end? Really you are only doing yourself a huge favor by buying one
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DavidTue 23 January, 2007 2:30pm
I think this was a biased article. I too have seen both the HD-DVD movies as well as the Blu-Ray and there was no difference in quality. Theoretically the Blu-Ray has the potential for better quality due to almost double the capacity.
After purchasing both the Xbox 360 and the PS3, there is no comparison there. The PS3 is a far superior machine and provides all the nuances that Big M want s you to pay for, i.e. wireless access, access to PS3 site, etc. The PS3 is definately THE highend console with a great movie environment to boot. It has been truly engineered and surpasses the XBOX in functionality!!
My 2 cents.