This shall be an interesting war.

I've heard good things about Blu Ray, including that Sony wants to use it for the PS3. Don't know very much about HD-DVD.

Blu Ray. PS2 was one of the main reasons dvd took off when it did, PS3 will probably do the same for BR.

It's really up in the air at this point, but Blu-Ray does appear to be the better format, albeit slightly. It also seems to have more supporters. Still, HD-DVD seems like it's being pushed harder on the masses, at least to me. I hope people choose have enough sense to choose the better format.

But these are still the same masses that chose VHS over Betamax, so...

These are the people that still keep Wal-Marts filled to the brim with full-screen dvds. Nuff said.

I had to bring "Batman Begins" back becuase of that shit.

Why didn't you just check it before you bought it?

I assumed it was widescreen, and I was in kind of a rush, I was on my lunch break when I got it. But it worked out, and I got the Wide Screen now.

And a wise choice ye made. If someone gives me a full screen dvd I'll set it aflame right before their eyes for insulting me with that crap.

Ah, I see. You can never be too sure at that goddamned Wal-Mart, though.

Well HD DVD has finally been released and there are already some issues with the players. Blu-Ray seems to have more supporters in the industry and with the Blu-Ray the factories that produce the discs have to update all their equipment to make those discs and the movie industry seems to like that because they will have a few years jump on the bootleggers. The only major backer for HD DVD is Warner Brothers who is huge of course but with almost all the others backing Blu-Ray I don't see how they can't win.

i'll be honest here, i don't know what the differences are between the two formats.

HD-DVD can hold 30 gigs, Blu-Ray can hold 50 gigs. HD-DVD players were just released, and you can already buy a few movies for them, Blu Ray wil be coming out in a few months. The first HD-DVD player costs 500 dollars, the first Blu-Ray players are expected to cost 1000. HD-DVD has the support of Universal, WB, and HBO films. Blu-Ray has Sony, MGM, Lionsgate, and a couple of others. Most companies are making films for both formats. HD-DVD is Toshiba and Blu Ray is Sony.

My take on it, Blu Ray is the superior format only because of a larger disk capacity. The players will be expensive though, and of course Sony, which also controls movie studios, recording studios, and is the leader in the video game format, is not really the type of company you want controlling the future format of all home movies and computers. They also are known for some very shady anti-piracy practices. As you can see by their treatment of UMD's, the format for PSP, they are still way over-priced, and sell for more then their DVD counterparts, on an inferior format, that contains zero of the extras that DVD's do. The format is also failing and companies are withdrawing support.

Best case scenario, is that there will be players in the near future that will support both formats. Otherwise, I am hoping HD-DVD wins. It has the name recognition off the bat. And the only real difference between the formats, is that you could fit the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy on 1 Blu-Ray disk, while it would take probably two disks for HD-DVD. HD-DVD is also cheaper to manufacture as a disk, therefore the actual movies should be cheaper.

http://www.blu-ray.com/

blu-ray baby all the way. i first heard about it years back over at ign.com. ps3 will be able to play blu-ray discs fuck yeah! man, that's all you need to have till the stand alone players come down in price a few months later after the ps3 release date. and then the blu-ray recorders ... oh mama.

50GB on a dual-layer disc

I think which ever disc is cheaper is going to win out. I thought I read somewhere that Blu-Ray discs were going to be $40 versus $30 for HD-DVD. People aren't going to pay more than they have to.

i would. for better video/audio quality, why not. plus they will get cheaper down the road.

Yeah, but neither of them have better discernable video quality. Just because BR has more space, it doesn't mean it's higher quality.

well kinda. check out regular dvds to dl dvds. dl has higher bit rate then a regular dvd. big difference in quality.

for br, with that much gigs on 1 disc, sony & the other companies will use that space to their advantage & max it up to get higher bitrate audio/video/bonus material etc ... then to a hd-dvd disc.

Video bit rate (max): blue ray 40.0Mbps ... hd-dvd 28.0Mbps

http://www.blu-ray.com/faq/#hddvd

Blu-ray vs HD-DVD

3.1 Is Blu-ray the same thing as HD-DVD?


No, HD-DVD (previously known as AOD) is the name of a competing next-generation optical disc format developed by Toshiba and NEC. The format is quite different from Blu-ray, but also relies heavily on blue-laser technology to achieve a higher storage capacity. The format is being developed within the DVD Forum as a possible successor to the current DVD technology.


3.2 What benefits does Blu-ray offer compared to HD-DVD?


Although both Blu-ray and HD-DVD are similar in many aspects, there are some important differences between them.

The first is capacity. Because Blu-ray utilizes a lens with a greater numerical aperture (NA) 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). The greater capacity and data transfer rates for Blu-ray will allow the movie studios to release their movies with higher quality video and audio than the HD-DVD format.

The second is content. The Blu-ray format has received broad support from the major movie studios as a successor to today's DVD format. Seven of the eight major movie studios (Warner, Paramount, Fox, Disney, Sony, MGM and Lionsgate) have already announced titles for Blu-ray, whereas HD-DVD only has support from three major movie studios (Warner, Paramount and Universal). This is an important difference because some of the studios might only support one of the formats, so you won't be able to get your favorite movies in the other format. Choosing the format with the most content support minimizes this risk.

The third is hardware support. The Blu-ray format has broad support from the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers, including Sony, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Pioneer, Sharp, JVC, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, TDK, Thomson, LG, Apple, HP and Dell. The Blu-ray format will also be supported in the next-generation PlayStation 3 (PS3) video game console. This means that you will have a lot of choice when it comes to players and hardware. The HD-DVD format has far less supporters, so the amount of players and hardware will be very limited. So far, Toshiba is the only company to officially announce a HD-DVD player and it will only support 1080i output, while the announced Blu-ray players will support 1080p.

But one thing you have to remember, it is VERY likely that studios aren't going to take full advantage of BR's potential, and the results will most likely be less than optimum video quality.

To be quite honest, I'm kind of hoping both formats fail. I don't want them to stop making DVDs.

that's true. i just hope they don't release the movie with hours & hours of bonus stuff on just the 1 disc. that would suck. i really wouldn't care if they were to release the bonus material on regular dvds, but please just release the movies (no bonus stuff) on the blu ray discs (use that shit to the max)

i love my dvds. you won't belive how many i have. and how many dvdrs i have on music trading (trading forum for more info ). i mean the dvds will still continue for many years down the road. but there will be many looking for quanity/quality after a while. and when the prices drop, it's gonna be sweet man.

but the only thing i don't want those movie giants to do is again release all the old movies on blu-ray, like they did on dvds. how many of us have tons of vhs tapes, later bought them again (some point down the road) on dvd. yet again release them on blu-ray now. gotta get sick of it, right? well only if it's your favorite movie of all time, gotta get it right?

we'll all find out when incoming sales starts. how well futureshop/curcuit city etc.. will be selling them. and the movie rentals stores like blockbuster (if they will carry more then 10 movies at a time) do.