ORIGINAL: Silentbomber

i dont know, its too early to declare a winner, hell I think some new movies filmed in proper hd have to come, and untill we have units that are bugless and work well, which is in 2 years, we cant decide.

Movies are filmed on " film" , which means that they have a higher " resolution" than the highest HD format.

You' re right about it being too early to declare a winner, though. I would like to see Sony FINALLY come out with a proprietary format that actually succeeds. I like the fact that their Blu-ray discs have such a high capacity (even if it is all in lab, so far, as they haven' t produced a multi-layer disc commercially yet.) Is all that capacity necessary? Maybe not now, but in the future it will be. We' ll ALWAYS need more space!

As for me, I just ordered three HD-DVDs from Amazon.com. I got The Last Samurai, Chronicles of Riddick, and Sleepy Hollow. I was gonna get Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, but it' s $29.99 on their site, and only $22.49 on DVD Empire. I figured I' d start ordering movies now, as they have a promotion where if you buy three HD movies (either HD-DVD or Blu-ray) you get 10% off HD movie purchases for a year! I' m gonna go buy an HD-DVD player, and take it back in 30 days (shady, I know, but what the hell!)

Hey somebody try to sell me a Blue-Ray and somebody else a HD-DVD, now I' ll pretend I now little, almost nothing about the +/- points of either (which sadly isn' t far from the truth) and act as as costumer.

Ahem!

" Hey, um... So I wanna by one of them new players... Um... yeah, so I heard Blue-Ray was better... but they say HD-DVD is cheaper... Um, yeah... Um... So which should I get??? Um... yeah..."

On the blue-ray official site they don' t seem to really sell it to you and when you go to toshibas they really look like they' ve put thought into it. That said I really like the blue-ray logo and how it looks on the players....

NEXT GEN star WARS ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Sony' s decision to use an ancient and inferior video codec for moviews so far is the reason for the difference in picture quality. Most people are putting it down to shoddy transfer work but that' s bullshit. Sony want the best quality possible because if they underperform and get slated studios will back away and release on HD-DVD.

People go on about the storage size and how it' s double what Toshiba have managed with HD-DVD but as Chee Saw noted Sony hasn' t released a multi-layer disc yet so right now Toshiba' s dual layer 30GB HD-DVD provides more space than Sony' s single layer 25GB Blu-Ray and when Sony DO release a dual layer disc Toshiba will have finished their triple layer 45GB discs.

The huge storage space however isn' t needed for things like movies and i' m yet to be convinced there will be a need for it this generation for games. The storage battle will be fought between the DVD recorders and writers.

ORIGINAL: Dionysius

" Hey, um... So I wanna by one of them new players... Um... yeah, so I heard Blue-Ray was better... but they say HD-DVD is cheaper... Um, yeah... Um... So which should I get??? Um... yeah..."

I think the smart decision, right at this very moment, would be HD-DVD. It costs a LOT less, and if you already have an Xbox 360, then it' ll be even cheaper once they release the add-on.

Other than price, it' s all about personal preference. If Blu-ray has more movies that you like, that might be a better option. It' s kinda scary that the reviews I' ve been reading and hearing are saying that the Blu-ray picture isn' t as good as HD-DVD, but I can' t speak about than from personal experience. It' s probably something to do with the codec that they have to use since Microsoft abandoned them! MS never get enough credit for their audio and video compression codecs. WMA and VC1 RULE!!

...i thought Blu-ray' s success was pretty much guaranteed...

Blu-Ray has always been doomed.

Who cares HD-DVD and BR-Ray are both going to get trampled once Holographic disc become affordable. I' m talking about over 1000 GB discs, with data transfer rates that are equally impressive.

What are you going to use 1000 GB for?
If those holographic discs become affordable, HD-DVD or Blu-ray will be even cheaper.

And yet DVD will become even cheaper because of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray...

Yeah but it seems we require more space than what the DVD' s offer.
Some day we' ll need more than what HD-DVD and Blu-ray can offer but... 1000 GB?

So on a completely unrelated/related subject, doesn' t 360 get a price tag about as big as the Ps3' s, if you wish to buy the add on HD-DVD?

...Not sure though.

ORIGINAL: Dionysius

So on a completely unrelated/related subject, doesn' t 360 get a price tag about as big as the Ps3' s, if you wish to buy the add on HD-DVD?

...Not sure though.

I wouldn' t think so given their supposed $100 production reduction, that alone gives them leverage to bundle the add-on with it, without loosing too much. I think that' s maybe why no price cut is coming because they might add that to it.

if PS3 will upscale DVD' s to HD (like every Blue-ray player), then it has big advantage over 360.

ORIGINAL: ]GaNgStA[

if PS3 will upscale DVD' s to HD (like every Blue-ray player), then it has big advantage over 360.

Except that 360 upscales DVD' s already. Only if you' re using VGA cables though as it' s against dvd licensing agreements to output upscaled comercial DVD' s over " unprotected" component outputs.

Still, if you' re using the VGA cables your DVD' s will display in whatever resolution you have the 360 set to.

Upscalling only means that the pixels that the 360 outputs fits into the pixels of the screen. You' re still not outputting as much information (quality) as HD-DVD or Blu-Ray.

I was thinking. Would the difficulty of pirating either Blu-Ray/HD-DVD play a major role? With the whole focus on software-protection lately, I think it could be a major advantage for either format; if there really is a pronounced difference.

ORIGINAL: Game Junkie

Upscalling only means that the pixels that the 360 outputs fits into the pixels of the screen. You' re still not outputting as much information (quality) as HD-DVD or Blu-Ray.

Granted but it still looks sharper than standard DVD and won' t 360' s external HD-DVD drive be capable of the same as the Blu-Ray drive in PS3???

wouldn' t think so given their supposed $100 production reduction, that alone gives them leverage to bundle the add-on with it, without loosing too much. I think that' s maybe why no price cut is coming because they might add that to it.

I see.

I was thinking. Would the difficulty of pirating either Blu-Ray/HD-DVD play a major role? With the whole focus on software-protection lately, I think it could be a major advantage for either format; if there really is a pronounced difference.

If so, then the format with the least protection will win the peoples hearts, and Piratebay' s support. Also, I believe I read somewhere (a long time ago), that the Blue-Ray had better Copy-protection, which was one of the reasons, many big film industries got interested in it.

Personally I' m rooting for Blue-Ray, only because I find the idea of a " Blue" laser so very awesome!