Have you actually seen side by side comparisons of HDDVD vs BluRay? Unless something has changed, all I can say is " inferior codec much?" .
Old news, newer BluRay movies uses the same codecs as HD-DVD now. And they also now come with upgradable firmware. Don' t buy an old Blu-Ray player though, not that any of us would with the PS3 as an option.
I always thought both formats had a transfer rate of 36 Mbites, or am I mixing something up here?
That' s half true. 36.55Mbps is the transfer rate for HD-DVD X1 while 36Mbps is the transfer rate for BluRay X1, but that' s irrelevant, what matters is the RPM as ultimately both drives will only be able to spin so fast. Blu-ray has a laser with a larger numerical aperture. Essentially meaning it takes less RPM to get the same transfer rate as HD-DVD. So X1 HD-DVD spins faster than X1 Blu-ray. Eventually, both are going to reach a maximume RPM where it' s physicallly impossible to spin the disc faster. Blu-Ray will see higher speeds, for example Blu-ray might max out X16 when HD-DVD might max out at that X10, at the same RPM. With faster drives, Blu-Ray will pull ahead. Not only can Blu-ray pull more data per RPM, but because the disc is thinner, they are saying that Blu-Ray will physically be able to spin faster than DVD or HD-DVD.
Eventually Blu-ray will have a transfer rate that shits all over HD-DVD. Right now the difference is not that great as the RPM' s are too low. For movies the difference is 54Mbps/BD VS. 36Mbps/HD-DVD. That' s not going to change because it has to be standardized so older players can play the new movies. However, in the future we' ll see Blu-ray have over 100Mbps more than what HD-DVD can muster. For games, or writing data on a disc, this will matter a lot. If I can find what the RPM' s the they both use I could calculate exact numbers.
Not to mention much higher capacity. I don' t care that much about movies but for games next console gen Blu-Ray would be far more favorable. Faster data streaming would make a HUGE difference. Many devs have said that one of the limiting factors with PS3 and 360, if not the the limiting factor is the data transfer rate off the disc (along with ram size). A higher disc transfer speed increases what devs can do with a console exponentially.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc http://www.gizmowatch.com/entry/ultra-thin-blu-ray-disc-spins-up-to-15000-rpm-writes-at-7x-speed/ http://www.blu-ray.com/faq/ I hope that clears things up.
< Message edited by Agent Ghost -- 5 Sep 07 19:46:27 >