This time it' s Netflix.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/11/news/companies/bc.netflix.blu.ray.ap/index.htm

Also saw an article today stating that Best Buy will be promoting Blu-Ray as well at all of their retail locations.

BTW, anyone know where the funeral is going to be held for HD-DVD? I thought it fitting to hold it in New Mexico with E.T presiding.

I shed a tear for HD-DVD.

why

I didn' t want to see Sony win the format war. I couldn' t care much less about either medium though. I' m perfectly happy with DVDs.

i' m sick of discs, 1080p over nets plz kthx

I was pulling for HD-DVD to win at first as well, but Sony' s tech IS better.

People were saying that the main drawback of Blu-ray was price, both for hardware and software, but I simply don' t see it. Maybe it' s partially because of the competition, but the player prices started high, just like any new media format, but have decreased steadily over time. As for the software, the prices are pretty much the same for new releases. For catalog titles HD-DVD does seem a little cheaper though.

I think that once the format war is " officially" over, more people will take the plunge and purchase players, and the prices will decrease really fast.

The only thing I don' t really get, is why they keep leaving extras off of HD releases that were included on the regular release! I don' t think I' ll EVER understand that one!

ORIGINAL: Chee Saw

I was pulling for HD-DVD to win at first as well, but Sony' s tech IS better.

People were saying that the main drawback of Blu-ray was price, both for hardware and software, but I simply don' t see it.

I really don' t see how Blu Ray is any better. Most companies found HD-DVD to be much easier to work with. HD-DVD cost a lot less, the reproduction was less, the storage size was pretty much the same as Blu Ray, and authoring the disc pretty much followed the standards of DVDs.

When this whole feud started HD-DVDs cost a fraction of the price of Blu Ray. Producing one disc for HD-DVD was still less than a dollar. Blu Ray on the other hand cost upwards of $10 a disc from articles I read (though at this point the price has gone down I' m sure), hence the $30 price tag on movies and game developers bitching about the cost of producing on Blu Ray (talk about a loss in profits when 1/6 of your games income goes traight to paying for the disc it' s printed on).

Sony really just managed to flex it' s muscle by including the drive in the PS3, making all of its Hollywood studios support the format (which is a large chunk of Hollywood), and in several cases passed money under the table to get other studios to support Blu Ray. It really had nothing to do with being better tech.

I agree that tech had very little to do with it. Sony had a good strategy, MS had a bad one.

This would have played out entirely different had MS included HD-DVD in the 360, or they had advertised more agressively in the stand-alone market. When I think of it, I' ve only just recently started seeing advertisements for the format.

It wasn' t MS' s strategy that caused anything. It was Toshiba. They made HD-DVD. MS was just a supporter. Aside from the 360 HD-DVD add on MS really isn' t hurting from HD-DVD going down. Toshiba is taking most of the blow.

True.

Best Buy is going Blu-ray as well now. Meh doesn' t matter to me either way since I still don' t see any super reason for HD movies. They are really only good for CGI heavy movies if anything...maybe I' m missing something.

HD movies are definitely a niche market, and will be for quite a while, I believe. The differences just aren' t enough to warrant the price of upgrading for the average person.

It' s different from the VHS to DVD move. DVD' s made VHS look and sound like crap, plus there were extras. I think it' s also significant that the DVD revolution came directly after everyone had upgraded to CD' s over audio cassettes. After that, DVD' s were pretty much a logical step.

I do think that BLuray will catch on far faster than downloadable movies. Physical media is just so convenient. Yesterday I bought 3 movies as an afterthought when I went to the local grocery. Downloads just can' t beat that.

Netflix has a really good streaming service that I love using. A huge catalog all at very good quality unlimited downloads with the plan I chose.

HD-DVD is already buried. They' ve been done for a while.
Blu-ray isn' t important for movies over HD-DVD. It' s important as storage media. It has something like 3 times the maximum storage capacity as HD-DVD and nearly twice the maximum data transfer speed (the most significant thing to measure).

For consoles in particular, disc transfer speed is hugely important. The PS3 has an immature BD drive with only a 2X.

BD will max out at 18X* (1X= 36Mbps). HD-DVD would have maxed out at 8X (1X=36.55Mbps)

*DVDs have a peak RPM of 10,000, HD-DVD would be the same as they are the same thickness. BD are thinner and thus capable of 15,000RPM. At 10,000RPM BD would have a speed of 12X. Higher numerical aperture gives BD higher Mbps per RPM.

Anyways, once the price drops and speed reaches it' s potential everyone will want a BD in their computers. They' ll be far faster than DVD drives. That' s why you should care.

ORIGINAL: Mass X

Best Buy is going Blu-ray as well now. Meh doesn' t matter to me either way since I still don' t see any super reason for HD movies. They are really only good for CGI heavy movies if anything...maybe I' m missing something.

Maybe you' re watching old movies that were just " remastered" to be on HD-DVDs.
There are a lot of " HD" movies that are simply scaled to HD. Doesn' t look even close to as good as a real HD movie. Also 1080p is an enourmous step up from 480p. If you can tell when you' re playing 360 you' ll be able to tell with real HD movies.

Newer movies tend to look much better.

I' m not saying the Blu-ray is functionally better than HD-DVD as far as HD movie playback, all I' m saying is that technically it is superior. Transfer speed, disc layer data capacity, etc.

As far as the enjoyment of HD media vs. price when considering the switch from regular DVD, to each his own. I will say that if you have a 42 inch or larger picture, and you upgrade from SD to 1080p, you WILL see a difference. Whether that difference will inspire you to shell out the money is different for everyone.

ORIGINAL: Mass X

Best Buy is going Blu-ray as well now. Meh doesn' t matter to me either way since I still don' t see any super reason for HD movies. They are really only good for CGI heavy movies if anything...maybe I' m missing something.

Beowulf

Appleseed Ex Machina

There you go, Mass! Talk about CG heavy movies! Phew!

I was actually watching one of those commercial comparisons they have going on at Best Buy, Kingdom of Heaven being the movie on display. And I did notice quite a bit of difference. Not only were the colors much richer, but also the picture was much clearer than on a regular DVD. And it was noticeable on both, close-ups and panoramic shots. Chicken Little was also on display, and my cousin has the regular DVD edition, and the differences were pretty big.