so whats considered better hd or blueray?

Glaucus

Glaucus

Glaucus

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Thinking about changing my dvd palyer for one of these. But unsure which way to go?

How much are these things going for?
 
neither, if you are going to be totally honest about it. hd-dvd is cheaper, and a lot of older stuff is being re-released on hd-dvd. bluray is more geared towards the new stuff. it's really up to you which way you go:)
 
is most of the new stuff released on hd as well?

Just seen the computer hd drive is £75 compared to blue ray of £85, so not much difference on the drives themselves.

where do people usually buy there hd/blueray dvds from?
 
Same places you'd buy regular dvds, which I probably cant name as they all also sell consoles and could probably be seen as a competitor to ocuk.

Costs are generally a few quid more than the new dvd releases, but I've yet to see any blu ray or hd-dvd's on offer - and who actually buys dvds at full price?

Blu ray looks like its going to be the most popular format, but hd-dvd has enough of a foothold to look like its not going to be going anywhere now. Hybrid players are going to be the norm, and the format will not matter to most people the choice will be dvd or high def - with certain studios on blu ray and others on hd-dvd.
 
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_high_definition_optical_disc_formats

Blue-ray discs are technically slightly better, but I've never heard of anyone who can really tell the difference. You'll get some discs that are better on HD DVD and some that are better on blue ray.

As james mentioned HD-DVDs & players are cheaper.

AFAIK (correct me if I'm wrong) more movie studios support blu-ray.

There is no "better" format you just have to make your own mind up.
 
Sounds like hd probably the way to go then, aif more of the older stuff is available.

There will come a time when hd/blue-ray discs will be on offer.

I like buying loads of dvds but it seems a bit points know new technology is out.
 
Bought a HD-DVD drive yesterday so I now have both, if I was to get rid of one of them it would be the HD-DVD. Blu Ray seems to have a better selection at the moment.
 
I would wait until combo players come out, at least if one format fails your player isn't a expensive paper weight.

I was a early adaptor of Region 1 DVD's, but not jumping on the HD bandwagon. Two HD video formats is daft!
 
Wait until Star Wars boxset arrives, if it comes out on only blu-ray then blu-ray will be the winner, likewise if it only comes out on HD-DVD.

Just my opinion mind.
 
You want one of these bad boys

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-065-LG&groupid=701&catid=10&subcat=314

Reads both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray and can even write to Blu-Ray plus every other format out there.

edit/ in terms of quality, I think Blu-Ray does have the edge, at work we encode films for HD-DVD at 26Mbps where as Blu-Ray is encoded at 35Mbps. This varies by client though and in theory both formats can take the same bit rate but with HD-DVD you are limited as the disc can't hold as much as a Blu-Ray can.
 
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I perfer HD-DVD for a few reasons.

HD-DVD has always delivered what it was suppose to from day one and isn't forced on us.

Old BR players and new disc revisions are incompatible.

HD-DVD is easier to produce as it requires little modifacations to an exsisting DVD plant, BR will cost a lot more plus it's full of protection, etc

HD-DVD can be played on DVD players in some cases (DVD/HD-DVD hybrid) which means you don't need 2x of everything and Blockbuster stores can stack the one copy of a movie.

Both are about the same in quality as they use the same codecs, so one isn't going to be much superior.

The good point about BR having gigabytes galore is that TV shows (seasons/series) can all fit onto the one disc and maybe multiple movies. Perhaps triple layer HD-DVD will pwn it?

No porn on BR? To some people this is enough to ditch the whole idea.

Some movie companies have decided to go for HD-DVD (or BR) so picking one may mean that you cannot get xxx movie on your exsisting hidef player.

Also a lot of people say that BR players have sold like easter eggs, but remember a lot of people bought the PS3 which is already BR and they may not really care for the BR capablites.

In general I'd say HD-DVD, as it's cheaper but personally I would wait for hybrids to drop cheaply.
 
Get yourself a 360 with HD Drive addon AcidHell (you get 5 free movies and the avbility to play the best lineup of games since the N64/PS1), if anything comes out that you want to play on blu-ray then you can easily change it to a high definition WMV (of course that'd mean buying a Blu-ray PC Drive).
 
i dont see the need in waiting. i think its funny that people are referring to £180 hd-dvd players as possible 'paperweights' when those peopel would happily spend that much on cables alone for their hifi's, or on a graphics card that'll be obsolete in a years time.......

in reality, neither of them will fail any time soon and even if they did, they both have a large enough catalogue to make either a worthy investment imo.
 
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james.miller said:
i think its funny that people are referring to £180 hd-dvd players as possible 'paperweights'
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For once I have to agree with you - the world of technology is constantly evolving and we are talking an investment of a few hundred not a few thousand. It will likely take at least a few years for one format or the other to get killed off, by which time the price of the rival format will likely have dropped to become much more affordable.

I've got an Athlon 64 setup sat behind me that is a glorified paperweight as it hasn't been switched on in months. Does that mean to say it was a waste me buying it a few years back?
 
Not that I have either, but I really don't think its worth investing at the moment considering the price. I won't imagine either really taking off until players are at the 100 squid mark.

Only if you have the money to burn and are obscessed with getting the best visuals would I suggest you bothered. DVD looks fine to me, and yes, I do know HD does like better but its nothing like the jump from VHS to DVD.
 
Nitefly said:
Not that I have either, but I really don't think its worth investing at the moment considering the price. I won't imagine either really taking off until players are at the 100 squid mark.

Only if you have the money to burn and are obscessed with getting the best visuals would I suggest you bothered. DVD looks fine to me, and yes, I do know HD does like better but its nothing like the jump from VHS to DVD.
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I've got to say I disagree with that last bit. After watching/playing many HD films and games watching a standard DVD is absolutely horrible. To me the difference is equal, if not larger than the change from VHS to DVD.
 
A high bitrate SD DVD-Video is very good indeed, if you find it horrible then it's to do with scaling involved.

I've watched SD and HD films on my 1080p screen. SD can look ropey, but high bitrate films can look very good indeed, and I've played back SD on a 1080p DLP £5000 projector- but it could be film quality and video bitrate, certainly a 1080p where the original film is low quality isn't goint to help.

I bought a DVD-Video player when region 2 didn't exist, first gen 110v player. However because of this dual format it certainly isn't helping, if one format fails then got a brick.
 
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hd-dvd will not last, they really are struggling trust me.

They couldn't put Transformers out with a lossless audio track. That doesn't cut the mustard when there is another format out there that can AND have room to up the video bitrate a bit more.

Some of you might say the audio track on the Transformers HD-DVD is ok as it is but why settle for less? We shouldn't. hd-dvd is on limited time.
 
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