Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD @ CES

How many people now are likely to go out and get a HD-DVD player?
The next few months will be interesting, dont get em wrong loads of great films on HD-DVD and loads still to come but will Toshiba be able to now stop Paramount etc from shaking hands and saying all the best but weve got to go back and support Blu Ray.

5x Major Studios fo the blue team Vs 2x Major Studios for the red team
Which would you now bet on?

If the industry gets the impression the Warner issue is the nail in the coffin then it will spread like wild fire and hurt hardware sales. Short term its not good for consumers nor retailers but unfortunately it seems it had to come to this as companies arnt prepared to produce for both formats.
 
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Kainz said:
Er, fan of the film - got a problem with that? Can I laugh at you for going dual format and spending a ton?
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i didnt spend a ton, i bought a games console and a hd-dvd drive. so no you cant. i will however, laugh at you having 5 versions of the same film all on the same format. go you!
 
james.miller said:
i didnt spend a ton, i bought a games console and a hd-dvd drive. so no you cant. i will however, laugh at you having 5 versions of the same film all on the same format. go you!
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Games console and a hd-dvd drive? Cost much? Yeah and paying a measly £40 and getting good value for money. Nice try mate.
 
nokkonwud said:
If it's the end of HD-DVD then I definitely will! Bargain basement HD goodness!
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speaks sense.
Kainz said:
Yeah and paying a measly £40 and getting good value for money. Nice try mate.
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speaks nonsense.

no, £40 for the Bourne collection on hd-dvd is money well spent, £40 for 5 versions of the same film isnt. if you're a collector and a particular fan then go right ahead. but dont expect me to do anything other than laugh.

having both here allows me to see things as they are. having one format generally doesnt, unless you have the common sense to see the pros and cons of both, as demonstrated by some participants of this thread.

Kainz said:
Games console and a hd-dvd drive? Cost much?
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thats right, i bought a console similar to yours with the added bonus that its a top flight bluray player. money well spent. and a £130 on a hd-dvd drive.... im assuming you spent similar on your console and hd drive/player/whatever, right? so who got the best of both world? i know, lets compare the price of hd players to discs, because that makes MUCH more sense than criticizing buying 5 different versions of the same film!
 
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nokkonwud said:
If it's the end of HD-DVD then I definitely will! Bargain basement HD goodness!
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I bought the LG PC drive,
Blu Ray
HD-DVD
BD-RW

Think their now under £180
Also eventually BD-RW will become affordable and usefull for PC or PS3 usage.

I dont think though that if the general consensus is that HD-DVD isnt going to last then people will rush out to get cut price players just to see films already out on the format. If they were that interested in them they surely would alrady of started and purchased a player by now. Buying into a format that you know has possible limited lifespan isnt really wise.
Its like 10 years ago and going out and buying a Laserdisc player on the cheap but knowing DVD is about to take off.

If the hardware gets slashed in price then the software/movies will too and that yes i can agree would help sales of any dual format device being purchased but stand alone HD-DVD players, mmm not so sure unless they were really cheap and being bought as DVD replacement players also.
 
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james.miller said:
no, £40 for the Bourne collection on hd-dvd is money well spent, £40 for 5 versions of the same film isnt. if you're a collector and a particular fan then go right ahead. but dont expect me to do anything other than laugh.
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My decision, not yours. No idea where you got this 'same film' idea from, clearly one hasn't seen the cuts. Couldn't give a hoots about what you think tbh mate. I'll stick my hardware until its dead and buried.
 
Kainz said:
My decision, not yours. No idea where you got this 'same film' idea from, clearly one hasn't seen the cuts. Couldn't give a hoots about what you think tbh mate. I'll stick my hardware until its dead and buried.
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because i dont have the final cut sitting here on bluray or own (one of) the original on dvd..... and you deserve a bit of pot kettle black tbh. you've no problems trying to pick at me for spending money but throw a strop when i do the same to you. when i made a comment about the 5disc set, i never made it towards anybody, but you made it personal. just remember that.
 
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because, of the problems and tedium of setting a pc up to play hd material. no hd audio output right now, some films wont play without software updates first, some just wont play at all, messing around with settings, multi-screen if you have it, having to use anydvd to break the copy protection even though you have a perfectly legal 100% hdcp setup, because otherwise very little might happen and nothing plays at all.....

with my ps3, i literally put a disc in and it boots up and starts playing. for all the things pc's are good at, there is still no substitute for a dedicated player.
 
james.miller said:
because i dont have the final cut sitting here on bluray or own (one of) the original on dvd..... and you deserve a bit of pot kettle black tbh. you've no problems trying to pick at me for spending money but throw a strop when i do the same to you. when i made a comment about the 5disc set, i never made it towards anybody, but you made it personal. just remember that.
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Look who's talking when I suddenly get accused of 'exaggerating' the region code issue and then laughed at for being a Blade Runner fan. Er yeah right. Fact is, I could buy my films from anywhere and have no worries about regional coding. Anything wrong with that?
 
james.miller said:
because, of the problems and tedium of setting a pc up to play hd material. no hd audio output right now, some films wont play without software updates first, some just wont play at all, messing around with settings, multi-screen if you have it, having to use anydvd to break the copy protection even though you have a perfectly legal 100% hdcp setup, because otherwise very little might happen and nothing plays at all.....

with my ps3, i literally put a disc in and it boots up and starts playing. for all the things pc's are good at, there is still no substitute for a dedicated player.
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Ah I understand now - Thanks :)

Is it the PC that dosnt support HD Audio or Drive? I'm sure my motherboard said something about it on the box. I must say a PS3 is looking good for playing blu-ray's even though I already have a 360 - I don't want to get greedy :p
 
RoachycaL said:
Why then are people buying 300-500 blue ray players when they could buy a multi-format drive for their pc that does it all?
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PC based players are a lot of hassle unless you've got the PC perma-hooked up to a large display. A mate of mine recently bought a blu-ray drive and then expressed his dismay at what I had warned him about - PC's are just too finicky software wise. PowerDVD for example has turned in to an utter pile of bloat since I used it.
 
Kainz said:
Look who's talking when I suddenly get accused of 'exaggerating' the region code issue and then laughed at for being a Blade Runner fan. Er yeah right. Fact is, I could buy my films from anywhere and have no worries about regional coding. Anything wrong with that?
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like i told you, i do exactly the same. your putting emphasis on the region thing when in reality there are VERY few region A bluray titles that wont play over here. and like i tried to tell you, i own BOTH, so just drop the region thing. actually drop the argument entirely, i just cant be bothered. ill stick to both formats, buy whatever's best on either format from whereever i like, and you stick to hd-dvd and your narrow-minded views. either we have a decent discussion, or nothing at all. your choice.

RoachycaL said:
Ah I understand now - Thanks :)

Is it the PC that dosnt support HD Audio or Drive? I'm sure my motherboard said something about it on the box. I must say a PS3 is looking good for playing blu-ray's even though I already have a 360 - I don't want to get greedy :p
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a bit of both. the software (powerdvd, and the rest afaik) wont do hd audio over 7.1 analogue, leaving you with either spdif or hdmi to carry the audio. spdif (coax or optical) doesnt have the bandwidth to do it, and currently there arent (last time i checked) any soundcards or motherboard (or graphics cards) that have hdmi connectors that can also output LPCM or the hd audio bitstreams over hdmi. so your stuck with the regular audio, basically. its a bit of a sham but i dont thing the audio issue is anywhere near as frustrating as just using the pc in general to watch the films.
 
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RoachycaL said:
Hey mate - do you run it through the TV? Does it look as good as say the 360 HD-DVD drive does?
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I use HDMI from PC - AV AMP - Projector 1080p 1:1 (the software was included with the PC Drive)
Also can be displayed on the monitor etc

The X360 Drive is too noisey, it would have cost me approx £90 so for double that i thought hold on Blu Ray player and Burner was well worth the extra £90. The only drawback is the audio but then the X360 HD-DVD doesnt offer the full sound neither. Im not a big movie collector, i dont rewatch films that often (grew past that phase) mostly my purchases are ones for the family rather than just myself. Ive only bought 10 discs within 10 months 9 of these are Blu Rays. Prefer to rent some films, pointless them collecting on a shelf not being used. I learnt that in my Laserdisc days.

I still prefer to watch my BDs via the PS3 though
 
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Mr Latte said:
I use HDMI from PC - AV AMP - Projector 1080p 1:1
Also can be displayed on the monitor etc

The X360 Drive is too noisey, it would have cost me approx £90 so for double that i thought hold on Blu Ray player and Burner was well worth the extra £90. The only drawback is the audio but then the X360 HD-DVD doesnt offer the full sound neither. Im not a big movie collector, i dont rewatch films that often (grew past that phase) mostly my purchases are ones for the family rather than just myself. Ive only bought 10 discs within 10 months 9 of these are Blu Rays. Prefer to rent some films, pointless them collecting on a shelf not being used. I learnt that in my Laserdisc days.

I still prefer to watch my BDs via the PS3 though
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Cool thanks - I only have 5 HD-dvd's for my player so I doubt there would be any point in me getting a PS3 just to play blu-ray - I only really buy box sets and they are the only things I will rewatch. To my knowledge there arent many box sets in HD yet :p
 
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