Explain Blu-Ray and HD

Soldato
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O.k I've got a PS3 and Xbox360 along with a 32" HD TV with HDMI.
I'm now wanting to buy my favourate DVD's and play them in the best quality I can.
My PS3 enters my TV via an HDMI cable and at the same time my 360 by HD componant cable.
Am I right in thinking my HD TV will do my Blu-ray PS3 justice and that should be the platform I should buy my films?
Does any-one have a good comparision HD vs B-R
 
Hi blue ray are ahead in the race but they both may stay. my money is on BR to win.ps3 is spoused to be a decent player. just my 2cents :cool:
 
they both have the same image quality now(didnt always have). also blu ray has more space, which isnt really nessecary but its there. im not sure whos in the lead at the moment but blu ray was better off last time i checked though this depends where you look

in your current set up i would go for blu ray as the ps3 has the better connection and you wouldnt have to buy the hd dvd addon to play films.
 
A few things:
- Both HD DVD and Blu Ray will run at 720p on your LCD (Assuming you have the HD DVD drive for the Xbox360)
- There is hardly any difference between HD DVD and Blu Ray with most movies, there are some exceptions depending on the bitrate used and the codec used.
- The PS3 is an excellent player while the Xbox360/HD DVD is a mediocre player at best.
 
I'd say go with Blu-ray since you already have a player built into the PS3, for HD-DVD you'd have to buy the add-on for the 360.

Although there is pretty much no difference between Blu-ray and HD-DVD since they both tend to use the same formats for encoding, only difference in most cases is the disc itself.
 
The PS3 is one of the best BD players on the market and, thanks to firmware updates, I think it will be for some time to come. I would definately go for BD for winning the format war. They are way ahead in terms of film sales at the minute and I think that if they pull out much more of a lead you will get retailers dropping HD-DVD and going to one format.
 
Be careful with what you buy. Some HD films are really worth paying the extra for but others are not much better than DVD. I bought 300 on BD recently and it's awesome quality ;)
 
Joebob said:
Be careful with what you buy. Some HD films are really worth paying the extra for but others are not much better than DVD. I bought 300 on BD recently and it's awesome quality ;)

Ironically, 300 is one of the few films that has more features (or so I have heard) on the HD-DVD version. No difference in quality tho'.
 
I'd go for BlueRay, since you'll need to spend another £££ to watch HDDVD plus they are pretty much the same in terms of quality (same codecs, etc)

I would look for HD movie reviews first, sometimes, it's better to have 3x DVD's than 1x BR. Maybe that's just me putting quantity over quality.

300 is a good movie in HD.

Loowi_ashley said:
My PS3 enters my TV via an HDMI cable and at the same time my 360 by HD componant cable.

On second thoughts, with a mind like that I'd pick HD-DVD! :D
 
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the 300 is VERY marmite in HD guise. there's something not right about it and it isnt the added noise in the picture. a lot fo the movie has the contrast way over blown. if you take a look at the 1080p trailer on apple's sight you'd see the difference straight away. i personally think they could have done a lot better in that respect. regardless its still a great film with a great soundtrack:)

but yes anyway, like others have said, they are both capable of the same results given that they have the same video codecs available to them. the only real difference is in the titles themselves. usually the two formats have different extras, and sometimes they use different video codecs. of course there is also the point of some movies only being released on one format, so bear that in mind. bluray is ahead, but its nice to have both:)
 
It's good to see all of the BR fanbois have been in to give you all the good things about BR, completely forgetting to tell you about all of the bad things about BR.
1) BR is not completely region free, HD-DVD IS.
2) BR has only just finalised it's spec, so most discs available atm won't have some of the extras they could have had.
3) With all the extra studio support BR has over HD-DVD, how many of these are actually releasing disks? Fox has not released any for 3/4 months, Disney has only released a couple.
4) Do you do any home video recording? If so don't rush to go Blu, what with their draconian copy protection, which means your home recorded disks, will either not play on other people's player, or won't have much of a menu system.

The most important thing to consider when deciding which way to go is what films do you like?
If most of what you want is on BR, then go BR. If most of what you want is HD-D, then go HD-D. If you are split with both, then go both and don't join the fanbois on either side.

TBH neither PS3 nor X360 are perfect HD players, neither has the ability to output HD sound unless you have an HDMI receiver. X360 is loud, and PS3 isn't exactly quiet (for some people). PS3 remote doesn't work if you use an all-in-one home cinema remote.
 
El_Watcher said:
4) Do you do any home video recording? If so don't rush to go Blu, what with their draconian copy protection, which means your home recorded disks, will either not play on other people's player, or won't have much of a menu system.
I thought protection only applies to stuff you buy, not what you record yourself?
 
El_Watcher said:
It's good to see all of the BR fanbois have been in to give you all the good things about BR, completely forgetting to tell you about all of the bad things about BR.

That isn't a fair comment at all. everybody has been pretty on the level regarding both formats in this thread.

1) BR is not completely region free, HD-DVD IS.
most are and there are plenty of sites that list the region locking
2) BR has only just finalised it's spec, so most discs available atm won't have some of the extras they could have had.
extras are really an after thought. most peopel buy for the movies
3) With all the extra studio support BR has over HD-DVD, how many of these are actually releasing disks? Fox has not released any for 3/4 months, Disney has only released a couple.
support makes no real difference. more movies are being released on BR right now and that's the important point
4) Do you do any home video recording? If so don't rush to go Blu, what with their draconian copy protection, which means your home recorded disks, will either not play on other people's player, or won't have much of a menu system.
this is about movies and bluray players, not home recording? a good point, but not relevant in any argument here i believe


for somebody bashing 'fanbois', you've strangely neglected to mention the disadvantages of hd-dvd when you did quite easily so for bluray. such as:

* dolby digital @ 640kbps is mandatory on bluray, 504k for hd-dvd
* dts-hd high def is allowed up to 6mbps, 3mbps on hd-dvd
* dts hd master audio is allowed a whopping 24mbps, 18mbps on hd-dvd
* max of 48mbps transfer rate on bluray, 30.24mbps on hd-dvd


for all the problems bluray has with finalising standard that affect extra content, menus ect, there is absolutely no question that its the preferred format for the films themselves with higher bitrates available to both video and audio. some people do think that the extra's make or break a purchase, but i purchase for the film. that's why i don't mind that The 300 cost me £15 and i got it before it was released over here. getting it for that price before the release date....i couldn't really care what extras are missing from the blu-ray release.



...and remember, i do own both formats.
 
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Now for a serious post.

I don't actually understand why ANYBODY would consider HD-DVD at all, unless you are completely loaded. It is a dieing format, most studios have realised that. There are more reasons then the amount of movies aswell.

- Blu-ray players/writersare easy to come across for the PC, along with BD-R. No such thing is happening or HD-DVD.
- No matter what, most people with a PS3 buy blu-ray, or more crucially, if they did choose to go hi-def it would be blu-ray.
- Blu-ray is a superior format, more storage, better sound, more resistant to scratches, etc.
- And of course they have most studios solely supporting them.

The sooner people just buy blu-ray, the quicker it will be over.
 
<F0rb> said:
I don't actually understand why ANYBODY would consider HD-DVD at all, unless you are completely loaded.

Because, for me, it has a far greater selection of exclusive titles, triple that of my Blu-ray collection.

I enjoy both formats, but HDDVD has been home to more quality and appears to continue in that way in the near future. Most Bu-rays I watch are the tat found at Blockbuster.
 
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