Why HD-DVD Xbox360

Thesnipergecko

Thesnipergecko

Thesnipergecko

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Why HD-DVD?
At a Glance

Why the Need?
Part of Microsoft's commitment to high-definition resolution for games (as a standard), and now movies with the HD-DVD player, stems from the proliferation of affordable HDTVs in the marketplace. With HDTVs (and widescreen cinema monitors, for that matter) now commonplace in the home, the very real demand for high-resolution content is finally here.

What's the Difference?
To help illustrate the difference between the standard DVD we've been living with for years, Amir mentions, "The standard DVD is less than one megapixel resolution, so when you think of your camera as many megapixels, the standard DVD is very low resolution."

The problem is that there's simply vastly more resolution and detail to be found in the original films, and with standard DVD, we're just not seeing that. HD-DVD will finally offer the visual quality needed to see the film as it was originally intended.

Why HD-DVD?
It's no secret that there are two next-gen DVD formats hitting the market. The first to market was HD-DVD and the second (indeed already out in Japan) is Blu-Ray. After two years of deliberation, Microsoft made its choice and decided to back HD-DVD. The question then becomes why? Here are a few reasons:

* Manufacturing: Concerns developed regarding Blu-Ray's ability to manufacturer the discs at the quality originally intended. In fact, with the Blu-Ray launch in Japan, the discs are being created at single-layer 25 Gigabyte capacity, which is half of the originally intended 50 gigabytes.

* Easy to Damage: Because Blu-Ray discs are encoded near the very top layer of the disc with limited protection, the data is literally at higher risk to damage. Conversely, HD-DVD maintains physical protection similar to standard DVD.

* Copy Protection: Blu-Ray utilizes not one, but two different forms of Copy Protection, adding an extra layer of protection and complexity that just didn't appear necessary.

HD-DVD Benefits
What is it though that HD-DVD is doing that helps differentiate itself from Blu-Ray? Here are a few nuggets to chew on:


* VC1 Compression: While both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD players are required to be compatible with three different compression technologies (including VC1), an intriguing trend has already begun. Content providers (movie studios) for HD-DVD are nearly unanimously using the brand new VC1 compression technology, whereas Blu-Ray providers are sticking with the ten-year-old MPEG 2 compression that has been used on standard DVDs. With VC1, HD-DVDs are able to compress much higher quality video into a significantly smaller package.

* Dual Layer: HD-DVDs are already available to manufacturer in both single and dual layer (15 GB and 30 GB respectively), whereas Blu-Ray has not yet made available its dual-layer disc. Moreover, most studios are already using the 30 GB dual-layer HD-DVD disc.

* Hybrid Disc: HD-DVD offers the ability to encode both a regular DVD format and HD-DVD format on the same disc. If you purchase a hybrid disc, you can flip to one side and play the movie on any standard DVD Player, and when you do get an HD-DVD player you can flip to the other side and play it in true HD.

Interface
Quite apart from the previously mentioned features, one area where HD-DVD is providing revolutionary functionality is its advanced interface features. Check out these highlights:

* Chapter Integration: Previously, on standard DVDs, you could only switch to another chapter by backing completely out of the movie (unless you scrolled through manually). Now, with HD-DVD, you can bring up the chapter selection seamlessly while still watching the movie.

* Bookmarks: Now standard on any HD-DVD is a bookmarking ability. This allows you to "save" your favorite scenes from a movie and call them up whenever you're watching the disc. This is possible because of the persistent memory available in every HD-DVD player.

* In-Movie Experience: Mandatory for all HD-DVD players is a secondary video decoder (not available for Blu-Ray). This allows the disc to play separate video streams, which on its own completely changes the opportunities available for bonus features. That way, you can not only watch the movie, but also "watch" the behind the scenes features that apply to the scene you're watching simultaneously.

* Online: All HD-DVD players are required to be network capable. Of course, this is already the case for Xbox 360, but what this allows is for not only the player to be updated if needed, but new content to be distributed on the fly. The common example cited in Major Nelson's interview is that of a director recording more commentary. Now, instead of worrying about buying a new disc, that extra content is available to you as soon as you pop in the disc.

Interesting read.

Paul ...
 
Got propaganda?

And what's these 'new features', bookmarking and jumping into a chapter from the main feature? I've been able to do that on my DVD player for years :confused:
 
Where did you get that?

To be honest, it's just MS putting their spin into the HD / BD fight at the moment, and to be honest, the only real reason I would want HD / BD DVDs is for picture and sound quality, I couldn't give a monkeys about all the other little chapter favourites and all that, I want to watch my movies as a priority.

Still doesn't answer most of the questions people have been asking about HD-DVD drive for the 360, such as HDMI and all that stuff.
 
Thesnipergecko said:
Why HD-DVD?
At a Glance


* Manufacturing: Concerns developed regarding Blu-Ray's ability to manufacturer the discs at the quality originally intended. In fact, with the Blu-Ray launch in Japan, the discs are being created at single-layer 25 Gigabyte capacity, which is half of the originally intended 50 gigabytes.


* Dual Layer: HD-DVDs are already available to manufacturer in both single and dual layer (15 GB and 30 GB respectively), whereas Blu-Ray has not yet made available its dual-layer disc. Moreover, most studios are already using the 30 GB dual-layer HD-DVD disc.


Interesting read.

Paul ...
Click to expand...

so.. blu-ray is that inferior its single layer discs it provides 83% of the total capacity of a double layer HD-DVD, and somehow this is a NEGATIVE for Blu-Ray and a positive for HD-DVD? How? and werent blu-ray single sided always penned in for 25GB?

lol that article is crazy talk
 
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* VC1 Compression: While both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD players are required to be compatible with three different compression technologies (including VC1), an intriguing trend has already begun. Content providers (movie studios) for HD-DVD are nearly unanimously using the brand new VC1 compression technology, whereas Blu-Ray providers are sticking with the ten-year-old MPEG 2 compression that has been used on standard DVDs. With VC1, HD-DVDs are able to compress much higher quality video into a significantly smaller package.
Click to expand...

I understood that Blu-Ray is only using MPEG-2 for now and will switch to a higher compression format in due course?
 
When you cut and paste something, could you post a direct link to the source? Otherwise it is easy to take it out of context etc.
 
I'm no Xbox or MS fanboy, in fact I'm rather looking forward to the PS3 so I'm being totally unbiased when I say at the moment I prefer HD-DVD, for a start, quality before quantity and Blu-Ray technology with one thing in mind; bigger capacity storage.

Sure it sounds good, "wow 50Gb worth of a game world, imagine the size of GTA4!! Huzzah!"
But you can't just take this technology for granted, if you think about it, the bigger the disk gets the more space there will be wasted...games now only use upto 1-4Gbs and it takes 4 years to make these games, it would take 40 years to fill up a Blu-Ray game disk with actual gameplay. You may say "Well they'll just increase their production team"...norway, that would totally undo any advantage Blu-Ray may give Sony by soaking up all the money and more before the game even hits shelves and what if it's a flop?

Fact is, there will never be 50Gb worth of gameplay; 10Gb maybe, 15 possibly, 20gb is really stretching it...all that space is going to be there to add pre-rendered HD FMV sequences to games.

All of a sudden we're left with a Blu-Ray disk being used to lure in the people that take technology for granted and don't consider the above reasons why Sony are hyping up their game system above X360.

Sony's sole reason for claiming the PS3 is the best (blu-ray) is all of a sudden out the window. What's left? A game system 10Mhz faster than the X360 at a 1.5x the cost.

Again, I'm no X360 fanboy, I'm just not one for taking things for granted.
 
are all films filmed with this standard in mind ?

or is it like dolby etc where they can add it on later rather poorly ?

its like when you watch an old 80's film on dvd they usually have poor quality and nothing can change that
 
HTMLHugo said:
are all films filmed with this standard in mind ?

or is it like dolby etc where they can add it on later rather poorly ?

its like when you watch an old 80's film on dvd they usually have poor quality and nothing can change that
Click to expand...

Yeah I can't see how older films will be brought to HD, unless they do a Star Wars digitally remastered sort of thing and go through editing each individual frame with extra pixels :\
 
Zefan said:
Yeah I can't see how older films will be brought to HD
Click to expand...

I don't see why not - provided the original film is not damaged.

Cinema movies are not shot in 'HD' per se, they are shot onto film (with a few exceptions which are filmed digitally, which usually produce a lower quality picture) which is perfectly good enough to produce a high resolution HD movie from.
 
Of course with older films, you'll unlikely be able to get very much better quality out of them, but you'd still get a better resolution etc, they'll just still look old because of the way they're filmed and the equipment used, but with more recent films from say the 90's onwards, there's still a lot of quality missing, and there is plenty of room to get more out of them.
 
Perhaps some people are under the impression that old movies are shot at a 'low resolution' and in order for HD DVDs to be produced from them, they would need to be shot at a 'high resolution'. It doesn't work like that obviously. The original film print of Terminator 2 (circa 1992) was able to produce a high quality 1920x1080 HD movie release for example.
 
Tigjaw said:
I'm no Xbox or MS fanboy, in fact I'm rather looking forward to the PS3 so I'm being totally unbiased when I say at the moment I prefer HD-DVD, for a start, quality before quantity and Blu-Ray technology with one thing in mind; bigger capacity storage.

Sure it sounds good, "wow 50Gb worth of a game world, imagine the size of GTA4!! Huzzah!"
But you can't just take this technology for granted, if you think about it, the bigger the disk gets the more space there will be wasted...games now only use upto 1-4Gbs and it takes 4 years to make these games, it would take 40 years to fill up a Blu-Ray game disk with actual gameplay. You may say "Well they'll just increase their production team"...norway, that would totally undo any advantage Blu-Ray may give Sony by soaking up all the money and more before the game even hits shelves and what if it's a flop?

Fact is, there will never be 50Gb worth of gameplay; 10Gb maybe, 15 possibly, 20gb is really stretching it...all that space is going to be there to add pre-rendered HD FMV sequences to games.

All of a sudden we're left with a Blu-Ray disk being used to lure in the people that take technology for granted and don't consider the above reasons why Sony are hyping up their game system above X360.

Sony's sole reason for claiming the PS3 is the best (blu-ray) is all of a sudden out the window. What's left? A game system 10Mhz faster than the X360 at a 1.5x the cost.

Again, I'm no X360 fanboy, I'm just not one for taking things for granted.
Click to expand...

Remember its not all about MORE content sometimes, but perhaps higher resolution content. Games these days may not be longer that their counterparts from yesteryear, but still need DVDs rather than CDs due to high res textures etc.
 
Oh and as an aside, in particualr Star Wars apparently has no original films left, as they 'taped over them' I seem to remember hearing. Apparently this came to light when after a lot of fanboy complaining Lucasarts agreed to release the orginal movies before they were chopped apart with new CG etc but will record them off laserdisc masters rather than the original film!
 
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