SSJPabs

Why is the comments getting so long?.

Fyren

smashman

Again, saying that HD DVD could put a ton of features on their disc but don't want to is just so incredibly wrong. You can't put 35GB of data on a 30GB disc. It's why HD DVD has to compromise.

51GB TL discs ARE a change to the spec. It's an amending to the spec to add additional storage capacity. Just like Blu-ray has a 1.1 profile to add PiP. I don't know how anyone can say with a clear mind that adding a new layer and increasing the per layer storage is not changing the spec.

'Meanwhile, you can't point to a single title that looks better on Blu-ray than on HD DVD.'

Sure we can. The problem is there's not too many. Just look at any AVC on BD vs VC-1 on HD DVD and you'll see the difference. For a clear cut optimized challenge, look at Nature's Journey.

'If it weren't for HD DVD, Blu-ray would have only supported MPEG-2 in their spec.'

AVC was in the spec a loooooong time ago. The only expanded codec that was added because of HD DVD was VC-1.

HD DVD is getting curb stomped in Japan, getting routed in Europe, and is barely losing by a few lengths in America. Stillson had a brighter future at the end of The Dead Zone than HD DVD. Yea, that's right. HD DVD has been outsold by 2:1 almost every week this year and hasn't won a single week since before last Christmas.

lbogga1

popdem

Trowble (XBL/PSN)

He totally does sound just like a Sony fan-boy in a forum somewhere, doesn't he?

CSUSam

HD DVD triple-layer 51 gb is not any kind of change to the spec. Further development has allowed for 17 gb per layer with an additional layer added. You will never see TL51 at retail if it won't play in existing players. See the difference?

HD DVD doesn't have any so-called "compromised audio or picture quality". Studios can include lossless audio if they want (again: see Universal and Warner titles) and while most of the time the video is equal, there are some instances where HD DVD is superior. See the import HD DVD versions (HD DVD is region free) of titles like Terminator 2 and Silent Hill which are much better on HD DVD. Meanwhile, you can't point to a single title that looks better on Blu-ray than on HD DVD.

Besides, you should be thanking your lucky stars for HD DVD. If it weren't for HD DVD, Blu-ray would have only supported MPEG-2 in their spec. It was because of HD DVD and Microsoft's efforts that they finally came around to supporting AVC and VC-1 codecs as well.

We'll see how "desperate" affordable, full-featured HD DVD players will look a year from now when Blu-rays software sales lead has evaporated.

jm9843

Why couldn't they just release one unified format and we would be done? No, they had to release two different (yet basically similar) formats.

That's just stupid, and they only do it out of greed because they don't care about what is best for us customers, but only what is good for their licence agreements.

retronaut

DVD-Rs with high-quality compressed HD content is THE business and downloads too!

retronaut

Q80

DaiMacculate

/end

Scrapple

DaiMacculate

Yossarian

And for whoever mentioned the cost, no, DLPs are the best-priced of the three if you're looking at TVs that are the same size and resolution. The best by far.

OK, I'm done with this argument...good thing, since it's a day old now.

Yossarian

All I see Bluray has is more space and more loyal fans.

I think Bay is wrong.

The one thing he is right about, digital download ARE what I want. Disks are soooo last century.

axiomatic

raskol

/agree

EnigmaNemesis

kennyd1

JamieA

JamieA

bitnard

[www.imdb.com]

"I miss you more than Michael Bay missed the mark
When he made Pearl Harbor.
I miss you more than that movie missed the point,
And that's an awful lot girl."
--Team America: World Police

deviantCharles

Rob Fahey 08:00 (BST) 29/06/2007

"To put it bluntly, Microsoft wants both Blu-ray and HD-DVD to fail..."

Garo

@zPhreak:
Blu-Ray came first, and HD-DVD was fast-tracked in response, with one minor glitch. Blu-Ray members who were also on the DVD board were apparently locking HD-DVD development down by voting against everything, until they brought in new member-companies and tweaked the voting rules.

@smitty1123:
There is one amusing result of digital downloads, which is that iTunes could end up killing the pop music industry, because of the tradition of record labels hyping one song enough that people will buy an entire album of trash just for a song that they'll only like for a year or two at most. Now they can skip the really bad stuff and go straight for the only-sorta-bad stuff.

@klew:
Dunno about less valid, but it's less accurate. HD-DVD uses Microsoft code, but Blu-Ray doesn't. It's like accusing Coke of supporting Diet Coke instead of Diet Pepsi because they want to see both fail in favor of Sprite. HD-DVD is just as much a win for them as digital content, especially since they get a cut of every HD-DVD sold, while digital content can bypass them completely.

Purple Dave

Purple Dave

TrettOff

Rabite

Yeah, they're so totally trying to kill them...cause they hate sources of profit.

justhesh

Bay was behind BR from day one but Studio Politics (+ M$ tossing those 100+ million bucks to them to make HD-DVD only helped) and stupidity of sales swingers going "oh yeah well in this country there are a larger install base of XBox 360s, which CAN play HD-DVD, than the Sony counterparts so lets go with the larger install base" *"psst, Im not telling these execs the whole truth but Im still not lying"*

Execs: "Greenlight this and thank you for all the fish, I mean $$$"...

Disney, Porn industry, others and Bay all along backed BR. Evolve air breathers. Evolve.

Zepultura

JorgieX

JorgieX

Mikeware

price is more important to MOST consumers than anything else...not the tech savy like us but hey "whatchgonnado?"

Seiven

JorgieX

yep, you can find Blu-Ray EXCLUSIVES ported to HDDVD from China (with English subs and audio) but you won't find anyone porting HDDVD over to Blu-Ray...costs too much to make the reverse change to be worth it (the fabrication process added to account for the data being .1mm from the surface kills the costs)

Seiven

watever dudes, and dudettes the facts are plain for the world to see.
blu-ray in all its early criticism is doing damn well so it makes sense for hd-dvd to back down. but there is capitalism and egos involved so dont expect the war to end at least till spring.

zanzibarlegend

Torusan

[www.slate.com]

killr_klown

Then explain why HD DVD just ratified a physical protocol for 51GB discs if their spec is complete?

As far as rushing to market. Have you checked out the A1? It's a small computer. HD DVD didn't think they'd beat blu-ray to market until they threw together a microcomputer.

The differentiator is one of quality. It's why Blu-ray's quality has improved with time until it's become almost pristine while HD DVD seems to struggle with compromised audio or picture quality.

The fact that Toshiba has taken to selling the players below cost to such a degree that the only other manufacturer is Venturer should speak volumes about their desperation. Add to that the fact that Toshiba is even undercutting cheap chinese players now (250$=Venturer vs 199$ Toshiba with 5 free films)

lbogga1

Oh and by the way, I loved Transformers so you can disregard my opinion altogether now web warriors.

Web Warriors?

LAWLZ ... I love it!

EnigmaNemesis

qBIRD

How much is Sony paying him to back their format?

inphanta

Logic, unfortunately, is not your strong suite. Of course all HD DVDs don't take advantage of every part of the spec. No one ever claimed that they did. But before you confuse anyone, let me state: HD DVD has lossless codec support in the spec. Many titles (from Warner and Universal particularly) have lossless TrueHD tracks, and they have since the launch of the format.

All that I've stated is that HD DVD has had a complete spec from Day One. There is none of this profile garbage that you have to deal with on Blu-ray. Blu-ray profiles are indefensible. Really, they are inexcusable. Why should consumers have to pay for Blu-ray being rushed to market?

Despite how YOU feel about interactivity or web-enabled features, they are really important to the studios trying to differentiate the formats from standard DVD. And really, that is what will create a market and drive the adoption rates.

Btw, it would appear that you've declared Blu-ray the winner (just like Sony did back in Jaunary), but we'll just have to wait and see about that won't we? :)

jm9843

MrSmiley4

I haven't taken a side in deciding which format is best (it's simple to me, buy the format your favorite movies are on), but I know that I really don't want digital distribution and securities to come up in the future as the current preventative measures to 'share' media already pisses me off enough.

Oh and by the way, I loved Transformers so you can disregard my opinion altogether now web warriors.

suntorytime

DevonTheDude

bangbangblah

vine

VakeroRokero

Could not agree anymore, finally!

DevonTheDude

That was an interesting assessment. It's obvious that Sony already has your money so it probably makes you feel better to be a Blu-ray apologist and to consider HD DVD dead. I understand, I just don't agree. At all.

Btw, lol at you comparing the Xbox 360 chatpad to the Blu-ray profile debacle. :)

jm9843

badz149

I support blu-ray....but you're making a lot of glaring errors. Sorry.

lbogga1

Thats the beauty of having a PS3. There are benefits, otherwise there would be no progress (monopoly) in advancing the tech. The residual benefit is mainly lower costs (eventaly) to the consumer. For example HD-DVD players are cheap but the Discs are more expensive than Blu and opposite for Blu, expensive players (only counting standalones) but cheaper discs. In the end the discs are what determine the winner in the end. Thats one thing you never hear about the Wii, a lot of people (mainly adults) bought the Wii just for Wii Sports, many have returned the consoles b/c they got bored (my gamestop has 4 used Wii's locally). Nintendo makes little profits on this division of the casual market (many "casual gamers" only care about Wii sports, no Smash or M Kart). Getting to the point, Nintendo/Toshiba can sell all the consoles/players they want but as long as the consumer doesn't buy that form of media (movie or game) they will fail, no matter how large the install base. Both the HD players and the Videogame industry are similar, they both are "underselling" hardware and are expecting to recoup losses on software/media.

DevonTheDude

'A common trait amongst an alarming amount of Blu-ray supporters.'

You wish. HD DVD supporters have traditionally been the worst at stating the basic facts. They've claimed that HD DVD has lossless and a finished spec as major selling points. When in truth, most HD DVDs do not have lossless. Nor is the spec finalized as they're working on shoehorning in a 51GB disc... when they claim 50GB blu-ray is too much.

Most people don't care about PiP and even then most blu-ray owners have a PS3, which is fully 2.0 compliant.

The basic facts are that blu-ray is falling in price as fast as HD DVD, it continues to outsell it in all metrics, and it has a better track record with quality and support. HD DVD is not winning in any conceivable way except if one defines winning as simply surviving.

lbogga1

Anyways, this is still assuming the demand for movies, and the speed at which technology advances stays the same for about the next 10-20 years.

MrSmiley4

If you want to see for yourself how not ready for primetime this service is, go to netflix, and watch instantly a movie. Hit the fast forward button, or try the chapter skip. Oh shit, there is no chapter skip or fast forward. Those features dont work on streamed SD content, let alone HD.

Dont even get me started on DRM issues. Why dont you go ebay an itunes songand one of your old DVDs for comparison. Get back to me after the lawyers are done with you.

Belain

theprof00

I have a lot of High Def shit... PC monitors that can crush any overpriced HDTV for picture clarity .... but also feel, as a consumer, that I am stuck choosing, and dont want to be stuck choosing the "wrong one". Or I am forced to have BOTH cause of the exclusives bullshit in the industry.

Give it a rest... this does NOT benefit the consumer having a war. I said nothing of not wanting HiDef videos, but I want a standard format, not I have to buy HD-DVD for one movie and BR for another due to studio exclusives.

Sorry, you want to be the tech sheep, go ahead. I will sit it out until one or both tank.

EnigmaNemesis

yonderTheGreat

Thomaticus

Which, after reading the multitude of comments like that, leaves me to wonder: "Uh, then why should anyone care about your pretentious comment as well?"

Jest

The DVD Forum was a group of manufacturers that got together to pick the next Hi-Def video format. Sony ,Toshiba, Nec and many others were all members. They all agreed it was better to pick one format to not confuse consumers. When all the companies voted they chose the Toshiba/Nec format HD-DVD as the new Hi-Def format. It was done for many reasons. Most notably that picture quality and sound were basically identical. Both formats would have multiple layers so storage was not a problem. HDDVD's could be made at the same existing DVD plants with marginal changes to existing equipment. This was the deciding factor. Blu-Ray needed completely new plants. Sony was furious that Blu-Ray was not chosen and left the DVD Forum Group. They decided to launch Blu-Ray anyway and started the Blu-Ray Association.
Sony has a history for this type of behavior. Sony does not want to pay anyone royalties unless it is absolutely necessary. Sony always wants their format and no one elses. We all remember VHS and Beta. VHS-C and 8MM, Mini Disc, UMD and the list goes on. Just how many Memory formats are they pushing right now??? Just recently Sony released the PS3 and the controllers had no rumble. Why? Because they were in a lawsuit with Immersion and did not want to pay royalties as Nintendo and Microsoft do. Sony made lame excuses to consumers that their new six axis controllers could not use rumble because it interfered with the Six Axis. Then the law suit ended in Immersions favor. Sony paid big and then Sony announced they would add rumble to the PS3 controllers. I guess it did not interfere with the Six Axis anymore. Funny though, They are using the original and oldest rumble technology from Immersion. It has the cheapest royalty.

One last thing Mr. Bay should note. After Being beat up repeatedly in format wars. Sony decided to purchase Movie Studios and Music Labels to push new formats they would introduce. Pretty smart, but it has not worked yet in all these years.
This format war has no one to blame but Sony. If they had gone by the rules they agreed to in the DVD Forum Association we would only have one format right now.
I am sure Microsoft lives for the day of Digital Downloads and Sony is helping them by starting the format war.

I will not buy any Hi-Def DVD's until someone wins this war. But I have to be honest. Sony's arrogance disgusts me.

Venomusss

The FUD spreading trolls are on there way!

nograz

Aex

DevonTheDude

kingme

Worse yet? They'll do the "you download this and it will delete itself after 2 weeks" trick. Which is RIDICULOUS. If I paid to have the movie, I should KEEP my movie. If i wanted to waste 10 bucks just so I can watch a movie at home for 2 weeks I'd rather just pay at the theater with a huge screen and the best sound quality possible.

neko613

Kirbytheslayer: In-Kirby XMB

Digital downloads will replace hardcopies when some kind of new way of connecting to the internet comes around. Y'know, one that's like roughly 100 times as fast as it is now. Until then, M$ shit out of luck, cause this round is likely going to Blu-Ray.

BoffrO

Aex

Sabre_Justice: Okay, no more long name.

They are calling to arms, for their brethren to come here and spread their FUD against HD-DVD.

nograz

Can everyone get it out of their head that Beta Max was NOT a failure, consumer-wise yes, commercial no. Beta Max was used for 25 years in broadcasting up until HD broadcasts.
Same with Laser Disc, it was out for 15 years and it was the precursor to DVD (both laser and DVD were dual sided, DVD later went onto DL discs which was the death of double sided DVD discs (some times you will see them with newer obscure DVD titles.

DevonTheDude

MS has been paving the way for this for quite some time. They basically want to cut out retailers pretty much altogether and sell directly to the consumer at the same prices they are now. Eliminate costs such as boxes, instruction booklets, manufacturing in general...

Why would they do this? It's because almost nobody else has a network infrastructure like MS. If MS successfully kills all new formats they will own the digital distribution line. There is currently only one company that has the network infrastructure to rival MS, that's Google.

Sony and Nintendo would basically play catch-up for a very long time or be forced out of business.

The set-up however is over the long term. It's not this generation, it's the next one MS is looking at. Right now while MS has capability, normal consumer internet connections are still in the slow age. The "fiber optic" bandwidth just hasn't quite taken off as hoped.

Of course there was another major flaw with the strategy that MS did not foresee. Nintendo and the "casual gamer" segment.

Traditional "geek gamers" are often at the cutting edge of technology. Digital downloads wouldn't phase them at all. Yet with Nintendo showing real enterprise, managed to tap a previously impenetrable market. These people tend to not want digital downloads, they like their physical games.

RPGr

Besides my grammatical errors (I was typing fast as a girl needed my attention), there was nothing "flawed" about my comments.

Can you not read? I said *most*, not all, Blu-ray players don't have an ethernet port. And stop spreading lies about some mysterious December firmware update that will give the PS3 profile 1.1 capabilities. Sony hasn't confirmed such an update and I wouldn't hold my breath even if they did. Where is that divX update again? Even if they did, it has now been over a year since both formats were introduced and Blu-ray is just now getting around to implementing only part of what was in the HD DVD spec from the beginning.

About "The Rise of The Silver Surfer": besides being another crap movie that people will inexplicable buy, you are somehow equating profile 1.1 with the ethernet port. Profile 1.1 has NOTHING TO DO WITH ETHERNET PORTS AND BD-LIVE! Profile 1.1 is about PIP only! So ether you don't have your facts straight or you are intentionally trying to confuse and mislead people. A common trait amongst an alarming amount of Blu-ray supporters.

Blu-ray continues to be a bunch of promises while HD DVD has already delivered for well over a year now.

jm9843

Grahamunculus

AEX-
"@reptile168: YEA, fuck blu-ray improving, they should have started full featured like HD-DVD! Well, unless of course you consider the lack of better audio streams as part of a full feature... but who needs better audio streams when you have pip, a proprietary disc language and internet on your movie from day one!"

The production costs were too high at the time, hence why 360 has no HD-dvd (not just due to the fact it was unproven technology). You must have no sound system because once you hear the difference its like going back to standard over hd for watching television. Blu-ray has PiP too, profile 1.1 discs come out in Jan 08'. There is BD-Live (internet enabled) discs out already, work great on the PS3 with either a hardline/wireless internet. Great way to go foward with the future, an archaic dvd programming language from 1995 is perfect for the future of HD, nice. Thats like using Windows 95 on a Vista enabled computer, it's just stupid. BD-J (java based) discs will be coming out in 08' which will essentially make the menu an interactive video game as opposed to the static dvd style menu. PiP really isn't that big of a deal, yes it's nice but it doesn't impact the moive directly like audio. You sound like someone who likes records over Cd/Mp3.

DevonTheDude

Microsoft's own ridiculous DRM policies get in the way of digital downloads ever being effective in my lifetime. I can't even fully enable the features in Vista Ultimate without running into the very nasty issue of the OS hanging when you try to move files as ordinary as family photos. This is the dirty little secret MS can't solve and doesn't want to discuss.

For now, I will take my easily moveable and removeable media thank you very much. There are just too many issues.

I remember owning BF2 on disc and then buying the digital download of the Special Forces add on so I could get it a week early. Turns out there was a bug that stopped the download version from working with the BF2 disc and it wasn't solved until weeks after the disc version of the SF pack appeared on the shelf. These incidents are all too common and after another 2 such encounters with other companies it has put me off such matters for a while, my Steam account not withstanding.

Hatchetforce

Those reasons were good enough for me to finally hop on board. For a $100 investment it is no sweat off my back if it fails. I laugh at the raving fanboys on both sides. Makes for entertaining reading.

ToastyBuffoon

Wrong, there already is 2x 1.1 compliant Blu-ray players, including the PS3. Also BD-Live (internet enabled) is available on Rise of The Silver Surfer.

"I'm definitely converted!! I mean, Bluray keeps improving!! /Sarcasm"

Actually they have especially since CES 07', all discs coming out in Jan and beyond are 1.1 compliant. Yes, Blu was still being perfected at CES so it wasn't shown at its full potential (just like PS3 in it's first year). Now even Warner is highly considering going Blu especially since ALL their movies are selling 2:1 on Blu. Prior to the spring Blu wasn't perfected, but most now use Mpeg 4 50GB discs with dolby true hd and dts hd available. Also, some content has been remastered since initial releases.

"everyday, there seems to be a new feature added on bluray to match HDDVD's full next gen format! /sarcasm"

These have been planned since day one, the initial costs were too high. By the way DVD players have evolved too; to accept dual layer discs, CSS (or CCS I forget) copy protection is not compatible with a lot of older players, plus 480p (progressive scan) didn't come out till about 2000 on DVD players (DVD came out in late 95').

"since all HD DVD can do is stay at its status quo."

They have changed too dude, they went from 1080i standard to 1080p standard on their discs.

DevonTheDude

GamingNinja

- hMM, I risk a double posting here, but I think my browser screwed up so, Imma do it anyways :p

Also,
@metallicorphan: Samsung is a member of the Blu-Ray Association.

Aex

frygar

rebelphoenix

I am picking my brain to remember which --- of the dead or --- dead movie that zombie is from cause I know the zombie is familiar.

Now as for the format war, im thankful to stay out of that bs and not buy either format or player, I think they should just goto a damn downloadable distribution, if only the united states could catch up to other countries that have higher internet speeds than us.

D3Anon

Anyway DVD FTW!!!

metallicorphan

I'm definitely converted!! I mean, Bluray keeps improving!! Even though it started at the bottom, everyday, there seems to be a new feature added on bluray to match HDDVD's full next gen format! It's much more impressive than HD DVD with its complete format from day one, since all HD DVD can do is stay at its status quo.

/sarcasm/

reptile168

I thought Transformers was awesome.

Captain Internet

#2 "Their is no Blu-ray player now or in the immediate future that can support web-enabled features like those on the HD DVD version."

#3 Most Blu-ray players don't even have an ethernet port!"

Response-
First of all its "There" not "Their" (which makes your argument look flawed right off the back.

1. You forgot the PS3, the Dec firmware update will include profile 1.1 for the PS3

2. The PS3 once again, oh and a movie called The Rise of The Silver Surfer is BD-Live (or internet enabled) if you didn't know.

3. All the profile 1.1 players do have Ethernet Cat 5 ports, oh and once again the PS3 has wired and wireless internet, and an HDD that helps keep the PS3 current (or "future proof") with Profile 1.3 and beyond in the future.

Your formulae are flawed.

DevonTheDude

ad hominem

Jest

BoneCrushinTrollBruzer

HDTV was also developed in the late 60's and 70's. Japan has had HD sets since the 80's

DevonTheDude

One of the biggest feathers in HD-DVD's hat is that the format doesn't require a factory to repurpose its machines in order to burn discs and yet the MSRP is higher than Blu-Ray.

My question is why would I really bother owning a movie in standard DVD when all I really want is the high-def version? If high-def is truly the future then I have no choice but to toss the standard DVD in the trash once the format is dead (in about another 5 to 10 years that is). If I'm that hard up for a copy of The Last Samurai on both HD-DVD and DVD then I'll buy both. But don't force me to own both versions and drop the MSRP of the HD-DVD.

My guess is that if they stopped packaging them together they could shave at least $5 off the price (to match the Blu-Ray MSRP as you pointed out) if not $10 and come under Blu-Ray. As it stands it's a waste of time and money to package them together.

incredibilistic

I am aware that Blu-ray adopted mandatory managed copy. My point was that at the time that Microsoft put their support behind HD DVD, Blu-ray had not yet committed to it. It was one of the primary factors for their decision as MMC will be done in conjunction with computers which Microsoft has a slight interest in. Interestingly, the BDA still hasn't addressed how MMC is going to work with BD+ in place as well as AACS.

@MANJIKENGO:

Their is only one Blu-ray player that is profile 1.1 compliant and it just came out. Also, Blu-ray PIP has been faked on titles to date (by encoding a second version of the movie with the PIP window - a complete waste of disc space). Even still, you are still wrong. Their is no Blu-ray player now or in the immediate future that can support web-enabled features like those on the HD DVD version. Most Blu-ray players don't even have an ethernet port!

Blu-ray player profiles = Anti-consumer

HD DVD = Pro-consumer with complete specs from day one.

It's really that simple.

jm9843

LCD is the older, more stable technology. I would have never guessed.

Kirbytheslayer: In-Kirby XMB

1. You have Directv with 100 HD / Dish Net with 70+ HD channels so you dont care about any type of movie disc format since your satisfied.

2. You have cable with ~20 HD channels and are just angry you cant afford satellite or a 360 w/ hd-dvd or a PS3 w/ Blu-ray

3. You are less fortunate for the lucky ones like my self that have PS3 (mainly Blu-ray) and an HD-DVR.

DevonTheDude

"Michael Bay is probably the worst director ever.

Just AWFUL films, with good special effect, and very disorganized, uninteresting action. It's white noise."

Reminds me of Team America, the Michael Bay song about "Pear Harbor Sucked... Cuba Gooding Jr. should have been given a bigger part, he's way better than Ben Afleck

DevonTheDude

Still not 100% sure about that. But the first PC I used was from before the CGA card was available and the only colour monitors came in white, green or amber. If LCD was around, it was probably in the experimental stage. I certainly never saw anything advertised (and I was always looking).

Mind you, I can still remember drooling over some computer (I think it might have been an Apricot, but not sure) that had an optional 5MB HDD. The HDD cost $10,000 by itself.

Doshu

The same could be said of a PS3 (failure rate of 1% thank you very much) but at least the HDD can be removed and if you have physical media and have another Blu-Ray player in the house (like a PC) then you'll still have your movie collection.

Also, since many high-def movies are clocking in at as much as 40GB (and will most likely grow since both Sony and Toshiba are working 100GB discs) how many HDD's will it take to store your video collection? Even at 23GB a film you could only fit 12 movies onto a 300GB drive (I'm accounting for the disc space that's gone even with a brand new drive; you could buy a 300GB drive today and when you plug it in only have 295GB available; I assume for caching or the underlying drivers and code needed to power the drive).

God forbid if your HDD fails or the data becomes corrupt. At least with a disc format there's less chance of the data getting corrupted unless your HD-DVD/Blu-Ray's double as a Frisbee when you take your dog to the park.

incredibilistic

Well put

Huxle

Other than give you free movies of which you already bought on DVD.

EnigmaNemesis

ibelli

In terms of quality/boxoffice, he's probably got the lowest ratio in history.

Just AWFUL films, with good special effect, and very disorganized, uninteresting action. It's white noise.

How can I take anything seriously that this guy says? He's got no taste at all.

dcartist

DevonTheDude

ffmusicdj

Kirbytheslayer: In-Kirby XMB

So, LOTR came on >4 DVDs per movie because of poor compression? I'm sure it would have looked great compressed down to one DVD.

/sarcasm

Doshu

Explain How?

Here's mine in favor of Blu-ray:
1. 6 of 8 major movie studios support Blu (with Warner thinking exclusivity soon toward Blu)

2. Storage Space

3. More available audio formats (DTS HD, Dolby True HD) and Uncompressed audio is on 99% of all Blu discs

4. Higher Video Bitrate 40 as opposed to 29.4

5. Cheaper MSRP on Blu-ray movies (~$30), those Combo discs are killing HD-DVD (they Msrp @ ~$35).

6. 1080p Standard on ALL Blu movies, HD-DVD has some 1080i only discs (the older ones)

7. Videogame developer support including Rockstar, EA and Epic (all say Blu is THE future of gaming)

8. Computer Blu-ray Burners for under $300, no HD-DVD burners to speak of

9. 170 companies support Blu including; Apple, Dell, HP, Samsung, Pillips, Panasonic, Pioneer, LG, Sharp, Dennon, even Alienware to name a few.

10. The protective hard coating on the Blu disc (resists scratches, dust, etc)

11. Blu-ray discs RARELY have disc rot, HD-DVD's have way more cases of disc rot than regular DVD and Blu.

12. Blu-ray is an evolving platform (look how future profiles like 1.2 are coming out. And Hitachi all ready has finalized 100GB Blu discs that will only require a firmware upgrade to play em. The 51GB Hd-DVD's are incompatible will ALL current HD-dvd players.

13. The sole fact that Blu-ray is in the PS3 guarantees that If Blu wins the PS3 CANT fail (in the long run).

14. 360's Hd-dvd attachment uses USB so its not as flawless as a standalone HD-dvd player. The PS3 is considered the best value (picture, sound and price) and its a "Future Proof" Blu-ray player, especially since it has internet connectivity and a HDD.

15. The year to date Blu has outsold HD-DVD 65% (Home Media Magazine: Nielsen VideoScan) or 2:1 this year alone.

16. Blu outsold HD-DVD 73% on Black Friday 2007

17. Sony is at least about breaking even as opposed to Toshiba who is taking a $400 loss on every A1, A2 player sold.

Please no Beta Max references (Beta was used for 25 years in commercial broadcasting, so it's not a failure), and Laser Disc was around for 15 years prior and was the precursor to DVD.

DevonTheDude

WTF was I smoking when buying my AU$3000 17" CRT monitor in the early 90s? I think LCDs might have been on calculators then, but not much else.

I'm guessing that was a typo btw. ;P

Doshu

Canoehead

ViewtifulJason

Digital downloads suck. The only company that has had fair restrictions is Apple, and they're losing ground to more restrictive formats. Enjoy the days when a single viewing of a half hours show is six bucks, suckers.

superberg

50GB + higher DTR = better format. It really is that simple. We're talking about watching movies here, not browsing the web.

As for digital downloads, MS can take 'em and shove 'em up where the sun don't shine. When I pay cash money, I want to be holding something other than my dick in my hand to show for it. That's all you've got when you pay for digital downloads: dick.

badasscat

krunkjuice

fenderfuel08

DustoMan

Anyone who says "tin-foil hat this" or "tin-foil hat that" obviously have no clue about the illegal business tactics that Microsoft used time and time again.

From bundling IE with Windows to crush Netscape, paying SCO millions to cause confusion with Linux, to delaying the adoption of ODF format in hopes of keeping their Office monopoly, the tactic that Michael Bay mentioned is EXACTLY the type of things that Microsoft does in the marketplace.

Sure, a _normal business_ would do exactly what you propose, --Core--. But Microsoft with their monopolies and massive capital cannot afford to lose their foothold. Instead of innovating, they use every trick possible to crush potential opponents, or they buy their way into new markets.

Take the console market, for example, no company can afford to lose 4 billion in their first iteration and keep playing. Microsoft is simply trying to out-muscle competition in hopes of gaining a monopoly in the future.

Read up on the underhand business tactics that Microsoft employs. People will then realize that Microsoft is detrimental to all markets that they overtake. They are detrimental to technological innovation and the advancement of human-kind.

KageMonkey

maxsunset

suntorytime

jayntampa

Evil Tortie's Mom