jerrt

Judging by reviews (e.g. [hddvd.highdefdigest.com]) and by comments on the net, I'd suggest the problem lies with how your friend has set up his Sony TV. You'll probably find his contrast set to max, sharpness on max, and a whole bunch of other settings that make it look appealing in the store, but rubbish at home. Set up the TV correctly and high-def looks fantastic.

Squozen

Universal cannot come out and tell everyone that they are switching. They cannot make Blu-Rays currently and would shoot themselves in the foot if they did tell us. They want to capitalize on HD-DVD until they can make BRD. Universal will announce something in a few months. HD-DVD will lose support June 1, 2008 when the deals they have run out. Also expect Paramount to announce they are breaking their deal (in their contract they can).

Blu-Ray is getting extras very soon. The PS3 will be able to download an update that unlocks profile 1.1 (It came with firmware update 2.1). The Blu-Ray group will also get profile 2.0 out in a few months that will have even better features for extras.

Anyone who doesn't think HD discs are worth it need to buy a real tv. As good as cable HD broadcasts may look, HD discs blow it away.

TheRealMaxPower

One is a Wii fanboy and two are 360 homophobes so were pretty well matched.

LordChris915

reptile168

wickedcobra03

ghostfacelz

First, an upsampling DVD player or even a $1500 DVDO Upsampler will NOT make a regular DVD look like HD on an HD television. Those devices can clean up the image a bit and can take the 480i or 480p image and upsample/upscale it to 720p/1080i/1080p.
But they can't add the huge amount of additional data that the HD-encoded movie has.

Second, what's with the "competition for driving down prices" argument? I know that it sounds good, but then please tell me what was the competition for DVD?
What made DVD prices go down when there was no DVD format war?

Perhaps it was mass production and adoption?

Mass production makes prices go down too. And I think that if one of the formats goes away, manufacturers will be able to dive in with eyes closed. With time and volume these prices will go down for both hardware and media just like it did with DVD.

Oh, and the competition will be there anyway as the different manufacturers try to one-up one another by adding more features for less money.

As for the "winner" I don't give a half a crap. They are both great formats with equal quality and I have never given a damn about extras, even on DVD.

AceSpeed

standerd-def dvd's FTW!

Nadams1229

Sugaray

basilafox

CyberG4

On another note, as most have said, This will leave Universal to both produce Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. In the end the winner will still belong to Blu-Ray. It's just going to be a drawn out, long stupid battle that'll have both Universal and Paramount kicking themselves for at least not going both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. (To test to see what would sell better) They're both going to lose some potential money.

deejaybd

zibby

Karosso

BtownDesignGuy

vongarr

You're probably right. If MS had included a built-in HD-DVD drive in the 360, it's not out of the realms of possibility that we'd be saying bye-bye to Blu-Ray right about now, given the huge head-start (time-wise) the 360 had over the PS3.

It's a pity as HD-DVD has the better feature set and is a constant, universal format. Oh well, I'm sure we'll all get over it :)

Fistynuts

remanance

hatramroany

but since then... i managed to get 1080p HDTV... and let me tell you, the difference between a standard dvd (even after my ps3 upscaled it) STILL looked TERRRRRRRIBLE in comparison to "Into The Blue" featuring jessica alba's ass in glorious 1080p.

seriously... without question, there IS a need for an HD format.. and in my opinion, bluray all the way.

believe it or not, the ps3 really does have a lot to do with deciding the winner..

..since both were at a stalemate in terms of who would win, the constant stream of ps3s being sold was enough to REALLY push bluray ahead..

it might seem sneaky of sony, but in my opinion, it MORE than worked. thats good business right there, because it helped them out big time!

joelface

"Contrary to unsubstantiated rumors from unnamed sources, Universal's current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format,"

Now show me the part where it says they will continue to support the format exclusively (Hint: It's not in there). At a time like this, the fact that he left if out speaks volumes, and I refuse to believe that he just left that key word out because he was being sloppy.

Univeral, Paramount and Dreamworks are the only companies that are exclusively HD DVD. If they start churning out the Blu, this show is over.

TitillatedOcelot

Evo

Ok, for the third time. Read that release. No where does it say that Universal has renewed their exclusivity contract. Now tell me exactly what is false about this story?

No wonder they say kids nowadays have a reading capacity of a grade schooler.

Silenthillnight

glhf

wizll

Reiji

Seriously though, I considered it over when Warner Brothers/New Line converted.

Reiji

Mukatsuku

altgod

And I don't think anyone can technically win a format war that nobody really cares about. Honestly, by the time DVD has run its course, we'll probably be past HD-DVD and Bluray and be onto Holographic disc formats like Holographic Versatile Disc. 3.9 TB, anyone?

JDavis

LostHorizon

@The people that can't read: From the above post:

"the studio's commitment to supporting HD-DVD exclusively has ended. That doesn't necessarily mean that Universal is abandoning the HD-DVD format as Warner plans to, however, as Variety writes that the company still has plans to support the Toshiba backed hi-def discs."

See how that says they are still backing HD DVD, and that it is merely noting that the exclusivity has ended? You aren't proving shit by linking all those articles, other than the fact that you have the reading comprehension level of a 2 year old Jack Russell Terrier.

KidU

Unfortunately what the studios say means absolutely nothing and rumors have more weight. Unintuitive, I know.

Has Universal announced any HD DVD releases beyond March? Has Paramount. No. Hmmmm..... wonder why?

Padriac

TaMs

not sure what I am going to do yet, but either way I will have my HD-A2 HDDVD player, so I am leaning toward the PS3 so I can still play both movie formats. (and the HD-A2 is a GREAT upconvert even if I never get any more HDDVDs)

Seiven

bangbangblah

maxx1223

Fetus_God_of_Love

asianmacker

Movies? Who watches movies?! Psh. Anyway... hope they get it over with soon. It'll be a while before anyone here gets any sort of HD-DVD/BluRay player. (Except me. I am totally getting a PS3. But I won't be buying movies.)

MetaKz

Regardless. If the rumor is in fact true, then this does indeed spell bad news for Toshiba. Universal has always been considered HD-DVD's strongest asset. When you've got exclusive companies (who were with you from the very beginning) jumping ship, it's never a pleasant sign.

beem

RPGZero

Hades

rennyf77

LittleBigPlaneteer

Xiedo

Yeah, you can walk into Circuit City or whatever and spend $25-$35 on a Blu-Ray disc. Shop around, people. Amazon has tons of BOGO offers like someone already mentioned, too.

Nate128

give it two more weeks

zombieistired

psycoking

Since these formats were released, the consumer has supported BOTH formats. There are currently nearly 1 million people that purchased HD DVD players and purchased many movies. While Blu Ray post higher movie sales, these sales are not FAR higher. In fact, they are fairly close (usually 60/40, 65/35 or 70/30). And often those Blu Ray numbers were higher due to more studio support and thus more high profile movies.

This isn't what's best for consumers. All studios supporting BOTH formats is what is best for consumers. These decisions should've been made a year and a half ago or not at all. There are far too many consumers that are going to be left in the lurch.

NOTE: For those celebrating this because they chose a 'side', remember that Blu Ray players are still quite expensive. Without competition, the importance of getting prices down to a mass market level and creating a uniform standard for all players ....... we haven't won as consumers, folks. We really haven't ...

DARTH_TIGRIS

rich8606

Ill give HD-DVD there due with there special features though, something I would love Blu-ray should Adapt.

At the end of the day, its who's selling more discs and Blu-ray wins on that specially after selling a lot of PS3's and proper Marketing which totally surprised me because Sony + Marketing = X

kingme

Charlie303

Seiven

I don't buy my movies anymore anyway, Newsgroups ftw :P But when I did buy hd-dvds, I never spent more than $20. Add in that you got 3-5 free movies with a player with tons of online stores did buy 1 get 1 free offers and the total value is pretty high.

jynxycat

But as the saying goes......life goes on.

I personally cannot wait for the bargain prices on HD-DVD discs should they fold.

IMO Who cares what format anything is....if it has content/features you like buy it.

I loved BETAMAX in its day. I preferreed the SYQUEST EZ DRive over the ZIP Iomega. Heck....I even prefer an ARCHOS over an iPOD....

GoonieGooGoo

There are specials and BOGOs all the time, no different than regular dvds.

jynxycat

seatowne80

[www.highdefdigest.com]

Zytokis

ffmusicdj

on another note, my wife told me tonight 3 game systems is too many...I have to give up my 360 or my PS3...or I guess I could always give up my healthy sex life.

hmmm decisions, decisions, decisions

Seiven

it was denied by Universal ...

I agree with THECHOSEN, HD is still too expensive anyways, I do not currently own a HDTV and to get the HD-DVD player and the $30 movies, I would rather stick with DVDs. I don't see a point to have HD other than action movies.

As for my view on HD-DVD vs Blu-ray; I like the set standard of HD-DVD rather than a still changing standard of Blu-ray. I have also read that HD-DVD is a lot easier to program for as with the programming for the Xbox 360. Blu-ray is more troublesome to program for just like the devs are saying for PS3

AllKindsOfRalph

schizorogue

jackal888

RawSteelUT

hellboy997

Microsoft have even 'not ruled out' releasing blu-ray support. (though they have said there are no current plans).

Modularity for total win.

MeateaW

Ambitious009

adolfo-gomez

hellboy997

method47

That makes no fucking sense.

Kirbytheslayer: In-Kirby XMB

DaiMacculate

BauerStyle

Ambitious009

CreamSodaSlurpee

There's less cache with HD-DVD, and BD can sustain higher bitrates. Then there is the obvious storage edge, as well as the durabis coating that makes BD discs more resistant to scratching. Granted, the coating was made hard enough since the data surface is closer to the surface than HD-DVD.

But yeah, codecs are the same. In fact, WB's releases uses identical masters right down to the bitrate.

SG79

Don't correct my errors. Damn you *walks away* I honestly hope this shit ends already .

FP Shindokie

@Pai Pai Master: Weinstein Co. doesn't really count anymore as they haven't released a HDDVD in a long time, and even their reps have stated they are considering switching to Blu. The company has lots of issues right now and they joined hddvd early on, but have abandoned all HD media since

Kyle81

but once i buy my PS3, they can go ahead and do whatever they want.

presto117

Those extra features will be coming to Blu-ray now that the 1.1 profile players are ready for launch.

Pai Pai Master

Pai Pai Master

well....one less format means less buying confusion for everyone....

icepick314

One was red boxes, the other was blue. For everyone one red box that sold in a given territory, 9 (japan) 3 (europe) 2(america) blue ones were sold. Thats why everyone went blu.

This is not the JFK assasination, there's no mystery behind why hd dvd sold, so why are people still wondering?

Belain

Just want everyone to know I totally f****** called it.

Codexx

They may still support HDDVD but they don't say that they are exclusively supporting it though.

Sollus

BauerStyle

jamosthefifth

Waza

[www.highdefdigest.com]

presto117

this is from hidefdigest.com:

Responding to published reports that its commitment to backing HD DVD exclusively has ended, Universal has issued a new statement of support for HD DVD.

"Contrary to unsubstantiated rumors from unnamed sources, Universal's current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format," said Ken Graffeo, executive vice president of HD strategic marketing for Universal Studios Home Entertainment and co-president of the HD DVD Promotional Group.

Graffeo's comments follow a report in yesterday's Variety that Universal's agreement to exclusively support HD DVD had ended and had not been renewed. The report went on to speculate that both Universal and Paramount could switch sides soon, ending the high-def format war instantly.

A Universal spokesperson told us this afternoon that the studio plans to issue new upcoming HD DVD title announcements in the near future.

The HD DVD Promotions Group is also said to be planning its own statement regarding the rumors of a Universal switch to format neutrality.

presto117

DaiMacculate

Chewbenator

y2kenjination

Tom Clancy's Samuraidino

Luke Plunkett

InsidiousTuna

It's gonna suck for the HDDVDers though. =\

.endejas.

petrieslastword

FP Shindokie

Dreadfish

hatramroany

J-Fro

solidsquirrel

y2kenjination

TheChosen

goldwings