HD-DVD - The Look and Sound of Perfect

There were rumors that the new models will come with an internal HD-DVD, but Microsoft denied them. Here is a little bit from a gizmodo.com article about it:

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"You smell that? Do you smell that? Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for twelve hours. When it was all over I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory."

-Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore

If I know Microsoft, they don't do everything they say. So we'll see when it comes out.

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"This is that human freedom, which all boast that they possess, and which consists solely in the fact, that men are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined." -Baruch Spinoza

I'm still toying with the idea of buying a PS3, but otherwise, I'm waiting until either one format wins over the other, or they make a dual player. It would be stupid to buy one, and then lose out on titles only available on the other. Plus, they're still ironing out the kinks in the systems, so I will have to wait until those are fixed up before I even bother remotely thinking about buying a new system.

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"Groovy."
- Ash (Bruce Campbell), Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn

Agreed.

I'm thinkin....it's my bro-in-law who's the one purchasing the HD-DVD add-on for his X-BOX 360. If anything goes wrong or etc.... it's nothing for me to worry about. LOL.

I will be buying a PS3 whenever my dad builds his entertainment system.

1.) Cheaper then the actual players themselves.
2.) The likely hood that Blu-Ray won't win is slim.
3.) Even if Blu-Ray doesn't win, the PS3 still packs some pretty impressive features so it won't be a waste.

With Ricoh's new laser that reads DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-Ray, there should be a dual player by the time the majority of others come out.

I even toyed with the idea of holding off buying dvds till there is an official winner amongst the hi def war. It only lasted 5 seconds but I still deserve points for trying.

HD-DVDs are cheaper to manufacture than Blu-ray, whether they are cheaper to consumers remains to be seen.

I don't see how they offer more interactivity either, please explain.

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"You smell that? Do you smell that?... Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for twelve hours. When it was all over I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory. Someday this war's gonna end..."

There is no such thing as Dolby Digital 7.1 either, well not in the true sense of the meaning.

Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Digital HD on the other hand...

He has this Onkyo HT S787C 7.1 Channel Home Theater System, along with this Hitachi 65 " CRT-Projection HDTV.

Even though its high definition, does that projection t.v. still require one to look kind of straight at it to get a good picture? I know the ones i've seen, the picture cannot be seen if you are looking at it on an angle or down etc.

Check out the standard price for a Blu-Ray and you'll see it's about 7 dollars cheaper then a HD-DVD. Also, Blu-Ray uses Java for their menus. And if you've seen these Java websites, they're pretty damn good for interaction. The HD-DVD uses some specially developed interface by Microsoft. Last I checked, Java was easier to use then something owned by Microsoft. Basically, it's easier for developers to code in Java because they already understand it.

Like I said Dolby Digital is not true 7.1 sound. Neither is THX Surround EX. Dolby Digital EX achieves 6.1 surround sound by encoding a rear centre channel. DTS-ES Discrete is the only surround sound format with an independent rear channel.

Check out the link if you don't believe me: http://www.timefordvd.com/ref/THXSurroundEX.shtml

Then that's where my money will go

Check out the following info about HD-DVD:

When it comes to subtitles, small overlaid images of the actors/actresses can be placed next to colour-coded text

Picture in picture is supported. Instead of listening to the audio commentary of a director, you can now have footage onscreen, synchronised to the video

HD-DVD players also support networking unlike Blu Ray models. This means you will be able to connect the player to your broadband connection for exclusive content in hi-def etc

There is also a copying feature which allows you to legally rip the movie for viewing on a mobile device or PC

Blu Ray may use java based menus but HD-DVD uses IHD Interactive Format which is based on .xml. It's all much of a much if you ask me. Personally I think the best thing that can happen is for the formats to merge. Both formats have pros and cons and picking sides either way will only cause more problems than it solves.

Those last two are also supported by Blu-Ray, but I will give you the first two as I am not sure if Blu-Ray can do them.

Sony are the only ones claiming that Blu-Ray costs will be cheaper than HD-DVD. Everywhere else states quite the opposite.

Check out the following links: http://www.engadget.com/2005/09/19/b...on-s-division/

"...Herein lies the issues associated with the higher cost of Blu-ray discs. This thinner surface layer is what makes the discs cost more; because Blu-ray discs do not share the same surface layer thickness of DVDs, costly production facilities must be modified or replaced in order to produce the discs. A special hard coating must also be applied to Blu-ray discs, so their surface is sufficiently resilient enough to protect the data a mere 0.1mm beneath - this also drives the cost up. The added benefit of keeping the data layer closer to the surface, however, is more room for extra layers.

Still with us? No? Blu-ray discs are more expensive, but hold more data - there, that's all."

http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/186/4

Media production / Production costs

The advantage in this case goes to HD-DVD because of the similarity to the current DVD manufacturing processes. This makes it less expensive to adapt the current production lines for producing HD-DVD’s. Memory Tech has created a new production line, which can be adapted to produce HD-DVDs in 5 minutes, and this manufacturing line can make 1 HD-DVD in 2.8 seconds. Since the production of a HD-DVD media requires a higher technical precision and therefore a better quality control, we can also await a better quality of conventional DVD medias.

The production of Blu-ray disc will involve more cost, because the companies will have to add equipment for the cover layer portion and it’s not that easy to adapt current lines for BD production. Further, it will take about 4-5 seconds to manufacture one media. This is just slightly slower than for a HD-DVD, but multiply this difference by the millions of discs that will be produced and you can see that this becomes an important issue in the cost per unit.

Of course, one could argue that with future innovations it might be possible to reduce the production time for a single disc Blu-ray disc to match HD-DVD efficiencies. But there is still the burden for re-tooling and it seems that it is not possible to produce DVDs on BD adapted production lines. So the companies must have 2 different production lines when they want to produce DVD and BD discs."

Cheaper to the user? Yes. Cheaper to the company? I don't really know who's right or wrong on this one.