Comments on: The party for HD DVD is over, literally

Warner leaves the HD DVD consortium, so HD DVD cancels its CES party.

[satchev]

Blu-Ray sounds better

Is it just me or does anyone else want Blu-Ray to win just because the name sounds better? I mean come on... HD-DVD.... YAWN!

At least with Blu-Ray they took the time to come up with something cool sounding and not just another acronym.

At this point I haven't bought either player, I don't even have a flat screen tv or subscribe to any HD content. I'll stick with my old analog tv for now.

[gerrrg]

honestly....

I'm in your boat...still analog for now. But the war is a good thing. It meant that Sony had to take a loss on Blu Ray disks, players and PS3.

[wooferz]

Funny!

I thought I was the only one who felt that way!

[scottwilkins]

Say goodbye to your rights...

From this website:

http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/hardware/microsoft-hd-dvd.ars

Currently, HD DVD is the only next-gen format to provide for the ability to legally make copies of optical content. Dubbed "Managed Copy," HD DVD implements part of the AACS control mechanism to allow for things such as putting digital copies of a disc on a hard drive, transferring a movie (legally) to a portable player, or streaming content on a home network.

Sony now OWNS YOU!!! Doesn't that make you proud?

[clarrkkent]

People really don't get it?

It just boggles my mind that people are campaigning for formats that they have no clue about.

First -if you really wanna talk specs and data storage, enlighten yourself. HD can hold up to 51GB. If my math is correct, that is 1 more GB than BR.

Second- PS3 players DO NOT have the functionality of a stand alone player. So while you go around touting that you "got a BR player and video game system for the price of a BR player", please realize that most people are laughing at you. You get the picture, but not the home theater experience(audio) which completely invalidates most of the arguments PS3 fanboys make for BR.

Last- it's sad that major studios are willing to make a decision based on innacurate, skewed, premature data. That goes for studios backing HD exclusively and BR exclusively. Fox does take the cake though. For Fox to make a decision based on such short time frame that includes wildly biased, skewed data is astounding. Do they realize that PS3's make up an enormous amount of the BR market? That the demographic for PS3 and hi-def formats couldn't be any more different? They don't realize it, but they just reduced their customer base to a bunch of pimply, ghost faced, unsocial 16-24 year old males. Good luck with that strategy.

We're all losers whether folks realize it or not. Being forced to choose a format by studios is NOT a war and NOT a choice and you can bet that what's best for the consumer is not even slightly acknowledged.

[jrm125]

Don't post if you don't own/know the tech

Current HD-DVDs do not hold 51 GB. You all keep using that argument. Current HD-DVDs hold 35 GB of data vs Blu-Ray's current 50. Now, that being said, there will be HD-DVDs that do hit 51 GB, but unfortunately, many HD-DVD players will be incapable of reading them, and a firmware upgrade just won't do it. So early adopter get screwed. Second, Blu-Ray is on its way to 100 GB, so again, HD-DVD fails. And considering they currently use the same audio/video codecs, there's no difference in picture quality, though in some cases BDs current space allows for more uncompressed audio.

Also, the PS3 has full capabilities as a BD player. FULL. It gets consistent firmware update patches, some of which improve BD itself, like introducing the BD 1.1 profile allowing for PiP and other features that up till now only HD-DVD had. So here, stalemate. I'm not sure where you get your information on audio output, but PS3 is completely capable of uncompressed 7.1 output via HDMI or compressed surround via optical. Once you purchase the remote there's NOTHING separating a PS3 from a standard standalone, and after you factor in the gaming it's an excellent bargain. No one's laughing at us except you pious tards who still think there aren't any games and blindly support a dying format.

As for data, the HD-DVD community itself is contradictory, on the one hand touting the sale of far more standalone HD-DVD players while at the same time having to acknowledge that the BD media (movies, etc) is selling at almost double the rate. Whether or not it's a standalone or a PS3 selling them is inconsequential. The fact is, the market is currently larger for one format over the other. This is why in the video game market developers pander to the Xbox 360 over the PS3...you go for which will sell more.

Warner's ours. Game. Set. Match.

[Vonmaxx]

PS3 does have stand alone Blue Ray

My coworkers wife got him the expensive PS3 and he has surround
sound. When watching BR's DVD on it.

[z1ray]

BR vHD

This guy is the first person on here that has any
clue of whats going on! Nice post clarrkkent

[Riquez-001]

PS3 BR

I have a home cinema with 80" screen, HD projector & surround
sound & I use my PS3 as a BR player. If you'd like to come round &
try it out you're welcome, but if you do I would expect you to post
a retraction of your previous ********.

[barbose]

Flat out wrong.

Check your facts before you post.

The PS3 is a full-fledged blu-ray player. when it's not doing
anything else, if you insert a disc, it automatically starts it up. It
has HDMI-out, so whatever audio is on the disc gets pushed out
to your receiver or your TV.

It does even more than most stand-alone players (and i'm not
talking about gaming): it has a internet connection and it picks
up new features from a net download. It went from a 1.0 to 1.1
player with a free firmware upgrade. It vastly improved DVD
uprezzing with--wait for it--a free firmware update.

Be bitter if you like, but at least be honest about it.

[JadedGamer]

So many ways to be wrong...

1) HD DVD might in the FUTURE have a capacity of 51 GB - this will be triple-layer discs that CURRENT players will not be able to play. Around the same time HD DVD increases to 51 GB, triple-layer Blu-Ray discs will also be out with a capacity of 75 GB unless they skip that and go directly for 100GB with either dual two-sided or four layers.

2) "Home theater experience" requires a separate setup of audio equipment (5.1 receiver, speakers) - whether that equipment gets its audio fed from the PS3 output or the EXACTLY SAME socket of a standalone player is irrelevant.

3) You complain that Fox chose to go with the highest-selling format? Why not instead complain that Paramount had to be paid to go for the least-selling HD DVD format?

4) "bunch of pimply, ghost faced, unsocial 16-24 year old males" - hey, what a way to totally detroy your credibility. Why do you get so wound up over this? Then again, you seem to live off lies - like your 51 GB claim...

[mrnooch11]

sour grapes

Are you mad because you're going to have to throw away your Hd DVD player? I've got to go, must watch my spider-man blu-ray.

[david__B]

At $32 a pop...

High Def any-disk is still a failure. Let's see, I can buy a movie on sale when it first comes out at $16 or in hi def for $32... Doesn't take rocket science to figure it out, HD disks aren't consumer friendly.

HD-DVD want's to fire back at blu now, lower the price of all single disks to $19. I hear at that price HD-DVD still makes money, Blu costs more to make and makes no profit at that price.

[belapei]

re: $32 a pop

If HD-DVD is still making money selling disks at $19 each, what
does that say about what they've been doing to consumers all
along, selling them at $32? I certainly don't see where that benefits
the customer!

[lvpatrick]

My two cents worth..........

As an avid HD-DVD supporter and movie enthusiast I have come to a rather sad conclusion. With Warner pulling the rug out from under HD-DVD we will find even fewer HD-DVD titles on the market. Over the past two months I've given some though to ending my Netflix account due to the continual lack of new HD movies that are of interest. With the limited number of top titles in HD I perfer owning them that getting a one time showing. Now some of you may counter that there are loads of HD movies out there. Yes they are but that is also like saying there's lots of birds in the sky when all along you are interested in a Peacock. By all this rambling I'm basically saying that before Warner pulled the plug HD supply was so so.

Next, the marvelous thing about my A20 is it's upconversion quality. Yes, HD is the ticket but when you compare paying $29 v. $15 for an SD DVD, on a long term basis, it is not hard to learn to love the bomb (that being a SD version).

Next, next, am I going to run out and buy a BR. Hell no! There is no way I am going to go spend $400 to $700 for another proprietary system. Until BR can upconconvert as well as HD-DVD, provide a high quality player at a reasonable price AND bring the price of movies down to be somewhat competitive with SD I'll stay put.

Lastly, the thrill of an HiDef movie is valid but at what cost? When John Q Public can buy two blockbuster movies for the price of one BR or HD-DVD for that matter, loan to the neighbor for them to see how can any corporation expect for their viewing format to take over by storm.

Lastly, lastly, we will not see HD-DVD die tomorrow. We will not see BR take over the DVD movie business. Whatever happens will take a bit of time to occur. But BR will not become the end all be all for the DVD movie business. I'll beat this dead horse again, until the cost of an HD movie is affordable for the masses HD DVD movie technology will remain a niche market for the likes of you and me.

lvpatrick

Post Script:

To show you that I speak from experience I've owned phonographs with $145+ stylus, a Quadraphonic system, an extremely high quality component grade 8-track player , studio grade cassette players, eary Bose 501's, a $1200 VCR circa 1979, Super VHS VCR, SACD players and now I'm on my third HD-DVD player. So you see I'm a true dyed in the wool AV geek.

[brie987]

wait.....

No Beta-max?

[jafarm66]

I guessed right

I just got my Blu-Ray player the day after xmas as it was on sale for $299 (Sony BDP 300) and love it. I also purchased the Full Harry Potter 1-5 gift set and watched Order of the Phoenix in Blu-Ray and compared it to the upconverted regular DVD of the same movie and the difference in very noticable in 1080i (don't have 1080P tv). I do have one of the best standard dvd players for upconverting (Oppo 970) and the Blu-Ray player upconverts as well if not better than the Oppo. The main reason I chose blu-ray is the independent movie studios I like were on blu-ray. The only reason I'd want HD-DVD is for Lord of the Rings since that studio is HD-DVD thanks to the 150 million dollars. Yes I did have HD-DVD with the XBOX attachment and the quality of the movies wasn't good IMHO. No I'm not a Sony fanboy because I could have gotten HD-DVD for 199.99 which I was tenpted to do but after movie selection review Blu-Ray got me.

[Rawnchie14]

Credit?

Credit for force-feeding their proprietary movie formats down my throat when all I'd like is a game console? They don't offer the option of getting a drive or not, they force it on you.

Sorry but Sony is full of crap. If you want to become pushed around by their plans to force people into making choices in next gen format, then go ahead.

PS3 is a prime example of become the corporation's b!tch. You buy into their garbage.

[jrm125]

no one forces you to buy a PS3

I wasn't aware Sony held a gun to your head and forced your to purchase a Playstation.

Honestly, get an Xbox if it's such a big deal for you. I'll happily play Metal Gear Solid and Gran Turismo and watch high def movies that were "forced" on me. You guys are insane.

[albertsoler]

I don't care

The smart consumers are the ones who have waited and continue to wait to see which format will prevail. The early adopters are driven by their own self interests when they tout the particular format they invested in. (I'm pretty sure that was a hefty investment indeed.) To those that gambled correctly, congratulations. But, it could have easily swung, (and still could swing), the other way. As for me, I'm very happy with my standard DVD collection. The day will come when my DVD player will cease to function and I will not be able to replace it. Since that is years away, I expect that at that time this format war would have long been decided. Of course, by then, a *new and improved* format could come out of nowhere. Unless Milla Jovovich (as she looks today, of course) can pop out of the screen and sit on my lap and I could feel her warm sexy body across my knees, I won't have much interest in switching to that new format either.

[techno-no]

Your All Wrong

The winner will be the format which occupies the most shelf-space in your friendly neighborhood Walmart.

[kamos76]

this idiot at cnet hd dvd

where the heck do you get your info about hd-dvd outselling blu ray? The entire time i've been following this story you are the first person i've ever heard say this. as a matter of fact on the n4g page that i came across your stupid article it says on there several times even when toshiba was giving them away for $99 blu ray still out sold them 2to1. check your facts ass.

[pjhenry1216]

no, author is right

hd-dvd players on average do sell more PLAYERS than blu-ray (which the author said). however, blu-ray normally outsells hd-dvd 2-to-1 in terms of movies. Different things.

[xerak]

Er.. sorry...

Well, thanks for making me, for the first time in my life, register to a site to actually post something, but I thought your own post was so foolish, I needed to jump in.

Please, get *your own* facts straight. Funny, what you blame the article writer for, you do the same.

Blu-ray has outsold HD DVD 2 to 1 with *DISK SALES* not hardware! You confuse the two, they are two different things.

I am a blu-ray fan, don't get me wrong, and glad they're slowly dying, but I hate when people go like you and ramble pseudo-random facts.

I read many articles about HD DVD *hardware* selling more than Blu-ray *hardware* in different parts of the world... but there again, this does not include the PS3, which by itself is a Blu-ray player.

[Entouchable]

Who is the stupid one?

You my friend are the idiot. He said *STAND-ALONE* HD-DVD players have outsold *STAND-ALONE* Blu-Ray players. This is a very true fact. The sales numbers you see come from the Blu-Ray consortium and include PS3 sales as players, which screws up the numbers.

The big numbers you should look at are how much media is being sold PER PLAYER, and HD-DVD is killing Blu-Ray in that area, BECAUSE of the including of PS3 sales in the figure. HD-DVD has sold about 4 Discs per player (4 to 1) while Blu-Ray is selling about .6 per player (.60 to 1).

[Wiz Zee]

HD Pay Per View

Consumers with a hi def DVR can watch new releases high def without buying any additional equipment. Total cost, around 4 bucks.

Why plop down 4/5 hundred bucks to do the same thing? Last time I was at Best Buy, I wasn't exactly blown away by the number of movies in the BR HD format.

[jrm125]

agreed...but...

The only problem is that cable companies, especially American ones, don't support 1080p. And even at 1080i they heavily compress which creates artifacting.

At this stage of the game, High def discs are for those who want the best and PayPerView and On demand simply dont cut it in that arena...at least not yet.

[SleeStaK911]

PS3

Nobody mentioned PS3 yet? The atricle mentions DH-DVD stand-alone players outselling BR stand-alone. But if you factor in PS3... ouch!
PS3 costs about the same as a stand alone BR player. It's a no brainer! Add those several million units to the mix.

[bob1xxxx]

LOL this story is in to days LA times

Hmmm I think its the same author but this story was just re print in the LA times saturday 010507 but a little longer. Knowing sony's shabby marketing pratices, they probelly double the prices on blue ray players (unless cheaper liscensed players come out) and will raise the disk prices too causing blue ray to fail even with no comptetion. With a good 100.00 upscaler dvd there isnt a huge differance in picture quality unless you get a super expensive 50"+, 120mz, 1080p lcd with a 1000.00 surround sound system. The dirty secret is most peeps have a 42" and under 720p lcd flat pannels and dvd upscaler and their legacy and new dvd's works just fine. Unless sony agressively slashs the price of blue ray players and disk, their still going to produce a tech dead end like Beta max/Laser Disk of 80's. With better on demand HD movie packages from cable and Sat companies Sony runs the risk of being past by again. They HAVE to get Blueray in to more households and the only way is though REDUCED prices not price raises due to lack of formate competition.

[ninalou]

BLUE RAY

I'M OKAY WITH EITHER HD OR BLUE RAY. I JUST WANT THE INDUSTRY TO MAKE A CHOICE. MY PROBLEM IS IF IT GOES BLUE RAY, I'D LIKE TO BE ABLE TO BE ABLE TO BUY A HALF-WAY REASONABLE PLAYER/RECORDER. RIGHT NOW, ALL I SEE IS PLAYERS.

[jondo220]

SONY IS EVIL!!!

Hey suckers...You all just got BOUGHT! Just like Warner got BOUGHT!
SONY IS EVIL!
I never buy any Sony products anymore, not for the past several years. Their business is all about creating proprietary methods to control the marketplace. And they use heavy handed tactics like price dumping, such as the PS3, to force out competition or better rivals.
What do most all digital cameras use? Standard SD cards.
What do EVIL SONY cameras use? Memory Stick! Phewey!
Remember Mini-disc and ATRAC, for which we luckily escaped with standard MP3 as the consumer format of choice.
Can't wait to see what evil resides in Blu-Ray, like the XCP and ARCCOS before it?
I cringe whenever I see a Sony Pictures DVD that I'm going to backup, because it takes so damn long, but I can still copy it to play on my iPod, despite the Sony's attempts to restrict my freedom.
If Sony ever made cars, they'd run on a Sony proprietary 79 octane gasoline blend that you have to buy from a Sony authorized gas station, and special high-pressure tires and 27 volt batteries that you can't get anywhere except from Sony repair centers.
Wake up and smell the coffee and read the real headlines: "Stupid Americans jut got BOUGHT by evil Japanese conglomerate...again!"
Ha...you fools...

[DarkPhoenixFF4]

And what is Microsoft?

An evil American conglomerate. So don't be pulling this sort of BS.

If you're going to scream about Japanese companies trying to rule tech, why are you backing a format from Toshiba? Last I checked, they're a Japanese conglomerate as well.

[Waam]

The Writing's on the Wall

I've felt for weeks now that maybe I got burned making an
impulse HD-DVD buy. I was. But thats OK.

No need for sour grapes here, although I can totally understand
how some of you who might have already heavily invested in this
format might feel. I didn't. All I have are the free movies that
came with my player and Transformers.

I still want HD movies for my 50" LCD and today I bought a new
Samsung Blu-Ray player and all the Harry Potters plus the two
free movies that came with it. I couldn't bring myself to buying 5
HD-DVD's for fear of them going obsolete with a Blu-Ray win.
Alas I have lucked out because of lack of confidence in the
format. Though it would have been convienent with the winner
being HD-DVD since I have one, I'm just glad that I can buy
confidently now.

[Entouchable]

FACT: HD-DVD > Blu-Ray

Image quality is equal in both formats, this has been proven, there is no difference in image quality.

Size: Blu-Ray Disc formats offer more space to put stuff, which would only be useful when high speed burners are available. And due to the way the technologies are designed, the HD-DVD burners will be FAR less expensive, same with the HD-DVD discs.

[Editors' note: Paragraph deleted for use of profanity.]

Message was edited by: admin

[scottwilkins]

Size? HD DVD has more...

Remember, that you can get 8.5 hours of HD content on a HD DVD disc, and only 9 hours on a Blu-Ray.

PLUS! You can play 2 hours of HD content from a DVD-RW disc in and HD DVD player. i.e. you can burn your own home movies to DVD-RW in 1080 and watch them in an HD DVD player. You can't do that with Blu-Ray.

(How? A DVD-9 disc using MPEG4-AVC/VC-1 encoding for 1080 lines of resolution can put over 2 hours within 8 gigabytes of space. It's part of the HD DVD spec, Sony didn't think that far, and they don't care to!!!! They only want to control you, the consumer!)

[fredtheviking]

Why do CNET have such strong opinions about this silly format war.

First off, I am a blue-ray fan, Sony fan, and PS3 Fanboy. But I have to confess I am not the impress with Blue-ray or HD-DVD. Both Standard are but a mere step forward in the technology. In fact, you can get a upscaling DVD player and you essentially have high definition. Plus you need at least 40 inches HD TV to notice the difference. So, I can't see how either standard is very compelling. So, why are we making such a fuss? Why don't we just wait for HVD? It just around the corner and with 3.9 TB of data per disc. I am sure the quality of video that could be achieve would be insane compared to what we have now.

[scottwilkins]

Sony is going broke... Lies, and loss of freedom.

Sony has to be going broke with all the "Under the table" money they are dishing out to buy Blu-Ray support. Too bad HD DVD is a better choice, as it will soon be taken away from the consumer. Sad.

Sony is such a liar too! There latest commercials state the picture on Blu-Ray is better. FALSE!!! HD DVD/Blu Ray dual releases have all had better reviews on HD DVD than Blu Ray.

And, the "more space" is a lie too. HD DVD has 8.5 hours of movies space, Blu-Ray has 9. 1/2 of an hour difference!

Blu-Ray doesn't support HD content on DVD discs
Blu-Ray doesn't properly support internet
Blu-Ray doesn't support PiP on all players
Blu-Ray REQUIRES 2 DRM methods slowing it down
Blu-Ray requires slow buggy Java, HD DVD has fast scripting system.


Blu-Ray is a lie and a Sony cheat for dominance in the market place. If Blu-Ray wins, you can kiss your movie freedom goodbye!

Blu-Ray is so bad compared to HD DVD is makes me sick. It's sad how many idiots have fallen prey to Sony's advertising cartel. I hope you are not one of the idiots. Are you?

[Sudhakar2k]

This guy's comments are ridiculous

If/when blu-ray wins, Sony will not go broke. They will be fine.

Who has more Space?
HD DVD ~ 30 GB
Blu-ray ~ 50 GB
Looks like Blu-ray has more capacity.

Who has better picture quality?
You're right blu-ray picture isn't better than HD DVD. But HD DVD picture quality is better than Blu-ray either. Most independent reviewers find the picture quality to be the same.

"Under the table money"?
OK sony might be dishing some money. But Ahem, HD DVD and paramount.

Slow movie playback?
Yes many blu-ray players have this problem, but so do many HD DVD players. And there are some blu-ray players that have no bugs or slow playback problems (PS3 and Panasonic blu-ray player)

What is sickening is this biased rant proclaiming HD DVD better than Blu-ray. Half of you arguments are wrong, and the other half fail to look at the weaknesses of HD DVD. THe only significant advantage HD DVD can claim the is "extra" content on discs while Blu-ray offers more space for future improvements. Next time get your facts straight before you call out/insult people who made better decisions than you when it comes to the high definition format war.

[jrm125]

The only lies here are your "facts"

- Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD picture quality is always the same, as they use the same codec...so neither saying BD nor HD-DVD is better.

- Last I checked, an extra half hour of space did qualify as more space.

- BD does support HD on any disc

- BD does support PiP with BD spec 1.1...which the PS3 has already been updated to

- DRM...though you all hate it, is probably actually WHY BD is winning. Studios prefer a format that protects their content. I'm not surprised.

- the Java system isn't slow. Don't take everything you read on here from fanboys. Try it yourself first...which I'm guessing you haven't.

It would appear you are one of the idiots.

[extirpator]

Wow yet again the math is off...

Lets do the math shall we.

50/30=1.667 or 66.7% more capacity

Oh! Wait thats dual layer... lets compare single layer.

25/15=1.667 or 66.7% more capacity

Hmmm now lets try the numbers. It says HD-DVD can store 8.5 hours well lets see...

8.5*1.667=14.167

Wow I do believe the number was off by 4.67 hours if we are to believe that HD-DVD can store 8.5 hours, but lets for the sake of argument assume that the Blu-ray capacity is correct at 9.5 hours

First we need to figure out how much less capacity HD-DVD has.

30/50 = .6

This means it has 60% of the capacity of Blu-ray or.4 or 40% less space than Blu-ray. So...

9.5*.6=5.7

Why thats still a difference of 3.8 hours!!!

So in conclusion we have determined that Blu-ray can store some where between 3.8 and 4.67 hours more than HD-DVD.

5th Grade was obviously a tough year for many fanboys.

[barbose]

You're wrong.

DVD uprezzing happens on a PS3.

And guess what? If you've got a 1080 TV, everything is uprezzed
to 1080 before it gets displayed.

This is called a tautology. Look it up.