Blu-Ray or HD-DVD? (or stick with Good old DVD)

[AML]

Hi everyone, I recently read a story about a recent Blu ray summit and it looks like Blu Ray is going forward! I still havent heard anything from the HD-DVD people and well if we look at the specs of the two, Blu Ray certainly looks better!
What are your thoughts on the 2 new formats and is it better to wait or stick to current DVD technology?

Also im thinking of getting the new Pioneer 59 AVi

(http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pn...442807,00.html)

coz it looks amazing and supports HDMI/DVi and offers HDTV ressolutions much like Blu ray and HD-DVD will offer!

Give me your opinion, and here is an attachment for that Blu Ray summit report. Read it, its good info!

[Captain_Danger]

I just hope that whatever format becomes adopted as the standard, it provides us with a big jump over normal DVD in terms of audio and vision.

[Ovation]

With upconverting players now on the market making the images a lot better, I think the true HD DVDs (whichever format is adopted) won't be as spectacular a leap as DVD was over VHS. I think this will result in a niche market, much like hi-res audio has yet to create the excitement that CD did a generation ago.

[John Dawson]

Upscaling DVD players do not automatically make the pictures any better - it doesn't much matter where the scaling is done as long as the quality is good.

Having said that, the video quality of HD DVDs will be quite noticably better on a top quality display but whether it's enough to persuade the mass market to buy is another thing entirely. And having two competing and incompatible formats is stupid - the choice is not easy either as HD-DVD discs can be mass produced on existing DVD repro lines and are arguably a lot more robust than Blu ray discs. Hell they haven't even published a Blu ray DVD-ROM disc spec yet!! (FWIW, the HD-DVD disc spec was published many months ago, so don't go believing all the Blu ray hype). In any case the format(s) need support from all of Hollywood and we are nowhere near that. After that there is lots of engineering to be done to get affordable units (Sony are rumoured to be selling their current Blu ray recorder in Japan at a small fraction of the real cost of manufacture).

I think we are a number of years away from a new and widely available DVD format, in whatever form, so I should stick to current technology if you want to view any movies in the next few years :-)

John Dawson (Arcam)

[AML]

You all make good points, and I agree that with current existing technology geting better all the time, most people ( punters that is) wont be able to tell the difference betwen what they have now and what they could have with HD DVD and Blu Ray.
However, for the rest of us, these new technologies will have a few big differences. ie, higher bit rates, ressolutions, better outputs (and inputs) and more capacity. Lets face it, 9 gig is reaching a limit with movies getting bigger and longer, they simply cant fit on a single DVD. Look at Lord of the rings extended editions or master and commander.
Two other major peves about 9 gig DVDs is the damn layer change! And the poor quality of darker immages in films.
(you know the gradual change from light to dark that looks all pixelated) Im sure better bit rates will help to eliminate this problem, and of course a higher D/A video converter

[El Indio]

The breakthru for HD will be the move to mpeg 4 encoding. This will mean a HD film will fit on a normal DVD.

There is a great reluctance in the industry to move to another disc standard. Retooling pressing plants, drive manufacturing plants, etc is very expensive - and if a HD film can fit on a normal DVD then what sense swapping. They will also look at the failure of HD CDs.

Also, I think the film studios have yet to get their head around the idea of people owning a copy of a film that is same/better quality than cinema quality.

BTW. The "poor quality of darker immages" is not due to the D/A convertor, but to the way mpeg encodes dark areas.