"Wait and see is best policy in format war"

[quig]

Gordon Laing's article in Personal Computer World's August edition discusses his reluctance to purchase either Blu-ray or HD-DVD until there is only one format. I wonder how many consumers will feel the same?

[Starburst]

I suspect those who frequent this forum will not want to wait a few years for a clear winner to emerge and it could take that long if both camps go for it
However that doesn't mean I will be spending serious money on first generation hardware especially as HD broadcasts are on the horizon and scaling technology is doing a good job with standard def DVD's.

Who knows in the short term a PS3 and HD-DVD rom for the PC may be a cost effective solution until the market is stable and a standalone player/recorder emerges that is good enough to grace the lounge.

[paulfoley]

Starburst

Up until a few days ago thats exactly what I was planning to do, get a PS3 for BR & plug it into my LCD via HDMI & then change the DVD-Rom drive in my HTPC for HD-DVD. However I read a post on the AVS Forums that said Hollywood would not allow PC Software to play back films, they want data to playable via hardware only & thus uncopyable!

Might have to buy a PS3 & an HD-DVD Drive now !

[Starburst]

No doubt the PC community will come out with graphic cards and accelerators which have HDMI and are secure enough to comfort the paranoid control freaks that dictate where and how we can watch our retail purchases

[Tejstar]

I don't envisage spending serious cash until a clear winner comes through. The most I'll do is prbably buy a PS3, I don't expect that to cost more than £400 so that should keep me going until we have a winner.

However, the only annoying thing is that the PS3 in unlikely to launch before xmas 2006.

[Nick_UK]

What's the problem ? We already have about six "standards" for recordable DVD's and the industry have brought out machines that can use several. No doubt this will also happen with HD-DVD's --- eventually. And that's the key word.

[Starburst]

While you are correct about the versions of recordable DVD there was and still is only one format for pre-recorded DVD and so for the average consumer there was no format war, you bought a DVD player and it would play every retail disk out there.
Well with a few exceptions since a few studios tweaked the format to suit themselves and certain players refused to work

With Blu-ray and HD-DVD there will be two pre-recorded formats with content only appearing on one or the other at least for the short term which is an issue for consumers. Depending upon sales this window could stretch out into years since if there is a chance to gain dominance Sony and Toshiba will slug it out and won't be licensing the technology to anyone for a combined unit.

Recordable blue laser disks are much less of an issue since as long as there are recorders and media any format is viable especially in a PC enviroment where I don't consider the market is quite as narrow as for home/domestic appliances.

Eventually there is likely to be a winner but how many of us who use these forums are going to wait until there is a cut and dried flag waving winning manufacturer?
If you are anything like me there will come a time when more of your favorite movies are on one format and if you can't afford both you will pick your side and pray for the best. Of course you could just watch the HD broadcasts via satellite and/or aquire movies from less legit sources and let people with more money than sense make the mistakes

[Nick_UK]

I'd essentially agree with all but your last sentence. Unfortunately some of the mistakes are not being made by people with more money than sense, but those with a bigger credit card limit than sense

Sounds like Sony has another battle on its hands, similar to the one it had in the 70's with JVC and the advent of video players..Oh well, I am patient.

[pinkprobegt]

I think the fact about recordable DVD is that pretty much all of the formats now play on all DVD players after they're recorded and many recorders are now multi-format. With blu-ray and HD-DVD they're completely incompatible as far as I'm aware

I'll wait and see. I'm not doing my thing of buying a laserdisc player again

[David Mackenzie]

Hopefully, I'll buy the one with the best image quality and the films I want to watch - probably Blu-Ray - after the US launch. Then in years to come, if my format of choice "dies", I'll grudgingly go on over to the other. By that time, I would probably have bought a new player anyway.

[David Mackenzie]

Originally Posted by from the article

The fact is that two layers are more than sufficient for storing a long movie in high definition.

No no no no no no! We need all the space we can get! Just look at what's happened to DVD's "infinite" capacity - overcompressed, blocky movies. I don't want my HD pictures that way. All the space we can get, none of this "640k will be enough for anyone" stuff.

Originally Posted by from the article

It happened with DVD and it can happen again now.

What does he mean by that? Surely he's not referring to Divx (the pay per view movie rental system, not the video codec with the same name)?

[Facct]

It seems that what looks like it will bethe successor to blue laser, namely HVD or Holographic Video Disc (200GB up to potentially 4 TB+), is developing rapidly, so a protracted format war would be in neither Sony's or Toshiba's interests. Let's hope they see it that way! Afaik they have recently entered discussion about a single format, perhaps due to the fast progression of HVD.

Here's a link: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...hreadid=225222

[Stephen Neal]

Originally Posted by Facct

Afaik they have recently entered discussion about a single format, perhaps due to the fast progression of HVD.

Here's a link: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...hreadid=225222

Though didn't these discussions come to nothing. AIUI the fundamental differences between the two formats and the fact that neither side was willing to budge on key issues meant that merging the two formats wasn't going to happen?

AIUI HD-DVD has the benefit of being easier to press in current DVD plants - BluRay requires new technology to press their pre-recorded software. However BluRay also has the capacity edge - something HD-DVD is trying to address with triple-layer discs (which deliver 45Gb compared to the 50Gb of a dual-layer BluRay disc) However BluRay can also do more than two layers.

HD-DVD has been touting the ability to do a single DVD layer and a dual HD-DVD layer (so the same disc delivers HD-DVD and DVD material) - though the DVD layer is only a single DVD-5 not a dual-layer DVD-9 (and the HD-DVD dual layers only deliver 30Gb?

BluRay now claims it can deliver a dual-layer DVD-9 AND a single layer (25Gb) BluRay layer.

It certainly isn't getting any less complicated...

[Desk]

Originally Posted by Stephen Neal

AIUI HD-DVD has the benefit of being easier to press in current DVD plants - BluRay requires new technology to press their pre-recorded software. However BluRay also has the capacity edge - something HD-DVD is trying to address with triple-layer discs (which deliver 45Gb compared to the 50Gb of a dual-layer BluRay disc) However BluRay can also do more than two layers.

Dual-layer blank DVD+R disks are much more expensive than the single layer versions.

Personally, my choice for the next generation of disks is the one that offers the greatest capacity per individual layer - namely Blu-Ray.