Blue-Ray Titles to look forward to.

[BadAss]

May 23, 2006
• 50 First Dates (Sony)
• The Fifth Element (Sony)
• Hitch (Sony)
• House of Flying Daggers (Sony)
• A Knight's Tale (Sony)
• The Last Waltz (MGM)
• Resident Evil: Apocalypse (Sony)
• xXx (Sony)

June 6, 2006
• Underworld: Evolution (Sony)

June 13, 2006
• Kung Fu Hustle (Sony)
• Legends of the Fall (Sony)
• RoboCop (MGM)
• Species (MGM)
• Stealth (Sony)
• S.W.A.T. (Sony)
• The Terminator (MGM)

June 27, 2006
• Crash (Lionsgate)
• Lord of War (Lionsgate)
• The Punisher (Lionsgate)
• Saw (Lionsgate)
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Lionsgate)


Release Dates Pending

The following titles are planned for release in the Blu-Ray format (as indicated by press release or previous public statements made by the distributor), but release dates have not been announced:

• 2001: A Space Odyssey (Warner)
• Above the Law (Warner)
• Aeon Flux (Paramount)
• Alexander (Warner)
• Angels in America (HBO)
• Armageddon (Buena Vista)
• Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (New Line)
• Band of Brothers (HBO)
• Batman Begins (Warner)
• Behind Enemy Lines (Fox)
• Black Hawk Down (Sony)
• Black Rain (Paramount)
• Blade (New Line)
• Blazing Saddles (Warner)
• Bram Stoker's Dracula (Sony)
• Braveheart (Paramount)
• The Bridge on the River Kwai (Sony)
• Catwoman (Warner)
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Warner)
• Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (Sony)
• Chicken Little (Buena Vista)
• A Clockwork Orange (Warner)
• Coach Carter (Paramount)
• Constantine (Warner)
• Contact (Warner)
• The Corpse Bride (Warner)
• Dark City (New Line)
• Deadwood: Season One (HBO)
• Desperado (Sony)
• The Devil's Rejects (Lionsgate)
• Dinosaur (Buena Vista)
• The Dirty Dozen (Warner)
• The Dukes of Hazzard (Warner)
• Frank Herbert's Dune (Lionsgate)
• Elizabethtown (Paramount)
• Eraser (Warner)
• Executive Decision (Warner)
• Eyes Wide Shut (Warner)
• Fantastic Four (Fox)
• Final Destination (New Line)
• Flightplan (Buena Vista)
• For a Few Dollars More (Sony)
• Forbidden Planet (Warner)
• Forrest Gump (Paramount)
• Four Brothers (Paramount)
• Friday (New Line)
• Friends: Season One (Warner)
• From the Earth to the Moon (HBO)
• The Fugitive (Warner)
• Full Metal Jacket (Warner)
• Ghost (Paramount)
• Goodfellas (Warner)
• Gothika (Warner)
• Grand Prix (Warner)
• Grease (Paramount)
• The Green Mile (Warner)
• The Guns of Navarone (Sony)
• Hard to Kill (Warner)
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Warner)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Warner)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Warner)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Warner)
• House of Wax (2005) (Warner)
• Ice Age (Fox)
• Into the Blue (Sony)
• The Italian Job (Paramount)
• Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (Buena Vista)
• Kill Bill Vol. 2 (Buena Vista)
• Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Warner)
• Kiss of the Dragon (Fox)
• Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (Paramount)
• The Last Samurai (Warner)
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Fox)
• Lethal Weapon (Warner)
• The Maltese Falcon (Warner)
• The Manchurian Candidate (2004) (Paramount)
• The Mask (New Line)
• The Matrix (Warner)
• The Matrix Reloaded (Warner)
• The Matrix Revolutions (Warner)
• Maverick (Warner)
• Million Dollar Baby (Warner)
• Mission: Impossible (Paramount)
• Mission: Impossible 2 (Paramount)
• Mission: Impossible 3 (Paramount)
• The Music Man (Warner)
• Mutiny on the Bounty (Warner)
• Mystic River (Warner)
• Next of Kin (Warner)
• North by Northwest (Warner)
• Ocean's Eleven (Warner)
• Ocean's Twelve (Warner)
• Passenger 57 (Warner)
• The Perfect Storm (Warner)
• Phantom of the Opera (2004) (Warner)
• The Player (New Line)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Buena Vista)
• The Polar Express (Warner)
• Poseidon (Warner)
• Rambo: First Blood (Lionsgate)
• Red Planet (Warner)
• Reservoir Dogs (Lionsgate)
• Rumor Has It (Warner)
• Rush Hour (New Line)
• Sahara (Paramount)
• Save the Last Dance (Paramount)
• School of Rock (Paramount)
• See No Evil (Lionsgate)
• Sense and Sensibility (Sony)
• Se7en (New Line)
• The Shining (1980) (Warner)
• Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Paramount)
• Sleepy Hollow (Paramount)
• Soldier (Warner)
• The Sopranos: Season One (HBO)
• Spawn (New Line)
• Spongebob Squarepants: The Movie (Paramount)
• Stargate (Lionsgate)
• Stargate: Atlantis - Season One (Sony)
• Star Trek: First Contact (Paramount)
• Superman Returns (Warner)
• Superman: Ultimate Collector's Edition (Warner)
• Swordfish (Warner)
• Syriana (Warner)
• Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (Warner)
• Total Recall (Lionsgate)
• Training Day (Warner)
• Troy (Warner)
• Twister (Warner)
• Under Siege (Warner)
• Unforgiven (Warner)
• U.S. Marshals (Warner)
• U2: Rattle and Hum (Paramount)
• Vanilla Sky (Paramount)
• We Were Soldiers (Paramount)
• Wild Wild West (Warner)

[HSC]

Boo-Ray

[Packetfront]

DeadRay i would say if they EVER get anything out this year.

[ash]

LOTR Trilogy EE is what I want!

[1080 jawbreaker]

not a fan of Sony, and there ******** over hyped/priced kak so i hope Blunder-ray finds storage space along side betamax,MD,UMD :) etc................

as fot titles not released on HD-DVD there are ways around that due to distribution rights in varoius regions.

[BadAss]

DeadRay i would say if they EVER get anything out this year.

More players, more Discs, more choice of player, more choice of price. What more do you want? How about a BD player with a free console to go with it?

No you guys want the choice of one player, one manufacturer, only 40% of movies and no free console.

You guys make me laugh.

[mattym]

there are some serious Sony-haters out there and i really cant see why, if you dont like it, dont buy it. anyone would think Sony regularly get kittens and liquidise them infront of small children!

[BadAss]

there are some serious Sony-haters out there and i really cant see why, if you dont like it, dont buy it. anyone would think Sony regularly get kittens and liquidise them infront of small children!

You know when its coming to the crunch, when all the knives come out.:smashin:

[1080 jawbreaker]

it all comes down to price and value for money. BR is a rip off plain and simple. Theres no reason Sony's first player cant retail for $500. Except for the fact there stuff is always over priced

[BadAss]

it all comes down to price and value for money. BR is a rip off plain and simple.

Lets see, HD-DVD player, £500 at a guess.

And, PS3 a BD player with free state of the art console, £400 at a guess.

Where is the rip off? In fact the PS3 is the best value for money player you could ever get.

Come on, BD has HD-DVD beat at any angle. Why don't you just wait and buy your HD-DVD and be happy and let us buy our BD players and be happy?

[spikerules]

Resident Evil: Apocalypse out before the cinema or is it strait to video?

[BadAss]

Resident Evil: Apocalypse out before the cinema or is it strait to video?

Eh?

[spikerules]

oops... sorry I got Apocalypse confused with the third film 'Extinction'.

[LFCRules]

RE:Apocalypse was out in 2004, see here (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318627/) :smashin:

[BadAss]

oops... sorry I got Apocalypse confused with the third film 'Extinction'.

Lol that actually sounds like a decent title for a third film. That will probably be given away with HD-DVDs in japan as they did RE.;)

[BadAss]

Lets hope the new MJ movie, Ultraviolet is a good one.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/ultraviolet/

Its another Sony title so dont expect to see this one on HD-DVD any time soon.

[1080 jawbreaker]

Lets see, HD-DVD player, £500 at a guess.

And, PS3 a BD player with free state of the art console, £400 at a guess.

Where is the rip off? In fact the PS3 is the best value for money player you could ever get.

Come on, BD has HD-DVD beat at any angle. Why don't you just wait and buy your HD-DVD and be happy and let us buy our BD players and be happy?

The last price announcement for ps3 was $900. No wonder its been delayed

I wouldnt touch HD-DVD at £500 either. Personnally i think it will be £330.

Cant say BD has HD-DVD beat, only + is studio support. No studio will stay loyal to BR. Fox and disney were dead against DVD and supported divx. Didnt take them long before they came around though :)

[1080 jawbreaker]

Lets hope the new MJ movie, Ultraviolet is a good one.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/ultraviolet/

Its another Sony title so dont expect to see this one on HD-DVD any time soon.


Res Evil apocalypse is avail on HD-DVD and thats a Sony movie :cool: its all about distribution rights :grin:

[odiwan]

hello

the list is bigger than expected, warner titles are the most interesting for me, i like BR, but i'm a sony-hater too

[BadAss]

The last price announcement for ps3 was $900. No wonder its been delayed

I wouldnt touch HD-DVD at £500 either. Personnally i think it will be £330.

Cant say BD has HD-DVD beat, only + is studio support. No studio will stay loyal to BR. Fox and disney were dead against DVD and supported divx. Didnt take them long before they came around though :)

Hi 1080 jawbreaker, I just see alot of people kicking themsleves for chooseing a limited format. I don't know if you visit the AVS forums but you can see their how the HD-DVD launch is going. Alot of people their have players but no software. Thats some launch. And those that do have software have between 1 and 3 titles. Its not the launch the HD-DVD camp were looking for.

[BadAss]

Res Evil apocalypse is avail on HD-DVD and thats a Sony movie :cool: its all about distribution rights :grin:

Fare comment, but the majority of Sony titles will be BD exclusive. Some one else commented that RE had different distribution rights in Japan but who knows?

[1080 jawbreaker]

Fare comment, but the majority of Sony titles will be BD exclusive. Some one else commented that RE had different distribution rights in Japan but who knows?

Its not just Japan. Stuff released in the US can be released in the UK by a diffrent distributor, it works both ways.

Kill Bill is another example :)

[1080 jawbreaker]

Hi 1080 jawbreaker, I just see alot of people kicking themsleves for chooseing a limited format. I don't know if you visit the AVS forums but you can see their how the HD-DVD launch is going. Alot of people their have players but no software. Thats some launch. And those that do have software have between 1 and 3 titles. Its not the launch the HD-DVD camp were looking for.

More titles getting released week by week and by the time theres a PC drive available (no im not gonna butcher the tosh standalone player for one) :) there will be plenty of choice

[jon smith]

I don't know if you visit the AVS forums but you can see their how the HD-DVD launch is going. Alot of people their have players but no software. Thats some launch. And those that do have software have between 1 and 3 titles. Its not the launch the HD-DVD camp were looking for.

The official HD-DVD launch date is today, some managed to buy the players early but couldn't buy the software early.

From your list there are 8 Blu-Ray titles available on the 23rd May. When is the first Blu-Ray player coming out?

[Noggin1980]

Hi 1080 jawbreaker, I just see alot of people kicking themsleves for chooseing a limited format. I don't know if you visit the AVS forums but you can see their how the HD-DVD launch is going. Alot of people their have players but no software. Thats some launch. And those that do have software have between 1 and 3 titles. Its not the launch the HD-DVD camp were looking for.

Rubbish, the HD-DVD launch is today and hasn't even started as I write this. The players wern't street dated though and thus all the stores allowed them to be sold on Thursday when they arrived. The movies were street dated for today so only some stores allowed the movies to be sold at the same time as the player.

Edit - Since you are critiseing the HD-DVD release that has players and movies both set to release on the same date, I'm sure you are going to be absolutly scathing about the Blu-ray release that has movies you can't play availible at least a month before the players? anything else would complete hypocrisy right?

[Noggin1980]

Lets see, HD-DVD player, £500 at a guess.

And, PS3 a BD player with free state of the art console, £400 at a guess.

Where is the rip off? In fact the PS3 is the best value for money player you could ever get.

Come on, BD has HD-DVD beat at any angle. Why don't you just wait and buy your HD-DVD and be happy and let us buy our BD players and be happy?

Thats a terrible guess. There is nothing to suggest we will pay anything like 500 pounds for a HD-DVD player. its being sold for $499 in the states. 300 pounds is way more like it.

Remeber of course if you wanted too by the time the ps3 is released you could buy the 360+hd-dvd add on for a very similar price to the PS3. I personally won't be as I want a standalone player and not a console for my movies. High powered consoles are a little too noisy unfortunatly.

[MartinImber]

There are a few there I would buy!

[Noggin1980]

There are a few there I would buy!

Me too, It's a great and worthwhile list from Badass:thumbsup: , shame the thread got spoiled with silly posts like "deadray" followed by Badass going into full fanboy retaliation mode, facts be damned.

[HSC]

Me too, It's a great and worthwhile list from Badass:thumbsup: , shame the thread got spoiled with silly posts like "deadray" followed by Badass going into full fanboy retaliation mode, facts be damned.



the most basic fact for me is that Boo-Ray does not include madatory managed copy.

when I pay for something I expect to do reasonable things with it.....I DO NOT take kindly to Sony et al limiting my usage

[Noggin1980]

the most basic fact for me is that Boo-Ray does not include madatory managed copy.

when I pay for something I expect to do reasonable things with it.....I DO NOT take kindly to Sony et al limiting my usage

Actually it does now. Blu-ray is far more palatable to the consumer than it was looking like it was going to be a couple of months ago. HP really made a difference.

Now it looks like very few studios will use ICT and we have mandatory managed copy, there is no need to have the player attached to the internet which was another worry. Blu-ray have seen a lot of sense recently. I wouldn't actually mind them winning now though I still have a slight HD-DVD preference due to cost/region coding mostly

Edited to provide sources.

1.13 Will Blu-ray support mandatory managed copy?

Yes, mandatory managed copy (MMC) will be part of the Blu-ray format. This feature will enable consumers to make legal copies of their Blu-ray movies that can be transferred over a home network. Please note that "mandatory" refers to the movies having to offer this capability, while it will be up to each hardware manufacturer to decide if they want to support this feature.

http://www.blu-ray.com/faq

[satinder]

it all comes down to price and value for money. BR is a rip off plain and simple. Theres no reason Sony's first player cant retail for $500. Except for the fact there stuff is always over priced

You are wrong, all new tech stuff is overpriced including HD-DVD and when the true 1920x1080 HDtvs come out they will be overpriced as well. If your able to buy the superior product (i.e. your loaded!) then you will get superior quality and satisfaction.

As a final note to all the Sony haters, remember that HD is all about higher quality and you need storage to get that. Thats really the only reason why BR is better whether you like it or hate it, HD-DVD has 30 gig dual-layer compared to 50 gig on the BR. If you are really into HD then BR is what you want.

I cant wait to see after all this hype and speculation who if anyone will win the HD battle.

Sat

[Noggin1980]

As a final note to all the Sony haters, remember that HD is all about higher quality and you need storage to get that. Thats really the only reason why BR is better whether you like it or hate it, HD-DVD has 30 gig dual-layer compared to 50 gig on the BR. If you are really into HD then BR is what you want.

Of course HD needs large capacity but 30Gb is large capacity. You can fit a 1080p 3 hour movie + extras + high def audio on a 30Gb disk.

The only advantages Blu-rays higher capacity gives is TV series can be on less discs and if you are useing the drive to back up on a PC more space is obviously good.

All the original HD-DVD discs launched today are on 30Gb discs and all the Blu-ray movies launched next month are on 25Gb discs? Under your logic the HD-DVD movies will be better but they won't, they will be the same (any differences will not be down to capacity concerns anyway)

However if and this seems likely dual layer blue ray discs are more than double as expensive as single layer blu-ray discs then both the advantages disapear. If the studios have to chose between haveing a series on 4 discs or 2 discs and the former makes them more profit which will they chose?

If we PC owners have to chose between backing up our hardrive on 3 discs or 6 and the former costs 10 pounds and the later costs 5 then most people will take the extra disc swaps (having the choice though is of course a good thing, but PC backups are the only area I see any sort of real capacity advantage).

People can repeat it as many times as they like but the capacity differences between the 2 formats is not far off completely irrelevent at least for movies.

I cant wait to see after all this hype and speculation who if anyone will win the HD battle.

I just hope whichever way it goes its quick. I'd love to be unwrapping HD-DVD or Blu-ray discs at christmas time safe in the knowledge that the format is going to last.

[bbdivo]

Hi 1080 jawbreaker, I just see alot of people kicking themsleves for chooseing a limited format. I don't know if you visit the AVS forums but you can see their how the HD-DVD launch is going. Alot of people their have players but no software. Thats some launch. And those that do have software have between 1 and 3 titles. Its not the launch the HD-DVD camp were looking for.


What software are you talking about, don't you mean movies?

[shaithis]

Is BabAss the lead PR for Sony Blu-Ray? If not, perhaps they should employ him ;) Thats some executive straw-clutching going on....

As for the launch titles, there are a few there I would consider but still have to echo.....Whens the first player coming out? I thought it was months later then those dates you've listed...

[Noggin1980]

What software are you talking about, don't you mean movies?

yeah he means movies but he was twisting the facts to suit his arguement. HD-DVD was offically released today. In fact the shops are just opening on the East coast as I type.

The Movies Phamtom of the opera, Serentity, Last Samurai and players are both availible today on the official release date.

Some shops sold the players on thursday as they wern't street dated but weren't willing to sell the movies meaning some people had a player a few days before the movies. Other shops were willing to break street date and so some lucky people had movies and player a few days before release. Million dollar baby will be availible in a couple of days I think.

[lfletcher]

Is BabAss the lead PR for Sony Blu-Ray? If not, perhaps they should employ him ;) Thats some executive straw-clutching going on....
Who is this BabAss you speak of? :grin:

As for the launch titles, there are a few there I would consider but still have to echo.....Whens the first player coming out? I thought it was months later then those dates you've listed...Samsung player is supposed to be out around June 26th (hence why Lionsgate delayed their releases till then). Next up should be the Pioneer in July, then Sony, then Panasonic.

[Noggin1980]

Is BabAss the lead PR for Sony Blu-Ray? If not, perhaps they should employ him ;) Thats some executive straw-clutching going on....

As for the launch titles, there are a few there I would consider but still have to echo.....Whens the first player coming out? I thought it was months later then those dates you've listed...

The first Bluray player is now due June 25th and is the samsung player. That is just over a month after the first Blu-ray discs are released. It retails for $1000 and no blu-ray player is expected to be cheaper than that for quite some time.

edit - beaten by lfletcher, must type faster :p

[shaithis]

It retails for $1000 and no blu-ray player is expected to be cheaper than that for quite some time.

Bah! I normally throw money at new tech but I really can't justify throwing $1k at a player that may become obsolete VERY fast....and $1k for a SAMSUNG? Come on.... :(

[MartinImber]

Me too, It's a great and worthwhile list from Badass:thumbsup: , shame the thread got spoiled with silly posts like "deadray" followed by Badass going into full fanboy retaliation mode, facts be damned.

Fifth Element first!

[tazpc]

I have to say this thread has taken a bit of a downturn. Badass had a few valid points to make, to shout fanboy is a tad OTT and not reasoned debate. The launch of HD-DVD has been interesting to watch from this side of the pond. It has been a lukewarm reaction from a rather long 50+ page thread on another forum group with a similar name( you know who I mean). We do not know the UK prices yet for either BD or HD-DVD nor the pros and cons of each technology apart from what the manufacturers have given out. The only real feed back is when both hit the street. that does not mean I'm sitting on the fence. As with a lot of people I have a limited budget and as I have enjoyed my PS2 in the past will get a PS3 to dip my toe in the water of HD. I am not sure which will prevail and if Blu-ray takes off then probably invest in a dedicated player. Either way can enjoy some games in the meanwhile. If HD-DVD takes off I will get a dedicated HD-DVD player knowing that I could still play my BD on the PS3.

Tariq

[Noggin1980]

Badass had a few valid points to make, to shout fanboy is a tad OTT and not reasoned debate.

The HD-DVD player is $500 US yet he decided that meant we would pay 500 pounds here. Since sometimes we do pay a similar price in pounds than to dollars its not too unfair to have that viewpoint.

However to assume that we will pay 500 pounds for a HD-DVD player than then assume that wouldn't be the case for the PS3. Means he has taken 1 side of the argument for HD-DVD since it supports his point and then changed tact completely for his second sentence so it supports his point again. That is not fair and unbalanced.

Then he criticises the fact the movies and players are not available at the same time for the HD-DVD launch, when they are (it was only stores selling the players a few days early that meant some people had to wait a couple of days without media, which he would know if he read the thread he was talking about), of course while this supposedly shows that HD-DVD is terrible in his eyes he doesn't think the same about the fact that Blu-ray media are more than a month different in release date to the players. How is that fair and balanced?

You only have to have read his other comments to know that he doesn't take a fair and unbalanced view point on bluray, he has decided its the best, its going to win period and isn't open for discussion,. Once you have that reputation it sticks with you across your other posts.

He’s not the only person posting fanboy comments rather than the facts. In fact he was baited into it by people spoiling his very decent original post (which I had thanked him for) with stupid "boo-ray" "Dead-ray comments"

[Noggin1980]

It has been a lukewarm reaction from a rather long 50+ page thread on another forum group with a similar name( you know who I mean).

You are allowed to talk about www.avsforums.com I belive it is a sister site? even if its not you often see people directed there when they are Americans and post here by mistake.

It has been a relativly luke warm launch. Mostly I think due to the lack of players so advertiseing the launch would have been pointless. Most of the problems seem very minor though, dodgy down button on the remote, DTS showing on amps rather than DD and 1080i looking much better than 720p even on 720p screens. Most comments have been very positive. If you ignore the comments from the guy with the most posts on the thread about 70 posts on that thread who eventually realised the image quality disapointment was down to his settings. Most comments seem to say that the image quality is as good as Dtheater but without any of the D-VHS problems. I don't think we could really have asked for more.

I think the reaction overall has been great, there were very few OMG, its amazing true but then alot of people on that thread already have D-VHS or have been watching HD movies for a long time on cable etc. So for them its a small jump.

[tazpc]

Valid points if I'd read his other posts. Reading through this thread you can see he has sided with Blu-ray. their are proponents on both sides. Their doesn't seem to have been a huge WOW factor that I was expecting. It may be down to movies (a lot of talk of grain in TLS). And again a valid point as to where you are coming from Standard DVD,upconverting DVD or D-VHS. At present their is no like for like comparision.

Tariq

[Noggin1980]

(a lot of talk of grain in TLS)

intentional from the director isn't it? not something I like personally. Same with war of the worlds.

I've read the same thread (took hours) and while I agree there is very little WOW, people saying its as good as Dtheater (though not as good as the very best ones like Irobot) means that the picture quality is absolutly fantastic. People are saying its pretty much as good as the master too. No macroblocking etc. I think if they show it to us here there would be alot more WOW as we arn't used to all the HD as they are.

The only really image quality complaint is with 720p but changing to 1080i on the 720p panel fixes it. So no issue as far as I'm concerned and it sounds likes its a very capable player with upscaling as well.

I agree with you though and to be honest though I'm kinda glad im not in the US. I'd be tempted to spend my money but really I think its best to wait for a second gen player without the little issues and hopefully by then know a bit more about weather the format is going to suceed. It sounds like the player is a bit slow too.

I just hope it takes off quickly or dies quickly.

[tazpc]

No i dont like the grain either. I think it is such a shame a single format couldn't be agreed upon. A reasonably quick death/success would be best for the consumer.

Tariq

[SAH]

I've been scanning through this forum over the last few weeks and there seems to be an unhealthy (anti) Sony obsession by some!

Who cares who 'wins' the format war, we all know both formats with live side by side, played on multi format players, just as the DVD recordable formats did.

All I will say is you'd have to be crazy not to admit Sony have a HUGE advantage in this battle with the PS3 and it's Blu-Ray support. That alone will guarantee a long and successful shelf life for Blu-Ray.

And before someone mentions UMD's, they cannot be compared with Blu-Ray as you could rip DVD's to the PSP's memory card.

[Noggin1980]

I don't think people prefering HD-DVD has anything to do with being anti sony for the most part(there are a few of course). HD-DVD is simply a better format for the consumer than Blu-ray, although thanks to Blu-ray getting manadatory copy and most studios droping ICT the formats are much closer. Region encoding and price are still two big down points for Blu-ray.

If those 2 points were rectified then my support would change from HD-DVD to blu-ray. Blu-rays biggest +point is the fact it has more studio support, something that could easily change if HD-DVD takes off.

[tazpc]

Sony probably will have an advantage. It may win. The point I was making was one about there being no like for like comparision yet. Sony are a company like many others it has to fight to win and that is a good thing because otherwise there would be monopolies and much higher prices. I wont be buying a dedicated HD player whether it be Blu-ray or HD-DVD until this is sorted out by the markets. Sony bashers can buy Pioneer et al if they wish. Its the format not the company that interests me. (mind you a pioneer BD player would be nice with my kit;) )

Lets see what happens when the dust settles.

Tariq

[SAH]

Do you not think it's a fuss over nothing, just like recordable DVD.

Only DVD-RAM failed due to the cases and very high cost.

The general public will siimply buy a 'HD' film, whatever format, and play it on a multi format player, assuming most will be multi format by the time the mainstream take up HD DVD/BR.

HD-DVD will have the name association benfit, Blu-Ray the PS3 marketing/hype behind it.

I'll buy a PS3 for the games AND BR, and probably a 360 and HD-DVD drive. If either format fails, you still have the games to fall back on.

I'll not buy a dedicated (multi-format) player until 2007

[Noggin1980]

I'm not sure if we are going to get multiformat players though. Aparantly the licenceing agreement prevents manufactures from making them. However I've seen some say they are going too so I'm a little confused about that.

A quick google shows many sites that say Lg has offically announced a dual format player though when you read the articles the actual quote is "LG is a supporter of Blu-ray and is now considering a dual format player for later this year," said John Taylor, a U.S. spokesman for the Korean company. concidering isn't quite the same as offically annoceing they will.

However I assume they must have found away around the licencing issue to be concidering a dual format player.

Since the formats have different coating thickness's and use different lens apatures the players are probably going to be more complex to make and thus maybe more expensive than the normal players. Hopefully the manufactures though will get any problems sorted.

[jon smith]

Is it possible that every post other than the first one could be deleted. I posted on here in response to a comment about the poor launch, but the main info on this (and Noggin's HD-DVD one) is actually very useful for someone seriously considering importing.

EDIT: Badass has gone back into Fanboy mode so i take all this back.

[1080 jawbreaker]

You are wrong, all new tech stuff is overpriced including HD-DVD and when the true 1920x1080 HDtvs come out they will be overpriced as well. If your able to buy the superior product (i.e. your loaded!) then you will get superior quality and satisfaction.

As a final note to all the Sony haters, remember that HD is all about higher quality and you need storage to get that. Thats really the only reason why BR is better whether you like it or hate it, HD-DVD has 30 gig dual-layer compared to 50 gig on the BR. If you are really into HD then BR is what you want.

I cant wait to see after all this hype and speculation who if anyone will win the HD battle.

Sat
BR's extra storage doesnt count for anything if they are using Mpeg2, which Sony want to use on there titles

[BadAss]

Don't you just hate 12 hour shifts, you get to miss all the fun.:smashin:

Ok some people think I'm a Sony fanboy but let me clarify why I've chosen BD over HD-DVD.

First off I want a PS3 for GT5, which will be plugged into my PJ for some large screen racing action, nothing wrong there I hear you say.
So with a PS3 I get a BD drive free and I've already stated I'm prepared to wait until Nov to find out if its as good as my PC is for HD. If not, funds permitting after Christmas I'll buy a stand alone player, probably a quality Pioneer model with True HD decoding which will save me buying another processor. Can you see how far ahead I'm thinking?

In the mean time if a BD PC drive came out for around £150 before Nov I would snap one up sharpish.

Secondly I want the widest possible choice of movies to play on my new machine and only BD will give me this with 90% studio support.

I think I've looked at this so call war very fairly. Whats fair about Toshiba rushing its HD-DVD launch to get a jump start on BD?

[Nic Rhodes]

I'm not sure if we are going to get multiformat players though. Aparantly the licenceing agreement prevents manufactures from making them.

I think we will ;) there is much dodgy info floating around. :rolleyes:

[BadAss]

Is BabAss the lead PR for Sony Blu-Ray? If not, perhaps they should employ him ;) Thats some executive straw-clutching going on....

As for the launch titles, there are a few there I would consider but still have to echo.....Whens the first player coming out? I thought it was months later then those dates you've listed...

I don't realy care when players become available, I'm not rushing out and buying the first one that appears, I'm not in a race to save my ass like MS/Toshiba.

[Noggin1980]

I think we will ;) there is much dodgy info floating around. :rolleyes:

was your :rolleyes: infering I was giving out dodgy information? or have I misunderstood you quoteing that small part of my post? because my post was clear in indicateing that the information from the media about this was confusing to me and that there was conflicting information I gave both sides of what the media and press releases have told us.

that is why I said I wasn't sure about dual format players.

[Noggin1980]

Having a preference doesn't make you a fanboy. Twisting the facts and posting heavily biased things along with comments like

I'm not in a race to save my ass like MS/Toshiba

make you a fanboy.

[BadAss]

So Toshiba didn't rush out the release of its HD-A1 player then? Reading on the AVS forums it sounds like they did. They already have a thread listing firmware changes they want to see, and this is from day 1.

[Noggin1980]

So Toshiba didn't rush out the release of its HD-A1 player then? Reading on the AVS forums it sounds like they did. They already have a thread listing firmware changes they want to see, and this is from day 1.

I'm sure that Toshiba did everything they could to get their product out to market as early as possible. I'm also sure the Blu-ray companies are doing the same.

Rush I think is an unfair word. Both HD-DVD and Blu-ray has been delayed multiple times. If they were just rushing any old thing out we would have seen them both some time ago. HD-DVD was always expected to be first to market because of the fact the disc structure is so close to DVD. A lot less needs to be changed on factories to make them able to make HD-DVDs.

Yes there is a few minor problems with the first players but I think anyone buying into new technology in the first generation knew that may happen and will likly happen with Blu-ray too. The fact the player does the important things right at a very cheap (relativly) price means its been a success. It has the picture quality of DTheater without the issues and it has a great upscaler for dvds too. Little things will be fixed with a firmware update. Yes the remote is poor but that is soon fixed with a good universal remote like a harmony After all these are very different to DVD players and are closer to PC's really.

I think its a good idea if you are patient enough to wait for the second gen of these players weather you are for HD-DVD or Blu-ray, but when it comes to it, its hard to be that patient. If I had a best buy down the road I'd probably be enjoying a player now on as loud as possible to drown out my wife shouting at me

Badass you seem to have missed my question asking what you think of Blu-ray players being over a month away from the movies since you were unfairly so critical of HD-DVD movies not being available to everyone at the same time as the players. Come on be objective for once please

[Ian_S]

Well personally I don't give a monkeys about which format will win as long as one does and it does it very quickly!! :lease:
From a picture quality point of view there's nothing in it. They're both generating either 720 or 1080 pictures, both can use mpeg-4 based compression, both use the same DD or DTS based sound formats... They'll probably even offer very similar interactive features on those movies that get released on both formats.

1080p with mpeg 4 compression and DTS-HD or DD TrueHD mastered properly in the first place is going to be indistinguishable as the how the info is stored is irrelevant.

As someone who enjoys photography with a DSLR and has stupid GB's worth of pictures, the fact that Blu-ray potentially can get 50GB on one disc is certainly attractive, but only if the price per GB of the blank disc is in the same ball park as HD-DVD...

What I don't want is to have to chose films to watch based on the type of player I have... Also, given the massive difference between the operating software used in the two camps, universal players are going to be difficult, they'll be a bit like having a dual-boot PC. Which mode do you boot into today?

I've bought a lot of Sony gear in the past, but I will freely admit I'm a bit miffed with them after their crass attempts to install software onto your PC from CD's without your knowledge or permission. However, I don't for one second believe they're the only ones up to such tricks, they simply got caught. Dual-disc is the latest attempt which seems to have slipped under most people's radar. How many new CD releases these days actually have a CD logo on them?? If it doesn't carry the logo, who knows what they're up to when you put that disc in your PC??

The battle here is not the DVD disc format but the operating system and control of your living room. Why else would M$ take a perfectly good mpeg-4 standard and develop something themselves called VC-1? Do you want MS controlling your PC and your living room or Sony/Philips whose operating environment is based on more open software like Java controlling your entertainment. Neither will be any better than the other ultimately for copyright control, they won't be happy there until you pay per second for viewing any material. :thumbsdow

[Nic Rhodes]

was your :rolleyes: infering I was giving out dodgy information? or have I misunderstood you quoteing that small part of my post? because my post was clear in indicateing that the information from the media about this was confusing to me and that there was conflicting information I gave both sides of what the media and press releases have told us.

that is why I said I wasn't sure about dual format players.

You WILL get dual format players, despite some of 'press releases'.:hiya:

[Noggin1980]

You WILL get dual format players, despite some of 'press releases'.:hiya:

Hopefully they will be affordable reasonably quickly.

[BadAss]

Badass you seem to have missed my question asking what you think of Blu-ray players being over a month away from the movies since you were unfairly so critical of HD-DVD movies not being available to everyone at the same time as the players. Come on be objective for once please

I thought I did answer that question by saying It does not affect me because unless a PC drive comes out before hand I wont be buying them.

But if a drive comes out in June/July then it will be great to go to the shops and have a choice of what movies I want to buy rather than be stuck with three movies, none of which were any good, two of which I already own.

Buy the end of June there should be over 20 BD titles, ready for the first wave of players.

[Noggin1980]

I thought I did answer that question by saying It does not affect me because unless a PC drive comes out before I wont be buying them.

The HD-DVD launch didn't affect you either but you were critical that the discs didn't get released at the same time as the players (even though offically they did). I was asking if you going to be fair and also be critical off Blu-ray for the movies and disks being over a month apart which is far worse that what you were critical of HD-DVD for.

I wanted to see if you were capable of taking an unbiased view. Indirectly you have certainly answered that.

But if a drive comes out in June/July then it will be great to go to the shops and have a choice of what movies I want to buy rather than be stuck with three movies, none of which were any good, two of which I already own.

HD-DVD will have 14 movies out over the next month, The list only goes up to 23 May so there is another month + before blu-ray is released after that. I'd expect both formats to have a similar ammount of titles at blu-ray launch date.

My wife saw the Blu-ray release day that includes of Hitch, 50 first dates and a knights tale and said you can have one of those :thumbsup: Though I think she would have assumed it was 300 pounds ish. Since that is what I told her HD-DVD would likely cost.

[Noggin1980]

You WILL get dual format players, despite some of 'press releases'.:hiya:

Further to your point I've just read this on the avsforums posted by amir who I think works for MS. He certainly works for someone important on the HD-DVD side.

I can assure you that there is absolutely no such prohibition on the HD DVD side. Indeed, every HD DVD meeting starts with an attorney reminding companies that the work there can not stop anyone from developing competing solutions.

While I am not privy to practices of BD companies, I would likewise, be shocked that they would have an exclusionary policy there.

All of this talk started with a statement from a Samsung USA rep. I believe what he really meant to say is that in practice, you lose some of your friends when you choose to support the other side. And that such pressure, may stop some companies form supporting other formats. Rather any direct license limitation.

Anyway, we see that LG can develop universal players. So any doubt here should be clear now.

Amir

So as you say it looks like the no universal players were simply poor reporting from the media or a misleading comment from samsung. Good news

[shaithis]

Who is really going to buy an LG dual-format player though? Apart from someone who doesn't want/need the better quality.....and if they don't, why are they bothering with HD at all?

I have used a fair amount of LG kit and hated every peice of it. Wouldn't touch the stuff with a bargepole and they seem to be the only company (bar Samsung) whos name is coming forth as a dual-format player maker.

Also, the talk seems to indicate that we won't see any very soon at all.

I am still getting the feeling that for consumer reasons, HD-DVD will come out on-top and end the war, but still can't bring myself to order the Toshiba player....theres something not quite right about it:(

[BadAss]

I am still getting the feeling that for consumer reasons, HD-DVD will come out on-top and end the war, but still can't bring myself to order the Toshiba player....theres something not quite right about it:(

:eek: :rotfl:

[Nic Rhodes]

Who is really going to buy an LG dual-format player though? :(

The same ones who insist on 'universal players for CD / DVD / DVD A / SACD and then don't use most of their capabilities because they are normally sub standard performance.

[Noggin1980]

Who is really going to buy an LG dual-format player though? Apart from someone who doesn't want/need the better quality.....and if they don't, why are they bothering with HD at all?

True and I'd expect them to be expensive, if the cheapest Blu-ray is $999 with many players closer to $1500 then its difficult to see a combined Blu-ray and HD-DVD player being cheap enough to buy. They will have to be paying licences to both formats too which won't help.

I am still getting the feeling that for consumer reasons, HD-DVD will come out on-top and end the war, but still can't bring myself to order the Toshiba player....theres something not quite right about it

A little slow, a little buggy, a little noisy makes me want to wait for a second gen player too. I might feel differently if I lived in the US though. 300 pounds for a great upscaling player and HD-DVD player is good value, when you pay postage, vat and import duty though its a little much for me. I can't see Blu-ray at at 300 pound price point that is acceptable to me other than the ps3 for at least 18 months :(

[shaithis]

:eek: :rotfl:

I am sure the Tosh is still be a better HD-DVD player then the PS3 will be a BD player though :grin: