[Rasczak]

Well Warner's decision to go Blu-ray exclusive has certainly turned the high def war on it's head. Whilst HD DVD still sports three exclusive studios there now must be questions over it's future. Time will tell on that but I'm interested to see whether forum users think the move is positive or negative? And this seems to divide down into two areas. Firstly the adoption rates - many here have been concerned that with two formats the average consumer would be put off from buying into high def. Secondly, and probably of more concern to those here, is what will happen to disc quality - picture, audio and special features?

Personally I see things as having taken a turn for the worse. I don't see how having one format will really help adoption figures - I think it's too early for the average consumer to buy into high def yet so I'm not sure the format war was putting that many off. But on the disc quality side I am extremely disappointed - Warner were a big support of TrueHD soundtracks on HD DVD and we are slowly starting to see receivers that accept bitstream out. With the move to Blu-ray we will now see the trend towards PCM.

I guess we'll see how things pan out - it'll be interesting to come back to this thread two years from now and see what has happened.

[sdb123]

Would it be an idea to add a poll to the thread?

EDIT: I see it's now been added...

[Abbeygoo]

It will also be interesting to see how this decision affects sales of hardware as the BluRay loving PS3 may well take advantage .....

[featherhall]

really need to see how it pans out. One thing for sure is that I wont be buying any new HDDVD's until I am convinced otherwise.
I also doubt I will buy Blueray as well (a PS3),

I am seriously peeved off, and probably will now just probably leave the HD format war (as it has become) completely until such times as a clear winner is confirmed. As usual, it is us early adopters who make new technology progress and win but lose out in the end.

Maybe a knee jerk reaction, but I honestly feel that I will no longer buy into this scene at all now until there is a clear winner. I have just counted, and I have 40 (FORTY) HDDVD's. I may as well have bent over in hindsight. Home entertainment - Bahhh

[Abbeygoo]

Get them all on the classifieds now for a tenner each and buy yourself a PS3

[BenchyUK]

It's bad for me becuase i'm a HD-DVD owner but good because we do need there to be only 1 format

[Dave H]

being a PS3 owner I think it is a great move.
I have over 50 Blu Rays and want to buy a few HD exclusive films as well.
so the sooner we have one format the better.

Dave.

[Rasczak]

Originally Posted by Dave H

being a PS3 owner I think it is a great move.
I have over 50 Blu Rays and want to buy a few HD exclusive films as well.

Dave, the thread/poll isn't about what is best personally for each of us - it's whether we think we will see a positive/negative effect on adoption and/or disc quality.

[robfjonesuk]

I believe it is a good thing. I own both formats but have been holding back on buying discs until as I didn't want to end up with loads of discs that would end up sitting on a shelf once I got rid of my 360/PS3. Surely this is something that has been affecting many other people as well and perhaps even stopping them from joining in on the HD bandwagon.

[Rasczak]

Originally Posted by robfjonesuk

I believe it is a good thing. I own both formats but have been holding back on buying discs until as I didn't want to end up with loads of discs that would end up sitting on a shelf once I got rid of my 360/PS3.

The thing is though - the fact that, subject to a HD DVD comeback, we are now looking at a single format doesn't necessarily guarantee anymore likelihood of adoption than before. Infact as player prices and functionality will no longer be pushed by HD DVD it might be hampered further.

[chelsea.tone]

This is great news for ALL, everyone should welcome it

Tony

[fluffrick]

Well, it's forcing our hands pretty much. I don't know that it's a good thing, particularly given the negative aspects of the Blu-Ray format (inconsistant and unpredictable region coding, discs with great storage capacities which still can't port over the special features that we get on SD DVD, etc) but it makes the decision somewhat more straightforward for floating voters.

I have a bunch of Warner back catalogue films in my (now thankfully) slender HD DVD collection, so I guess that I'll be continuing to buy their classics on BD when I pick up a player.

From my perspective, the format war appears to have been decided, but I know that others will disagree on this...

[elicash73]

Originally Posted by Rasczak

The thing is though - the fact that, subject to a HD DVD comeback, we are now looking at a single format doesn't necessarily guarantee anymore likelihood of adoption than before. Infact as player prices and functionality will no longer be pushed by HD DVD it might be hampered further.

Why would Sony, or either side for that matter, spend all this time or money to eliminate their rival only to stay in phase #1. Of course they are going to bring it to the consumer.

Sony have said it themselves; they are still in early-adopter phase. Its not a question of whether Sony are prepared to win the hearts and minds of average consumers but a question of whether the consumers want to listen. Time will tell on that one but I know of many sensible people who were sitting on the fence until one format had been declared.

If there is a big market for HDM, prices will fall naturally as they did with DVD.

[Pincho Paxton]

I don't understand why the poll is so targetted on Disc Quality.. I don't think the disc quality is part of the equation at all. In about 500 posts nobody has hardly mentioned disc quality. Disc quality is part of the natural progression of HD.

[nero0410]

It's not really very fair, as a vast majority of consumers cant afford to have hd dvd and bluray, so one or the other formats will miss out on their faveorite films if they already have one or the other.

Just forces me to wait for the winner if I were to ever go down the hd or bluray path

tris

[Rasczak]

Originally Posted by Pincho Paxton

I don't think the disc quality is part of the equation at all. In about 500 posts nobody has hardly mentioned disc quality. Disc quality is part of the natural progression of HD.

The 500 posts thing is quite telling actually isn't it - people are more concerned about the war and winning/losing than the actually quality.

I've mentioned it a few times about the TrueHD/PCM issue. Warner traditionally (with a few exceptions like 300) put PCM on Blu-ray and TrueHD on HD DVD. The latter may not be better when output as PCM from a player, but I think numerous demos have now made a good case for bitstream out to a receiver being a better option. And of course that can't be done with PCM. The main reason I have always favoured Warner HD DVD over their Blu-rays was for this reason - even now I consider my TrueHD HD DVD to be more future proofed than the PCM Blu-rays that I already accept I will need to upgrade.

Secondly Warner are moving from a fully interactive environment to the mess of Blu-ray profiles. Accordingly it is timeout for the likes of the interactivity seen in Charlie & The Chocolate Factory. At least for the time being. Now I'm not sure if this is good or bad - if it was refocusing on the likes of lossless audio then I'd be all for that - but it's not. It's just going into hiatus until BD sorts itself out.

Thirdly who knows where things will go on the encoding side now. Have Warner retained their close links with Microsoft and VC1? Are they gong to slew to AVC? Which encoders have they purchased? All open questions at the moment - hopefully all will be non-issues.

And finally DRM? Will we see Warner start to adopt DRM and Region Coding now the 'equal on both' strategy no longer needs to apply? Warner voted enthusiastically for RPC in 2005/2006 when it was suggested and agreed by the BDA. They've never used it since but will it apply?

In summary then we are entering a state of flux - will things be better or worse quality wise? I don't know - none of us do - but it's a journey we are now all undertaking whether we like it or not. But as you say - 500 posts and nobody is concerned about quality. So maybe few care?

[elicash73]

Firstly, I don't think there'll be any sour grapes over this debacle. Example, Sony and Toshiba are currently co-developing a method of wirelessly streaming video content from players to tvs, which will be showcased at CES. As for as codecs go, I don't see any reason why anyone would take a backward step in quality. It's in Blu-rays interest to impress as many potential customers as possible now. It won't do this by issuing poor quality encodes.


Regardless of the pros and cons for both format, whether it be pcm vs truehd or 50gb vs 30gb, there was no way that both formats could have co-existed and been successful with anyone other than early-adopters and enthusiasts. At least now there is a good chance of succeeding which means more titles available at lower prices (and I don't mean BOGOF promotions). Let economies of scale take their course.

Region-coding is a pain. The sensible option would be to region-code new releases and leave catalog titles region free, thus preserving income channels for international distributors.

[Prime Time]

The quality of Warner brothers releases on Blu-ray now have the potential to improve dramatically. After May 2008 they can now utilise the full 50gb capacity of the Blu-ray disc which has the potential to lead to further improvements in picture quality.

In spite of people saying that HD-DVD is good enough HD-DVD/Blu-ray releases like Blood Diamond had compression artefacts which were due to the length of the movie and the bitrate used. Warners move to Blu-ray exclusivity with the increased video/audio bandwith that the format offers is a good thing and will hopefully mean that their Blu-ray releases will be better than they would otherwise have been.

As a home cinema fan I am happy that the format with the better technical specifications now looks likely to win.

[sore napper]

The move for WB's to go BR has put me of the whole HD Market altogether. Over the past few months I have been looking at HD Players and was actual about to make the step up. Now I think I'll just pass on it altogether.

I think that it's a joke the market has been so heavily influenced by a gaming console.

[Pincho Paxton]

Originally Posted by sore napper

The move for WB's to go BR has put me of the whole HD Market altogether. Over the past few months I have been looking at HD Players and was actual about to make the step up. Now I think I'll just pass on it altogether.

I think that it's a joke the market has been so heavily influenced by a gaming console.

So WB have put you off HD altogether. Really? I doubt I could tell my mind to prefer DVD over HD, because I am talking about being enthralled by an experience, and my mind prefers to be enthralled than opinionated. Prices are the deciding factor. Is my entertainment balanced by the cost? In the near future it surely will be.

[phildh]

On one hand it makes things simpler, but on the other hand I do wonder if it will increase the mentality of "I dont know whats going to happen in this thing any more, I'm even more likely to stay away now because who knows what will happen in six months time".

Wouldnt it be insane now if another big studio made the opposite decision?

I can't take all the drama!

I for one liked all the crazy interactivity stuff HDDVD was pushing out, and its a real shame to loose that, was never one of those bitrate fiends, so I think disc quality will be reduced in that respect.

[Pincho Paxton]

Originally Posted by phildh

On one hand it makes things simpler, but on the other hand I do wonder if it will increase the mentality of "I dont know whats going to happen in this thing any more, I'm even more likely to stay away now because who knows what will happen in six months time".

Wouldnt it be insane now if another big studio made the opposite decision?

I can't take all the drama!

I for one liked all the crazy interactivity stuff HDDVD was pushing out, and its a real shame to loose that, was never one of those bitrate fiends, so I think disc quality will be reduced in that respect.

Interactivity is part of Blu Ray as well, profile 1.1 allows that, it has only just been introduced.

[sore napper]

Originally Posted by Pincho Paxton

So WB have put you off HD altogether. Really? I doubt I could tell my mind to prefer DVD over HD, because I am talking about being enthralled by an experience, and my mind prefers to be enthralled than opinionated. Prices are the deciding factor. Is my entertainment balanced by the cost? In the near future it surely will be.

I don't remember saying that I prefer SD over any of the HD Formats. I've only seen a few examples of HD Formats and I can honestly say that I thought they looked good.

HD DVD was cheaper to buy into over BR DVD, but if BR have the market I'm sure the prices will drop. HD DVD was Region Free, not all BR DVD's from around the world can be played on UK Players or PS3's. Perhaps that might change, it would need to.

BR has a larger disc capacity over HD DVD, but I'm not sure that's enough to sell me on a format. A lot of DVD's only use half of they disc capacity for their movies, and in my eyes the quality in picture and sound can be outstanding. So that leads me to think that when a format settles, the compression and encoding of movies we become better and less space we be needed for a movie.

I'm not going to pretend that I know enough to argue with someone over these formats, so I'll not.

I should also say that I'm a movie fan. A bad movie still looks bad no matter how good it looks, and there's far to many good looking bad movies out there.

[Pincho Paxton]

Originally Posted by sore napper

I don't remember saying that I prefer SD over any of the HD Formats. I've only seen a few examples of HD Formats and I can honestly say that I thought they looked good.

HD DVD was cheaper to buy into over BR DVD, but if BR have the market I'm sure the prices will drop. HD DVD was Region Free, not all BR DVD's from around the world can be played on UK Players or PS3's. Perhaps that might change, it would need to.

BR has a larger disc capacity over HD DVD, but I'm not sure that's enough to sell me on a format. A lot of DVD's only use half of they disc capacity for their movies, and in my eyes the quality in picture and sound can be outstanding. So that leads me to think that when a format settles, the compression and encoding of movies we become better and less space we be needed for a movie.

I'm not going to pretend that I know enough to argue with someone over these formats, so I'll not.

prefer, is short for preference, and you said that you did not want HD anymore. The only other option to HD is DVD. So DVD would have to be your preference if you did not want HD. It's simple logic.

[phildh]

Originally Posted by Pincho Paxton

Interactivity is part of Blu Ray as well, profile 1.1 allows that, it has only just been introduced.

My apologies. I used "interactivity" as a generic term for all the internet connected stuff, like in transformers.

Who knows when we are going to get feature parity such as that with BD? (and the hardware/software combination to support it).

[Rasczak]

Originally Posted by Pincho Paxton

So DVD would have to be your preference if you did not want HD. It's simple logic.

Well there is the like of SkyHD - or, for those of dubious morals, piracy.

[FOXCLOSE]

Originally Posted by sore napper

I think that it's a joke the market has been so heavily influenced by a gaming console.

Xbox HD-DVD add on was an influence for the format as well.

But yeah, the PS3 looks like its won it for Sony. Just goes to show you how gaming and movies are almost like per like, amongst certain age groups.

[Rasczak]

I see Fox's latest title announcements have reverted from AVC back to MPEG2 (and on one count a BD25/MPEG2 combi). A result of Blu-ray now not having to compete with HD DVD, or just unhappy co-incidence?

[Spidey987]

I really think it's just a coincidence. Format war or not, I think the signs are that FOX were always going to be a shoddy studio and competition from HD DVD or the likes of Disney on Blu-ray were never going to push them to release better catalogue discs.

[av addict]

Positively improve adoption rates and disc quality is winning,cannot see disc quality improving,how will it ,i can see fox ,sony ,warner now stepping up there release schedule,and the blokes doing the endoding for the blu-ray discs
not being given anoth time to do it properly,,,,now that blu ray has won,,whos going to out do them now they have no-one to compete with----

i hope not i hope theres still a steady release schedule like now and we still get top qualtiy releases