Region coding hassle delays HD DVD Hairspray

[The News Bot]

New Line Home Entertainment says that it will support both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats, but in a twist, says it will give certain releases a Blu-ray window of exclusivity because of the lack of region coding on HD DVD. Consequently, the studio will launch hit musical Hairspray on November 20 in the US, but will [...]
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[visionrider]

Easy answer import from USA cheaper as well just got 300 on HDDVD USA £17.99 delivered UK 27.99 nice saveing and it is combo disc normal oneside HDDVD other best of all worlds

[grahammills]

US 300 is £15 new on amazon and the UK version is £23.99 on play.com
It will most likely come down to £17.99 when released like many others.

Most top BD movies can be found for 17.99 on play, amazon or HMV, which is not bad considering some DVDs are still that price.

It looks like the studios are starting to realise the problems with the lack of region encoding and poor encryption of HD DVD.

[Paulleahey]

Originally Posted by grahammills

It looks like the studios are starting to realise the problems with the lack of region encoding and poor encryption of HD DVD.

Have you even experienced any of the top HD-DVD titles? There is absolutely no poor encryption on King Kong, The Hulk, Hot Fuzz & The Matrix to name but 4!

And no other studio is currently concerned with no region encoding so what do New Line know that nobody else does?

Can't exactly say anyone will be concerned about their release of Hairspray anyway!! lol Not exactly their best title to debut onto Hi Def formats!

[KenB2]

Hi,

I think Grahammills meant 'encryption' as in data security not picture quality – or at least that was my take on the post , HD-DVD has been cracked on more than one occasion now.

Its not a film I'm in a hurry to see either...

Ken B.

[grahammills]

Originally Posted by KenB2

I think Grahammills meant 'encryption' as in data security not picture quality – or at least that was my take on the post , HD-DVD has been cracked on more than one occasion now.

That is what I meant.
As far as i'm aware BD uses more keys and also an extra different key type protect the discs.

Picture quality is about the same at the moment, but as BD has more capacity when more extras and HD audio are added the HD DVD discs may have to compress something more to get them on the disc.

e.g. say a movie with all the best audio/video quality plus extras just fits onto a 50GB BD disc, how is same material going to fit on a HD DVD?

I'm not taking sides just looking at the technical side.

Hey we all know Beta is better than VHS but somehow VHS won. Could the same happen with BD and HD DVD?

[Paulleahey]

Apologies Graham - I thought you meant encoding - my bad! DOH!

At the minute i'm guessing the 2-disc editions of HD-DVD is the way out for them - a la Transformers, Face/Off, etc - make the first disc jam packed with the movie in the highest bitrate and HD audio as possible with commentaries etc and then the 2nd disc with all the extras. And it still has the potential to cost the same as the single BluRay disc!

Until the 51Gb HD-DVD arrives....
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh...1GB_HD_DVD/949

Not holding my breath though!

[paulfoley]

"HD-DVD has been cracked on more than one occasion now."

Play fair, there is as many Blu Ray Torrents now as HD-DVD. Some people are even watching Blu Ray rips on their Xbox 360 (WMVHD's)!

[KenB2]

True, but it was weakenesses in PC HD-DVD player software security that got the ball rolling...

Personally, I actually own HD-DVD myself because they have gone less mad on the copy protection, I find most these systems get in your face too much anyway - I like the region free nature of HD-DVD for example. That does not mean I am completely ignoring Blu Ray, but I'm in no great hurry to jump in just yet.

Ken B.