Which format?

[mparter]

Is there a website available which can tell you which format a movie is likely to be released on?

[SeedyR]

As far I know it's pretty much every studio going to be releasing their films on blu-ray, with Universal being the only one not.

Warner and Paramount are also releasing HD-DVDs too. So probably best to see what studios make you favourites to see what format to choose.

Remember though, studios could easily start producing for the other format, if they wished so.

[AES256]

For BD region B releases, sites like Sendit, Play and Amazon UK will list what's available. lfletcher's sticky thread is a good resource for researching region A releases that will play on your region B player (about a third of them do).

For HD DVD releases Amazon US is a good place to start.
And for HD DVD releases elsewhere in the world these sites are a useful resource:
http://hdworld.iforumer.com/viewforu...mforum=hdworld
http://www.dvdaficionado.com/dvds.ht...inition.hd-dvd
http://www.area-hd.de/

[AML]

Another good bit of advice is to compare a movie that has been released on both formats so you can see which version is best.

It tends to be the HD DVD version because of things like the HD DVD version offering Dolby True HD while the Blu Ray version only supports Dolby Digital.

An example would be the recent movie "Happy Feet" which got a better review on HD DVD for that very reason.

Video wise they tend to be the same transfers so you wont see any difference there, but the Audio can vary quite a lot.

This site reviews all releases on both formats and is a good place to compare different versions:

http://www.highdefdigest.com/

[AES256]

Originally Posted by AML

Video wise they tend to be the same transfers so you wont see any difference there ...

This is not correct. Many BD movies are MPEG-2 encoded (used for SD DVD as well). Some AVC. Only Warner encodes their BD releases with VC-1 if I'm not mistaken; this is certainly the case with their more recent releases.
Most HD DVD films are encoded with VC-1 and some with AVC.

Now as to the arguments about which encode format is best. For that I suggest that you do your own research on the insider thread on AVS
In brief however, MPEG-2 is an older format, compared to VC-1 and AVC which are new, more "intelligent" and better at compression; therefore the smaller size of VC-1 encoded films with resulting PQ being equal or better when compared to similar efforts made with MPEG-2.

Aside from compression rates and resulting file sizes the different encode formats are also different in that at which they're good - see details on the AVS thread that I mentioned - with many people preferring VC-1. AVC can hold its own in a few areas, and MPEG-2 can produce excellent results as well (see Casino Royale) but takes up a lot more disc space in doing so.

Here's the AVS insider thread for research purposes if you're interested:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=774635

[mparter]

Cheers for the replies guys.

What I was getting at though was trying to anticipate which format a movie would be released on before it was actually announced. For example, I'd love Saving Private Ryan to come out on HD DVD but will that be the case?

You could go on past studio releases but as has been pointed out, they can (and will) release on other formats as/when they choose.