Which is More Consumer Friendly: HD DVD or Blu-ray?

[Yella Fella]

I see both sides of the format war, and despite the lesser support for HD-DVD, I do feel that they are a good contender to achieve a higher status within the hi def community; despite loosing warner bro's to the bluray dept.

Discuss

http://www.reuters.com/article/blogB...pbz8uOa7TWsLnV

[MDX]

Ask your average Joe if he knows what Blu-Ray or HD-DVD is....

I would like to bet that 98% of the people i work with have no idea what Blu-Ray is, but with HD-DVD its all in the name.

I perfer HD-DVD (full spec lists, no region coding etc) but i am a format nutural as i wanted the best of both worlds.

[supermackem]

Cost, set features, no region codeing, all add up to hddvd being more consumer friendly but when has that ever stopped a format losing.

[Greg]

On the face of it HD-DVD should be winning, but clearly Blu-ray is.

But despite all the threads about the decision and various merits of either format, they are both totally insignificant when compared to SD DVDs, it will be a good few years yet before any format is mass market. Just gauge it from family that may have visited at Christmas for example.

Most of mine had no idea what Blu-ray (or Blutooth as one called it ) is. They also didn't really know what HD DVD was, but as it stands for High Definition DVD, most of them could work it out.

I just hope whatever happens that it is mass market enough for it to last on whichever format for many years.

I'm format neutral so this war doesn't bother me, but for which format to go for? Best bet is to look at the films that interest you and decide from that. The reason I went neutral was that many films I wanted to watch were only on HD DVD and only on Blu-ray. With the recent decision, then who knows?

[Yella Fella]

I agree, im a neutral to an extent though I have invested in HD-DVD at the current moment. I have asked all me mates and none of them tend to care. There is one sony fanboy at work who rants on about bluray, but end of the day, I buy the films if I like em regardless of format.

[davepuma]

I would say that HDDVD edges it, purely based on costs of players and the fact the discs are region free. That said, I haven't had one single problem with a bluray disc and my only problem with BD is the fact that it is region coded and I've already bought one disc in error and had to send it back. I wish I could say that about HDDVD, I've had lipsync issues and jerky playback from my HDDVD player. Both formats have a long way to go before they convince the majority of consumers to take the plunge.

[Hot Fuzz]

Over 65% of Blu-rays are region free.

All Warner Blu-rays are region free, in fact any studio can chose to region code, or not, their releases.

If Universal are happy with the region free model on HD-DVD, their future Blu-ray releases can also be region free.

For companies like New Line however, who have seperate distribution deals around the world, they require region coding for new releases, i.e Shoot em Up, Hairspray and Rush Hour 3, that are already out on BLu-ray, but delayed on HD-DVD.

[tonyk79]

I dont think one is any more consumer friendly than the other and both suffer from serious flaws in the high street at the moment. They are both poorly merchandised and should you go into any High Street retailer, the price of Blu Ray and HD-DVD discs are terribly expensive compared to DVD's.

Superman Returns in HMV is priced at £27.99(£23.99 web) on HD-DVD thats 5 times the cost of the DVD version(£4.99 web) and prices like this are ones of the main reasons the consumer is confused.

Blu Ray sales are largely down to the PS3 as said, with 8 million PS3's sold worldwide and whatever stand alone Blu Ray players its easy to see why Warner has went for them.

I own the Xbox 360 add on and at £99 it was a fantastic buy at the price and if it was not for this I would not have bought HD-DVD, or any Blu Ray player.

[HummerUK]

One thing I like about the PS3 as a Blu-Ray player is to play a disc all you have to do is slide the disc into the power load tray (even when in standby).

Machine starts up, sucks disc in and starts playing the disc and all in a very short time.

Now with my EP35 I press open and WAIT

[sinizterguy]

More consumer friendly ? I would have to go with HD-DVD

Region free, no players with three million different profiles (although I am sure they will turn up at some point).

[Yella Fella]

with regards to New Line, I still dont get what they have done cos I have noticed them releasing Rush Hour 3 on BD, but the thing is that its already out in the UK, so surely it be fine to be released on HD?

Plus take your minds back to when DVD was first released around 96, or it could be after that (my dad bought one in hong kong), DVD's were like 20quid new

[jimihifi]

Originally Posted by Yella Fella

with regards to New Line, I still dont get what they have done cos I have noticed them releasing Rush Hour 3 on BD, but the thing is that its already out in the UK, so surely it be fine to be released on HD?

Plus take your minds back to when DVD was first released around 96, or it could be after that (my dad bought one in hong kong), DVD's were like 20quid new

The more I think about it the more Im sure, that New Line was never intending to release anything on HD DVD at all. All the talk about having to stagger the releases due to RC and no RC is just nonsense.

Makes you wonder if they were aware of Warners decision along time ago....

[jimihifi]

Originally Posted by tonyk79

I dont think one is any more consumer friendly than the other and both suffer from serious flaws in the high street at the moment. They are both poorly merchandised and should you go into any High Street retailer, the price of Blu Ray and HD-DVD discs are terribly expensive compared to DVD's.

Superman Returns in HMV is priced at £27.99(£23.99 web) on HD-DVD thats 5 times the cost of the DVD version(£4.99 web) and prices like this are ones of the main reasons the consumer is confused.

Blu Ray sales are largely down to the PS3 as said, with 8 million PS3's sold worldwide and whatever stand alone Blu Ray players its easy to see why Warner has went for them.

I own the Xbox 360 add on and at £99 it was a fantastic buy at the price and if it was not for this I would not have bought HD-DVD, or any Blu Ray player.

This is my main bugbear with HD at the moment. I was an early adopter of DVD and I remember the days of films costing £20 a pop (some even higher) and I know that they dropped over time.

However, the prices of HD films in stores is currently is way over the top.
£30 is alot to ask people to pay just for a film. Okay so you could argue that they get a lot of content for their money what with all the extras etc, but what about someone like me who has no interest in them at all?

I just want to watch the films I like with the best possible picture and sound.

Another point is that at the moment people just dont have the disposable income that they may have done during the DVD boom. We are currently paying the highest amount of tax per person for years, not just income, but car, fuel, council tax + gas & elec going up.

People just dont want to start paying out for premium goods when they can get the 'next best equivalent' (DVD) player & films for peanuts.