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HD disc format wars..
RitualOfTheTrout - Jan 18, 2006
  RitualOfTheTrout Jan 18, 2006
After reading some articles about the two different upcoming formats for HD movies I think im leaning more towards HD DVD

HD DVD seems like its going to be more reliable, cheaper to produce media / players and have less rediculous security measures attached to it. On top of that its going to use a new video codec.

Blue Ray on the other hand, while it can hold more data due to its delicate .85 laser appature (DVD is .6 and HD DVD is .65) it seems to be alot more expensive and the discs will be more sensative to scratches. Its also going to incorporate a slew of copy protections which can be a good thing so long as its not taken to far. IMO the worst part of blue ray is the fact its going to use Mpeg2. I think its time for Mpeg 2 to go away its nearly 11 years old now and if you are making the jump to different media why not at least improve the codec aswell.

Just wondering what everyone elses opinion of the two is.

 it290 Jan 18, 2006
I agree about improving the codec, but then again, MPEG 2 is faster to encode and with the size of a blu-ray disc, you'll be able to fit lots of HD content even using MPEG2 instead of 4. But yeah, as I see it right now, the only thing blu-ray really has going for it is capacity. Granted that's a pretty big one, but I don't think it's enough to make up for the ridiculous copy protection measures and such... blu-ray discs can supposedly actually destroy themselves under certain circumstances.

 EliteEvi; Jan 19, 2006
Apparently sony have the technology to lock games to a single machine, but they are not ging to implement it on the PS3. Hopefully that means they will not be adding ludicrous copy protection to new games.

The only people copy protection really harms are those who buy the legit version; I have bought many games only for them to tell me I have clone CD installed and then spend ages trawling through the registry trying to delete anything linked, wheras those with a hacked exe can get in immediately.

 lordofduct Jan 22, 2006
I totally understand using anti-piracy stuff... when done proper.

The stuff that has been used in videogame consoles to date is rather reasonable (though I think the region block shit is bunk). But WTF is it with actually tampering with the God damn media itself?

Like the music CDs that install that software on your computer just to listen to it... they fuck up your computer and some CD players don't recognize them.

Or this shit about self terminating itself (the BLUray)

And I am guessing you mean that when you say "lock games to a single machine" you mean once the game is played on your console it won't play on any other console. WTF? No more bringing my game to my friends? No more VideoStore rentals? And worse... what if my console breaks and i have to buy a new one... which is common with Sony. I have to buy my entire library again?

I am getting fed up with this shit... and they are going after the wrong people. Stop hurting the consumer... go after the pirates... the ones who MAKE MONEY off of it... hence being called pirates. You're not a pirate if you aren't profiting.

 Kuta Jan 22, 2006
The way video rentals will work is they will burn the disc for you on the nightyou rent it and the disc will be disigned to degrade after a couple of days and make the surface unreadable. As for taking your game to a friends place, well I don't know about anyone else but I don't have many friends and its not like I would let them lay their filthy hands on my games anyway :lol:

 lordofduct Jan 22, 2006
I don't think they'd want to train the drugged out monkeys at movie stores how to do that... AND that takes time... the average burn will take 10 or 20 minutes at the very minimum (thats some high wishing) couple that with the fact corporations are cheap about hardware and the amount of wear a tear they'd receive... the cost would be so high rentals would double and customers would get angry from wait times.

As for games... I still stand by my friend debate AND especially my broken hardware.

 RitualOfTheTrout Jan 23, 2006
Yeah just wait until Windows Vista comes on the new blu ray disc and sets fire to itself inside your new blue ray drive after the install is complete :lol:

I guess I shouldnt laugh as that is something microsoft would try...

If it was simply a matter of storage medium Id probably be mroe in favor of blu ray, but like I said in the original post HD-DVD is going to be cheaper to implment, probably more reliable, and finally introduce a new codec.

And I hafta agree with Lordofduct with the security stuff, It needs to be done but not at the cost of enjoyment and usability of the consumer.

 EliteEvi; Jan 23, 2006
Whatever formats used they cannot be worse than steam.

 Malakai Jan 23, 2006
It looks like Toshiba will be releasing an HD-DVD player within about three months, and it will retail for $499. This isn't a bad price for a first player, but with these new HD dvd players also comes new HD surround sound types. Three new types will be supported with this player: Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD (2 Channel), and DTS-HD. I wonder if the first and third are true 7.1.

I imagine that these will all be compatible with stereo/rca/dolby pro logic, but who knows if it'll be backwards compatible with the receivers we already have in ac-3 or dts.

 RitualOfTheTrout Jan 23, 2006
I did recently read an article that the new Dolby prologic format will be compatible with "legacy" audio recievers.

I havent read anything about the others.

 lordofduct Jan 23, 2006
Yet another reason for my cousin to go out and spend thousands of more dollars on his already 15000 dollar home theatre system.

yes fifteen THOUSAND

 Malakai Jan 24, 2006
Ya know, Dolby 7.1, DTS 7.1, and SDDS 7.1 have been out in theaters for awhile, and we home users have only got 6.1, and receivers that claim to be 7.1 that only copy the 6th channel into two channels. So, we really need a true 7.1 system. Maybe we'll get one now.

I'm more worried about content though. Which HD dvd player will have the most support for movies and studios? How much are movies generally going to cost for both? What I don't want to see is movies costing as much as they did on laserdiscs ($30-$50+) or selectivision video discs ($40-$200), or even the Digital HDVCR tapes ($30+), even at the initial price. Who ever is going to win the format wars will probably have to sell the movies for the same price as DVDs usually come out, which is between $15 and $20, even though I'm sure a lot of people would be willing to spend $30 on a couple High Def movies.