Tech news

[andrewducker]

HD-DVD is officially dead.

Which means that the next-gen physical format is Blu-Ray.

But seeing as the discs are massively more expensive (quick check - DVD of HP:Azkaban is £7, Blu-Ray is £17), I'm not convinced that it's going to be that successful for a while yet.

Having bought an upscaling DVD player, and been ecstatically happy with the image that that provides, I don't think that I'll be rushing out to buy a Blu-Ray player for the near future.

Possibly when the current DVD player dies.

Comments

[chuma.livejournal.com]

I'm still not convinced Blu-ray isn't just the next mini-disc. The quality difference between DVD and Blu-ray is marginal enough that it doesn't warrant the extra cash. I wouldn't be surprised if there is something all singing and all dancing that comes out in a few of years time around the time of the next batch of consoles. I'm still not going to buy a PS3 anyhow.

[andrewducker]

The difference between them can be quite small - depending on whether you're talking about 720p or 1080p. See see here for a handy illustration.

Of course, on a screen less than 50" across, it's debatable how obvious this difference is...

[sbisson.livejournal.com]

Very little difference below 40".

The sad thing about the whole thing for me is that having met folk from both sides of the camp, the HD DVD folks were all about enjoying good quality films, the BluRay folk were all about controlling access to media in the home. That's a BIG philosophical difference.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

I agree ... but then lots of people stuck with VHS for years after DVD came out and it was only the combination of convenience (they took up less shelf space and didn't get chewed up by the machine) and functionality (skip to chapter, menus, EXTRAs) that got most people on board, eventually.

The trouble is, at present, Blu-Ray is the same size and has pretty much the same features, so there's no real reason to get a Blu-Ray disc unless you have the andrewducker recommended 50" screen that can handle 1080p and probably a sound system to match ... and while the analog switch off will get more people over to HD-Ready sets, as you and Andrew say, there's almost no visible or audible difference.

So I think it may well be a "mini-disc" situation (having said which, I have two minidisc hi-fi separates and at least five portables!)

[andrewducker]

Yeah - DVD does 5.1 very happily, and I don't know anyone that has more speakers than that!

Actually, my amp does 7.1, but so far as I know only one movie has ever been released that supports it!

[dreema.livejournal.com]

yeah, my amp does 6.1, and there's only a handful of films out there that do that (LOTR extended trilogy being one lot)

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

OOC, where are you finding the price disparity of HD-DVD to Blu-ray titles?

In my local area, the prices are pretty much neck and neck. And if you check out http://www.dvdpricesearch.com, it indexes a bunch of DVD sites, and I can't seem to find a disparity there, either.

[andrewducker]

Not HD-DVD to Blu-Ray, DVD to Blu-Ray. Checking that site for Azkaban, DVD is $7.50 and Blu-Ray is $20.

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

Oh! Jeez. Now I feel silly.

[andrewducker]

Try working it off with some C# :->