Home Technology Has HD-DVD stolen the trophy?

Has HD-DVD stolen the trophy?

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Don Lindich, a well respected audiophile,  has posted a lengthy but well written article on why he think HD-DVD will win this format war…

Which can be summed up in this one simple point…

It is impossible for me to recommend someone spend double on an unfinished product that merely matches the performance of its competitor. That goes completely against common sense and any reasonable person would agree.

And before anyone jumps up and down about how Blu-Ray is outselling HD-DVD 2:1 take this into consideration

In a week, the Transformers DVD, a single title in a sea of DVDs on the racks, sold TWICE as many copies as all Blu-ray and HD DVD titles, EVER SOLD, COMBINED

In other words the amount of discs sold already is so minute that numbers don’t mean anything yet. HD-DVD is just as good as Blu-Ray and miles cheaper. There is no reason to think that is ever going to change which leaves us with no good reason to buy Blu-Ray…

I have to say I didn’t see HD-DVD winning this war in the beginning but they are in the lead at the moment IMHO

Welcome, Blu-ray fans! (And HD DVD fans too.)

[Thanks to J4NR1K for the tip]

Last Updated: November 13, 2007

25 Comments

  1. Freakerc

    November 13, 2007 at 11:30

    I dont see the point of HD-DVD if it has already run out of space?!? They had to drop the audio of Transformers to 5.1 just to fit it on. So theres no uncompressed 5.1 or 7.1 sound.

    Reply

  2. Fred

    November 13, 2007 at 11:38

    Blu-ray is in the lead as it has always been IMHO.

    Reply

  3. hilt_ctn

    November 13, 2007 at 11:42

    I think it’s a tad unfair to compare DVD sales to that of new formats ( regardless of HD-DVD or Blu-ray ) HD format players have a much smaller install base at the momment

    As Freakerc mention, one of the formats is already out of space. I’m not elluding to Blu-ray being superior, but to the fact that consumers are driving the need for HD formats. We want more, so were going to get more, one way or another. HD formats are here to stay, and they’re only going to grow sales wise

    Reply

  4. JP

    November 13, 2007 at 12:02

    I say this guy is one of the first to actually speak common sense. The first two replies are probably people who have a PS3 so they are biased.

    I don’t own either a PS3 or an Xbox360 and I support HD-DVD.

    The no region codes is the thing that does it for me.

    Reply

  5. doobiwan

    November 13, 2007 at 12:10

    Come now “out of space” because it could fit a ****ton of useless data on it? Why don’t we just cry that BR can’t fit “uncompressed video” as well and be complete tossers?

    “lossless audio” is complete nonsense and is only there for the bullet point. I don’t hear anyone complaining about “crappy” DVD audio, do you? No, quite the contrary. The Hi quality compressed audio on both formats is fantastic enough that no-one is going to notice the difference.

    That’s besides the technical point that HD-DVD triple layer can now carry up to 52Gb of data – 2 more than 2 layer BR.

    Reply

  6. Abev

    November 13, 2007 at 12:22

    Im sorry, but no no no.
    Jp we all know you are super biased against sony and BD, so know ones cares what you think even if it your opinion.
    Im sure some feel the same about me, but hey atleast I try back up my claims.

    We all know that BD is the superior format in terms of technology, no one can argue this! Its a simple and pure fact.

    Doobiwan, that triple layer HD DVD requires a different player as far as Im aware, and the BD camp already have multilayer disks in production which go up to and beyond 200Gb.

    The only thing keeping HD DVD and Toshiba in this war are the flogging on sub standard player in a desperate move not to lose.

    BD will win this war IMHO 😉

    Reply

  7. hilt_ctn

    November 13, 2007 at 12:24

    @ doobiwan

    ” Come now “out of space” because it could fit a ****ton of useless data on it? ”

    I’m with you there. I very seldom dig into extra features on disc. But there are those folks out there that want every last bit of info crammed onto their media ( wether it be useless features or uncompressed sound )

    Peoples use of space outweighs their need of space. Give a guy a 20GB hardrive and he wont fill it. Give him a 120GB and he’ll fill it in a week with useless junk that he cant bare to part with

    When Blu-Ray does quad layer, it will be 100GB. So that one is kinda moot

    The fact is consumers are driving this – end of story

    Reply

  8. J4NR1K

    November 13, 2007 at 12:40

    All optical media will be dead in 10 years.

    Reply

  9. doobiwan

    November 13, 2007 at 13:51

    I agree J4N.

    Reply

  10. Craig Nicholson

    November 13, 2007 at 14:43

    I have to say that technically Blu-Ray is superior but I must add that its just a stepping stone. And I believe its a very little stepping stone that too many people are getting way too excited about and getting their knickers in a knot.

    At the end of the day the porn industry leads the format wars so that means HD-DVD will win this round. Why? Because its cheaper to produce and less restrictive to use.

    I personally expect that I’ll hold out until someone brings some really innovative solution to the party providing copious amounts of storage capacity that we couldn’t dream of exceeding in our lifetimes.

    Reply

  11. Fred

    November 13, 2007 at 15:12

    Ok , let’s look at the software sales 2 months from now to see who is really winning , i bet it will be 75/25 in blu’s favor. And i know dvd will sell craploads more. Porn is not a factor , seriously , how many of us regularly buy porn on dvd.
    We also did not need games to go hidef , but who is complaining now that they are , i’m sure you would not like to play halo3 or UT3 in 480 line resolution.

    Reply

  12. Burns ZA

    November 13, 2007 at 17:19

    Porn is still the biggest consumer of discs. It’s just a matter of time until they go HD (they already have in small numbers).

    Reply

  13. XennoX

    November 13, 2007 at 20:19

    “i’m sure you would not like to play halo3 or UT3 in 480 line resolution”

    That is just plain stupid and extremely misinformed. Congrats you take the cake for being the least informed of the whole community.

    Your screen resolution has nothing to do with the amount of space available on a disc. It is the setting on the console. Guess what Fred, without an HDTV you run Heavenly sword @ 480p and that is on a Blu-ray disc.

    Reply

  14. Milesh Bhana

    November 13, 2007 at 22:00

    It’s not the technology that matters anyway people. Like with the console war it really comes down to two things

    1) Price of entry (HD-DVD is winning here…$99 players FTW!)
    2) Titles!! (Blue-Ray is winning here)

    Technology? Let’s see
    1080p video… check on both counts. But you need an HD-TV, these are coming down in price nicely… R6000 for a budget 32″

    Loseless audio… yes for Blue-Ray, sometimes yes for HD-DVD. Here the price barrier starts mattering. A high end system (which you’ll need to actually notice the difference) is still expensive with the amp alone setting you back R7000.

    My point, at current prices there will be more people with HD-TVs than high end home theatres. So at the moment it’s a moot point. However, if this becomes mainstream, then naturally prices will drop.

    Reply

  15. Abev

    November 14, 2007 at 08:16

    Problem is those $99 players arnt 1080p.

    Reply

  16. Fred

    November 14, 2007 at 08:23

    I know you do not need high capacity discs for high-def games , but you do need them for high def movies. I was just referring to the need for a hd format disk to exist as oppossed to dvd … FOR MOVIES!!

    Reply

  17. LazySAGamer

    November 14, 2007 at 09:13

    @Abev, that is a good point however you can’t see any difference between 720p and 1080p unless your TVis larger than 46″ which 99% of HDTV’s are not…

    Reply

  18. hilt_ctn

    November 14, 2007 at 09:27

    I think Milesh hit the nail on the head. If you have a halfway decent system, you’ll appreciate the features.

    If you have a halfway decent system, you also WONT be buying a cheap HD player reminiscent of a ” Suckydvdshi ” sold by Hi-Fi Corruption. It will only serve to dampen your systems performance

    Reply

  19. Burns ZA

    November 14, 2007 at 10:26

    You know what – the consumer will decide where this goes. With technology moving at a rate unseen before, consumers are demanding more – we want faster computers, better consoles, cellphones that are as feature rich as a laptop and hard drives that store more data than we can possibly fill… Technology is not driven by what is wanted now but what is required in the future – it will be regressive to continue with a technology that is already battling to fit on disc what the competition does without trouble. The flip side of the coin is ‘price-point’. With Blu Ray being expensive it may just continue to nibble at the consumer who can afford it until the next best thing comes along. HD-DVD may take off in a big way if Toshiba continue to roll out cheap players and the pron industry latches on but I feel the next big thing is around the corner and this battle will be short lived. Sooner or later the two camps will come to their senses and realise that a mutually designed media would make more financial sense.

    Reply

  20. XennoX

    November 14, 2007 at 10:40

    Fred, not once in your post did you refer to MOVIES, you referred to GAMES.

    Reply

  21. TheAlteredState

    November 14, 2007 at 10:50

    @XennoX:
    Right, but runnig games in higher resolutions would require more detailed textures yes? But that doesn’t take up space of course…..

    @LazySAGamer: When I went to go buy my LCD, I brought my PS3 with to test, and I saw a big difference between the 720p screen and the FullHD 1080p screen.
    Granted that at a glance, you won’t see the difference, but come now, don’t fool yourself!

    Reply

  22. Fred

    November 14, 2007 at 11:17

    Ok , my mistake , i should not have mentioned the games at all …

    Reply

  23. LazySAGamer

    November 14, 2007 at 11:25

    @TheAlteredState, I am no audio expert so I can’t say for sure. But from everything I have been told and read on the internet you will be hard pressed to see a difference between 720p and 1080p on anything under 46″
    If you do see a difference it will be so minor as to border on insignificant.

    Reply

  24. XennoX

    November 14, 2007 at 15:29

    @ TheAlteredState, tell me, if you are changing the resolution of the screen, you are changing the resolution of the picture presented, correct?

    Now how does changing the screen resolution change the size of the texture?

    Reply

  25. doobiwan

    November 14, 2007 at 15:56

    “Mass market” won’t be buying 1080p’s they’ll be buying cheap 720p/1080i’s.

    “Mass Market” can afford a $179 Toshiba.

    Besides 1080 res is 1080 res. the big 1080p sets deinterlace 1080i anyway.

    Reply

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