BobMurdoch;988619]Oh please......
Sony sabotaged unification efforts at every turn, just as they have always done.
It was not Sony who walked out but Toshiba and M$.
It sticks in their craw that the lion's share of the royalties went to Toshiba in the DVD spec, and they were determined to flip that this time. Nevermind that similar tactics failed with Beta, Minidisc, SA-CD, the list goes on and on .....
And yet Sony gave up the Vhs/Beta war to Toshiba and then on the DVD specs they fell right in line with everyone else. So when both Toshiba and Sony brought forth a new HD standard for discs and most chose the BD side why did not Toshiba fall in line? Who was being greedy here by forcing a format war nobody wanted? Toshiba did not want a new dvd format that would not keep paying them royalties and M$ stepped in to offer a big wallet to keep Toshiba from falling in-line with everyone else.
HD DVD wins in usability hands down with better interactivity capabilities, combo disks that can be played in either standard or HD DVD players, and a lack of region coding that enables you to buy any disc from any region with NTSC disks.
There is nothing HD-DVD movies have over Bd other then iHD and by October that will not be in the mix either. The lack of regional coding is one of the reasons most studios went with BD in the first place. And most BD movies come with a lossless audio soundtrack -- something HD-DVD doesn't really offer right now.
The only advantage for BluRay is slightly larger capacity and the hammer that was supposed to be the PS3 ensuring the format's success. GTA4 is lost for this year, Madden 08 is reviewed by numerous outlets as running more sluggish on a PS3 vs. the 360, Metal gear Solid will lose its exclusivity next (HMV had to backpedal when they announced it before they were supposed to), and Halo 3 and Mass Effect will steal more of the hardcore gamers they assumed were theirs. Meanwhile Wii will pass them both (although 3rd party support for the Wii is still remarkably scarce) this week or next.
Besides larger capacity, higher bit rate for both audio and picture, another level of security (BD+) comparing the PS3 and the XBOX in a discussion of HD formats is a looser. The XBOX360 HD-DVD comes up lame simply because it cannot provide any lossless audio formats. We are talking HD movies here not games.
I agree that BluRay still has the upper hand as Disney, Sony, and Fox try and ram it through with sheer brute force, but it is not a "better" format by any means. If Universal and Microsoft continue their hold out, at worst it will drive prices down further for both hardware and media.
There is no raming being done. If you are happy with your XBOX360 and HD-DVD add-on the be happy. Don't come in here and cry spilt milk because the movies you really want to see are on BD. You should of bought a BD player -- standalone or PS3. If the price is too much -- just wait -- the prices are coming down.
Meanwhile, I'll be enjoying watching "Heroes" on HD DVD in a few weeks..... We ain't dead yet.
You go right ahead and enjoy your Heroes while I will be enjoying the Spiderman movies, the Bond movies, the Disney movies and of course the first Spielburg movie to be on either format "Encounters of the Third Kind" with a special Spielburg directors notes only on BD. There's plenty more but I am tired of typing.
