Toshiba Refuses To Wave The White Flag In HD DVD-Blu-Ray War

My GF can't even tell the difference between BD and upconverted DVDs on the PS3.
And this is the biggest hurdle that BD needs to overcome (or HDDVD would have had to overcome, had it come out on top).

This is also why I'm not terribly upset that I spent $98 on an HDDVD player. Since buying that player, and seeing how well it upconverts and how upconverts compare against true HD content, I have found myself buying more SD DVDs than HDDVDs. I just cannot justify the much higher price for HDDVDs when the premium they offer does not make the overall movie experience any better. Yes, I can clearly see the difference. But after five minutes of marveling at the HD detail rather than the movie, I settle in and just watch the movie. HD becomes secondary at that point.

My $98 was extremely well spent, even if I never put another HDDVD into the player. To entice me to spend triple or more than this amount on a new BD player I either need to see: (1) A bigger difference between BD and SD DVD than I've seen between HDDVD and SD DVD (that's not a reasonable thing to expect), or (2) A big drop in BD movie prices. They pretty much need to cost the same as SD DVD, not much more than a dollar extra. That includes older titles that I can buy for $5 at WalMart. Give me the BD version for $6 or $7. The same price concerns would have happened had HDDVD won out over BD. The difference is worth a little more to me, not a lot more - but they're charging a lot more now.

I'm not saying there is no significant difference between upconverted SD DVD and true HD. The difference is quite obvious. I am saying that the difference does not affect the overall movie experience as much as I originally thought it might. Thus I am not willing to pay a gigantic premium for the difference.
 
Throw Toy Story into a Toshiba HD player and you may never want to buy a Disney movie on Blue Ray and an overpriced, outdated Blue-Ray player.
 
Sony is running a very thin line between confusing the marketplace as to the purpose of the PS3. Given the surprisingly sparse field of gaming titles, it would be easy to get the PS3 labelled as a Blu-Ray player with gaming features.

The real question is still whether or not the Blu-Ray camp can deliver a format that is clearly comparable (or even superior) feature-wise to the HD-DVD baseline before the next big format comes along. HD-DVD may not have the storage capacity specifications in their favor, but it seems to have everything else figured out. Blu-Ray must shake the "half baked" sandwich board that it is wearing with respect to advanced features.

Your first statement about the PS3 is tough. The PS3 more then any product on the market save a HTPC is a true media center for your living room. You can access the internet, you can play games, you can watch high def movies, you can access media on you PC thru your home network, you can view digital pictures on you HDTV better then any product currently out there including a HTPC. Sony is in a can't win situation here, market it as a great BD player and the gamers feel left out. Market it as a great game machine and you bypass the very market (BLU-RAY) that you are trying to establish dominance with. Market it as the first true media center and people don't know what to think.

Your second statement has me confused. Does HD-DVD provide a better picture then BluRay -- NO. They are pretty much both the same. Does HD-DVD provide better sound -- NO. In fact BD has consistantly supported more lossless sound tracks and now is supporting 7.1 sound tracks on several movies -- that is not happening on HD-DVD. Does HD-DVD have a better feature set then BD -- currently the answer to that is Yes but this will be short lived as BD-Live goes live in 90 days. There will be 2.0 compliant BD players on the market and the PS3 will go 2.0 compliant shortly thereafter. So, at the moment -- neither format is really supperior to the other other then some technical points as in more bandwith and more space on the disc - both in favor of BD or a more fleshed out feature set - that favors HD-DVD.

Considering the latest developements, BD has more legs right now then HD-DVD. As for your half-baked board statement - it must really irk HD-DVD supporters to feel that their players are more fleshed out but that their format is destined to be the next Beta. Because as the numbers show, BD standalones outsold HD-DVD standalones in December and are on target to do the same in January. Maybe early adopters are not as finicky about features and new features coming on line down the road as most HD-DVD owners believe them to be.

As in all format wars, someone has to win and someone has to lose or the consumer loses. If you want HDM disc based media to survive and florish your best bet right now is BluRay - wheather you believe that or not - as the advertisement is now saying -- "The Future is Blu!"
 
...you can view digital pictures on you HDTV better then any product currently out there including a HTPC.
Let's start with you telling us what you know about HTPC. Do you have one? What does it do?
If not much, please, keep your mouth shut.
The quote above is complete garbage...

Diogen.
 
Too bad the PS3 SUCKS trying to stream full bitrate HD mpeg2. My 250 dollar LP2 absolutely embarrasses it. The PS3 works with only a couple of my movies over the network and they stutter, even over a hard wired gigabit network. The PS3 whipped by a chinese box with an old Sigma chip in it. :rolleyes:

PS who gives a rats ass about looking at pictures?
 
Why should they roll over and play dead? Just giving up would truly screw the consumers who have suppported them by buying HD-DVD players. What's the difference if it pisses Sony off, as stated before, they may be just waiting to get their own check from Sony.

If you want to compare this to VHS/Beta, Sony continued to push Beta for many years. It's way earlier in this war than when Sony pulled the plug on Beta. It didn't kill the movie industry to make tapes for both formats. It won't kill the industry if Paramount and Universal stick with Toshiba.

Haertig had a great post. I can see the difference between upconversion and HD-DVD too. When you're done ogling the pretty picture and actually paying attention to the movie, the PQ of upconversion doesn't detract from the movie that much. This may be the real hurdle to overcome in gaining HDM acceptance with the general public. Well that and $400 entry level BD players.
 
Let's start with you telling us what you know about HTPC. Do you have one? What does it do?
If not much, please, keep your mouth shut.
The quote above is complete garbage...

Diogen.

Actually, I do have experiance with a HTPC, but that is beside the point.

I have tried to be civil to you but you sir are an A$$. You really believe that you are the SECOND COMING and anyone you don't agree with you personally attack. Maybe you think you are smarter then everyone else and you don't make mistakes or misquote out of text but in fact you do this all the time.

You do not nor will you ever imtimidate me with your selfish, personal attacks. You have driven others off this site but you can not drive me off.

In other words -- as the English like to say -- Piss Off Ol Boy!
 
JoeSp,
Where did you get the information that Blu Ray player outsold HD DVD players? Everything I've seem to come across says the opposite. I have both and dont support one more than the other I just buy the movies I want in whatever format.
 
Actually, I do have experiance with a HTPC, but that is beside the point.

I have tried to be civil to you but you sir are an A$$. You really believe that you are the SECOND COMING and anyone you don't agree with you personally attack. Maybe you think you are smarter then everyone else and you don't make mistakes or misquote out of text but in fact you do this all the time.

You do not nor will you ever imtimidate me with your selfish, personal attacks. You have driven others off this site but you can not drive me off.

In other words -- as the English like to say -- Piss Off Ol Boy!
You are jealous and out of your league arguing with him. Hence your name calling.
 
You are jealous and out of your league arguing with him. Hence your name calling.
I have no side in their argument vurb, but this statement is silly. You name call quite a bit on here, does that mean that you are jealous of everyone you argue with and they are out of your leauge?
 

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