How long till either Blue Rays or HD DVD's are the standard format?

Question

I know there is like a war going on right now between the two and frankly, it's frustrating. I'm willing to side with either one if they would just MAKE UP THEIR MINDS! Do you think one of them will soon be the standard format? If so, how long do we have to wait yet? I'm ready to buy a new player and start buying movies on a new format if I just knew WHICH one to do! Anybody have an idea? An idea based on facts and not just guessing? Thanks.

Answer 1

Well this is invested by Sony, you can get how long playstation will stay for.

do you think Sony will stay long? I am sure you have the answer

check this Sony out

http://www.x5.com.au/product-440-NEW-HD-...

Answer 2

Here is the economical answer based on what I have done and plan to do for the next 3 - 5 years.

1. Got a new Toshiba HD DVD player off ebay: 65$

Why spend 600$ on blu-ray player or wait years for under 100$ units?

2. I am watching hundreds of my DVD's in 1080i upconvert mode on a Samsung 50" HD TV,  model T5087SA

They look fantastic on this TV, and HD DVD's look like film.

Most commercial DVD's upconvert to 780 to 1080, however some pop up a warning that they can not be upconverted, like Tomb Raider.

Try upconverting your favorite movie thats only on DVD on a blu-ray player, I hear George Bush Sr. saying "not gonna do it".

With thousands of DVD's and HD DVD's as cheap as dirt because of blu-ray in the future, I have the best of both worlds and more choices than blu-ray offers initially or even in the future. I mean, is blu-ray going to create a disk for every movie ever released on DVD or HD DVD? I think not.

And, the production of HD DVD's via blu-ray interface(of some legal type) will happen to satisfy the HD DVD marketplace and produce a hd dvd from any future blu-ray disk, in my opinion.

Good luck in your viewing choice. Keep this in mind: just because blu-ray won the HD consumer media format war does not spell the end of DVD's - which all new movies will be available on DVD and blu-ray into the forseeable future. Most movie publishers will probably publish dual DVD & HD DVD disks to meet the demand of both markets. DVD on one side,

HD DVD on the other. It probably will cost like 3 more cents in the production of the disk so why not?

When the market see this cheaper version of HD is here to stay with dual discs being the norm, more HD DVD manufacturers will stay in the game.

Answer 3

1) The HD format war is over: Blu-ray won.

2) Blu-ray is not going to replace DVD ... it's a premium priced alternative for the minority of consumers able to benefit and willing to pay premium prices for it.  DVD will remain as the mainstream format, with download/video on demand and Blu-ray as slowly growing niche alternatives ... until Blu-ray 2 comes along and forces another round of equipment and disk purchases ...

So ... if you want to buy into HD feel safe to do so in the Blu-ray format .... HOWEVER:

You would be advised to wait until at least this fall when Profile 2.0 (BD-Live!) players will be available and prices may start to come down. If you must buy now the PS3 is the only recommended player.

I do advise you to do some research before jumping though for several reasons:

- Blu-ray can give a better picture and sound, but requires high end equipment to provide significant benefit to DVDs. See the link for sample images ... not anywhere near the 6X improvement the ads tell you!

- You need a 1080p HDMI equipped 40" or larger HDTV -- watched from a closer distance than most people currently do -- good surround sound speakers and an A/V receiver capable of decoding the advanced audio formats to fully benefit. Lesser equipment will give some benefit but the improvement may not be sufficient to you to justify the high cost of the player ($300+) and the premium price of the disks ($5-$20 relative to the same movie on DVD).

- Many say prices of movies will drop .. but that's unlikely since they are more expensive to produce and studios are not going to accept a lower profit from Blu-ray ... otherwise why not stick to DVD?

- Many Blu-ray disks are little better than upconverted DVD (they are simply repackaged versions of poorly mastered movies). Read reviews and see how may really good quality Blu-ray disks there are. Not to mention that there are 83,000 DVDs and less than 600 Blu-ray movies ... so selection is poor.

I suggest you get a demo of Blu-ray on an HDTV as close as possible to yours (same size & resolution minimum) and watch -- AT THE SAME DISTANCE AS YOU DO AT HOME -- a Blu-ray and DVD of the same MOVIE (NOT animation or HD Videocam material since they look fantastic, but are not representative of movies). If the improvement in the picture (and sound if that can be demoed too) is worth it to you go ahead and buy Blu-ray (now or later when "complete" players are available).

On the other hand if you decide to wait or not to go for Blu-ray consider buying a liquidation sale ($69 at Wal-mart) HD DVD player ... they are excellent DVD upconverting players and can also play the occasional HD DVD that are increasingly being sold off at bargain prices.

Happy shopping.

EDIT

re your question about re-release of HD DVD movies on Blu-ray, yes they will be available on Blu-ray BUT that has it's own issues:

- It slows down availability of movies not yet on HD format, and

- you have to ask why someone wouldn't buy the HD DVD version (there are over 400 HD DVD movies after all) of movies they want at bargain prices rather than wait and pay full price for a Blu-ray version. After all liquidation price HD DVD players can still be purchased for the price of 2-3 Blu-ray disks --- and the HD DVD version is essentially identical audio and picture quality. Just stupid I guess.

Answer 4

about 3 weeks ago, blu-ray won, hd-dvd gave up.  Toshiba the main manufacturer is discontinuing it, Microsoft isn't selling it anymore, Walmart isn't carrying it anymore.

One other option though, is to get an upconvert dvd player, it will make your current dvds look better than a normal player, but not as good as an actual blue-ray disc.  And wait for the prices to come down more.

Answer 5

now the standard format is Blu-ray, there wont be any more production of HD-DVD player or movies.

Answer 6

HD-DVD is being discontinued and Bluray will be an obsolete future in the not so distant future. Disk media will become similar to VHS in the near future once the internet takes over as a main content distribution system. Flash memory and new hard drives will become the storage media of the future. Movies will just be stored on these unscratchable stoarge containers.

Answer 7

Blu-ray players can upconvert DVD too. Why do people keep saying it can't?

Don't fool yourself. HD-DVD is dead. Warner is going to release whatever they already plan to release in HD-DVD, and after that, no one else is going to release anything in HD-DVD. Yes, buying a HD-DVD player right now isn't a total waste of money since you can use it as an upconverting DVD player, and have access to all the HD-DVD already released. Don't expect to see any new HD-DVD movies next year though.