Which is better HD DVD or Blu-Ray? Which will win the war? Which would you buy and why?

Question

Which is better HD DVD or Blu-Ray? Which will win the war? Which would you buy and why?

Answer 1

Those living outside the region 1 have compelling reason to ask those living inside region 1 (USA/canada) not to buy blue ray: HD-DVD does n't support regions (the DVD part will, HD part will not).

This will allow us all over the world to buy content at the same time and will decrease in the end the cost.

Aside of that:

- capacity is the same. (HD-DVD caught up)

- price of blueray (standalone) players is significantly higher

- some studios go one way, other the other, so make sure the content you want to buy is available on your format of choice

- sone PS3 put some blueray players in homes, but lower privces of HD-DVD players (and xbox360) are catching up on the HD-DVD side

- dual standards can stick : look at DVD-R vs. DVD+R: nowadays all new drives can do both

Which will win in the end: unlikely any will win, and if one will, it's too early to tell. Best odds are if e.g. LG, Samsung and the like produce a dual standard player that's affordable.

Answer 2

i think they are exactly the same, just coming from different companies that want to make money.  i would buy the dvd player that can play both HD DVD's and Blu-rays so then i could buy the movies that were cheaper

Answer 3

I own a dual format player that plays both Blu-Ray and HD DVD......in terms of picture/sound quality there's differences but none that can be noticed by the eyes/ears unless you have audio/video equipment that would make George Lucas wet his pants. So unless you want to be shut out from the movies that are available exclusively to one format get a dual format player.

Answer 4

Sony lost the first battle when beta max was stomped by VHS's longer recording capabilities...welll that and the p**n industry went with VHS.  But Blu-Ray's capacity to store more information will inevitably leave HD DVD in the dust.  Although there is the chance that dual format players will catch on.

Answer 5

Will it is way to early to say who is going to win. When VHS & Beta were at war, it took 9 yrs to figure out who declare the winner. Remember history always repeats it self. Since Paramount Pictures,DreamWorks & Adult Studios they lost support to Blu-ray & are going to support HD-DVD instead. Yes blu-ray may have the top sales in the market but, HD-DVD are catching up. I have both formats & do be honest,both Blu-ray & HD-DVD they look the same to me because, both formats are hi-def.

Answer 6

This question has been asked here at least a 100 times! Go to the top of any page and, in the "Search for questions" box, type in hddvd vs bluray." You will get enough answers to your question to keep you reading for at least an hour. Believe me, this question has been more than well covered! Actually, if you really want to learn something about these 2 systems, go to the "Games & Gear" forum where the experts hang out.

Answer 7

I have both and neither stands out as being better.

The updated spec for HD-DVD now allows a 50gig disk which is 1 Gig more than BluRay. Kind of a moot point.

So we have to look at other issues:

- BluRay is more expensive to produce a disk (it's really a BD-Java program) so some Studios have gone HD-DVD only because of the cost.

- The adult film industry has gone with HD-DVD because of the cheaper production costs.

- The HD-DVD players are ~$200, but BluRay players are $350.

- Stores like BlockBuster claim to be BluRay exclusive, but only carry 1 copy of each BD title in stock - hardly getting the movies into consumers hands.

- Sony has a history of producing good tech (Electronic Books and Video Walkman), but never getting it to be successful.

- Sony is trying to get studios to sign 'exclusive' contracts to only put movies out on BluRay. This is annoying studios who just want to sell movies and not join sides. HD-DVD is cheaper, easier and non-exclusive so many major films are coming out on both, or HD only. (Sony is not making new friends).

I suspect HD-DVD will win for 1 reason: money.  The players are cheaper, the disks are cheaper to produce and studios wont loose sales by producing movies on both formats.

(But I am going to watch "Cars" tonight on my BluRay player because I love all things high-def).

Answer 8

TOO EARLY to tell if either or neither is the next big format. But don't hold your breath. Laser Disk was supposed to be something hot and it was not. In fact only recently did the VHS sales get surpassed by HD DVD and Blu-ray combined.

Answer 9

BluRay can hold more data, so far they're getting more support from Hollywood and they have the built-in customer base of Sony Playstation fans so if I were to choose I'd go with BluRay.