Who else is getting tired of everyone saying Blu Ray is better?

Question

First I had a couple of friends of mine come over. One has a Blu Ray player, the other has an HD DVD player.

We then hooked both up to two 50inch 1080p HDTV's. Then we put in a HD DVD movie on tv A. Then we put the same Blu Ray movie on Tv B.

You want to know our results.

They both look the same. End of story. Blu Ray is not better than HD DVD, and HD DVD is not better than Blu Ray.

Answer 1

I dont have much of a point to make. But I am pretty sick of the debate. HDDVD and BluRay provide essentially the same thing... High Definition Video on a DVD and higher quality audio. Although, the latter remains to be seen and "heard".

I was stupid and jumped on the HDTV bandwagon .

I will not do it this time.

To me the potential waste of money is not worth it. I am satisfied with 480p on HDTV. Most real people who don't have to prove a point or have the latest and greatest will feel the same.

If HDDVD does go the way of Beta it is not because of inferior technology or performance but because of a lack of a good marketing strategy, lack of component manufacturer support and lack of a catchy name-BluRay.

Answer 2

I agree. As formats go HD DVD and Blu-Ray were both fine formats and I would have been happy with either one. So now the better format becomes the one that will have more movies available. As of Fridays announcement that Warner would make only BD movies after May '08 Blu-Ray has 70% of the Hollywood movies. I thought it might take a year for it to happen but now I think it will be VERY soon that HD DVD closes up shop. Here is why

HD DVD was hit hard and is scrambling to recover. They were surprised by Warners move to back BD and even cancelled the HD DVD event at this years CES.

http://www.cepro.com/article/warner_bros...

Warner chose to do this because Blu-Rays have outsold HD DVDs 2-1 in the states, 3-1 in Europe and 10-1 in Japan.

Many people beleive that this spells the end of HD DVD and a win for BD, me among them

http://www.avtruths.com/blurayvshddvd.ht...

Furthermore Paramount has a clause in their contract allowing them to pull out of HD DVD in the event that Warner went Blu-Ray exclusive. Well since that happened expect Paramount (and of course Dreamworks) to switch to BD. This leaves only Universal for HD DVD. (Giving BD about 85% of the movies being made in Hollywood.)

I know that HD DVD will fight back. Expect great deals and free offers from HD DVD. But realistically the war is over.

Ultimately the only way for consumers to win is for one of them to win so that all of the studios will make HD movies in a format accessable to everyone. I also expect that once Blu-Ray wins (or HD DVD if that happens) you will see second and third tier manufacturers to make players driving the price to $100 by 2009-1010. Funai just announce one for $299.

They have to make this happen or the window is going to close and internet HD movies are going to take over before BD has a chance to flourish. LG and Netflick have already announced an internet movie device and VUDU's machine is already available.

Buy now or buy later but buy Blu-Ray.

Answer 3

The difference between regular DVD, Blue Ray and HD DVD is really pic quality. But its not worth the price to get the equipment to play and view them for the very tiny bit if difference they have. And those who brag just want attention.

Answer 4

I have a HDDVD player and i have to say i think that is better just becuase of the grain they put on the video. Blu ray just looks to sharp.

Answer 5

i dont think the quality was the issue, its the quantity of media on the blu ray disk that is so enticing.  if you buy the dual player you are a sucker.  would you buy a vhs/dvd player?

Answer 6

I have a blu ray and I agree with you.  One has to pick what they like and what works for them.  I do get tired of everyone telling people this is what they have to buy.  I don't think you can go wrong with either one..what is the worst that happens you have to buy a different player if one format goes under.  I am happy with my choice and others are happy with HD DVD but I believe the reason people have to say thiers is better is because they need to feel good about their purchase.  I feel good with my purchase when I get to watch a movie no matter what player it is.  I just love movies and that is that.

Answer 7

While there are some technical advantages to Blu-ray (more storage space, slightly higher bitrate on some audio formats) there is nothing at a performance level to choose between the two formats. You are right on ... the audio and video quality are as close to indistinguishable as doesn't matter.

What is disappointing to me is how successful Sony and the BDA were in convincing consumers that Blu-ray is better. I too am sick of hearing how HD DVD sucks and/or Blu-ray is superior.

The facts are:

- HD DVD originated -- and embarassed Blu-ray into using -- VC-1 video coding otherwise Blu-ray would have continued to look worse than HD DVD, as it did in the first 4-6 months.

- The vaunted lossless audio formats don't make any difference (the term "transparent to the master" is used) relative to the advanced lossy formats, when done properly (That's the whole point behind psychoacoustics -- you lose the stuff the listener can't hear to reduce storage requirements). The claims for superiority of lossless are mainly based on theory not practice.

- The HD DVD hardware spec was complete and final from day one -- unlike Blu-ray which still isn't final. As a result many early blu-ray players are incapable of playing advanced features that HD DVD players could all play from day one.

- Toshiba and the DVD Forum purposely chose a format that was an evolutionary step beyond DVD because this would lower costs relative to a totally new technology. A HD DVD replication manufacturing line could be built from an existing DVD facility for less than $200K, while a Blu-ray facility has to be built from scratch (several $million). Unfortunately the HD DVD studios chose not to pass on the lower costs to consumers (which in my view was the single most important factor in HD DVD not catching on).

- HD DVD hardware was intentionally designed to have a 1080i low cost player for those with less than 1080p HDTVs. This was used to belittle HD DVD, despite the fact that 1080i is indistinguishable from 1080p on a 1080p HDTV that deinterlaces properly.

- Blu-ray disks have repeatedly been unplayable on one or more players due to DRM mechanisms (e.g. BD+). HD DVDs are more consumer (but less studio) friendly because of weeker DRM coding.

- HD DVD chose not to implement region coding (a benefit to consumers) but studios don't like this since it doesn't allow them to selectively price or successfully introduce disks at different dates in different areas of the world.

- Blu-ray disks have a thin easily damaged protective layer, which despite a hard coating (which HD DVD's should also have implemented) makes Blu-ray disks more succeptible to damage (yet when combined with stronger DRM makes it harder for consumers to backup disks (assuming HD recorders become available)).

The thing I resent the most is the misleading advertising used for Blu-ray and the way Sony essentially bought victory ensuring that we consumers ... gullible, ignorant and brainwashed ... will now pay for it. Does anyone think the low Blu-ray disk prices that have been available in the form of continual specials and buy one, get one sales will continue? We are now stuck with a more expensive format that doesn't provide any significant performance advantage, is less consumer friendly, and largely controlled by a company with a long, proven record of consumer indifference.

Just consider, Sony introduced the BDPS300 player two weeks before Profile 1.1 was implemented. That meant they introduced a Profile 1.0 machine without any of the profile 1.1 features ... and didn't warn potential buyers the machine was incapable of being updated and was therefore obsolete 2 weeks after introduction. Why do you think this is the fire sale player? And Sony makes a nice profit on it.

Personally, I'm sticking with DVD since HD disks are overrated anyway (at least unless you have a large screen 1080p display .. and even then it's not night and day).

I really hate being taken for a fool, and it's even worse when those who are taken think they won! Because of them we all lost.