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HD DVD: Not So Fast, Blu-ray

January 10, 2007, 1:21 AM by Nate Mook

Nate Mook, BetaNews: Despite Blu-ray issuing a press release Monday claiming it had already secured victory in the nascent battle for high-definition DVD supremacy, HD DVD remained steadfast at CES that consumers would see better value in its format. HD DVD representative Kevin Collins pointed to a number of milestones, including 600 movie titles expected to be available in 2007.

Tim Conneally, BetaNews: It's difficult to argue with the facts: HD DVD has more movies available now than Blu-ray, including dual format titles that also play back on standard DVD players. In addition, the hardware is still much cheaper for HD DVD than it is for Blu-ray, with the low-end Toshiba player priced at $499 USD, while the Samsung Blu-ray player runs $999 USD.

Nate Mook: Sony's PlayStation 3 could provide a big boost to Blu-ray, but it has a number of limitations, including a lack of bookmarking support, and consumers are still reluctant to use a gaming console as their primary DVD player. We'll have to wait and see how that shakes out.

Tim Conneally: Collins ran down the advantages touted by Blu-ray, noting that the 50GB capacity has not proven that useful over HD DVD's 30GB, as studios are simply using the extra space less efficiently. For example, because Blu-ray lacks proper picture-in-picture support, "The Descent" includes two versions of the movie, one with the smaller picture composited in.

Nate Mook: It is true that Blu-ray does tout support from more movie studios, but HD DVD remains confident that in the end, those studios will opt to support both formats. Microsoft has even released a tool that makes it easy to use the same VC1 video encoding for both high-definition formats.

Tim Conneally: It's really all about what consumers want, and that's where both formats continue to struggle. The general public still doesn't see the need for high-definition DVD, and demand for both HD DVD and Blu-ray is still minimal -- especially due to the confusion brought about by the format war. Prices need to come down even further and studios need to get more movie titles on store shelves before we truly see a victor.

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  1. 1. Posted by cufon on Jan 10, 2007 - 8:38 AM

    I was a very early adoptor of the HD-DVD format for three reasons;

    1. I think HD-DVD is the natural progression to DVD.

    2. Sony introduced many formats because of selfishness and greed and most have failed as Blu-Ray will.

    3. And this one is the most important, value.

    Regardless of what arguments anyone uses for either format the fact remains that ultimately the main market for hardware and software are for consumers to view movies. From what I've seen there's no advantages from either format in terms of picture quality and sound. The differences in the two formats such as capacity etc. are insignificant. So, why would anyone in their right mind go and buy anything in Blu-Ray when the price in most cases is more than twice of HD-DVD. I predict this "war" will go on for at least another two years and ultimately Blu-Ray will go the way of Betamax.

  2. 2. Posted by Benjamin Linus on Jan 10, 2007 - 10:48 AM

    Again, more lies from the biased Betanews.. Do people actually believe this rubbish?

    "while the Samsung Blu-ray player runs $999 USD"

    Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-Ray Disc Player Amazon Price: $589.99

    Only out by a factor of 2...
    http://www.amazon.com/Sa...sc-Player/dp/B000F99FDE

  3. 3. Posted by Captain_Spanky on Jan 10, 2007 - 11:00 AM

    I don't understand why people keep bashing sony for coming out with the blu-ray. A blu-ray disc is already able to store 50GB on a dual-layer disc, vs. 30GB on a dual layer HD-DVD. But thats only the tip of the iceberg for blu-ray. They're already able to add more than 2 layers to a blu-ray disc, where as with HD-DVD your still restricted to 2. Now your probly thinking to yourself, "why would i need 50+GB for a movie." And the answer is you don't, you need it for games, and data storage. Sony didn't put blu-ray in the PS3 so you could play movies on it, they put it PS3 so they have 50+GB for they're game developers to play with, as opposed to the 8.5GB on the XBox 360.

  4. 4. Posted by DaveBG on Jan 10, 2007 - 11:53 AM

    Sorry, but hd dvd is CRAP! I will not put money on it.

    And did you heard the latest news?
    Its only content supporter is abandoning it > Universal: No new HD DVD titles for 2007 announced http://www.engadgethd.co...tles-for-2007-announced/ !

  5. 5. Posted by jforderer on Jan 10, 2007 - 12:10 PM

    when it comes to movies i heard that HD DVD is using Mpeg4 format while blueray is still using Mpeg2 (existing dvd compression) therefore you dont need the extra capacity that blue ray is boasting about when compressing movies on a hd dvd - blueray needs the room because they are still using old compression format.
    i have owned xbox360 for 1 yr (awesome machine) that was released with standard drive and have now bought the hddvd drive for 200.00 that plugs into console with usb. so xbox is covered for capacity on games either way. gears of war boasts latest graphic engine for high definition gaming and microsoft had no problem fitting on standard dual layer dvd.

  6. 6. Posted by Grazer on Jan 10, 2007 - 12:54 PM

    Dave,
    Take note that "No new HD DVD titles for 2007 announced" != "No new HD DVD titles for 2007"...especially since they said there would be HD DVD titles released, they just didn't feel the need to announce them.

    Benjamin,
    Good info and source, but they could've been talking about the new models at the convention...second gen players.

  7. 7. Posted by yountmj on Jan 10, 2007 - 3:39 PM

    As usual, leave it to the likes of DaveBG and friends to twist an announcement to mean something completely different from what was actually stated...

    "Its only content supporter is abandoning it..."

    Utter rubbish, Dave, as "only content supporter" as you put it does not equal "the sole exclusive provider of HD DVD titles" as was stated in the article. Do you even know the difference? Universal is the only studio that is releasing titles on HD DVD only. The rest are releasing for both formats at the same time or Blu-ray only (ie. exclusive).

    It was never stated that they were abandoning HD DVD. How some people can so arrogantly state their pathetic opinions as solid fact I'll never quite understand.

  8. 8. Posted by Steve Austin on Jan 10, 2007 - 5:55 PM

    yountmj, You know Universal is rumoured to be supporting BOTH Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, which is why they did not announce any new titles and CES..

    That would mean ALL studios supporting Blu-Ray, and 4 not supporting HD-DVD...

  9. 9. Posted by Captain_Spanky on Jan 10, 2007 - 6:11 PM

    in regards to jforderer's comment, both blu-ray and HD-DVD use the new VC-1 codec. And both are backwards compatible with mpeg-2 and mpeg-4.
    As far as being prepared for new games the may need more than 8.5GB, i think its kinda a croc that you would have to buy an HD-DVD player inorder to play a specific game. Then, if games do get to be 30+GB what are you goin to do. Remember, Sony didnt put out the PS3 for this year. They put it out for the 5 years after this year.

  10. 10. Posted by Sexbarril on Jan 15, 2007 - 4:31 PM

    5 years after this year another xbox console will be out...what will SOny do then?

    Latz, SB