Gizmodo Declares Blu-Ray Winner

13.7BillionYears writes "Gizmodo has a special feature covering the many details of the Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD battle based on the technical, financial, and commercial merits of the two contenders. They conclude that Blu-Ray is the clear winner on all three fronts. Hopefully the movie industry and electronics manufacturers will see the same logic and avert a format war."

Comments

Re:Which codec will be used for HD-DVDs?

[Leykis101]

article on H.264
http://www.guidetohometheater.com/news/062804apple /

According to a few articles, Microsoft is endorsing HD-DVD for the adoption of WMV9 codec

here
here
here
here
then again, Paul Thurrot is to Microsoft as Rush Limbaugh to The Republicans

YIKES!!!!

-------

Re:VHS vs. Beta

[RMH101]

That would be because BetaCAM and BetaMAX are not the same thing in the slightest.

Re:Dial back the bias a little bit

[Jeff DeMaagd]

Blu Ray doesn't have backwards compatability, but thats a feature not a weakness!

Actually, this is a myth. The players are backward compatible, but the standard doesn't require it. Both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD players will play DVDs, the optics are available to take both the blue and red lasers in the same head assembly. Existing Blu-Ray players already play DVDs.

Re:why are they all the CD-sized?

[WuphonsReach]

1) Because it's cheaper to reuse manuf equipment that can move / stack / sort 120mm discs.

2) Stores have acres and acres of shelf space dedicated to storing and displaying 120mm sized packaging.

3) Consumers have hundreds of millions of cases and other storage furniture dedicated to storing and displaying 120mm packaging.

(Anyone remember what a PITA it was when the new DVD packaging came out because they made it larger then CD jewel cases?)

Re:Which codec will be used for HD-DVDs?

[benwaggoner]

Both formats have announced mandatory player support for:

MPEG-2
MPEG-4 AVC/H.264
VC-1 (aka Windows Media Video Advanced Profile)

So, a content creator can make a disc in either, and all players will support all three. Not a win for either format here.

As for encoder speed, one implementation, especially one in alpha, doesn't mean much. Since an encoder simply needs to make a legal bitstream, different encoders can vary hugely in speed. I certainly have MPEG-2 encoders that are more than 20x faster than other ones, or 10x faster than themselves when comparing slow, high quality mode and fast draft mode.

The really important thing is how fast it can decode the worst-case legal bitstream, since that determines how fast a computer or DSP is required for reliable playback.