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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."
Gizmodo probably has it right, with respect to Blu-Ray, but their article is so incredibly biased that it is difficult to lend it any credibility. It's not an objective article at all. They follow a high-school writing class "compare and contrast" format. However, for each feature that they discuss, they trash it for HD-DVD and then argue valiantly and gushingly for Blu-Ray. I would rather read an article written by a dispassionate science writer. They should stick to regurgitating press releases rather than trying to take on serious analysis. I like Gizmodo as a great place to make one stop to learn about new gadgets but I don't go there for any sort of analysis or good editorial content.
http://www.busyweather.com/
I like having my optical media encased in some sort of protective barrier. it saves me from myself.
As an American Slob(tm), I have a really slack attitude towards my optical media. Mostly due to how I can get away with it with everything else.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Hopefully it turns out just like the VHS vs. Beta war of the late 70's/early 80's. Beta is better quality and deserves the title it so successfully....WAIT A MINUTE!!
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Who are these people and why should I care what they think? At first glance Gizmodo seems like a geek hanging out in EB down at the local mall expounding on why the PS2 is better then the xbox to anyone foolish enough to enter his rant field.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
You're new to this business aren't you?
Trouble making decisions? Just flip for it.
The masses will ultimately decicde who wins But then again, the masses could easily be persuaded and influenced. Most of the time, there will be a winner by default, not necessarily by it's own merrit or quality, etc. I can only hope that the better system wins. Be it Blu-Ray or HD-DVD Then again, I'm leaning against any camps that blindly adopts technology, such as Microsft's. notice the word "blindly" didn't see it? well blindness might be a factor.
It seems that the more data that you throw onto a 5" disc the less resilience to scratches there are. I understand that a lot of these discs will use redundancy to counteract the increased sensitivity to scratches. I would assume that would cut into the amount of data that can be stored on the disc. Am I wrong in assuming that being that the discs are 72x the capacity of a CD ROM that the information density is 72X more. If the discs have 72x the amount of information in a given area, wouldn't the disc be 72x more susceptible to scratches. I've noticed this when comparing CD to DVD's.
So why dump the cartridges?
Seriously, isn't there a bit of a credibility gap? I love Gizmodo and all, but are they really the end-all-be-all of format reviewers? Let's see Tom's or Anandtech's opinions.
gizmodo.com and fleshbot.com are run by the same people, and written in the same style, it's no surprise that these guys vote for whatever gives them an erection.
Did you read the bit where he said HD-DVD has NO web page yet?
And resistant to consumer damage - What the hell does that have to do with ANYTHING? It comes down to hardware/media price and avialiablity.
If 33%+ of the movie libaries are availiable in Blu-Ray, and NONE are availiable in HD-DVD - which would you image might be a more attractive purcahse? Even if HD-DVD discs can be run over by a truck and the Blu-Ray discs have to be kept in nitrogen cannisters between playing, the format that will get consumer marketshare is blindingly obvious.
Finally, I would say that he did give a numbre of details for technical advantages of the HD-DVD format - which have then been met and worked around by the Blu-Ray companies.
Sometimes an underdog is really, well, just a dog.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Ok, I know this sounds naive, but get this: If we all decide right now that Blu-Ray is the winner, and we cling to that idea in spite of any future arguments then it will be the winner. The masses have spoken. We don't have to go through another period of format instability. It's a wonder of the Internet, a snap decision by millions.
The only people who won't like this are the people who are supporting the other standard, you know DVD-whats_its_name, you know- the losers.
which standard has the less patents attached? I would chose that.
Because "HD DVD" is too hard to say. Blu-Ray is easy and quick to say. 2 syllables: Blu, Ray. It's even easier to say that DVD, which is 3. Blu-Ray is a pronounciation dream. HD DVD is an acronym nightmare. Nobody wants to deal with that mess.
Since most people will recognize HD-DVD must be somehow better than DVD while Blu-Ray could be anything from enhanced color laundry detergent to insecticide. Without a ton of marketing and consumer education Blu-Ray will simple lose when the average couch potato goes to buy a new player from the local electronics megabarn.
While this has little to do with why BetaMax (nor why every other Sony proprietary standard has failed), Blu-Ray has some serious marketing problems to over come.
This multiple format business is a mess. Look at the problems with SACD and DVD-A. Nobody is buying them (and if the music industry stopped suing people and promoted those formats that are so much better than downloaded music they would actually make more money because there is new value there.)
But back to the topic at hand: The industry would benefit more from having ONE SINGLE TRUE UNIFIED STANDARD as opposed to a couple of standards, which would confuse people. The public at large (Joe Sixpack) gets all confused with this 2-format thing. They want to buy a movie and play it, not worry about if this disc will play on their type of player. When we have one unified standard, confusion is reduced, people cam just buy buy buy and made the industry happy. The the industry focus can be put on actually releasing content and worthwhile stuff, as opposed to teaching consumers that they need a different player for their Fox releases versus some other studio and then wondering why people don't buy any of these confusing and conflicting products.
Dear next-gen disc industry: ONE STANDARD PLEASE!
Obviosuly either side is going to make discs that won't die when you sneeze.
But in fact a funny point sis that durability could be a major strike AGAINST HD-DVD. Did you read the part about Blu-Ray discs printed on paper? That could mean a lot more opportunity for throw-away discs in magazines or cerial boxes or wheverer. That is a huge draw to media types, to be able to push media through more channels.
So again, I would say the duribility of the format has nothing to do with sucess. Ease of use, yes - to some extent (which is why they aren't giving any cart-based players to the masses). The primary factor will be the one with a majority of media companies getting behind it and making things people want to buy. If there were a split between some media supporting one format, and some another, then there might be more of a fight - but it looks to be an absolute domination the part of Blu-Ray, as they said from any standpoint you care to look that would indicate future sales potential.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I think whichever standard the porn industry decides to use will be the winner.
50GB of Jenna Jameson...WOW!!
Fortunately the wonderful thing about DVDs being a fully digital and cracked medium is that it will be very easy to copy them over to BluDisc-R whenever that becomes a commodity product.
article on H.264e /
http://www.guidetohometheater.com/news/062804appl
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!!!!
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Just find out which format Sony is backing, and pick the other one.
Have you read my blog lately?
That would be because BetaCAM and BetaMAX are not the same thing in the slightest.
"Hopefully the movie industry and electronics manufacturers will see the same logic and avert a format war."
Why?
Look what happened with DVDs. Computer DVDs were pushed back for a long time while we waited for the movie industry to work out their copyright stuff. What if the computer industry and movie industry chose different standards this time? Wouldn't that allow the computer industry to move ahead with new technologies instead of waiting for the movie industry to catch up?
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
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?)
Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?
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.
My video compression blog
'BLUE' HAS AN 'E' IN IT!!!
Thank you. I feel better now.
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