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Studios Face Off in Next-Gen DVD Format War
WaZiX writes "After yesterday's HD-DVD strike, the Blu-Ray Disc format received support from Disney (and its Buena Vista Home Entertainment unit) as reported by ZDNET. As predicted, the format war has only just begun."
As I recall, Disney was a big supporter of the dead-on-arrival Divx format. We know how well that went. Disney may be able to throw its weight around, but if the format doesn't have consumer acceptance, even Mickey's clout won't help.
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A couple of quick Google results:
+5, Informative: http://www.thedigitalbits.com/editorial/bz21998.h
+5, Funny: http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/divxpress.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
While the format wars are bad for the cutting-edge people that have to purchase something new, they end up being better for the consumer in the long run. Look at Beta VS VHS. The formats competed, and consumers decided which format they liked better. The format that could record a full film onto one cassette won, despite the fact that it was not 'technically superior.' If all of the studios had settled upon Beta from the very beginning, we'd all have to record in LP or EP just to fit a movie on one tape.
If you had watched any Disney / Beuna Vista DVD made in the last three or so years, you'd know that it only takes a press of the menu to bypass the trailers, they aren't "locked out".
They only did that lockout on a few DVDs, got hit with an angry backlash then never did it that way again. I guess bad information takes years to die, even if it was fixed in a few months, IIRC.
Slate.com covered this a couple of days ago, ultimately giving the Blu-Ray the nod over HD-DVD. The article also links to this useful comparison chart.
Bush Lies On the Record.
Slate just posted an interesting analysis of the differences between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. The article indicates that Blu-Ray is a far superior standard, and the only reason that some studios are lining up behind HD-DVD is to spare the expense of buying new production equipment. HD-DVD disks can be made using existing production machinery, whereas Blu-Ray requires all-new equipment to manufacture.
I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
I think that is an urban legend
.Most consumer electronics stores are notorious for feeding poor signals to their display sets. Just imagine all the connections that the original signal passes through to reach 20-30 sets. Secondly, the sets on the floor are almost never tuned to provide their highest quality. From the factory, most sets are set with both very high brightness and contrast. This helps them stand out more from the TV sitting on the floor next to them. But it does not help the actual quality of the image. And finally, an electronics store is nothing like the environment that you will be actually watching the TV in when you bring it home. All the fluorescent lights and other TVs all make for glare and reflections. Even though stores like Best Buy and Ultimate Electronics put their TVs in darkened nooks, there is no substitute to a light controlled room. Demo a HDTV. Buy one with a satisfaction guarantee. Once you get it home, and hooked to a clean, true HD signal, you WILL be wowed. Promise!
I have a 120" front projection system, and let me tell you the difference between HDTV and DVD isn't just minor but HUGE. A good HDTV source (and the quality on this front varies greatly depending on production) is better seen on my system than any Cineplex movie I've seen in the last 5 years (granted our local Cineplexes are crap).
Not many consumers today have 120" screens with high-end data grade projectors (I'm homebrew), but the quality of consumer TV Gear is improving at a phenomenal rate. 100"+ systems under $1000 will be the norm in 2 or 3 years time. Given how crappy (or expensive for passable) HDTV offerings were 5 years ago (with no channels to watch anyway) this is a bit of a surprise.
True 1920x1080 is finally a true movie going experience. When you see stuff shot in True 1080i with a good HDTV camera directly your jaw drops. Most stuff is still shot on 35mm and scanned in. This is superior to DVD, but not the huge improvement of direct to digital. There is something about the grain of most 35mm film that makes HDTV transfer kind of muddy and muted (granted scanning technologies will improve).
Instead of more pixels we now need higher scan rates (something I've brought up in other discussions). Instead of shooting movies in 24fps they should be shot in 60fps. 1080p at 60fps would be awesome and Blu-Ray has the capacity to pull it off. If you have ever noticed the choppiness of a fast sideways scroll of Text or Action at a Movie, you know what I'm talking about. Regular 35mm at 60fps could be marketed as IMAX35 or something to indicate a bump up in quality (though not true 70mm IMAX).
When you have the equipment to show the true difference (which I repeat is HUGE) you will notice and you will care.
Letter To Iran
The thing is, Blu-Ray will still be using the same MPEG format that DVDs use, while HD-DVD is using full MPEG-4, so HD-DVD simply doesn't need as much space.