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Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD
Michael S writes
sent in a good story which sumarizes the current status of the
battle between Blu-Ray & HD-DVD. There still isn't really a clear victor... or is there? I for one can't wait for this crap to get settled out so we can just enjoy having huge discs.
From the article:
And, as peculiar it may sound, both competitors are holding their breath to see what the pornographic industry will decide.
That pretty much sums up the whole situation, now doesn't it?
Huge discs are all fine and good... but wont they get scratched/ruined easily? I wait for someone to come out with an innovative new CD/DVD case design, perhaps something like combining a booklet and cases. (if that exists already, then its certainly not sold in any store ive been to)
kinda like how DVD+ and DVD- got 'settled'?
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
Oh, hell... "The protecting layer for CDs and DVDs (cover layer) is 0.6 mm. in thickness, while Blu-Ray's cover layer is only 0.1 mm. thick, which, roughly, means a better access to the recording area."
And better access to scratches, ball point pens, ink chemistry, label adhesive chemistry.
And the infuriating nuisance of buying marking supplies specifically labelled for use with the media and vice versa, and finding out three years later that everybody who used them is experiencing data loss.
So much for using these things for backup.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
I think not.
bettamax and VHS? nah! I think these will be going the way of Minidisks, 8Tracks and Zip drives.
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
More bandwith to the masses! Then we could just download our movies. I seriously see a hard drive based movie device with built in wimax, a fancy remote, and an onscreen moviestore as a much better alternative to new media every for or five years. That way we don't have to have a war! We have all the technology we need to do it already. (besides wimax)
will be if Sony officially decides to make the PS3 use the format. With the market penetration of consoles, especially the PlayStation consoles, well, you do the math. I know plenty of people that were excited that their PS2s played DVDs, because then they didn't have to buy a standalone player. So, I have a feeling that the same will happen if they use a Blu-Ray drive in their next console.
ART on dA
My faith in the article was lost long ago, with an average of 1 grammatical error per sentence.
Aside from that, what do you bet that HD-DVD wins despite its low bandwidth and storage space, just so that the movie studios can have their precious control locking so I can't skip through the 20 3 minute long previews before the movie starts?
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
This can only be good for us, the consumers. I also expect that disc player manufacturers will figure out how to have dual format players (and if you count in current gen tech, 3..8 formats).
antipaucity
While duplicate tracks is an idea, one thing to note with the differences in this media is the prodective coating. The thinner protective layer of Blue-Laser makes them less scratch-resistant.
As a parent, I can't begin to count the number of kids' movies I've lost due to damage. Blue-Laser sounds amazing technologically, but when it comes to the standard DVD user (that is to say, everyone), I'll take the extra scratch protection any day.
Allsop released a CD case many years ago that is darned near indestructible in normal use (and then some). I bought some for some of my favorite CDs and they're still completely intact. You can pound on these things and they don't so much as crack. If I recall correctly, the marketing info for them showed cars running over them and not causing them to crack. They were not very sucessful in the marketplace, though. Here's a link:
Allsop Strongbox
The problem with DVDs is they are already totally cramped. Turns out a lot of the "extras" weren't so extra after all. That's why you have brits buying American region 1 disks, because the EU region 2 disks skimped on the quality so they could include a dozen different language tracks.
A disk should allow for the regular HD-content, all the bonus materials, every language and dubbing tracks, previews, etc., all with room to spare. Alternatively, it should also allow for at least seven hours of normal-quality content. That way you can get a whole TV season on only 1-4 disks. Because there's a lot of non-HD content out there.
Here's what I hope they change with the next format, besides the obvious:
1) No regions. The ones they have never made any sense anyway - why on earth are Japan and Europe in the same group but Australia by itself? Language regions I could have understood. I understand the economics behind regions, but really. One world, one price.
2) Sophisticated sprite, text, and video control options. Did you know that DVD subtitles are limited to four colors to save space? Talk about a bad solution. And there's no way to control the sequence in video. There should be total control over what goes on screen, equivalent to what you could do with burnt-in material, but not burnt in. The ability to overlay sprites or auxilliary video to overlay signs or add censorship bars. Bleeping or replacing bad words. Skipping naughty bits. Or rehashing what you have into a director's cut. Actual text subtitles with PDF-style rendering to allow embedded fonts, and standard UTF options.
3) Built in, fully functional scripting language - python or perhaps a real-time language. Would allow for far greater interactivity. Also games, interactive data browsing, simple programs, and so forth. Also, if used intelligently would make controlling the many options much easier. For instance, to switch between english dub and native language+english subtitles, I wouldn't have to navigate menus to select the correct audio and subtitle options, guessing which was which because they only say "english 1" and so forth - I would press a button to toggle through the logical options.
4) The ability for outside files to wrap and modify DVD content. Particularly with the enhancements above, this would allow anyone to enhance a DVD for others. Specifically, by subtitling it in a language no one bothered to translate it into. Or editing it to suit parent's demands for kid-friendliness. Or, most attractively to the distributors, the ability to go back and fix errors AFTER the disks have shipped. A sane directory structure and system on the disk would make this a lot easier. As would a secondary region for writing in extra or per-disk data after they've been pressed.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?