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Consumer Problems with Blu-ray and HD-DVD
bart_scriv writes "Business Week looks at the upcoming Blu-ray and HD-DVD product launches and predicts problems and confusion for consumers. In addition to anticipated difficulties in distinguishing between the two formats, some studios will be using copy protection that will intentionally down grade the picture. When combined with Sony's plans to upconvert based on hardware configuration and the fact that most HD TVs aren't capable of displaying either format at full resolution, early adopters may be getting a lot less than they bargained for. As the article suggests, it may be that 'the best bet for either format to gain acceptance now lies with next-generation game consoles.'"
The content protection scheme used for both HD-DVD and BluRay is the same (ie: neither is easier to crack than the other).
If this is as stillborn as DIVX, then we'll get to keep using DVDs and ripping them to our hearts' content.
What's the best way to put your Blu-Ray or HD-DVD movie on your iPod? Oh, yeah. Right. Eat a dick, MPAA.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
I believe this is incorrect.
For their first generation of media they will not be enabling the flag. Their hardware players will still support it.
The flag is an optional feature which they will not use, initially.
i'm sorry, but your talking complete rubbish. i work in the film industry and 35mm film is usually scanned in at 2k which is HD. even sometimes at 4k! i've shot on 16m, 35mm, super 35mm and on hd. film is a very mature technology while HD is still very young. i spend all day examining and working with BG plates shot on both. just because HD is new and digital doesn't mean it's *currently* better than the technology it's replacing. you sound like the early audio companies that said that CD's sounded better than LP's. they didn't then and have only just arrived recently. (listen to a lynn lp12...) the funny thing is that the new cameras have special "film grain" modes...
Well, if you haven't found any non-skippable sections on your DVDs, you're lucky... but you're right, you don't really meet the DVDs DRM until you want to use a HTPC/Media Center. It's like CD players before iPod etc., you didn't really notice until you want to format-shift it. Of course, that doesn't include people like me that have DVDs from three regions (would be 4 if not the jap stuff was region 2&4, guess the HiDef stuff will add another twist since Japan is now lumped in with US). Most people get stuff with the DRM already broken though. In a recent survey here (Norway), 25% of males age 15-24 download TV shows. That tells me there's a huge demand (if not great willingness to pay) for seeing videos coming from a computer. That's quite a few people that "would care" whether or not ACSS is broken or not.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Just want to say on the 'better quality' argument: in general I can't tell the difference between VHS and DVD quality [...]
I'm sure there are people who believe they can tell the difference. Most of them probably have their super-high quality flatscreens hooked up incorrectly so that they are are actually getting worse quality on it. But they still believe they can tell the difference. (I'm sure some actually can tell the difference.)
I can easily tell the difference, though I am watching on a 73" rear projection TV. You did not mention what sort of equipment you are using?
My TV will do HDTV (1080i, I believe), and it looks incredible. I would love to see High-Def DVD movies, and am quite happy to pay for them. I am effectively the market for this new technology.
That said, my set does not include the HDMI connector, and it is only 2 years old. So if that is a limitation (however iffy), then I'll just stick with the current DVD format. In this case, I am the market that is being lost due to all this stupid DRM crap.
Compression formats like MPEG-4 and all its variants (h.264, DivX, XviD, etc) can fit perfectly well on a CD or a DVD.
HD-DVD and Blu-Ray use h.264 [1]. Also, DivX is not usually MPEG-4 compliant, and XviD often is not.
Anyhow, the compression is not the issue, it's the bitrate. Sure, you can fit a movie on a CD, but only at bitrates less than about 1Mbps. For HD content, that won't even remotely cut it, no matter what codec you use. You'd either have deplorable quality or deplorable capacity. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray both range from around 10Mbps up to 40Mbps, even using modern codecs. In other words, you need a new kind of disc.
[1] h.264 is one of the required formats, in addition to VC-1 and MPEG-2. That is, the content can be in any of these, but all players must support each.
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