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Big Releases Heat Up High-Def Format War
An anonymous reader writes "Choosing sides in the high-def format war becomes that much harder today, as two powerhouse movie franchises hit store shelves on opposing formats. Exclusive to Blu-ray are the first two 'Pirates of the Caribbean' flicks, while exclusive to HD DVD are two different configurations of the 'Matrix' Trilogy. So which format wins this battle? According to High-Def Digest, this one's a draw. The article has capsule reviews of the four releases ('The Ultimate Matrix Collection' & 'The Complete Matrix Trilogy' on HD DVD, and 'POTC: Curse of the Black Pearl' & 'POTC: Dead Man's Chest' on Blu-ray) with links to excruciatingly in-depth reviews. In the end the site says both sets of releases boast benchmark video and audio, but a preponderance of standard-def supplements prevent all of the above from being the perfect high-def package."
Incomplete trilogy with a strong first movie and a sucky sequel vs. a full trilogy that should have been one movie and whose sequels are largely regarded as plain old bad. This goes in the "must-miss" category for me. I'd buy either of the first movies, but not the collections. This will probably happen with a six-movie Star Wars Hi-Def set that cannot be purchased separately as well.
u-bend
Blu-Ray and HD-DVD use the same copy protection...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The story I heard was that walmart bought 2 Million HD-DVD players to be sold around $300.
Yeah, apparently you missed the debunking of that rumor.
Fuh Yuan, who originated the rumor, also issued their own retraction. This was not even a "no comment" by either side, it was a full on "this story is not true" by both Wal-Mart and Fuh Yuan.
Don't believe everything you read on the internet, guys.
At any rate, Circuit City is selling one for $300. That is cheaper than any standalone Blu-Ray player I've seen out there.
Using HDNET, or any cable channel, is a poor source of HD material compared to a disc. Video and audio will be much better from either HDDVD or Bluray. Discs typically carry 30-60 Mbit/s of information, while ATSC (over the air HD) is 19.2 Mbit/s and cable is probably less than that. Probably around 15-20 Mbit/s for cable. BTW standard DVD is around 11 Mbit/s. To add to that providers commonly crop, resize, stretch, and modify the original HD signal further for formatting to their liking, degrading the quality even further.
So Bluray and HDDVD discs have around double to triple the information compared to a broadcast HD signal.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc
http://www.filmbug.com/dictionary/hdtv.php
first, it's not copy exactly protection. if you obtain a bit-bit duplicator, you could copy without decrypting. Perhaps, using consumer recorders, an obscured encryption scheme could slow unauthorized duplication. But the immediate effect is that the players are tightly restricted and controlled.
second, yes both use the same encryption. But there is more to restriction management than just an encryption standard.
Here comes the -1 flamebait, but the DMCA that makes all of this DRM infested technology possible, was signed into law by Bill Clinton.
I'm not not licking toads.
DVD's maximum bitrate is 11 Mbit, but you'd run out of disc in about two hours if you did that - with no room for extras. Most DVDs actually run at 3-5 Mbit. (it is variable)
The problem with most HD systems is that they were designed with the crappy old MPEG2 codec in mind. This means ATSC *needs* almost 20Mbit to broadcast 1080p - a serious waste of bandwidth and it also makes for a less stable signal. Cable and sat broadcasters have switched to MPEG4/h.264 for their HD content so they can look better at lower bitrates.
The same could have been done for an HD DVD version; a standard DVD can average 6.5Mbit for 3 hours - that is plenty for 1080p using h.264. No need for expensive new disks and players...