Slashdot Mirror
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."
this wont be over until every player is dual format
Early adopters are dumb Republicans. 35 bucks for a movie? 120 for a trilogy? How much for the player that may or may not have anything to play next year?
Stop giving these companies money. These companies have more of a vote in this "democracy" than you do. Vote with your dollar, don't support industries that lobby for crappy legislation.
Last year I compared my DVD versions of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Bladerunner, and a couple of other movies to the HiDef versions on HDNet Movies. While the HD versions did have more detail and brighter colors it wasn't enough to convince me to buy a PS3. It still isn't enough.
The big problem I see with HD formats is...
there's nothing there that I don't already have!
Yes, the visuals are better, but the sound is the exact same from what I can tell. Understand that I had to watch the movies on HDNet and then the DVD later, or first, to make my comparisons. I only have one large screen HD TV with surround sound.
As many here at Slashdot have already noted; DVDs are just as compact as HD disks, allow for menus and quick chapter selection, and have had their anti-consumer Digital Restrictions Management CRIPPLED! >8^D
WTF do I need HD disks for?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know someone is going to say that we don't have to watch the commercials on HD disks now. Just wait, sucker, until they become common place. After that you'll be dropping your shorts and grabbing your ankles again.
We have always been at war with Eurasia!
The Matrix collection is exclusive to HD-DVD only for the time being, it will be released on Blu-ray eventually. If you know it's coming to Blu-ray is there a reason to get all bunched up over which format to go with? And how many of us are still waiting for this whole nonsense to end?
One thing is certain; we lose.
When you have finished this cup of coffee your adventure will begin again.
VHS to DVD was a huge step. You no longer have to rewind, quality is a LOT better, assuming no scratches no signal degradation, multiple audio tracks, deleted scenes, smaller form factor, digital, just a ton of reason.
DVD to BR/HDDVD? What's really the big difference, that justifies spending $500-600/player and a lot more per movie?
The prospect of Jar-Jar being buggered by a Bantha makes my heart glad...
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
The Defense rests.
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
I'm kind of surprised that since you were an early adapter for dvd that you're so down on those that are early adapters for hd-dvd and blu-ray. But really, its one of those things, either you're into it or you're not, so I'm not blaming or calling you out or anything. The bottom line is, if you don't have a HD tv, theres zero reason to switch. If you have a 720p or 1080i tv (thats me) theres a slight advantage to switching. If you have a 1080p tv, i could see a real reason to switch.
Its interesting though because I would argue the same points you made of the VHS switch to DVD, for the most part. The quality is A LOT better. It just really is, and this is from a guy who owns a 720p tv not even a 1080p. The quality between a HD-DVD and an upgraded DVD is significant. In addition (I don't have blu-ray so I can only speak for HD-DVD) the menu/special features area is greatly improved over DVDs. Menus/options pop-up right over the playing movie. So if you end up on French subtitles somehow, you can turn them off without pausing the movie. Plus the enhancing viewing feature which gives you a VH1 pop-up video style of commentary/extras overlaid on the movie itself, is a pretty sweet feature. Much cooler than a DVD's director's commentary. Its one of those things you have to watch to really appreciate it.
Finally, as far as HD-DVD players go. They start at $399 (I saw a sale at a major chain this weekend that was down to $299) and its not like this huge outpouring of money like your $500 back 12 years ago. Or, like me, I bought a used xbox360 hd-dvd player for $100. For that price, its definitely worth it.
Just trying to give the other side really... its all personal preference.
Who actually buys porn on disc anymore? That's what the internet is for.
I read the internet for the articles.
In my opinion, the second POTC was identical in quality to the second Matrix. Both were unnecessary sequels to great movies (I'm much more partial to Matrix though). Both upped the budget on special effects. Both also chose to focus more on special effects than on the actual storyline. Reloaded had these 20 min fight scenes that costs millions and then had to pause for some story before the next 20 minute million dollar fight. Dead Man's Chest was similar. Huge budget with amazing special effects, but I found the actual story hard to follow because the dialogue explaining the plot was often rushed in the middle of action sequences. Plus the story was just not as compelling (also I think the crappy local theater I saw it in cut off the first five minutes and I was totally confused. Can anyone tell me what happened before the title credits appeared?) Both also ended with a cliffhanger and and the third installment is premiering only a year later (cause we all can't wait to find out what happens next. I just hope the third POTC doesn't ruin the first the way the third Matrix did.
"It's not whether you win or lose, it's how drunk you get." -- H. J. Simpson
Parent is insightful, not funny.
I agree. If they wanted to make DVD better and support HD, they could have kept the exact same cheap disk and simply switch to h.264/AVC; 9gb would have been ample for 3 hours of 1080p content. There is no need for 50GB discs...
While it wouldn't have been backwards compatible with existing DVD players, every new player after the introduction would simply have support for the codec too. That and an HDMI output would make good players only slightly more expensive, not over a thousand.
Blu-ray wastes it expensive space by most movies using sledge-hammer high-mbit MPEG2 anyway. At least most HDDVD use MPEG4. (M$ codec)
Well, laserdisc over VHS had a really limited title selection, almost no rental options, and simply didn't have broad availability in general... DVD over VHS, well my biggest nod to DVD is not having to fast-forward/rewind over tape. Also, size is a big factor. Laserdisc was about the size of an LP record. DVD has the height of VHS, for cases, and about the width of a CD case. It allows at standard case size for two dvd's to fit into one VHS holder's slot, or certain CD case slots... That is mainly the case size as a factor. Also, you can fit an entire season of a tv show in about the same space as one or two vhs tapes, probably the biggest reason for DVD television show purchases over VHS... My wife has about half of I Love Lucy, MASH, and ST:TOS to replace in DVD and the tapes go into storage. Benefit is a lot more shelf space. The space considerations are also important wrt LaserDisc since the format was LP size, the storage considerations are much more difficult than using a pretty typical book case for storage.
Michael J. Ryan - tracker1.info
Well, if you want pr0n, you have to use HD-DVD since Sony won't license BD for use with pornography. In the end that may be a heavy deciding factor. (about 50% funny, 30% insightful, and 20% informative)
Michael J. Ryan - tracker1.info