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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."
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.
I guess they didn't watch the second and third Matrix movies.
Rob
Several PS3's out there, plus isnt walmart even going to be selling a bluray player for under $600? I've seen bluray blanks and burners at Best Buy and a couple other places, yet I have never seen even a regular HDDVD player.
They're just ahead, and sales seem to agree.
Just my $0.02
I was much happier believing you meant "pirate ninjas"... maybe I won't see POTC after all...
So just the first movie then?
I'm sure "SlashdotMedia" will improve on all the wonders that Dice Holdings blessed us all with
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!
Which ever format the majority of Porn distributors pick will win.
"TV, a medium as it is neither rare nor well done." Ernie Kovacs
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?
That's because you have to get the last two movies if you pick up the Trilogy box. They're reimbursing you for the time and effort of throwing away those discs.
I read the internet for the articles.
One thing is certain; we lose.
When you have finished this cup of coffee your adventure will begin again.
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.'"
Meh. Who cares? Both parties suck. If we want good politicians, we need ones who have never been in politics.
In other words, never vote for an incumbent unless they are *amazing*.
Convert FLACs to a portable format with FlacSquisher
The Defense rests.
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
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.
HD-DVD doesn't have enough repetitive letters in its name to be successful. I'm going to wait for HHD-DVVDD-BVD. Or Red-ray.
Man, you really need that seminar!
I'll tell you what will win cat5e, cat6, cat7, fiber and wireless. Seriously, if you have to wait X days for the movies you ordered to arrive in the mail you might just as well download them overnight. The hard drive space needed will be available before either blue-ray or HD-DVD becomes mainstream. Of course, the movie industry will shoot itself in the foot and cripple the whole thing with DRM and whatnot, so it will be done over file-sharing networks and then we will hear how the HD formats lose sales "because of piracy", and there will be more draconian copyright laws. Blue-ray will lose, HD-DVD will lose, consumers will lose, the movie industry will lose, the artists will lose, ISPs will lose as they have to deal with DMCA notices, even the lawyers will lose as they have will have to deal with bullshit like this instead of something worthwhile. Orwellian governments will win as they get another excuse to implement more privacy infringing legislation. Welcome to the the digital millennium.
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
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
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...