Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD « Videomaker Community Forums

compusolver
Member

Here's a link to the best article I've ever seen on this subject..

http://www.projectorcentral.com/retailing_HD-DVD_Blu-ray.htm

It's got me convinced to go with HD-DVD.

Posted 5 years ago #
cfulton
Member

Interesting article indeed. Although I'm still holding off on either until the format war ends. I'm extremely disappointed as a consumer (and editor) that the groups involved learned absolutely nothing from the consumer Beta/VHS format war. And the licensing tactics used by one of them that preculdes making products for the other format, virtually guaranteeing there will be no dual-format players? Reprehensible! Guess I'm sticking with cable as my source for HD programming for the time being...

Posted 5 years ago #
dnathan
Member

It seems to me that Sony would benefit from offering a technology warantee, stating that if Blu-Ray had not sold more players than HD DVD by, say 2008, that the cost of the player would be partially refunded. I realize that that would be complicated, but they would sell a ton of players, and by doing that, they would help ensure that Blu-Ray wins the war.

I think Blu-Ray will win the war myself.

Posted 5 years ago #
Digital Video
Member

I was reading that HD-DVD is being backed by Microsoft. Theres 2 big players in the game Sony vs Microsoft. I was comparing Playstation 3 vs X-box 360(kids will not leave me alone). Microsoft gives details also of why HD-DVD is better and why thats the format they choose to use.
Here's the link
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/xbox360/whyhddvd.htm

Posted 5 years ago #
Compressor
Member

I think Microsoft's article could have been a lot shorter if they just said, "Because Sony is using Blu-Ray."

Posted 5 years ago #
dnathan
Member

What will be the deciding factor? What are you guys looking for before buying one or the other? That's the hard part.

I need to figure out what I'm going to give to my couples when I start doing weddings for money. I'm taping in HD, but can't deliver it in HD. My tentative plan is to burn regular DVDs with a committment to burn onto Blu-Ray or HD DVD when there appears to be a winner. Thoughts?

Posted 5 years ago #
mmontgomery
Inactive

Hey you concerned peeps,

Yeah, so I thought I'd add a couple of my own thoughts to this discussion as I'm constantly thinking about it, too. I recently was speaking with a Sony rep a couple of weeks ago and got severely off topic about Blu-ray. This conversation (Blu-ray vs HD DVD) is huge distraction in our meetings with those involved with product development. Unfortunately, most of these conversations are off the record, but I'll tell you what has been a key area of interest for me personally.

Several weeks ago we reported on our news and tech segment in our vidcast about a new beta video sharing site called Zudeo (http://www.zudeo.com). It's pretty cool: I downloaded a high definition, 60-second beer commercial in less than 5 minutes, which is quite an achievement. Zudeo uses BitTorrent to distribute the files in a peer to peer fashion with multiple peers supplying the data, so you can get them much faster than a typical server/client environment. Anyway, I was astounded that I was able to download and view a "web video" by nature of delivery, that looked better than what I get on my 19" RCA at home. In other words, high definition web video is becoming a reality and, certainly, IPTV is closing in on our homes. So, one has to wonder how will the Internet (especially HD web video) affect the format war. Will it help decide the war? If so, how will it affect each format?

As I thought about the effects of HD web video on the format war, I began to wonder if it could also just as well make way for a new format. Humor me, here, but what if everyone jumped on the Zudeo HD video bandwagon and nobody (studios included) needed Blu-ray or HD DVD as a method of distribution? The only need for a new optical format would be to store those downloads somewhere, in which case, Blu-ray has a slight advantage in capacity. But, I can't help but wonder if I'd much rather have a big ol' hard drive or NAS and use a thumb drive (or Ipod) as a way to make that content mobile. Questions!?

Well, the Information Age is a crazy and confusing time. Who knows what will happen to this HD information we want to be able to share with our friends, family and customers? I guess my big question is, will this information travel the path of least resistance? It seems to me that the Internet is starting to become the most efficient route. Only time will tell.

Posted 5 years ago #
hidef1080
Member

I may be the odd man out here but I buy DVD's for the extra stuff.
Can you get that by down loading over the net?

As far as the topic at hand - HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray -
Until there is some type of standard, I'll just stick with sandard def DVD's.

IMO I believe that both of these formats are doomed to fail because of this silly "war".

HD-DVD seems to be the better of the two but again, I'm not going to drop that kind of scratch on a system that will be replaced in 2 to 3 years.
I'm a big Sony fan but Blu-Ray may be the cross road for me. [No PS3 either and that hurts!!]

My two cents.

Posted 5 years ago #
awaits
Member

Mark... perhaps I'm missing something here.

It takes FIVE minutes to download a ONE-minute piece of HD video? My math is a bit rusty, but wouldn't a two-hour movie take 10 hours to download?

Seems a bit excessive to be commercially viable. At least for the foreseeable future.

+ Andy

Posted 5 years ago #
elderban
Member

I get the feeling Sony is trying to get back for Betamax not becoming the standard back in the 70's... :D

Out of the two, I prefer HD-DVD.

Posted 5 years ago #
jsmyth
Member

An interesting concept.

Why the war? Yeah $$$.

I was raised (if you can call it that) in the era of Ford vs Chevy. Chevy went to the 'small block - short throw' and Ford kept to the longer throw - more torque. In my experience on the street, Ford guys could beat Chevy guys every day of the week. The 'news' didn't report it that way though. Chevy's won. How come?

I could go into it here but it is off-topic. So let's return to Blu-ray vs HD-DVD.

I have just retired from this industry [Hi-Tech imaging]. I don't claim to know any more than you. But I can tell you that almost every Manfuracturing 'player' is playing on both sides in some form or another. [I know you are shocked.]

As a consumer, I am only interested in bang for the buck - and that simpley results in blu-ray. I get more footage on a disc. Bottom line.

To be honest with you, most people don't sit in front of their TV that long. But if I want to put all of my Alaskan vacation on (just one) DVD, it would most likely be on a Blu-Ray - and probably most would fit on a HD-DVD too. Where it matters is in my trip to AntArtica. - - - A six months project. . . . No way could i see this several months of this video fiting on HD-DVD.

My personal choice is Blu-ray - - - But then as I started this with "I still own Beta gear".

- John

Posted 5 years ago #
elderban
Member

Here's a comparison of the two...

Laser wavelength
Blue-Ray = 405 Nanometers
HD-DVD = 405 Nanometers

Numerical aperture
Blue-Ray = 0.85
HD-DVD = 0.65

Storage capacity single layer
Blue-Ray = 25 GB
HD-DVD = 15 GB

Storage capacity dual layer
Blue-Ray = 50 GB
HD-DVD = 30 GB

Playback time on two layers (Standard Definition)
Blue-Ray = 23 hours
HD-DVD = 13.8 hours

Playback time on two layers (High Definition)
Blue-Ray = 9 hours
HD-DVD = 8 hours

Video codecs
Blue-Ray = MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) / VC-1 / MPEG-2
HD-DVD = MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) / VC-1 / MPEG-2

Audio codecs lossless (mandatory)
Blue-Ray = Linear PCM/MLP(TRUE HD)[2-ch]
HD-DVD = Linear PCM/MLP(TRUE HD)[2-ch]

Audio codecs lossless (optional)
Blue-Ray = DTS HD (lossless) & PCM5.1 (lossless)
HD-DVD = DTS HD (lossless)

Audio codecs lossy (mandatory)
Blue-Ray = Dolby Digital Plus/DTS/Dolby Digital/MPEG Audio
HD-DVD = Dolby Digital Plus/DTS/Dolby Digital/MPEG Audio

Maximum data transfer rate
Blue-Ray = 54.0 Mbit/s
HD-DVD = 36.55 Mbit/s

Video systems (maximum)
Blue-Ray = 1920x1080 50/60 Progressive HDTV
HD-DVD = 1920x1080 50/60 Progressive HDTV

As you can see, there's not a whole lot of difference. The major difference is that BR has one hour more of playback time than HD-DVD (in High-Def).

But I don't see anyone watching nine hours of video.

Storage wise, yes - blue-ray is better. I could see them becoming a good back-up option for editors as well.

Posted 5 years ago #