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1. Comment - Interview: Universal EVP Ken Graffeo says HD DVD is here to stay

   (Jan 22, 2008 - 10:10 AM)

   Sorry, but HD DVD is not the only format that can do combo discs.
   There was a Blu-ray hybrid on display at IFA 2005, with Blu-ray and DVD on the same side of the disc. That's a much better solution than a flipper, which most people despise. JVC demonstrated the disc working on a Blu-ray prototype player (it was 2005) and a JVC DVD player.
   They could also market each Blu-ray with a DVD of the movie included inside separately. They can also allow for a DVD download to be included with every Blu-ray disc. There are several ways to do it.
   The studios that release on Blu-ray have not pushed the BDA to have a hybrid disc available.
   It's not rocket science.
   The majority of the feedback shows that people have more trouble with combo discs than they are worth.
   Universal are still touting the company line that they have agreed upon. The future is most definitely Blu though. Last year Universal were talking about releasing 100 titles, now they're touting the announcement of one day and date title.
   HD DVD is dead.

2. Comment - Update: Paramount denies plans to drop HD DVD

   (Jan 10, 2008 - 3:13 PM)

   NULLedge - which one of those "1" HD DVD formats will you play the HD DVD disc with dts-HD Master Audio on?
   The players that decode it? The players that bitstream it? Or the players that do neither?
   See how that works both ways?
   
   The main movie from all Blu-ray discs plays on ALL players and so do the majority of the special features. For PIP if you want to see what was being shown and you have a 1.0 player, you can watch the PIP separately as a featurette. So far the only compelling PIP feature in the 20 months HD DVD has been out is "300" anyway.
   As for web enabled content, I have several DVD's with it and I've never bothered to look and see what they are.
   All the other deleted scenes, special features, audio commentaries, gag reels, making of's, etc., etc., etc., will all play on any player.
   
   So much drama!

3. Comment - How HD DVD Got its Groove Back

   (Nov 7, 2007 - 7:34 AM)

   @ MidnightWatcher - can you point out where HD DVD titles have "killed" the Blu-ray titles. Isn't 51:49 in favour of Blu-ray the best sales ratio HD DVD's had this year when it had the first $300+ million blockbuster released exclusively on the format and it couldn't even beat the Blu-ray sales of the neutral title "300" which had over $100 million LESS in box office takings?

4. Comment - How HD DVD Got its Groove Back

   (Nov 7, 2007 - 7:32 AM)

   It looks like most of these players were sold as second players to people already with an HD DVD player, or as an upgrade to an add-on.
   Correct me if I'm wrong, but Blu-ray has won every week's worth of sales in discs so far this year and with the studio advantage will continue to do so right throughout the Christmas season.
   What you also fail to mention is that Toshiba has not only priced all other CE's out of the HD DVD game, but the Chinese manufacturers as well.
   With these sort of numbers so early in the game and so small compared to DVD, it's easy to see that Toshiba is playing right into the hands of the BDA.
   When you see HD DVD from one company and Blu-ray Disc players from EVERYONE else and cannot find movies from Walt Disney on HD DVD, nor Spider-man, Die Hard, Aliens, Simpsons Movie, New Line Cinema releases when they first come out due to lack of region coding on HD DVD, etc., etc., etc., it's only a matter of time before Warner flies the HD DVD coop and Universal won't be far behind.
   HD DVD has not got its groove back, it lost it on December 24th, 2006 when Blu-ray started selling more discs every week and until that changes, the last dance is underway.

5. Comment - HD DVD: We're Not at War with Blu-ray

   (Aug 23, 2007 - 5:37 PM)

   I see a few people stating that Blu-ray is starting to catch up to HD DVD in audio and picture quality, but this is old, old news. HD DVD was surpassed by blu-ray in PQ and AQ a long time ago.
   
   Here are some actual stats as of August 3rd, 2007.
   
   There are 154 Blu-ray titles in North America with lossless audio.
   
   There are 43 HD DVD titles in North America with lossless audio.
   
   If you look at five of the main review sites for Blu-ray and HD DVD; Home Theater Forum, DVD Talk, Upcoming Discs, Home Theater Spot and High Def Digest, and add up all the reviews there are just over 900 HD DVD reviews and just over 900 Blu-ray Disc reviews. Here are some breakdowns from those numbers.
   
   SQ Studio
   4.38 Buena Vista
   4.12 Sony
   4.08 Fox
   3.81 Lionsgate
   3.81 Paramount
   3.63 Warner
   3.63 Universal
   3.63 Weinstein
   
   Notice how the two HD DVD exclusive studios have the lowest average SQ rating.
   
   As for Picture Quality:
   
   PQ Studio
   4.19 Buena Vista
   4.02 Paramount
   3.95 Warner
   3.94 Sony
   3.84 Fox
   3.80 Weinstein
   3.73 Universal
   3.66 Lionsgate
   
   Averaging all the reviews to compare formats gives the following numbers.
   
   Picture Quality overall
   HD DVD - 3.85
   Blu-ray - 3.94
   
   Sound Quality overall
   HD DVD - 3.67
   Blu-ray - 3.96
   
   As you can see the difference in sound quality is huge. When you have 48 Mbps bandiwdth for a/v versus the 30.09 Mbps bandwidth that HD DVD is limited to, things happen.
   
   With substantially higher average bit rates on VC-1 and AVC/MPEG-4 encodes and 8 Mbps bandwidth left over above the peaks for audio encodes, Blu-ray has the most consistent results.
   
   Because of how much work goes into making a good looking encode on HD DVD thanks to the bandwidth limitations, as soon as you start trying to release many titles at once you are limited by how much help Microsoft can give you. The results become quite apparent. One need only look at Universal's offerings over the last two months to see how much the quality suffers. Sure we get a decent encode now and again like Hot Fuzz, but there have been far too many 2, 2.5 and 3 star reviews for Universal's catalogue titles while Sony and Disney release 4, 4.5 and 5 star catalogue titles time and time again.
   
   Disney touts the bandwidth of Blu-ray as a big reason why their discs look so good. When you watch the lightning scenes in The Prestige the video peaks are around 39 Mbps. Then you have a 24-bit PCM track above that at 6.75 Mbps.
   
   The sooner most people realise that Blu-ray is has the best potential of the two formats for the best looking HD and consistently delivers the better quality product, the sooner we have a chance of one format being mass acceptible and not stuck with another SACD/DVD-Audio situation.