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Any hope for HD DVD

E

europeman

Guest
Unfortunately IMO very little hopes for HD DVD to survive. I hate Sony with a passion. I know of somebody who bought a 4500 Grand Wega TV. It had issues and Sony flat out refused to repair it period. They told my friend the part is no longer being made or is available. It was not a matter of cost but just getting it repaired.

Sony and Blu-ray terrible for consumer. If they win I wonder how much they will put in R&D to further the product.

HD DVD has so many more features. Blu-Ray no internet connectivity so firmware upgrades will be difficult.
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i love sony and all there products i buy everything sony and nothing of mine has ever died, long live Blu-Ray :)
 
Not so fast, dont give up hope yet, the war for HD Read Only might be won by Bluray.

However for recordable and rewritable media, things might turn out different:

- HD-DVD-R being closer to normal DVD are cheaper to produce. If the price per disc gets close to the one for DVD+R DL, we might have a winner there. Keep in mind that price per disc is the most important criteria here - just like technically superior DVD-RAM could not keep up with low priced DVD-R / RW, expensive BR-R might not be competitive against cheaper HD-DVD-R. Then there is also the possibilty to create mini-HD-DVD or "3X DVD DL".

- As AACS is not mandatory for HD-DVD movies, it should be more easy to create your own HDTV records or HD backups on HD-DVD-R that are playable on standalones. For Bluray this is more complicated, I think one has to create AVCHD-type videos.

- Independent movie studios from outside the US might still prefer HD-DVD so they dont have to pay AACS.

So we might have a situation, where Bluray is the standart for prerecorded movies, while HD-DVD-R is being used for HD home recording/backups. Dual HD-DVD/BR combo standalones will become the defacto standart. Thus making a return to HD-DVD quite easy for the major studios.

Two more things are needed for this to happen:
1. Slysoft could you please give us a CloneBluRay2HD-DVD transcoding utility.
Thanks ;) :p
2. Cyberlink might be forced to remove HD-DVD playback from future releases (see BD+ situation). We absolutly need a HD-DVD capable videolan or mplayer.
 
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If BD wins... fine. I'm not happy but I'll accept the outcome. What concerns me is that with Warner switching sides and everyone saying that essentially it's Game Over there are people who have sat back and watched but did nothing that are now sprinting to get a BD player. If you preferred HD-DVD then do NOT do this. Talk about a wonderful way to put more nails in HD-DVD's coffin.

I still haven't spent a dime on either format. I want HD-DVD to win but I'm still going to wait a bit before I purchase any high definition format.

I think the timing of Warner's withdrawal from HD-DVD to switch over to BD was poorly timed and I think it was planned to harm HD-DVD's position. BD needed something big and this was big. I don't believe HD-DVD is dead yet. We need to watch some more to see how the Industry and related things handle what's happening. Even Digital Playground which is releasing 8 porn movies on BD isn't BD exclusive. They are going to be releasing movies for both formats.

I think we need a few months to actually see how this pans out.
 
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Well, Paramount denies they will drop HD DVD.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aZzib5lwheBc

It is getting really interesting now.

As long as one big studio doesn't drop HD-DVD then all the small studios and your average joe will be able to author a high definition disc. I can't stress how important I consider this point. It's crucial and I think too many people overlook it and instead debate which format is better from a technical aspect by comparing disc capacity, the audio and video, etc.

Hopefully, if there is at least one of the bigger studios (ie Paramount) that stays in the HD-DVD game then over time the BD exclusive studios [and their possible non-existent contracts that didn't come with possible gifts of some kind] will decide to release movies for both formats.

I also wonder just how many porn studios are really going to want to switch to BD unless they are forced. With HD-DVD they don't have to waste any money on an AACS license if they don't wish to and that means more money for them. Why go BD?

One of the formats has to be declared a winner but that does not have to mean that the other format has to die.
 
As long as one big studio doesn't drop HD-DVD then all the small studios and your average joe will be able to author a high definition disc.

The media might be available, but for the average joe to author an HD-DVD-R you still need some kind of relatively accessible burners... and in this regard, the HD-DVD crowd is also behind to a fairly pathetic degree. Also, even the word "HD-DVD-R" seems cumbersome... BD-R/RE is much less annoying to say, lol.

And finally, if dual format players were to become the norm, would one of these play a BD-R which has had a HD-DVD file structure burned onto it? Both formats are basically just storage media, after all, once stripped of the DRM crap. And if a player were compatible with both HD formats, it should stand to reason that any form of compatible media with any compatible file structure on it should player properly.
 
The media might be available, but for the average joe to author an HD-DVD-R you still need some kind of relatively accessible burners... and in this regard, the HD-DVD crowd is also behind to a fairly pathetic degree. Also, even the word "HD-DVD-R" seems cumbersome... BD-R/RE is much less annoying to say, lol.

Yes, of course. We are waiting on HD-DVD burners. That's a requirement here for it to spread through the masses more as far as authoring. When I referred to your average joe I meant a person who is in the position to want to release a disc for others but doesn't necessarily have the money to go all out. Say I'm an amateur surfer or snowboarder and I want to compile some footage of myself and create an HD-DVD of it. In theory, I could, as long as I have the proper equipment and that burner. No AACS license needed.

Yes, the naming convention for the HD-DVD discs was a pather poor choice. HD-R and HD-RE or HD-RW or something like that would be far better but then again maybe that would be just too darn confusing for people.

And finally, if dual format players were to become the norm, would one of these play a BD-R which has had a HD-DVD file structure burned onto it? Both formats are basically just storage media, after all, once stripped of the DRM crap. And if a player were compatible with both HD formats, it should stand to reason that any form of compatible media with any compatible file structure on it should player properly.

My technical knowledge in this area is seriously lacking so I can't even comment on the ability for this to happen but I could see the BD camp possibly not wanting it to be allowed.
 
I also wonder just how many porn studios are really going to want to switch to BD unless they are forced. With HD-DVD they don't have to waste any money on an AACS license if they don't wish to and that means more money for them. Why go BD?
Who cares about porn? If BD meant there'd be less porn then I'd be motivated to buy it.
And finally, if dual format players were to become the norm, would one of these play a BD-R which has had a HD-DVD file structure burned onto it?
Of course not, they're competing formats. Find me a player that would accept CD audio tracks on a DVD-R!
Not so fast, dont give up hope yet, the war for HD Read Only might be won by Bluray.

However for recordable and rewritable media, things might turn out different
Yes, I believe that's exactly what I said about it yesterday. Except I don't agree with your conclusion - what you may see is dual-format drives - you may even see BD-ROM/HD-DVD-RW drives, but that alone is not going to prevent Bluray from winning the format war for HD home movies.
 
Right, to keep HD-DVD alive and assuming Toshiba gets serious with some affordable HD-DVD writers (doesn't seem so right now), the most important thing will be cheap HD-DVD-R discs (or HD-R discs :agree:) and an fast, easy-to-use backup solution from (25+ GB) BR to (15GB) HD-R, just like DVDShrink or CloneDVD were for classic DVDs.

AnyDVD HD helps alot of people playing their HD movies with all the inconveniences of AACS/HDCP, but doing HD backups has still way to go. Personally backup to .mkv or .mp4 is not a real option for me, as you cannot play does on your standalone player.
 
No. No hope. It was fun while it lasted but there had to be one. HD DVD blu it and have been shown the red card :D
 
Plenty of hope. HD DVD is still the best format for small filmmakers and as the writers are now available (I got an oem laptop writer to switch out with my Blu-ray writer) I wouldn't be surprised if more small companies start to use it
 
Toshiba pooched a perfectly good opportunity. They should have paid money to subsidize the price of the HD DVD versions so that the movies were 17.99 or less to come closer to standard definition new releases; instead of asking for just exclusivity.

When someone would pick up a DVD version and the HD version would be about the same price, they might have opted for the HD DVD version. As a side affect it may have lowered Blu-ray prices too.

Once you lower the prices, it's hard to raise them.

Shame really.
 
About the blu-ray requiring AACS on BD-ROM discs there is a very simple solution to this.

The maker of a pressed disc (ROM) has full bit-by-bit control over the contents of the disc, so it would be very easy to fake the media type of pressed disc as BD-R to circumvent the AACS requirement :)
 
Plenty of hope. HD DVD is still the best format for small filmmakers and as the writers are now available (I got an oem laptop writer to switch out with my Blu-ray writer) I wouldn't be surprised if more small companies start to use it

True, if small companies can afford it. The more it is used, the lower the price is. One thing you have to understand is that small companies don't produce major Hollywood blockbusters, because they are exactly that, small. Trying to tap into the mainstream market will be difficult for them because I can bet that when the war is over the average person will pick up a BluRay player instead. Not taking care of this average person is to the disadvantage of small companies in many ways.
 
and having to pay out an extra $3000 fee per title to have aacs encryption forced onto their Blu-ray discs is a big financial downer when you're only making runs of 500 or so
 
About the blu-ray requiring AACS on BD-ROM discs there is a very simple solution to this.

The maker of a pressed disc (ROM) has full bit-by-bit control over the contents of the disc, so it would be very easy to fake the media type of pressed disc as BD-R to circumvent the AACS requirement :)
Except this would be against their license agreement and would lose them their license to press BD discs
 
and having to pay out an extra $3000 fee per title to have aacs encryption forced onto their Blu-ray discs is a big financial downer when you're only making runs of 500 or so

Sure, but I don't think it's worth putting it on BluRay if it's only that limited. Upconverting DVD player would do the trick so they should stick to DVDs or be prepared to pay the price. It's a tough world out there.
 
But thats not your decision, I work for a company that builds video editing systems and supplies to the home user through to TV companies and a lot of our small film makers want to put their stuff out on HD discs because the quality is better, and anyone who has a decent screen, (1080p and above 42") can see the difference between upscaled and original HD. I'm talking about actual companies who are trying to make a living. And why should they have to pay extra for something they are forced into having when they don't want it. Your argument just comes across as saying 'tough'. Well it's a shame you have such a narrow viewpoint and are quite happy that Sony are forcing small filmmakers out of the HD market with this ridiculous license fee that is not necessary.
 
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