I know I might get bashed for asking this (and I have done my fair share of research) but could someone please tell me which of the 2 is better for watching movies/overall picture quality Blu-Ray or HD Dvd??? I have a sony 50 xbr1 1080p tv and Im not concerned about price but which one of the two produces a better quality picture when watching a movie, and which brand/model out of which ever one you recommend would you preferr. I know from what I've read the new Toshiba sounds like it takes the cake for HD Dvd but I've never seen it in action, and from what I;ve read thus far either the new Sony or Samsung wins for Blu-Ray but I just havent seen anybody do a head to head comparison between the two top dogs from each category and make a decision on whom has better picture clarity/quality. Please advise....

Bump....

Personally, I'm waiting for a universal unit, something that plays both. As far as which is better, I'm sure it depends on the movie.

Yes I have but like I previously mentioned I havent seen an indepth analsys of someone comparing the top blu-ray vs hd dvd. I've been able to find comparison between the top few in each independent category, like the samsung vs sony etc...

Various magazines have voted the Toshiba players as the best picture available in any consumer format, as recently as this month. One article stated that Bluray still has not caught up. Apart from the quality of the players, the VC1 encodings that are the norm are generally better than the other two codecs, which are usually used for Bluray releases.

Great titles have been released using all three codecs, and many of the best BDs are using MPEG-2, as it can still do the business with a good bitrate and a good compressionist. Codec is just one choice a compressionist makes, not the only thing that matters.

Fortunately, in the real world, the studios chose to use VC1 on almost all HD DVD releases.

Bluray is using mostly Mpeg2, with more AVC lately.

And in the real world, the PQ on HD DVD has generally been better, and is recognized as such by the press and users.

PQ is pretty much the most important aspect of moving to hi def.

It really depends on the movie. It appears that both hd-dvd and blu-ray can offer similar picture and sound, so it depends on how well a movie was transferred to HD.

Player wise, on the HD-DVD side, I'd say look at what features you want and buy accordingly. Mandatory features are defined and in place from the first player made.

On the blu-ray side, things are a lot more tricky. They are coming out with a new profile BD 1.1 around November. I'd wait until at least then before purchasing one. Also, I don't believe they've given a timeline on when the will have online features available yet. Also, the prices should hopefully drop for blu-ray players by the Christmas timeframe.

There is not as yet a full featured universal player, and will not be until the blu-ray specs are finalized.

Great titles have been released using all three codecs, and many of the best BDs are using MPEG-2, as it can still do the business with a good bitrate and a good compressionist. Codec is just one choice a compressionist makes, not the only thing that matters.

But from what I've heard most/all of the blu-ray transfer stinkers where on mpeg-2.