If you're reading this thread, it's safe to assume you read the previous thread "Round 1", where I compared bootup and shutdown times, as well as DVD playback.
For those that haven't read that thread (or want a quick recap), it goes something like this:
- The BD-P1000 beat the Toshiba HD-A1 in bootup time (by 12 seconds) and shutdown time (by 8 seconds).
- The HD-A1 has a more comprehensive setup, as well as USB and Ethernet (the BD-P1000 has a card reader, no USB or Ethernet).
- The HD-A1 won in terms of responsiveness (ff, rew, chapter skip, menu nav) and PQ (by a slight margin) during DVD playback tests.
Now that I have got my hands on a Blu-ray disc, it was obviously time for "Round 2."
I decided to use the two discs which seem to be the consensus choice in terms of overall a/v quality: The Chronicles of Riddick [HD] and Underworld Evolution [BD].
Disc load time (from the instant I hit "Close" until video appeared on-screen):
HD-A1: 60 seconds
BD-P1000: 33 seconds
Note: The Blu-ray player has an "hourglass" which is displayed when the player is busy (presumably buffering data before playback). This appears after certain menu selections, adding to the load times a bit. When the HD DVD player has loaded the disc, there aren't any noticable load times.
Menu Navigation (navigating to special features and to specific chapters via scene selection):
HA-A1: Very Good
BD-P1000: Good
Notes: There is a slight lag navigating HD DVD menus, though the transitional animation probably has something to do with that. There is a much longer lag navigating the menus in Underworld. Selecting anything other than Scene Selection causes a dropdown menu to appear, though it is revealed VERY slowly, as if the player just doesn't have the horsepower to draw it fast enough. It's pretty irritating and feels slower than HD DVD... by a noticable margin. Scene selection was equally sluggish. I'm curious to see if the BD camp plan to create custom menus for specific titles or go with a standard menu system in the same fashion that Warner and Universal have done (on the HD side).
Chapter skip times (forward and back, after video played for at least 5 seconds):
HD-A1: 2-3 seconds
BD-P1000: 2 seconds
Fast-forward/Fast-reverse (no hard numbers, just my observation):
HD-A1: more responsive (smoother)
BD-P1000: less responsive (jerkier)
Video Quality (see notes below):
HD-A1 (Riddick): Excellent
BD-P1000 (Underworld): Very Good
Notes: I compared scenes from Riddick in the Necromonger ship since they are a bit darker and similar to those in Underworld Evolution. It's obviously not a perfect comparison, but the best I can do given the fact that there aren't any cross-platform discs yet.
I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of Underworld given the fact that they crammed a 106 minute film, U-LPCM audio, and 45+ minutes of extras onto a 25gig disc using "old fashioned" MPEG2. It looked great, but wasn't as stunning as some of the stuff I have seen on HD DVD. I want to note that this is my "first impression" and things will change when 50gig dual layer BD's hit the streets sometime in the (hopefully) not-too-distant future. If only the BD camp would get their act together and use VC-1 or H.264....
Audio Quality (DD+ vs U-LPCM):
HD-A1 (Riddick): Excellent
BD-P1000 (Underworld): Excellent
Notes: The finest quality audio (that we can listen to today) on HD DVD is Dolby Digital Plus, while Blu-ray offers Uncompressed LPCM. This requires the use of the analog outputs on both players. Again, this isn't an Apples-To-Apples comparison, though I will say that both sound uniformly excellent. From what I have been reading, others have said that U-LPCM isn't much better than DD+. Both disc formats will support Dolby TruHD, as well as additional advanced codecs. There are already a few HD DVD discs with TruHD tracks, though there is no way to play these yet. As far as I am concerned, I'm already declaring the audio quality of the two formats a WASH. It will be up to the studios to decide what audio formats they use in the future.
The only way I see BD pulling ahead is if/when they release dual layer discs using something other than MPEG2 for video. The HD DVD camp will have less space and be forced to compromise on video quality or omit TruHD soundtracks for longer films.
The saving grace for HD DVD is the fact that the studios have already gotten the hang of advanced video codecs, producing STUNNING HD discs. Some even include TruHD tracks without sacrificing video quality (i.e. Training Day). It will be interesting to see how this plays out throughout the year and into 2007.
So that's the tale of the tape (thus far). What's next?
Clearly the HD DVD camp rushed their hardware to market, as witnessed by some sluggish startup/load times. This will undoubtely improve with future firmware updates and hardware revisions. The HD camp didn't rush their disc format, as they have provided studios with the tools to create stunning presentations within the confines of an inexpensive 30gig disc.
The Blu-ray camp chose to wait a couple months longer, releasing a solid (if unspectacular) player that behaves more like a consumer electronic device (faster startup, load, and shutdown times), though they are way behind in terms of software. MPEG2 is "So 90's" and U-LPCM is nice, though hardly what you would call groundbreaking (or original). The initial releases also prove that 25gigs isn't really enough space for old, bloated A/V codecs. I fear that the Blu-ray camp is cutting corners on the software (using old codecs to save money) to compensateg for the high cost of developing a new disc technology. I hope that this is a stop-gap until 50gig discs are ready and they get their act together when it comes to codecs. I'll be mighty peeved if they squander their disc technology by sticking to "codecs of decades past."
One side rushed the hardware, the other rushed the software. It's still way too early to call this one. I'm leaning towards HD DVD due to the cheaper discs and hardware, though the Blu-ray camp has some heavyweights backing the format. If they make some bold moves (i.e. cut the price of players by half come Christmas 2006), they could pull ahead. A $500 player is a much easier sell than a $1000 player, though Joe Average Consumer will continue to sit this one out until players hit $299.
For those that haven't read that thread (or want a quick recap), it goes something like this:
- The BD-P1000 beat the Toshiba HD-A1 in bootup time (by 12 seconds) and shutdown time (by 8 seconds).
- The HD-A1 has a more comprehensive setup, as well as USB and Ethernet (the BD-P1000 has a card reader, no USB or Ethernet).
- The HD-A1 won in terms of responsiveness (ff, rew, chapter skip, menu nav) and PQ (by a slight margin) during DVD playback tests.
Now that I have got my hands on a Blu-ray disc, it was obviously time for "Round 2."
I decided to use the two discs which seem to be the consensus choice in terms of overall a/v quality: The Chronicles of Riddick [HD] and Underworld Evolution [BD].
Disc load time (from the instant I hit "Close" until video appeared on-screen):
HD-A1: 60 seconds
BD-P1000: 33 seconds
Note: The Blu-ray player has an "hourglass" which is displayed when the player is busy (presumably buffering data before playback). This appears after certain menu selections, adding to the load times a bit. When the HD DVD player has loaded the disc, there aren't any noticable load times.
Menu Navigation (navigating to special features and to specific chapters via scene selection):
HA-A1: Very Good
BD-P1000: Good
Notes: There is a slight lag navigating HD DVD menus, though the transitional animation probably has something to do with that. There is a much longer lag navigating the menus in Underworld. Selecting anything other than Scene Selection causes a dropdown menu to appear, though it is revealed VERY slowly, as if the player just doesn't have the horsepower to draw it fast enough. It's pretty irritating and feels slower than HD DVD... by a noticable margin. Scene selection was equally sluggish. I'm curious to see if the BD camp plan to create custom menus for specific titles or go with a standard menu system in the same fashion that Warner and Universal have done (on the HD side).
Chapter skip times (forward and back, after video played for at least 5 seconds):
HD-A1: 2-3 seconds
BD-P1000: 2 seconds
Fast-forward/Fast-reverse (no hard numbers, just my observation):
HD-A1: more responsive (smoother)
BD-P1000: less responsive (jerkier)
Video Quality (see notes below):
HD-A1 (Riddick): Excellent
BD-P1000 (Underworld): Very Good
Notes: I compared scenes from Riddick in the Necromonger ship since they are a bit darker and similar to those in Underworld Evolution. It's obviously not a perfect comparison, but the best I can do given the fact that there aren't any cross-platform discs yet.
I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of Underworld given the fact that they crammed a 106 minute film, U-LPCM audio, and 45+ minutes of extras onto a 25gig disc using "old fashioned" MPEG2. It looked great, but wasn't as stunning as some of the stuff I have seen on HD DVD. I want to note that this is my "first impression" and things will change when 50gig dual layer BD's hit the streets sometime in the (hopefully) not-too-distant future. If only the BD camp would get their act together and use VC-1 or H.264....
Audio Quality (DD+ vs U-LPCM):
HD-A1 (Riddick): Excellent
BD-P1000 (Underworld): Excellent
Notes: The finest quality audio (that we can listen to today) on HD DVD is Dolby Digital Plus, while Blu-ray offers Uncompressed LPCM. This requires the use of the analog outputs on both players. Again, this isn't an Apples-To-Apples comparison, though I will say that both sound uniformly excellent. From what I have been reading, others have said that U-LPCM isn't much better than DD+. Both disc formats will support Dolby TruHD, as well as additional advanced codecs. There are already a few HD DVD discs with TruHD tracks, though there is no way to play these yet. As far as I am concerned, I'm already declaring the audio quality of the two formats a WASH. It will be up to the studios to decide what audio formats they use in the future.
The only way I see BD pulling ahead is if/when they release dual layer discs using something other than MPEG2 for video. The HD DVD camp will have less space and be forced to compromise on video quality or omit TruHD soundtracks for longer films.
The saving grace for HD DVD is the fact that the studios have already gotten the hang of advanced video codecs, producing STUNNING HD discs. Some even include TruHD tracks without sacrificing video quality (i.e. Training Day). It will be interesting to see how this plays out throughout the year and into 2007.
So that's the tale of the tape (thus far). What's next?
Clearly the HD DVD camp rushed their hardware to market, as witnessed by some sluggish startup/load times. This will undoubtely improve with future firmware updates and hardware revisions. The HD camp didn't rush their disc format, as they have provided studios with the tools to create stunning presentations within the confines of an inexpensive 30gig disc.
The Blu-ray camp chose to wait a couple months longer, releasing a solid (if unspectacular) player that behaves more like a consumer electronic device (faster startup, load, and shutdown times), though they are way behind in terms of software. MPEG2 is "So 90's" and U-LPCM is nice, though hardly what you would call groundbreaking (or original). The initial releases also prove that 25gigs isn't really enough space for old, bloated A/V codecs. I fear that the Blu-ray camp is cutting corners on the software (using old codecs to save money) to compensateg for the high cost of developing a new disc technology. I hope that this is a stop-gap until 50gig discs are ready and they get their act together when it comes to codecs. I'll be mighty peeved if they squander their disc technology by sticking to "codecs of decades past."
One side rushed the hardware, the other rushed the software. It's still way too early to call this one. I'm leaning towards HD DVD due to the cheaper discs and hardware, though the Blu-ray camp has some heavyweights backing the format. If they make some bold moves (i.e. cut the price of players by half come Christmas 2006), they could pull ahead. A $500 player is a much easier sell than a $1000 player, though Joe Average Consumer will continue to sit this one out until players hit $299.
