So sad the best picture probably will not win the war - Page 2

Wouldn't that piss off folks like Pioneer and Panasonic? If the PS3 is so great wouldn't that take sales away from their players?

And that is concerning. I read the other day 25% of HDTV owners are watching SDTV programming but think they're watcing HD, so who knows about J6P.

I went into BestBuy the other day and even though Blu-Ray was front and center, the only Hd-DVD player I could find was the xbox 360 add on in the game department. What gives?

J6P at this point clearly couldn't care less about HD-DVD or BR. He will start caring when there are more titles in HD than there are in SD and when the price of the players drop below $200.

I am very skeptical of either format taking the market over SD-DVD. Time will tell and I bet we will have a very good idea of where we're heading by june 2007.

I wonder if 1080p would look the same to you if it wasn't for the VP50? I would love to have one, but I wouldn't live long enough to enjoy it after buying an XA1 and PS3 in the same month. Wife would KILL me!

When a transfer matches the natural grain of the film with no artifacting, that's a good thing. Now, you can fault the filmmaker for using grainy and fast filmstock, Super35 rather than anamorphic Panavision, available lighting rather than adequate lighting), because I do think films have become too grainy for their own good.

It's very possible that the HD-DVD transfers that have a lot less grain, also have a lot of filtering going on, which in turn lessens detail in the image.

HD-DVD looks no better than the best Blu-Ray discs currently. Sure, there are the crappy titles on each, but the PQ is about the same anyway you slice it now. Plus, Blu-Ray has a lot more support, so far, for LPCM and lossless audio than HD-DVD (all Fox titles are reported to be 24 bit DTS Master Audio with one at 6.1 discrete, and there is at least one 24 bit TrueHD title, and now The Decent has 6.1 discrete LPCM, and a Japanese disc has true 7.1 LPCM!!).

Can you imagine Disney's Aladdin or Pirates of the Caribbean in 24 bit LPCM?? Warner Bros. is also toying with LPCM more on Blu-Ray since they don't have a compatible TrueHD encoder yet. HBO's Sopranos had LPCM tracks for Blu-Ray and only a lossy Dolby Digital track for HD-DVD. HBO is a WB company.

You aren't seeing this as much with HD-DVD because of a lesser available bitrate, and now BD-50 discs are starting to finally ramp up. 30 GB discs are not enough, especially when they start adding lots of extras into the mix.

Dan

I'm actually GLAD "Click" isn't on HD-DVD.

AAAGRREEED!! It would comprimise the integrity of the format.

This is absolutely true. The fact is that very few people would appreciate the difference between a HighDef format and SD.

With all due respect to the original poster, this hand wringing and prediction of the impending demise of HD DVD is rather premature. However, I do agree that we'd better get used to the fact that the outcome of this format war won't be determined by the technical nuts and bolts of what's important us, the videophiles and early adopters that frequent these forums. It will be determined by what is important to the mass market. As has been stated earlier, as far as the mass market is concerned it's all about price points and marketing.

If the competing formats/manufacturers can present a technically superior argument in a manner that is both understandable and meaningful to the average consumer, (in a 60 second TV spot )then that might have some marketing weight. However, realistically the technical aspects of both formats are so close that it is virtually certain that other non-technical factors will have much more influence on the buying public.

Those factors are:

• The price of the player
• The price of the discs
• The availability of popular movies
• Marketing

Let's face it the concept of technical superiority is both subjective and transient. For example, in retospect it is generally thought that Betamax was technically superior to VHS. However, when the formats were still in the early stages of their battle one important reason why consumers preferred VHS was that it could record more on a tape. Therefore early in the war VHS was technically superior from the perspective of average consumers because to them recording time was a more important "technical" issue than picture quality. This early advantage, along with pricing, may have propelled VHS to be the winner of that format war. By the time Betamax overcame the early recording limitation it was probably too late to overcome the trend. Timing is everything.

Likewise, it appears that HD DVD / Toshiba currently has a first mover advantage in:

• being first to market
• being quicker to iron out problems in the first generation units
• being first to market second generation players
• being cheaper
• initially selling more players and discs
• receiving better reviews by professional reviewers of initial players and discs

Whereas this doesn't assure HD DVD of being the winner, the importance of getting out in front shouldn't be underestimated. If HD DVD / Toshiba can continue to maintain this front-runner position for even a few months, they will likely gain the support of a few studios that were formerly exclusively Blu-ray. Should that happen it would be very difficult for Blu-ray to overcome the tide of building early momentum.

As I said it's still too early to predict a winner, but surely the format that enjoys the preponderance of first mover advantages shouldn't be declared a loser just a few months into the battle.

Larry