Is Blu-ray taking the cake in new releases?? - Page 6

Originally Posted by SyHD

I find it hard to believe the HD DVD supporters would call such movies as Silence of the Lambs, , A Few Good Men, A Bridge Too Far, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Graduate, Platoon, Bull Durham, Finding Neverland, Dances with Wolves, Casino Royale, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Glory, The Princess Pride, Winged Migration, Requiem for a Dream, The Prestige, The Usual Suspect, etc crap, and still have a straight face. All studios have their share of good and bad movies. To deny this is pure fanboyism.

Also in Blu-Ray's vault are two little movies called Lawrence of Arabia (arguably the greatest epic ever made) and Sound of Music (certainly the greatest musical ever made) ...perhaps your heard of them?

Originally Posted by evenodds

Not to mention 1080p

Originally Posted by evenodds

Not to mention 1080p and HDMI 1.3.

Originally Posted by evenodds

Not to mention 1080p and HDMI 1.3.

Originally Posted by MauneyM

Which are both completely worthless. Have you been reading any of this?

Originally Posted by Mikazaru

If it's worthless on the ps3 -- then it's worthless on the xa2 and the upcoming a20.

Originally Posted by alkrio

First things first, if you can't see the difference between SD, Upconverted and HD then I am sorry but you need to stop talking, heck just put on a pair of glasses you lazy bum. The difference between HD DVD, Blu-ray vs. an Upconverted DVD is (for me at least) like a jump from black and white to colour and if you can't see the difference that is just plain sad.

The second thing is where did you get the idea that people "clearly prefer HD DVD". As far as I can tell the movies are roughly the same price (innless of course you count those idiotic Warner combo discs, blah, 40$ Canadian for a movie no thank you). In regards too the cost of the play, The A2 costs 599.99$ (mind you I got mine for 299.99 which was the main reason I bought one) and the PS3 costs 699.99 (so 100$ more for the bluray player, one that has a tonne of extra features, such as the ability to play games, store music download movie trailers etc. By the way don't try to lay claim it's console not a player blah blah blah... lets be honest here that thing is great for movies and you can not deny that).

Finally my last point is that Blu-ray is technically the better format, the discs are more durable, and they can store much more information (and isn't that the most important part of a storage medium?) so wouldn't it make sense to support it? On one side you have a joint venture between multiple companies on the other you got two corporations that wish to collect licensing fees from their competitors gee whose forcing who to do what? Come on people Toshiba doesn't care about you why do you get so riled up about this, some of you guys are starting to sound worse then apple fanboys and that is something that is truly frightening.

PS: Yes I know I am going to get flamed, so my response to the next poster is: Hey look a puppy, run!

Originally Posted by Mikazaru

If it's worthless on the ps3 -- then it's worthless on the xa2 and the upcoming a20.

Originally Posted by MauneyM

1080p/60 is worthless, unless your display has an inverse telecine conversion algorithm that works better with a 1080p/60 input than a 1080i/60 input (pretty unlikely, since all displays have to have a 1080i/60 algorithm, but it is possible).

1080p/24 has value, if you have a display that can accept it directly. Why don't you post back here when the PS3 supports 1080p/24......and grows a set of 5.1 outputs.

Originally Posted by Mikazaru

Look, I agree that hdmi 1.3 is worthless, but it's worthless on the xa2 as well. The xa2 is supposed to support 1080p 24 fps in a future firmware upgrade, but it doesn' t do so now. And although there has been no announcement that the ps3 will support 1080p 24 fps, it could also easily do so through firmware. I never mentioned anything about analog outputs, but if you need them -- I'm happy that your toshiba meets those needs.

Originally Posted by Mikazaru

I'm happy that your toshiba meets those needs.

Originally Posted by jmpage2

I'd love to see some info that confirms that the PS3 is capable of supporting 1080p/24 through a firmware upgrade, or is this just speculation on your part?

The XA1 certainly did not need 1080p to win the most prestigious award in CE for 2006.[/

Originally Posted by jmpage2

I'd love to see some info that confirms that the PS3 is capable of supporting 1080p/24 through a firmware upgrade, or is this just speculation on your part?

Originally Posted by MauneyM

OK, I have $750 to spend, and I am going to buy a brand-new, in-box, HD disc player and some media. I will not buy a game console of any sort for my HT under any circumstances (I have various reasons which are a topic for another thread).

HD DVD -
Toshiba HD-A2 $450 (assuming I buy over the internet)
3 discs $ 0 (Toshiba deal)
12 discs at $25 $300 (Amazon)
-------
Total $ 750

BD -
Samsung player $699 (closeout of a 1st-gen model)
2 discs at $25 $ 50 (Amazon)
-------
Total $ 749


So, with HD DVD, I get a brand-new 2nd-gen player with 15 discs. With BD, I get a closeout 1st-gen model with 2 discs. You can argue all day long about the disc pricing, but (1) Amazon reports HD DVD as still being cheaper on average, and (2) it takes a lot of discs with a $3 price difference to make up the extra $250 for the player. Even if I assume $20 for BD and $30 for HD DVD (which is WAY out of line with the actual pricing averages), I would get 3 BD discs in my package vs. 13 HD DVDs. Even if I assume on top of that that Toshiba will renege on their free disc offer, I'm at 3 BD discs vs. 10 HD DVDs. There is simply no way that I can get the same value for my money with BD as I can with HD DVD under today's pricing.



Tell us how you arrived at this again?

Originally Posted by MauneyM

Actually, I'm still format-neutral. I haven't purchased yet, as I'm waiting for my RS1 to arrive. Unfortunately, my SD DVD player bit the dust a few weeks ago, so I'm completely dead in the water.

Since I really want a single deck that will play both HD and upconvert SD discs (The RS1 only has 2 HDMI inputs, and one is dedicated to D*), the Toshiba seems right now to be the most cost-effective option.

If BD has a better player option by the end of February, I could easily be swayed to the Blu side.....

Originally Posted by Supermans

However after you buy those 15 discs, you'll have to wait a long time for Universal to release their 100 announced titles over the next few years.

where real cinema is concerend, with Blu-Ray you would have more overall studio support so more titles to choose from in the long run

with arguably higher quality newer films and blockbusters to choose from..

In the end I predict you'll end up buying a Blu-Ray player anyways to get the Disney/Pixar and Sony titles you'll be craving to get.

Originally Posted by mrsmith

Lazy bums unite: and that goes for majority of the nation's professional reviewers, including L.A. Times Research/Colker, Pogue in the N.Y. Times, Bill Hunt of the digitalbits. I too am one of those 'lazy bums'. The pro's essentially are saying that it takes a really big screen to appreciate the difference offered by the optical hi-def formats. That mirrors precisely what I've been saying since the upcon machines came out. In fact, I had a standing offer for three years for up to $10,000 for a double-blind(no pun intended) test run by Consumer's Reports, to show that most average viewers would not be able to distinguish between a first-class upcon of a high-quality standard DVD and the 'native' media. I got NO ONE to take up my offer.

As to which of the formats is 'better', we need only remember the Betamax vs VHS battle of the '80s, where Betamax was touted as undeniably better - and you know what happened then. My guess is the ultimate winner(assuming both are not supplanted by the upcoming 1-terabye format) will be whichever comes out with a street price player of around $169; at that point, people will buy. Right now, it's no secret that the tabletop players are a drug on the market(Toshiba confirmed that from 4/2006 thru 1/5/07 they only sold 175,000 units, compared to some 379,000 PS3s in only about a month). Whether the recent spike in BluRay disk sales is just a temporary acquisition binge by new PS3 owners picking up as did HD-DVD disk sales from April, 2006, remains to be seen(my guess is that it is just that - a spike which will level off, but who knows?)

Format superiority? Assuming Toshiba comes out with the 51-GB triple-layer disk this year they've promised, then the storage capacity argument for distributed-media is moot. In actuality, if you look otherwise at the technical specs for both, the built-in abilities of HD-DVD actually surpass Blu-Ray: automatic interactivity, ease of creating combo disks(complicated with Blu-Ray; you think Blockbuster/Hollywood Video won't prefer combo? just guess), 'resurfaceability' of HD-DVD disks(try that with a badly scratched Blu-Ray). At very least, if you accept the 'superiority' arguments of each side, it's a dead push, one offsetting the other. This is just a small list from someone who says a POX on both their houses unless and until quality of the transfers improves dramatically from the so-so stuff we've seen so far.

Enjoy!

Milt R. Smith
mrsmith2002@yahoo.com

Originally Posted by Larryad

Go for the Tosh! [...] Then, if you have the budget, go for the PS3. It really for a very nice player, and the price is right.

Originally Posted by MauneyM

there is probably more HD DVD content that I want than I will be able to consume and watch over the next 12-18 months. By that time, the winner of the format war will have become clear, anyway.

Originally Posted by MauneyM

No game console will be attached to my HT projector. No way, no how. Not an XBox, not a PS3. WAF on this concept is in HUGELY negative territory, and it just ain't worth arguing over.

I have plenty of budget for equipment. However, I don't have enough budget for the divorce that the PS3 would bring about.....

(Plus, I don't want my kids burning up the bulb in my projector, nor will I accept swapping cables and moving equipment from room-to-room on a daily basis.)

Originally Posted by Supermans

Shame on you you are denying your kids the chance to watch Dinsey movies in High Def on the projector simply because you don't want your bulb to burn out...

Would you not take them to Disney on a trip to save money on gas, tickets and hotel stay?

Originally Posted by MauneyM

Oh, no - they can watch their upconverted SD DVDs in the HT - just no games on the big screen.



Been there, done that, got the T-shirt (and the hats, and the posed photos, and the stuffed critters....) We did Disney Land a few years ago; we'll probably do Disney World this year or next. It's really a pretty good trip, particularly if you can stay in the connected hotels.... (OT, I know.....)

Originally Posted by MauneyM

No game console will be attached to my HT projector. No way, no how. Not an XBox, not a PS3. WAF on this concept is in HUGELY negative territory, and it just ain't worth arguing over.

I have plenty of budget for equipment. However, I don't have enough budget for the divorce that the PS3 would bring about.....

(Plus, I don't want my kids burning up the bulb in my projector, nor will I accept swapping cables and moving equipment from room-to-room on a daily basis.)

Originally Posted by MauneyM

Which are both completely worthless.

Originally Posted by MauneyM

Have you been reading any of this?

Originally Posted by evenodds

HDMI is worthless? Maybe I should've bought the add on instead of the XA2


No, I tend to believe what Sony wants me to believe. I am their pawn...just ask my SXRD, VAIO, Cybershot, and PS3.

Originally Posted by evenodds

HDMI is worthless? Maybe I should've bought the add on instead of the XA2