[Blasst]

Ya, I just had to start another thread about the good old days.....

Seven years, my how time has passed on quickly since then. So here is a toast to HD DVD being first out of the gate, fun times with the format war, and may we all live long and healthy.

http://www.avsforum.com/t/834212/one-year-ago-today-happy-birthday-hddvd
http://www.avsforum.com/t/667248/toshiba-hd-a1-hd-dvd-first-end-user-reports

 

[Craig Peer]

Seven years? Wow - I hadn't realized how long its been. I'm still watching some of them too.

 

[Blasst]

Craig,


It seemed like it took forever for us to finally get HD content on disc (DVHS offered a small helping hand with tape of course), and now 7 years have just flown by. Anyone getting the 7 year itch?

Need some 4k.

 

[Fanboyz]

Landed, you mean crashed killing all aboard?

 

[Rich86]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Fanboyz  /t/1467518/seven-years-ago-hd-dvd-landed/0_100#post_23186102


Landed, you mean crashed killing all aboard?

I'm not sure what you are referring to. My HD-DVD players and titles are still getting used quite a bit - and we're all still alive . . .

 

[Craig Peer]

Ya, it took a while, and the damn format war was a pain. But I sure am enjoying both my HD DVD disks and Blu Rays. Some amazing looking movies coming out these days.


4K - I'm in no hurry. I'm guessing that it will take 4 more years for any 4K content to be readily available in any quantity.


It will take them 4 more years to finish releasing and selling us everything on Blu Ray anyway. Then I can start buying all over again..

 

[ChrisW6ATV]

I remember being jealous of the guy who got his HD DVDs on Friday the 14th (or was it Thursday night the 13th?). I bought my player on Saturday, and the wait until the discs were available locally on Tuesday the 18th seemed like ages.


Carrying the HD-A1 to the front of the store, and then out to my car, though, was the biggest new-product thrill I can remember since probably my first VCR or first new color TV, and those were in 1979. What a rush!

 

[Blasst]

Chris,


Those were fun fun times. I also clearly remember scoring a HD-A1 at launch at Best Buy, walking out in the parking lot with my 12 year old son ( who is now coming up on 20) and raising the HD-A1 box above my head and yelling YEAH! Then the search was on for discs.

 

[Scoob]

That was so damn exciting! I was on the edge of my seat for an entire two weeks. Searched my local area high and low and finally got one at Sears of all places lol

 

[Craig Peer]

Had some friends over to watch The Fast and the Furious the other night - if I recall correctly, that was one of the first HD DVD disks available, wasn't it? Still a fun / good looking and sounding movie !!

 

[Edllguy]

Yes. Good memories. Still have my XA2 and the upconversion is awesome. However, I still ask myself if HDDVD had won the format war could it have done 3D? Or was the capacity limited by a less superior technology compared to the Blu-rays ability to have lots and lots of gigabits on a disk?

 

[cinema13]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Edllguy  /t/1467518/seven-years-ago-hd-dvd-landed#post_23220397


Yes. Good memories. Still have my XA2 and the upconversion is awesome. However, I still ask myself if HDDVD had won the format war could it have done 3D? Or was the capacity limited by a less superior technology compared to the Blu-rays ability to have lots and lots of gigabits on a disk?

Everyone seems to forget that, when Warners threw the hammer, Toshiba had a press conference scheduled to announce the 51GB disc. Since that's one GB more than BD ("It goes to 11!"), it could certainly handle 3D.

 

[jevans64]

Final nail in the coffin was the $500 million bribe Sony paid to Paramount to switch to Blu. Sony was also giving manufacturers a $3 credit per disc to manufacture BDs. That made the cost between HD-DVD and BD about equal but the fail rate for BD at the time was around 60% vs. 10-15% for HD-DVD. Cycle times for BD-25 was around 4.5 seconds and 6 seconds for BD-50 vs 2.0 to 2.5 seconds for HD-DVD. The disc lines the manufacturer used for HD-DVD only required a $25,000 coating/curing station upgrade to convert them from DVD to HD-DVD production but BD required new lines costing about $2 million each to make BD.

 

[kaibrok]

I still remember the thrill of buying my 360 HD DVD player from circuit city and getting free movies with it. I also bought my dad an HD DVD player Christmas '07 because I was sure HD DVD would win...we all know what happened just a few months later

 

[jfbar1]

About the only magazines I have "hoarded" over the years is "Home Theater" and"Sound and Vision" (for the past 20 years LOL). The most entertaining reading nowadays is around 2004-2006 where they write about the evolution of "HD DVD" Alot of both early development news, and speculation. Around early 2008 is when it all began to fall apart for HDDVD. I remember I had 3 movie gallerys around SWFL and bought nearly 50 of their disks when they discontinued it. Funny story is I bought Beowulf the weekend before it was even released, they would NOT sell it to me till that following tuesday when it was due to hit the shelf.

 

[r3v3nant]

I still watch HD DVD movies in my office when I am working.. just have them on in the background. I have about 50 movies but watch maybe 10 of them with any kind of regularity.

 

[Toknowshita]



Quote:
Originally Posted by cinema13  /t/1467518/seven-years-ago-hd-dvd-landed#post_23222638


Everyone seems to forget that, when Warners threw the hammer, Toshiba had a press conference scheduled to announce the 51GB disc. Since that's one GB more than BD ("It goes to 11!"), it could certainly handle 3D.

Not necessarily so! The 51GB was talked about a lot when BD was gaining steam with 50GB disc but then you didn't hear a lot about it. Also it was not just a data space issue but a transfer rate issue. HD DVD was limited to a max rate of somewhere around 30Mbps. Also we never got a clear answer if the original units could support 51GB discs. It seems to me like the so-called finished spec wasn't finished was it?


The fact is the more capable format won.


Unless you are an insider no one really knows what was going to be in that cancelled CES presentation.


Warner did what they had to do to end the format war as quickly as possible. If they had gone HD DVD we would have been at a stalemate for a long time.

 

[cinema13]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Toknowshita  /t/1467518/seven-years-ago-hd-dvd-landed#post_23270969


Not necessarily so! The 51GB was talked about a lot when BD was gaining steam with 50GB disc but then you didn't hear a lot about it. Also it was not just a data space issue but a transfer rate issue. HD DVD was limited to a max rate of somewhere around 30Mbps. Also we never got a clear answer if the original units could support 51GB discs. It seems to me like the so-called finished spec wasn't finished was it?


The fact is the more capable format won.


Unless you are an insider no one really knows what was going to be in that cancelled CES presentation.


Warner did what they had to do to end the format war as quickly as possible. If they had gone HD DVD we would have been at a stalemate for a long time.

While I'm not an "insider", I did hear at the time that some of the concerns you mentioned were going to be addressed. As it turned out, they never got the chance. But what exactly the responses were, we will now never know.

 

[Toknowshita]

It was a FUD war to begin with. The DVD Group never seriously thought about an HD solution which was why the spec was tied to the physical disc structure of the standard DVD. The whole problem with changing specs that are tied to the basic foundation is why you never heard much about them. It would have caused massive compatibility problems with the original HD DVD players. Sure BD added things to their spec but they didn't change any thing with their original video and disc capability until 3D.

 

[sirhc55]

Still got my XA2 and lots of movies. HD-DVD may have gone but I will keep my Toshiba until it dies or I do