Bluray vs. HD-DVD

spudthedestroyer · **Posted:** Thu Aug 23, 2007 9:02 pm **Post subject:**

do you have a shitty tv or something? :lol:

Most of the ones i've seen look waaaaaaaaay better

I mean i can definitely see the difference betwen SD and HD on my pc with a downloaded hd stream; but then its 1080p.

ViSCeRaL · **Posted:** Fri Aug 24, 2007 3:21 pm **Post subject:**

I have a 37" HD LCD. Obviously there's a big difference in quality, but IMO it's not enough to warrant re-buying my favourite films when most of them have a pretty decent SD transfer anyway. Stuff that has a crappy SD transfer, I'd buy on HD I suppose but the choice is pretty limited at present.

spudthedestroyer · **Posted:** Fri Aug 24, 2007 8:12 pm **Post subject:**

have you compared the thing hd vs the thing sd? Definitely worth buying again

ViSCeRaL · **Posted:** Sat Aug 25, 2007 9:41 am **Post subject:**

Yeah, I've looked at the SD vs HD of Army of Darkness (on the same disc). Up close the difference is pronounced, but my movie sofa is over 10ft from the TV so you get less benefit in seeing the lack of flaws in the picture (hell, even freeview can look pretty decent at that distance :lol:

).

I grew up trading VHS bootlegs by post through the pages of Samhain magazine, so I guess the ultimate picture quality isn't of paramount importance. As long as it's watchable, I'm happy. :lol:

Geezus · **Posted:** Sat Aug 25, 2007 4:32 pm **Post subject:**

Skipping the "HD ready" (ie 768) generation myself .

Everything looks like crap on those things. SD AND HD signals..... even 720

1 on 1 pixelmapping or my boot up its ass.

spudthedestroyer · **Posted:** Sat Aug 25, 2007 6:58 pm **Post subject:**

@visc, your tv will be downsampling from 1080p to 720p

ViSCeRaL · **Posted:** Sat Aug 25, 2007 8:37 pm **Post subject:**

Don't know how you arrive at that assumption, but no it's 1080i.

spudthedestroyer · **Posted:** Sun Aug 26, 2007 12:12 am **Post subject:**

ah, i always forget that :lol:

i'm more a fan of the p than the i

its a sizeable degradation either way.

btw, for those that don't know, 1080i is two interlaced x720 frames for the record so any 720p tv can do 1080i, whereas 1080p is one single progressive x1080 frame which a 720p tv can not do because it doesn't have the native pixel resolution. Therefore if your going by your tv's little flash of 1080i on the screen when its detecting input, its very often not actually true. Its just a statement of how its displaying the image, not actually what the source truely is.

For the record, army of darkness is a terrible choice for a comparison... its always been a terrible master, and its plagued with scaling problems

highdefdigest claimed Army of Darkness was one of the worst hd masters of 2006. Shame really, its a fun movie. I'd take a 1080p copy any day. The thing looks gorgeous on an ace tv; although on some of the poorer / lower quality tvs it was all grainy... there's a big problem with tvs showing too much of a grainy effect on HD film.

ViSCeRaL · **Posted:** Sun Aug 26, 2007 4:05 pm **Post subject:**

spudthedestroyer wrote:

i'm more a fan of the p than the i

its a sizeable degradation either way.

The jury's still out on whether the human eye can detect the differnce between 1080i and p.

spudthedestroyer · **Posted:** Sun Aug 26, 2007 6:50 pm **Post subject:**

Like the jury in the O.J. case :googley:

spudthedestroyer · **Posted:** Mon Aug 27, 2007 10:36 pm **Post subject:**

Big news: Paramount Studios abandons Bluray.

BREAKING NEWS: Paramount and DreamWorks today announced exclusive support of HD DVD
http://www.dvdtown.com/news/breaking-ne ... d-dvd/4677

Quote:

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B) and DreamWorks Animation SKG (NYSE: DWA), each announced today that they will exclusively support the next-generation HD DVD format on a worldwide basis. The exclusive HD DVD commitment will include all movies distributed by Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films, as well as movies from DreamWorks Animation, which are distributed exclusively by Paramount Home Entertainment.

The companies each said that the decision to distribute exclusively in the HD DVD format resulted from an extensive evaluation of current market offerings, which confirmed the clear benefits of HD DVD, particularly its market-ready technology and lower manufacturing costs Paramount Home Entertainment will launch its exclusive HD DVD program with the release of the blockbuster comedy hit "Blades of Glory" on August 28th and follow with two of the biggest grossing movies of the year "Transformers" and "Shrek the Third". These three titles alone represent more than $1.5 billion in box office ticket sales worldwide.

"The combination of Paramount and DreamWorks Animation brings a critical mass of current box office hits to consumers with a line-up of live action and animated films that are perfect for HD DVD," stated Brad Grey, Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures, which is currently the leading studio in domestic box office. "Part of our vision is to aggressively extend our movies beyond the theater, and deliver the quality and features that appeal to our audience. I believe HD DVD is not only the affordable high quality choice for consumers, but also the smart choice for Paramount."

"We decided to release "Shrek the Third" and other DreamWorks Animation titles exclusively on HD DVD because we believe it is the best format to bring high quality home entertainment to a key segment of our audience -- families," stated DreamWorks Animation CEO, Jeffrey Katzenberg. "We believe the combination of this year's low-priced HD DVD players and the commitment to release a significant number of hit titles in the fall makes HD DVD the best way to view movies at home.

With the rapid increase of HD TV screens in households, and audiences wanting to enjoy the total entertainment experience, HD DVD has emerged as the most affordable way for consumers to watch their movies in high definition. In addition to pristine quality, HD DVD also offers consumers the chance to personalize the movie-watching experience, to interact with their movies and even to connect with a community of other fans.

Paramount Home Entertainment will issue new releases day and date as well as catalog titles exclusively on HD DVD. Today's announcement does not include films directed by Steven Spielberg as his films are not exclusive to either format."

Paramount speaks about why they chose to drop Blu-ray
http://www.dvdtown.com/news/paramount-s ... u-ray/4686

Quote:

Rumors are flying but here is the story from the horses mouth. Paramount's CTO about why they chose to drop Blu-ray.

PC World just interviewed Alan Bell, executive vice president and chief technology officer for Paramount Pictures about the decision.

Of important stuff he says that the decision is an indefinite commitment for now and that many reasons was behind the decision. One of them being that HD DVD has a much better mandatory set of specifications that will benefit consumers in the long run. Cheaper production and less flaws was also mentioned.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,13625 ... ticle.html

Paramount will not re-stock old Blu-rays
http://www.dvdtown.com/news/paramount-w ... -rays/4690

Quote:

Paramount will not re-stock its already 32 released Blu-ray titles. This means that when stock runs out at various retailers, that will be it.

For those who want to make sure to get a copy before it's too late, we have included the most popular below. Simply click release details to see up-to-date stock status from Amazon.com.

Hooray, my decision is getting easier...

spudthedestroyer · **Posted:** Mon Aug 27, 2007 10:39 pm **Post subject:**

And what maybe part of the domino effect, there's rumours WB are going to follow suite:

Warner Bros.'s Steve Nickerson leaves
http://www.dvdtown.com/news/warner-bros ... eaves/4692

Quote:

In these HD tense news days, everything gets interpreted and guessed upon. So what does it mean when Steve Nickerson leaves Warner Bros.

Steve Nickerson was VP of worldwide high-definition at Warner Bros. and a strong supporter of the studio's neutral stance regarding HD DVD and Blu-ray.

Is his decision a sign of change? Rumors say that Warner Bros. are close to making a similar move to what Paramount did recently: HD DVD only.

However, the studio says that is pure speculation at the moment. "This is not about a change in strategy. This is completely his call, and he will be missed. He is smart and a workhorse," said a WB Spokesman according to Video Business.

PC_Arcade · **Posted:** Mon Aug 27, 2007 10:42 pm **Post subject:**

Microsoft can buy anything

spudthedestroyer · **Posted:** Mon Aug 27, 2007 10:54 pm **Post subject:**

actually, my certainty that xbox360 would have an internal hd-dvd player has been stiffled somewhat by a realisation i've had.

Microsoft want hd-dvd to fail just as much as bluray; microsoft is hugely invested in downloadable content and xbox live is where they want success.
So imo, microsoft are behind hd-dvd in a very loose name association only and that's probably more because they are bitterly anti-bluray than they support hd-dvd in any way. Of course they did the hdi software spec for the discs, so there's a bit more weight, but you know what i mean

imo of course, but 'supporting' hd-dvd doesn't seem logical for them beyond using it to destroy bluray.

wargand · **Posted:** Mon Aug 27, 2007 11:04 pm **Post subject:**

Read this:
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/p ... ml#quality

Seems image quality is overrated. Especially:

Quote:

Conversely, image size, rather than pixel count, is a huge differentiator: The bigger the better. So in practice a degraded image on a huge VGA monitor (or by extension anything with a lower-quality analog input) will rate better than a non-degraded image on a much smaller LCD monitor, assuming you can find an example of the latter that Vista will actually output an HD image to. Of course convincing consumers of this is another matter.

spudthedestroyer · **Posted:** Mon Aug 27, 2007 11:38 pm **Post subject:**

lol, that's why i etch all my films onto the back of a pebble and chuck them at passing cars.

Forget vista, for a blurry crappy looking picture i just need to switch over to my ubuntu partition and use some crappy cobbleware video drivers

spudthedestroyer · **Posted:** Sun Dec 30, 2007 4:37 pm **Post subject:**

My Blade Runner HD-DVD box set arrived friday.

Now i just need a hd-dvd player :lol:

Slayer · **Posted:** Sun Dec 30, 2007 8:58 pm **Post subject:**

Don't buy a shitty standalone!! :twisted:

spudthedestroyer · **Posted:** Sun Dec 30, 2007 9:24 pm **Post subject:**

Slayer wrote:

Don't buy a shitty standalone!! :twisted:

Its a closed standard, every player must meet every part of the spec or the HD-DVD council will reject it and refuse a license.

Luckily a wholely different kettle of fish to playing custom encodes

Slayer · **Posted:** Sun Dec 30, 2007 9:37 pm **Post subject:**

spudthedestroyer wrote:

Luckily a wholely different kettle of fish to playing custom encodes

And the nerd rises again to meet this new challenge, and to go where no man has ever gone before...

*plays bombastic music*

Bluray vs. HD-DVD

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