HD-DVD or Blu-ray?
Published by runtime 360 May 27th, 2006 in BlogFor a long time now I’ve managed without investing in a fancy-schmancy upscaling DVD player, the logic being that I’d kill two birds with one stone when I buy into the new high definition formats.
Despite my affection for XBMC I cannot hand on heart say I’m satisified with its DVD performance. This prompted some soul searching - how much longer could I hold out with a format war only just looming on the horizon? And once thats over, would I be prepared to pay hand over fist for hi-def versions of movies I already own on DVD?
I recently had the opportunity to compare a regular DVD (rendered by a high-performance DVD player through a digital connection), to its 1080i high-definition equivalent (rendered by an HTPC), and while it was easy to see substantially increased detail in the hi-def source, particularly in large panaromic shots with plenty of movement, I really had to question whether I could justify re-purchasing the title in one of the new formats at what I guess will amount to almost four times the price.
Of course this particular dilemma isn’t unique to me. Can the next generation formats come soon enough for you? Are you prepared to buy into a particular format before a clear winner emerges? Do you plan to replace your existing DVD collection? I’m keen to hear your thoughts.
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On a completely unrelated note the author of My Movies is getting married today (congratulations Brian!); while he’s happily discovering married life (poor soul!) I plan to claw back some time and catch up on Oblivion and some of the games I bought a while back that are still snuggly tucked away with their shrink-wrapping intact.
I make no secret of the fact that I’m backing HD-DVD since I despise Sony’s obsession with making its own formats when the standards don’t suit them and I think it has a better lineup and I’ll jump in as soon as I can get an affordable player, whether that’s the 360 drive or a standalone. I’ve compared Serenity and The Last Samurai on DVD and HD-DVD and the difference is huge.
Whether or not I’d rebuy a lot of DVDs is the real question. I’m pushing 400 DVDs so buying them all in HD is out of the question (a lot of them probably won’t benefit anyway - do I need Anchorman in 1080p?), but like most people there are a handful that I’ll buy in HD just to see them looking their absolute best: The Matrix, LOTR, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, etc.
I am definitely waiting until the war is decided. The quality of the format will have to be overwhelmingly stunning to get me to replace the titles that I own.
Until then, I am looking for an all digital solution. That is, stream DVDs to my Xbox 360 using My Movies and Transcode360 integrated together. My dream is to be able to load the Media Center in 360, see all my movies graphically with DVD covers and then just select and play.
Cheers!
To be honest, XBMC’s dvd playback is terrible looking for an HDTV. Although it is okay for an analog tv. As far as DVDs compared to next gen dvds are concerned .. . we are way over due. I have had a 60″ HDTV for almost a year now and realize how badly we need next gen dvds. When you see an HD feed (even an average one) you can clearly see how superior it is. If you watch an HD feed on direct tv on the 90s you will be stunned how good it looks. In my opinion, next gen is two years too late
Which is better? Well, it doesn’t really matter. People seem to think one format will win over the other very easily. What about DVD R and DVD-R .. who won that? What about PSP movies. . .they are still around but do people really buy them?
Basically, what it comes down to is cost and playability. I want it as cheap as I can get and I want to be able to use analog and digital outputs. Plain and simple. Blu-Ray has the ability to go to 50 gig quite easily, but guess what, most movies will be on 25 gig discs. So much for that case. Then there is the codec debate between mpeg2 and mpeg4 but that doesn’t make too much of a difference. I will purchase either a dual player or the cheaper of the two by Christmas.
However, my decision can be swayed very easily. If one format gets cracked, I will definately support that one. In fact, in a close race, that would decide which format wins in the end. But I am getting ahead of myself and that is only a dream
It’s not like the size difference will matter anyway. With MPEG-4 if you know what you’re doing you can pretty much get a DVD quality movie onto a CD (especially with a codec like H.264; check the comparison here) and the first-gen HD-DVDs fit amazing quality 1080p movies and have room for MPEG-2 (therefore bigger) extras on the 30GB discs.
It’s doubtful that there’ll be a dual-format player from any of the main manufacturers anytime soon because apparently (according to TWiT anyway) if you want to manufacture Blu-Ray players you have to agree not to manufacture HD-DVD players. Very Sony-like tactics, indeed.
The question for me is still whether to buy an interim HDMI DVD player… Bet I won’t though.
I’ve got an upsampling HDMI DVD player (Sony NS92V - oh the irony) and I run it into my (Sony - Ha) Bravia 26″ V series LCD-TV in my room. It looks better than non-upsampled and it really isn’t _that_ much more expensive than a “cheap” DVD player. But it’s wouldn’t pass the mother test. (If your mother can tell the difference then it’s probably fairly substantial). The TV and DVD player are both Sony because at the time they were the best options available to do what I wanted. I despise Sonys propriety method of making everything and their arrogant attitude. Unfortunately, some of their hardware just so happens to be pretty good, albeit overpriced (paying for the badge). Blu-Ray has too many issues for my liking, not the least of which is Sonys big-brotheresque backing stance. The difference in quality of the “superior” Blu-Ray discs isn’t going to be apparent to anyone with anything but the most extreme of setups. At the end of the day it’s the masses that decide a fomats acceptance, they’re liable to choose whichever one is cheapest, easiest to use and/or has the best line-up. I’d be picking HD-DVD is gonna be the winner. Plus the name is more obvious. Blu-Ray is too vague.
I’ve got an Xbox360, Xbox and PC all plugged into the same TV. The 360s DVD playback uses the exact same libraries as the normal Xbox I suspect, not very impressive at all. Quite amazing they didn’t bother upconverting to 720p at least. Maybe the new update will offer some improved visual quality. To date the Sony DVD player is the only one I personally have used that is able to decode the THX setup disc drop-shadow (as on Pirates of the Caribbean and just about any modern DVD with a DTS soundtrack and the THX optimiser). I’m surprised they can’t write decent enough code to deal with this. Interestingly though, even a recent version of PowerDVD can’t deal with it.
Even a good upsampling DVD player still can only rescale the material it’s given with initially, and a lot of DVDs are far too heavily overcompressed. The special edition of King Kong is a good test - 1 DVD with _JUST_ the movie (and main menu) on it taking up a full 8-odd Gigabytes, no extras, no nothing. This means much lower compression and less artifacts. I get annoyed when I get DVDs on a single disk with lots of extras I’ve no interest in which just result in poorer quality images in the main movie.
Personally, I think either new format is going to meet a lot of resistance as the general public isn’t going to notice much difference. Only the elite (and fussy) few are really going to care either way. Until proven otherwise I doubt the difference will be enough to justify replacing non-HD copies, except maybe in some rare remastered cases. A Hi-Def version of The Incredibles would look nice
Congrats stevenz for the biggest comment yet
I guess the real question is although your mother can tell the difference between the two, which would she buy if the better version costed 4-5 times as much?
In the end I went out and bought an upscaling DVD player and while its nothing earth shattering I think it will tide me quite well until either HD-DVD / Blu-ray becomes adopted en-masse and titles are more reasonably priced.
Looking at the last year or so I struggle to think of any movies that I ‘must’ have in HD, its mainly classic/epic stuff e.g. Star Wars, LOTOR, etc. that I look forward to in HD; but if the launch of DVD is anything to go by, it’ll be a *long* while before they put out those big releases in HD.
Hey runtime,
Thanks for all you do with the Transcode 360 program. Here is an article on XBOX.com where you can fill out a survey to test Vista as a media center extender with your XBOX 360. You give them your system specs and I guess they send you an e-mail later telling you if your eligible. Good way to get Transcode started for vista
haha.
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/news/2006/0530-beabetatester.htm
Alas they want to hear from folks who live in the United States - but thanks anyway
runtime 360 says, “which would she buy if the better version costed 4-5 times as much?” Your question is not very realistic. The two competeting formats would not have one cost 4 to 5 times more than the other and just giving them conceding to an easy win =P Perhaps you should be looking at 50 dollars more for a standalone player and 2 to 5 dollars per movie? That would be the etent of the price differences in my mind. But to answer the question. No, not 4 to 5 times more =P.
You mentioned movies that you must have and the fact you own a upscaling player. I too own an upscaling player. While it does try to improve the quality a bit. . . I’m still in need of an upgrade. Your point of you of “must have” titles is not my way of thinking on the matter. It is not a matter of must have titles, its a matter of finally DVDs catch up to broadcast tv and HDTV technology. If you recall, the last time DVDs were released it set the new mark for picture/sound quality. While this is may still the case for next gen, TV broadcasts have been sitting on the best picture quality crown for quite awhile. It really makes no sense for a HDTV user to buy a DVD of unacceptable quality when compared to HDTV broadcasts of the smae movie on HBO HD.
So what about the prices of expensive next gen titles. What to do then? Well, netflix will have these available to rent eventually. No one said you have to buy a movie for 20-25 dollars ( or whatever it will be).
I think you misunderstood me, I’m not referring to one of the competing formats (HD-DVD or Blu-ray) costing 4 - 5 times more than the other. I’m mean DVD vs. HD-DVD or Blue-Ray. In that context I think I’m not far off, right now you can pick up a DVD for £4 - 6 (if you look carefully) and it wouldn’t surprise me if the HD-DVD or Blue-ray release prices at £24 - 28 (online prices closer to £24).
I’m pretty sure HDTV users will continue to buy DVD for sometime based on price point and wider availability of titles. Obviously if those weren’t a factor then it wouldn’t make sense. Alas it will be sometime in this country (UK) i.e. over 18 months, before you see HDTV rentals.
Someone’s written a hands-on comparison between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray here. First shot to HD-DVD?