Ever since Warner Bros announced they were going exclusively Blu-Ray a little while ago, it has been the worst kept secret in the business. The HD format war between HD DVD and BLu-Ray was coming to an end. Then, rapid announcements about Walmart, Netflix and others exclusively supporting Blu-Ray made it only a matter of time. Well, the time has come.
Toshiba has announced they are raising the white flag. HD DVD is dead. Long live Blu-Ray. Yahoo gives us this:
“We concluded that a swift decision would be best,” Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida told reporters at his company’s Tokyo offices. Nishida said last month’s decision by Warner Bros. Entertainment to release movie discs only in the Blu-ray format made the move inevitable.
“That had tremendous impact,” he said. “If we had continued, that would have created problems for consumers, and we simply had no chance to win.”
So it’s done. It’s over. The question is… what happens now?
A few years ago market analysts were talking about how quickly HD technology would be adopted by the general population. But many of us scratched our heads at that theory knowing it was nonsense. They forgot how long it took people to finally really switch over to DVD from VHS. Not to mention, I have always contended that there were three factors that would prevent mass adoption by the market of this new HD technology:
1) The quality difference between HD and DVD is negligible when compared to the difference between VHS and DVD
2) Price
3) The format war causing a lot of apprehension for those people who remember the Beta vs VHS situation. Not many people wanted to buy a system that would be non-existent in 1 year, only being able to buy certain movies because half of them are only supported by the OTHER system and so on.
I have been one of those people refusing to adopt the new HD until these issues were settled… my Plasma TV with upscaled DVD over HDMI looks just fantastic thank you very much. But with this one issue now out of the way (the format war), I am now more tempted than ever to finally take that step… maybe.
You see, while there is now one less reason to NOT get an HD player… I’m still not convinced there are enough reasons TO get one yet. What is the up side? I currently have a system with fantastic image and sound that everything plays on, every movie out there is available for, and I don’t need to invest any more money into it. I’m still not convinced, or decided.
What about you folks? Now that the Format Civil War is over, are you now more inclined to get an HD system… or do you still not feel it’s the time?
I already have one. I bought the PS3 which has a blu ray player in it. So I already watch blu ray movies and they look absolutely great. I even have upscaled DVD over HDMI and it looks really good too. But not as good as Blu Ray.
I am probably going to buy a HDDVD player anyway, because the players for the Xbox 360 external HDDVD drive has dropped to 50 bucks used. SO get one and store it for collectors reasons. Maybe Ill pick it up some really cheap HDDVD’s as well. Its not very expensive if you into games as well. Because if you buy a PS3 you already have a Blu Ray player. And I alrewady own the XBox 360, andf I will probably go ahead and get the external drive while I can.
Drewbacca, small nitpick, Hard Drive is commonly abbreviated HDD (Hard Disk Drive), which I think is a very good thing in this thread with HD being the theme.
Here’s the reason I don’t think Digital Downloads will become “the norm”. People are still going to want their hard copy. Having that showcase of a collection is just flat out impressive. However, I do think that we’ll eventually have a marriage of the two. A download service that will let you download the movie, be sent a DVD/Blu Ray and be able to watch it whenever you want. I also have a feeling that “backing up” a disc to the HDD will become more feasible and legal with the copyright protection as well. In essence we’ll get to have our cake and eat it too.
However, I don’t think any of this will happen anytime soon.
There’s no point in me getting any HD gear until I replace my TV which is an excellent sony CRT effort, a big heavy brute with an crisp picture. I’ve seen lcd’s and plasmas close up and don’t think their as good as crt’s yet. However, when my tv breaks, then I’ll have a proper excuse to swap over to HD, but not until then. So it might be at least another 5 years for yet for me. In the meantime I’ll just use my pc for any HD content if I want to use it.
I’m waiting for the prices on the Sony Bravia to come down a couple hundred dollars then I’m getting one and now that the format war is over I’ll probably get a Sony Blu-Ray player to go with it.
Anyone who says that upconverted DVD is the same as High-def obviously don’t know what they’re talking about. By upconverting a DVD, the software/hardware needs to make calculated guess as to which area it needs to fill in to make up for the pixel per ratio difference. High-def, on the other hand, is already on the resolution that it’s supposed to be. It’s like trying to upconvert a 100×100 image to 110×110 image. Sure, it’s doable but is it as good as an actual 110×110 image? The answer is NO.
I bought a PS3 (with the built-in bluray) so my kid could play games. I knew it was also a high def dvd player, but that didn’t factor too much into the purchase. A few weeks after buying it I picked up the bluray of Planet Earth (we already owned the standard dvds) to see if there was anything to the hype and I was blown away. The picture quality was beyond fantastic, we were both in awe, goosebumps and all. It’s that good. Those of you saying there isn’t much of a difference between high def and upconverted dvd’s haven’t had the opportunity to compare the two side by side. Hey, I was a skeptic too, believe me, but now I stand corrected. The picture quality is so good that in some of the closeups in Pirates of the Caribbean you can see the actor is wearing contacts.
That being said, you’re not going to be able to make fillet mignon out of macaroni. You need to have a high-def television to really appreciate the difference, and, as well some transfers are better than others – but this will improve (and already has) as the studios become more familiar with the codecs and technology.
For those of you sitting on the fence, think about this: If you appreciate rock solid picture quality, pitch perfect audio, and a plethora of extra features about the movies you love – than this format is for you. I would suggest buying a PS3, even if you aren’t into gaming, because its wireless internet connection and built-in hard drive makes it the easiest player to upgrade firmware and bluray profile wise – truly as simple as clicking a button. It’s currently the most affordable player available as well, not to mention fantastic at upconverting standard dvd’s (also something the folks at Sony continually improve via firmware updates to the PS3).
It’s over…
.
It’s finally finshed…
.
Sigh of relief…
.
Blu-ray wins and WGA back to work.
.
And God smiled.
dudes who do not have HD players, this is your chance. They will be giving away HD-DVD player and movies for super cheap now! Go and try HD for the price of regular dvd stuff. its like a demo. if you like it you can then go and get your PS3! :)
@clone_tk422, I sent the redemption off on the 18th of Jan and I received it on the 19th of feb so approx a month. You’ll find some have been waiting since mid-late december, others have had much better luck and only waiting 2-3 weeks. It was a good move from sony and it basically sold out all Bravia stock country wide, some even bought the sets knowing they wouldn’t get stock until late feb just to get in on the offer. If you redeem it….it will come ;-) It’s worth the wait too!
Hey trOn, can I please ask roughly how long ago did you send away for your PS3? As my cousin also bought that tv as well but he is still waiting for his PS3 :(
Thanks
Oh, and to add to my own 2 cents, the whole thing about these HD formats are about quality! quality! quality! Well, I say big deal to quality, what about accessibility. Films like African Queen are still only available on VHS. What is the hold up WB? DVD in their 11th year has yet to see the classics transfered and now all the studios are wondering which is the best new format. Its double the work now, reducing the amount to be put out for consumers.
Well, the screen shots at blu-ray forum are nice, but its all in the detail. The pictures are crisper in the backgrounds and around the edges, but its so minute. To me its as if Blu-ray just has a better ability to pause the action and keep the integrity of the image. Otherwise, you do have to look at it to make comparisons. It does not jump at you.
That aside, downloading 25 and 50 gig movies is not really a viable option right now. One gig takes a good 20 minutes to an hour on a torrent site with good seeding. So a movie in high def would take a full day to download.
Also, as someone mentioned, the prospect of your hard drive crapping out is always a consideration. That, and also, if you with Amazon Unbox, you are only renting, never owning. So if you discontinue services with Amazon, you no longer can watch those movies any more.
Blu-ray was a studio choice for better management of intellectual property. Period.
With that said, VHS are still being bought because there are tons of movies never on DVD, and it will take longer to get them to HD. So, I can wait to get an HD player.
I’m in the land downunder and we’re months and months behind you guys in both hardware, dvd releases and price drops. Having said that ( wink wink john) ….. I’ve recently purchased a Sony Bravia 1080p 40′ LCD mainly for PC monitor (i do design …it’s justified…plus it’s a tax write off) for approx 2000 USD but sony ran a promotion where any 1080p Bravia came with a free 40GB PS3. It came in the mail yesterday and I hired Apocalypto on blue ray and well… multiple eyegasms aside, it’s huge jump in visual and audio quality from DVD, price for me so far has been good, I think the time is now nigh for the fence sitters to get off, take a good look for deals and get yourself some full HD goodness.
Okay, so HD is dead. All right Blu-ray, do the right thing. Load the bullet into the gun and fire it at yourself. HD MUST DIE! THERE IS NOTHING SPECIAL ABOUT IT!
I agree with the group that says that downloads are the future unless blu-ray costs the same as std dvds…I too am quite satisfied with upconverting dvds on my 42 LCD…maybe if I had a 65 or 70 inch set.
The screen shot comparisons of DVD vs HD-DVD / Blu Ray look impressive. However seeing a screen shot vs seeing these HD images flash past at 25 fps is a bit different.
I agree the High Def has a lot more detail on the screen but I dont reckon the eye has enough time to process it all anyways
I’d like to direct your attention over to this article…
http://gizmodo.com/358219/a-consumers-cheat-sheet-to-hd-dvds-death-and-blu+rays-victory
I agree with their final Q&A: Wait a year before making your HD moves.
This is just for those people who think that hard drive storage is somehow more expensive than Blu-Ray disc storage.
http://www.littletechshoppe.com/ns1625/winchest.html
This shows the decline in price for the cost of hard drive storage from 1956 to 2004. By 2004, a 250GB hard drive cost $249.99. That’s about a dollar per 1GB, which makes a 25GB Blu-Ray disc costs $25.00 in 2004 (less than the cost of the average BD now). And that’s using 2004 prices. i can find a 500GB hard drive now for under $100.00 when I look on google. At $0.20 per GB, that makes HD movie storage cost $5.00 for 25GB and $10.00 for a dual layer BD movie. Next year, expect it to be half that again. Sadly, BD doesn’t even have a chance to keep up with digital downloads.
BTW, in my comment above #27:
HD = Hard Drive. NOT hi-def.
One thing that HD doesn’t make better is porn. All the blemishes, ingrown hairs, pimples and scars are clear as day and not very appealing.
I’m glad that this was is over, I was planing to wait it out but since I got a PS3 through my job I started to buy Blu Rays. HD DVD was a great format and there were allot more movie choices out there because of it’s region free status. But since they didn’t have the same brand recognition, game console support or studio support it was bound to fail. I’m just surprised that some people didn’t see it coming miles away.
Their biggest mistake was to make the players so cheap. New technology needs to be expensive to begin with so the companies can make some money of it before the price goes down. With the players so cheap, so fast, nobody was making money of it and companies were leaving the program because of this.
DVD was expensive to begin with but came down eventually because all the manufacturers were producing it. For some reason people don’t seem to get that and balk at the price of HDM. I ask you. How much did you Ipod cost when you bought it and what does that same make cost now?
Now that electronic manufacturers can start to make more Blu Ray players the price should start going down pretty soon and hopefully they will be integrated in to most players and be so common place that people will buy one without really knowing it since they play regular DVDs anyways.
A) John, you and I see eye to eye on something? What is this world coming to?
B) Funny enough, I think the U2 disc was also the last disc I bought.
C) All you guys poo-pooing online distribution will be proven wrong. Is it viable today? Probably not, but the internet and A/V distribution is just in its infancy. Right now I’m already streaming unlimited movies from Netflix anytime I want to and with my super-high speed internet, the quality is nearly equal to DVD. This is only going to improve and become more prevalent.
Also, a terrabyte HD isn’t that big anymore. You can go pick one up for $100. This HD will just get bigger, cheaper and more reliable as the months go by. 5 Terrabytes within a couple years is not unreasonable. 20 Terrabytes in 5 years (maybe sooner… probably sooner).
I mean my iPod is 160GB already and my HD is outdated with 500GB that I got for $50.
Not only this, but who says it has to be a physical HD sitting on your computer desk? It could be a virtual server out in cyber space with everything you’ve purchased just sitting there with a lifetime guarantee on all your movie. Not improbable at all. In fact, I say it’s inevitable.
LAST THING – to the iTunes guys: yeah, the quality is a bit lower using iTunes. I’ve never (to my recollection) purchased a song from iTunes. There are other avenues out there with 360kbs quality, legal downloads. And of course there’s always the .torrrent world (OiNK R.I.P.).
I’m glad I waited to be honest…no point rushing in on this silly ‘battle of the formats’ nonsense.
The PS3 will be picking up some big steam off the back of this news seeing as they consider themselves a cheap Blu-Ray player anyway. And rumor has it the 360 will be developing a Blu-Ray player for sometime this year. Nobody loses as long as you weren’t an early adopter ;)
I think DVD looks fantastic already so what’s the point. Also i don’t want to buy a plasma or LCD HDTV just yet.
In other news Universal has announced it has gone Blu
I have a blu-ray player (well PS3). But a small ass TV. Gotta love the irony!
I saw Fantastic Four 2 playing at Best Buy on a big Sony TV with Blu-Ray. It looked amazing. My parents have it all but I guess I hadn’t watch a Blu-Ray movie at their place yet because I was pretty amazed at how clear it was.
However, you could see every little bump and movement of the camera. It was really distracting.
While I look forward to having an excellent Home Theatre some day, I think I sit with most of the Consuming Public, who simply cannot afford to invest right now. I agree with everything everyone has said about quality comparison. I just don’t think the price is justified right now. Gimme a few years and price drops, then I’ll jump on board.
Only to see everything dated by the next big format… sigh.
John, I don’t think you are doing a bad thing with waiting until YOU have a good reason to get yourself an HD movie collection.
One thing I distinctly remember about putting in my home theater, was that you don’t realize how much better everything gets, and that once you’ve seen the HD movies at home, you’ll start to notice how the DVDs look in comparison.
Its a case of ignorance is bliss in my opinion. DVDs still do look fantastic, though you’ll start to notice more flaws in them after viewing an HD image of the same movie.
You are still enjoying your movies, which is awesome. Just know that once you are ready to go HD with movies, you won’t regret it.
Good point Dan.
Tv size makes a huge difference.
John,
You’re missing out. I too have HD set, and when I played an upconverted DVD title on it, there was just too much grain and fuzziness in the image, for example, pixels would swim around in deep red sections. I’m waiting to get some high end 7.1 speakers, to do the HD content justice, and once I do, I look forward to enjoying my films in film-like detail by starting my BR collection.
The difference may not be as big as vhs to dvd but when u start watching stuff on blu-ray then switch back to dvd you will totally notice the difference, it was the same for me with vhs to dvd you know there is a difference but you don’t really notice till you watch a dvd then watch a vhs, it is kind of the same with blu-ray i feel like i’m missing something on dvd, i know it may not be a big differnce to some but i really notice it now, as for digital distribution that is not going to be accepted for a long time, i see people talking about how they buy there music online well there are still cd’s around and you have been able to d/l music for a long time and they are small files compared to a high def movie, so i don’t see that happening to soon, i mean there will always be the few who will do that but i don’t think it will catch on for a long time.
@Max
If you actually read my post you’d notice that I never said they would look the same. I wrote that the difference wasn’t as great as many are led to believe.
I know how all this works, please read what I say before insulting my intelligence.
You have to add another point to the ones above: TV size. How many people out there have televisions bigger than 40 inches? Most people can only see the difference in Blu-Ray and regular DVD if only the screen is bigger. The only other thing people see different is the color depth.
@Scoville:
An upconverted DVD at 1080p still looks worse than a movie encoded in 1080p. The reason is that when the movie is filmed and encoded in 1080p, all the pixels are there to be displayed. A DVD on the other hand doesn’t have all that data and all those pixels on the disc, so the upconverting algorithm makes educated guesses on what pixels should be near which other pixels, and places them there. I haven’t seen the quality on an upconverted DVD but it’s technically impossible for it to look as good as an HD movie.
Personally, I’m not impressed with the way the studios are handling the new format.
One of the big drawing points of HD technology is the way they can do special features now.
However, most HD releases are pretty bare-bones. Most don’t even have commentaries. All the extra space they tout is completely wasted, except for picture quality – and I don’t think *most* people can tell the difference when they see it in motion.
And until I can get some TVs that don’t lag (go to a Best Buy or something and watch the screens – it’s choppy. It’s totally not smooth) for cheaper than what they are (the 120Htz refresh rate is what I speak of) I’ll just stick with the DVDs.
Also, Most of the comparison screenshots you’ll see aren’t comparing an upscaled dvd to Blu-ray.
Of course 480p won’t look nearly as good as 1080p.
It makes more sense to compare both at the 1080p resolution. I’m not saying the dvd will be the same, but the difference isn’t nearly as great as you will be led to believe.
I’m excited.
I’ve wanted to upgrade for a while but didn’t want to enter into the market until there was a clear cut winner.
The only thing that makes me a bit upset is that I now have almost 300 DVDs..I would like a few of my more favorite movies on Blu-Ray..but, only the ones that I think will benefit the most from a visual improvement.
I will be getting a high-def TV within the next few months. As for now, I’m pretty content with what I have.
DVD to Blu-Ray just doesn’t seem as important as VHS to DVD. Not only did you get a better picture with DVD in the beginning..but you could also eliminate fast-forwarding and rewinding to get to a spot in the film that you wanted with the addition of scene selection.
As the price of the Blu-Ray players and the movie disc them selves will drop it will be more and more worth it.
You can argue that there isn’t much a difference in quality, but if you have an HDTV, you like watching the HD channels more then the regular ones.
DVD upscalers do a nice job. But like it or not, between resizing a picture to make bigger, or reducing it to make it smaller I prefer the latter. In five years 1080p will not beconsidered premium, but it will still be better then 480p.
In the end, it’s about your money and how you want to invest on material goods, that are perishible ANYWAY!
I’ve had a PS3 for a few months now but have just bought Blu-Ray movies for the first time. Being the big kid that I am I got Ratatouille and Cars and I was totally blown away by the quality of the picture and sound. I’ve watched both on DVD (and actually have Cars on DVD) and used the HDMI cable and upscaling facility on the PS3 and there is still a noticeable difference. Now that the format war is over I can’t wait to get titles that were HD only and expand my collection.
*Yay*
I’ve supported Blu-ray since Jan 2007, which is when I bought my PS3. I’m glad that the better technology won the business.
I think the difference between VHS and DVD was more noticeable than the current DVD to Blu-ray. I do have a 1080p tv and a blu-ray player and I do say that Blu-ray is better quality than DVD, but it’s not as significant as the jump from VHS to DVD.
Anyway, enough of this argument, the answer is Blu-ray and I support it.
I’m happy with my 1080p upconvering dvd player. I don’t see how the cost of Blu-ray justifies the very small jump in quality. It’s especially bothering to me that people spend that much on a technology that is still in it’s beta form.
If Hd-dvd had “won”, I would be more liekly to get that due to it’s lower price and more reliable tech.
Sorry for the double comment, but the post above mine reminded me of this:
http://gizmodo.com/342420/lord-of-the-rings-hd-vs-dvd-screen-captures-get-ready-to-buy-a-blu+ray-player
The difference is VERY noticeable.
to your 3 concerns –
1. quality – i would argue that the quality jump between BD and DVD is equal OR greater than VHS to DVD when you factor in things like 7.1 lossless audio, the AMAZING picture that proper HD transfers offer. try watching something colourful like “superbad” on DVD and then watch it on BD. there is a VERY big difference.
2. price – its the same process that happens with DVDs. “fight club” was the first DVD that i bought. and i remember kicking myself for spending 35 dollars on it. the same 2 disc set a year or two later was 20 dollars. now that there is a unified format, and it starts getting more widely adopted, prices will drop. i purchased “the descent” on BD for 20 dollars months ago. it depends on the studio.
AS FOR ONLINE DISTRIBUTION /
i wonder who has a terabyte home server, with an appropriate receiver in their living rooms… the DVD format has turned anyone who is into movies (especially those that read movie blogs!) into “collector’s.” with JUST the movies on BD, in full 1080p, with lossless audio taking upwards of 25-30 GB on the disc. do people really want to entrust a hard drive as their new DVD shelf? what happens when that hard drive goes down? what happens when things inevitably get upgraded to 1440p? do you have a 2 terabyte hard drive to store, what, 40 movies?!
give me a break. the physical format is long from dead. online distro is fine for things like renting through xbox live, and itunes AWESOME looking HD movie rental service. but same goes for CDs, CD sales still make up more than 70% of ALL music sales. and with itunes JUST making a dent in the music market now, its going to be a LOOOONG time before movies do the same.
thats my opinion, and my 2 cents. i know my shelf has been getting heavier with BDs for almost a year now and i am ridiculously excited for the future.
I just don’t see downloading as the next alternative. The idea that you could lose all your movies in one fell swoop, should something happen to the hard drive, doesn’t seem like a selling point. I think there will be two formats from now on, one being the download, and one being the back up copy, hard copy. The same way cd’s and downloads coexist right now. Besides I think movie collections are the libraries of our times, meaning people love to show off their movie collections, like people used to show off their books. It’s hard to show off your 500 movie collection when it all fits into a tiny box next to your tv.
I’ve been sitting not so patiently waiting for this to be over so I could run out and get me some HD goodness, so I’m happy. But, then, I didn’t have a side in the war so I wasn’t pulling for one format over another. I just wanted one to win so I wouldn’t have an expensive doorstop.
But the difference there is that a CD once ripped or purchased on iTunes is about 100mb (usually a lot less- depening on quality) in size. Blu-ray movies at 1080p are a lot bigger in size (a Blu-ray disc holds 25GB single-layer, and 50GB dual-layer). So I don’t know how many people are going to want to buy (rent) Blu-ray discs and rip the movies onto their iPods; or how many people are going to get a 4+GB HD movie (in 720p) from iTunes to put on their iPods. And for people that like to backup their movie collection, a few Blu-ray movies backed up on a hard drive would set you back about 100GB. So I highly doubt that digital downloads will replace Blu-ray anytime soon.
You think the difference is negligible? Take a look at this link, with screenshots comparing DVD and Blu-Ray. No, really, look at it….it is amazing! I dont even own blu ray or HD DVD…I just think the difference is pretty big. At least judging by these images…
http://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?s=7c7c965953f84fa6a80d243c9c9a35f6&p=617171&postcount=5
Hey Drew,
I tend to agree with you. I’m in the same boat. I haven’t bought a new physical “CD” since the U2 disc with “Beautiful Day” on it. Ever since I’ve been a digital download guy.
wear it xbox360
Within five years, everything will be online or on your hard drive anyway – likely in Hi-Def. Why go spend a gazillion dollars on a Blu-Ray player (unless you get a PS3) and replace all those DVDs when everything will be stored or streamed online (yes, probably with the same quality).
It’s like music. I haven’t bought a CD in years. Why would I when it’s all online for cheaper, easier and with equal sound quality? Unless you’re someone who cares about the artwork – in which case most of the time you can also download print up if you want to.