Comments on: Australian DVD Podcast #45: The HD Blu-Ray Blues

by: Computersaysno

Thu, 23 Nov 2006 03:33:56 +0000

I was in JB HIFI this morning and was glad to see a hi def tv playing a Blu Ray demo disc. Goody, I thought, I could only begin to imagine what incredible things I was about to see. As I got closer I realised it was a guy fixing/making a friggin watch/clock.
A guy playing with cogs is not what should be showing off next gen tech!
It would be like trying to sell a surround sound system and using ‘Hannah and her sisters’ as the demo disc.
To really rub salt into the wounds they had a standee next to it with Blu ray titles such as Hitch, Hostel, Underworld evolution, Tears of the sun, and a few more I cant remember, all for a sadly high 37 ish bucks.

by: Jeff K

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 23:13:58 +0000

Some interesting stuff on the dvd wars link and I think I’ll chat about it on this week’s podcast.

by: HumanMedia

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 12:24:18 +0000

Here is another link to updated HD format stats:

http://www.thedvdwars.com/

by: Jeff K

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 06:17:34 +0000

Food for thought…

P.S. for some reason the last couple of comments were cued for moderation - I have no idea why - maybe because they had live links in them?? :-/

by: HumanMedia

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 12:31:37 +0000

Im damn tempted to get a HD-XA1 (the first gen high end model at 120V) for AUD$956 inc shipping from PriceJapan

http://www.pricejapan.com/front/e_result_goods.php

by: HumanMedia

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 12:27:46 +0000

And a cheap HD-DVD drive for your PC
http://uneasysilence.com/archive/2006/11/8303/

by: Jeff K

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 02:31:21 +0000

Well, I’m at the point where my money actually is going on one format or the other. I might change my mind next week but right now I’m going to buy into HD-DVD because:
* It’s cheaper
* There’s no region coding at the moment
* looking at Amazon I found dozens of movies I’d buy in HD-DVD but only a few Blu-ray releases.

The way I see it is that I’ll spend as little as I can now to get the movies I most want to watch (which means HD-DVD) and wait for the inevitable dual format players that I’m sure will turn up at a fraction the price next year.

by: Computersaysno

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 02:24:08 +0000

Just a quick note, it actually isnt the color that is the problem, quite the oppisite, in most blu-ray reviews I’ve read they say that the color is bright and really ‘pops’. aparently its a very soft transfer, sadly. But my money is still on blu-ray being the winner in this race.

by: HumanMedia

Fri, 17 Nov 2006 01:37:17 +0000

*Remember also that 90% of Blu-ray titles out right now, are only MPEG-2, which are lower quality than the MPEG-4 variant on HD-DVD (it also requires more space cancelling out the blu-ray media size advantage)
*Blue ray players in Australia are 2.5 times the cost of entry level HD-DVD players
*Sales of HD-DVD discs are roughly ten times that of the same Blue-ray discs on Amazon
*In reference to ‘Fifth Element’ hopefully being a reference disc in HD - the Blu-Ray version has color problems compared to the DVD and is only MPEG-2
*Sony have admitted that their content strategy is to get people to buy the same titles over and over by moving people to new media regularly. The HD-DVD camp are more likely to stick with the format longer as they make more money from the media licensing as opposed to the content. Sony will quickly dump Blu-ray if the tide goes against them. (Think UMD)