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Bob Caswell

Media consumer, tech enthusiast, and blogger
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Irony Alert: HD DVD Eases the Pain of Its Death for Owners

Started by Bob Caswell · 10 months ago

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19 comments

  • Jason

    1 year ago

    The reality is that you limit the fact that when a better quality product is out on the market we sacrafice the quality of a blue ray disc for the quantity of the hd dvd. and its still to early to say
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  • Jason

    1 year ago

    Also for the fact that you bought an HD DVD and the fact that is near death ticks you off for the loss of format availability but you should be mad at amazon for selling you a format for cheap. you should be mad at yourself for buying a format that isnt going to last. And since netflix has many movies in HD DVD format only illustrates the attempt to garner market share by distributing the format for market share. but as you can see the media giants have chosen BlueRay. Also Since that HD as you mentioned is available for download many of the people you leave out of your statement are the non tech savvy people who dont watch movies straight from download on to the TV. You also fail to realize that the quality of HD is limited to your connection to your service provider. You miss a complete demographic.........
    reply
  • Bob Caswell

    1 year ago

    Jason, I'm not sure I understand your comment... Which is the better quality product you are referring to and why? Also, the sacrifice isn't clear to me. And it's too early to say what? All and all, I can't tell if you're agreeing or disagreeing with me.
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  • Bob Caswell

    1 year ago

    Ah, Jason, your second comment makes your position a little clearer.
    reply
  • Chet

    1 year ago

    Bob,

    Blu-Ray stand-alone players have sold just as many as HD-DVD stand-alone players. That's EXCLUDING the PS3 AND at a higher price. That number will likely increase now that WB has made a decision.

    I guess people are willing to pay more for higher quality products after all.
    reply
  • Bob Caswell

    1 year ago

    Chet,

    I agree that the number will increase post- Warner decision. But you'll have to provide a source with numbers for your claim of Blu-ray standalone sales (pre-announcement) before I can believe you...

    Also, remind me why Blu-ray is "higher quality" overall (keeping in mind all of its limitations that I mentioned in the post above).
    reply
  • Matt

    1 year ago

    I also chose HD DVD - but I'm not out of pocket at all. The 5 free HD DVDs you get with the 360 addon puts you in pocket; HD DVD player (works on a compatible PC too) - £100. 5 HD DVDs at £20-25 each - £115 or so.
    You get 5 high definition movies with all the HD DVD extras and you're in pocket in terms of value. Can't argue with that.

    Blu-Ray may win the home media and theatre; but Microsoft, Intel, HP still support HD DVD (and Microsoft quite staunchly too). Don't be surprised if home data-storage and Microsoft starts using HD DVD for the next generation of data and perhaps even home-movie recording.
    reply
  • Drake

    1 year ago

    Blu-ray is actually superior to hd dvd. I'm not being a fanboy. Hear me out, I have evidence. First of all blu-ray and hd dvd both use the same technology. Blue laser rays that allow more information to be stored on a disc. Also, Blu ray players are also compatible with regular dvds; as in they'll play dvd's fine. Blu - ray has more storage capacity on it's disk. 16 GB in HD DVD compared to 25 GB on blu-ray. This means more movie content can be stored on one disc. No 3 disc sets so you can have "additional" content. in the future... it even means more space for when you want to store something on your disc, and more extra media content and complexity on your movies. It even has a better picture quality, running slightly higher pixel count. Oh and the fact that most blu ray players sold out there are PS3's means that blu ray functionality is upgradeable any time people ask for something new. Honestly, the main advantage HD DVD has is price, and obviously that hasn't been enough to turn the tide since blu ray Movies outsell HD DVD movies by more than a 3:2 ratio.
    reply
  • Drake

    1 year ago

    Woops one more thing. Netflix has the same functionality with blu-ray discs :)
    reply
  • Matt

    1 year ago

    Look a bit further.

    20GB, 30GB and 45GB HD DVDs are out there and 51GB are in development (HD DVD supports up to 3-layers, BR only 2).

    Netflix is irrelevant to me (I'm in the UK).

    Blu-Ray is not superior. They use pretty much identical technology, codecs etc. and almost no studios have plans for BR 2.0.


    There might be more Blu-Ray disc sales; but thats to be expected. There are more titles.
    There are more HD DVD players - and in a recent survey, HDTV buyers are looking for HD DVD players, not Blu-Ray. Well; at least until WB pulled out.
    reply
  • Bob Caswell

    1 year ago

    Drake,

    I've heard the storage space argument before... Is that all I get for giving up region free discs, decent price, and backwards compatibility? I'm not sold.
    reply
  • S D Owen

    1 year ago

    Panasonic has a prototype 8 layer BD-RW that can support 200 GB of storage. SO BD can support more than two layers. BD is web based Java making it easier to hire content developers. The Java code-base means the a Mac, Window and Linux PC can have access to all functions on a Blu_ray. MPEG-2, HD 264, MPEG-4 with optional support of VC-1, but no studio has used VC-1 on Blu-Ray. Blu_ray has very stiff content protection.

    Microsoft used proprietary, VC-! video. window based technology that would make HD-DVD a Microsoft format.

    Consumers need open standards, neither camp has been good at doing that.

    WB chose Blu-Ray because of strong sales in europe and asia as well as the high quality content protection provided by camp Blu-Ray. Time Warner has been hurt the most by piracy and HD-DVD failed to realize how important this issue was to WB.

    In the end WB needed to make a choice, they chose Blu-Ray, they own a lot of content and Toshiba should give up on HD-DVD and focus on network storage if they want revenge since that is the way the market will go in the next 5 to ten years anyway.
    reply
  • Matt

    1 year ago

    You say that like I don't know that?
    Bob makes a good point.

    HD DVDs HDi uses XML and ECMAScript (which is powered by Jscript).Its technology is just as easy to grasp. And if bothcompanies have ignored using an open-source approach; why even make the argument?

    Content protection is always a joke. Its always got around eventually. WB was part of the HD DVD development. If it was really an issue they would have left some time ago.

    Besides, this is about HD DVD owners getting the better deal. Which I do believe they have (and always have).
    As HD DVD comes to its end; we could see massive HD DVD sales to get rid of the remaining stock (only an assumption here, but a valid one nonetheless). In terms of cost for each High Definition movie, the HD DVD users certainly got it better.
    reply
  • JenniP

    1 year ago

    S D Owen - There are loads of Blu Ray films using VC-1, yes its more common on HD DVD than Blu Ray, and most commonly often on Blu Ray films that were (or at least were planned) to be released on HD DVD and Blu Ray.

    VC-1 may require a royalty to Microsoft but it is a better format than plan MPEG4.

    Personally I'm HD DVD, I love the "Region Free"ness of it, it allows me to get films from anywhere in the world, the interactivity that Blu-Ray is just starting to get, HD DVD has had since the beginning.

    However if HD DVD dies, I'll just pick up a BluRay player (More than likely a PS3), and buy new films on BluRay instead, until then I'm buying HD DVDs like they are going out of fashion (Which perhaps they are).
    reply
  • Richard

    1 year ago

    After reading your article, I'm wondering about the title. How is HD-DVD easing the pain for its owners? Though I love my HD-DVD player, my pain is not eased by it being such a great product. Did you mean something else?

    Given how short of a life most DVD players have, I'm not wasting any more money on HD-DVDs that I may not even be able to play in three or so years.
    reply
  • Bob Caswell

    1 year ago

    Richard,

    I'm likely not spending any more on HD DVDs either. In fact, I haven't bought any other than the 10 that came as part of my original deal of $174. I'm now enjoying HD content via my player solely through HD DVDs from Netflix.

    My pain was eased because HD DVD is the more consumer-friendly format. Compared to Blu-ray, lower price = less pain. Also, since most of my 10 movies will work as regular DVDs, $17 per movie with a free player isn't that bad. I'll be able to use these movies even after HD DVD's death (hence, more easing of pain).

    The point is, if Blu-ray were the player dying, I would have lost much more money and had a bunch of movies that don't work on any other standard.
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  • Matt

    1 year ago

    Why wouldn't you be able to play them in 5 years? Your HD DVD player will still plug into your TV. Your HD DVD player will still work...
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  • Richard

    1 year ago

    Makes sense Bob. I'm with you now. I can't get too upset either about the great deal I got for the HD-DVD player (thanks to you).

    Matt, you must have better luck with electronics than I do. I've had to replace many DVD players. Once my HD-DVD playuer is fried, I don't expect to be able to replace it (or want to unless something drastically changes.)
    reply
  • Matt

    1 year ago

    Wow; wierd. Never had any problems. We've still got the same DVD player we got some 7 or 8 years ago!
    reply

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