Originally Posted by venomxr8

I am posting this thread today to voice my opinion on the hi def format “war” going on between Blu Ray and HD DVD and why I think that Blu Ray will be the eventual winner. There has been a lot of childish behaviour from both sides and I for one am sick of it, therefore I feel I must state my opinion in a sensible and adult manner.

Firstly I’d like to state that the following opinions are my own and every one of you have the right to agree or disagree with my views, that’s what’s so great about living in today’s world.

Now to start my argument lets look at the two discs themselves:

Blu-ray
Storage capacity 25GB (single-layer)
50GB (dual-layer)
Laser wavelength 405nm (blue laser)
Numerical aperture (NA) 0.85
Disc diameter 120mm
Disc thickness 1.2mm
Protection layer 0.1mm
Hard coating Yes
Track pitch 0.32µm
Data transfer rate data 36.0Mbps (1x)
Data transfer rate (video/audio) 54.0Mbps (1.5x)
Video resolution (max) 1920×1080 (1080p)
Video bit rate (max) 40.0Mbps
Video codecs MPEG-2
MPEG-4 AVC
SMPTE VC-1
Audio codecs Linear PCM
Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital Plus
Dolby TrueHD
DTS Digital Surround
DTS-HD
Interactivity BD-J

HD DVD
Storage capacity 15GB (single-layer)
30GB (dual-layer)
Laser wavelength 405nm (blue laser)
Numerical aperture (NA) 0.65
Disc diameter 120mm
Disc thickness 1.2mm
Protection layer 0.6mm
Hard coating No
Track pitch 0.40µm
Data transfer rate data 36.55Mbps (1x)
Data transfer rate (video/audio) 36.55Mbps (1.5x)
Video resolution (max) 1920×1080 (1080p)
Video bit rate (max) 28.0Mbps
Video codecs MPEG-2
MPEG-4 AVC
SMPTE VC-1
Audio codecs Linear PCM
Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital Plus
Dolby TrueHD
DTS Digital Surround
DTS-HD
Interactivity HDi


As you can see Blu Ray Discs can hold more storage capacity and can transfer video/audio data at a higher rate then HD DVD resulting in the ability for studio’s to release their movies on Blu Ray with higher quality video and audio than the HD-DVD format. Some examples of HD DVD’s storage capacity and bitrates hampering the format can be seen in the upcoming releases of Transformers and Shrek 3. These two movies which are going to be the two biggest on HD DVD for some time don’t feature lossless (or Hi Def) audio. Now when I purchase a so called “hi def” movie, I as a consumer expect to get what I spent my hard earned dollars for, a “hi def” movie, as in hi definition video AND AUDIO and HD DVD cannot provide it. Now you may have heard reports that the HD DVD camp has developed a 51 GB disc that may “solve” this problem but unfortunately even these discs WILL NOT improve the video/audio transfer rate and also there are reports that they won’t work on a first gen HD DVD player so therefore are not worth factoring into the equation. On the other side, Hitachi has in development, a 100 GB Blu Ray disc that has been reported to only need a firmware update to be compatible in current blu ray players. Storage space also becomes a factor for the home video enthusiast; with new Blu Ray PC Burners now available (and with more on the way) consumers can create their own HD movies in the comfort of home.

My next point is in regards to price. HD DVD supporters continue to bring this up as one of the main reasons to support their format. Basically the cheapest stand alone HD DVD player currently can only output in 1080i, while that’s good compared to standard DVD, it just isn’t full HD (1080p). With the prices of Blu Ray players falling and the newly announced 40 GB PS3 soon to hit the market the price gap is shortening. Another point to remember is that the price of movies are generally a few dollars less on Blu Ray than on HD DVD, so think of the player as your car, you only by one every few years whereas the movies are the fuel that runs your car, now we all buy fuel on a regular basis and its nice to get it at a cheaper price than the guy next door. Also take into consideration your own personal setup at home, you spent big dollars on your HDTV and your sound system, surely it seems reasonable that your new next gen movie player is priced relative to your setup. To use the car analogy again, you wouldn’t put a Toyota engine in a Ferrari body.

My third point of my argument is all about support. Firstly studio support, yes the Paramount/DreamWorks shift to support HD DVD exclusively did hurt Blu Ray but the majority of studios still support Blu, with only Warner the one major neutral studio supporting both. However there are rumblings that Universal (a HD DVD only studio) will become neutral sometime in 2008. As it stands the studio support is as follows:

Blu Ray: Disney, Fox, Warner, Sony, Lionsgate and MGM
HD DVD: Universal, DreamWorks, Paramount and Warner

Also in regards to support, Blu Ray doesn’t just have the edge in movie studio support, it also has the edge in hardware support, Blu-ray is currently supported by more than 180 of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer, recording media, video game and music companies which means there are a lot of models of blu ray players for the consumers to choose from, with company’s such as Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, Denon, Pioneer, Philips, and Sharp all developing Blu Ray players while HD DVD only has Toshiba (and Toshiba derived) players and the Xbox 360 add on drive. Consumer electronics are all about choice but HD DVD doesn’t offer that. It’s more like a monopoly.

I feel I also must touch on one of the arguments that HD DVD supporters bring up again and again and that is the fact that Blu Ray specs are not “finalized” Basically at the moment, Blu Ray players do not have the ability YET to display picture in picture or allow web based content whereas HD DVD can. My response to this is that it is coming and it looks like it will be available with a simple firmware update. Also it seems that consumers don’t really hold pip high in their HD wants. A good example of this is the movie 300 which had pip on the HD DVD release but not on Blu Ray yet the Blu Ray copy out sold the HD DVD version 2 to 1. Also, if I was a HD DVD fan I would be pretty upset that my chosen format was losing to an UNFINISHED format, god help HD DVD when Blu Ray’s specs are finalized.

My last point (and I’m sorry if my rant has gone on for so long but these things need to be said) is in regards to the sales ratio of Blu Ray to HD DVD. Basically HD DVD is dead everywhere except in the United States. In Asia the ratio is around 96/04 in favor of Blu Ray, in Europe there was a recent report of a 4 to 1 ratio in favor of Blu and Australia is also around the 90/10 in favor of Blu. Only in the United States to the numbers get a little closer with Blu Ray winning every week in sales this year (see Nielsen/VideoScan weekly sales numbers) by around 65/35. So if the world has chosen Blu it’s only a matter of time before Blu Ray becomes the new HD Format Standard. You may not see it in your own backyards but you got to look at the big picture (I know the movie studios sure do) And with Huge releases coming up this holidays for Blu Ray (such as the Spiderman Trilogy, Pirates 3, Ratatouille and Cars to name a few) the sales ratio is just going to grow.

Anyway, that’s my 2 cents, I can confidently say that Blu Ray is the way to go and I hope it’s helped shed some light to those out there who are unsure of which way to go this generation. After all, it’s the MOVIES that count and not the format.