Do you want HD-DVD Back or Not

h0mi · 10-18-2009, 10:34 AM

Wanted to chime in on something I discovered/noticed today. Blockbuster.com used to have HD DVDs to rent but today when I checked my queue, all the hD DVDs were converted to DVDs or blu-rays. No HD DVD option exists anymore. (sigh).

What a shame too.

Vortex3D · 10-18-2009, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daleb

As a freebie for NF subscribers, I find their streaming continuously improving. The last couple of HD moives I watched had very good PQ and not a glitch over the viewing time,

For now I find it an excellent option for movies with decent story lines or some comedies that don't need full surround to complete the presentation. Or old movies, or TV shows, etc.
And it is only a couple of clicks away.

If they ever get the audio up to the same level as they now have the video, I will certainly be accessing it even more.

Coming to HD movies, more people only think about the picture quality and seem to forget the audio quality. Also the picture quality is more obvious than audio quality. Why do a lot of people upgrade to HDTV for the better picture quality but don't upgrade the sound system? For advertising, better HD picture quality is easier to understand for general consumers but trying to explain HD audio is difficult. Also not many general consumers have the HD sound system or the speakers setup to enjoy HD audio. But they can enjoy the HD picture on decent HDTV setup.

For myself, not having HD audio for streaming movie is like watching half HD movie.

For streaming movie picture quality, the compression is still too high. When there's a lot of movement or very busy and complex scene, the picture quality drops to macroblocks. On good mastered Blu-ray movies, when there are a lot of movement with busy and complex scenes, the bitrate goes very high to ensure the picture doesn't get overly compressed.

daleb · 10-19-2009, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vortex3D

Coming to HD movies, more people only think about the picture quality and seem to forget the audio quality. Also the picture quality is more obvious than audio quality. Why do a lot of people upgrade to HDTV for the better picture quality but don't upgrade the sound system? For advertising, better HD picture quality is easier to understand for general consumers but trying to explain HD audio is difficult. Also not many general consumers have the HD sound system or the speakers setup to enjoy HD audio. But they can enjoy the HD picture on decent HDTV setup.

For myself, not having HD audio for streaming movie is like watching half HD movie.

For streaming movie picture quality, the compression is still too high. When there's a lot of movement or very busy and complex scene, the picture quality drops to macroblocks. On good mastered Blu-ray movies, when there are a lot of movement with busy and complex scenes, the bitrate goes very high to ensure the picture doesn't get overly compressed.

Of course, no one is claiming streaming to be the equal of BD, the best SD transfers, or even 'some' broadcasting. But it is better than a lot of SD viewing which I still do for some older movies or programs than interest me.

Actually, I can not recall any macroblocking on movies I watched via my Roku, but then I never streamed movies like Dark Knight, Transformers, etc. even if they were available. The audio of course, being a big part of the reason.
But as a freebie it can be a useful venue.

It also goes without saying a fast & reliable ethernet connection is also mandatory.

Blue_Red · 11-15-2009, 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ruffrob

HD DVD could actually become a niche market based on the scarcity of the related machines,and media. In addition to the PQ, if there were limited edition discs like the one referenced a few posts above ,and more popular releases ,it could become a millenium Model T....

It will have to take a lot of support ,which at this point is questionable. but since i have an A2,i'm hopeful...

I agree with this poster.

If anyone siad in 1974 when Forman lost to Ali, that Foreman would comeback 20 years later and regain the title and knock out an undefeated world champion they would have locked him up!

They won't come back to where they were, but it is possible to slowly comeback in the way this poster said it could in the quote.

It can be seen as the Rolls Royce of formats with special editions.

Click this... and buy the HD DVD... the director actually says this is an experiment to see if other other studios will follow.
http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/334...will-be-hd-dvd

This director, like me loves comebacks... but he needs us!
COME ON! Keep the dream alive.
The Wrath of Khan!
Chris... start the official HD DVD comeback thread!
After you buy the disk... they even ask you to write the director in this link.
http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/334...will-be-hd-dvd

Buy movie in same link.

EditWhiz1983 · 11-17-2009, 02:53 AM

Personally I bought an HD DVD player and HD DVD's before I got Blu-ray. I only got it because the player was $100 at Wal-Mart during one of those secret sales deals.

I think both formats are great. I don't see the format coming back though. I have more BR's now then HD DVD's so I am going to stick with Blu-ray for now. If HD DVD came back would I buy them? Depends...

PrinceLH · 11-17-2009, 10:47 PM

Yes to the movies, no to the Hardware. The transfers were great, but the Toshiba machines were unreliable. I have two, a D3 and A30, plus a dual Blu/HD DVD player by Samsung and hate the two Toshiba machines. Freeze ups, etc.

Vortex3D · 11-18-2009, 12:37 AM

Anyone wonder how many unsold copies of HD DVD movies when Blu-ray won the format battle? After almost 2 years later, there are still a lot of unsold HD DVD movies at iNetvideo, Amazon and many 3rd party resellers.

Reason I ask is Hollywood movie studios must have manufacturered a lot of copies for each of the HD DVD movies and planned to slowly sell them over the years. How many percent of the HD DVD movies were unsold at the beginning of 2008?

Some of the triple-dip DVD movie discs looked like they were manufacturered a lot time ago and all the movie studios did is reprint a new box art insert to make them look like new edition.

Vortex3D · 11-18-2009, 12:51 AM

With many HD DVD owners in this thread still wanting HD DVD movies, would anyone willing to pay $100+ per for new HD DVD movie releases? Since it's only possible to sell a very small amount of HD DVD movies compared to Blu-ray, the markup for HD DVD edition has to be very high to justify it.

It's like buying Records today. There are highly priced. At least with Records, the sound quality is different from CD which has a reason to live on.

With HD DVD, there is no benefit and less benefits now compared to Blu-ray because of the limited 30GB disc capacity. It can't have DTS HD Master audio unless the movie is very short. With the bonus materials now mostly in HD on Blu-ray, HD DVD simply cannot have it. It was the reason most HD DVD movies bonus materials were in SD and audio in either DD+ or TruDolby to fit onto a 30GB disc. The never released 51GB HD DVD will not surface now because of addition development required to make existing HD DVD players work assuming they are even compatible.

Being an owner of both HD DVD and Blu-ray players, I don't see any benefit or reason for any new HD DVD releases. I still have more HD DVD movies than Blu-ray movies when many unsold HD DVD movies were dumped for super low price. With more older Blu-ray movies now around $10, there isn't any reason left to buy the remaining HD DVD movies.

While on this topic, has anyone seen CBHD movie picture and sound quality? Do CBHD movies have high bitrate, TruDolby, DTS HD Master and HD bonus materials? Reason is I have a few DVD movies from China/Hong Kong and they are generally aren't very good quality compared to Hollywood DVD movies.

Chris Gerhard · 11-18-2009, 04:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vortex3D

Anyone wonder how many unsold copies of HD DVD movies when Blu-ray won the format battle? After almost 2 years later, there are still a lot of unsold HD DVD movies at iNetvideo, Amazon and many 3rd party resellers.

Reason I ask is Hollywood movie studios must have manufacturered a lot of copies for each of the HD DVD movies and planned to slowly sell them over the years. How many percent of the HD DVD movies were unsold at the beginning of 2008?

Some of the triple-dip DVD movie discs looked like they were manufacturered a lot time ago and all the movie studios did is reprint a new box art insert to make them look like new edition.

The HD DVD quantity manufactured compared to quantity sold before the end must have been really weird. For hundreds of titles, the ones available now for $2 or so, there must have been a few thousand sold when Toshiba abandoned the format and a few hundred thousand manufactured. It is really funny and I had no idea before it was too late and I had already purchased the titles for $10. One things is for certain, Universal wasn't going to let lack of adequate inventory result in lost sales. I can only speculate as to what Universal and Warner and Paramount were thinking. For almost two years, a small market has been purchasing the HD DVD rather than the Blu-ray version at a tiny fraction of the cost, these companies would have been better off to destroy the remaining HD DVD inventory rather than liquidate it at $1/disc to the various retailers. I don't think these companies will line up to fight another format war anytime soon.

Maybe Toshiba paid each company for every disc manufactured?

Chris

HD Goofnut · 11-18-2009, 06:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PrinceLH

Yes to the movies, no to the Hardware. The transfers were great, but the Toshiba machines were unreliable. I have two, a D3 and A30, plus a dual Blu/HD DVD player by Samsung and hate the two Toshiba machines. Freeze ups, etc.

That's strange. I have the A2 and A20 and have had almost no issues with either. I have read though in several places that the 2nd generation of HD DVD players were the most reliable.

Loves2Watch · 11-18-2009, 09:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PrinceLH

Yes to the movies, no to the Hardware. The transfers were great, but the Toshiba machines were unreliable. I have two, a D3 and A30, plus a dual Blu/HD DVD player by Samsung and hate the two Toshiba machines. Freeze ups, etc.

I have not had any problems at all with my 2nd and 3rd generation Toshiba HD DVD players.

**bruceames** · 11-18-2009, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Gerhard

The HD DVD quantity manufactured compared to quantity sold before the end must have been really weird. For hundreds of titles, the ones available now for $2 or so, there must have been a few thousand sold when Toshiba abandoned the format and a few hundred thousand manufactured. It is really funny and I had no idea before it was too late and I had already purchased the titles for $10. One things is for certain, Universal wasn't going to let lack of adequate inventory result in lost sales. I can only speculate as to what Universal and Warner and Paramount were thinking. For almost two years, a small market has been purchasing the HD DVD rather than the Blu-ray version at a tiny fraction of the cost, these companies would have been better off to destroy the remaining HD DVD inventory rather than liquidate it at $1/disc to the various retailers. I don't think these companies will line up to fight another format war anytime soon.

Maybe Toshiba paid each company for every disc manufactured?

Chris

Well it depends on the title, but I would guess on average about 20,000 per major studio title were sold by the end of the format war, and probably about 3 times as many made. Having that many discs out there (perhaps 20 million) will keep player demand higher down the road than it otherwise would have.

**bruceames** · 11-18-2009, 07:41 PM

[quote=Vortex3D;962841]With many HD DVD owners in this thread still wanting HD DVD movies, would anyone willing to pay $100+ per for new

Blckman · 11-19-2009, 04:47 PM

Oh boy....I have to get in on this one and just state my case for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. Some of you have already said some of the same things I was going to state. I truly believe from my study that just because you have 30GB disk versus a 15GB disk doesn't necessarily mean that a movies is going to be better on a bigger disk. This is to each his own. Remember, we always have great reviews on movies that the the general public considers bad. A good example is 2012. I saw it, and it was much better than Poseiden hands down in my honest opinion. In addition, it's getting bad reviews, but for such a bad movie the damn movie made a whopping $65 million the opening weekend. Now, I am still collecting HD-DVD's. Some people say as another example that the first Transformers on HD-DVD looks better, but sounds better on Blu-Ray. Hell, if you really want to go there, we don't even want to talk about Band of Brothers on HD-DVD versus the Blu-Ray version. I've seen the side-by-side screenshots from a nother member in another forum and the damn HD-DVD version looked a tad bit better than the blu-ray version. In fact, the darn HD-DVD version still is retailing for $150.00+ and I would pay for it in a heartbeat. We really don't want to get started here with quality. What about the beautiful French Terminator 2 Steelbook eddition on HD-DVD? What about Pan's Labyrinth on HD-DVD? What about the French version of Crank and the way it was packaged? The sound and quality is excellent on HD-DVD.

Now, let's talk about sound. I've heard films in DTS-HD and Dolby Digital switched in a sound/video room. In personal opinion, and as an advid movie guy, I didn't hear any difference. They are both great. However, some of you may differ. That's okay. I respect that fully. I personally, just purchased an Toshiba A-1 yesterday and updated the firmware in about 19 minutes flat via ethernet and the thing is wonderful. I paid $50.00 and the person who had it in Southern California never really used it. Lastly, I haven't had the opportunity to say this. Since I've been doing a great deal of research about HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, I've come to the conclusion from a neighbor that worked in the industry for years is that the quality of a film to Blu-ray and HD-DVD also depends on how and who tranferred that movie. A good example is The Wizard of Oz. They took that film and broke it down frame-by-frame and cropped, edited, and re-sounded each and every scene to make it much better. Sure, it's on blu-ray, which I can say I love. Moreover, my point is that whether a film is on HD-DVD or Blu-ray. It just depends on how that movies was broken down and transferred to a particular medium. I'm not downing blu-ray(I love it), but I'm not going to put down HD-DVD because it is a wonderful format. And hell yeah I'm going to continue to purchase the likes of The Shining on HD-DVD when I can get that version for $5.99 brand new versus the Blu-ray version at say $19.99. That sounds stupid to me personally. Peace....Man, I have said so much and can go on forever.

I haven't that CBD yet. I can't wait to see it though. Remember, I think one of the major studios like Warner Brothers has signed on to advocate this medium in China. One last thing. My neighbor and I were talking about how it was the studios that in my honest opinion that pushed the blu-ray medium. Toshiba pushed HD-DVD until they had no choice anymore. Hell, remember Toshiba just release their first ever Blu-Ray player just a month or two ago. And here we are in 2009 still talking about HD-DVD. Somebody must love or we wouldn't be having so much discussion about it. I'm out....

sawzalot · 11-19-2009, 05:37 PM

Question about an HD title I just got Queen Rock Montreal & Live Aid on E-Bay, It will not play in any of my HD DVD players the disc looks legit and the packaging looks no different from any other HD DVD movies I have , about 275 or so this is the first one I ever got that says the following"This disc will not play it is not in dvd format what the heck is this a bad bootleg or what I wanted to watch before the football game but I am S.O.L. at this point any thoughts about this from our HD DVD experts, Thanks sawz..

10-18-2009, 10:34 AM	#61
h0mi High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 293	Wanted to chime in on something I discovered/noticed today. Blockbuster.com used to have HD DVDs to rent but today when I checked my queue, all the hD DVDs were converted to DVDs or blu-rays. No HD DVD option exists anymore. (sigh). What a shame too. __________________ : 26 (1 dupe) : 45 "(Format) War's long done. We're all just folk now."

11-17-2009, 10:47 PM	#66
PrinceLH It's About The Movies! Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Belleville, Ontario Posts: 628	Yes to the movies, no to the Hardware. The transfers were great, but the Toshiba machines were unreliable. I have two, a D3 and A30, plus a dual Blu/HD DVD player by Samsung and hate the two Toshiba machines. Freeze ups, etc. __________________ Samsung BD UP5000 182 Blu Ray's Toshiba HD A30 & HD D3 170 HD DVD's Latest HD Purchase: Gangs Of New York

11-18-2009, 12:37 AM	#67
Vortex3D High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 60	Anyone wonder how many unsold copies of HD DVD movies when Blu-ray won the format battle? After almost 2 years later, there are still a lot of unsold HD DVD movies at iNetvideo, Amazon and many 3rd party resellers. Reason I ask is Hollywood movie studios must have manufacturered a lot of copies for each of the HD DVD movies and planned to slowly sell them over the years. How many percent of the HD DVD movies were unsold at the beginning of 2008? Some of the triple-dip DVD movie discs looked like they were manufacturered a lot time ago and all the movie studios did is reprint a new box art insert to make them look like new edition. Last edited by Vortex3D; 11-18-2009 at 12:52 AM.

11-18-2009, 07:41 PM	#73
bruceames Moderator Join Date: May 2006 Location: San Rafael, CA Posts: 10,170	[quote=Vortex3D;962841]With many HD DVD owners in this thread still wanting HD DVD movies, would anyone willing to pay $100+ per for new __________________ Blu-rays: 55 Latest purchases: John Adams, Gone With the Wind, Up, Rocky: The Undisputed Collection

11-19-2009, 05:37 PM	#75
sawzalot HDTV Football=Euphoria Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Cape May,N J Posts: 524	Playback issue Queen Rock HD DVD Question about an HD title I just got Queen Rock Montreal & Live Aid on E-Bay, It will not play in any of my HD DVD players the disc looks legit and the packaging looks no different from any other HD DVD movies I have , about 275 or so this is the first one I ever got that says the following"This disc will not play it is not in dvd format what the heck is this a bad bootleg or what I wanted to watch before the football game but I am S.O.L. at this point any thoughts about this from our HD DVD experts, Thanks sawz..

11-17-2009, 02:53 AM	#65
EditWhiz1983 High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 77	Personally I bought an HD DVD player and HD DVD's before I got Blu-ray. I only got it because the player was $100 at Wal-Mart during one of those secret sales deals. I think both formats are great. I don't see the format coming back though. I have more BR's now then HD DVD's so I am going to stick with Blu-ray for now. If HD DVD came back would I buy them? Depends...

11-18-2009, 12:51 AM	#68
Vortex3D High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 60	With many HD DVD owners in this thread still wanting HD DVD movies, would anyone willing to pay $100+ per for new HD DVD movie releases? Since it's only possible to sell a very small amount of HD DVD movies compared to Blu-ray, the markup for HD DVD edition has to be very high to justify it. It's like buying Records today. There are highly priced. At least with Records, the sound quality is different from CD which has a reason to live on. With HD DVD, there is no benefit and less benefits now compared to Blu-ray because of the limited 30GB disc capacity. It can't have DTS HD Master audio unless the movie is very short. With the bonus materials now mostly in HD on Blu-ray, HD DVD simply cannot have it. It was the reason most HD DVD movies bonus materials were in SD and audio in either DD+ or TruDolby to fit onto a 30GB disc. The never released 51GB HD DVD will not surface now because of addition development required to make existing HD DVD players work assuming they are even compatible. Being an owner of both HD DVD and Blu-ray players, I don't see any benefit or reason for any new HD DVD releases. I still have more HD DVD movies than Blu-ray movies when many unsold HD DVD movies were dumped for super low price. With more older Blu-ray movies now around $10, there isn't any reason left to buy the remaining HD DVD movies. While on this topic, has anyone seen CBHD movie picture and sound quality? Do CBHD movies have high bitrate, TruDolby, DTS HD Master and HD bonus materials? Reason is I have a few DVD movies from China/Hong Kong and they are generally aren't very good quality compared to Hollywood DVD movies.

11-19-2009, 04:47 PM	#74
Blckman High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Pasadena,CA Posts: 39	Oh boy....I have to get in on this one and just state my case for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. Some of you have already said some of the same things I was going to state. I truly believe from my study that just because you have 30GB disk versus a 15GB disk doesn't necessarily mean that a movies is going to be better on a bigger disk. This is to each his own. Remember, we always have great reviews on movies that the the general public considers bad. A good example is 2012. I saw it, and it was much better than Poseiden hands down in my honest opinion. In addition, it's getting bad reviews, but for such a bad movie the damn movie made a whopping $65 million the opening weekend. Now, I am still collecting HD-DVD's. Some people say as another example that the first Transformers on HD-DVD looks better, but sounds better on Blu-Ray. Hell, if you really want to go there, we don't even want to talk about Band of Brothers on HD-DVD versus the Blu-Ray version. I've seen the side-by-side screenshots from a nother member in another forum and the damn HD-DVD version looked a tad bit better than the blu-ray version. In fact, the darn HD-DVD version still is retailing for $150.00+ and I would pay for it in a heartbeat. We really don't want to get started here with quality. What about the beautiful French Terminator 2 Steelbook eddition on HD-DVD? What about Pan's Labyrinth on HD-DVD? What about the French version of Crank and the way it was packaged? The sound and quality is excellent on HD-DVD. Now, let's talk about sound. I've heard films in DTS-HD and Dolby Digital switched in a sound/video room. In personal opinion, and as an advid movie guy, I didn't hear any difference. They are both great. However, some of you may differ. That's okay. I respect that fully. I personally, just purchased an Toshiba A-1 yesterday and updated the firmware in about 19 minutes flat via ethernet and the thing is wonderful. I paid $50.00 and the person who had it in Southern California never really used it. Lastly, I haven't had the opportunity to say this. Since I've been doing a great deal of research about HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, I've come to the conclusion from a neighbor that worked in the industry for years is that the quality of a film to Blu-ray and HD-DVD also depends on how and who tranferred that movie. A good example is The Wizard of Oz. They took that film and broke it down frame-by-frame and cropped, edited, and re-sounded each and every scene to make it much better. Sure, it's on blu-ray, which I can say I love. Moreover, my point is that whether a film is on HD-DVD or Blu-ray. It just depends on how that movies was broken down and transferred to a particular medium. I'm not downing blu-ray(I love it), but I'm not going to put down HD-DVD because it is a wonderful format. And hell yeah I'm going to continue to purchase the likes of The Shining on HD-DVD when I can get that version for $5.99 brand new versus the Blu-ray version at say $19.99. That sounds stupid to me personally. Peace....Man, I have said so much and can go on forever. I haven't that CBD yet. I can't wait to see it though. Remember, I think one of the major studios like Warner Brothers has signed on to advocate this medium in China. One last thing. My neighbor and I were talking about how it was the studios that in my honest opinion that pushed the blu-ray medium. Toshiba pushed HD-DVD until they had no choice anymore. Hell, remember Toshiba just release their first ever Blu-Ray player just a month or two ago. And here we are in 2009 still talking about HD-DVD. Somebody must love or we wouldn't be having so much discussion about it. I'm out....

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