I have wanted to write this article for a while now, but I have been patiently waiting things out a bit to see how things were going to play out in the High Definition DVD world. On the one hand I was a little concerned that by the time the Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD war had settled that some miracle device would come out that would offer 50GB downloads right to my dvr that would eliminate the need for discs at all. (much like music and standard definition movies are now) Well, besides Apple TV which is dangerously close, nothing in direct HD downloads is really happening. So I decided instead of watching my movies in standard definition DVD and upconverting them to fool myself into thinking they looked HD, I decided to take the plunge. I decided to go with Blu-Ray over HD-DVD. Here are some of the reasons for that decision:
Blu-Ray has every major Hollywood studio supporting it except Universal, which is exclusive to HD-DVD. That sucks for all those great Uni titles, like Deer Hunter, Big Lebowski, etc. that I can't get my mitts on. But Blu-ray is picking up more studios than HD DVD by an alarming number.
Blu has the capacity to hold 50GB on each disc. (and can someday go up to 250GB) HD-DVD can only do 30GB. (Even though in 2005 they promised up to 45GB) What does this mean to you? With 30GB you can have enough disc space to make a beautiful HD transfer, but with 50GB, you can make an even better one. So if you're going to spend the money go for Blu, and take advantage of the extra space. This also means you can but two or 3 HD-DVD transfers on one Blu-Ray. That's pretty cool folks.
So picture quality wise what's the difference? Not much really? In fact a lot of times the HD-DVD transfer and the Blu transfer are identical, using the same exact codecs for the transfers. But here is where it gets interesting. See studios like Paramount for instance started doing stronger transfer for Blu-Ray so that they can use the extra storage capacity of the disc for the transfer. They also are now going all HD with the extras on the dvd as well. On HD-DVD, most if not all of your extras will be in regular old standard def because after putting the movie down on the disc, there is not enough room to put extras in HD.
Movie titles: Slight edge goes to Blu-Ray because they have more studio support. Disney and Sony don't go Blu. Warner is neutral and have the biggest stake in the hiDef disc market because of that. Like I said before I am pretty content with the selection of Blu-ray discs. There are a few Universal titles I would like to have, but they will come in time.
Sales of Blu-ray have exceeded HD-DVD all year. And a good example is the movie 300. It came out last week on all 3 formats, dvd, hd-dvd, and blu-ray. 250,000 hi-def dvd's were sold. 168,000 of those were Blu-ray. And the bad news for HD-DVD peeps, is that the 300 HD-DVD had more interactive features than the Blu-Ray, yet Blu-ray won. In fact HD-DVD was sure that this would end the war. Not so much. Other things to consider... Blockbuster and Target are going all Blu now. Overall sales are 2 to 1 in favor of Blu-ray all year.
Price: What everyone cares about. HD-DVD players are cheaper. Sad but True. You can get an HD DVD Player for fewer than 200 buckaroos now if you look around hard enough. Blu-Ray players started at over 1000. But they have gone down to 450. Sony and Samsung both have players at 400-450 now. I got a Samsung first gen player on clearance for 450 in March I believe at Best Buy. The coolest thing about it is that it’s an excellent up converting regular dvd player. It does almost make your old DVD’s look like high def. It does a much better job than my pricey Oppo player I bought not long b4 the Samsung Blu. In fact this Blu-Ray player was 500 bucks cheaper than my uncle's new standard def DVD player from Pioneer Elite, and has the exact same upconverting chip in it. Sorry Earl... So if your going to spend say 250 or 300 on an HD-DVD player, spend a tad more and get something classier. Now the movies themselves are about the same to buy. 20 bucks at the low end and 40 on the high end. However I have found that Frys Electronics sells Blu-Ray really cheap. I don't know why but a $40 title on it's release day is about 25 bucks. And every weekend they have a 12.99 sale on about 5 Blu-rays. You can't beat that. And also if you buy a new Blu-Ray machine now you get 5 free movies to start you out.
(NOTE: To Harry at Ain't it Cool News... You misreported in your article saying why you went with HD-DVD over Blu-Ray was because you can't play regular dvd's on a blu-ray machine. WRONG WRONG WRONG. That is retarded and totally untrue. You should do some research before you talk tech fat man. Stick to movie reviews, not that you do that much anymore either. Pet Peeve)
So what do the movies look like in 1080p. Total greatness. If you have ever watched a movie in HD from say digital cable or satellite in 1080 i, you notice some ghosting and maybe some digital grain we will call it. That is gone in Blu-ray. Even if you walk right up with the screen at your nose, it looks crisp. Better than film in some cases. As my Dad says "sharp as a tack". It is really fun watching old movies in this format. I've seen Superman: The Movie probably 50 times in my life and I saw stuff in the background I had never seen before. And not just trivial stuff, but things that really add to the story and experience. For example we had Kung-Fu Night a few months back and we watched Curse of the Golden Flower. The colors in that film were unreal. Never have I seen that deep range of colors on any TV screen. It was jaw dropping, and everyone in the room mentioned it at least twice. (Curse is only available on Blu-Ray...)
Sound: Here is a downside at least with the player I got. It says it supports your old sound system like DTS, and Dolby Digital. Well it does not exactly. For whatever reason on this player the DD signal is converted to Dolby Pro Logic (so 90's) but on your new Blu-Ray movies you can do PCM uncompressed sound which is very cool. At first it took my ears a while to really appreciate 5.1 uncompressed sound, because I am so used to the loud ass Dolby Digital or DTS. But now I kind of like it subtle nature. I'm not sure if HD-DVD's do uncompressed soundtracks or not. It takes up a lot of space but with Blu-ray you have room for that, DD, and DTS. Pretty amazing.
I have about 15 Blu-ray movies now. Some new, some older movies. If you are worried about your Netflix subscription being sad after you go Blu, don't be. All you do is go on the site and tell them you have Blu, and presto on your Queue you can select regular dvd or Blu-Ray next to your titles. (if available) I'd be glad to show anyone a Blu-ray demo if you let me know. The most impressive disc to me so far is The Descent. A movie I originally watched in Standard def then found a used copy at Movie Trading Co for a good deal. Wow. The picture transfer uses the full 50GB capacity of Blu-Ray. It's nothing short of remarkable in its detail. Considering it's a movie all in a cave that's saying something. Then the bonus features can run on top of the movie as its playing. So for instance say you are watching a scene that is pretty crazy, and your thinking how the hell did they do that? You hit a button and boom a picture in picture comes up that shows the making of that scene as it was being filmed in perfect unison with the movie you are watching. Geekasim. I believe this is all done using Java.
They have not enabled it yet, but in the future you will be able to hook up your player to your network and update the disc with new bonus features or updated interviews, commentary, and stuff like that via the web. I like that idea a lot. It makes the disc have a bit more after value instead of having to buy a new edition.
If you don't have HDTV yet, I would recommend you get one with 1080p capability and at least 2 HDMI ports. That way when you do get Blu-Ray or sigh, HD-DVD you will be set to full experience this new format. But please go Blu! There was a new story the other day about some guys that broke into a video store and stole nothing but the Blu-ray Rack of dvd's...nice.
Here are some titles that are coming out on Blu-ray that I can't wait for: Dawn of the Dead, Evil Dead 1 and 2, Halloween, Day of the Dead, The Shining, 2001, Eyes Wide Shut, and Blade Runner, all three Spiderman movies.
Here are some cool Blu-ray sights to check out:
blu-ray.com
high def digest
hollywood in high def
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