Author Topic: The War Begins... (Read 106904 times)

dagul27 · « **Reply #300 on:** Oct 15, 2006 at 01:10 PM »

Aha! either an avid gamer like me or trying to get away with both formats.

Munskie · « **Reply #301 on:** Oct 16, 2006 at 08:25 PM »

Warner has just launched a website for High Def....check it out

http://www.wbhidef.com/

some of the planned releases accdg to the site:

The Wicker Man
Ant Bully
Lady in the Water
The Lake House (already released)
The Departed

The last film on the list just made my day...

Check out too the cool resolution comparison....

Munskie · « **Reply #302 on:** Oct 18, 2006 at 05:38 PM »

nevermind Superman 3 & 4...this the trilogy.......Singer's Superman Returns followed the story after 1 & 2...

the HD DVD set

also to be released in Blu-Ray...

jojitv · « **Reply #303 on:** Oct 18, 2006 at 05:50 PM »

Quote from: aldrinpsx on Oct 10, 2006 at 11:36 PM

Jumped the band wagon..im no.1 of 14 for the 60 gig.well guys...i have to say....that i was one of the lucky ones.pre order was shut before the store opens at 10am.. i was standing in line(5am) in the freezing mornin.

1st in line, guaranteed a PS3 on Nov 17th.

*** guess ill be watching BLU RAY rather than HD DVD****

peace and blessing!!!

Kaya pala the sudden shift to blu-ray. Hehehe

indie boi · « **Reply #304 on:** Oct 18, 2006 at 09:14 PM »

I wrote about this news on the tech blog I'm handling last week. You guys may be interested in this:

NEC Ships Hybrid Blu-Ray/HD DVD Chip

TOKYO, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Japanese chip maker NEC Electronics Corp. said on Tuesday it began shipping a chip compatible with both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats in next-generation DVDs, bridging a format war splitting the electronics industry in two.

If other hybrid technology is developed, the new chip could lower costs to build dual-format players, helping consumers and the movie industry sidestep the rivalry between the two opposing camps.

The chips go on sale for 10,000 yen ($84), roughly the same price as NEC Electronics' chips which read only Blu-ray or only HD DVD formats, the world's No. 8 chip maker said.

NEC Electronics targets monthly shipments of 300,000 during the business year starting April 2007.

A group of companies led by Sony Corp. are promoting the Blu-ray format as the next-generation optical disc standard, while Toshiba Corp. is a leading proponent of the rival HD DVD technology.

Still missing from the dual player equation is optical pick-up technology to read and play back both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats.

The chip and the optical pick-up lens together can make up more than half the cost of a DVD player, said NEC Electronics spokesman Hisashi Saito.

NEC Electronics shares closed up 3.6 percent at 4,040 yen, outperforming the Nikkei average, which nudged up 0.25 percent.

av_phile1 · « **Reply #305 on:** Oct 19, 2006 at 07:25 AM »

Have come across this article in another forum. Sure enough, NEC has the dual format chips and Samsuns and Ricoh already have the dual format lasers but I suspect the BR group does not want to license dual format players. Such players have already been announced by Samsung and Pioneer late last year and early this year but have now fallen silent. As if they were thwarted by some unforseen forces from proceeding.

Munskie · « **Reply #306 on:** Oct 21, 2006 at 08:01 AM »

from highdefdigest:

Sony Delays First Blu-ray Player... Again?

av_phile1 · « **Reply #307 on:** Oct 22, 2006 at 07:11 PM »

Ho hum.

Why am I no longer surprised?

Munskie · « **Reply #308 on:** Oct 22, 2006 at 10:25 PM »

Blu-Ray though launched in Europe first....HD DVD to launch there in November...with essentially G2 players.

aldrinpsx · « **Reply #309 on:** Oct 23, 2006 at 09:48 AM »

http://cgi.ebay.com/PS3-SONY-Playstation-3-60-GB-Console-Premium-Edition_W0QQitemZ330041141518QQihZ014QQcategoryZ62054QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

So expensive blu ray player..

..sold b4 its launch date.

peace and blessing!!!

Munskie · « **Reply #310 on:** Oct 23, 2006 at 04:44 PM »

Tuesday is release day!! Titles in stores this week:

12 Monkeys (HD DVD)
The Interpreter (HD DVD)
The Italian Job (2003) (Blu-ray)
Legends of Jazz Showcase (Blu-ray)
Monster House (Blu-ray)
Nacho Libre (Blu-ray)
Nacho Libre (HD DVD)
Out of Sight (HD DVD)
Sahara (Blu-ray)
Slither (HD DVD)
Spartacus (HD DVD)
The Thing (1982) (HD DVD)

Munskie · « **Reply #311 on:** Oct 25, 2006 at 11:21 AM »

The Blu-Ray VS HD DVD Smackdown

av_phile1 · « **Reply #312 on:** Oct 25, 2006 at 05:49 PM »

Seems like a common topic in many AV forums.

Here's a statistical presentation of the current state of the war. It changes everyday.

http://www.thedvdwars.com/index.cfm

Clondalkin · « **Reply #313 on:** Oct 26, 2006 at 05:39 PM »

Anybody knows the details of the differences between a stand alone BD player and a PS3?

If we take the potential performance of a stand alone player as reference "1", what kind of rating can we expect out of the $400 PS3?

av_phile1 · « **Reply #314 on:** Oct 27, 2006 at 11:21 AM »

I recall coming across an AVforum poster quoting a Sony exec as saying that if you want better BD performance, get a stand-alone player. But I think for the price, which is about half of most BD stanalone player cost, the price-performance should be acceptable. I mean, Sony wouldn't be releasing a BD player on a game console if it can't perform the minimum that a BD standalone can. Afterall, Sony is positioning the PS3 as a media center.

Clondalkin · « **Reply #315 on:** Oct 27, 2006 at 11:54 AM »

Quote from: av_phile1 on Oct 27, 2006 at 11:21 AM

.. But I think for the price, which is about half of most BD stanalone player cost, the price-performance should be acceptable. I mean, Sony wouldn't be releasing a BD player on a game console if it can't perform the minimum that a BD standalone can. Afterall, Sony is positioning the PS3 as a media center.

Absolutely agree. To convince the wife to get a PS3, I'm actually telling her that for that price, buying one is almost like getting an entry level BD player with FREE PS3, and we don't have to worry about region coding even in the future. Just concerned about the video processors inside the PS3, and perhaps the loading time. PS3 is practically a "pimped" PC right?

av_phile1 · « **Reply #316 on:** Oct 27, 2006 at 11:59 AM »

Quote from: Clondalkin on Oct 27, 2006 at 11:54 AM

we don't have to worry about region coding even in the future.

BD is region locked. HD DVD is not yet.

Clondalkin · « **Reply #317 on:** Oct 27, 2006 at 12:01 PM »

Quote from: av_phile1 on Oct 27, 2006 at 11:59 AM

BD is region locked. HD DVD is not yet.

It is, but US and Japan will share the same region code. Those are the only 2 regions that matter to me personally

.

av_phile1 · « **Reply #318 on:** Oct 27, 2006 at 12:13 PM »

Ah ok, i think even southeast asia and Phils is part of region 1.

Munskie · « **Reply #319 on:** Oct 27, 2006 at 12:14 PM »

Quote from: av_phile1 on Oct 27, 2006 at 12:13 PM

Ah ok, i think even southeast asia and Phils is part of region 1.

I believe we are...on HD DVD coding....isnt that great?

Clondalkin · « **Reply #320 on:** Oct 27, 2006 at 12:28 PM »

But I'm definitely very interested in the HD DVD add-on drive to the X360 as well. With the Yen hovering around 120 against the Dollar at the moment, it really is getting more reasonable to invest on these Hi-Def players soon enough. Anyways, I'm very neutral as regards this so called format war. I don't even care who survives in the end because I think it's going to take years to settle, or, both formats would simply co-exist until a hybrid system or the next technology is developed.

av_phile1 · « **Reply #321 on:** Oct 27, 2006 at 01:00 PM »

Quote from: Munskie on Oct 27, 2006 at 12:14 PM

I believe we are...on HD DVD coding....isnt that great?

It is. But don't forget about local distributors. Even if we now belong in the same R1 for high def, expect packaging to be different between countries. Even now, packaging in general differs between Korea, Hongkong and Phils for the same R3 release.

av_phile1 · « **Reply #322 on:** Oct 27, 2006 at 03:31 PM »

Anyone wanting to go into high def, better get either a Toshiba player bundled with three(3)FREE HD DVD titles of your choice between Nov 1 and Feb 28. Or an xbox 360 add-on being bundled with a FREE King Kong HD DVD. Blurry is offering Talladega Nights for FREE for its PS3 launch players

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Toshiba/Bundles/Hardware/Toshiba_to_Bundle_Three_Free_HD_DVD_Discs_With_Every_Player_Sold_/326

av_phile1 · « **Reply #323 on:** Oct 27, 2006 at 04:10 PM »

Quote from: Clondalkin on Oct 27, 2006 at 11:54 AM

PS3 is practically a "pimped" PC right?

It's cell technology from IBM is actually so much more powerful than anything that Intel or AMD PCs have at the moment. It's not only the most powerful game console ever made, it is also the most expensive. SONY is expected to lose $200 for each console made and will only recover from game licenses.

But I wouldn't get the PS3 for anything. Because notwithstanding its processing power, game developers across many platforms design their games on the least common denominator, porting them on the appropriate media at the last stage of production. That means those games common between xbox and ps would look and behave the same. There are so few games that will be exclusive to PS3, like Resistance: Fall of Man which is currently nowhere near the top 5 among game aficionados. And it doesn't have as good an online gaming as the 360. In fact, I think it has no online gaming facility as yet.

More importantly, I prefer to see SONY eat dust. I have learned to dislike their tactics in dragging the console war into the format war, dashing market expecations with unkept promises on the PS3 launch 3x in 18 months precisely because they had to put a BR drive in it unnecesarily resulting in delays, forcing by legal means to close a major Honkong distributor Lik-Sang for importing US and Japanese PSPs into Europe, and insisting that mpeg2 that caused their BD launch discs to bomb to be the equal fo VC1 - treating the market as fools and ignoramuses for releasing their formats half baked, and being behind so many formats and media that attempted to gain vendor lock-in for its customers. SONY is no longer the fun company it used when it had Trinitrons, walkmans and PS2. Now they are up for world market domination with their Blurry and PS3 - the products they are hinging on for its business to recover. But that's just me of course.

Personally, if I already own an xbox 360 which is about 40t at SM appliance, i'd get the HD DVD add-on. The bundled FREE King Kong HD DVD is a nice icing on the cake.

Clondalkin · « **Reply #324 on:** Oct 27, 2006 at 04:49 PM »

The HD DVD player add on to the Xbox360 won't have HDMI support (yet). Well, that's probably too much to expect from a Yen19,800 ($165) player and hopefully would not be a major issue as long as studios don't implement that signal discrimination thingy. I read somewhere MS is going to update the X360 soon for full 1080p support but I don't know if that would apply to the D/component video output or through VGA output only.

I grew up a PC gamer, switched to Xbox and Xbox360 when I was finally impressed by console's graphics quality and depth of gameplay (and got tired of endlessly updating the graphics card), but never played PS1, PS2 at all. Not really looking that much forward to the PS3 as a gaming machine so I try to think of it as an "additional feature" for a $400 machine that can "properly" play BD (hopefully). Whatever, I'm sure my family would find good use for its gaming functions.

Interesting choices in any case.

av_phile1 · « **Reply #325 on:** Oct 27, 2006 at 05:04 PM »

Based on my readings, it supports 1080i via component, 1080p via VGA for HD DVD. I hear the upgrade will allow it to upscale SD DVDs to 1080p via VGA.

Clondalkin · « **Reply #326 on:** Oct 27, 2006 at 05:33 PM »

Quote from: av_phile1 on Oct 27, 2006 at 05:04 PM

Based on my readings, it supports 1080i via component, 1080p via VGA for HD DVD. I hear the upgrade will allow it to upscale SD DVDs to 1080p via VGA.

Long live my PC monitors then! But at 17" and 19" respectively, they're probably not gonna blow my socks off. At least they won't enduce vertigo or seizures as much as those huge panels.

On the other hand, I remember my "epiphany" back in early 99 when I first played an excellent-transfer DVD movie on a high end PC with 17" aperture grill Diamondtron. I had to wake up the wife to share the experience.

It was a defining moment in our HT life.

1080i via component on a good and not so huge HDTV? I imagine that would be better than "good enough."

nels76 · « **Reply #327 on:** Oct 27, 2006 at 07:06 PM »

Quote from: av_phile1 on Oct 27, 2006 at 05:04 PM

Based on my readings, it supports 1080i via component, 1080p via VGA for HD DVD. I hear the upgrade will allow it to upscale SD DVDs to 1080p via VGA.

Unfortunately, most HDTVs accept 1080p through HDMI only.

I have read the specs of some Full HD HDTVs including Sony's SXRD and it says that
"1080p (HDMI Only)"

Good thing if there is HDTV that accepts 1080p signal other than HDMI.

av_phile1 · « **Reply #328 on:** Oct 27, 2006 at 08:37 PM »

Quote from: nels76 on Oct 27, 2006 at 07:06 PM

Unfortunately, most HDTVs accept 1080p through HDMI only.

With new HDTVs, yes, Current HDTVs and HDTV-ready sets don't recognize what 1080p input is. Just 1080i. Via component is just fine to enjoy high def. Good thing the Image Constraint Token (ICT) has not been implemented yet. Or will it be anytime in the near future.

av_phile1 · « **Reply #329 on:** Oct 27, 2006 at 08:55 PM »

The XBox 360 HD DVD Player will connect to Windows Vista-based workstations via USB as both a data drive as well as a HD-DVD video player. (with appropriate HD DVD playback software like Intervideo, etc.)

http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/14187

I'd imagine this may be another boost to HD DVD in the format wars.