HD DVD or Blu-Ray

Which format will win out!

  • HD DVD

    Votes: 3 37.5%
  • Blu-Ray

    Votes: 1 12.5%
  • Neither, network distribution will eclipse both formats before either becomes standard

    Votes: 4 50.0%

  • Total voters
    8
I put my faith in what Billy Gates said when asked. He didn't think it really mattered about BR vs. HD. He said everything will be online in the future.

Why buy discs when you can hit a button and download it to your 7000 Terabyte hard-drive in your Tivo? For that matter, you don't even need a disc to play Battlefield 2142. You go to the site, pay for it, download it. It has begun.
 
If you leave out the downloading option and just leave it between the two disc formats, I would say it's still too early to tell. I hear a lot about BR from some tech-geek associates, but they are also the ones that rush out to buy the best, most expensive video cards. I would say that 99% of the people who order Dell computers aren't those type of consumers. The format war will be decided by the popularity of the content offered on each format. In other words, if the crap on BR isn't as enticing as HD, then it won't matter how much more data it can hold. Besides, the market hasn't reached a point of NEEDING a new format. High def products are getting more popular, but not enough to dominate the market. They are trying to force a change instead of supplying a demand.
 
I have an HD LCD, and my DVD player upconverts to 720i with component cables. I'm getting near HD quality with $200 worth of equipment (that includes the cables). And while I CAN tell the difference between a DVD and my HD cable picture, it's not enough to go out and spend another $600.
 
Right. And what about the cost of TV's in general. Several friends of mine went out a few years ago and bought big screen TV's. They are gorgeous, but they aren't HD. Now they would like to have HD, but don't see the need for it since it hasn't been too long since they invested $$$$.
 
Neither will lose in my opinion, you're going to have to get both. The studios supply enough movies for HBO, Starz, Showtime, and Cinemax to have new stuff every week. Combine that with all the TV box sets, I wouldn't be surprised if they stick around. Or they both lose cause no one wants to part with DVDs.
 
How quickly was the Beta vs. VHS war decided? This is a completely different battle, but it might give us a clue as to how long we can expect to see this struggle before one eventually dominates the other.
 
That was back in the 80s before Sony had a Playstation or a movie studio with Spider-Man movies. It's a totally different ball game. Coca-Cola owned a movie studio back then. VHS, Beta, Laserdisc, Hd-DVD, Blu-Ray, they are all owned by companies while DVD was open format.
 
I know it's not the exact same, but it is the only real indicator we have. Another major difference was that VHS or Beta was considered a needed change. HD and BR are not. So answer the friggin' question. How long did it take for VHS to snuff out Beta?
 
What sucks badly for me is it dose not matter who wins. I am one of the lucky ppl who hapens to have both 360 and PS3. So I can have both formats in the end. So who ever takes the cake in the end wont matter to me becasue it's not like i'm not gonna have great movies or the stuff to lay them on. I'm gettin a HD-DVD for $200 bucks, got lucky and got a PS3 so Blu-Ray is covered. The only thing that sucks is that some movies like the Terminator trilogy is on both formats (1&2 BD, 3 HD-DVD).
 
The 360 only has HD-DVD with the add-on USB device, right?

I disagree with the assertion that everything will be online soon, though - the mainstream wants their stuff on DISC... It's "real" to them in a way that a file on a hard drive never will be. This is probably for the best - I personally loathe the way that companies like Microsoft and Sony are trying to convince people that digital files (which can more readily be content-monitored remortely) are somehow "better" than files burned permanently to a disc. I personally want to be able to do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING to content I legally purchase, whether that's make six different MP3 copies of my music CDs (use at home, at work, in my portable MP3 player, in my Chocolate phone and backed up on two different hard drives) or multiple copies of movie DVDs for use in various locations. If Bill gates and Sony had their way, they'd try to charge me a license fee every time I transferred my effing files to a new device and I'm not putting up with that - I'll turn to piracy of my own legally purchased entertainment before I put up with that crap.
 
I know I won't have any need for HD-DVD or Blu-Ray for a few years at least.
And I kinda agree with Imago, I like MP3's, but I'd rather have DVD's on disc instead of on file.
 
ImagoX said:
The 360 only has HD-DVD with the add-on USB device, right?

I disagree with the assertion that everything will be online soon, though - the mainstream wants their stuff on DISC... It's "real" to them in a way that a file on a hard drive never will be. This is probably for the best - I personally loathe the way that companies like Microsoft and Sony are trying to convince people that digital files (which can more readily be content-monitored remortely) are somehow "better" than files burned permanently to a disc. I personally want to be able to do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING to content I legally purchase, whether that's make six different MP3 copies of my music CDs (use at home, at work, in my portable MP3 player, in my Chocolate phone and backed up on two different hard drives) or multiple copies of movie DVDs for use in various locations. If Bill gates and Sony had their way, they'd try to charge me a license fee every time I transferred my effing files to a new device and I'm not putting up with that - I'll turn to piracy of my own legally purchased entertainment before I put up with that crap.
Yeah...no...

If that were true...

1) The iPod would've sunk.
2) Sony and Microsoft would are in cahoots with the aliens for world domination.
3) The Xbox 360 wouldn't let you redownload everything as many times as you like without charge.

That's some major conspiracy theorism, man.
 
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I am do a lot of illegal things when it comes to entertainent. But I still like to pay the price for things because I want to support the artist. If it was me I would want the same. But downloading movies is great and I do a lot of it. I have 4 copies of Freddy 3, (iPod,cpu,DVD,PS3). Mostly al the TV shows I watch are on my iPod and or PS3. Why? because I'm ignorant.

Buying DVD's is they way to go. You do not get all the special features or the casing with downloads. And some copies are choppy laggy and just flat out suck. So stick to the disc format.
 
iPods are a freak of nature... a very slick marketing campaign coupled with thie weird, elitist vision of the "cool" versus the "not so cool". They'd be dead in the water without the multi-million dollar ad campaign - yet another case of style over substance. Anyone that does even a spec of research will switfly discover thst the iPod is an overpriced ad machine and that iTunes is the bastard son of the Devil. :cookiemon
 
People always go with convenience and longevity. The safe bet is to download things. You don't have to get out of your worn-out computer chair and actually go to the store. you don't have to keep up with a disc, you don't even have to worry about your disc being dirty or scratched and thus have to buy another one.

I don't necessarily like it, but that's the way the market will go. I do like to actually hold money instead of using a debit card. I like to be able to pop a disc in anywhere I choose to take it. I don't like the idea that I'll have to get high-speed internet at home before I can watch movies, listen to music, or play a game. It takes control out of my hands and puts it into someone else's. Discs won't be disappearing anytime soon, but don't be surprised if the market shifts considerably to the download side.
 
access to data storage is going to become a new kind of currency I think. I'm picturing a world where we don't buy storage media any more, but rather rent or lease space on huginormous (yeah, I made up a word) servers. Then we'll be able to access our data from extremely tiny devices with a couple of GB of flash mem. Think about it. It's a good idea.