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#4241 Re: The Sunset Strip » Blu-Ray or HD-DVD? » 911 weeks ago
Neemo wrote:russtcb wrote:I can see this school of thought. As a matter of fact, this is the first time ever I could be considered an "early adapter". I've never jumped into new tech early even though I've worked with it my whole life. I feel very confident that Blu Ray will win and since I purchased a 40" 1080p TV, I just went ahead and made the jump.
yeah when i buy a HD TV i'll me making the jump too..might as welll do it all at once...like my current config...all i had was a cheap as DVD player and a 19" tv so when i upgraded to a bigger TV i got all my compoents at the same time....now don't anybody feel to jealous here
but i got a 28" flatscreen Toshiba tube TV and a Toshiba Surround sound in a box (5 Speakers, Bass Sub, Radio Tuner & DVD Player)
oooh ahhhh
I totally did the same thing around 99 or 2000. I ended up with a 32" Toshiba as well. I got a Pioneer DVD player as my first and it's still kicking. I use it as a secondary player for the bedroom. It's slow but does it's just still and it's seen ALOT of play though the years. It used to function as the CD player for the living room on top of playing the occasional movie.
But back to the subject, I believe the jump will get easier this year. I see the prices of the players coming down. No one really debuted anything big and new at CES in their player line so I assume the pricing on the current players will drop though the year.
The software is getting better pricing too. Target is generally $5 - $10 cheaper on movies then everywhere else and I stumbled across a Buy One, Get One Free deal on Amazon. Using that deal I order The Usual Suspects and got The Departed for free, can't beat that!
Amazon is the best place to buy high def movies. Blu-ray has had several BOGO's on there lately and their prices are much better to begin with than the likes of Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, or Wal-Mart.
As for players, there is a big difference between 99% of the current non-PS3 players and the players announced at CES. HD DVD has had picture-in-picture ability from the beginning, but Blu-ray has finally caught up on this aspect. Older players, which will be severely discounted this year, will not be upgradeable. The PS3 has already been upgraded and is future-proof. All of the players announced at CES were profile 1.1, which is the profile that implements PIP ability. Only 1 stand alone player had 1.1 compliance before the announcements at CES. It's made by Panasonic. Anyone buying a Blu-ray player that wants to be able to watch all of the special features should stay away from profile 1.0 players. If you don't care about the PIP function, then profile 1.0 players will get pretty cheap this year. Probably less than $200 is my guess. The 300 HD DVD PIP commentary is awesome. It shows a blue screen version of the film with the director's comments on how they transformed the blue screen into the final product, which obviously plays in the main window. I think Warner will probably re-release it on Blu-ray at some point since the current Blu-ray version does not have this since none of the 1.1 players existed when 300 came out.
#4242 Re: The Sunset Strip » Blu-Ray or HD-DVD? » 911 weeks ago
tejastech08 wrote:Gunslinger wrote:Right now Blu-Ray is winning the war. Blockbuster isn't even carrying HD-Dvd any longer. As far as video quality they are both excellent and it would be hard to say which is better athough (strictly an opinion here) I think the blu-rays can produce a bit more "depth" in the picture quality. From a technical standpoint the Blu- Ray is superior as it can hold 15x the info that a HD-DVD can. That doesn't mean that it will come out the victor. Betamax was superior to the VHS yet VHS won. MD was superior to the CD, CD won.
15 times? Who the fuck told you that? A dual layer Blu-ray is 50 gigs. A dual layer HD DVD is 30 gigs. Since when is 50 divided by 30 equal to 15? 1.67 is more like it.
Noboby "told me" I have worked in electronics (until recently due to a family sickness) for years. I worked closely with the industry leaders and I know my shit. However I did not mean FIFTEEEN times but FIVE times (even then I was being modest considering it is actually closer to 7x). Plans are to have a 250 gig Blu Ray discs out by the end of this year and TDK had already made a prototype near the end of 2006 that could store 200 gigs. The potential is one huge reason Blu Ray is winning.
Here's the article: http://www.betanews.com/article/TDK_Dev … 1157125164
That is not likely to be used for movies but rather for data storage. And it's not the current spec so you shouldn't have said that it can do it because it currently can't. Not sure where you're getting the 7x number either. HD DVD confirmed a spec for a 51 gig disc in December. It will never see the light of day because HD DVD has already lost the war and will be discontinued sometime in the near future. At any rate, 250/50 = 5 times.
#4243 Re: The Sunset Strip » Blu-Ray or HD-DVD? » 911 weeks ago
I used to believe HD-DVD would win out, ecpseically when the porn industry when HD-DVD exclusive. But as someone pointed out, very few people buy porn, they just download it (like me). I also read an article that HD-DVD porn was selling quite poorly because it was a turn off to see all the imperfections in such up close, high detail. I've never viewed a HD-DVD porn so I can't speak from experience, but there was an article on this several months ago.
While I agree Blu-Ray appears to be the victor, Sony's gamble with the PS3 has had little influence. About 3 million PS3s had been sold by the end of 2008 I believe making it the least popular nextgen system and having a minor influence on the market. The PS2 was great aiding the DVD into mainstream because they sold millions of copies of their system. I personally avoid using my video game consoles ad DVD players as much as possible because running a DVD through them is alot of tear and wear. I am kind of jacked though that I spent thousands on my DVD collection (I have around 300) and was naieve enough to think they'd last forever. Live and you learn I guess.
Just up-convert them, unless you absolutely have to have them in high def.
#4244 Re: The Sunset Strip » Blu-Ray or HD-DVD? » 911 weeks ago
Right now Blu-Ray is winning the war. Blockbuster isn't even carrying HD-Dvd any longer. As far as video quality they are both excellent and it would be hard to say which is better athough (strictly an opinion here) I think the blu-rays can produce a bit more "depth" in the picture quality. From a technical standpoint the Blu- Ray is superior as it can hold 15x the info that a HD-DVD can. That doesn't mean that it will come out the victor. Betamax was superior to the VHS yet VHS won. MD was superior to the CD, CD won.
15 times? Who the fuck told you that? A dual layer Blu-ray is 50 gigs. A dual layer HD DVD is 30 gigs. Since when is 50 divided by 30 equal to 15? 1.67 is more like it.
Both formats are very good. Blu-ray is loaded with DRM moreso than HD DVD, which is similar to DVD and very easy to crack. Some Blu-ray titles with BD+ encryption were not playable on certain Blu-ray players. Regardless, Blu-ray will win the war. They got Warner to drop HD DVD so the end is pretty near in my opinion. The biggest problem for Blu-ray is that upconverted DVD over HDMI looks very good and most consumers can't even tell a difference. There is a huge difference if you watch Blu-ray or HD DVD and compare it with regular, 480p DVD without upconversion.
The PS3 was a trojan horse that basically defeated HD DVD before it was ever able to get going. As for "bought allegiance," Warner was paid $500 million and Fox was paid a shitload as well to NOT go with HD DVD. This all occurred at the last second after Warner and Fox had verbally agreed to go HD DVD exclusive but Fox backed out and Warner was forced to make the decision that would end the war quickest. Even Blu-ray insiders have confirmed it. Sony's CEO even said to take Warner's announcement at face value. Bought allegiances have been going on all along in this war so HD DVD is not the only one guilty of it. I suspect Disney was bought by Blu-ray and Universal was bought by HD DVD back when the war started. Fox wanted stronger DRM than DVD so they went with Blu-ray for that reason. Warner has always favored HD DVD even though they released on both formats until their decision to drop HD DVD.
It sounds to me like Fox probably played everyone involved in order to get more money. Warner wanted to go HD DVD exclusive, but wanted another studio to go with them so they convinced Fox. But then Fox was paid a bunch by the BDA to stick with Blu-ray. At that point, if Warner went HD DVD exclusive it would create a true stalemate: 3 studios vs. 3 studios. So they did what they had to do to end the war in the quickest fashion, which was go exclusive with Blu-ray. Both HD DVD and Blu-ray put something in the range of $400-500 million in incentives on the table for Warner so it wasn't necessarily the money that made them go to Blu-ray. But they definitely got paid. If you're going to go with that format anyway, why not make some money off it? Fox never intended to go with HD DVD. They want more DRM than DVD and HD DVD doesn't really provide that so I really do think they played everyone involved in order to get more money. They agreed with Warner and HD DVD, and they got what they wanted from Blu-ray: a big payoff. Then they back out on Warner and HD DVD, leaving Warner to make a tough decision but an effective decision. The war should be over pretty damn soon.
#4245 Re: GN'R Downloads » Finally got around to... » 911 weeks ago
Worst song on Live Era is easily "Patience." It's great that the crowd was so into it that it was a huge sing-along, but you can barely hear Axl and you can't even tell what he's singing. It's much better on Live in Paris and hell, it's much better with the 2006 tour by new GN'R from the boots I have seen/heard of "Patience" during that particular tour.
#4246 GN'R Downloads » Finally got around to... » 911 weeks ago
- tejastech08
- Replies: 7
...downloading the Live in Paris show from a torrent. What a kickass show! I am now wondering why in bloody hell they didn't just use a continuous show for Live Era because there's some cool talking from Axl in there like towards Warren Beatty. "If you think Madonna kicked your ass, I'm bettin' on Annette." 
#4247 Re: Guns N' Roses » Mick Wall's Latest "Chinese Democracy" Mention » 911 weeks ago
mick wall = douchebag
Agreed, although our hero Axl is just as much a douche bag. 
#4248 Re: The Sunset Strip » 10 Most Anticipated Movies of 2008 » 912 weeks ago
The Dark Knight and Indiana Jones are my most anticipated.
#4249 Re: The Garden » How Did You Derive Your User Name? » 912 weeks ago
I go to Texas Tech and I will graduate in 2008.
#4250 Re: The Sunset Strip » 10 Greatest Horror Films of all Time elimination- Round 6 » 912 weeks ago
Halloween simply for the fact that, if no sequels were made, it wouldn't be a horror film.
Unlike say for instance "The Exorcist", did I ever feel scared, as a child or adult....?
When "The Exorcist" was released there were actually people who had heartattacks in the cinema, I think that says something about it compared to the others.
I think James is just upset because "The Exorcist" had that awesome theme music 5 years before "Halloween".
People had heart attacks when they saw Hostel too. Doesn't mean Hostel was very scary. In fact, I wasn't scared by Hostel at all. It's gory and freaks out some people, but I prefer the suspense of films like Halloween by a long shot to torture porn with a bunch of gore. I voted Texas Chainsaw Massacre off simply because I don't think it's that great of a movie. It's actually scarier than the Exorcist in my opinion, but it's nowhere near as good of an actual film.
