4 studios back Toshiba for next-gen DVDs

Jay Gladwell wrote on 11/30/2004, 5:10 AM
And one of them ain't Sony. Read more here.

" ' We believe that HD DVD... [offers] consumers the highest quality viewing experience at the most affordable price,' said Thomas Lesinski, president, Paramount Pictures, Worldwide Home Entertainment." Since when were they concerned about our pocketbooks?

Jay

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 11/30/2004, 6:16 AM
Yup....we're right back to the days of VHS vs Beta again. But Sony learned, and has a leg up. This fat lady hasn't sung yet, but Blu-Ray is pretty well poised to be the standard since it's got the majority of support on the delivery side, and has more open opportunity, and the consumer won't know the difference in the end other than they are getting more movie quality/length/feature for their $$. But...it does cost more.
JJKizak wrote on 11/30/2004, 7:56 AM
I wish these guy's would tank their ego's and just come out with one defined system instead of VHS/Betamax, DVD-R, DVD+R, on & on.

JJK
Spot|DSE wrote on 11/30/2004, 8:17 AM
Agreed on the flat format or at least compatibility...but it ain't ego that's driving it, it's the access and rights to a product/format that will be part of literally billions of $$ in revenue. I'd probably fight pretty hard for that big "B" in front of the numbers too. :-)
Sad thing is, in the end, Blu-Ray is by far the better answer. Harder to upgrade authoring to, and more costly in the short run. But it offers so much more, and will enjoy a much longer life span than HD-DVD.
Jay Gladwell wrote on 11/30/2004, 2:02 PM
"Sad thing is, in the end, Blu-Ray is by far the better answer."

That has a familiar ring to it, doesn't it?

Sad thing is, in the end, BetaMax is by far the better answer.

;o)

Jay
OdieInAz wrote on 11/30/2004, 2:50 PM
Article in yesterday WSJ (11/29/04) says Sony has major consumer electronics firms lined up behind them. Also says many are hedging their bets, planning on developing products for both formats, and letting the market decide the winner.
Nat wrote on 11/30/2004, 4:11 PM
I thought HD DVD had a higher capacity then blue ray, am I wrong ?
ScottW wrote on 11/30/2004, 4:21 PM
Blue Ray: 27 GB per layer
HD-DVD: 15 GB per layer

Blue Ray requires new manufacturing processes along with new mastering and replication equipment.

HD-DVD can be manufactured using existing equipment.

--Scott
wcoxe1 wrote on 12/1/2004, 8:49 AM
Another thing that seems odd:

HD-DVD can hold a longer movie on a disc, even though it technically holds MUCH less data.

Don't know enough about the two different ways to compress data being used, but the HD-DVD people claim that their final output is better than Blu-Ray, even though Blu-Ray holds more data.

Interesting.
ScottW wrote on 12/1/2004, 8:58 AM
Things are moving too fast to track. Around September, Blu-Ray added Microsofts VC-1 codec to the list that it supports; this is the same codec supported by HD-DVD. If prior to this point the comparison was done based on different codecs supported, then that could explain the difference in movie length between the 2 formats.

--Scott
busterkeaton wrote on 12/1/2004, 9:08 AM
HD-DVD can be manufactured using existing equipment.

I didn't know this. I suspect this may be the tipping point.