Bimmer32

I was looking at a 52" Sony LCD XBR4 at the store today because mine is coming in later next week from the mail. I don't want to start any HD DVD vs. Blu ray war, but what's your opinion of either format?

I was disappointed that a combo player cost about $700 dollars and that there's no reconciliation between the two format. Blu ray players typically cos more than HD DVD players. Your opinions on the hardware (players) of the two formats would be greatly appreciated.

I just don't see paying twice the cost of a current standard DVD player. Prices will drop . . . I hope very soon.

sideeffects

I would suggest Blu-Ray it is heavly winning the war right now and is a better product simply because of its storage capabilities. I use my PS3 as a player and it works great.... But there is a Sony stand alone player that costs $399, the BDP-S300 and it looks great. It also upconverts standard DVD's to 1080p which greatly increases the look of SD DVD's. I'm not going to to go into more detail as you asked us not to discuss the war...... lol..... I am an avid Blu-Ray supporter.

Russ1974

Go to Google, type "blu ray vs hd dvd", and spend the next 6 months of your life reading pages, and pages, and pages, and pages ... about why BluRay is better than HDDVD. THEN, spend the next 6 monts of your life reading pages, and pages, and pages, and pages ... about why HDDVD is better than BluRay !

Hopefully, by the time you've finished reading, one will have emerged as the winner and you'll know which one to buy. If not, just take your pick, for all intents they are "the same", the technical information behind the formats does not concern me, you, or any other "viewer" - don't let people quoting techinical specifications trick you in to thinking their comments are at all useful, they both play HD format films, both have film studios signed up for unique content, and both have lists of pros and cons as long as you want to make them.

Personally I am supporting BluRay because I've got a PS3, but if Sony had chosen HDDVD instead of BluRay, that would have been my choice instead.

PS - Nice TV. I had a Sharp Aquous 52" LCD but sent it back as I couldnt stand the poor contrast / black levels (too gray), so am now runnning a 50" Pioneer Plasma. I agree LCD is the better technology, but for me, anything above 37" has to be Plasma as I've not seen an LCD that can match it for contrast yet.

kscarrol

http://forums.e60.net/index.php?showtopic=...l=blueray+hddvd

This reminds me of VHS vs. Beta. I'm going to give it a year for the shake out. Beside, we mostly watch kids stuff so I don't care if Thomas The Tank Engine is in 1080p

bardel

Ooooo Thomas the Tank Engine in 1080p

Well, I'm interested in this too but not ready to pay silly money for a player which may only be useful for a short period of time (assuming one format dies a death).

That said, since I run a Media PC, I've decided to plump for an XBox HDDVD drive which is available for less than ?100. Alternatively I could have gone for an internal Blue Ray / DVDRW drive for around the same money. The XBox HDDVD drive can be attached to a Vista Media PC and it's recognised automatically. That said, I've only just ordered mine so I'll have to get back to you on how well it works (if at all).

The thing that swung this for me was the Microsoft offer of 5 free HDDVD's when you buy one of these drives before 31 Jan 08. Oh and that Transformers is available in this format only

I've seen combo internal PC drives for around ?450 - ?500, which is way too much for an optical drive for a PC in my opinion but in time they will be available and mass market.

I thought I read somewhere that HDDVD's come with SD DVD formats on one side of the disc. Haven't really looked for anything that backs that up, anyone know?

Barry

ImolaRedM

I was recently in the same boat deciding between HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray. There are many reasons why I went with Blu-Ray. Primarily, I've always liked the format for its ability to store more data per layer and its higher bit rate -- two winning combinations from a technical standpoint. Secondly, there are more studios supporting Blu-Ray at the moment. Finally, Toshiba seems to be the only player still in the HD-DVD arena from a hardware perspective. This is not healthy for the platform and the only competition in HD-DVD is from Onkyo (Toshiba rebrand) and other dual format players that are too expensive in my book.

While Blu-Ray is more expensive I think you get what you pay for. Even the "low end" Blu-Ray players like the Sony BDP-S300 that retails for $399 (but has been seen for as low as $299) is full 1080p while the much advertised Toshiba A2 that sold for one day at $99 was really just last years clearance item that only supports 1080i. To get 1080p on Toshiba HD-DVD you're in the area of the A30 and those retail for about $399.

C's Bimmer

Have you visited AVSforum.com? If not, you should. I'm on that forum all the time.

Anyway, I just got the LG BH200 Dual Player. Yes, it costs $1,000, but it's awesome! And it also plays audio in Dolby TrueHD And DTS-HD Master Audio. It also comes with an Ethernet port for firmware updates.

Personally, I suggest buying the dual player if you're not willing to wait for the format war to end (which who knows will be when...).

Lastly, Samsung is coming out with their dual player (BD-UP5000) in mid-January to early February. Suggested retail is also $1000.

My Home Theater consists of my Sony 60" LCD XBR2 SXRD and the picture quality in 1080p is mind blowing. I personally think Blu-Ray is better, but if there's a title that I want to view in 1080p and it's only in HD DVD format, I'm happy to know I can still watch it.

PS - Crutchfield sells the LG BH200 for $800 right now. They're the cheapest, but they're out of stock.

JetBlack5OC

Most major studios are backing Blue Ray: Disney, Fox, Lionsgate, MGM, New Line Cinema, Sony, and Warner Bros. Blue Ray has roughly 40% more storage capacity than HD-DVD, this may be the major factor in which format will win out.

Universal, Paramount are supporting HD-DVD.

The funny thing is a lot of people are saying which ever format the Porn industry picks is going to win.

Russ1974

Well, BluRay is the obvious choice !

UUronL

Parts list for a killer HTPC that will play both formats, and output video and audio via HDMI:


GGC-H20L LightScribe Blu-ray/HD DVD Combo Drive $290 eWiz.com
ASUS M2A-VM HDMI AM2 AMD 690G HDMI uATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $74.99 + $6.33 Newegg.com
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ Windsor 2.8GHz Socket AM2 Proc - Retail $139.99 Newegg.com
Patriot 2GB DDR2 800 $76.99 + $4.99 - $40MIR Newegg.com
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $119.99
Antec Fusion Black 430 Media Center Case uATX Desktop 430W VFD - Black $141.51 + $15.95 Provantage.com



$830.74