HD-DVD buys out Europe, Blu-ray foolishly shrugs
by Nick Doerr 
{ Apr 10th 2007 at 5:00PM }
Now, now, don't get all up in arms yet. The title is made to spin you guys into our web and listen to what we've got to say. First off, the "format war" has been debatably won by Blu-ray in the US and Japan (of course, "won" is sort of a poor term, but it's the preferred purchase by consumers with an HD set and next-gen format players), so everyone would think that Blu-ray would come to be accepted by consumers and movie studios alike in Europe, seeing as how they've been able to witness the superior format pull ahead in the tiny market available to it.Not so. In Europe, it appears that over 35 movie studios, many of which are independent or small, have decided to join the HD DVD ranks and primarily distribute via that format. Blu-ray has about ten studios (which weren't named in the Next-Gen article). But, why?
Studio Canal's Chief Marketing Officer Rodolphe Buet said this: "I have met much more commitment from partners involved with HD DVD than Blu-Ray. I met Sony in mid-2006 but the support was far below what was offered by the HD DVD partners." Yeah, we're going to assume that "commitment" and "support" really mean "kick-backs". HD DVD may have abandoned the US and Japan, but they'll spend what they need to so they can get Europe.
Yeah, it's a blatantly fanboy viewpoint, but it's one that fanboys will probably take. It's just going to prolong the "war" and keep consumers indecisive and standoffish from adopting either format. DVD wins because these two just won't kiss and get married... so to speak.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kyle81 @ Apr 10th 2007 5:15PM
Will the consumers buy though? Sorry but the article completely forgets that US TV and movie are huge in Europe still, and it's largely coming from Blu Ray. Also Blu Ray software sales jumped by 33% once the PS3 came up, while HDDVD is still lagging behind.
Even if Euro studios are choosing HDDVD, it will all depend on whats selling and if Blu Ray is outselling HDDVD as it is currently in Europe, then HDDVD is going to get dropped.
ymmv @ Apr 10th 2007 5:17PM
I wonder if the HD-DVD support from French companies like Studio Canal and Pathe have anything to do with the fact that their compatriots at Thomson are HD-DVD backers?
rfom @ Apr 10th 2007 5:24PM
The last few lines of the article are interesting: "All the work we are doing on High Definition will be useful for making Blu-Ray discs if the Blu-Ray standard wins. It will be easy to change position"
Dahk @ Apr 10th 2007 5:26PM
Haha rfom. I was going to comment on that too.
Very interesting quote =).
Killer @ Apr 10th 2007 5:28PM
@1
Till, the $200 or less HD DVD player comes out. lol:p
I'm not counting out any of the formats out for a long time. This is betamax and vhs battle all over agian. Problem is this time, no one really cares who wins besides the average biase fanboy.
Oh, this format war will be an interesting one. Maybe It will finally end when the Mainstream starts caring. Oh wait, that will be a good 10 years or so, becuase they sure don't give a damn about it now.
Alex @ Apr 10th 2007 5:39PM
"blatantly fanboy" ??? It astounds me how retarded fanboys are that now they embrace the term. Grow up, the rest of us know you were male cheerleaders in your younger years. Watch your movies and shut the hell up.
KillarClown @ Apr 10th 2007 5:56PM
So.. Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz (coming soon) probably won't hit blu because Studio Canal wanted gift baskets or some shit? If they want support i'll mail em a training bra.. buncha sissies.
Time @ Apr 10th 2007 6:13PM
Jeez, Chill out Alex, you do know this is ps3fanboy.com..right?...so maybe you should get your head out your ass before judging anyone else ok.....[nick edit].......anyhow lets just wait until we see actual sale figures before we come to any half-ass assumptions..no matter how you try to spin it high-def media gets more popular everyday...For [fudge brownie] sake my local news is in high-def so lets not say nobody cares, keep in mind, across the globe blu-ray outsells hddvd by 3:1....so lets see what will happen in Europe first
Killer @ Apr 10th 2007 6:19PM
@ Time
(lol, that's weird)
Anyway, I'm not talking about High-Def. Broadcasting. It's the Format war, people don't care about. As long as they have upconverting DVD players that do 1080p for $100 and they don't have to replace their already bought dvds. Then people will care, but since that seems not that likely, it's going to be awhile for people to TRUELY care.
Time @ Apr 10th 2007 6:27PM
@killer
I agree, but if you were getting all other types of media in high-def (movie trailers, TV, games, etc), Hdtvs are on the rise, why wouldn't you want your movies to have the same benefits?...
humpty @ Apr 10th 2007 6:42PM
Meh!
BlackBeltJones @ Apr 10th 2007 6:49PM
I still don't believe the "Format wars" are as close to done as some people say. Blu ray has had a good couple of months (which the HD-DVD people credit it to people turning in free blu ray vouchers) but I'm still leery about Sony and their history with proprietary formats (beta,minidisc,umd) and the extra 20 gigs, while nice for storage, doesn't seem to be a big concern for watching movies. I still planning on waiting a few years to see who the official winner is/cheaper prices.
mattie @ Apr 10th 2007 7:11PM
I am fortunate to enjoy both formats as I own both players however it is a bit premature to declare any format as a "winner" when neilsen reports that top titles for both formats have not exceeded even 50k. Digital content distribution has much more of a future than either format. Dont waste your time with bluray/hddvd numbers.
Colin @ Apr 10th 2007 7:24PM
Hey Nick,
It wasn't 35 studios vs 10. It was 35 MOVIES vs 10.
Kind of a big difference, since that signifies how small the support is in general over there.
That being said, my bet is that last month's PS3 launch will dramatically change the landscape of the HD movie format war in europe, just like it did here. Give it a couple months, and we'll start seeing the reports.
-Colin
humpty @ Apr 10th 2007 7:25PM
Mattie.. Casino Royale broke 100k a few days after release and became the first HD format release to break the top ten in video disc sales in USA.
Matrix trilogy might do that for HD-DVD.. we'll see.
mccomber @ Apr 10th 2007 7:37PM
Matrix is coming out on both; Warner is a smart studio, making money off both formats while there are two. I'd say if it sells 100k on either, it won't be a blow-out. Also, part of the reason Casino Royale did so well was it was a new release, not a double-dip into the HD pool.
As for the news, it sounds bad, and it does suck to an extent (movies that had a "Studio Canal" logo flashed before my eyes when I heard this) but lets face it, we're talking small studios vs major studios. Not arguing quality, just arguing quantity, and most of their releases will be splashes compared to the big waves.
Oh yeah, and "who cares about bluray, I bought a gaming machine" so on and so forth...
SuicideNinja @ Apr 10th 2007 7:38PM
So the US and Europe have gone Blu-ray, Europe goes HD-DVD, and Asia goes EVD. How cute. The Asians have the best idea...cheap discs, same capacity (50GB), cheap players ($200).
This bickering is rather amusing. HD movie disc sales are still essentially forgettable compared to DVD. All of these articles talk as though one or the other has %50 penetration when it's actually less than %5 totaling both formats.
It's similar to comparing IE users to Firefox users...people got excited when FF became "huge", even though IE is still over %90.
I'm really starting to think this is becoming more of a SACD vs DVDA or whatever that "war" was. The general consumer doesn't really care.
mushiking @ Apr 11th 2007 1:28AM
Spider Man 3... i cannot stress this enough.
Knoxin @ Apr 11th 2007 1:48AM
if you look at PS3's sold compeared to Blu-ray players you get a diffrent picture,
granted the ps3 can play Blu-rays but it's is ment to be classed as a games console, not every1 that buys a ps3 will buy the movies,
also i think its wrong that when you speak to a sony rep, and ask what makes the ps3 so speacial first words are it plays Blu-rays :-( i would think they would say look at some of the games that are coming
Adam @ Apr 11th 2007 5:25AM
Is this actual sales, or just movies released. The thing is Casino Royal, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and X-Men 3 are the only good movies released, and they are all avaliable on blu-ray (I'm not sure about exclusivity other than Casino Royale). Also, there are no HD-DVDs in stores where there are blu-rays. If people can actually buy things, then they are more likely to get them. If they see them, then they might be tempted to buy a player, causing more PS3s and blu-ray players to be sold.
Ian @ Apr 11th 2007 5:35AM
I've still yet to see that Blu-ray is "the superior format"...
As someone who owns both HD DVD and Blu-ray players (and both a large HD plasma *and* HD front-projector to watch them with) I can compare and contrast both formats.
Right now HD DVD has the better feature set by a long way.
Sure, Blu-ray has bigger storage capacity but at the moment those high bitrate MPEG-2 encodes on BD aren't much different in appearance from the smaller VC-1 encodes on HD DVD, and in a lot of cases VC-1 easily looks better, for example Batman Begins which is a reference disc for both audio and video. Anyway, comparing video encodes is becoming less of an issue now as VC-1 is slowly taking over on BD now as well, and many studios will release the same encode regardless of format (e.g. Warner who will use VC-1 1080p on both platforms).
Admittedly Blu-ray can technically trump HD DVD in the audio department with the extra disc space but right now very few people have the equipment to enjoy fully lossless audio formats such as DTS HD-Master or Dolby TrueHD on either BD or HD DVD so it's a meagre point to make. Anyway, most of the BD releases I've seen so far seem to favour standard DD 5.1 streams (with occasional uncompressed PCM streams) anyway, rather than go for the newer 7.1 HD audio.
Where HD DVD wins at the moment is in the extra features such as iME (something that BD promises with BD-Java but has not yet hit the market) and the fact that it is - for now - completely region-free meaning that I can import what I want now, rather than waiting for a BD release.
Also, ask anyone that actually works in film industry production and you'll find that HD DVD is held in a much higher regard according to its video and audio fidelity than BD ever is... sure the studios might be supporting BD, but the people that make the films tend to prefer HD DVD.
Might it just be possible that HD DVD is popular in Europe not due to financial kickbacks but because it launched in the territory first?
san @ Apr 11th 2007 10:06AM
"The people that make the films tend to prefer HD DVD."
And they don't know what they're talking about, as to image and audio quality. Actually BR has an audio advantage over HD DVD because of the greater space, space for uncompressed PCM sound -- which, granted, most of with us with human ears can only tell the difference, maybe, in a back-and-forth comparison between that and a good compressed 5.1 audio track. As for image quality, sure I'm a BR fan, sure I prefer BR to "win" the format war as don't want to invest in HD DVD equipment too, but even I admit the image quality is the *same*. It all depends on the quality of the transfer and the encoding process used. One format is not better than the other in image quality.
Are HD DVDs really region-free? I can't imagine they'll stay that way. Even so, stateside this is a big shrug, since most people won't go to the expense and trouble of importing EU HD DVDs -- they'll wait for US release of the big titles -- and almost all European studios releasing in the States partner with US studios/distributors, most of whom -- the overwhelming majority -- support BR. So, say, a French film released only on HD DVD in the EU can easily make both formats, or depending on the distribution partner maybe even only BR, in the States.
p.s. As an anecdotal but very valid measure of how BR is doing in the States, we live in an upper middle class fly-over-country suburb where our local Super Wal-Mart has been renovated to reflect and attract the nearby up-market income demographic. They stock, at steep discounts, about 25 BR titles right now -- and growing every time I go -- with at last check about 18 actually in stock on the shelves; they stock at less discount about 7 HD DVD titles, with about 6 actually in stock at last check. Even though they don't as yet even sell a BR player -- other than PS3 -- in the store.
Ian @ Apr 11th 2007 11:58AM
If you read my post fully you'll see I mentioned BD has more room for audio, but I also stressed that right now they're not making the most of it. (FYI, I work in the industry myself, so I'm not blowing smoke about the "preferring HD DVD" thing - we do know a lot about image and audio quality considering we put together the images and sound that you experience in the theatre :))
As for HD DVD remaining region free, who's to say, but most people concur it won't go region-encoded with ICT until 2010/2012 at the earliest, if at all (and that's from people at Toshiba, by the way). One bonus is that there aren't many BD-only titles. For example, in the USA "The Prestige" is a BD exclusive. In Europe it's a Warner distribution and is also due out on HD DVD and can be imported back to the USA by HD DVD aficionados...
san @ Apr 11th 2007 2:09PM
BR (BD) has the potential advantage in audio; most of the stuff is compressed DTS or whatever just like on HD DVD. I didn't mean to imply that film industry professionals don't know what they're talking about as to image and audio quality in general, I meant to state, emphatically, that if any of you think that image quality is inherently better on HD DVD, you don't know what you're talking about. It's all the transfer and the encode; BD and HD DVD are just storage media; like a digital photograph file is dependent on the quality of the source file, not whether or not it's stored on a CD or flash drive or memory card or hard drive or what have you.
It would however make sense, if European studios are throwing themselves behind HD DVD at the moment, the better effort at producing quality transfers and optimal encodes is going into HD DVD. So the knee-jerk perception in the industry is that the technical quality of films released on HD DVD is "better" than BD, though the same results could be achieved on BD with like effort as HD DVD releases.
Right now, with the Microsoft U-Control business or whatever they're calling it, HD DVD has the edge in "extras"; but here again, BD-Java will allow the same robust "extras" content management as HD DVD, when it's properly implemented.
It would however be interesting if HD DVD/BD splits up like an PAL/NTSC thing: in the future, BD predominates or totally commands the States and Japan; HD DVD predominates or totally commands Europe. Indeed considering the exploding -- in relative terms, considering most people still don't even have HDTVs, let alone HD recorded-movie playback equipment -- sales of BD in the stateside and Japanese market, and the languishing sales of HD DVD, this might be the smartest move the HD DVD camp could make: Forget the States and Japan, win the EU. The only thing to undermine this sort of effort in the EU is PS3, which is BD-only, which unlike Microsoft's position of providing an optional BD drive for Xbox 360 if the market demands it, won't ever change.
For the record, I mentioned hoping that BD wins the format war only because I have a PS3, it was expensive, I don't really want Microsoft's apparently somewhat troubled HD DVD peripheral for 360, otherwise all my optical and coax digital inputs on my A/V receiver are occupied, I don't want to buy a new receiver with more inputs or HDMI because I just don't need it, and I don't want to buy a stand-alone HD DVD player, for which I wouldn't have a digital audio input available without -- ugh!-- cable-switching, and is just another box to take up space in my small, urban townhouse living room, and also would just cost me more money I could spend on movie purchases. That's it. I otherwise have no horse in the race. Ideally, I wish *all* studios would distribute in *both* formats and let the consumer decide on their preferred storage media. There are two main, and several sub, standards in flash memory cards for digital cameras; they all are surviving just fine. I don't see why we couldn't have dual standards for next generation DVDs, although I know that in recorded music and movies, the trend has been to eventually select for a single standard -- yet that is changing, with on-demand digital cable and satellite proprietary to the provider, downloadable movies that will only play on a PC, downloadable movies that will only play on an iPod or Apple TV, likewise downloadable music only playing on certain devices, etc. We already, rather recently, have multiple, incompatible recorded movie and music formats, so I don't see why we can't have a couple of next-gen HD formats, too.
Ian @ Apr 11th 2007 2:44PM
I understand your point... I've never meant to say that HD DVD is inherently better than BD, as it is - as you rightly say - just a carrier format. It's more of a comparison of the current releases and their respective encodes that have swayed the industry and that's what I mean to clarify.
Technically BD and HD DVD can both do better, with the 50GB of dual-layer BD, and the prototype 51GB HD DVD discs (produced by Toshiba in a slightly cynical Spinal Tap-ish "one better" size of course). It really is down to the encodes, and in both formats encodes could be better.
The reason why HD DVD has the edge right now is VC-1 which in a direct comparison to MPEG-2 is a better codec, not just for efficiency but in general quality. Admittedly there are some good MPEG-2 HD encodes out there if you throw enough Mbps at it (M:I:III is a case in point) but VC-1 seems to win over most people who see it as it seems to carry fewer artefacts across. MPEG-2 is an aging codec and the cracks are starting to show, but there is some life left it in yet. Where VC-1 is winning over the disc production houses is in the parametric tweaks available; each encode can be optimised to a tiny GOP in comparison to MPEG-2 which leads to a much better image quality. Whilst it pains me to say it, Microsoft have actually made a good video codec for once (for it is they who are behind the VC-1 development).
It's not a knee-jerk response - it's a "state of the union" and you have to remember that film imaging professionals are very very picky about what they look at. The general consensus is that VC-1 trumps MPEG-2, and for now HD DVD is the main user of VC-1. Of course this is changing and BD has support for VC-1 as well and newer releases will be using this codec so that factor will no longer be valid.
Anyway, at some point no apparent image improvement can really be gained anyway - after all we're only talking 1080p/24 here; most films are scanned at 2048x1556 or interpolated 2K>4K, so there's always going to be some pixels thrown away, and most people don't have access to 1080p hardware anyway (well not at a size where it makes it worthwhile).
It's also fair to say that the U-Control/iME system is far superior to BD-J at this time. BD-J is still a long way away from completion, and recent specs suggest a minimum of 1GB player memory which makes me wonder about the PS3's BD-J compatibility (unless it uses a swapfile). I'd imagine once it works it will be comparable, but iME is here now and is a marvellous addition to the system when you see it in use. Again this gap will close in time as the technology develops.
So, what other reasons could there be? Well believe it or not, region-free is very important to a lot of people. BD unfortunately clings on to a very staid belief of IP control which limits the distribution of films and whilst BD can be released region-free (e.g. Nine Inch Nails' "Beside You In Time") it is a rarity and most studios will prefer a lock-in. Who was behind this proposal? Sony. The is due to their ownership of Sony/Columbia Pictures...
One of the reasons for the success of DVD worldwide was the ability of people to hack players to make them region-free, and in fact the majority of non-US DVD hardware is sold region-free or is easily convertable. This led to easy access to titles that may not even be released in a native territory due to perceptions that sales would not be high enough, which is particularly useful for independent studios or arthouse films.
The ability of HD DVD to be region-free is a benefit, not a curse. If there is a film in HD that I wish to obtain that some studio will never consider releasing in my territory I can simply import it from elsewhere using a site such as movietyme.com. I cannot do this with BD. I have to wait for a European release, or nothing.
Most film industry professionals are true film buffs and care not for the politics of studio regional encoding policies. We just want to be able to see great movies in great quality without jumping through hoops. That's why we prefer HD DVD as BD is too restrictive at this current time. Should BD drop regional coding we'd change our attitude but this is highly unlikely, so we continue to support HD DVD for that reason alone. If BD is successful alone we are cursed to yet more DRM hell for another round of formats.
I don't like the confusion of two formats, and maybe things like the TotalHD dual-release and the dual-players from LG are the way ahead in this world of confusion, but we can't just support region coding blindly. It restricts the film industry. Yes, it may line the pockets of the executives running the studios but it limits the ability of people around the world to see the wonder that is a movie, and that saddens me.
Ian @ Apr 11th 2007 2:58PM
By the way, there is an example already of a EU to US import of HD material; "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" is already out in HD in the UK whilst it is still awaiting a US release. (http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/harrypotterandthegobletoffire_uk.html)
san @ Apr 11th 2007 10:04PM
Ian,
Shadowlands! For some crazy reason not available in the States on DVD -- it apparently was a long time ago, but is no longer available in Region 1, unless you pay lots of money for a rare secondhand copy in questionable condition. It's coded for the EU, and the hoops I would have to jump through stateside to get it: Buy and pay extra cost of shipping from, say, Amazon UK; set my region code on my Mac DVD drive to EU (is it Region 2, I think?) -- using up one of the 3 or 4 maximum region changes I get before it gets fixed at the last one I use -- rip it (I *think* I have to change the region code to use ripping software as well as to play an out-of-region DVD, but I'm not entirely sure), which in itself technically violates US federal copyright/DRM law even though I would own the DVD, then burn it to a region-free or Region 1 DVD-R, or store it digitally as an H.264/AVC MP4 or the like. What a hassle, so I definitely get what you mean; it would be so much easier to just buy the film via an overseas web-order retailer and watch it (my wife in fact was going to buy it for me for my birthday until she discovered the import wouldn't play on our DVD players.)
We have at least one, I think it's Casino Royale, BD in VC-1, and you're right, Microsoft, love them or hate them, it is a wonderful codec and the quality of that VC-1 film on BD is outstanding. The BD camp rammed a lot of content out there in MPEG2, not even the much better H.264/AVC MP4, at first, and at least one studio is going to replace a film for current owners, The Fifth Element I think, with a superior encode this summer, just for the asking.
We can get region-bypassing DVD players in the States, but they are not the usual, as it seems that in the EU, although you as a greater society are not at all unconcerned or cavalier with respect to copyright, you are much, much more consumer-focused in fair usage rights. But to buy a new player would be just more money to play one DVD, and not even a high-def format at that!
I have a strong feeling that Sony will ensure that PS3 supports all of BD-Js features; if the PS3 OS does not currently support swap files, I'm almost absolutely sure via a firmware update the OS can be modified to support a swap file, even if it's not for games, only for BD-J functions. (For me, "extras" aren't a big deal, really; I just want the film in great image and audio quality -- the movie is what I'm after. But I am impressed with the nice U-Control integration of "extras" content with the HD DVD product.)
So then if I may ask some advice, since the Microsoft Xbox 360 HD DVD drive is US$200, and can be had at discount, sometimes as low as US$140, have you seen it in action? Does it do a commendable job with HD DVDs? If I buy the Xbox 360 device, then I'm still on the same optical input, and I'm done and can play both formats as I choose. I've heard that HD DVDs played from the 360 add-on drive don't look/sound/something as good as they should, but if you could discount that, I'd respect your opinion. (It's "Children of Men" that's killing me. I love that film. I suspect Universal will eventually bend and begin releasing in both formats in the States, BD and HD DVD, but as of now they are the lone significant HD DVD exclusive stateside studio. And I don't want to wait for that movie, even though it is a hybrid and I could watch it as a DVD until I make a decision.)
Ian @ Apr 12th 2007 4:03AM
San,
The 360 HD DVD add-on is a bargain entry point to HD DVD and works well, but there are some caveats. Unfortunately the 360 is still a very noisy machine - akin to a wind-tunnel - and on quieter films it can be very distracting. I have had to place mine in a ventilated sound-proofed cabinet as it was ruining "The Elephant Man" the other night (an outstanding transfer by the way). Whilst the PS3 fans also kick in quite heavily at times (the amount of heat that thing belches out was surprising) it's nowhere near as loud as the 360, but then I have one of the initial 360 models and maybe the sound has been dampened now? It's hard to say.
In terms of picture quality the add-on is very good, with all the VC-1 decoding being performed in software on the 360 (accounting for the ramping up of the fans no doubt) and naturally you'd expect the decoding to be good considering Microsoft wrote the specs. Sound is also good, though due to a lack of HDMI the Dolby TrueHD mixes are down-mixed to 5.1 optical, and there have been complications with down-mixes on certain titles for which I believe an update patch is being issued soon. Interactive features are incredibly quick. There is still a lag as the pop-up menus appear, but in comparison to a dedicated HD DVD player there's a definite speed increase.
If you can cope with the 360 whirring away (and in my house I have that competing with my projector) for the price it's a no-brainer. I picked one up just so that I have ability to watch both formats at a reasonable price. If you're more picky, you could pick up a dedicated HD DVD player like the Toshiba - whilst the 360 HD DVD player uses the same drive internally, the decoding is hardware based and doesn't ramp up the 360 fans - either that or do what I did and soundproof the 360 :)
The only problem is that I've heard that current releases of "Children of Men" on HD DVD have been a bit buggy on some players (both 360 HD DVD and the XA2) and it's under investigation (http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/news/show/552). I'm still waiting for mine to drop in the post so can't say if I've had the problem yet. Fantastic film though.
Ian @ Apr 12th 2007 4:17AM
As for Shadowlands, didn't realise it was out of print. That's a shame... By the way, over here multi-region players are still technically a bit shaky on legal grounds but they've reached such a degree of market penetration that no-one cares and even Amazon UK sell them. Admittedly the R1/R2 release window has closed a bit now and there's less disparity between releases (though I always use dvdcompare.net to check) but it's still useful - for example I picked up a lovely R3 collector's edition of Pan's Labyrinth from Korea recently with a wonderful artbook (now there's another film I want on an HD format, whether it's HD DVD or Blu-ray).
We've come a long way off this blog post's original topic :) Anyway, I think there's room in the market for two formats even if I wish there was only one - ideally a large format disc like BD with the lack of region-coding of HD DVD, but that's never going to happen alas...
Ian @ Apr 12th 2007 4:18AM
(and yes, I know Pan's Labyrinth isn't a Korean film in case anyone says anything, which is why I was surprised at the fact that they got the collector's edition)
san @ Apr 12th 2007 12:55PM
Ian,
As for the off-topic digression, drop me a line at sanfordmay@gmail.com, if you find a convenient moment, as I have a bit to say about the 360, and I'd like to stay in touch at least to find out how Children of Men turns out on the Xbox.
Jak @ Apr 15th 2007 7:45PM
It seems like HD has been more success than Blue-Ray in this "war" but that doesn't change which one is superior. Blue-Ray has six times the resolution that HD has. If PS2s are sold more than PS3s, does that change which console is better?
I might be wrong that HD is winning, but Blue-Ray is better wether or not it's being used.
Ian @ Apr 16th 2007 4:35AM
Jak - you are horribly misinformed... Blu-ray doesn't have six times the resolution that HD has. To be honest I don't think you understand what you are talking about.
Both Blu-ray and HD DVD run at exactly the same resolution of 1920x1080 which is approximately 6 times the resolution of standard definition DVD... I think that's where you plucked that number from.
Unfortunately it's uneducated people like yourself that tout "superiority" without understanding what you are talking about. You don't happen to work in an electronics store by any chance :)