Blu_Ray vs HD-DVD or Wait? (1 Viewer)

[Parker Clack]

With the current split with the various studios over which one of the two HiDef DVD format they will support I am curious as to which you are leaning towards yourself.

What are you planning to do?

Parker

 

[Steve Tannehill]

I'll probably add one of each to the rack that has my D-VHS deck.

- Steve

 

[Jeff_HR]

Since the HD camps can't manage to work together I'll wait until ONE STANDARD emerges. I'm not the type who will obsess about needing to have HD DVDs RIGHT NOW & rush off to sell all my "regular" DVDs on eBay.

 

[Shawn Perron]

One point about the poll, if buying neither is an option, then buying both should be there as well.

Unfortunately, there seems to be this doom and gloom attitude about the upcoming HD releases. No matter if you are picking your format, buying both or waiting by the side, there should be excitement that we'll even have this chance this soon. Lately it seems like the almighty dollar matters more to most then the thrill of this hobby we all enjoy.

Competition is always good for the consumer. Atleast this should keep the software prices down and possibly the hardware as well. Walking the bleeding edge of technology always cuts the early adopters, and this will be no different. If there is really a demand for a prerecorded HD format, the marketplace will push 1 of these 2 to victory. If the market isn't ready for HD then both will flounder regardless.

People keep bringing up SACD vs DVD-A as an example of competition being bad, but I don't think the marketplace demands high res music as anything more then a niche product. Hell, lossy audio formats may end up winning out over cds if this online distribution thing really takes off. I'd argue that sound is by far the most subjective sense. If someone is happy with mp3s, then trying to sell them 96/24 is a total waste of time. The average person's audio equipment is probably not even pushing the boundaries of cd quality.

 

[TravisR]

I'll be waiting but if I HAD to buy one, I'd go with Blu-Ray.

 

[Steve Christou]

I'm more than happy with the current dvd format, the latest dvd releases look great on my 32inch telly. I can happily sit out the format wars and wait for the price of HD-DVD players to drop in price.

 

[Jeff_HR]

I've been on the bleeding edge before. Not in this case. I made the "mistake" of buying a Sony Betamax because it was the better technology. Little did I know that Sony would fumble the ball & have their superior VCR get beat by "inferior" technology. I don't care which HD technology wins this fight. I'll wait patiently watching my "regular' DVDs until one of the HD formats wins & the software starts flowing in great numbers.

 

[george kaplan]

I'll wait until either

a) the format war is sorted out

or

b) A fully restored version of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (including the ld cut plus more) is put out on one format or the other. It's the only title that could entice me to buy a player before the format war is over.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

I voted to WAIT ....

Now ... If I could be sure that all the studios will eventually release all their upcomming HD titles on *both* formats, then I would purchase Blu-ray. But the way things stand at the moment, that's not gonna' be the case ... So TO HECK with the whole thing!!

 

[Shawn Perron]

If you want to see 1 huge benfit of the competition already, look at the 100 HD-DVDs already commited to by that group. That's one hell of a toe to put in the water this early in the game. Blu-Ray will most likely try to one up them by announcing more then 100 titles.

Would we most likely have several hundred titles at launch if there were only 1 format?. Would the pricing on the software (which looks to be in line with DVD pricing) be as agressive? Video and sound codecs, would the quality have been as high without competition? Would there even be the admittedly slim possibility of component HD output from either of these players? What kind of draconian copy protection would we be stuck with if not for competition? I'm sure hollywood would like some form of pay per play.

 

[Jeff_HR]

I'll bet the house that PARANOID Hollywood will have their hand in there no matter what camp wins.

I don't believe that pricing, video & audio codecs have been retarded by DVDs having no competition. These things usually evolve over time.

 

[JonZ]

Im waiting for the obvious reasons.


For me,another concern with these players is a region free option.

I dont want to have to use 3 players - Bluray,HDDVD and my region free Pioneer for all my nonR1 discs.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

I've been an early adopter in the past(had my first DVD player in March of '97), but I'm waiting this one out. I'm not gonna get burnt again like I was with Beta.

 

[Brent M]

Whichever format has rights to all 6 Star Wars films will be the one I choose, but I don't anticipate having to worry about that for quite some time.

 

[Arnie G]

I just got a 32" Sony HD tv and my DVDs look incredible to me. I'll wait until the price comes way down before jumping in.

 

[Ed St. Clair]

Super pleased too see the owner of the worlds greatest HT site, leading a 'discussion' on this monumental advance of the hobby that thrills us all.
My lack of funds, dictates that I wait till the dust clears & the price points drop.
However, even with a million bucks too spend, I would not wish too bet with my cash on either; the DVD Forums authorized version, or the creator of Beta/MD's version. Or Tiawian's, China's, or Korean's for that matter.
Not a fan of Mircosponge, by any means, just was hoping Billy Boy Billionaire could shove one standard down the industries throat. If not even the worlds richest man can get everyone too work together for the benefit of this HD launch, what chance do fans of HD HT have???

 

[Joe Karlosi]

I'll wait. A long time, if necessary.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

I'll wait until its over the fact is right now I can't afford to guess wrong. I believe that blue ray is superior, but superior doesn't always translate to victory especially when Sony is involved.

I think its a mess either way especially for the average consumer, and that's true even if the studios are not exclusive to one format over the other. Just imagine trying to explain to some JSP that he needs to have player X if he wants movies from Fox, Sony, Disney and MGM and player Y if he wants movies from Universal, Newline, Paramount, and Warner. Or just imagine having to explain that you have to buy the correct release of star wars to watch on a given player.

No thanks I'll stick to standard DVD and leave this to someone else to sort out.

Although I have to second a comment from above that a 4th choice, to buy both should've been included as I'm sure someone somewhere might just do that. Not me though

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I'll be waiting for the following reasons:

1. I will not risk buying the "Betamax" of this ridiculous, unnecessary format war.

2. The manufacturers and studios, in their infinite wisdom, have deemed that my HDTV is not acceptable to play in their format war because it has only component video inputs.

3. The copy protection schemes being discussed are ridiculous, as they will not prevent the software pirates from breaking them (no copy-protection scheme ever does), but will present an even greater inconvenience for the legitimate customer than the ones those morons in the music industry have come up with.

Until the manufacturers and studios get their collective heads out of their butts, I will be quite happy watching standard definition DVDs on my current HT setup.

 

[Patrick McCart]

I'm happy with standard DVD until studios agree on something. I want the HD DVD's Warner has to offer (2001: A Space Odyssey ), as well as Paramount (Sky Captain), Universal (The Blues Brothers), and New Line (obvious). However, I know BluRay will have a lot of great stuff from Disney (Fantasia), Fox (Moulin Rouge), and Columbia (Lawrence of Arabia).