Lists of Blu-ray & HD DVD Titles (Scheduled, Announced, Rumored, Wish List) (1 Viewer)

[Edwin-S]

Is this conjecture on your part or has the BDA officially announced this stance? If Blu-ray has officially adopted a neutral stance towards HD over component then there may still be a place for a Blu-ray player in my set-up. The HD-DVD "HD over HDMI only" policy has guaranteed that I will never purchase a HD-DVD player whether it is 500 dollars or 50 dollars.

If the studios supporting Blu-ray allow HD material over component then they have got my money: all except Warner Bros., who seem to be adopting a policy of downrezzing over component. I would just like to thank WB in advance for helping me to save money if they actually choose to go that route.

 

[Aaron_Brez]

The BDA has never officially commented on this, that I can find, so this falls under conjecture. However, Fox and Disney have claimed openly that they won't enable ICT (image constraint token) because they feel it will impact sales-- I'm certain they'd be equally impacted if it was across the board instead of just studio option.

The BDA will enforce component downrez if the studio puts the token in, because they are forced to do so by the AACS license. But there has been no indication from them that they will cripple their component outs unless the studio mandates it with the ICT, and strong indication from two of their core studios (i.e. the ones who aren't neutral) that it is undesirable.

 

[Mark Bendiksen]

It's good to know that I my new mortal enemy is actually an acronym: ICT (Image Constraint Token).

I second Edwin's comments. If the studios will follow the lead of Fox and Disney (which would we all know would be in their best interest) then I'll fork out the dough for a BR player. Otherwise, forget it. I'm putting two kids through college and I cannot replace my Toshiba Hi-Def set anytime in the near future. Downrezzing over analog is simply unacceptable.

 

[Ed St. Clair]

Wake up Nils, its time to do the announced list! ;-)

 

[Jim Smith]

The Playstation 3 will have to allow high definition over components to compete with the Xbox 360 for gaming. Therefore its pretty certain that at least some movie titles will be outputed in component high definition. If Fox, Disney, and Sony allow component high definition and Warners titles don't guess which ones are going to sell.

 

[John C]

Anyone think Fox will be releasing the Alien Quadrilogy once again for BluRay? Also, anyone know if Warner's first Blu releases are going to be BD-9. If so, it sounds like Warner is discreetly giving a middle finger to the BluRay crowd.

 

[PeterTHX]

To be honest, there won't be a difference.

One: most early adopters may not be aware of the limitation.
Two: a lot people may not notice the difference anyway.

I mean, we here at the HTF are a special kind of folk. We're aware of these issues, where 90% of the folks out there don't. Wasn't there a survey recently where people had a HDTV and thought anything they watched was HD, even though they had no HD receiving of any kind? Folks' eyes glaze over when I explain progressive scan (480p)!

 

[Kami]

I sure hope these high def LOTRs coming out this year are the extended editions.

Putting out theatricals only and making us wait would be beyond evil on New Line's part.

 

[Marko Berg]

They did? I did not see this, at least not in the press release in post #44. The press release talks about the capabilities of the Blu-ray format but is carefully worded to avoid making exact claims about Disney's releases themselves.

 

[Jeff(R)]

42 Blu-ray titles at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/se...store-name=dvd

 

[Richard Kim]

And if New Line released only the EEs on hi-def will there be petitions made to have the theatrical versions released as well?

 

[JayMAuritt]

My SONY 34XBR Widescreen TV, unfortunately, has only one HDMI connection, which I'm already using for my HD Cable Box. Anyone know of planned devices that will provide the ability to add HDMI interfaces under such circumstances?

 

[Jim Smith]

Glad Blu-Ray titles are availible on Amazon. Still no prices or players. Blu-Ray is suppose to be one month behind HD-DVD so the first Blu-Ray player preorders shouldn't be to long.

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

There are already several companies that make external HDMI switches, some with as many as 8 HDMI inputs. These started coming out in 2004, but even basic models were quite costly, ~$1,000. Last time I looked at some, which was earlier this summer, there were a few that caught my attention with 4 HDMI inputs for ~$250.

In addition, receivers and pre-amp processors have been coming out with multiple HDMI inputs, but until this year, they have been relegated to flagship models, which in several cases sell for well over $1,000. This year we will see many mid-line products offering multiple HDMI inputs with very competitive pricing. If you are considering going that route, I would strongly encourage you to wait for a few more months in order for manufacturers to get up to speed with the new HD audio formats and standards. The added benefit of waiting of course is that you'll have far more products to choose from and they will likely cost less than equivalent equipment costs today.

 

[JayMAuritt]

Thanks Nils - one question though: When using one of those HDMI input devices, is there any loss of video or audio quality?

 

[Aaron_Brez]

No, it's purely a pass through in the digital regime.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Actually, Sony annnounced those has having *uncompressed* audio...which is obviously "lossless" as well. But I don't get the point of going uncompressed...what a waste of bandwidth. Just use lossless compression!

Maybe other titles feature lossless compression?



Hey...I just thought of something *good* that can come out of HD DVD - Blu-ray competition: It can help studios get used to maserting in VC1 video compression so they can say goodbye to MPEG2. If studios are using VC1 anyway for HD DVD it will be easy just to use the same video file for Blu-ray. Studios that are dragging or only using MPEG2 at present (Sony) will have to compete to keep up. At least that's what I'm hoping.

No more MPEG2!!!

 

[RobertR]

Sounds like you're saying there are good aspects to the format war, which is the position I've been coming to.

I want to hold an economic 2x4 over their heads, telling them CONSTANTLY "hey! MORONS! DON'T get out of line or you WILL pay the price!". It's the ONLY kind of talk they pay attention to.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Yes, that's exactly what I meant. (heck if it hadn't been for the "format war" BD wouldn't even have VC1 in the spec!!!

 

[Jim Smith]

Yes thats why I am thankful that HD-DVD did excist since its possible that competition made Blu-Ray a better format. Today however HD-DVD has outlived its use and really really needs to die.