Decisions! If you had both Blu-Ray and HD DVD players, which disc would you buy? (1 Viewer)

[Darren Gross]

Let's say a title was available in BOTH formats, which is beginning to happen. Reviews tend to equate the two quality-wise. So, if you had both players, which edition of the disc would you buy? The Blu? the HD DVD?

Decisions, decisions!

 

[Robert Crawford]

I have both formats and I make my decision based on which software has the most bang for my bucks. There is some question to the advance audio options you have with Blu-ray versus what HD DVD can currently give you.




Crawdaddy

 

[Mike~Sileck]

I'd go with the Blu-Ray

I mean the case is so much cooler looking!!!

Nah but seriously probably a mix between special features / price would make the decision for me, like Crawdaddy said

 

[BrettGallman]

This will in fact be a decision I'll have to make with Superman Returns. In that case, I'm going with the HD-DVD version for the TrueHD track. Had the BD version offered a PCM track, I would have gone with it because it would be cheaper than the HD-DVD combo disc will be.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Whichever's cheaper. The other factor would be what sorts of players my friends and family had, since I tend to serve as their library and would like to be able to potentially take a movie to watch at their place if asked. But, right now I've just got HD-DVD and no-one else I know has HD anything.

 

[LarryH]

I wil not buy any BD until I see a favorable review, given their spotty previous picture quality record. Even so, I would buy the HD-DVD in preference - except if it's a combo disk with a single HD layer (which, AFAIK, is the case with all the current batch). Then if the BD reviews are favorable, that's what I buy.

 

[ppltd]

I own both systems. If I am buying a title that is pressed for both formats, and the reviews haven't given me guidelines, HD-DVD would be my first choice because of it's current state of quality.

If the consistency of BD releases improves, and the reviewers start giving titles produced in both formats equal rating (Currently, almost every reviewer gives a edge, albeit slight, to the HD release.) then the issues will come down to price.

 

[Mike_G]

Yeah, it depends on the cost of the disc and the disc's extra features.

 

[Chris Dugger]

So Mike,'

Are you saying that PQ is a non-issue for you?

Just extras and price is the factor....

Personally, I go for the best PQ regardless of price....

Based on that... I would default to the HD-DVD side for now as their releases have been much more consistant in the PQ area.

Of course.... That could change at anytime.

Dugger

 

[ppltd]

I would be willing to bet that future disks that are released in both formats will have the same price and the same standard special features. The caveat on price here is if the HD release is a dual format disk.

As far as the new HD exclusive features, I could be wrong, but my assumption is that the new features that HD formats can support (JAVA on BD, and HD equivalent) will not be utilized do to the cost of creating these features in two different formats.

Time will tell.

 

[Roger Mathus]

There is already a thread on this exact subject........about a month ago. Perhaps this thread should be merged with the original.?????????

 

[Steve Schaffer]

If both versions have identical pq, price, and features I'll go with BD. I'm on my second 1st gen HD-DVD player and although it's never malfunctionned I am always crossing my fingers during boot-up and load praying the thing will actually work. My Samsung BD player just isn't as scary to use. BD also will resume from a stop, most HD-DVD discs won't.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

Blu-ray

 

[Kong Chang]

Like many others, it really comes down to 1) price and 2) extras & goodies...and a HDDVD/DVD combo with movie in either side isn't what I call "extra" or "goodies" for that matter.

I think I will buy my fave movies in both formats just to do side-by-side comparisons, but for now, there's not much of those.

As for now, Blu-Ray is $5 cheaper than HD-DVD discs for new releases at my local Best Buy.

 

[Dave Moritz]

With blu-ray titles including more and more DTS-HD titles and very little Dolby True HD titles on HD-DVD. I have made the decision to purchase most of my HD titles on bluray even if its more exspensive. Bluray is going to be my main HD format of choice, but I will most likely still purchase some HD-DVD titles especially when that title is not available on bluray.

 

[ppltd]

I do not think you will find any title that is cross-platform that has a lossless audio track (Dolby HD, DTS HD) on one format and not on the other.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

I go back and forth on which format to purchase when titles are available on both. Right now I'm leaning back to HD DVD, not only for the obvious reasons like TrueHD, but just more consistent quality overall. I watched BROTHERS GRIMM the other night and wasn't impressed with the picture quality. Don't get me wrong, some of it looks very nice, but the black levels are milky, and there is a lot of macroblocking in darker scenes near the end, really taking me out of the film. I haven't been terribly impressed with any of the Disney titles thus far. Perhaps the Samsung is not as good at handling the MPEG4/AVC encodes as the Panny(although a few Panny owners on AVS did also see the artifacting and black level problems I described).
I actually think that the latest Sony MPEG2 titles like MONSTER HOUSE are superior to the AVC stuff from Disney. I cancelled my Fox BD pre-orders, since they are using AVC. I want to see some reviews on these titles before I commit to buying them. The VC-1 Warners titles are a wash. They look superb on both formats.

 

[Pete T C]

HD DVD - less intrusive copy protection, potential to have standard DVD version on the same disc, probably more robust interactive features.

 

[ppltd]

I agree, but would change your comment Probably more to Currently more. When BD implements their 'special' features (like HD), they should have very similar abilities.