Blu-ray is, without a doubt, one of Sony's most important products in a long time. It's big enough that they took a flagship brand, PlayStation, and turned it into a steward for the new high definition media format. At the Digital Life convention, Sony showed off their own Blu-ray player, the Sony BDP-S1 combined with their mega 70" SXRD KDS-R70XBR2 television.
I managed to watch three separate clips, starting with a trailer for the new animated movie "Open Season". Let's face it, digital animation always looks good and this was no exception. The vibrancy of the colors and the very well defined edges really did their job at impressing lookers on. I quickly gained my composure, though, and waited.
The next clip happened to be a DVD vs Blu-ray comparison of the live action movie "A Knight's Tale". First, let me say that the "DVD" quality, or lack there of, was definitely exaggerated a bit, though I guess that is to be expected in any kind of demonstration like this. The Blu-ray image, though, also didn't seem to fair well. I'm not sure if it was the player or the movie itself, but background details, such as a stone wall, were cluttered with image noise and the clip, as a whole, seemed to lack clarity and visual depth.
The third and final clip seemed to find a balance between the beauty of the first and noise of the second. Shown was a clip from the movie "Into the Blue". In the scene shown, Paul Walker's character is in the water and a boat is whizzing around him. The colors were amazing and the clarity and definition of Paul and all the scenery around him really did their job at grabbing my attention. The water was exceptionally clear and very well detailed. However, image noise seemed to crop up again when the boat whizzed by. The entire side of the boat looked grainy and, compared to the gorgeous details surrounding it, really stood out.
I have to admit that I went in with the thought in mind of trying to be watchful of the smaller details. While it seems as though older movies (such as "A Knight's Tale" ) will never really stand a chance of wowing people, newer movies really do shine when given the 1080p chance. As for the unit itself, it is quite large, though it definitely functions better than the current Samsung unit on the market, the BD-P1000. Chapters loaded quickly and the unit, overall, felt very responsive.
However, with that said, don’t commit to either camp, yet. There is really going to be little to no image quality difference between Blu-ray and HD-DVD. Witnessing both at the show (minus the Toshiba 1080p capable HD-XA2, which was M.I.A.), one could tell that the image quality difference came down to the beautiful television Sony was displaying the image on and not the formats themselves. The BDP-S1 simply enters the market at a time when Blu-ray really needs a quality unit (Samsung BDP-1000 is riddled with flaws). If you are going to ignore my advice and take the Blu-ray plunge anyway, keep the BDP-S1 on your list and cross out that Samsung. It's a big unit, but there's a lot of quality inside.
Image: Sony BDP-S1
I managed to watch three separate clips, starting with a trailer for the new animated movie "Open Season". Let's face it, digital animation always looks good and this was no exception. The vibrancy of the colors and the very well defined edges really did their job at impressing lookers on. I quickly gained my composure, though, and waited.
The next clip happened to be a DVD vs Blu-ray comparison of the live action movie "A Knight's Tale". First, let me say that the "DVD" quality, or lack there of, was definitely exaggerated a bit, though I guess that is to be expected in any kind of demonstration like this. The Blu-ray image, though, also didn't seem to fair well. I'm not sure if it was the player or the movie itself, but background details, such as a stone wall, were cluttered with image noise and the clip, as a whole, seemed to lack clarity and visual depth.
The third and final clip seemed to find a balance between the beauty of the first and noise of the second. Shown was a clip from the movie "Into the Blue". In the scene shown, Paul Walker's character is in the water and a boat is whizzing around him. The colors were amazing and the clarity and definition of Paul and all the scenery around him really did their job at grabbing my attention. The water was exceptionally clear and very well detailed. However, image noise seemed to crop up again when the boat whizzed by. The entire side of the boat looked grainy and, compared to the gorgeous details surrounding it, really stood out.
I have to admit that I went in with the thought in mind of trying to be watchful of the smaller details. While it seems as though older movies (such as "A Knight's Tale" ) will never really stand a chance of wowing people, newer movies really do shine when given the 1080p chance. As for the unit itself, it is quite large, though it definitely functions better than the current Samsung unit on the market, the BD-P1000. Chapters loaded quickly and the unit, overall, felt very responsive.
However, with that said, don’t commit to either camp, yet. There is really going to be little to no image quality difference between Blu-ray and HD-DVD. Witnessing both at the show (minus the Toshiba 1080p capable HD-XA2, which was M.I.A.), one could tell that the image quality difference came down to the beautiful television Sony was displaying the image on and not the formats themselves. The BDP-S1 simply enters the market at a time when Blu-ray really needs a quality unit (Samsung BDP-1000 is riddled with flaws). If you are going to ignore my advice and take the Blu-ray plunge anyway, keep the BDP-S1 on your list and cross out that Samsung. It's a big unit, but there's a lot of quality inside.
Image: Sony BDP-S1
But I really hope this ain't the next Betamax or Minidisc.
Did Panasonic, Samsung, Yamaha, Pioneer, JVC, Sharp, Onkyo, Hitachi, etc all support those formats?
No?
Was there a Samsung or Pioneer or Panasonic Betamax or MD unit on the market BEFORE Sony came out with theirs?
No?
Only FUD calls Blu-ray a "Sony" format.
yes I agree 100%.
This is all just a big YAWN for me.
Blu-ray was dead from the moment Sony decided to use their java "bootstrap" to riddle the format with rootkit style copy protection.
HDTV penetration is HUGE.
In what way? It uses the same video codecs that HD DVD does and therefore produces the same quality when the same codec was used as has been shown recently.
In what way? It uses the same video codecs that HD DVD does and therefore produces the same quality when the same codec was used as has been shown recently.
He said DVD not HD DVD
Side note about digital life: I finally got to play a Wii! So happy....so happy....
Never mind the fact that format launched a month ahead of time...
Panasonic's player is now shipping. Discs from 20th Century Fox will be available next month.
In the meantime titles from Warner, Paramount, Disney, are starting to ship
PS3 will be HUGE. A lot of people are waiting to use it to be their BD player.
So long, HD DVD.
http://www.thedvdwars.com/index.cfm
Oh and the PS3 isn't going to amount to jack squat as far as deciding the future movie format.
*snicker*
Never mind the fact that format launched a month ahead of time...
Panasonic's player is now shipping. Discs from 20th Century Fox will be available next month.
In the meantime titles from Warner, Paramount, Disney, are starting to ship
PS3 will be HUGE. A lot of people are waiting to use it to be their BD player.
So long, HD DVD.
I would say that the delay of the PS3 could spell the death of BD.
Its coming up to Christmas... what are people going to want for their shiny new TV's?
HD player... what make? ermmm BD? nah... titles are delayed, the flagship BD player , the PS3, is delayed. "Oh but whats this... a nice shiny HD DVD player, hang about, DVD I know that name, this must be a cool product. Lets buy this for our nice shiny HD tv... we will wait for the PS3, no point buying two BD players".... time rolls on... the parents buy little Timmy his PS3..."shall we buy this film on BD? No because there is no point having two formats in the house. HD DVD is cheaper now Timmy"
And so it begins... Betamax all over again.
PS3 will be in limited quantities for some time to come. The people buying it are gamers. There probably won't be an significant number of PS3s to compete against HD-DVD for some time. The movie buffs with $20,000 setups are buying standalone players. Consumers can't afford either. Its basically a race to get the first sub $250 or-so player on the market that will determine the winner.
What delay? Europe? BOTH formats have yet to formally launch there.
Japan is a different story: HD DVD is DOA in Japan. It sells about as well as the XBOX...BD is *everywhere* there and will have several different recorders launching soon as well.
Meanwhile the PS3 is tracking for a Nov 17th launch in North America. That is set in stone.
At $499 BD & HD DVD are the SAME price. The PS3 supports HDMI 1.3, the Toshiba that will is going to be $999. So much for the price "advantage".
Time rolls on. BD players from Pioneer, Sharp, Sony, Philips, LG, Yamaha, Mitsubishi, Lite-On, etc launch. HD DVD is standing still in comparison with a piddling 3 players on the market, and 2 of those are built by Toshiba!
PCs from Dell, HP, VAIO, Alienware, Apple launch with BD-REs.
Timmy gets his HD DVD and takes it on the short bus to school I guess.
Do you have a source for that claim or are you just pulling stuff out of thin air? I love how Blu-Ray is going down in flames and yet the Sony fans are still cheering it on and saying it's going to win. It must be nice to live in your own little reality.
BD going down in flames? Good one. It's just getting started.
Sony fans?
I'm a Panasonic fan. I also like Pioneer, Samsung, Hitachi, JVC, Yamaha, Onkyo, Mitsubishi, Philips...
ALL BLU-RAY companies.
HD DVD folk are whistling past the graveyard.
I think that HD movies are not doing very well at this point.
Saw both on the same Sony HDTV model.
I'm not knowledgeable in the field, but some Slashdot posts indicate that most movies are digitally upsampled from the original analog feed (film). The quality of the sound and video have more to do with the programs and filters used (e.g. Xvid vs H.264 ... whatever don't know the format) and the quality of the filters (some software being better)? The bitrate and codec differences between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are minimal from what I understood.
I think that HD-DVD will probably hold the lead until Blu-Ray becomes more mainstream and less pricy. As the technology improves and information spreads, it'll pull ahead.
As long as most (hopefully all) movies are available in both formats, who cares? There is marginal differences in quality and hopefully there will be marginal differences in price as well.
Its the other way around surely - both formats want the best support, so what can they do? INCREASE prices?
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