HD-DVD wins, Blu-Ray loses


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This article is another example of analysts and haters of Sony "blowing their load" way too fast. The PS3 hasn't even been out for 2 weeks and people are already writing it off. So so foolish.

This article doesn't take into account the tens of millions of PS3s that will sell in the coming years. For each PS3 that sells, there's another Blu-Ray player sold. The same cannot be said for the 360; one needs to buy a separate accessory to play high definition movies. I would hate to be the one who has to make more room in the entertainment center when it could have been built-in.

Who knows, maybe HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will both fizzle out, not take flight, and some new, kick-ass format is born that sweeps the market.

Bottom line: Don't write off Sony and Blu-Ray just yet. It's very foolish.

There's a reason MS had that $100 sale on Amazon for their core system. They're desperate to sell systems.

Yah?

Well i love the fact that i can unplug from 360 and into vista

external but yea...

I did read it. I was talking about hybrid HD-dvd + dvd, but I somehow missed the part where he did mention it :pinch:

That's the clear winner imho. The fact that Toshiba put so much effort into getting hd-dvd on one side and dvd on the other side is enough to win the battle :yes:

I heard that Sony could also potentially do Blu-Ray + DVD hybrids but the HD-DVD + DVD hybrids, however, are already in stores and selling as we speak. The Miami Vice DVD, for example, has a HD-DVD copy of the movie included.

HD-DVD certainly has the momentum. The only thing that could possibly save Blu-Ray is the PS3 and they would have to continue to sell those like there is no tomorrow.

Personally, I think its too early to tell. But from Sony's past experiences with formats they endorse or come up with they usually bomb big time because they are way to proprietary and are more expensive. On the whole, I don't really get how Sony is still in business.

I've said it from the beginning, HD-DVD will win vs Blu-Ray because of the name.

People know what HD means, they know what DVD means, putting them together = "ooh, cool, high def DVD!"

Howard Stern was doing a plug on his show for some Sony Vaio computer the other day with a built in BluRay player and half way though it he was like "what the f$*# is BluRay???" -- I laughed so hard I nearly pee'd myself ;)

QFT ----^

I've said the same thing before,

...the average consumer will look at HDDVD, and think "hmm I have an HDTV, might as well get an HDDVD".

The same Joe-Blow consumer will look at BlueRay and think "WTF is this?"

Specs don't always mean its better, the average person just buys what he knows. HD & DVD are both familiar terms, so HDDVD is the obvious choice to them.

I like both technologies for different reasons, and personally don't give a crap who wins, as long as that format has the media on it that I want.

Co-sign.

Toshiba also introduced the DVD with some input from Sony amongst others. The battle is far from over, but I will side with them unless Sony re-invents itself.

I think that is what Sony should really be doing - reinvent themselves. They've got some great ideas but at the rate they're going, expect to see more flops in the future.

Scirwode

There's a reason MS had that $100 sale on Amazon for their core system. They're desperate to sell systems.

I just have to call BS on that... Amazon is having that sale, not Microsoft. And neither MS nor Amazon is having trouble selling 360s...

The Xbox division is poised to have one heck of a holiday season.

I heard that Sony could also potentially do Blu-Ray + DVD hybrids but the HD-DVD + DVD hybrids, however, are already in stores and selling as we speak. The Miami Vice DVD, for example, has a HD-DVD copy of the movie included.

HD-DVD certainly has the momentum. The only thing that could possibly save Blu-Ray is the PS3 and they would have to continue to sell those like there is no tomorrow.

I think people give too much credence to the PS3 argument, just because it happened with the PS2. Things were different at that point, there was no other format competing with DVD. The PS2 also launched in quantity at $299. The PS3 is far more expensive, and due to the Blu-ray drive, there has been a severe shortage of units. Meanwhile, Microsoft is shipping lots of HD-DVD add-on drives for the 360, and the quality of these drives beats the currently available standalone players.

Add to that the fact that a standalone Blu-ray player is $999 vs. $499 for an HD-DVD player (or a combined cost of $499 for an Xbox 360 core with the HD-DVD drive), and the HD-DVD movies being cheaper, if only by a few dollars, there's really little reason to go with Blu-ray for the average consumer.

I just want to add, I own a 360 (probably could have guessed by my sig), and as soon as I get a bigger screen, I'm getting the HD-DVD addon. It's a no-brainer.

Same here. I did have $400.00 to blow a week ago I was going to buy one but I just have a 30" t.v. I need a new t.v but the one I want is $6,000. I think me and my bro are going half in it so.

I also think that HD-DVD sounds better then Blu-ray. Most people don't know what Blu-Ray is but know DVD so HD-DVD is not hard to understand.

I see HD-DVD eventually winning. I say it will come down to the Adult Porn industry and they will most likely use HD-DVD since the switchover cost is way less than it would be with Bluray. Once they start selling porn in HD-DVD there will be no way for Bluray to recover from a blow (no pun intended) like that.

I see HD-DVD eventually winning. I say it will come down to the Adult Porn industry and they will most likely use HD-DVD since the switchover cost is way less than it would be with Bluray. Once they start selling porn in HD-DVD there will be no way for Bluray to recover from a blow (no pun intended) like that.

Unless the porn industry wants to sell their films in full 1080p Blu-Ray "offers" :woot:

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    • Nope. That lack of surround sound capability (analog) won't fly with me. Sure, I use headphones most of the time, but still.
    • Creative Sound Blaster AE-X PCIe review: your headphones will love it by Steven Parker If you have been reading Neowin for any length of time, you may remember that I reviewed the Sound Blaster Audigy FX Pro back in April. I found it to be an excellent budget sound card, even though it lacked support for formats such as DTS over the included SPDIF port. Anyway, Creative reached out to me again asking if I was interested in reviewing the Sound Blaster AE-X. It is a card mainly targeted at headphone wearers, which I'll get into a bit later. Before we get underway, here is a disclaimer: Creative Labs provided a free sample without any review pre-approval. Here are the full specs of it: Creative Sound Blaster AE-X Dimensions: 179 x 126 x 18 mm Weight: 263g / 9.28 oz Platform: PCI-e DAC: ESS ES9039Q2M Connectivity Options Side: Rear: 1 x HD Audio Front Panel Connector, 1 x ⅛“ Headphone port, 1 x RCA Line-out (Left) port, 1 x RCA Line-out (Right) port, 1 x Coaxial SPDIF-out port, 1 x ⅛“ Mic in/Line-in port, 1 x TOSLINK SPDIF-in port Surround: No DNR / SNR: THD+N: 0.0001% Dynamic Range 130 dB Recording Resolution: PCM up to 32-bit / 192kHz (Stereo) Direct Mode: Line Out (Stereo): PCM up to 32-bit  384 kHz Coaxial SPDIF Out: PCM up to 24-bit 192.0 kHz Headphone Amp: PCM up to 32-bit / 384kHz (Stereo) Native DSD: DSD64, DSD128, DSD256 Output Impedance: 1Ω, Supported Headphone Impedance: 8–600Ω, IEM: 0.5Vrms, Low: 1.5Vrms, Mid: 3Vrms, High: 6Vrms, Maximum output power: 350mW @ 32Ω (High), Maximum output voltage: 6Vrms (High) Front Panel Headphone Amp: PCM up to 32-bit / 192kHz (Stereo) Native DSD: DSD64, DSD128 Output Impedance: 10Ω, Supported Headphone Impedance: 32–300Ω, Maximum output power: 40mW @ 32Ω, Maximum output voltage: 1.9Vrms ASIO: ASIO 2.3 Total Harmonic Distortion: THD+N: 0.0006% Dynamic Range: 114 dB Scout Mode: Yes EMI shielding: No (but it passed all the FCC emission tests) Operating temperature: 0–45°C Input Power: 12V⎓0.5A Warranty: 1 Year (MSRP) Price: $179.99 / £169.99 The Sound Blaster AE-X was announced at the end of May, and it becomes clear that it is mainly for headphone wearers. I should also note that the card does not support DDL/DTS encoding technology, but it is said to support decoding through the coaxial SPDIF port. I was able to test this working with the classic Windows Sound properties, but I could not get a DTS (decode) signal through my Logitech Z906, it defaulted to 3D sound whenever I played DTS content through Plex or Emby. In addition, this card only supports two channels (stereo) over the speakers. The surround support is limited to the Headphone Amp, so before I get underway, what we have here is a card mostly intended for headphone use, especially with its SPDIF In (Toslink) port where you could connect another device like a console. So what about the highlights of this card? The AE-X is powered by the ESS SABRE DAC (ES9039Q2M), which is capable of a 130 dB dynamic range. In addition, it supports 32-bit/384 kHz playback for deeper detail and clarity. The headphone amplifier delivers up to 350 mW @ 32Ω, which admittedly far surpasses standard onboard audio, offering support for studio-grade headphones. DSD256 and ASIO 2.3 are also supported. What doesn't it have? No support for What-U-Hear, Super X-Fi, or the SmartComms Kit No EMI shielding, but it passed all the FCC emission tests (from the FAQ) I also want to make it clear that I am no audiophile. For me, it's purely subjective and it should just "work" out of the box. First impressions As I said in the introduction, I was a bit sad to see that the AE-X only supports stereo output, meaning it would not be on par with my ALC1220 over my speakers, as I mentioned it seems like this card is marketed toward headphone users. Since I am not an avid gamer that would rule me out as a potential customer, but I can still test its capabilities! The card arrived in a nice-looking box, as shown above. It's quite a bit larger than the Audify FX Pro that I reviewed back in April, and at first I thought the covering meant that it was EMI shielded, but it isn't as mentioned above in the highlights section. What's in the box: 1 x Sound Blaster AE-X PCIe card 1 x 3.5 mm CTIA TRRS to Dual TRS Headset Splitter Cable 1 x Quick Start Guide Aside from the Quick Start Guide, which someone at my age (I guess) needs a magnifying glass to read thanks to the tiny fonts, Creative Labs also has the manual online, which first requires you to prove that you're human in order to access it (so I can't direct link it). Anyway, the box is mostly made up of cardboard, and the only plastic in it is the anti-static bag for the card itself. Design Top Bottom The card itself looks pretty cool and actually wouldn't look out of place in an all-white build. There's only one connector, and for some reason it is awkwardly placed on the side (front-facing) that is for the front panel audio connector, which will let you use the headphones through the front PC audio jack. Since the front panel Headphone Amp has fewer capabilities than the rear headphone port, I decided not to use it. Rear of card PCI-e interface The rear of the card is completely open and is normally where you would find the front panel connector. The PCIe interface side is completely covered, which initially made me think it was EMI shielded. I/O panel Side (front-facing) with Front panel connector On the outer rear bracket side we have the TOSLINK SPDIF in, Coaxial SPDIF out, RCA line out (Right), RCA line out (Left), Headphone out, and Mic/Line in ports. On the front facing portion of the card itself is the F-panel connector. Usage Test System Our test system consists of the following: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D Gigabyte X870E AORUS MASTER (BIOS F12) Corsair RM1000x (2024) Thermal Grizzly Kyronaut (33x33x0,2mm) 2x 32GB Kingston Fury Beast RGB DDR5 6000MT/s CL36-38-38-80 T-Force Z540 2TB (PCIe Gen5) NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition (NVIDIA) Creative Sound Blaster AE-X Windows 11 25H2 Pro I installed the card into the Gigabyte X870E AORUS MASTER which includes the RealTek ALC1220 onboard audio. For our subjective listening tests, I used the Coaxial SPDIF port to my Logitech Z906 speakers. For headphone tests I used the OneOdio Studio Max 2 Wireless DJ Headphones that I reviewed last month. After installing the audio driver, I installed Creative Nexus, which is a relatively new app designed for the latest Sound Blaster cards. Then I discovered the AE-X needed both a driver update from 1.00.15.0001 to 1.01.09.000 and a firmware update from 1.00.06.0000 to 1.00.06.0002, then I was set to go. It should be noted that the card did not work without the driver (not Plug and Play). As you can see above, you can manage the firmware, driver, and inputs via Advanced Settings on the Device tab. By default Nexus enabled "Direct Mode". Upon clicking on Acoustic Engine, the Equalizer can be enabled and set to four different presets, which are: Gaming Music Movies Footsteps Enhancer There's also a dedicated Scout Mode for gamers. I mainly used Tidal and Spotify in the past week to listen to some of my Liked Songs (which now total over 700) in Shuffle mode; there were no pops or interference that I could hear. I also found a 5.1 Surround Music playlist on Tidal that sounded really great over Studio Max 2 headphones. When I reviewed the Audigy FX Pro, I went out and purchased a Logitech Z906 set second-hand for €100 specifically to use with the card, but in this instance all I could get on the AE-X was the 3D output of surround sound through Coaxial SPDIF and although it still sounded great, it isn't quite as good as DTS Interactive via my onboard Realtek ALC1220. Conclusion So what have I learned? The AE-X lacks multi-channel support for 5.1/7.1 setups and drops support for modern surround technologies like Dolby or DTS, functioning strictly as a stereo output device. So to really benefit, you will need Studio-grade headphones to "hear" the benefits of this card. With that being said, I can imagine it will appeal to gamers who are switching between console and PC. By utilizing the SPDIF in port, you could just plug your headphones into the AE-X (front or rear port) and then switch between PC and Console without having to move the headphones to a different port. As I said in the Sound Blaster Audigy review, the EQ in the Creative Nexus app offers safe presets, which allows a user to further tweak the lows, mids, and highs for a personal listening experience. Of course it all depends on the headphones you hook up to it. Speaking of headphones, I kind of wish I had higher-quality Studio-grade headphones to really test this card with; I'm not usually wearing headphones in my day to day duties. The only time I will wear them is if I want to listen to music very late at night and I don't want to disturb my neighbors, so my rating (verdict) is based on this fact. Someone with a PC/Console setup and wears headphone religiously to game, and consume media will benefit much more than I from the high-quality Headphone Amps that are included in the AE-X. Once again, I do feel like Creative could have gone the extra mile to support the S/PDIF port a bit more. Why include it if you're not supporting the main popular digital formats? It seems like the decision was more of a legacy-based one, offering uncompressed 2-channel PCM audio, for users with high-fidelity audio systems and external DACs. Maybe I will be lucky enough to review a card that truly includes all these features in the future. I am sure readers with far more knowledge on audio systems than me will correct me in the comments below. I'll just say I am happy to learn what I don't know! Where to buy The Sound Blaster AE-X is available to purchase now in preorder for $179.99 on the U.S. Creative website, or for £169.99 on the Creative UK website and will start shipping to customers from June 25.
    • $80 or 90%, anything else would be financial suicide one way or another.
    • Or... just use Bitwarden. Free, and has on-prem option as well. Works both on desktop and mobile, wherever you are. The age of local password files is over.
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