Consumer Reports Gets It Right - Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are Equal

By Boz
in Home Theatre Discussion

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Grand Master

Boz

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All the players generally performed uniformly well with HD content but were more variable when upscaling SD video to quasi-HD quality. The difference in average score can be attributed to the differences in upscaling performance and from the entry HD-A2, which was the only player limited to 1080i output. But as various writers on Audioholics have pointed out previously, 1080i has no loss in detail compared to 1080p when utilizing a good quality deinterlacer.

The main point of Consumer Reports conclusion: "All the high-definition models we tested provide excellent HD picture quality with high def discs".

Considering that both formats use the same video codecs, this is no surprise.

Blu-ray and HD DVD both support MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC, and VC-1 video codecs, which are the actual basis for picture quality. The discs themselves are simply data storage, containers.

Yes, there is some variation to how the containers work, but bits are bits. The same video data bits come out of a VC-1 encoded video file, irrespective of if it is stored on Blu-ray or HD DVD.

This is what early adopters arguing for the superiority of one side or the other don't seem to get.

There never should have been a format war but for greed driving the split over who owned what intellectual property rights for the container.

And the container has no bearing on the consumer experience.

In the end, the magazine concludes that when it comes to players, both formats each have their advantages -- for HD DVD, it's price; for Blu-ray it's a wider choice of players from various manufacturers.

http://www.audioholics.com/news/industry-n...ay-hd-dvd-equal

I would also like to add that HD DVD advantages also include online connectivity and interactivity and future proofing with any new players that come to the market, something that Blu-Ray simply does not offer (you want all features, you will need to buy a new player). On the interesting note, so why again should a consumer buy a Blu-Ray? I mean if they have the same quality, HD DVD costs less and actually offeres more features for the price, how is having more brand names to pick from at much higher prices an advantage? I fail to see that reasoning, but I'm sure somebody will try to explain to me.

It is also interesting that they did not test PS3. Don't they consider PS3 to be a player?

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Grand Master

+Warwagon MVC

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It's kind of good to have a format war, maybe both will stick around. This just means better prices for consumers with competition in the market.

NO, NO THIS IS NOT GOOD!!!!!..... how is this better for consumers. Let me give you an example about how badly this sucks for consumers. I bought one of the $98 HD DVD players from walmart

So one night my mom was over, and I said, I think for a sunday movie we should go rent the new Harry potter movie on HD DVD. THen I was like.... or wait..... is it on HDVD or Blue-Ray?.... THAT QUESTION SHOULD NEVER HAVE TO HAPPEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

God this sucks.

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Berserk87

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NO, NO THIS IS NOT GOOD!!!!!..... how is this better for consumers. Let me give you an example about how badly this sucks for consumers. I bought one of the $98 HD DVD players from walmart

So one night my mom was over, and I said, I think for a sunday movie we should go rent the new Harry potter movie on HD DVD. THen I was like.... or wait..... is it on HDVD or Blue-Ray?.... THAT QUESTION SHOULD NEVER HAVE TO HAPPEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

God this sucks.

LOL.

horrible and true story...

main reason for me not wanting blu ray is because sony profits from it...

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giantpotato

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On the interesting note, so why again should a consumer buy a Blu-Ray? I mean if they have the same quality, HD DVD costs less and actually offeres more features for the price, how is having more brand names to pick from at much higher prices an advantage? I fail to see that reasoning, but I'm sure somebody will try to explain to me.

By that logic, I don't see why we need HD DVD discs instead of regular DVD-9's. If you just put Hi-Def content on a regular DVD the quality will be exactly the same. Oh wait, HD DVD offers more space for content doesn't it? and that's right, Blu-Ray offers even MORE space and bandwidth for content. The prices are not MUCH higher for Blu-Ray. The Samsung BD-P1400 offers the same features as higher priced HD DVD players like the HD-A35.

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Huleboeren

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...

main reason for me not wanting blu ray is because sony profits from it...

Same.

Yeah, because Sony is teh devil! especially after all their PS3 lying

God forbid they actually make a profit

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Vortex566

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At the end of the day most companies are in business to make profit. That is the nature of business :p Sony lie yes as do the other countless number of big companies around the world. Sony do have a track record of making propriety storage mediums that force users to use there product and no others Mini Disk and UMD are to name but two.

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Master^IT

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In Denmark Blue ray is selling better than HD.

This player: LG's hybrid high-def player can play all futures of the Blue ray but "only" view HD movies... As we reported from CES, the BH100 fully supports Blu-ray discs, but since it lacks support for HD DVD's iHD, you can't access an HD DVD's interactive menus, you can only see the movie straight through.

Well it is a start right ?

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TruckWEB

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In Denmark Blue ray is selling better than HD.

This player: LG's hybrid high-def player can play all futures of the Blue ray but "only" view HD movies... As we reported from CES, the BH100 fully supports Blu-ray discs, but since it lacks support for HD DVD's iHD, you can't access an HD DVD's interactive menus, you can only see the movie straight through.

Well it is a start right ?

Yeah, it's a start, but at a crazy high price.... You could buy a Toshiba A3 + Sony PS3 for about the same price and get tons of included movies.

A 100% compatible Dual Format player will be attractive when they too reach the magic price of... what? $199 or $299?

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TruckWEB

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We don't need Dual Formats or any half-arsed solutions ... We just need one damn format :(

It's easier to solve the problem with hardware than to wait for studios, Sony and Toshiba to end this war.

If you could buy a cheap dual format player, you would stop to care about the war. Just buy/rent the movie you want, blue or red box and it works!

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Joel

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By that logic, I don't see why we need HD DVD discs instead of regular DVD-9's. If you just put Hi-Def content on a regular DVD the quality will be exactly the same. Oh wait, HD DVD offers more space for content doesn't it? and that's right, Blu-Ray offers even MORE space and bandwidth for content.

Your logic is flawed. HD-DVD or BD can hold the same movie, using the same codecs, on their current storage limits. You can't fit a HD movie on a DVD-9, like you said, which is why there are higher capacity mediums. So the extra space on any format is wasted, and BD seems intent on wasting as much space as possible (for movies; no one has argued that it would not benefit the IT industry for storage purposes). There's only so much extra content a person can stand, unless you have nothing else better to do your life than to watch bonus features.

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TDQuiksilver

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Your logic is flawed. HD-DVD or BD can hold the same movie, using the same codecs, on their current storage limits. You can't fit a HD movie on a DVD-9, like you said, which is why there are higher capacity mediums. So the extra space on any format is wasted, and BD seems intent on wasting as much space as possible (for movies; no one has argued that it would not benefit the IT industry for storage purposes). There's only so much extra content a person can stand, unless you have nothing else better to do your life than to watch bonus features.

Huh... oddly enough I thought that was the main focus your boy Boz was trying to push about HD-DVD in all threads... these "extra features" ... so what is it? Important or not?

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Joel

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Huh... oddly enough I thought that was the main focus your boy Boz was trying to push about HD-DVD in all threads... these "extra features" ... so what is it? Important or not?

Suddenly, Boz is "my boy"?

Personally, I could care less about the majority of any film's extra features. Saying BD has more than twice the space after viewing a film than HD-DVD does is certainly not a selling point for me.

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Dogan

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I would also like to add that HD DVD advantages also include online connectivity and interactivity and future proofing with any new players that come to the market, something that Blu-Ray simply does not offer (you want all features, you will need to buy a new player).

What's with the lying? You know, as well as I, that the firmware can be updated.

Oh btw, have you seen Nielsen/VideoScan lately? Blu-Ray is whipping HD-DVD.

Nielsen/VideoScan Numbers ending November 18th

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom112507/index.php

WE: BD-?% HDD-?% YTD: BD-65% HDD-35% SI: BD-61% HDD-39%

Nielsen/VideoScan Numbers ending November 11th

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom111807/index.php

WE: BD-65% HDD-35% YTD: BD-65% HDD-35% SI: BD-61% HDD-39%

Nielsen/VideoScan Numbers ending November 4th

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/questex/hom111107/index.php

WE: BD-71% HDD-29% YTD: BD-64% HDD-36% SI: BD-61% HDD-39%

Thats almost 2:1 every week! :woot:

Edited by Dogan
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Grand Master

TruckWEB

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I'm in the HD-DVD camp just because I have the player on my X360. But I can safely say that I'm still waiting for good movies to come out. The last one was Transformers. And now, nothing much happening. The idea of doing a International order just to have HD-DVD movies that are out in Europe but not here is pi**ing me off. Why the hell can't we get them here?

I see more "action" in the Blu-Ray camp, release wise. More movies are available.

Oh, and I'm not a Harry Potter fan.... and anyway, it's out on all format.

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