52 replies to this topic

[DLibrasnow]

Studios begin to announce HD- DVD tiles for the fall.

Paramount: Black Rain, Braveheart, Coach Carter, Elizabethtown, Forrest Gump, Ghost, Grease, The Italian Job, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, The Manchurian Candidate, Mission Impossible 2, Save the Last Dance, School of Rock, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Sleepy Hollow, The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie, Star Trek: First Contact, U2 Rattle & Hum, Vanilla Sky and We Were Soldiers.

Warner: Above the Law, Alexander, Angels in America (HBO), Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (New Line), Batman Begins, Blade (New Line), Catwoman, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Constantine, Contact, Dark City (New Line), The Dukes of Hazzard, Eraser, Executive Decision, Final Destination (New Line), Friday (New Line), From the Earth to the Moon (HBO), The Fugitive, Gothika, Hard to Kill, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer

[Loomis]

I own six of those DVDs already, and will buy THE BOURNE SUPREMACY when it comes out in a few days, but if The Man thinks I'm going to buy them all over again this autumn (or at any point in the near future) he's got another think coming.

Why the heck should anyone care about this so-called high definition DVD business? Isn't the whole point of DVD that it's high definition already?

[Loomis]

Sorry, D, I'm probably coming across as shooting the messenger here, but, seriously, isn't it a bit early for a new DVD format? Like many here, I'm sure, I've spent a lot of cash building up my collection - don't want it to be obsolete just yet.

[DLibrasnow]

Loomis, I understand your "frustration" but the DVD format has been with us for eight years - it's time for a new format.

I'm literally drooling at the announcement that HD-DVD is going to have so many titles coming this fall

[Qwerty]

Sorry, D, I'm probably coming across as shooting the messenger here, but, seriously, isn't it a bit early for a new DVD format? Like many here, I'm sure, I've spent a lot of cash building up my collection - don't want it to be obsolete just yet.

I agree with Loomis here. It's fine and all to see things moving ahead, but I won't be jumping right on those when they get going immediately.

[DLibrasnow]

I will.....and HD-DVD is backwards compatible (you can play your existing DVDs on them) so that will make it an easy purchase for me.

[Qwerty]

I will.....and HD-DVD is backwards compatible (you can play your existing DVDs on them)

Which is good, but I wonder how quick people will "convert" over to this format compared with the switch from VHS to DVD.

[DLibrasnow]

Hmmm....never jumped on the VHS bandwagon -- laserdisc all the way!

I was also one of the first people to snatch up a DVD player back in 1997.

[Qwerty]

Never really got into the Laserdiscs.

[DLibrasnow]

You never lived j/k

I have always been suspicious of tape based formats. Thats why I knew that HD-VHS would not take off.

[Brett Sinclair]

I myself look forward to the improved HD-DVD format,especially as it will be backward compatable.
I will not be once again buying the films i already have,except for those select few,i just want to see what the improved vision has to offer.

I welcome the likes of the Bond series,i just wonder if the slight trigger will once again occour in the new dvd's?

[Bondian]

I'm definitely interested in this new format.

I've always thought DVD good, but not good enough. Rather like the CD, it's very clear, but lacks the bass and clarity that vinyl had.

I'll definitely purchase the new format as soon as it hit's the shelves, but primarily, the software will be undoubtedly be expensive.

[Tarl_Cabot]

I own six of those DVDs already, and will buy THE BOURNE SUPREMACY when it comes out in a few days, but if The Man thinks I'm going to buy them all over again this autumn (or at any point in the near future) he's got another think coming.

Why the heck should anyone care about this so-called high definition DVD business? Isn't the whole point of DVD that it's high definition already?

yeah! WTF!!??

[Tarl_Cabot]

Any new format can't change the artistic merits of a film. My DVDs are gonna be good enough as is.

[Bondian]

Any new format can't change the artistic merits of a film. My DVDs are gonna be good enough as is.

I agree to a certain extent my friend, but DVD's no way near 'film' quality.

Maybe this new format will lesser the gap.

[Triton]

I presume that it will take years before the next generation high-definition DVD format, whether it be HD-DVD or Blu-Ray, will actually replace the DVD format on store shelves. The digital bits reported that NEC has come out with three-layer HD-DVD disc that can be played on existing DVD players, at DVD video resolutions, of course.

But I believe that there is pent up demand for a high definition video format because high definition televisions were the hot electronics item this Christmas. Nothing more disappointing than spending a few grand on a new high definition television and not have any software to take advantage of the higher resolutions.

Its a pity that it looks likely that a format will happen between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray which I presume will slow down hardware sales. As with any new technology, I presume that the new players and software will be expensive and it will be many years before either format enters the main stream. Early adopters will spend top dollar for this new toy and need to accept the risk that the format that they choose may not be the one that prevails.

I also read on the digitalbits.com that the pørn industry will really decide which format will prevail, much like the pørn industry's support of VHS video tape and DVD help secure the dominance of these consumer video formats.

[Bondian]

I also read on the digitalbits.com that the pørn industry will really decide which format will prevail, much like the pørn industry's support of VHS video tape and DVD help secure the dominance of these consumer video formats.

Maybe, they'll got for the 'BLU-Ray'!.

[Triton]

Blu-Ray.com reports that Electronic Arts (EA Games) and Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games), have joined the BDA (Blue-Ray Disc Association) on January 06,2005 to support the Blu-Ray Disc format.

Disney and Buena Vista Entertaiment, which includes Miramax Pictures, have announced support for Blu-Ray Disc.

I also presume that the elements of the MGM/UA film library now owned by Sony, such the James Bond films, will be released on Blu-Ray Disc. I've often wondered if the James Bond digital video and audio remastering project, such as adding 5.1 multitrack sound from archived elements to the mono-aural James Bond films was an high definition video project.

Perhaps the digital clean up of the picture and the 5.1 audio may make the high definition James Bond films a must buy for Bond fans and we will gladly upgrade our film libraries to the new format.

Hopefully a third party like Microsoft will endorse one format and get the consumer electronics industry to endorse one format.

One of the things that you have to keep in mind when buying a movie on DVD is that you buy it to enjoy now, not as an heirloom to share the film with future generations. All of the video formats have planned obselescence.

[Donovan]

The problem with the existing DVDs, Loomis, is that they are made for the weaker video standards such as NTSC in America and Pal in Europe. HD is a much clearer picture, and existing DVDs, while they certainly look better on an HDTV, do not meet the higher standards. If you get to see and HD DVD played on a HD monitor, you see the common video quality for the finger painting that it is.

If you're really into this, and have an HDTV or HD monitor, you should have a DVD player with DVI outputs.

[Turn]

So what process will make HD-DVD obsolete in another 8 years? This is part of the reason I don't buy video game systems -- they are good for about 6 months and then something else replaces them.

At least VHS had a good 15 year run before DVDs took hold, which only really occured in the last 4-5 years. I'm all for the best viewing experience I can get, but at what cost? It was one thing to buy the Bond videos several times in the VHS format, but to build an entire collection only to see it go to waste in DVD seems like a waste.

At this rate, you may as well give up home video and go back to watching fullscreen on cable. Back then ignorance was bliss.

[DLibrasnow]

There is no clear winner announced yet in this upcoming format war, and with no clear distinction in quality between the two it is likely that both camps will hold out for sometime.

DVD has been with us for eight years, it's time to move on to a new format.

[DLibrasnow]

HD-DVD is the most likely winner of the format war, at least according to this.

From www.thedigitalbits.com:

"Some other interesting stuff from around the Net today: PC Magazine's John C. Dvorak has posted an editorial column on HD-DVD that's well worth a read. His argument is that HD-DVD is likely to win the format war for a variety of practical reasons, from compression to price to backwards-compatibility to copy-protection. It's a well reasoned argument. But he left out perhaps the best argument going for HD-DVD... the letters DVD in the name. That means instant recognition. Consumers already know and love DVD, but they've never heard of Blu-ray Disc before and they have no idea what it is. Blu-ray Disc could therefore suffer just from being the new kid on the block. If HD-DVD is framed as a simple "upgrade" to the current format, while Blu-ray Disc is something totally new... consumers could gravitate to HD-DVD just because of its familiarity."

[DLibrasnow]

Nice to hear all this talk by experts and movielovers but..... this new thing (blu-ray or HD-dvd) has to woo the larger audience. And now that the prices of the dvd and it's players are way down why would they want to invest more money into something new that has yet to prove itself. The masses have become carefull.
So both systems are not there yet, it might never take off or take a long time doing so.

It's certainly taking its sweet time....DVD enthusiasts like myself have been asking for HD-DVD for the last six years or so.

[Jack Bauer]

Seems like a waste. Isn't that blue-disc DVD supposed to come out soon? The thing where 1 disc holds like, 5 movies on it or something?

We need a longer grace period. DVDs are fine.

[DLibrasnow]

You are referring to Blu-Ray Jack Bauer and there is no difference in quality between HD-DVD and Blu Ray.

Besides it appears that HD-DVD will win out agaunst Blu-Ray although it's early days.

And DVDs have been with us for 8 years now.....it's high time for the next generation of technology.

[Jack Bauer]

Maybe you're right. HD-DVD doesn't seem like as much of an improvement as the DVD did over the VHS, though. I'm still waiting for movies to be on little chips the size of saltine cracker. That'd be interesting.

[brendan007]

Whats the name of the discs coming out that are ridiculously huge? I've heard theres one coming (no idea of name) that could fit the entire series of the simpsons onto a single disc.
I'd buy that, but theres no way im upgrading for just a better picture. My picture is fine now, the companies can stuff this new HD stuff for a few more years.

[TGO]

You are referring to Blu-Ray Jack Bauer and there is no difference in quality between HD-DVD and Blu Ray.

Well, that is not quite true...that will depend on the compression process for each of the films released on HD-DVD and Blue-Ray. But the Blue-Ray specs are better. And I hear that Sony is creating 100 gig BR discs soon, so that might possibly accomdate for lossless encoding of soundtracks, and video even better then the Hi-Def version of VHS.

[DLibrasnow]

Not true TGO...that was information put out by Blu-Ray. Those who have compared the two directly say there is no difference between the two.

[Roebuck]

I notice four Steven Seagal films on the list DLibrasnow posted. While I'm a big fan, and it probably makes good economic sense as the guy still sells well on DVD, it's disheartening that with all the films in Warner Brothers back catalogue they thought 'Above the Law' or 'Executive Decision' would show off the High Definition format to it's best advantage (The effects footage on Decision wasn't particularly great even back in '96).