Say goodbye to HD-DVD ??

[Rakido]

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...ryid=2112&cs=1

Warner Bros. all but signed the death warrant for HD DVD on Friday, when it dropped its format-neutral approach to back Blu-ray exclusively.

The devastating blow for the HD DVD camp came on the eve of the annual consumer electronics confab in Las Vegas, where backers such as Toshiba, Microsoft and Universal planned to promote the high-def format. The North American HD DVD Promo Group quickly cancelled a Sunday evening event, but banners touting the HD DVD banner as "louder," "grittier," "scarier" and "tougher" remained up in the Las Vegas airport on Sunday afternoon.

Sony, Fox, Disney and Lionsgate all back Blu-ray. Warners sister companies New Line and HBO will also shift their allegiance to Blu-ray only as well.

[Jammrock]

Toshiba claims HD-DVD is not dead, but with the HD-DVD consortium canceling their CES event, all of them, it will cause a panic among format backers. So chances are HD-DVD will end up losing, though I wish it would have been sooner.

On the interesting side note, if this does become the case this will be the first format war Sony has ever won to my knowledge.

[cjolley]

...
On the interesting side note, if this does become the case this will be the first format war Sony has ever won to my knowledge.

Which format (HD/BR) has the technical advantage?
I don't know anything about either one.

[TransformX]

Blu-Ray is the higher bandwidth, more advanced and more "future proof" of the two.
On the note of Sony's first win, they needed the backing of Philips and Matsushita (Panasonic) to pull it through. AFAIR, it's probably the first time Panasonic and Sony are on the same side of an issue.

[Jammrock]

Blu-Ray is the higher bandwidth, more advanced and more "future proof" of the two.
On the note of Sony's first win, they needed the backing of Philips and Matsushita (Panasonic) to pull it through. AFAIR, it's probably the first time Panasonic and Sony are on the same side of an issue.

Blu-ray has always been the technically superior design, while HD-DVD was made from the get go to be the cheap DVD successor. Beyond what dZ mentioned, Blu-ray has 25 GB per layer, versus 15 GB per lay of HD-DVD. HD-DVD begins its first layer at the same depth as DVD, meaning a hybrid DVD/HD-DVD disc has to be two sided. Blu-ray's first layer start at a much thinner layer, so it's possible, and there have been R&D disc to do it, to have Blu-ray and DVD on the same side of the same disc. Something that is supposed to ease the transistion to HD media.

Blu-ray's closer-to-the-surface first layer has one other big plus, and two minuses. On the minus, it potentially makes the disc easier to damage, but they put a special coating/layer to prevent that, which costs more to produce. That is also part of the second minus, being that disc presses have to be retooled or replaced to handle Blu-ray pressing. The big plus is that you can fit more Blu-ray layers into a single disc. The theoretical limit is 300 GB (or 12 layers), which makes it more future-proof than HD-DVD, which only has a limit in the 100-200 GB range.

Beyond all of that, Blu-ray was designed to be computer friendly from the get go and have a very advanced feature set, while HD-DVD was designed to be stand-alone player friendly with computer support as an after thought.

HD-DVD backers hoped to win on the price standpoint (and their players are definately cheaper), but with the PS3 and rapidly dropping Blu-ray player prices and cheaper media (no doubt undercutting HD-DVD prices), Blu-ray has kept a large lead in media sales. And with WB dropping HD-DVD it could seriously put the format in its death throws, as it makes Sony, Fox, Disney, Lionsgate, Warner Brothers, New Line and HBO as Blu-ray exclusive, while HD-DVD has ... Universal and Paramount.

From a CODEC perspective they are identical. Both have the exact same audio/video CODEC requirements and options, and roughly the same feature-set.

[Elie]

I knew Blu-Ray will be the winner due to the support it got from a hardware and software perspective.

There are a few Blu-ray burners for the PC and next to non official HD-DVD burners, there is one I found which was an external but nothing for North America.

Also companies like Adobe only supporting Blu-ray says alot.

Anyway I hope 2008 will be the end of the format war with Blu-ray the winner!

[J1NG]

Damn, maybe I should flog off that XBox360 HD Drive I got recently.

Nah... not bothered enough. Got too many individual pieces here anyway (Matrox G200 Marvel PCI with 8MB RAM and HW DVD add on anyone? )

J1NG

[Jammrock]

Wow...rumors are flying that Paramount wants out of it's exclusive deal with HD-DVD to go back to Blu-ray:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/07/paramount-following-warner-out-the-hd-dvd-door/

The Financial Times is reporting that Paramount is preparing to use a get out clause in its HD DVD exclusivity deal, and go back to Blu-ray, about 4 months after ending its dual-format release schedule. The move would be a result of Warner's switch to Blu-ray, using a "get out" clause in Paramount's promotional agreement with the HD DVD camp. No details on what it might take to rip up the contract and make Michael Bay very, very happy, but if the rumor proves true this could make the slow death he predicted for HD DVD a very, very fast one.

If that happens the format wars are all but over.

[Admiral]

Universal: We're staying with HD DVD

[Elie]

Yeah but for how long, when the whole world is Blu-Ray and most consumers purchase PS3's or stand alone Blu-ray settop players, they will have NO CHOICE but to follow suit due to lack of sales.

Time will tell...