HD This, HD That
The world and consumer electronics have become so wrapped up in high definition viewing it makes me kind of sick. Nerds everywhere either love HD DVDs or Blu-ray DVDs. I found out some interesting information that might burst their bubble or help save some people a lot of money, or both! Ever since last year when the movie industries’ home video sales went from half their annual revenue (not profit) $45 Billion dollars to less than $17 billion, there was a problem. Studios panicked and electronics giants’ Sony and Toshiba came up with two separate solutions. Blu-ray, Sony’s technology and HD-DVD which is Toshiba’s brainchild have created a huge war between the formats much like what the industry experienced almost 30 years ago with Beta and VHS. It is causing more problems right now since Warner Studios said they will go exclusively with Blu-ray but that will not have any effect on the market until the next holiday season since DVD sales plateau after the holidays.
Blu-ray sells more individual DVDs than HD-DVDs but thats because there are PS3s that come stock with Blu-ray players. There is an inherent problem deep seated with all of this though, when you go buy your HD-TV, you’re not really going to purchase a HD-DVD or Blu-ray DVD player are you? They cost so much and why commit to one technology over the other when the format war is just getting underway. Well here is some more information that will help you make your decision.
HDTV sets are automatically set to increase the resolution and picture quality of your standard DVD player already. No need to spend $$$ on a HD or “upconverting” DVD player. Waste of money since there is some science behind it. To the average viewer, an ordinary DVD played on a modern HDTV is not only a huge improvement over the picture on a standard TV, but practically indistinguishable from that produced by a Blu-ray or HD DVD disc because the human eye can discern over 500 pixels per inch horizontally and vertically (say, 26,000 by 14,500 pixels on a 60-inch screen).
information from the economist
February 7th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
I’m not so certain about a couple of key points you made here.
1) The “war” is fabled to be coming to a close in the near future bc only 2 major studios, (Paramount and Universal) are still holding out with HD-DVD. But that’s just a matter of time.
Just like with ur BETA vs VHS example, once the industry majority chooses sides.. the others just eventually file suite bc.. no one wants to miss out on sales! At the end of the day..it’s not about quality but about sales.
I’ve also heard mention that if Microsoft were to dump HD-DVD and hop the Blu-ray-wagon, the game is DEFINITELY DONE! The xbox 360 is still one of the highest owned (fact) and in my opinion better equipped gaming systems (available games and companies who write for one console over the other, hardware, stabilized networking statue *Xbox Live and Media Center) on the market today. The reason the pricing on the PS3 is so much higher is the Blu-Ray drive is standard in all units. Microsoft is doing ok with it’s add-on HD-DVD drives… and i doubt it would be that costly * esp if the standard bcomes Blu-ray and the price for drives drop* for the 360 to get a add-on Blu-ray drive.
2) As for “upscaling” video… the “normal” user it’s said that only significant pixelation happens in low light scenes or fast action sequences. So watching the Matrix DvD on ur HD-TV might look a bit crap on the awesome action scenes but Beautiful Mind will look just fine.
* my 2cents.
February 19th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
[…] ended the format war before it really even began, thusly pulling the plug on making and manufacturing HD-DVDs and […]