Counterpunch wrote:Sony and proprietary formats = failure
Sorry, but it's true.
From what I understand, BluRay is a better overall format. Then again, Beta was superior to VHS (not that this hasn't been pointed out a million times already) and what won out?
Indeed. BluRay is the better format in terms of capacity, scratch resistance and max transfer rate (80Mbits/sec compared with 50 for HD-DVD).
HD-DVD at the moment has a much better feature set though as BluRay can't do picture in picture(e.g Matrix and 300 on HD-DVD have PiP features but the BluRay version of 300 doen't). The best films for both formats will be those that are exclusive though as on HD-DVD they will use the extra features that BluRay can't to give the consumer more extras(PiP comentary, PiP green screen/storyboard/animatic comparison). And for BluRay the extra bandwidth is used to increase the quality of the transfer(so far only used for PCM audio which is stupid as they both use the same lossless audio compression codecs).
From a consumer stand point HD-DVD is the better format, the films are cheaper due to the fact that manufacturing the discs is cheaper and a new replication plant isn't required unlike BluRay, region free and have less copyright protection to mess with your machine if and when the film companies turn on ICT(image constraint token, prevents output above 480p/576p if not using a DVI or HDMI output and can turn off HD output on your player perminantly if you spoof it).
In Short.
HD-DVD
17GB per layer
Region Free
Only uses avs and h264 codec
Supports DD+ 7.1 and DTS 7.1
Rewritable media unavailable
50Mbit/sec max transfer rate
Cheaper to manufacture
Can also contain dvd side
Can do PiP presentations
Format finalised
ICT can be turned on
Less copy protection
BD-ROM
25GB per layer
Split into 3 regions
Early BD-ROMs used Mpeg2
Also supports PCM
Rewritable media available
80Mbit/sec max transfer rate
Scratch resistant coating due to data layer being on surface
Uses Java for crap minigames
PiP to come
Standard still changing
ICT can be turned on
Extra layer of copy protection over HD-DVDs
I think thats everything.
The main benefit of HD-DVD imo is the removal of region protected content which is why its the main format I am going to be purchasing(ahem importing cheaply from America) is HD-DVD.
Before anyone says I am biased towards HD-DVD your right as I think it is the better format, I do also have films for BluRay which I watch on my brothers PS3 but if a film is coming out on both formats I will always choose the HD-DVD version unless there is a really good extra on BluRay that isn't on the HD-DVD version.
Current library
Mission Impossible Trilogy
Matrix Trilogy
King Kong
300
Talladaga Nights
PotC: Curse of the Black Pearl
PotC: Dead Mans Chest