Sid Burn wrote:I mentioned this 150 mil deal in the previous thread on this subject.
The 150 million is only for 18 months of exclusivity, Transformers WILL find its way onto Blu Ray
this is a last ditch effort by HDDVD to save their asses.
The recent release of 300 on Blu Ray is outselling the HDDVD version 3-1. Standalone Blu Ray players are also selling better than HDDVD players regardless of the price difference.
HDDVD is desparate, and this under the table deal is a big warning sign to HDDVD supporters
Actually They are going completely HD-DVD, according to all the sources they have officially dropped Blue-Ray completely. HD-DVD actually has a number of technological advatages in it. One of which is the fact that its been standardized since inception. Where as first generation BlueRay discs are actually a slightly different build then current ones, and more changes are in the works, which means its quite possible that within a year first Gen Blueray discs will be incompatible with newer players. Sony rushed the format out to compete with HD-DVD.
HD-DVD also has much stronger support for future hardware upgrades and interactive and downloadable content built into the specification. Blueray is adding these, but as I said that means its likely earlier versions of the format will have compatibility issues.
HD-DVD discs are also cheaper to produce as are the players. Partly because its a much more open format then Blueray and because it has been standardized and thus manufactures don't have to worry about future changes and can simply focus on making hardware thats good now without having to future proof it.
About the only thing Blueray has on HD-DVD is storage size, and regardless of what people think There hasn't been a movie yet that is significantly different in quality between the two, nor has there been many releases really utilizing the size difference as of yet with much in the way of extras, partly because the flaws and changes in the standard make creating interactive and otherwise "Next Gen" type extras harder to do with Blueray.
Its quite possible that Sony will get the bugs ironed out and Blueray will come out on top of course. Personally I'm not buying either format till we have a winner. DVDs are working fine for me. And though I may not be getting the same kind of quality I can live a few more years with if it means I won't get burned with a collection thats useless because of a failed format.