http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2007-01-03/#film2

Well, Sony has turned to crap in my estimation. I bought a 55" Wega at the very end of Dec '04. Had to replace the bulb and bulb driver 6 weeks after te warranty expired. NOW I have a problem with the Light Block. I hope they have serious problems and lose about 40 percent of the market. The Greed of the big electronics companies WILL BE thir downfall.

Personally, any bulb-projection device is a crap shoot if you ask me. Sorry yours crapped out so soon. I wonder if Sony will make good on the defective discs? No worries for me anyway, our PS3 will play it just fine.

Blu-ray is still going through it's birth pangs. The great thing is that most of these troubles will be addressed through firmware updates very soon. Some of the Java functionality is still being worked out between new titles and new players.

topic says "again" - what did Blue Ray do previously?

topic says "again" - what did Blue Ray do previously?
Repeated delays in getting the players to the market. Releasing discs before players were readily available. Releasing inferior transfers despite the superior storage capacity. It's looking like HD-DVD will win the format wars by default.

I like Blu-Ray because it sounds cool and it's easier to say that HDDVD.

On the other hand, I have neither system and am quite content to wait until the war is over and the prices come down.

Jim

Quite a few "experts" are saying that neither BluRay or HD-DVD will survive to be the dominant format.

Repeated delays in getting the players to the market. Releasing discs before players were readily available. Releasing inferior transfers despite the superior storage capacity. It's looking like HD-DVD will win the format wars by default.

As I understand it, to really SEE the beenfit of HD or Blue Ray, you need a TV with the best possible resolution.

You can go out now and buy a 55inch LCD rear projection widescreen TV that looks great when viewing a standard anamorphic DVD. But it may not have the "ultimate" resolution to really get the associated HD / Blue ray picture improvement. Some common resolutions now are:

720P - great for standard DVDs, not that good for HD and blue ray
1080i - great for standard DVDs, better for HD and blue ray
1080p - the ultimate for HD and blue ray.

Naturally, the newer higher resolution sets are priced significantly more than the older lower resolution sets. The local Sony Store here had a 55 inch LCD rear projection set last week that they were practically giving away. When I enquired about the resolution - only 720p!

I'm far from an expert on this so if anyone sees errors in my info, please jump in to correct!

Huzz

I dunno about Sony right now.........

They do have problems, there's no doubt.

Huzz

I like Blu-Ray because it sounds cool and it's easier to say that HDDVD.

On the other hand, I have neither system and am quite content to wait until the war is over and the prices come down.

Jim
The truly sensible approach and the one most people seem to be following. Neither new format has swayed the consumers with a sufficient "Wow" factor that shows them to be sufficiently superior to standard dvd. The only real advantage I could see in the future with further development is the possibilty of having an entire tv series season set on one disc. Not only would it be nicely convenient but it could also bring the average price of season sets down to a more reasonable level. Presently some season sets are reasonable and occasionally even a steal, but too many are outrageous (Paramount, are you listening?).

Huzz, I have a Panasonic Plasma, best is720p-1080i, but I tell you, the PS3 BluRay picture is great and the audio is superb. True, uncompressed 5.1 over the HDMI cable. Listening to Foreigners greatest hits right now.

New developments that may make the whole issue moot:

http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2007-01-04/#film1

As I understand it, to really SEE the beenfit of HD or Blue Ray, you need a TV with the best possible resolution.

You can go out now and buy a 55inch LCD rear projection widescreen TV that looks great when viewing a standard anamorphic DVD. But it may not have the "ultimate" resolution to really get the associated HD / Blue ray picture improvement. Some common resolutions now are:

720P - great for standard DVDs, not that good for HD and blue ray
1080i - great for standard DVDs, better for HD and blue ray
1080p - the ultimate for HD and blue ray.

Naturally, the newer higher resolution sets are priced significantly more than the older lower resolution sets. The local Sony Store here had a 55 inch LCD rear projection set last week that they were practically giving away. When I enquired about the resolution - only 720p!

I'm far from an expert on this so if anyone sees errors in my info, please jump in to correct!

HuzzThere is a pretty good web site http://www.audioholics.com/productreviews/avhardware/index.php with info about all this stuff. This next page (links on the right regarding tv's) is rather comprehensive: http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/specsformats/index.php

I am trying to find an article about a particular component different manufacturers put in their tvs. Can't seem to find it at the moment, but I'll see what I can do.

Kind of what I was getting at. Gonna watch "Invincible" tonight on the PS3. Hey Huzz, do research on Panasonic, best Plasma for the money out there, we have 2, both outstanding picture quality.



New developments that may make the whole issue moot:

http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2007-01-04/#film1

The only real advantage I could see in the future with further development is the possibilty of having an entire tv series season set on one disc. Not only would it be nicely convenient but it could also bring the average price of season sets down to a more reasonable level. Presently some season sets are reasonable and occasionally even a steal, but too many are outrageous (Paramount, are you listening?).

Sorry but a series in HD won't fit on 1 Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. You'll need more then that like 2-3. But you'll need a lot less then on a DVD-9 that's for sure. Guys remember the Beta-VHS battle? DON'T do the same mistakes here again an bet on the wrong formot. WAIT until the war is over. And when a brand new product comes out, the first ones that go for it are ''the little rats in the cage for the experiments''. They are the ''products tester''. So don't be surprised to have problems...... WAIT & SEE is the way to go here...

Steph

Warner Officially Announces Dual Format HD Disc:

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5659

James :)

PS3 games will always be BD, regardless of who wins the format war.

Sorry but a series in HD won't fit on 1 Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. You'll need more then that like 2-3. But you'll need a lot less then on a DVD-9 that's for sure. Guys remember the Beta-VHS battle? DON'T do the same mistakes here again an bet on the wrong formot. WAIT until the war is over. And when a brand new product comes out, the first ones that go for it are ''the little rats in the cage for the experiments''. They are the ''products tester''. So don't be surprised to have problems...... WAIT & SEE is the way to go here...

Steph

Warner Officially Announces Dual Format HD Disc:

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5659

James :)
And this: http://www.gizmag.com/go/6696/

Guys remember the Beta-VHS battle? DON'T do the same mistakes here again an bet on the wrong formot. WAIT until the war is over. And when a brand new product comes out, the first ones that go for it are ''the little rats in the cage for the experiments''. They are the ''products tester''. So don't be surprised to have problems...... WAIT & SEE is the way to go here...

Steph

Consumer Reports, who usually are very reliable, say that this will be a different animal than the VHS vs Beta wars because of the studios involved, their prediction is we'll see more players able to play both Blue Ray and HD-DVD.

I agree though, it's too early for me to take the plunge for either, I imagine we'll have a clear indication of what's what by next Christmas. In the meantime I'm satisfied with my up-converting DVD player hooked up to our HD TV.

Gee this format war is a total non-sense, 1 side Blu-Ray, the other HD-DVD. What a waste of disk space. The only good thing here for us the s*ckers, oups!!!, the customers is that if both format stay alive long enough, the're will be a price war for the players-burners. But in the long run, one will die eventually. Now guys, time to flip a coin and try to guess who's gonna win!!! Imagine if Sony fails again, what a slap in their faces that would be. I wonder how much they would give me for my '' 2 tons'' Sony Betamax?

Beta max was the better format. I would like to restate- BLURAY WILL CONTINUE TO EXIST BECAUSE THAT"S THE FORMAT THE MILLIONS OF PS3 GAMES ARE MADE ON! and will continue to be made on....

F91,

I didn't think the games themselves were made on BlueRay, just that the PS3 was capable of playing them. As I thought that was the reason why there were several PS3 games available, but Sony was having issues getting the PS3 to read the higher format.



Also, and I'd love to be corrected here, I thought I remember reading somewhere that HD-DVD/BlueRay combo units wouldn't be possible because of the type/freq of the lasers needed to read either.

I went with the format that had the better specs and most studio support. There are lots of Disney and Fox titles that I look forward to watching on an 8'x19' screen in hi-def that are only scheduled to be released on one HD disc format. With the exception of Universal, all of the other major studios are releasing titles on my chosen format.

The LG player, though it sounds interesting, will have to prove itself as being able to play both disc formats with the same quality and capabilities as the single-format players, without error or compromise.

F91,

I didn't think the games themselves were made on BlueRay, just that the PS3 was capable of playing them. As I thought that was the reason why there were several PS3 games available, but Sony was having issues getting the PS3 to read the higher format.



Actually, I think they might be on BlueRay as they need more space than a regular DVD to hold all the info for the games.

I thought he issue they were having was the backward compatibility.
Getting the PS3 to be able to read and use the old PS1 and PS2 games.

And as for problems. [shrug] nothing new there.
Heck there are still problems with normal DVDs not being able to be played in some DVD players.
We have several here at the house that can be played in one DVD player but not another.
If I want to watch Princess Bride, I have to watch it upstairs in my daughter's room, or in my son's PS2 or PS3. Cause it just stops dead about halfway through down here in the living room.

Also, and I'd love to be corrected here, I thought I remember reading somewhere that HD-DVD/BlueRay combo units wouldn't be possible because of the type/freq of the lasers needed to read either.See my post about 7 post ago...

Another interesting article:

Sony's Revenge

http://www.mybroadband.co.za/nephp/?m=show&id=5345

James :)

Actually, I think they might be on BlueRay as they need more space than a regular DVD to hold all the info for the games.

I thought he issue they were having was the backward compatibility.
Getting the PS3 to be able to read and use the old PS1 and PS2 games.

And as for problems. [shrug] nothing new there.
Heck there are still problems with normal DVDs not being able to be played in some DVD players.
We have several here at the house that can be played in one DVD player but not another.
If I want to watch Princess Bride, I have to watch it upstairs in my daughter's room, or in my son's PS2 or PS3. Cause it just stops dead about halfway through down here in the living room.

Well heah that was the biggest issue with the BluRay, backward compatibility. 1.5 years ago, I saw an article in a magazine that Sony and Toshiba had talk to each other to try to come up with a format solution and that it failed. That's when I saw the backward compatibility issue with the BluRay. I've just recently heard that's no true anymore BUT never saw a test with my own eyes. So, again, the customers are ''stuck'' between 2 formats. Like I said earlier, one will eventually die but which one. Remember in the '90's the DAT cassettes from Philips? Well it didn't survive against the CD format. The laser ''analog'' disk is another one, VHS-Beta. History is repeating itself all over again, Sony is always a key player in format wars.......
Don't forget Sony=PS3 (console) =Sony Pictures (movies).

Steph

There is no backward compatibility issue.
Blu-ray plays back DVDs with no problem, whatsoever.

I still find the title of this thread to be quite amusing. No doubt the wishful thinking of an "alternate format" advocate. :)

My PS3 plays DVD's quite flawlessly.

I still find the title of this thread to be quite amusing. No doubt the wishful thinking of an "alternate format" advocate. :)
As the one who started this thread, just the opposite is true. From what I've read, Blu-ray looks like the superior format, but it's looking like they'll lose the format war through incompetent marketing. Sure, every new technology takes a while to work out the bugs, but releasing a disc which people can't even play? Not to mention all the other problems they've been having.

HD-DVD has it's share of birthing pangs too. Regardless of who wins or is currently winning, each format is a nice step forward visually, heck audio wise too. BTW, I was at Target tonight and my non-scientific survey showed more HD-DVD discs still on the shelves than BD. Wouldn't you know, the ones I wnted, Kong and Apollo 13 were both HD-DVD.

HD-DVD has it's share of birthing pangs too.

That's true, and for any new technology. Though for some reason Blu-ray's have seemed to be a bigger deal publicly than have HD-DVD's. I don't know if Blu-ray has faced more signifiant kinks or what, but it sure seems like the format has been more heavily plagued in trying to get off the ground.

Did I mention I have an Aurora Moonbus?

You're geting off-topic. Quick - send me the Moonbus and let's get back on track. :wave:

Huzz

Huzz- You wouldn't like it, it's already built.....

No problem - me and my four year old make a great team: he unbuilds anything I build! :D

Even in Lego Star Wars - I build it, he shoots it and remarks "I blowed it up good Daddy!"

Huzz :drunk:

Ummm.... it's built real good Huzz!

Okay ya got me with that one!! :thumbsup: :lol:

Cheers!
Dave

I still remember how mortified I was at viewing the early DVD highlight sampler discs back in late 1997. Gawdawful encoding errors, low bit-rate sampling resulting in blocky artifacts (like DirectTV looks now) were the norm. Players that couldn't handle the changing deltas would stick and hang on scenes with horrible artifacts resulting (much like Samsung DVD players continue to do now).

Most of the early movie transfers were pretty awful, save for The Mask, which was the first decent DVD transfer I had seen. I wanted none of the format until those issues could be overcome. So, I waited until January of 2000 before I made the jump from LaserDisc to DVD, over two years later.

Compared to this, the new hi-def disc formats have had a relatively easy time in comparison making it out to market. But, like any new technology, there are going to be some issues and problems for the early adopters and marketing blunders.

Myself, I think that having two competing disc formats (at least initially) is a good thing. It forces the makers of these formats to try that much harder and raise the bar on quality much faster than if there was just one established format on the outset. I think that both formats offer outstanding image and sound quality in comparison to anything currently on the market, including hi-def cable and satellite delivery.

I believe that only one format will win out in the end, and I have already made my choice as to which one I will pursue. But, time will tell, and we will all be much more savvy about this a year from now.

Sony makes another misstep:

http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2007-01-19/#film5

If true, this could be what finally kills Blu-Ray.

Sony makes another misstep:

http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2007-01-19/#film5

If true, this could be what finally kills Blu-Ray.

I'm not sure I'd wanna see porn in High Def. Some things, once seen, can't be un-seen.:eek:

My thoughts exactly....

I agree, totally.

Would you REALLY want to watch that stuff at such high res, and on such a large screen?

I really don't think that this is going to hurt Blu-ray much, if at all. I think that the realm of hi-def production and distribution will be filled with top-drawer production values, with great lighting, production, and surround sound mixes. I just do not see the porn industry willing to step it up to that level. Just because some joker can tape this stuff with a hi-def camcorder, does not mean that it's the kind of quality production that the mass market is going to rush out and buy to watch in their expensive home theater.

I'll take Lawrence of Arabia, Superman, and the Star Trek and Star Wars films and the like. Thank you very much.

BTW, THIS is probably a very good reason why Sony put it's foot down on porn material not being replicated at the same plant that does Disney Blu-ray material and other children's programming. I agree with their decision.

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/newsitem.cfm?NewsID=6831

Does this mean we have to buy all our films again? We have close to a thousand, I know there are people here with a helluva lot more than that. The 1080I with an upconverting DVD player gives a more than satisfactory picture for me.

Big-Dog, you should be fine, I doubt that you'll have to change anything.

Well, Sony has turned to crap in my estimation. I bought a 55" Wega at the very end of Dec '04. Had to replace the bulb and bulb driver 6 weeks after te warranty expired. NOW I have a problem with the Light Block. I hope they have serious problems and lose about 40 percent of the market. The Greed of the big electronics companies WILL BE thir downfall.

I agree with the estimation that Sony has gotten wonky with their quality.
I purchased a Sony DVD/VHS VCR a couple years ago. 2 weeks before the labor warranty ran out, the DVD player took a dump! I took it back to Fry's Electronics to be shipped back to Sony. They told me it would take 6-8 weeks. 12 weeks later, they were contacted by Sony, who said it was not worth the expense to repair the problem, and authorized Fry's to swap out a new unit. However, the model I bought was clearance (at $139.00), and none were available. Fry's offered me a Samsung that was on sale that weekend for $79.00! Or, I could take cash or store credit for $99.00. I took home the Samsung, which didn't like double-sided DVD's, took it back, and took the $99.00!

"Sony declared recently that it will not provide any help to the adult film industry for their movies on its proprietary Blu-ray disc format, but it will not try to stop them completely.
The Japanese electronics behemoth will not permit its disc replicating subsidiary, Sony DADC, to handle adult film titles, it said last week. It appears that in markets where Sony has operations around the world it won't duplicate any movies above a certain rating or that have not been certified by a local motion picture association.
This brings to memory the famous and largely disputed Betamax vs. VHS videotape war from the ’80, a colossal failure for Sony caused (according to some analysts) by its refusal to license Betamax to porn industry."

So that's why Beta failed. It didn't appeal to the trailer trash market.