The doom of HD DVD is inevitable now.

[Dave]

With the third Blu-Ray player out - Philips (after Samsung and Panasonic) and 3 more waiting for soon release (SONY, Pioneer and Sharp) Toshiba`s player remains more and more single in the HD video players pool...

The HD DVD hopes for more studio support have been left futile and the situation now is 7 out of 8 support for Blu-Ray.
Blu-Ray movies are the same price or most of the time even cheaper, the rumors about the barely noticeable sharpness HD DVD offers are gone and the players price advantage is melting (Samsung is $600, PS3 wich can be used as a fine Blu-Ray player is $499 and has HDMI 1.3 and TrueHD sound).

The HD DVD early start brought them some 10-20 more movie titles, but Blu-Ray is catching up fast. Also the HD DVD "huge" (~30 000) sold players advantage is diminishing.

Even if all the HD DVD fanboys buy Toshiba players they will not help the format since HD DVD is underseling their players. This means that Toshiba is loosing money, and no company likes that to jump in too. The lower prices will not help Toshiba win the format war even if all budget orientated customers buy their player.


Many analysis say that Blu-Ray will come on top and none say that HD DVD will. Stores prefer to show off Blu-Ray players instead of junk looking Toshiba`s boxes.


I think that HD DVD have crossed the point of no return, where they are at its best and can`t improve any further so for them is only one way from here - down.
I dont see any hope for HD DVD to survive. Do you?

[Knight-Errant]

I have NEVER seen HD-DVD in with a chance.

Just look at the dreadful propaganda tactics they've resorted to. If that's not desperation and sour grapes, I don't know what is.

[blitz6speed]

Soon you'll be seeing a late night infomercial on tv with Amir trying to inform people what HD-DVD is.

[hmurchison]

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/aeonflux.html

I was really quite impressed with the HD DVD release of 'Aeon Flux,' which I gave high marks for its video transfer. However marginal the film itself may be, its cinematography and effects are nothing short of spectacular. Such over-the-top visuals are tailor-made for high-def, though this Blu-ray is a narrow step down from its HD DVD counterpart. Both are minted from the same master and presented in 2.35:1 widescreen and 1080p video, though Paramount has gone with MPEG-2 here, instead of VC-1.

lost another "head to head" battle.

http://www.docdvd.com/hddvd_reviews_14359.htm
http://www.docdvd.com/bluray_reviews_14366.htm

The picture is presented in 2.40:1 widescreen and encoded at 1080p. This Blu-ray comes in second place to its HD-DVD counterpart, but its still fantastic. Its nearly perfect and without any blemishes.

You might want to beseech the BDA for better quality before forcasting HD DVD's doom.

Dave didn't you get banned from AVS for making stuff up like this?

[GoldenRedux]

Yeah, HD DVD is done, in a hurry as well. Price advantage? What price advantage? The second-gen players - still from Toshiba alone - are coming out at the same price with less features (the A2 - minus analogue multichannel outputs) or higher prices matching or higher than the Blu-ray players (XA2 - $999). The Phillips player can be had for $898. The Samsung can now be had for under $600, and the PS3 will be starting at $499 with HDMI 1.3. Go figure.

[GoldenRedux]

Originally Posted by hmurchison

Dave didn't you get banned from AVS for making stuff up like this?

It can't be anything worse than what the HD DVD fanboys make up on a seemingly hourly basis over there, and apparently on here as well these days.

[GoldenRedux]

Aeon Flux:

http://www.digitalaudiovideo.com/blu...iews_14367.htm

Notice this quote:

On the technical front, it is pretty much just as good as its counterpart. The picture is presented at 2.35:1 widescreen and encoded at 1080p. The detail on every aspect of the blades of grass (the evil blades of grass), is mind-blowing.

Lost what head to head?

[hmurchison]

Originally Posted by GoldenRedux

It can't be anything worse than what the HD DVD fanboys make up on a seemingly hourly basis over there, and apparently on here as well these days.

Hey I don't support that either. But Dave is coming pretty close to Oshodi on the annoying scale. I realize no one wants to bust his chops but I'm sure turning down the fanaticism knob just a wee bit wouldn't hurt.

The only inevitable things in life are death and taxes. In this battle which I actually happen to love, I see things carrying out for at least 2 years.

I mean BD fans are crowing about the PS3 and the tier1 BD players coming but what do the BD movie sales still suck? If you have so much faith why not support the platform by buying a couple of movies while you wait?

I've got 4 movies (HD DVD) and I'm buying another 2 today. That increases the attachrate to players even more because I don't have a player so my purchases avg into someone elses.

This is how we're going to get Lionsgate and Disney. We support our platform with dollars not messageboard posts.

[Spankey]

Like it or not, more and more people, even HD-DVD owners are inquiring about Blu-ray now that there are other manufacturers on the market. Whatever head to head battles are "lost" it almost always comes down to a matter of preference. Some people have preferred the look of Paramount's MPEG2 releases to their HD-DVD counterparts. There is hardly a disparity in PQ. HD-DVD has there own share of duds.

I really don't even want to help the HD-DVD idiots that are now looking into Blu-ray.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by hmurchison

http://bluray.highdefdigest.com/aeonflux.html



lost another "head to head" battle.

http://www.docdvd.com/hddvd_reviews_14359.htm
http://www.docdvd.com/bluray_reviews_14366.htm



You might want to beseech the BDA for better quality before forcasting HD DVD's doom.

Dave didn't you get banned from AVS for making stuff up like this?

This 1% (or less) quality advantage will not save HD DVD and you know it... The new BDs will have a lot better quality than the best HD DVD ever to exsist.

No, some proxys get banned from AVS, not me
And they bann them because they dont want the truth to show up. I dont know why, maybe its because of money or something, but this time they will not win cos people cant be fooled any longer! Blu-Ray is the best thing we the consumers can have, no more crap formats!
All those 84 000 (and growing) posts written from payed HD DVD zealots are waste of time! No one will read them soon...

[hmurchison]

Originally Posted by Dave

This 1% (or less) quality advantage will not save HD DVD and you know it... The new BDs will have a lot better quality than the best HD DVD ever to exsist.

No, some proxys get banned from AVS, not me
And they bann them because they dont want the truth to show up. I dont know why, maybe its because of money or something, but this time they will not win cos people cant be fooled any longer! Blu-Ray is the best thing we the consumers can have, no more crap formats!
All those 84 000 (and growing) posts written from payed HD DVD zealots are waste of time! No one will read them soon...

That's not something I would or could quantify with a percentage point.

I know from my past history that time to market coupled with a price advantage is very compelling for the survival of a technology.

You are telling me that the new BD will have better quality than the best HD DVD ever to exist but you cannot tell me the roadmap to get there. So in essence it becomes a "leap of faith" for me to take your word.

The winner of this battle will win by the skin on their teeth. The formats are simply too close. The quality is identical for all intents and purposes. The interactive layers are more than consumers even realize they have access to. The scalability of both formats for movie distribution are solid for a good decade.

The end game is going to be reaching critical mass and tying in a supporting infrastructure for home entertainment that simply doesn't exist today.

HD DVD was SMART by making ethernet mandatory. We should see the lines between physical and virtual media blur in 5 years. In 10 most people will be buying discs and downloading HD content on their whim.