Engadget HD thread, defending Blu-ray against Red

[domerdel]

Guys, my retorts are subjective, but feel free to chime in. (i'm domerdel, red guy is Nfinity). If i've missed some points, feel free to respond.

http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/10/08...007/1#c8044625

Please note: not trying to advertise another site here, this can be an internal discussion among the blu-ray camp (whom i support), but just trying to put more heads together, and come up with a better response than my subject preferences.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Bring up the fact that if he is viewing ANY MATERIAL ON BOTH FORMATS that it will undoubtedly look identical because it was encoded and finalized to the limitations of HD-DVD. In order to really get a sense of which format is better, we will all have to wait for a neutral studio to treat identical material as seperate encoding processes. You could try watching something like 'Casino Royale' or 'Pirates Of The Caribbean' BDs next to the 'Transformers' HD-DVD when it releases to get an idea of each formats quality, but it just can't be fairly compared as they aren't the same material. Until the segragation of material occurs for the encoding of neutral material, his comparative arguement is moot.

[domerdel]

you can see my long, drawn out, over analyzed subjective opinion in the thread, but who's got the right to taunt me for my consumer choice? And I don't feel even remotely stupid or hesitant for choosing blu-ray because of it's roadmap'ed technology. Red's got, Pip/interactive, great, works for now, we went the other route, larger storage (bigger lens aperture) and higher bit rates, extras follow... doesn't that make sense?

[Firestreak]

Some guy decided to list off the HD-DVD titles and Blu-Ray titles, then add in HD DVD imports while ignoring Blu-ray imports, and then he subtracted all the Paramount titles that are still available.

[domerdel]

another factor (mentioned in thread of EHD), is that M$ and toshiba went with the lowest common denominator in disc size, which limits encoding, thus you can never tell the difference in a neutral movie title.... ah, i just feel like we're all having the same argument on both sides, that the red team is just not getting why we made our choices and exploits small issues making them into bigger ones that needed to be.

[domerdel]

Here's a good point by richard, thanks!

Movies and industry support vastly favor blu-ray.

11 of top 15 movies of 2006 are from blu-ray exclusive studios. 7 of top 15 from Sony themselves.

Box Office 2006 Source: Box Office Mojo

Position Title Studio Domestic Gross

1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest BV $423,315,812 blu-ray only
2 Cars BV $244,082,982 blu-ray only
3 X-Men III: The Last Stand Fox $234,362,462 blu-ray only
4 The Da Vinci Code Sony $217,536,138 blu-ray only
5 Superman Returns WB $200,081,192 both
6 Ice Age: The Meltdown Fox $195,330,621 blu-ray only
7 Happy Feet WB $185,625,671 both
8 Night at the Museum Fox $165,150,384 blu-ray only
9 Casino Royale Sony $160,047,891 blu-ray only
10 Over the Hedge P/DW $155,019,34 hd-dvd only
11 Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby Sony $148,213,377 blu-ray only
12 Click Sony $137,340,146 blu only
13 Mission: Impossible III Par. $133,501,348 hd-dvd only
14 Borat Fox $126,598,982 blu-ray only
15 The Pursuit of Happyness Sony $124,834,524 blu-ray only

Paramaount only holds the #10 + #13 spots, Universal didn't make the top 15.

Top Ten Global Summer Blockbusters of 2007

# Film Gross ($M)
1 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End $958 blu-ray only
2 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix $912 both
3 Spider-Man 3 $890 blu-ray only
4 Shrek the Third $757 hd-dvd only
5 Transformers $685 hd-dvd only
6 The Simpsons Movie $482 blu-ray only
7 Ratatouille $390 blu-ray only
8 Die Hard 4.0 $356 blu-ray only
9 Ocean's Thirteen $305 both
10 The Bourne Ultimatum $278 hd-dvd only

7 on blu-ray, 5 on hd-dvd. 5 blu-ray exclusives, 3 hd-dvd exclusives, 2 neutrals.

Hd-dvd exclusive studios, Universal/NBC tv, and Paramount/Dreamworks
Blu-ray exclusive studios, Sony, including Columbia, 20th Century Fox/Fox tv, Lionsgate, MGM, Disney/Buena Vista, Miramax, Pixar, and Touchstone.
Plenty of good movies for both, but blu-ray has a much greater selection.
20th Century Fox has 29 titles coming before Xmas.
Put together these facts when I was on the fence trying to decide between the 2 formats. I suppose I don't need to tell you which way I went. It had nothing to do with Sony infatuation, although I do

believe that they make very good quality products hence they charge more and still are an industry leader. I had a Toshiba vcr many years ago and thought it was well made too.
For me it came down to movies available and on the horizon. Studio backing, and elec. manufacturer support. Most electronic hardware producers have joined blu-ray including Philips, Sharp, JVC, LG,

Daewoo, Loewe, Denon, Funai, Hitachi, Harmon Kardon, Sony, Apple, Dell, Acer, TDK, Samsung, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, intel, and Hewlett Packard.
Manufacturer support of hd-dvd, Hewlett Packard, Acer, Toshiba, LG (combo player), Microsoft, Intel, Samsung (combo player), and Venturer.
Hd-dvds are losing shelf space to blu-ray at Targets, Walmarts, Frys, and Blockbuster retail is blu-ray exclusive.
Replies: 2007-10-08 23:15:500000000000