Amazon's High-Def 101 Questioned

[kwhiplash]

Amazon's High-Def 101 states the audio quality of HD is Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Digital HD Mandatory and Blu-ray is Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Digital HD Optional. Is this correct?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.htm...d_i=1000153511

[DealsR4theDevil]

Originally Posted by kwhiplash

Amazon's High-Def 101 states the audio quality of HD is Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Digital HD Mandatory and Blu-ray is Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Digital HD Optional. Is this correct?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.htm...d_i=1000153511

Why does it seem more and more that amazon is pro HD DVD? I keep getting the HD DVD ad with all my amazon purchases and that chart is completely biased. It lists all the things that are the same and only the stuff HD DVD has better. Aside from the disc size Blu-ray isnt given one pro over HD DVD. I guess they forgot about the higher bit-rates and wider studio/manufacturer support.

Also, Dolby Digital HD is not mandatory for HD DVDs considering most HD DVDs have DVD audio. There are much more Blu-ray movies with HD sound than there are HD DVD movies (usually because the HD DVD doesnt have enough room).

Seriously though, is amazon being paid to do all this or is there webmeister an HD DVD fanboy?

[quetzalcoatl]

Originally Posted by DealsR4theDevil

Why does it seem more and more that amazon is pro HD DVD? I keep getting the HD DVD ad with all my amazon purchases and that chart is completely biased. It lists all the things that are the same and only the stuff HD DVD has better. Aside from the disc size Blu-ray isnt given one pro over HD DVD. I guess they forgot about the higher bit-rates and wider studio/manufacturer support.

Also, Dolby Digital HD is not mandatory for HD DVDs considering most HD DVDs have DVD audio. There are much more Blu-ray movies with HD sound than there are HD DVD movies (usually because the HD DVD doesnt have enough room).

Seriously though, is amazon being paid to do all this or is there webmeister an HD DVD fanboy?

You need to look at the specs. This is not for a disc but for the format. And yes TrueHD is mandatory for HD DVD players to decode, but here is the catch that is only requires 2.0.

And what you keep getting with your orders is called an advertisment and HD DVD is spending money to send on to you on every order. So what you donot want Amazon to accept money from them?

[kwhiplash]

Originally Posted by quetzalcoatl

You need to look at the specs. This is not for a disc but for the format. And yes TrueHD is mandatory for HD DVD players to decode, but here is the catch that is only requires 2.0.

And what you keep getting with your orders is called an advertisment and HD DVD is spending money to send on to you on every order. So what you donot want Amazon to accept money from them?

Okay, so they are referring to the players themselves and not the discs. So all Blu-ray players are not required to decode TrueHD?

[quetzalcoatl]

Originally Posted by kwhiplash

Okay, so they are referring to the players themselves and not the discs. So all Blu-ray players are not required to decode TrueHD?

Correct.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc

For audio, BD-ROM players are required to support Dolby Digital AC-3, DTS, and linear PCM. Players may optionally support Dolby Digital Plus, and lossless formats Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD. BD-ROM titles must use one of mandatory schemes for the primary soundtrack. A secondary audiotrack, if present, may use any of the mandatory or optional codecs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_DVD

All HD DVD players are required to decode linear (uncompressed) PCM, Dolby Digital AC-3, Dolby Digital EX, DTS, Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD.[45] A secondary soundtrack, if present, can be stored in any of the aforementioned formats, or in one of the HD DVD optional codecs: DTS-HD High Resolution Audio and DTS-HD Master Audio.

But overall Blu-ray is taking HD DVD down on lossless titles.

http://www.blu-raystats.com/index.php
Blu-ray 62.75%

http://www.hddvdstats.com/index.php
HD DVD 22.82%

[FilliamHMuffman]

It's interesting to me that for features like Internet connectivity, it is listed as mandatory for HD DVD and optional for Blu-ray. Yet when comparing resolution, it only states that both support 1080p, with no caveat that 1080p is standard in all Blu-ray players but supported in only some HD DVD players. It even lists features like the lack of region coding for HD DVD (why is Amazon encouraging shoppers to import discs), but doesn't mention Blu-ray's advantage in peak bitrates. Looks like something the HD DVD group wrote up and paid Amazon to put on their site. The acknowledgement that Blu-ray discs are higher capacity is probably there only to make it less obvious how biased the chart is.

[TimV]

Originally Posted by FilliamHMuffman

It's interesting to me that for features like Internet connectivity, it is listed as mandatory for HD DVD and optional for Blu-ray. Yet when comparing resolution, it only states that both support 1080p, with no caveat that 1080p is standard in all Blu-ray players but supported in only some HD DVD players. It even lists features like the lack of region coding for HD DVD (why is Amazon encouraging shoppers to import discs), but doesn't mention Blu-ray's advantage in peak bitrates. Looks like something the HD DVD group wrote up and paid Amazon to put on their site. The acknowledgement that Blu-ray discs are higher capacity is probably there only to make it less obvious how biased the chart is.

The list looks relatively fair to me. Sure, they could include bitrates, but the majority of potential buyers would be "huh?".

On the other side, the extra HD-DVD "features" shown below were pretty useful for me to decide not to bother waiting for profile 2.0 BD players. Does it play the movie? Does it decode TrueHD? Cool. I own 800+ DVDs and have never watched the director commentary on any of them. And I really don't care if I can buy movie related garbage or waste time playing amateur director by piecing together favorite scenes. I'd rather move on to the next movie I haven't had time to watch.

[nhaase]

I don't think they're biased, just not fully educated on the new formats, just like most sales-people we have discussed anecdotally on these forums. I talked to a person at HH Gregg who did not even know what lossless audio was, or that dolby digital is compressed, it was like I was explaining it to my mom.

So, I think they had a worker come up with this who had to do their own research and they did not do a bad job, but they did not do a complete job.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by DealsR4theDevil

Why does it seem more and more that amazon is pro HD DVD?

I've noticed this too. Didn't Amazon sign that agreement with HD DVD regarding those indie titles a while back? I'm sure Toshiba/MS threw in some extra incentives since evidently that's the only way they can make deals.

[FilliamHMuffman]

Originally Posted by TimV

The list looks relatively fair to me. Sure, they could include bitrates, but the majority of potential buyers would be "huh?".

That's just one example of bias on the list IMO.

1) Features that are optional on Blu-ray but standard on HD DVD are listed as such, but for a feature that is standard on Blu-ray and optional on HD DVD (1080p), it is listed as fully supported by both.

2) It is falsely implied that HD DVD has an advantage with regards to HD audio when the opposite is the case by cherry picking the facts.

3) Every conceivable advantage of HD DVD is enumerated, down to region locks and combo discs, but other than disc capacity, other Blu-ray advantages like studio support (which is hardly difficult to explain to J6P) and bitrates aren't even mentioned.

[TimV]

Originally Posted by FilliamHMuffman

That's just one example of bias on the list IMO.

1) Features that are optional on Blu-ray but standard on HD DVD are listed as such, but for a feature that is standard on Blu-ray and optional on HD DVD (1080p), it is listed as fully supported by both.

2) It is falsely implied that HD DVD has an advantage with regards to HD audio when the opposite is the case by cherry picking the facts.

3) Every conceivable advantage of HD DVD is enumerated, down to region locks and combo discs, but other than disc capacity, other Blu-ray advantages like studio support (which is hardly difficult to explain to J6P) and bitrates aren't even mentioned.

As per 1&2, 1080p must be included on the discs and certain audio standards must be included (and decoded by) the HD players. Yes, you can buy a 1080i HD-DVD if you don't care about 1080pm but the disc will still be 1080p. Audio wise, more BD discs have lossless audio, but that doesn't negate the fact that it isn't required nor does it need to be decoded by the player. I specifically chose a BD player that could decode TrueHD because my receiver is only HDMI 1.2. I actually had to research which ones could with BD because it is not standard.

In terms of three, they should probably note that there are advantages with the higher bitrates with BD. However, studio support is not an inherent advantage to a format. It is, presumably, a temporary artifact that can be fluid.

If you are so bothered by it, complain to Amazon and suggest they add additional points if it would help you sleep better at night.