Austrailian IGN picks blu ray over HDDVD!!! and its on the xbox360 page!!!

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http://au.xbox360.ign.com/articles/771/771196p1.html

Blu-ray vs. HD DVD
An in-depth, unbiased battle royale.
by Patrick Kolan, IGN AU


Australia, March 7, 2007 - The next big thing. Everybody wants to create it. Retailers want to sell it, and in theory at least, consumers want to sweep it up in their arms. But what happens when two competing technologies claim to be the one true future? It's almost as fractured and chaotic as worldly religion; on one side you have the HD DVD devout, and on the other sit the Blu-ray believers. Both are convinced that they are destined to rule.

Today, IGN settles things.

As consumers as much as journalists, we're peeved that the market is fractured. But it was practically inevitable. Choice is a boon for buyers, but unlike DVD which showed a massive leap forward in technological capabilities from VHS, the lines are a little more blurred (or, a fair bit sharper if you think about it). For many, especially those with smaller HD displays, the leap to a high definition movie format simply won't provide such an obvious difference as there was between VHS and DVD. Is the world ready to replace a cheap and easy, mainstream-friendly format for something unproven and expensive - albeit very geek sexy?

Forcing format evolution is something that gamers tend to experience more than most technology adopters. Every four years or so, a new era of gaming is rung in and the old format draws to a close. It's how our industry works, and development cycles have more or less adjusted to this.

However, VHS, tapes, CDs and to a lesser extent DVDs have all been bettered by newer devices that do the same thing, only faster, more efficiently, more easily - and at a price. HDD recorders have replaced VCRs, MP3 players have made CDs almost irrelevant, and now DVD is about to be superseded. Where should your money lie?

We've taken the two formats and broken them down into categories. The first broad view of each platform can be divided into short and long term considerations that you should consider before dishing out the dollars.


Two competing formats, but only one will reign supreme.



Short Term Considerations:

Price:
Blu-ray: When Blu-ray launched in 2006, the first players were incredibly expensive and limited in features beyond Blu-ray playback. They cost roughly US$2000 and only a couple of different brands hit the market. With the advent of the PlayStation 3 in NTSC territories late last year, Sony reduced its standalone player prices in line with the PS3's US$599 price tag. In Australia, only a couple of brands, including Samsung and Panasonic, offer Blu-ray players. These are priced around the AU$1500 mark. When the PS3 is released on March 23 in Australia at a price of AU$999, expect to see competing units reduce their prices.

Blu-ray films cost, at least initially, more to produce than HD DVD. Though Sony has denied this, the proof is in the shelf price, which is clearly higher than HD DVD in territories where both formats have been released. Expect this price difference to be reduced as manufacturing techniques are refined and the cost of raw materials is reduced. In Australia, the retail price for a standard 25-gig BD release sits between AU$30-$49.

HD DVD: Launching after Blu-ray in America, HD DVD had an immediate price advantage. The players sold for several hundred dollars less than the most inexpensive Blu-ray player, and initial film releases were slightly cheaper. This gave the format a head start, sales-wise in the market. However, this lead was short-lived as prices have since begun to fall on both formats, and the install base of Blu-ray owners has increased dramatically with the introduction of the PS3.

Right now, Australians can pick up an HD DVD player for as little as AU$1000, which puts it in the same price bracket as the PS3. However, Microsoft will be introducing its HD DVD player add-on at the end of March for a price of AU$249.95 - which, when coupled with a 20gig Xbox 360 at $649.95, places it slightly under the outright cost of a PS3.

Our choice: HD DVD

Image and Sound Quality:
As both formats offer basically the same visual fidelity, we will compare them together. Both Blu-ray and HD DVD use a new laser that reads from the surface of the disc at a shorter distance. This allows for a higher amount of information to be stored over a shorter distance on the information surface, allowing for HD video, lossless audio and potentially a bit of room for extras. Both formats also allow for 5 and 7.1 surround sound setups. When run through a quality HDMI cable to a large 1080p display, the result is an impressive step forward from DVD, which runs at a maximum resolution of 576p. Notice we said the word large - if the display is fairly small, say 36" or so, you might not notice much of a difference from a DVD. As the display gets bigger, and the number of pixels making up the image becomes more important, HD begins to truly shine over DVD.

Our choice: Tie

Added Features:
Blu-ray: Blu-ray discs are capable of running Java technology specially integrated for special features, such as displaying a pop-up menu while playing a BD-Video disc, and activating a keyword search. When connected to an Internet source, it allows for interactivity with compatible sequences in the films. These can theoretically automatically update with the latest information available on the fly.

In the audio department, connecting a Blu-ray drive to an AV centre via HDMI allows multi-channel data transfer. This delivers high-quality 7.1-channel surround sound with each channel offering DVD-Audio quality in surround sound, on par with the quality of the original, master audio source.

While Blu-ray drives are able to read DVDs without issue, some launch-era models could not read standard CDs. Unbelievably but understandably, the need for a laser that reads both the Blu-ray and CD formats would've further increased the price of the model, so was apparently deemed unnecessary for inclusion. Less forgivably, the Blu-ray drive in the PS3 doesn't currently upscale the quality of standard definition DVDs - this is something that the Xbox 360 is capable of, after the latest firmware update, and when connected with high-definition component cables.

HD DVD: Microsoft's decision to stick with HD DVD came down to features and abilities the format offered. Of these, 'managed copy' allows users to copy a movie to a PC hard drive so it can be beamed around the house. The iHD software has been touted as allowing a smaller video to be overlaid onto the main video screen - which is perfect for extra features. The format is also compatible with 'hybrid discs, meaning that owners of a DVD player will be able to buy a dual-format disk that can be played on an HD DVD player.

Something that, at least initially, HD DVD had going for it was ease of production. Creating an HD DVD is not markedly different from manufacturing a standard DVD. This means that for companies who wish to manufacture HD DVDs, there is no need to do a costly upgrade of their facilities. As it stands, it would appear from the number of studios backing Blu-ray, this upgrade hasn't deterred major support.

Our choice: Blu-Ray

Regions and Range:
Blu-ray: Unlike HD DVD, Blu-ray films are still bound by regions. This has been toned down from DVD's 9-or-so regions that divided the world and complicated purchases. Now, Blu-ray asks consumers to contend with just 3 - but it's still three more than HD DVD demands.



Region encoding for Blu-ray, as indicated by the image, is a step forwards from DVD, but behind HD DVD's region-free arrangement.



We consider this a cruddy move on the parts of the Hollywood film companies, and it is worth considering if you're the kind of person who loves importing superior releases from The States, or hard to get flicks from Japan. Where Blu-ray kicks into high gear is with their backing from those same Hollywood film companies. Read all about that in the 'Long-term' section.

A quick search of Amazon yields interesting results: 249 Results, with 171 currently available. March releases in the US are:

* Casino Royale (Sony)
* The Holiday (2006) (Sony)
* Hoosiers (MGM)
* Layer Cake (Sony)
* Mr. & Mrs. Smith (Fox)
* Big Fish (Sony)
* Chicken Little (Buena Vista)
* Eragon (Fox)
* Finding Neverland (Buena Vista)
* Rocky Balboa (Sony)
* Happy Feet (Warner)
* Incubus: Alive at Red Rocks (Sony Music)
* March of the Penguins (Warner)
* National Geographic: Relentless Enemies (Warner)
* The Pursuit of Happyness (Sony)