Details on Bluray Movies

[CassilineKnight]

Hi I'm a fence sitter in this format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD. And I'll be honest I supported HD DVD at first and even with Warner's move to Blu-ray exclusivity I still hope that HD DVD will win since I don't want sony to win this war and I feel that the consumer will be worse off if sony wins.

HOWEVER I'm not a fool. It doesn't take a genius to see that the chances of HD DVD winning are pretty slim. And for all its faults Blu-ray still does provide great quality when it comes to HD media both in picture and audio. So I'm investigating Blu-ray Disc Players and Movies.

Now I know all about the Profiles fiasco and I'm willing to wait for a variety of Profile 2.0 Players to come out so I can compare/contrast and buy the one I feel is the best overall. Right now the only 2.0 Player I see that interests me is the Panasonic DMP-BD50 which is coming out this March I believe? It seems to be pretty awesome and hopefully that "LFE" bug problem thats occurring on the BD30 will be fixed. Other than that is the ps3 which I refuse to buy since I'd rather not give sony any of my money unless I absolutely have to. Does anyone else know of FUTURE Profile 2.0 Blu-ray Disc Players that are going to be coming out?

Now onto the MOVIES. I was browsing the deals section and I notice that some of the movies say this in the "Details Section". I"ll put several examples....

1) The Replacement Killers: Extended Cut
Details: BD-50, MPEG-4 AVC

2) The Lake House
Details: BD-25, VC-1

3) Training Day
Details: BD-25, MPEG-2

My question is what is the difference between the "details" for those 3 different movies? Is it the quality? What does BD-50 mean vs BD-25? What does VC-1 mean?

Sorry for all the questions but I want to be an informed consumer when it comes time to make the plungue into Blu-ray IF it ends up winning and I figure this would be the best site to get some reliable information other than AVS. Also I don't want to buy obsolete or lower quality movies and players unless I absolutely have to.

[Blu-ray Fanatic]

Well, I'm a consumer just like you and don't know much. All I know is that blu-ray has more supporting studios, their discs can hold more info which means better quality, it's scratch and weather resistant, and blu-ray has a brighter future. HD-DVD isn't so bad but I will only support and/or invest in one format because I'm not rich and don't like the confusion.

[Jaguar007]

I am curious about your dislike for Sony? Prior to Blu Ray and HD I have owned both Sony and Toshiba products and have had much better quality with the Sony. I owned 2 Toshiba DVD players and they were terrible. The Sony DVD is the best I have ever had. The only thing I liked better about the Toshiba is that it was region free. I have also had Toshiba TVs that crapped out after a few years.

[DetroitSportsFan]

Originally Posted by CassilineKnight

I still hope that HD DVD will win since I don't want sony to win this war and I feel that the consumer will be worse off if sony wins.

And why is that?

[Idealsupra]

Originally Posted by DetroitSportsFan

And why is that?

Because sony is the devil didnt you know that?

[Blu-Raider]

I still hope that HD DVD will win

Yet another pearl of wisdom cast among swine.

[Blu-Beard]

Originally Posted by Idealsupra

Because sony is the devil didnt you know that?

Well then I'm glad to side with the devil in this case so that all of my vices will be recognized and satisfied

[PeechCobblerPie]

I would like to know what faults you see in blu-ray? You're right it does ONLY hold 50GB. and HD-DVD holds.... wait. what faults again?

[CassilineKnight]

Originally Posted by DetroitSportsFan

And why is that?

Their tactics as a company and frankly cuz I feel they love to overprice the consumer.

Its just a personal thing...like how some dislike MS or w/e.

Anyways I'm more curioust about the differences among these movies...not to start a war about HD DVD v Bluray.

And like I said earlier I think its pretty clear that Blu-ray is close to winning the entire war and if it does I'll have no problem joining in. So any information regarding my questions would be greatly appreciated.

[Mr Dodger Blu]

OK, if you don't think the war is over already,then your blind to the facts on print and from major players in the game.

Just sell all your RED products (if you can) and convert over to BLU

Being a Pharm. Tech. you'd save youself a headache.

[owa]

Originally Posted by CassilineKnight

1) The Replacement Killers: Extended Cut
Details: BD-50, MPEG-4 AVC

2) The Lake House
Details: BD-25, VC-1

3) Training Day
Details: BD-25, MPEG-2

My question is what is the difference between the "details" for those 3 different movies? Is it the quality? What does BD-50 mean vs BD-25? What does VC-1 mean?

[/SIZE][/FONT]

BD-50 means it's using a 50 gig disc. BD-25 means it's a 25-gig disc. AVC, VC-1 and MPEG-2 are video codecs (used to compress video). VC-1 was developed by Microsoft. According to wiki...AVC was "written by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) together with the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) as the product of a partnership effort known as the Joint Video Team (JVT).".

[corky]

The war is over and those few people buying HD-DVD players today are just buying old war memorabilia.

[CassilineKnight]

Originally Posted by owa

BD-50 means it's using a 50 gig disc. BD-25 means it's a 25-gig disc. AVC, VC-1 and MPEG-2 are video codecs (used to compress video). VC-1 was developed by Microsoft. According to wiki...AVC was "written by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) together with the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) as the product of a partnership effort known as the Joint Video Team (JVT).".

Thank you so much for clearing that up.

Do the different video codecs mean that the quality of the video itself will differ?

And I own no Red products as of now so no need to worry about "war memorabilia"

However I appreciate all the concern...

[owa]

Originally Posted by CassilineKnight

Thank you so much for clearing that up.

Do the different video codecs mean that the quality of the video itself will differ?

There are some slight differences in them (& maybe different sweet-spots in regards to the bitrate) but overall, the quality of all 3 can look very similiar. MPEG-2 is the oldest, of course, but can still look really good if the bitrate is high-enough. That is, one advantage of the newer codecs (AVC & VC-1) is that they're more efficient than MPEG-2. So, MPEG-2 probably needs more breathing-room for it to achieve similiar results to the newer codecs. I think a lot of it depends on the content though and as it is with most things, each have their strengths and weaknesses.

I'm definitely not an expert though. I think RBFilms has discussed some differences between AVC & VC-1 and using different bitrates with each in the below thread (or it might have been in one of the insider's thread, I'm not really sure). Just as a warning, there might be some anti-HD DVD type posts in the thread so if you're easily bothered by that, you might want to skip it.


https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=10957

Actually, did a little searching in that thread and this one is a good summary (I think).

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...6&postcount=96

[bajor27]

Originally Posted by CassilineKnight

Hi I'm a fence sitter in this format war between Blu-ray and HD DVD. And I'll be honest I supported HD DVD at first and even with Warner's move to Blu-ray exclusivity I still hope that HD DVD will win since I don't want sony to win this war and I feel that the consumer will be worse off if sony wins.

Just so I'm not confused, while sitting on the fence and hoping HD-DVD would win, you never actually looked up any information on Blu-ray Discs? I can understand not knowing about the codecs (VC-1, MPEG-2, AVC), but how can you miss the 25GB vs 50GB for Blu-ray if you've done even the smallest bit of investigation into the format?

That probably sounds more rude than intended, so I apologize.

Anyway, I guess the answers have already been given by this point. BD-25 is a single layer blu-ray disc which can hold up to 25GB (just 5GB short of a dual layer HD-DVD by btw), and a BD-50 is a dual layer (note - this doesn't mean double sided) disc that can hold up to 50GB

The codecs are much more complicated to explain, but the links provided in CassilineKnight's post should help.


On a lighter note, I'm glad that you are doing research before buying and that you can accept that Blu-ray has a VERY good chance of winning. Welcome to the forums

[scragham]

Originally Posted by CassilineKnight

Their tactics as a company and frankly cuz I feel they love to overprice the consumer.

Its just a personal thing...like how some dislike MS or w/e.

it's funny that you criticize sony's tactics as a company, and yet say nothing about microsoft's far more predatory and asstastically aggressive behavior.

and let's not forget toshiba's exemplary corporate behavior, either.

[scragham]

Originally Posted by CassilineKnight

Thank you so much for clearing that up.

Do the different video codecs mean that the quality of the video itself will differ?

And I own no Red products as of now so no need to worry about "war memorabilia"

However I appreciate all the concern...

your question is a hard one to answer. mpeg-2 is older than VC-1 and MPEG-4/AVC, and therefore presumably not as good in terms of efficiency etc etc... however, with a ton of space to work with, it can still produce very nice results.

the argument between VC-1 and MPEG-4/AVC is one that the red ants have argued ad nauseum. the short version is they both produce very nice looking movies, but there are differences in how well they handle different bitrates (i.e. how fast the disc/player pumps video data to the display) and you will get red ants telling you that you have reached the point of diminishing returns long before you reach the higher bitrates* (i, and many other BD fanboys - and RBFilms guy - think those red ants are full of crap).

* higher bitrates obviously mean more video data being sent to the display, and therefore presumably better detail in the pictures.