"Blu-ray Disc" vs. "HD DVD": Neither Is Winning

[Jerry Jones]

Can "HD DVD" or "Blu-ray Disc" possibly delay their inevitable demise?

I think it is almost hopeless.

But there might be one glimmer of hope.

APPLE could put a "Blu-ray Disc" or "HD DVD" drive into the APPLE TV and keep the price low.



Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Jerry Jones]

I've been using VHS players/recorders for about 20 or more years and I still get great use out of them. My Dad used to have an 8-track in his cars in the '70's and we loved to play those tapes. And jeez all through college the ONLY way I could make a music compilation was with compact cassette!!!.

And the manufacturers have kept you buying and buying and buying, right?

Mark, my point is simple.

The concept of consumer "media formats" is dead.

The advent of digital downloading and streaming is a major paradigm shift.

It means we won't have to buy the audio cassette, Laserdisc, 8-track, VHS, MiniDisc, Zip, Bernoulli, Jaz, Rev, HD DVD, Blu-ray Disc or any other "here today; gone tomorrow" storage technology.

This is good news, Mark.

Consumers who bought these technologies in the past had no choice.

But those days are over (thankfully).

Now we don't have to play that game anymore.

Eventually, you will accept the undeniable truth; "Blu-ray Disc" and "HD DVD" are as dead as disco.



Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Jerry Jones]

Exactly.

Actually, neither of the high definition formats will gain traction because "HD DVD" and "Blu-ray Disc" are as dead as disco.

And even if one of them emerges as a so-called "winner," it will have been in vain... way too late.

The downloading paradigm is upon us now.

It's really too bad they didn't lower prices sooner.

I guess the manufacturers of the high definition optical disc formats got a little greedy.

Now they've both lost.



Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

P.S. Old films look great with a low-cost upscaling standard definition DVD player.

Please read:

http://www.hdtvexpert.com/pages_b/ReallyNeed.html

Scaling DVD players offer great performance at a value price. In fact, the OPPO DV-980H and its predecessor, the DV-981H, work exceptionally well at what amounts to turning a sow’s ear into a silk purse. There’s only so much detail in a standard definition pressing of a DVD, and to have it scale so crisply to 1080p resolution takes some serious number crunching.

[Jerry Jones]

My "Where No Man Has Gone Before" Star Trek episode from APPLE has the following file properties:

Protected MPEG-4 Video File (Video Codec H.264)
640 x 480 (resolution)
502.4MB (size)
1384 kbps (total bitrate)
Stereo, 44.100 kHz

The H.264 compression does a remarkable job.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Jerry Jones]

Here's a review of VUDU.com's "Vudu" device:

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2007/tc2007104_097726.htm

I'll bet the Star Trek on HD DVD is great, but is it worth it?

I've decided to go with the APPLE downloads.

They're standard definition.

But they look quite good.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Hulk]

so when that becomes available globally, hddvd/bd will have lived a nice long life. In the mean time, I believe dual format players will phase out regular DVD players and DVD sales will slowly be replaced with the high resolution formats as people buy new players to replace their dying DVD players.

Exactly. And thank you for adding some sanity to this insane thread.


Jerry,

And do you really think that all those 35mm movies only have 720x480 resolution in them and scanning the frames any higher won't produce any more detail?

I have read that 35mm film is at LEAST 6 megapixel equivalent resolution. My own experience with film seems to confirm that.

1080p is "only" about 2 megapixels. I think many, many restored films will be able to provide good clean scans at 1080p resolution.

Imagine what 480p would look like blown up to movie theater screen size. It would look like crap. 35mm film probablyl from the '60's on up to date (or earlier) will look great when transferred to HD by people who know how.

If Doc is reading this thead I believe he has the experience to let us know if old films can be scanned higher than with 480 lines of resolution for additional viewing benefit.

[paulw]

Anyone got a copy of the new Star Trek TOS in HD DVD?? I believe it was restore from the 35mm masters and new CG work done to bring it up to date.. If it's as good as the sales pitch then there could be a good reason to go HiDef.

Oh and another thingy to watch your download content on.

http://www.vudu.com/

[Jerry Jones]

When we first got the HDTV and I enabled 480p on the DVD player I was amazed (and disgusted) that I could now see the scratches in the film the DVD was made from!

This is so true.

The only films that seem to truly benefit from HD are new animated films and very new films.

As far as many older classic films and TV shows are concerned, there's not much benefit in going to HD, in my view.

The only other benefit of HD is new documentaries shot with very good HD cameras.

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Jerry Jones]

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9674879-1.html

CRAVE gets its hands on the brand new SlingCatcher media streamer!

...and more from Engadget.Com:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/23/slingcatcher-box-reveals-codec-support-why-hello-xvid/

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[wkulecz]

My tertiary point is that downloading HD video, at the same quality as HD DVDs of either flavour, is not a practical proposition and highly compressed MD video will not satisfy the public.

I'm not so sure, a generation raised on MP3 and youtube probably wouldn't know A/V quality if it bit them.

I've wondered for a long time how Hollywood films survived, as I quit going to the movies many years ago when the theaters stopped seeming to care how poor quality their projection stocks were.


When we first got the HDTV and I enabled 480p on the DVD player I was amazed (and disgusted) that I could now see the scratches in the film the DVD was made from!

--wally.

[Jerry Jones]

http://www.blackfriarsinc.com/blog/2007/10/apple-tv-just-preview-of-coming-upgrade

Encrypted peer-to-peer (P2P) Internet distribution. Despite Apple's long-standing relationship with Akamai and its new high-definition video distribution system, we believe that Apple has built an encrypted BitTorrent-like distribution system into Leopard, Apple's new operating system scheduled to be released this month. While any consumer will be able to download high-definition movies, Apple users with Leopard or an Apple TV device will be able to opt-in and redistribute those movies to other users in exchange for iTunes credits. In essence, Apple's customers will become a secondary distribution channel for iTunes and will save Apple millions in bandwidth charges to boot. But to guarantee the security and safety of this system, consumers will need Leopard as their platform.

Fascinating rumor.



Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Tjalfe]

are you doing much more than posting google hits to "Why HD DVD and Blu-ray Will Not Succeed" ?

[Jerry Jones]

http://www.thebitbag.com/index.php/2007/10/22/why-hd-dvd-blu-ray-will-not-succeed/

"Why HD DVD and Blu-ray Will Not Succeed"

Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net

[Tjalfe]

so when that becomes available globally, hddvd/bd will have lived a nice long life. In the mean time, I believe dual format players will phase out regular DVD players and DVD sales will slowly be replaced with the high resolution formats as people buy new players to replace their dying DVD players.

[Jerry Jones]

More evidence that hard disks and wireless streaming are the future:

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=202600286

IBM (NYSE: IBM) disclosed Monday that it has teamed up with Taiwanese vendor MediaTek to develop computer chipsets that the companies say will allow consumers to wirelessly zap high-definition content to televisions and other devices at push-button speeds.

Dubbed mmWave, the chipsets -- which comprise computer chips and high-speed interconnects -- will use so-called millimeter wave radio technology to transmit the data.

The technology employs ultra-high radio frequencies capable of sending and receiving large amounts of data at extremely high speeds to create what IBM and MediaTek are calling "revolutionary multimedia wireless products."

Devices utilizing the technology would be capable of receiving a 10-Gbit file in about 5 seconds, compared to 10 minutes using current Wi-Fi systems. "This collaborative effort will enable consumers to wirelessly transfer large multimedia data files around their home and/or offices in seconds," said T.C. Chen, VP for science and technology at IBM Research, in a statement.

Told you.



Jerry Jones

http://www.jonesgroup.net