HD Disc Format War Not Over By a Long Shot

[PRO-630HD]

Originally Posted by TheMoose

I do a A/B showing of The 5th Element on DVD & Blu-Ray & people are amazed at the difference.

The was the 2nd Bluray edition I hope. I will go on my quick rant here for a 39gb disc it is a shame they couldn't use the extras 11gb and put on the extras from the ultimate edition dvd. Sony is getting better in this regard though, if only Fox would do the same.

[kennyt]

Originally Posted by TheMoose

Oh & no my next job won't have anything to do with asking if they "want fries with that", when I retire from my current job the question I'll be asking people is "How fast do you want to go"!

So until I have a internet connection that can download a movie in 30 minutes in 1080p with lossless audio & the extras we've come to expect & I have a multi Terabyte hard drive to keep them on I'll keep deluding myself & buy my movies on Blu-Ray.
That's just my opinion, I guess time will tell who is right.

Right on Moose! I want to go really fast!

I soooooo agree with AR on this one, and have been saying the same thing since the start of this 'war'. The bandwidth is already doable, it's just not reached a realistic price. Think Internet2, this would do it for us all, and with the continual drop in HD pricing, it's only a matter of time before we are no longer needing hard media.

[DaViD Boulet]

A week ago when I was at BB buying my copy of the 3-disc BD set for the Resident Evil films, there were 3 other guys roaming the HD DVD/BD ailes... and picking up discs (I won't say which flavor, this isn't a format-war post, just an HDM post). We got into some conversations about the two formats, Warner, and HDTVs and it became clear in about 5 seconds that all three of these guys were 100% J6P folks... not esoteric videophile/technophile consumers. I was a bit surprised, but this same experience has played out a few times now on the floor of local BB brick and motor shops.

Why are they buying HDM? simple: they just had bought new flatscreen 1080p HDTVs and now they want something that really shows it off.

[DaViD Boulet]

Statically significant research has validated that the over 95% of listeners cannot hear the difference between between 384 mHz MP3 downloads and the the 1.444 mHz native bit rate of CD's.

And if you took 20 seconds and explained to them the differences in sound quality between the two and what to look for, they'd hear the differences 100% of the time in double blind A/B listening.

Tests that show folks "can't hear" are only demonstrating that folks *don't evaluate* sound quality as it's not part of their normal objective-set in every day life. Even my mother who was no audiophile could hear the most subtle of differences once they were pointed out to her and she understood what to listen for.

As I keep saying, like a broken record, the issue is NOT HD-DVD vs. Blue-Ray formats - The issue is how soon 720p VOD and iTV downloads will make these physical media obsolete.

Then that's a consumer like many consumers already who's interested in convenience over quality. We've had consumers like that for the past 10 years and it hasn't stopped DVD from offering qualtiy-based features like progressive-scan and anamorphic encoding.

As displays get larger and cheaper it won't be long before Susie has no problem seeing the difference between a well compressed HD signal and an overcompressed one. Whether that matters enough to weigh the difference between downloading and disc rental is another matter.

But there will always be collectors. Just as with DVD now... even wtih on-demand cable (which is downloading in real time) we still have consumers who buy disc-based media.

[TheMoose]

Originally Posted by PRO-630HD

The was the 2nd Bluray edition I hope. I will go on my quick rant here for a 39gb disc it is a shame they couldn't use the extras 11gb and put on the extras from the ultimate edition dvd. Sony is getting better in this regard though, if only Fox would do the same.

Oh yea it was the re-release!
I was amazed at how bad the original Blu-Ray release sucked!!
I'd go into a B&M & they would have The 5th Element playing on the biggest HDTV in a prime spot & it looked like crap!
The 5th Element might not be an academy award type movie But it is a lot of fun & it has Milla Jovovich!
That was a reference DVD in Superbit & there was a big stink raised about getting it done right!
Whoever mastered that one screwed the pooch!!

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

A week ago when I was at BB buying my copy of the 3-disc BD set for the Resident Evil films, there were 3 other guys roaming the HD DVD/BD ailes... and picking up discs (I won't say which flavor, this isn't a format-war post, just an HDM post). We got into some conversations about the two formats, Warner, and HDTVs and it became clear in about 5 seconds that all three of these guys were 100% J6P folks... not esoteric videophile/technophile consumers. I was a bit surprised, but this same experience has played out a few times now on the floor of local BB brick and motor shops.

Why are they buying HDM? simple: they just had bought new flatscreen 1080p HDTVs and now they want something that really shows it off.

I get that a lot too, while I buy most of my movies at Amazon I check out the Blu-Rays when ever I'm in a B&M just to see if there are any deals & there is always someone there who just bought a HDTV or has a PS3 in their cart.

The Resident Evil movies get a lot of flack from the academy awards types too, but hey, it has Milla Jovovich & Zombies!! Who could ask for anything more!!
I hope there is a Resident Evil 4, I want to see an army of Alice's storming Japan to kick some Umbrella Corp ass!!

[PRO-630HD]

Originally Posted by TheMoose

Oh yea it was the re-release!
I was amazed at how bad the original Blu-Ray release sucked!!
I'd go into a B&M & they would have The 5th Element playing on the biggest HDTV in a prime spot & it looked like crap!
The 5th Element might not be an academy award type movie But it is a lot of fun & it has Milla Jovovich!
That was a reference DVD in Superbit & there was a big stink raised about getting it done right!
Whoever mastered that one screwed the pooch!!

One thing I will say going back 11 years is Sony had the best looking dvd titles out the gate in 97 and they were all anamorphic transfers. I was shocked at how bad there QC was early on with bluray as really they had a great track record with dvd. They have turned it around 180 degrees though and of the bluray titles I have seen lately, their's are the best looking. Granted they have the most at stake. I really haven't seen a bad looking title since Vertical Limit and that was from last Feb. Ever since Casino Royale and AVC their stuff has been solid. I saw Resident Evil 3 about a week ago and thought it looked pretty good. Perfect drive in movie material.