HD Disc Format War Not Over By a Long Shot

[Vinyl Rules!]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

[snip]
But the discs would cost more... a *lot* more to make versus standard DVDs.

If software providers can't make money selling something, why would they make and sell it?

BD replication costs will continue to fall and should eventually approach DVD prices (though probably never meet them). However, a dual-format disc is a 4-layer structure that will always cost more to manufacture than a standard DVD or BD.

As I see it, Sony has two choices.

(1) Keep pressing Blu Ray only DVDs. But then they're asking retailers to double inventory new releases, and the number of total back titles will likely never approach that already on regular DVD.

(2) Bite the bullet and figure out a way to put both formats on a single disc. Retailers don't have to double inventory and potentially more titles become available.

But a major complicating factor is that it was relatively easy for a standard DVD plant to convert to HD-DVD, whilst it is much more expensive and difficult to convert a standard DVD plant to Blu Ray.

One valid criticism leveled at Sony was limited pressing capacity for Blu Ray. Now that they've won, there is going to be much more demand for Blu Ray and a lot of plants are going to have to make the conversion to Blu Ray.

Sony has an interesting business decision to make. Option (1) gives them higher software margins per disc, but probably lower volume sales. And it may well accelerate the market shift to downloads and HD VOD.

Option (2) gives them lower software margins, but they get higher volume sales per disc and will likely delay, to some degree, delay the market shift to downloads and HD VOD.

So Sony, do you want to make your money right now, or are you willing to accept less revenue per disc in return for a longer product format lifespan with a higher revenue stream for your product?

I see some interesting business modeling in Sony's future.

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by Vinyl Rules!

Everyone priorities are different, of course, and for me, the audio experience is personally more important than the video experience, as long as the video is of decent quality. I'm happy with my current video display and friends who visit are figuratively (and sometimes literally) astounded by the sound from our 5.1 system. But it did take me almost a year to get the sound system optimized for the room we have it in.

I have to ask what is your 5.1 system EQ?

With a name like Vinyl Rules I expect something cool.

[kennyt]

Originally Posted by Vinyl Rules!

But I'm using a 42" 720p plasma I'm happy with so I can't see paying more particularly since I sat out the hi-rez DVD war.

Everyone priorities are different, of course, and for me, the audio experience is personally more important than the video experience, as long as the video is of decent quality.

I recognize that for others the video is just as, or more important, and that's OK: Some people like Rocky Road whilst others prefer Pecan Butter Crunch.

OK, VR,

You system might be even more complicated than my own, I hope you don't have to tear it down too often! I can see you not needing/wanting better video for you 42" 720p plasma, but given that the audio is the most important thing to you, you are missing out on first far less compressed DD and DTS, and forget about the improvement with LPCM or bitstream DTS MA or DD+ or any of the other new codecs Blu-ray offers.

I can tell you even on small, simple systems (take my bedroom rig with a receiver and 5.1 wall mounted speaker) the difference between DD or DTS and LPCM is HUGE!!!!!

You really owe it to yourself to go listen to a HD player set up to demo you the differences between these two outputs on any system and you will be floored, forget about even needing a highly resolving system (though it will only further the difference) you can tell on little cheapo systems from BB or CC even, it is that great.

While I might like Peanut Butter Crunch more, I still want it to be Haagen Daz or Ben and Jerry's when I eat it!

[AudAdv]

Here are the numbers to go with the point KennyT is making about audio on Hi-Def discs:

Dolby TrueHD (Surround sound audio format)
* Lossless compression coding technology.
* Up to 18Mbps bit rate.
* 8 full-range channels of 24-bit/96 kHz audio. (capable of more, but not supported on Blu-Ray or HD-DVD)
* Extensive metadata including dialogue normalization and dynamic range control.

DTS-HD Master (Surround sound audio format)
* Lossless compression coding technology. Bit-for-bit copy of the studio master recording
* Up to 24.5Mb/sec (Blu-Ray) or 18Mb/sec (HD-DVD)
* 8 full-range channels of 24-bit/192 kHz audio.

DTS-HD High Resolution (Surround sound audio format)
* Lossy compression coding technology.
* Up to 6Mb/sec (Blu-Ray) or 3Mb/sec (HD-DVD)
* 8 full-range channels of 24-bit/96 kHz audio.

DTS (most other versions)
* Lossy compression coding technology.
* Up to 1.5Mb/sec
* 5.1 or 6.1 channels of 16-bit/44.1 kHz audio.

[kennyt]

Originally Posted by AudAdv

Dolby TrueHD (Surround sound audio format)
* Up to 18Mbps bit rate.

DTS-HD Master (Surround sound audio format)
* Up to 24.5Mb/sec (Blu-Ray) or 18Mb/sec (HD-DVD)

This is why i think downloads will take a large leap in bandwidth to beat Blu-ray, I want the lossless audio!!!!

[PRO-630HD]

Interesting read on Stringer, also confirms the payoff which we all know happened unless you have had your head in the sand. I like Stringer though and he seems to be a vast improvement over past Sony front men.