How many DVD consumers purchase HD DVD by mistake?

[akbungle]

Originally Posted by JerryDelColliano

A ballsy move would be for Toshiba to stop making any DVD player of any kind and work with big box retailers to sell HD DVD players as the ONLY DVD player you now can get.

Originally Posted by deacongreg

I still believe from my experience, that the Blu-Ray players I`ve been in contact with, with the exception of the PS3, have much slower loading times on average than HD DVD players. But, with this Warners Brothers mess going on now, ...

Why is it almost all mod inputs I see have leanings to the HD DVD side. Sure they are veiled a bit but obvious to me.
Like the Load time/firmware update thing (my A2 has needed two updates in order to play movies and I can turn my A2 on go to the bathroom and come back and the tray is finally able to open then loading the movie is no different than any other Blu-Ray machine i've used.)
Then the weird pep talks/ideas on how HD DVD could make a come back or win the format war.

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by akbungle

Why is it almost all mod inputs I see have leanings to the HD DVD side. Sure they are veiled a bit but obvious to me.
Like the Load time/firmware update thing (my A2 has needed two updates in order to play movies and I can turn my A2 on go to the bathroom and come back and the tray is finally able to open then loading the movie is no different than any other Blu-Ray machine i've used.)
Then the weird pep talks/ideas on how HD DVD could make a come back or win the format war.

I think it's because HD DVD won them over by providing excellent content at a lower price that worked for the most part (some HDMI handshake issues aside) added to the fact that BD came out whiffing at pitches so to speak.

Everyone, myself included was convinced BD was better, yada, yada, yada and that HD DVD was dead in the water because of Studio Support and lack of disc space, etc.

The real world results were high quality PQ and AQ at a lower cost. Then BD came out with much worse PQ (for the first 4 months) and more and more firmware updates. Plus there is the long menu loading times on certain titles (cough Disney).

Real world experience has shown me that BD has no edge other than Studio support. Which means that Studios are picking the winner and they may just be siding with the wrong one. Personally I think more for less is better.

[kennyt]

Originally Posted by Lotus

The real world results were high quality PQ and AQ at a lower cost. Then BD came out with much worse PQ (for the first 4 months) and more and more firmware updates. Plus there is the long menu loading times on certain titles (cough Disney).

I have to agree here but wanted to clarify on this. Yes, Blu-ray was worse at first, but I don't think it was so much the format as the software. Sony even gave out free re-prints of it's included Fifth Element as the disc frankly sucked. As time went by, I tried the Samsung BDP-1000 with newer media (and after a firmware update or two) and the picture was quite good IF you got a good disc.

I think HD DVD really had the best starting media, and thus was ahead for both cost and picture quality, newer discs like X-Men III and Ratatouille (yes, the menu load time is horrible) have equal picture quality to the best HD DVD's.

Now, why the heck do the menu's take so long to load? I mean, I just don't get it! They are wasting my time for what? Cute animation that I look at for a few seconds? This needs to stop, and let me skip all the previews too. That would be nice.

[DaViD Boulet]

Given that only 27% of HD DVDs provide lossless audio, while 100% of BDs from Disney, Sony, Fox, and MGM provide lossless, I fail to see how anyone can continue to suggest that there is no real-world benefit from the increased storage/bandwidth on BD versus HD DVD.

I think it's because HD DVD won them over by providing excellent content at a lower price that worked for the most part (some HDMI handshake issues aside) added to the fact that BD came out whiffing at pitches so to speak.

Personal preferences are fine. But aren't the mods at this forum espousing to be format-neutral? Certainly one would expect nothing less regarding their conduct and remarks given that they've stated the goal of format neutrality from the site itself.

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by DaViD Boulet

Given that only 27% of HD DVDs provide lossless audio, while 100% of BDs from Disney, Sony, Fox, and MGM provide lossless, I fail to see how anyone can continue to suggest that there is no real-world benefit from the increased storage/bandwidth on BD versus HD DVD.

Personal preferences are fine. But aren't the mods at this forum espousing to be format-neutral? Certainly one would expect nothing less regarding their conduct and remarks given that they've stated the goal of format neutrality from the site itself.

Real world benefit of lossless audio over DD+: None that a consumers ear can notice. It's a tech spec that looks great. I'd prefer all titles had lossless so the arguement would be pointless.

As to personal preferences of moderators: It's their opinion and they have that right. On the whole they are neutral.

[akbungle]

Originally Posted by Lotus

Real world benefit of lossless audio over DD+: None that a consumers ear can notice. It's a tech spec that looks great.

Just as input I totally disagree with this statement. While I concede that J6P won't notice difference with the equipment they own I don't believe that is any excuse to say they are the same or that all consumers can't hear/enjoy the difference.