HD-DVD officially dead (finally!)

[FM-77]

There's only one single PS3 model available. The 40 GB one.

What about the 80gb Motorstorm pack?  Amazon, Toys R Us, Sears, and K-Mart's respective web sites all claim to have it in stock and ready to ship.  Did it recently get the ax and these stores are just clearing out old stock?  If so, Sony better have plans to add a new model with PS2 compatibility or add it to the 40gb version, or their sales will suck even more than they already do.

Sorry, no idea about USA. But I have read that they have stopped producing everything but the 40 GB one. Apparently it is responsible for the skyrocketing PS3 sales (4 million in a three or so months).

Not good news

That's where I stopped reading.

[guyjin]

Are you trying to say that regular DVD's can do Blu-Ray quality "if the studios wanted to"?  I really, really hope not, as that would not be a smart and informed thing to say.

Actually, they can, if you use a DVDROM to store hi-def data. However, the size of a DVD is small enough that multiple disc swapping would be neccesary, which most people are not going to put up with.

[Necromancer]

Actually, they can, if you use a DVDROM to store hi-def data. However, the size of a DVD is small enough that multiple disc swapping would be neccesary, which most people are not going to put up with.

But DVD-ROMs won't play on a standard DVD player, so what's the point?  MPEG-2 does allow for 1080p and 720p resolutions, but the bit rate is so high that it would be useless and the DVD standard doesn't allow for 'em anyway.  MPEG-4 is supported by a few DVD players, and its bit rate at HD resolutions is about half of a standard DVDs bit rate; I haven't seen anything recorded at this format, but I assume that it would be riddled with artifacts and clearly inferior to the HD mediums.  Any way you slice it, 8.5gb DVD < 30gb HD-DVD < 50gb Blu-Ray.

[SNKNostalgia]

One thing I found to be funny is some movie rentals d/l on Xbox Live 720p are 4 gigs with 5.1 surround included. Clean, but not 1080p though. Pirates 3 was like 7.6 gigs with 5.1 surround, ouch. I found it is cheaper for me to rent with my 360 than to drive 35 min round trip to Blockbuster. Of course, the Netflix mail order is nice and all, but I like to watch a movie right away and I change my mind often.

I usually buy movies that won't see the light of day on HD format for many years or I already own the ones I would buy on HD. Standard DVD movies I bought recently: Fist of Legend (Jet Li), Orgazmo (Trey Parker), The Punisher (Dolph Lundgren) and Split Second (Rutger Hauer). So I am just not really ready yet, and I don't want to spoil myself to make DVD look like  what VHS looks like to me now.

[FM-77]

One thing I found to be funny is some movie rentals d/l on Xbox Live 720p are 4 gigs with 5.1 surround included. Clean, but not 1080p though. Pirates 3 was like 7.6 gigs with 5.1 surround, ouch. I found it is cheaper for me to rent with my 360 than to drive 35 min round trip to Blockbuster. Of course, the Netflix mail order is nice and all, but I like to watch a movie right away and I change my mind often.

I usually buy movies that won't see the light of day on HD format for many years or I already own the ones I would buy on HD. Standard DVD movies I bought recently: Fist of Legend (Jet Li), Orgazmo (Trey Parker), The Punisher (Dolph Lundgren) and Split Second (Rutger Hauer). So I am just not really ready yet, and I don't want to spoil myself to make DVD look like  what VHS looks like to me now.

Ever heard of The Pirate Bay?

[GUTS]

^^ We get it dude, you're a huge pirate, you don't have to remind everyone every 2 seconds.

[nigazallucard]

This sucks. Not good news at all. I was honestly hoping for HD-DVD to stay a lot longer, or pull through everything. But I guess consumers are stupid (not surprising).

REALLY sucks...BETAMAX finally wins .

Some of you are probably asking, why am I so against BluRay? I have one word for you.
SONY.

I laugh here. 

They are nothing but a huge monopoly, and have been for years. Their CEOs are full of themselves (especially the one in charge of PlayStation),

The TRUE.
 

Now don't get me wrong. I own a PlayStation 1, and a PlayStation 2. I have bought plenty of games for both. I have no reason at this time to buy a PlayStation 3, not to mention the games I have seen, are unimpressive, and run like shit (Heavenly Sword is just one good example of ass).

 LOL again.. PS1 was very special to me..ff7...CSOTN..was a great system with a LOT of good and classic games however with  a bad hardware conception.I cant forget how I used to run my games in my psx upside down. that f*cking optical unit.

I have a ps2 too but especially for exclusive games... like SOTC ,Kingdom hearts...and GOW.

So for me right now, BluRay is not an option for me.

Isn't for anyone.We being forced to. Anyway..thats the way it is.
Ill buy a ps3 when gow 3, and TEAM ICO launching something... until then..isn't a worth buy to me.

[SignOfZeta]

If they took care of the old negatives/answer prints/show prints then they can get a better HD version than movies shot today on 2K digital like Apacalypto.  You may see film grain in a movie like Raiders of the Lost Ark, but grain isn't a bad thing unless it is excessive like in Ghostbusters.

I actually had a chance to watch a print of Raiders in 2002 or so that was in *amazingly* good shape. I'm not sure what the story was behind that thing, or where it has been all those years.

Yeah, anyway, a full budget movie of from any period talkies on up demands at *least* 1080p. 35mm is way way beyond DVD. I think what makes people forget (or in the case of younger people who only go to mall theaters, never know in the first place) what a good print looks like is that new films are all cranked out of a super high speed process so that everything can have the largest opening day possible. Prints of new films pretty much look like grainy shit. I remember seeing Return of the King in the theater and just being appalled by how shit it looked. It looks better on DVD, and that just shouldn't be the case.

[Tatsujin]

Bah I could care less "who" wins as I don't plan on purchasing either format.

haha..as long as i gettin' my "HD-Torrents".

[SignOfZeta]

This sucks. Not good news at all. I was honestly hoping for HD-DVD to stay a lot longer, or pull through everything. But I guess consumers are stupid (not surprising).

The death of HD DVD has nothing to do with consumers. Very few people comparatively bought either format, it was the studios and retailers that killed the format...and quickly. Two months ago HD DVD was doing fine, and if we are supposed to think that there wasn't some sleazy back room shenanigans going on with Sony motivating this then they take us for morons.

[ceti alpha]

Sorry, no idea about USA. But I have read that they have stopped producing everything but the 40 GB one. Apparently it is responsible for the skyrocketing PS3 sales (4 million in a three or so months).

Meh, and I'd say about 3.5 million of those people are pissed when they get home and realize that they can't play their PS2 games. That was really scummy of Sony and just plain stupid. How many PS3s do they actually have out and which are backwards compatible...oh wait...I don't even care to know. 

I for one couldn't really care less about this lame format war. There is virtually no difference between Blue Ray and HD except that Blue Ray seems to cost more....for now. All I know is that I keep hearing that "the format war is OVER!!", and yet it still seems to go on and on and on....

Reminds me a little of something else....hmmm.....



I'd say that by the time someone actually "wins" this format war there will already be another format out. 

[Dark Fact]

Are you trying to say that regular DVD's can do Blu-Ray quality "if the studios wanted to"?  I really, really hope not, as that would not be a smart and informed thing to say.

If that's not the case, then prove me wrong.  Personally, I'm just sick of tired of stores and studios gushing over the Blu-Ray like it is the second coming of Christ.  What's so "revolutionary" about it aside from it having greater storage space and sharper image and clearer sound? If that's revolutionary, we can see this same kind of crap happen again 10 years from now with even greater storage and even sharper picture.  If you want revolutionary, find a way for us to watch our movies in a new media format that doesn't look like a disc and makes the DVD look outdated like the MP3 player vs the CD Player.

[Tatsujin]

with more advanced decompression algorithms, today you may bring a much better quality on a DVD (4.7GB) as with the present used MPEG2 decompression. a good decompressed DVD can be reduced to a quater of its space with almost the same quality. so may be the same could be said now about HD-DVD/Bluray, since a DVD today could be almost compressed down to a CD. but i believe that the imense bigger space of a bluray, coulnd't be compensated with a DVD, even using the best decompression possible.

since the resolution and sharpness of todays HD-televisions will still arise, the media have to follow as well. DVD on HD-TV just doesn't fit anymore. on a low-res CRT it doesn't matter!

[termis]

I wonder when we'll get decent amount of completely uncompressed video & audio fitting into an optical disc? (Or at the very least, lossless video).

[Joe Redifer]

If that's not the case, then prove me wrong.

Part of what I do for a living is author DVDs.  Video DVDs can only contain MPEG2 video and can only be 480p or 480i resolution.  That is NOT the same quality as Blu-Ray.  Blu-Ray also offers uncompressed sound which is at a higher resolution than anything afforded by DVD.  Nobody is making shitty DVDs on purpose.  DVD movies released these days look great considering the format.  There are no shenanigans going on with the A/V quality of the format.

What's so "revolutionary" about it aside from it having greater storage space and sharper image and clearer sound?

Who says it is supposed to be revolutionary?  It is more "evolutionary" and HDTV is a big leap over SDTV.  DVD itself didn't even offer that big of a jump over VHS as Blu-Ray does over DVD... it was still standard definition. DVD = 720x480 vs about 300x480 for VHS.  Blu-Ray = 1920x1080 vs 720x480 for DVD.  The only extra thing DVD offered was menus (who cares?) and selectable special features.  What more would you have Blu-Ray add? 

with more advanced decompression algorithms, today you may bring a much better quality on a DVD (4.7GB) as with the present used MPEG2 decompression. a good decompressed DVD can be reduced to a quater of its space with almost the same quality.

You'd still need all new players to decode the new compression scheme.  The DVD video standard is already maxed out.  Also DVDs are 8.6 real gigs (or 9.4 GB if you count to 1000 instead of 1024).



As for audio and video improving again and again, there is a limit to how much the human eyeball can discern and the ear can hear.  I wouldn't worry too much.  The same people were freakin' about about DVD when it came to be.  Nothing is being forced.  If nobody buys Blu-Ray then it would be stupid for studios to keep spending money on it.