PS3 Blu Ray vs Xbox 360 HD-DVD vs DVD Options

[Xbox-Scene]

PS3 Blu Ray vs Xbox 360 HD-DVD vs DVD Posted by XanTium | December 30 23:15 EST

From gamescentral.com: [QUOTE] So the "next gen" format war is upon us with two sides lined up, ready to take your money for your fourth version of Full Metal Jacket (I can't believe that you actually got it on Laser Disk...what were you thinking). If you are like most people, you are wondering a couple of things, the first being why would I want to buy another version of Full Metal Jacket, and is the $200 add on drive for the 360 worth the money, especially if I already have the PS3? More importantly, which one of the two (the PS3 or 360 HD DVD drive )looks and performs better. This article will attempt to answer these questions with background and information, as well as present evidence to why the ultimate conclusion was reached. Overall this test was to see what next gen game system player is superior, and based on these tests, I would have to say that the 360 add on is the clear winner. Movies on the Blu Ray do look great, but with color levels that are more even allowing for greater levels of clarity, HD DVD just looks better, even over component cables. [/QUOTE] Full Story: gamescentral.com

[psychoace]

Take a game website word on Home Movie technology is always a bad idea. They are not grading the players but actually the content on the disc. Many major dvd review websites will state that Blu Ray has sub par quality on most of there first gen releases because they used poor mpeg2 codec. Now that the publishers have started optimizing there transfers better for mpeg2 and started using mpeg4 the quality has seriously improved and if you look at a mpeg4 movie on hd-dvd and the same movie in mpeg4 on Blu Ray they look exactly the same.

[pholly]

Personally I don't care for one over the other I just want my hidef movies, why pick a format when you can have both. Besides some movies will be on one or the other anyways, just wait and pickup a player that'll play both formats next year

[TheIrishLad]

Please...not another comparison between HD-DVD & Blu-Ray!

Taken from article

Sharp Aquos 1080i capable display
Sony PS3 Blu Ray player outputting over HDMI
Microsoft Xbox 360 with add-on HD DVD drive outputting over component
Samsung Upconversion DVD player outputting over HDMI
*All sliders and options on the television picture setting have been reset to factory defaults

Wow? They don't even know what resolution their TV is, it is 1080p not 1080i. Dumbass

I mean, the guy was testing these on factory presets . The reason you DONT do a test comparison at preset is that you want to compare two/three perfectly calibrated images which both represent the best or closest to the best picture quality. Not comparing 3 sources at preset garbage, this comparison only tells us that this person is an incompetent ass.

If you don't watch HDTV with an uncalibrated picture why make a review on it? Just plain stupid.

This post has been edited by TheIrishLad: Dec 31 2006, 04:54 AM

[mikedavis2838]

Many major dvd review websites will state that Blu Ray has sub par quality on most of there first gen releases because they used poor mpeg2 codec.

The first movie he reviewed was Syriana which is encoded in VC-1 for both formats. Then The Last Samurai, which is also encoded in VC-1 for both formats.

[psychoace]

Personally I don't care for one over the other I just want my hidef movies, why pick a format when you can have both. Besides some movies will be on one or the other anyways, just wait and pickup a player that'll play both formats next year

True but my problem is that Blu Ray has got Resivior Dog, The Fifth Element and a few other movies that wont show up on HD-DVD because of this whole little spat (war is a harsh term that to me is only dignified to actual blood and guns combat) So it's definitely a tough decision.

[Justincredibal]

I don't own either and don't really have anything that would swing my opinion either way.


I really don't think the Hi-Def movies are such a big step up from the picture of a nice upscaled DVD player. It would be interesting to know which normal DVD player he is using, but in all honesty unless u are watching the movies on a 108" projection TV you can't tell a huge diference. Even on your 60" plasma you can't. If you have to put picture up side by side than is it really a big deal!?

So when I read the post I ignored what the normaly DVD player picture looked like because the player was not documented well enough.

But in the end, if you actually put the pictures side-by-side, the HD-DVD picture's colors look better. The over modulated coloring in the Blu-Ray is noticible when compared side by side. The coloring really looks the same as the normaly DVD player.


Bah, I shall wait. My BETAMAX player works fine, and I don't want another one.

This post has been edited by Justincredibal: Dec 31 2006, 05:11 AM

[0794]

Bah, I shall wait. My BETAMAX player works fine, and I don't want another one.

I agree, I mean BetaMax, MiniDisc, MemoryStick, and Blu-Ray are ALL my favorites...

...please smell the sarcasm...

As much as I would love for Sony and Blu-Ray to collapse due to their arrogance, I believe that both formats will co-exist for a good while...and will look similar in quality...so pick your console system and format and just enjoy life...

[troyBORG]

Taking it off the TV again. Come on why can't they do a HD capture of it!

give us a 1920 x 1080 image to look at to compare.

[epsilon72]

Well, I have both, but I'm wondering one thing - is the HD-DVD add-on supposed to be just as loud as the 360's fans?

[dmitri]

Cool idea for an article, but it does a dis-service to those that read it for a couple reasons:

- testing HD vs DVD at 1080i (aka 540 interlaced lines. DVD is 480p. HD can do 1080p)
- screenshots at lower res than actual screen. Zooming in is a great idea. A screenshot @ 640x480 isn't
- VGA isn't a digital connector, X360 can't output digital video

[cerberus414]

X360 can't output digital video

Ummm....Yea it can. But the cables out for it right now only output analog.

But I agree with the other points you made. Honestly, in some pictures i thought DVD looked the best because of such low res screen shots. Bad article and comparison. But at heart, i still think HD DVD is better quality. Just thinking of MPEG-2 gives me chills.

There was once a very very very technical article about VC-1 vs MPEG-2. I honestly couldn't understand anything the guy wrote, but towards the end where he talks about the "bottom line", he said that VC-1 can be up to 2x more efficient. So the format could become a problem for the Blu-Ray. If sony thinks that they will have too much space leftover with VC-1, then I say they should fill it up with more special features and content. I mean, movie industries will not make longer movies just because of BluRay, but BLuRay can do a better job of expanding the special features. Also, I honestly think that things are a bit more complicated then people think with Blu-Ray using VC-1. VC-1 is owned by Microsoft and Blu-Ray being founded by Sony could create some conflicts as they are currently at war (360 vs PS3) with each other right now. (Probably some royalties involved that Sony perhaps doesn't want to pay?)

[Maverick0984]

I don't own either and don't really have anything that would swing my opinion either way.
I really don't think the Hi-Def movies are such a big step up from the picture of a nice upscaled DVD player. It would be interesting to know which normal DVD player he is using, but in all honesty unless u are watching the movies on a 108" projection TV you can't tell a huge diference. Even on your 60" plasma you can't. If you have to put picture up side by side than is it really a big deal!?

So when I read the post I ignored what the normaly DVD player picture looked like because the player was not documented well enough.

But in the end, if you actually put the pictures side-by-side, the HD-DVD picture's colors look better. The over modulated coloring in the Blu-Ray is noticible when compared side by side. The coloring really looks the same as the normaly DVD player.
Bah, I shall wait. My BETAMAX player works fine, and I don't want another one.

i'm confused, did u say that a HD picture isn't all that much better than an upscaled regular DVD? i can tell a huge difference on a 23'' television....let alone anything bigger...wow. seems to me like you just don't have HD and are trying to convince yourself your setup is just as good .

[Martinchris23]

Cool idea for an article, but it does a dis-service to those that read it for a couple reasons:

- testing HD vs DVD at 1080i (aka 540 interlaced lines. DVD is 480p. HD can do 1080p)
- screenshots at lower res than actual screen. Zooming in is a great idea. A screenshot @ 640x480 isn't
- VGA isn't a digital connector, X360 can't output digital video

I spotted this too.

Taken from the article:

the 360 is only capable of outputting digital video over VGA cable

VGA is an analogue technology. Maybe someone should educate this so-called 'geek'. If you're going to write a review, please make sure you actually know what you're talking about!

[Pheidias]

I gotta agree with the Irishlad if someone does tests at factory settings, you should run.

Hmm where does he test the sound?

This post has been edited by Pheidias: Dec 31 2006, 10:03 AM