Now they do. But when they first showed up on the market a few years back, you had to choose one or the other because there was no such thing as a burner/player that supported both. Kinda like Blu-Ray vs HD DVD now.

No way... even though I own an XBox 360, Blue Ray is the CLEAR WINNER when it comes to hig rez movies! 1080P is way better than 720P plain and simple.

So, while I'll enjoy the use of the XBox360, when I add hi def movie player, it'll have to be a Blue Ray. With the price of the PS3 at only $600 with the superior Blue Ray player, I'll probably just get one of those too instead of a stand alone player once the PS3 are more readily available.

The xbox360 and hd-dvd add-on both do 1080p just fine. As of now, component will display 1080i, and vga will do 1080p for movies.

clear winner???? tell me if its the clear winner why are the HD-DVD sales going stronger and selling better than the blu-ray sales, you dont even know that the external hd-dvd drive for the xbox 360 is 1080p also so you lose by default. lol

only thing i dont like is that they need hdmi for it. thats the only complaint that i have.

Got it and the difference is worth the cost. For 200 bucks its cheaper for this than any other HD player, so why not enjoy this cheap ass drive on your 360 and PC.

I'm not getting one yet, as I want to see whether Blu-ray or HD-DVD comes out on top. Plus, there isn't a very big HD-DVD library right now, and the TV I'm using for my 360 isn't HD anyway.

I'm just waiting for them to offer HD-DVD titles at my local BlockBuster. I rent all of my movies, I don't buy, so an HD-DVD player would be useless to me until I can rent them.

Its Amazing for those that think there is a clear winner. As mentioned above the current space limitation is a non issue. Also from my understanding BluRay has been using Mpeg2 vs HDDVD starting out with VC1 codec making most 1st gen set of movies look better on HDDVD.. On Paper BluRay is a better choice, but whats on paper and what is currently available are two different things.

Also the 1080i/p argument from my understanding is not important. Current gen BluRay players have a separate chip that is de-interlacing them making there 1080p output no different than the 1080p upconverting that a normal 1080p set would do automatically.

I for one voted with my wallet and got a Toshiba HDDVD player... I was going to avoid the format war, but I was desperate for HDContent and there was no way I was going to be able to talk the wife into the costs of a BluRay player. Also I have bought just a couple movies, but overall will be relying on netflix so that I don't have to worry about a large movie collection that could one day end up going the way of betamax. Right now I feel HDDVD has the edge on things, but hope that we just end up with dual format players at reasonable costs so that nobody ends up with obsolete HD movies laying around.


-Phatty

Also have found interesting the stats at... http://www.thedvdwars.com/index.cfm

just because bluray can do 1080p and theorhetically produce a better picture does not mean it is going to win.


REMEMBER VHS AND BETAMAX

beta had a better picture quality, but vhs still won.

How many people are actually gonna trade in their 1080i tv's that they spent a bunch of money on for th 1080p?

not that many. the install base of 1080i is huge while the 1080p is marginal at best.


either one could win, but just wait.


also why replace all the dvd when they would look no better in HD. Some old ones will not get much of an upgrade from going to HD, due to being low quality because they are older movies.

sit wait don't waste money yet

King Kong (came with) looked impressive, but I also bought Phantom of the Opera and even with my receiver @ 100% volume, didn't get enough volume.

I have it, and the image is tons better then standard dvds on my 50 plasma. I was thinking about waiting to see which format would win. But I figured that hd-dvd was going to win just because the name is more "average person" recognizable and it is more cost effective to produce. So I thought I would join the hd-dvd side and help it win. The more that use it the better chance it will be the winner. So don't wait, be part of the decision making... You wont regret the picture difference if you have an hdtv.

I consider the XBox HD DVD player to be an interim solution. It's $200, which is the cheapest entry point into the HD disc market. Period. No other player currently out can touch that; either for HD DVD or Blu-Ray. I do not plan to continue using it once real players become more affordable and better made. I will get a PS3 as soon as I can find them in a store other than frickin' eBay, and hopefully there will be some compelling games for the thing by then too.

The Toshiba HD DVD players currently on the market are not that good. They are EXTREMELY slow (almost a full minute from power on to disc start, even after the f/w upgrade), and have some compliance issues. They're also a lot more expensive. By contrast the X360 player is FAST, and easy to operate.

The same goes for the Samsung Blu-Ray player. Prohibitively priced and slow, it just can't compare to the 360's player.

So really, if you want to get into the HD disc market this year then the 360 add-on is the only way to go.

bought 3 HD-addon's just cuz i think they're worth that much...

I have a Panasonic HD Front Projector and regular movies look amazing compared to the 27" JVC tube I had before, especially since my screen is now 72". I am pleased with the 480p movies at the moment, but I would like to see the 360 upconvert/upscale movies to 720p or 1080i. I will be one who waits for the war to be over, my vote is for HD-DVD. Affordable, practical, and usefull. The only problem I see is that the companis backing BD are the more consumer brands and such. We shall see. I don't really care who wins, as long as someone does and the prices drop and movies are widely available.

I don't mean to give away my age here but this reminds me of Betamax vs VHS so much. Betamax looked way better on paper but we all know how that one turned out huh! I'd ramble on but I see superasshole already covered this one.

sorry I want Blu-Ray

I can't even afford a 360 let alone the HD-DVD addon, I don't think the drive is even out in the UK yet anyway?

I would like to wait for a clear winner though, and I need to see both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD in action before I decide anyway. I only have a 720p monitor but I'm urging my parents to get a HD-Ready TV at Christmas .

HD-DVD and BLU-RAY as far as set-top players display the same picture in 1080p. The format o the disc is the relivency, not the data that is on it- it is the same. Xbox360 can't show the true HD without 1080p support- which does not work with 360 right now? Format does not matter, the content on the disc does. There is no difference, DATA WISE, from an HD-DVD movie or BLU-RAY movie. Both recorded in 1080p with HD cameras- the difference is which can display the better picture and why.

HDMI plug is coming for 360, but will it be digital?

Blu-Ray only offers more storage than HD-DVD, and no movie made to date, even fills up a HD-DVD.

I picked the wrong option, I will not get the External player for 360. It's only 500.00 for a Low End PS3 -vs- 800.00 for just a set-top Blu-Ray player = spend the 300.00 more than the HD-DVD player for 360, and get a PS3. You get the Blu-Ray player, plus a game console- win win scenario. Even a set-top HD-DVD player is 400 to 500.00 + 100 = PS3 for me.

honestly, i would be more interested when i own a decent HD tv. (probably about 2-3 years away, as i own a decent 30" regular def i am not willing to abandon yet.)

Also if i do buy one before the television upgrade, it will probably be used by my pc.

For $199.00, this HD-DVD addon lets me watch HD-DVD movies now. In the near future there will most likely be combination players (I don't believe the format wars will be settled that soon because each side is being stubborn), and these will be able to be bought from Wal-Mart for under $100. Therefore, I am not too worried and we will all be able to play BlueRay and HD-DVD titles with no problems. In a few years, those who have bought the HD-DVD addon will find it in their closet, dust if off and think... "Eww... I used to use this clunky thing!" I know this because I know this because I seen my $900 Toshiba Progressive Scan player in the closet.

Once I found out that the LOTR and Matrix trilogies were coming to HD-DVD I bought the drive.

I'm sure its been said in this thread... but I'm being lazy...

But... many manufacturers are touting dual format players and they have already figured out how to it with a single layer. They are estimating 6 months, which is about the time it will take before we have any real flow of flicks in HD formats....

Just my opinion

I have the HD-A1 standalone. I've had it for about 5 months or so. It rocks. No need for the addon, especially when I get True HD audio and HDMI upscaling for DVDs.

I have 2 friends that HAVE purchased it, though (on my recommendation).

why gamble on somthing you have no say in what so ever.
When the big sudio's make up there mind to go on this HD trip with one of the players then I will make up my mind..

But for now I'm happy playing my DVD on my 30" HD plasma.....

I just got a new Samsung LS-N4696 television. LCD, 1080p, 46-inch. This may come as a shock to you guys, but this TV supports 1080p via a component cable connection. I am sure other new ones do as well, though older ones probably do not.

So now I am enjoying X360 games and HD DVD playback in full 1080p, and man it looks awesome. I don't recommend VGA at this time... the picture is washed out and too bright, with very poor contrast (known issue I guess). Component is the way to go.

Do some research you doofus.

Both formats are capable of native 1080P.
Both formats have identical quality when using the same codecs, at the moment most bluray titles use MPEG2 and have *WORSE* quality than HD-DVD titles.

The disc capacity is irrelevant for movies, both formats are bitrate limited anyway.

Where do you get 1080P is better than 720P?? HD-DVD isn't 720P.

Look at how much a stand alone HD-DVD player is. And then tell me you don't think this is an awsome price

soon as i gots the $$$ i will gets the HD-DVD its right after a wii

Id buy one if I had an HD tv

PM me if youve got an extra 42" 1080p laying around.

blu-ray, bomb.

8-layer 200gb discs, bomb.

support next generaTIVE ideas, bomb bomb.

This is being addressed very shortly in an update that will also include DTS support.

nb - HD DVD is currently outselling Poo Ray 2:1

And the guy who saying Blu Ray is 'slightly better' must be visually impared. The quality of Blu Ray output is noticeably inferior to HD DVD on the current players / movies.



Why on earth would you need it to upscale? Your Plama / LCD panel is already perfectly suited to upscale movies to the native resolution of your display.

You dont need an external box probably making a worse job of it.



Xbox 360 CAN already display 1080P - just get the latest dashboard update that has been out for sometime.

HDMI is ONLY digital. The picture quality is no better than the perfectly adequate component video outputs that you aready have. The only advantage of HDMI is fewer cables. However it adds DRM :-(

Storage wise, HD DVD is the winner -
Dual layer Blu Ray disk = 50GB
Triple layer HD DVD Disk = 45 GB PLUS you get 9 GB of normal DVD on the Flip side = 54 GB....

$500 for a PS3 and you are stuck with a Betamax V2 Poo Ray player and a console with inferior graphics power to the Xbox 360. As can be plainly seen from Ridge Racer / Need For Speed. Not to mention that it runs Linux so you probably need most of the hard disk free for all the security patches it will constantly be downloading...

richto hd dvd and blue ray titles looks pretty much the same they use the same codecs and are taken from the same master.im guessing you are an hd dvd fanboy/xbox360 fanboy

No they dont - try watching them on the same screen side by side. Blu Ray is a NOTICEABLY worse picture - so quite significantly inferior.

This is largely because BluRay uses an inferior CODEC - MPEG2. Versus VC1 and MPEG4 AVC in HD DVD.

However even when this is not the case, current HD DVD players still outperform Blu Ray as regards picture quality. See http://origin.arstechnica.com/news.ars/pos...60801-7399.html

Occasional compression artifacts and brightness issues also led the site to crown HD DVD the winner. "In our first head-to-head comparison, we found the HD DVD to be superior," wrote Peter Bracke. "The unfortunate cropping of the Blu-ray image, coupled with more noticeable compression artifacts and an overall darker cast, can't compete with the more consistently pleasing presentation of the HD DVD."

See also http://www.hometheaterblog.com/hometheater...y_vs_hddvd.html

Not to mention that for the PS3 in particular, Sony has confirmed that the PS3 has no internal scaler as part of its hardware that can upconvert 480p/i or 720p content (whether a standard-def DVD or a PlayStation game) to 1080p/i. That leads to two separate issues. First, if you have a 1080i-only HDTV, it is up to your monitor to upconvert the 480p/i or 720p output from the PS3 to 1080i. Unlike with the Xbox 360. Far more problematic is if you set the PS3 to 1080 mode to interface with your 1080p/i-only monitor, the PS3 can only downconvert 720p content to 480p. There are a wealth of 1080i sets out there that will not accept a 720p signal, so if you are the owner of one of them, you're going to be confined to 480 downconverts of most PS3 launch games, as the vast majority are 720p only. That's a big drawback for the PS3 right out of the gate. Why Sony just didn't build in 1080 upconversion into the console is a bit of a mystery. A fix might be possible via a software update, but as the lack of internal scaling in the PS3 is a hardware issue, that doesn't appear likely.

I'll be waiting for a winner in the format war. Anyone who has taken even Economics 101 knows how foolish it is to choose a side this early in the game. I wish this format war would end quickly, before it gets much further!

Im happy with hd dvd..
im not too picky to make it THAT damn crystal clear.

i will upgrade from hd, when they have a movie that plays in mid air and not on a screen. otherwise hell i will just take a pig old shitola on blueray...

next gen counsole will not use cds. other wise its not the next gen lol duh graphics dont count, we all know there making that part better, what about storage,, no more discs.. thats there whole downfall.

Optical and co-ax connections can only handle Dolby Digital and DTS audio. You can't pass DD+, Dolby TrueHD, or DTS-HD through an optical connection. Even if you could, no audio receiver would support it. Those audio codecs are only available with an HDMI connector hooked up to a receiver that can decode the sound, which the 360 doesn't have. So the choice for audio output was really Dolby Digital, DTS, or no audio at all. As a previous poster has said, a dash update will allow HD DVD audio to be output as DTS, which should address sound quality somewhat.

I take it you have a top of the line A/V receiver that has HDMI inputs and can decode/play those new audio codecs? I didn't think so. Sit down.

See my earlier (looong) post. Both Blu-Ray and HD DVD support the same three video codecs. The only issue right now is that Blu-Ray releases are almost entirely MPEG2-HD, while a growing number of HD DVD's are VC-1.

That will change. AVC is also just around the corner for both platforms and that's where the real quality will be seen. However, any comparison right now between releases that aren't even using the same codec is just unfair. I have no doubt (having seen both) that Blu-Ray and HD DVD will both have great picture and sound that will be next to impossible to tell apart from one another. Eventually.

I voted it to wait till the format war is over. But I'm starting to think a bit more about this. I think we will see both formats for a long time to come. Sony has a good Idea switching to a Blue laser reader. Also I think that the Porn industry will stick with HD dvd or maybe not even switch. Mostly cause that industry spends as little as it can in production. but has the most profit in sales. So if you wanted Blu-ray on top you would make that standard cost lest to produce. Now I really think we will see players that will support both formats first. And honesly this war could be just the same as dvd -r and +r where there is no winner. So I think I'm going to just wait for the dual format players. I think I will be happy with that result becuase I think this war will be a long one.

i didnt know they had porn in HD DVD ALREADY LOL in th at case good buy ps3 hello hdDVD ha

while i havent watched HD porn on a HD-DVD or on a BRD, i have seen 1080p lesbian porn straight from the hi-def camera on a PC. close-ups are amazing!

anyways, i plan to get one when more HD-DVDs come out.

Edited.

I picked one up, just because it seemed like such a great deal. I won't miss the $200 if the HDDVD format goes belly up.

I got one, I am totally hooked on HD video, even streaming WMVHD. Yeah I want Blue Ray but from the people I know that have a PS3 they like their 360 better for games. I have seen blue ray and it did look better but only slightly and it was a demo disk so it showed the best. I have watched a few HD DVD's and I am impressed for $200 ($160 for the people that used the $40 CC coupon) you can't beat it. I have an upscaling OPPO and over 750 DVD's but there really is no comparison to true HD DVD. I only have two issues 1) 360 doesn't currently have an HDMI ( and I know this is discussed, but I really don't see how they can ,since its an analog signal- I use VGA ) and 2) Blue Ray has a lot better selection in titles,all movies look better in HD but Sci-Fi looks awesome! Also we will never get Resident Evil on HD DVD , not saying it was a good movie but it's still Mila and Zombies!

This should not be flagged or Banned since there really is not a current solution. But you can hook up the 360 to a Windows PC eventually you will be able to decrypt and encode to a WMVHD and it should end up around 4 to 5 GB for Movie Only.( Maybe Less- I didn't really do the math) disk or stream. You could probably do Blue Ray as well but burners are currently over $1K and cheapest media is still $15.

I want a PS3 but really only for the Blue Ray Player. For $200 as a hold me over I recommend that if you have a 1080 TV ( p preferred ) grab one and add HDDVD to your Netflix, It's worth it!

No HDTV

That HD-DVD player on ebay you posted to (stupid that you even posted an auction item) went for $360 US and doesn't even support 1080p. The 360's cost $200 and supports 1080p. So that was a most ridiculous comparison.



HD-DVD does support 1080p, and the 360's HD-DVD does too. Some people are still very uninformed, and lack any logic in their discussion.

Voted no.

I've got a library of 250+ DVDs, and there are still dozens of films I want and haven't picked up. I've been impressed with the way studios took the popularity of DVDs and used it as a reason to dig through their archives to find obscure titles that otherwise may have remained forgotten. Or give a cult classic a special edition release, packed with features and documentaries. Not only that, but you have companies like Criterion actively digging for prints of important films to restore and release. Criterion has already said that they're going to sit out the "format war". And I think I will, too.

Yes, I've got a lot invested in DVD, but the new formats offer nothing that would tempt me into switching. How cares if the image quality is amazing when the only thing you can see with is are "films" like Underworld? Stealth? Happy Gilmore? I'll take another look in a couple of years, when whichever format wins has a respectable number of quality films available. In the meantime, I'll be looking to fill some gaps in my DVD collection.

Right now I can stream wmvhd files from my laptop without mediacenter installed.
I don't need it but it has a great price.Also, the movies are like $19.99 at amazon.
I plan to buy it in the spring when more movies are released.
Everyone with an hdtv must stream wmvhd movies.
When you see Island Fever 3 in hd WoW!
They sell Imax movies in that format right now too.

I don't know why it is such a big controversy?!? Blu-Ray is, hands down, the better format. It holds more space and it has much faster loading. Sure give it time and things will speed up, but hopefully by that time so will blu-ray, etc.

I would never buy the 360 Hd-DVd add-on, unless I could get it for ridiculously cheap............just so I could hack it and use it as a stand-alone. What was MS thinking when they neglected the HDMI cable for the 360, damn proprietary component cables!

Given the fact that one of the biggest pushes for DVD was because the PS2 offered DVD playback, the PS3 should push Blu-Ray quite well.

Sony has a fairly good track record for media:

BetaMax - failed
CD - major success
minidisc - moderately successful in US, very successful in Japan and europe
UMD - probably will fail
ProDuo - success

Also, I'm pretty sure they had a lot to do with DVD development too.

just cause Blue ray can hold me doesnt mean its better. I think the fact that both can do compression in all the 3 levels is very important fact. what do you think the movie producers are going to upgrade first. the lasers and buring tech on mass duplaction or the Computers doing the encoding faster and smaller files? I'm betting on the 2nd. And if they do improve it first like I expect we will just see this format war going on for a while. for the guys that have the money to have the Nice 1080P setups with HDMI I think they are just going to have both players while this war is going on. what I mean this war is going to be a going on for a good 2 years I would expect.

want to get one really bad