Blu-Ray has won the Hi-Def war!

Post by **James** » February 20th, 2008, 4:20 pm

Funny how things work out: Toshiba, the primary hardware backer of the recently dumped HD DVD format, is buying the chip manufacturing facilities of Sony, the primary hardware backer of Blu-ray. Toshiba will now be making the Cell Processors that are the heart of the PS3, the device that could be credited with killing off HD DVD. And the deal will be finalized on April 1st!

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/20/sony ... 5-million/

Post by **Foxtale** » February 20th, 2008, 10:13 pm

So the next big question is will blu ray conquer dvd?

Post by **Ben** » February 21st, 2008, 6:50 am

Not for a very long time. I'd say 2-5 years before they're even equal, if that even happens.

Post by **James** » February 21st, 2008, 12:51 pm

I thought this was kind of clever:

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/02/21/hd ... r-fallout/

Retailers are obviously slashing prices on HD DVD players in order to clear out the stock. But one retailer has gone a step further. They've taken the Toshiba HD-EP30 HD DVD Player and renamed it in their store as the as the Toshiba HD-EP30 HDMI Upscaling DVD Player with HD DVD High Definition Playback!

Post by **Daniel** » February 21st, 2008, 1:37 pm

Ha, that's genius!

And in other hi-def news, Paramount finally makes the switch. About time!

Post by **James** » February 29th, 2008, 3:18 pm

The Blu-ray mascot?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mgdtgd/234178732/

At least she's cute!

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » March 22nd, 2008, 1:38 am

I still wish they'd lower the prices on Blu-Ray discs.

This business of having the discs $10 or more than their standard-def DVD releases is ridiculous!

When Enchanted was released on home video this past week, the DVD was priced at $14.99 at Best Buy but the same chain was selling the Blu-Ray disc for $29.99! That's ridiculous! The BR release shouldn't be priced more than $5 extra than the DVD if they want to sell the format...

(It goes without saying I won't be picking up Enchanted until I see a better price in-store for the BR or I get a coupon for it... Ditto for the BR of Justice League: The New Frontier as well.)

I had less of a problem picking up the Appleseed (2): Ex Machina Blu-Ray since it was priced only $2 than the deluxe 2-disc tincase DVD set. Sure, the tincase looks sweet at $22.99 BUT the extra $2 is worth it for the BR release since the only thing it lacks is in the tincase. 5X better resolution is definitely worth $2-$5 more but NOT $10-$15 extra!

Post by **James** » March 22nd, 2008, 1:48 am

Find a friend who bought the Enchanted DVD - there is a $10 coupon in it for the Enchanted BD.

Post by **Randall** » March 22nd, 2008, 10:06 am

I saw the New Frontier Blu-ray at WalMart for $25, while both DVD versions were priced at $24. Pretty good, except that the single disc'er was overpriced. Makes you wonder who they expected would pick up that one-DVD version.

Post by **Ben** » March 22nd, 2008, 11:50 am

I still don't get the point of single discs, mostly.

We just got Beowulf out here, and there's a single theatrical, with nary a trailer on it, and the Director's cut, which is presented as a two disc for £2/$4 more.

The extras from the R1 have basically been shifted over to a second disc - much more sensible - but the big draw is that this UK version also contains all the extra footage from the HD release - not the PIP feature, but the extra "production pods", the featurettes that go more into the making.

The DC is also, naturally, available on Blu-Ray here too, since it's a WB title.

Post by **Ben** » March 22nd, 2008, 12:17 pm

Blu-Ray protection cracked?

VideoBusiness wrote:March 21, 2008

DVD copying specialist SlySoft (this company already sounds legit!) is touting new software that allows people to now clone BD movies encrypted with copy protection technology BD +.

If that is indeed true, that could prove troublesome for studios such as Fox who are known fans of BD +. This technology promises an extra layer of security, on top of high-def's standard AACS protection, to prevent people from illegally ripping copies of BD titles onto computers.

Fox was thought to be so enamored with BD +, that it delayed the release of a number of its BD titles waiting for the technology specifications to be completed. And Macrovision thought there was something valuable to it as it recently acquired the firm that created BD +, Cryptography.

If studios fear that BD + is vulnerable, that could slow the release of new BD titles, which can't be great for a format hoping to go mainstream. I contacted Macrovision for comment, but haven't heard back yet. It seems SlySoft is operating under the assumption that it is providing a helpful service to consumers, describing the latest version of its AnyDVD HD as making "backup security copies" of BD + discs.

The studios do seem to be trying to beat these ripping services at their own game, by giving away embedded digital film copies on DVDs and BD titles. Fox, in fact, embedded a copy of Hitman on the title's standard DVD and BD releases.

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » March 22nd, 2008, 6:41 pm

Oh well, it's natural to expect that the encryption would be broken.

Right now, it's not that big a deal since so few people own Blu-Ray drives on their personal computers. They aren't even officially supported by Mac OS X OR Windows XP/Vista! All those nice Blu-Ray drives you can get for your computers are strictly third-party supported. Unfortunately, most of the BR-burning programs (ex: Toast 8.0) allow you to only burn DATA onto BR-R media not actual movie-authoring!

Considering bandwidth limitations on the Net, I'd hardly worry about massive piracy of BR media at this point. Whatever gets floated about in cyberspace isn't going to be 1080p for the most part. 25-, 50-GB file sizes are just too big. Heck, regular DVD files are too big. Public Domain movies in MPEG-2 format take forever to download!

Yep, it's only just now that @pple and M$ are getting serious about Blu-Ray support and writing support for it into official OS releases even though recordable BR media has been around for well over a year. Everybody was gun-shy because of the stupid hi-def format war (which was pretty much M$'s fault)....

Roxio just made an official announcement that Toast 9.0 for Mac WILL support burning of high-def video to Blu-Ray media. (Now how you get that high-def video onto your Mac or PC from a TiVo or other high-def recording device is your problem...!) Of course, BR media STILL costs $25 per BR-R and that's an awfully expensive potential coaster to eat if the burn goes badly! At this point in time, the only BR player that I'm aware that will support BR-R discs is the PS3 (besides the drive that burns the actual BR-R).

P.S. -- Got Enchanted on BR for $25 from Wal-Mart today. (For the life of me, I can't figure out WHY Best Buy couldn't match that price...!) Justice League BR is next in two weeks!

Post by **James** » March 22nd, 2008, 9:54 pm

Toast 9 is out. Just bought it last week! I've got an EyeTV Hybrid for getting TV HD content. Just don't have a burner yet! Toast 9 is supposed to let you burn BD content onto recordable DVDs. Unfortunately it doesn't seem that the PS3 likes those discs though.

Post by **Daniel** » March 23rd, 2008, 12:26 am

GeorgeC wrote:Justice League BR is next in two weeks!

Starting tomorrow through the 29th, Best Buy will have the Blu-ray edition for $19.99.

If only I loved the film as much as I wanted to.

Post by **Daniel** » April 23rd, 2008, 8:59 pm

A week old, but I finally got my PS3!! The 60gb like everyone else.

Took a while, but I was able to find one near a relative. OMG, since the day I opened it, it has been in constant use. Such a great machine. I've only seen one Blu-ray, Chicken Little, but WOW. I love Blu! The picture quality is outstanding on my 37' inch LCD. I can't praise it enough. It's also pretty cool how the main screen changes colors during the day, even cooler is that it has been green for the past few days because of Earth Day.

And don't get me started on video games! I am beyond pleased. My PS1 games look very good, much better than I imagined. For PS2, I can't do a comparison since I never got into it, but they look awesome. Same goes for PS3, of which I only have one game; "Sonic the Hedgehog". Despite the fact it isn't very good (!) it's stunning! I also love the built in memory cards. Wasn't expecting that, but nice touch.

I now understand why the PS3 gets the hoopla it does. Go Sony!