Comments on: HD DVD vs. Blu-ray: Wal-Mart offers Toshiba player for under $200

By: nat the brat, sunnyvale, ca

nat the brat, sunnyvale, ca — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 18:06:08 +0000

i'm pretty sure you are all crazy. just because the PS3 is the highest selling blu-ray disc player does not mean that blu-ray is a sony product. i wish people would stop comparing blu-ray with betamax or any other proprietary sony prodcut. the blu-ray technology was developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers, with more than 180 member companies from all over the world. The Board of Directors currently consists of:

Apple Computer, Inc.

Dell Inc.

Hewlett Packard Company

Hitachi, Ltd.

LG Electronics Inc.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation

Pioneer Corporation

Royal Philips Electronics

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Sharp Corporation

Sony Corporation

Sun Microsystems, Inc.

TDK Corporation

Thomson Multimedia

Twentieth Century Fox

Walt Disney Pictures

Warner Bros. Entertainment

the hd dvd format was developed by Toshiba and NEC. i'm sorry who has the proprietary / dying technology? the format is being developed within the DVD forum which includes Hitachi, Ltd.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd.

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation

Pioneer Electronic Corporation

Royal Philips Electronics N.V.

Sony Corporation

Thomson

Time Warner Inc.

Toshiba Corporation

Victor Company of Japan, Ltd.

that's right. sony too. who's the real winner here? plain old dvd. as long as the war continues, studios and the like can continue to do low cost dvd's and sell a ton.

By: Ian S., Fort Wayne, Indiana

Ian S., Fort Wayne, Indiana — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 02:35:13 +0000

Realizing that not every Wal-mart was selling the HD A2 for $97 (Best Buy & Sears are also selling their A2s for sub-$100) they still probably sold 15,000 units nationwide. The 5 wal-marts I called all recieved shipments of 15 A2s to sell this past Friday. That is one hell of a lot of next-gen players. As people have said, while the PS3 people will tell you that you need to buy the $400-500 1080p BD player, I don't know too many families ready and willing to spend that $$ on a Blu-Ray, when the HD-DVD format is very very comparable in terms of HD quality (and more stable). As for BDs advantage, I would ask what advantages they have. Sure the discs are larger capacity, so studios can add more features & Dolby TrueHD to the disc, but virtually NOBODY has equipment that can decode it to its full quality anyways. And HD DVD hardware & software (from personal experience) is much much more stable that Blu-Ray. I have tried 2 Sony and 1 Samsung player and all three of them have not worked out of the box. Even after downloading and updating their firmware. Besides, Blu-Ray doesn't even have the final specs finalized yet. Waiting on the "final profile 2.0"… Why would consumers want to buy Blu-Ray (profile 1.0 soon 1.1) now, when the players today won't properly play movies tomorrow. Next time you are at Best Buy, look at how many "out of carton" Blu-Ray players they have had returned and are now selling for a discount…

By: Jim, Bellport, NY

Jim, Bellport, NY — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 18:32:15 +0000

The HD-A2 WAS available at Wal-Mart today for 98.87 (all 30 units sold out by 8:00 a.m.). At that price it's worth rolling the dice and taking a chance.

By: Dennis, Jericho, NY

Dennis, Jericho, NY — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 18:25:39 +0000

For those who argue that they see a difference between their 1080i cable feed and 1080p Blu-ray that should be pretty much assumed: the cable signal is heavily compressed. Compare 1080i Blu-ray playback to 1080p Blu-ray playback and you won't notice a difference regardless of what you're playing it back on. For those who say that they can see the difference it seems unlikely.

For those who argue that comparing the specs prove conclusively that Blu-ray is superior miss the point. Specs are a wonderful thing but how does the thing actually look when movies are played back on it? I did a side-by-side comparison of Batman Begins on identical sets with one utilizing HD DVD and the other Blu-ray. What we saw was stunning playback by both units with no noticable difference in quality. Specs are ultimately meaningless if they fail to perform to one's expectations.

As for the price point, that is probably the most vaild argument. PS3 sales are lagging , not because there's no demand for the PS3 but because the price point is still too high for most consumers. Sony's hope was to get as many Blu-ray drives in households by implementing the hardware in each PS3 but this move resulted in buyers looking elsewhere for less expensive alternatives (no one could ever have predicted that the Wii would meet the success that it has).

If consumers opt for price over specs HD DVD could be around for quite some time.

By: Joe, Vallejo, CA.

Joe, Vallejo, CA. — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 05:32:14 +0000

Some of you people are REAL IDIOTS. The whole 1080i/1080P thing is Ridiculous. You people have NO Idea what your talking about. Both HD DVD and Blu-Ray and On Disc as 1080P at 24 Frames per Second!!! Wither you have a extra chip in your HD player to have it output to 1080P, or your 1080P HDTV converts the 1080i signal to 1080P to be displayed anyway is a mute point. THEY ARE EXACTLY THE SAME!!! Talking about falling for the SONY BS! All they are trying to do is sell you the more Expensive Hardware to a bunch of SUCKERS. Why don't you IDIOTS go here and read up on how a Picture is displayed on your HDTV!!!

http://blog.hometheatermag.com/geoffreymorrison/0807061080iv1080p/

If a Blu-Ray player output to 1080i, it would be the SAME THING displaying 1080P on your HDTV. It's IMPOSSIBLE for a Progressive Display HDTV to show a 1080i(Interlaced) picture! Most Cable HD channels are in 1080i, but are being displayed at 1080P on 1080P HDTV's! Cable is far more compressed then what you get on Blu-Ray or HD DVD so you'll get a bit better picture. Most people are still just buying 720P HDTV's anyway. Unless your getting a 60"+ HDTV and are sitting really close to it, your not going to tell the difference between 720P and 1080P. In fact a Good Quality 720P HDTV can have a BETTER picture then a cheapo 1080P HDTV. I've also have head WAL-MART ONLY sells 720P HDTV's also. What good does a over priced 1080P Blu-Ray player do then?

By: Lex, Laguna Hills, CA

Lex, Laguna Hills, CA — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 00:40:05 +0000

Hey guys, Walmart is selling the Toshiba HD-A2 player for $99 !!! Tomorrow(Friday) !!!!

By: Alex, NC

Alex, NC — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 06:13:49 +0000

I agree with James. DVD-R and DVD+R ended up just being DVD+-R for the most part. I do think however that Blu-Ray will probably be preferred for home movies, and games within the next 5 years. After that it will ALL be digital.

By: Roberto Estrella, Hollywood,CA

Roberto Estrella, Hollywood,CA — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 16:58:51 +0000

360's HD-DVD add on its $175 anywhere…on amazon it was $175 plus 5 free HD-DVDs….WOW …now that!!

By: Roberto Estrella, Hollywood, Ca

Roberto Estrella, Hollywood, Ca — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 16:56:59 +0000

HD-DVD will stay because of a simple fact. its called HD-DVD , I know, this is a very simple answer, but please analyze it…try to explain your mother, grandma about Blueray, and then about HD-DVD , she will only remember HD-DVD because its there, its a high definition dvd…so when you goes and buys the new plasma fro x-mas, she will be shown both, and she will get the cheaper one, its hd, for my hd tv, period…Yes, Blue ray is the superior format, but your average joe, doesn't know a quarter to what's explain in this board….Sony just realize this, so now on their new tv campaings, at the end of a preview, you see: " ON DVD AND HIGH DEFINITION BLUE RAY " this is why now they call it high definition blue ray, before it was just Blue ray…everyone was like!!! WTF …this is what happened with UMD…dead now! Awesome format, I have a couple of movies for my psp…but..dead..

By: Jack, San Diego, CA

Jack, San Diego, CA — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 20:05:50 +0000

As someone else mentioned, just check the reviews from the home video, home theater, and electronics magazines re the quality of HD DVD discs vs Blu-ray, especially the titles released in both formats. You'll see the HD DVDs are considered equal or superior to BD in almost all impartial reviews.

The bottom line is that Sony has no place to go with Blu-ray… they've had all the hype, the PS3, and majority of studio support for over a year now and are still losing market share. They were losing money on the PS3 when it was selling for $600, now how long can they continue to dump units for $400? (btw, sales continue to sag even after this huge price cut) And sorry, but NOBODY is buying standalone BD players…

I think the key to BD's future is Disney… If the mouse bolts, BD is dead. As I said, Disney's marriage to Sony and BD was one of convenience… they wanted this format war to be short and sweet so they could get on with the business of selling their product.

As of now, Disney has to be reexamining their exclusivity agreement with Sony. Going into xmas '07, they see HD DVD players selling at a much higher rate than even the PS3 (which only a tiny fraction of owners have ever used as a BD player). One thing has to be clear to Disney… those buying HD disc players for their new HD tvs are choosing the HD DVD format by a large margin. Now that HD DVD players have broken the $200 price point, that trend will only accelerate, leaving BD another of Sony's orphan formats.

Imho, it's only a matter of time before Disney gets tired of propping up another failed Sony product and does what is best for their own interests… that would be to go from BD exclusive releases to HD DVD exclusive… I have a feeling Disney execs are about to wake up and smell the coffee…