Blu-ray Disc and the assult of the next wave

[seperot]

I was just wondering what people think about the next thing to replace DVD\'s the Blu-ray disks sony has planed for the PS3 and other things (theres another brand some people are backing too but i cant for the life of me remember the name)

http://www.blu-ray.com/
http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=11477&rp=5519

is this gonna replace DVD\'s? or is it gonna be like the mini disks and suck? or are we gonna have a new age version of the old VHS againced Beta?

just interested to start a discussion

[steuben]

i have this horrid feeling it will be the vhs/beta contest all over again. except i\'m not sure if there is a clear difference between the two.

[Jakob]

It could always turn out like the \"Sony Universal Disk\" that the PSP uses...  Universal to the universe of Sony.  It\'s always possible that blu-ray could replace DVD, but not until production costs are down offensively low like DVDs are right now.  At least that\'s my prediction.

[Ghostslayer]

Originally posted by seperot
I was just wondering what people think about the next thing to replace DVD\'s the Blu-ray disks sony has planed for the PS3 and other things (theres another brand some people are backing too but i cant for the life of me remember the name)

http://www.blu-ray.com/
http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/feature/?id=11477&rp=5519

is this gonna replace DVD\'s? or is it gonna be like the mini disks and suck? or are we gonna have a new age version of the old VHS againced Beta?

just interested to start a discussion

The other format that is being backed is the HD-DVD (Microsoft and Toshiba are backing it I believe).

Anyway, I\'m all for new technology, but this lack of deciding on a new format is really annoying.  Its like the whole DVD+R or DVD-R again just a whole lot worse.

I have a feeling that most people will not convert over from DVDs until there is a clear benefit to doing so (such as HD TVs becoming the standard to make use of the extra storage capacity) and once one of the formats has a significant library of movies/TV shows behind it.

[Waylander]

I heard Sony was getting into tons of trouble over this...Something about it being too good and breaking a bunch of patents or something...Any idea about this?

[seperot]

Thats there DRM softwear Cadoras... it insalls softwear on your comp illigally and messes with stuff.

aah its HD-dvd... i knew Microsoft where backing it cause i belive they made the x-box 360 compatible with it when the time is right.

and steuben i dont belive there was alot of difference between VHS and beta asides the size of the tapes... i know the Blu-ray ones come almost in a box style where as i \"belive\" the HD-DVD ones still look like normal dvd\'s

[GeorgeD]

Considering the tendencies of SONY to come up with more and more annoying copy protections*, their decision to use old fashioned MPEG2 codec for Blue-Ray, the fact that HD-DVD will use new generation of MPEG4 H.264 and that Toshiba announced their HD-DVD player will be cheaper, the situation is fairly different from VHS/Betacam duel. VHS was cheaper AND inferior in quality.

So far it seems to me, HD-DVD will bring more effective technology to provide better picture and sound on cheaper medias (and what else would be the reason to dump DVD and upgrade to the new technology, right?), while SONY is expected to get a large support of other big distribution companies, which can mean movies will be released and re-released more often on BR..
On the other hand, Microsoft\'s support of HD-DVD...

Time will tell, I guess. But really, since the HD-DVD brings better technology for (as it seems now) less money, IMHO the only thing that will keep Blue-Ray going is SONY marketing. I kinda expect the minidisc fate will happen to BR too, sooner or later.

* As for the CP, I\'m not saying that HD-DVD won\'t have some really stupid and annoying protection. The stuff Microsoft put into their new Windows Vista shows that it\'s gonna be a lot of fun to make it work on your PC. As for Linux users, someone will either have to crack those CP systems again, or they\'ll have to get used to the fact that although they buy HD-DVD, it will play only in DVD quality on their system. If they are lucky.