is blu-ray confirmed as the universal next gen format or is hd-dvd still viable?
Universal hasn’t announced they’re going Blu, though there are lingering rumors. However, in interviews / press conferences they keep saying they’re sticking with HD-DVD. They’re not bound by contract though, so they could switch over any time… the rumor is that they might when WB is officially off HD-DVD (which is April or May, I forget which). At the moment though, due to this, American Gangster is coming on HD-DVD only D:
GOGOGO URGENT GOGOGO
Buy.com has several Paramount titles in stock on Blu-ray AT OR BELOW RETAIL PRICE… They had the Mission Impossible Collection & Shooter but both are sold out now.
Check from this list: http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/movies.php?studioid=6 if there are movies you want from it.
Movies I’ve seen - Coming to America, Trading Places, Aeon Flux, The Italian Job, Flags of Our Fathers… still checking + ordering, you should too!
P.S. New users to Google Checkout get 10 dollars off their order, but I might be making a new Google account for each order 
Oh, and this week’s numbers:
83:17
I’m slowly replacing my DVDs with their Blu-ray counterparts. They aren’t being released fast enough for me.
And yes, I feel the same as some others about watching normal DVDs now. Even after upconversion, it just doesn’t look good enough. Though I have to admit, I was a bit surprised when I watched The Lion King DVD upconverted to 1080p. Really, it looked pretty good. It wasn’t Blu-ray quality, of course, but it still looked good.
It seems all of the full-CG films on Blu-ray are beautiful, and they should be (for obvious reasons). I’m gonna put in my votes for Ice Age: The Meltdown and Surf’s Up. The movies themselves aren’t Oscar-material, but they each last about 90 minutes. So you won’t be losing much, even if you hate those kinds of films.
Next, I’ll check out Disney’s The Wild. It’s not the best Disney stuff out there, but it’s full-length CG. So…
For those who don’t want to wait for the war to “officially” end, circuit city has it’s low end A3 HD-DVD players on clearance for 100 and it’s high end for 150. Not bad if you’re impatient.
I’m waiting until I find them at the car wash next to the cassette tapes.
the a30 is the “middle” end
the high end is a-35
you can actualy get the a-30 for almost the same price at best buy with 2 extra free movies
there’s a 20% off of blu ray/hd dvd coupon ou there that expires today
$199 - 20% = $160 + 2 Free movies 34.99 or less + 2 in box + 5 MIR
so for only $10 + tax on $10 more you get 2 free movies 34.99 or less
the only big diff between 35/30 tho is the A35 adds the ability to bitstream DolbyHD and DTS-HD to your receiver instead of decoding in the player
which isn’t really a big deal to most people, but i bought a dope receiver and sound setup, so i like it better
oh and the 35 has 5.1 analog output, but who doesn’t have HDMI by now
the “best” hd dvd player out there tho is the XA2, they used cheaper chips in gen 3
I know the A3 tops out at 1080i in terms of output. I thought the A35 could do 1080p.
yep a-35 and a-30 can both do 1080p, a-3 is 1080i
if you have a good tv, you can get 1080p through the a3 with de-interlacing
not an amazing deals we’re used to but deepdiscount has buy 2 get 1 blu-ray free deal going on. prices are somewhat high but if u get 3 $21.76 priced ones, it’s not so bad.
http://www.deepdiscount.com/DVD---Sony-Blu-ray-Buy-2-Get-1-Free_stcVVcatId519250VVviewcat.htm
So uh, what exactly in a nutshell is the difference between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD? Cuz everybody is explaining it in a way that is basically apples and oranges.
- Capacity. Blu-ray disks have more space, resulting in space for higher bitrates for video & uncompressed audio.
- Studio Support. With Warner recently going Blu-ray exclusive, the sales have resulted in this:
Week 1 - 85:15
Week 2 - 83:17
(in the favor of Blu-ray)
There’s also a very strong rumor that Universal is coming over soon, which would mean Paramount would be the only HD-DVD supporting studio left.
Those are the two major differences, in a nutshell.
:u: Don’t forget hard coating. Blu-ray discs are manufactured with a new type of disc coating that makes it more scratch, dust, and fingerprint resistant than DVD and HD DVD. Now, the HD DVD guys will tell you that this doesn’t matter (not true) and that the BD data layer is closer to the edge such that BDs can’t be fixed once they are scratched (true). They will then say that HD DVD is better because it is repairable while BD is not. However, the fault in their argument is that the conditions it would take to actually scratch a BD would also scratch an HD DVD in such a way that it would be beyond repair. Meanwhile, the surface scratches that are repairable on HD DVD wouldn’t even occur on BD.
i really don’t think universal will go over unless they fire Ken G
universal doesn’t seem to care and they just release random crap in random quality
A lot of people are speculating that, if Paramount finally moves (although I personally don’t see it happening anytime soon), Universal Entertainment will put pressure on its Home Entertainment to switch, similar to how the Warner/New Line deal was supposedly brokered with Time Warner.
i hope if they do that actually start to care
they dial it in on every release
the covers are just pictures from the movies instead of the poster or something cool and “The Look and Sound of Perfect” across the bottom
all their menus are exactly the same for every movie
special features are usually very minimum and a lot of day and date don’t carry over all the special features from the SD version
combo disks
and the PQ is either 5 stars or 1 star
I have a PS3 right now that’s running on a 30" widescreen Sony TV in 1080i. Would I really notice THAT much of a significant difference if I made the switch to blu-ray?
-9
:u: Yes.
Yeah, so since I don’t have a reliable digital camera, here’s a link to my collection: http://www.dvdspot.com/member=Septimus+Prime
If you want to know what my collection looks like, imagine a row of BDs sitting on a shelf in alphabetical order.