Warner has gone Blu-Ray Exclusive, HD-DVD owners enjoy anal sex. More at 11.

So, yeah. Warner has completely screwed all the people who went HD and supported them (Let's face it: Warner gave us tons of exclusives, only to screw us over.)

As much as I hate to say it, this may have killed HD-DVD. I was really expecting them to go HD exclusive too, with all their exclusives and Blu-Ray packaging fuckups (HP and Blade Runner box set fuckups with HD discs instead of BD's) Just to give you an idea, my HD selection is comprised of 24 movies, 15 of which are Warner flicks (A good number of those are HD exclusives such as Batman, The Matrix movies, and V for Vendetta.)

As a STAUNCH HD supporter, I hate having to think about buying a Blu-Ray player in the future. I hate everything about Blu-Ray: The ugly-ass blue packaging, the dumb name, Sony, the fuckup that is the PS3, the inferior features (Until a month ago or so), region protection bullshit, and stupid minimum requirements for players (Cheap BD players may not be able to decode Dolby TrueHD OR Dolby Digital Plus. There's no requirement. Want internet support? Not required either.)

While this could be used by me as an excuse to finally buy a damn PS3, there's a problem: Not only are there only 4 games I want for the PS3 (5 if you include my minor interest in The Eye of Judgement. And no, this number does not include future "Whenever the fuck they come out" games like MGS4), but I'm still pissed about the nerf of backwards compatibility in the cheapest PS3. I would have fucking bought a $400 PS3 if it had backwards compatibility, but NOOOOO, Sony gotta cut that shit. Here's Spider-Man for your screwing!

Anyway, whatever. Here's hoping for a ton of awesome HD sales soon to beef up my collection. Even if the format is "dying", these flicks are still in HD, and I'm sure they'll either have cheap full-featured players later this year (My current player is the 360 addon, which is great for my current situation, but I want a better featured player later down the road.)

How ya doing, buddy?

This is why I stick with DVDs. A lot less bullshit involved.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

When they make up their mind about which format to use and actually have players that work properly, it would be a good idea to change to this new "hd" era.

Also when the movies aren't $100 per disc.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I'll just wait for the TeraDisc DVD before I jump into the retarded format war. Seriously this war is very retarded and probably in 10 years or so formats will be a moot point thanks to downloads. Another thing I hate is the idea of replacing my collection with higher resolution and 'better' quality versions.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

*shrugs* I haven't replaced anything in my collection except Blade Runner (and I'd have gotten that collection even if it wasn't blu-ray). New movies, if they're available in blu ray I grab them. Because The Fountain in 1080p is fucking awesome. I don't see the point in getting retarded over it with semantics.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Meh, I just think it sucks that there was a format war in general. I'm glad I didn't pony up for any of it yet, mostly because I knew one of the formats would flounder, and also because I don't have an HDTV yet. The whole thing is useless in my eyes. DVDs are fine for me, plus, considering the enormous collection I've amassed, I'm not looking to stop collecting them anytime soon.

My prediction - DVD will still be popular in 5 years, and by then, digital distribution will become a major contender in home entertainment.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

"Here comes high definition! It'll be amazing to see all the detail in great movies!"
"Haha, I have an idea!"
"TELL ME BOB"
"Lets make it even harder for HD to take off, we'll confuse consumers with two different HD formats!"
"... That's a great idea! Nobody will know what's going on! We could be like.. hey mr. average consumer, do you like MOVIES?! And they'd be all DO I! Then we could tell them about the wonders of high definition movies to get them hyped up"
"YES YES"
"And then blindfold them and ask them to pick a box, one will have a Blu-Ray player in it, the other, a HD-DVD player.. and when they choose we could go SURPRISE, NOW YOU'RE LIMITED TO WHICH MOVIES YOU CAN WATCH! HAUAUHUAHUAUHAHUWUHAUHUHA"
"Haha I'd spit all over their face while laughing! I'd make sure to have eaten a whole box of Oreos so that my saliva is chunky!"
"You two wankers are fucking fired"
"WHY?!"

FELIPE NO

Of course a way to circumvent this bullshit is to get a HD-DVD and Blu-Ray compatible player.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by guyinrubbersuit

Of course a way to circumvent this bullshit is to get a HD-DVD and Blu-Ray compatible player.

Those things are still pretty damn expensive. Like $800 expensive.

And I don't understand why everybody thinks digital distribution is the future. A lot of people, myself included, like having a physical product to purchase.

Perhaps when solid state HDD's get to the terabyte range and aren't anally-raping expensive things might get better, but until then, solid discs are the winner.

Of course, holographic discs might blow everything away in the future anyway. Entire TV seasons in HD on one disc, and later, entire SERIES. But that's like 10 years away.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

So now that blu-ray's features are more competitive with those offered by hd-dvd, the other clear advantages that the blu-ray format has over hd-dvd, such as greater disc capacity {50 gig for blu-ray, 30 gig for hd-dvd} and greater bandwidth {48 mbit/s blu-ray, 30 mbit/s hd-dvd}, should bring you happily over to their side, right? You bring up a point about the audio standards on the players, but what point is it to have mandatory HD audio support on your player, when your flagship title doesn't feature HD audio. I mean correct me if I'm wrong, but Transformers didn't feature a lossless audio track due to space limitations, right?

It's just that hd-dvd was basically a half step forward from the standard dvd. The look and sound of pretty good, and whatnot.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by russ

So now that blu-ray's features are more competitive with those offered by hd-dvd, the other clear advantages that the blu-ray format has over hd-dvd, such as greater disc capacity {50 gig for blu-ray, 30 gig for hd-dvd} and greater bandwidth {48 mbit/s blu-ray, 30 mbit/s hd-dvd}, should bring you happily over to their side, right? You bring up a point about the audio standards on the players, but what point is it to have mandatory HD audio support on your player, when your flagship title doesn't feature HD audio. I mean correct me if I'm wrong, but Transformers didn't feature a lossless audio track due to space limitations, right?

It's just that hd-dvd was basically a half step forward from the standard dvd. The look and sound of pretty good, and whatnot.

WUT.

You obviously didn't hear about triple layer HD-DVDs, which do 51gb.

And Transformers is simply because they didn't want to. They had nearly all the special features in HD instead. The DD+ track is excellent.

And bandwidth? Both formats do full 1080p with lossless sound, and HD-DVD had been doing HDi features much earlier than Blu-Ray got their competition working.

So yeah, what improvements were that again?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by JasonTerminator

WUT.

You obviously didn't hear about triple layer HD-DVDs, which do 51gb.

And Transformers is simply because they didn't want to. They had nearly all the special features in HD instead. The DD+ track is excellent.

And bandwidth? Both formats do full 1080p with lossless sound, and HD-DVD had been doing HDi features much earlier than Blu-Ray got their competition working.

So yeah, what improvements were that again?

That's a great SlayerX impression you do.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by JasonTerminator

WUT.

You obviously didn't hear about triple layer HD-DVDs, which do 51gb.

Last I heard, they were having some trouble getting that to actually work in the players that were already on the market.

Quote:

And Transformers is simply because they didn't want to. They had nearly all the special features in HD instead. The DD+ track is excellent.

Transformers is already two disc release. Why not just have the movie, and a lossless audio track on the first disc, while putting all special features on the second disc? Or wait, wasn't the only thing on the first disc, other than the movie, the behind the scenes picture in picture stuff? So they just randomly decided to not have a lossless audio track? The DD+ track might sound excellent, but it is not perfect. The look and sound of perfect, except sometimes when we chose not to, not because of inability to fit it on the smaller disc, but because we totally didn't want to man.

Quote:

And bandwidth? Both formats do full 1080p with lossless sound, and HD-DVD had been doing HDi features much earlier than Blu-Ray got their competition working.

So yeah, what improvements were that again?

I've seen several of my blu-rays go above 40 mbit/s during movies, and many of them consistently pass the 30 mbit/s that hd-dvd maxes out at. The fact is that more data being passed to the screen and audio receiver means greater level of detail {sharper picture}. Are you cool with being able to pass less data to your screen and audio receiver?

And yes, hd-dvd did their HDi stuff before blu-ray did their bd-j stuff. There is no arguing with that. I don't see why it matters, now that both are in place, which one came first though. But hey, now that it is in place for blu-ray, expect to see Batman Begins in a blue case right around the time that The Dark Knight hits theatres. Since that was the only thing keeping them from releasing that on blu-ray to begin with. That would be happening regardless of the Warner announcement.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by JasonTerminator

And I don't understand why everybody thinks digital distribution is the future. A lot of people, myself included, like having a physical product to purchase.

I love my collection of DVDs and vastly prefer physical copies over digital ones. However, if the future consists of companies making things harder for the consumer, I don't see why digital distribution wouldn't atleast gain foothold. Right now its in its infancy, but when we're all given access to higher bandwidth and more storage, it will come down to clicking a link, and having an HD-quality movie on your desktop in minutes. Couple that with the increasing number of ways to stream said videos to your TV, and you have a pretty easy, cost-effective alternative.

Some people (not folks like you and I) just like to have the movie and don't care about the special features or any of that stuff. If I were to estimate, I'd say those people are, if anything, more numerous than the people who like tons of special features. They will be the ones to hop on the digital distribution bandwagon over guys like us, and I'll wager to bet that within 10 years, playing movies on physical copies will be like playing music on records - Better quality, 1337, but not as practical.

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Originally Posted by russ

Last I heard, they were having some trouble getting that to actually work in the players that were already on the market.


Transformers is already two disc release. Why not just have the movie, and a lossless audio track on the first disc, while putting all special features on the second disc? Or wait, wasn't the only thing on the first disc, other than the movie, the behind the scenes picture in picture stuff? So they just randomly decided to not have a lossless audio track? The DD+ track might sound excellent, but it is not perfect. The look and sound of perfect, except sometimes when we chose not to, not because of inability to fit it on the smaller disc, but because we totally didn't want to man.



I've seen several of my blu-rays go above 40 mbit/s during movies, and many of them consistently pass the 30 mbit/s that hd-dvd maxes out at. The fact is that more data being passed to the screen and audio receiver means greater level of detail {sharper picture}. Are you cool with being able to pass less data to your screen and audio receiver?

And yes, hd-dvd did their HDi stuff before blu-ray did their bd-j stuff. There is no arguing with that. I don't see why it matters, now that both are in place, which one came first though. But hey, now that it is in place for blu-ray, expect to see Batman Begins in a blue case right around the time that The Dark Knight hits theatres. Since that was the only thing keeping them from releasing that on blu-ray to begin with. That would be happening regardless of the Warner announcement.

That may be the case with Transformers, but Batman Begins is just as long and has an in-movie experience, Dolby TrueHD, and ALL of it's special features all on one disc, and Batman is one of the best looking HD-DVD's around. Granted, the special features aren't all in HD, but it's obvious the only reason Transformers doesn't have TrueHD is because Paramount didn't put it there.

And I haven't heard of a single reviewer actually say Blu-Ray releases look better than HD-DVD, bandwidth be damned.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by JasonTerminator

That may be the case with Transformers, but Batman Begins is just as long and has an in-movie experience, Dolby TrueHD, and ALL of it's special features all on one disc, and Batman is one of the best looking HD-DVD's around. Granted, the special features aren't all in HD, but it's obvious the only reason Transformers doesn't have TrueHD is because Paramount didn't put it there.

And I haven't heard of a single reviewer actually say Blu-Ray releases look better than HD-DVD, bandwidth be damned.

And Blu-Ray massively outsells HD-DVD. And studios are already deciding which format they want to work with. So really, there are upsides and downsides to both formats, but it's going to be decided by who supports which format, and frankly, with groups like Tartan and Warner going Blu-Ray exclusive, it's looking like the industry is leaning in a certain direction.

Also, you missed the biggest reason why HD should win, you putz. Michael Bay says Blu Ray suits his films better. God knows it makes me consider HD-DVD a little more if it would piss off Michael Bay.

Seriously, though. Fanboyism. Knock it the fuck off.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Denicalis

And Blu-Ray massively outsells HD-DVD.

Well, actually...

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by JasonTerminator

Well, actually...

Format War: Blu-ray Outsells HD DVD Nearly 2-to-1 in US

Originally Posted by Reuters

Home Media Research reports that from January 1 through September 30, Blu-ray sold 2.6 million discs in the US, while only 1.4 million HD DVD discs were sold.

Well, actually...

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Alright, you missed my point.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Haha. No matter where I go to read about this, there's so much bitter tears involved with Warners move. It's a good move. And hopefully everyone else follows so that the whole split between the two formats can come to a rest and not confuse the consumer any longer. Sorry HD-DVD people. The gauntlet has been dropped. This is why it's best to wait for a clear answer in the end. And we all know now that Blu Ray will be leading the hd format war of movies. As for digitial distribution...



The US is in no way or shape ready for it. Have fun waiting for another 10 years for it to become a mainstream reality.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by kainlightwind

The gauntlet has been dropped. This is why it's best to wait for a clear answer in the end.

Um, all the facts pointed to an HD-DVD win. The only reason Sony is "winning" is because they like to hand out lots of moneyhats.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by JasonTerminator

Um, all the facts pointed to an HD-DVD win. The only reason Sony is "winning" is because they like to hand out lots of moneyhats.

Ooookay buddy. Blu Ray has been outselling HD DVD 2:1 for quite some time. And what facts are you talking about? You're just mad because you're a Sony hater. It's way to obvious you want to see the company fail. As do many others. But suck it up and take a rest. Blu Ray's here to stay. After May, we'll be seeing the rest of the studios fully support Blu Ray and DVD.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Hah, this dude is talking about moneyhats after the hd-dvd group ponied up $150 million for Paramount's exclusivity.

And what so called facts are you speaking of? The fact that there was not one single week during 2007 during which hd-dvd outsold blu-ray? Looks like a win for hd-dvd there. Hd-dvd didn't outsell blu-ray during Transformers week, or during Bourne week.

FELIPE NO

Can we please not turn this into a Sony vs Microsoft battle? LESS fanboyism, not more.

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When did Microsoft enter this argument? You're the first guy who mentioned that company. CONGRATULATIONS YOU JUST RUINED THE THREAD

Jam it back in, in the dark.