I’m thinking about buying a high-def DVD player to enjoy the capabilities of my new TV, but I’m pretty baffled about whether I should purchase a Blu-ray or HD-DVD player. What’s the difference between them and which do you think is going to emerge as the predominant player?
I go to the Consumer Electronics Show every year and have enjoyed the displays of the various high-def DVD formats and the tension between the two major vendors, HD-DVD and Blu-ray. While it’s amusing to see them posture, however, it’s also darn frustrating because just like we saw years ago with Beta versus VHS, we’re again watching a billion-dollar industry unable to decide on one standardized format and us consumers ending up paying the price. One way or the other, some percentage of people who buy either HD-DVD or Blu-ray DVD systems will find their device obsolete. Worse, all those movies purchased in that particular DVD format will be obsolete too.
Makes you a bit leery about buying one right now, I bet.
On the other hand, seeing an HD-DVD or Blu-ray DVD movie on a new high-def video display is stunning, really quite obviously far superior to any regular TV at any price. It’s not a movie theater (no sticky floors!) but it’s really extraordinarily gorgeous for remarkably little money.
But let’s stay on focus. The key differences between Blu-ray and HD DVD are:
Who Supports the Format
Both formats have backing from industry heavyweights in the consumer electronics, computer and video game markets.
HD DVD is supported by Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Toshiba and Microsoft, which will be offering an add-on HD DVD player for its popular Xbox 360 game console. The big movie house that supports HD DVD is Universal Studios.
Blu-ray, by comparison, is supported by Pioneer, Samsung and Sony, the latter of which is going to be building Blu-ray compatibility directly into the Playstation 3 game system. Blu-ray players are shipping from LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Philips and Sharp, in addition to the three main backers of this format.
In terms of support from studios, here’s an interesting quote: “Eighty-four percent of all the movies released last year were made by studios that have announced support for Blu-ray,” says Jim Sanduski, senior vice president of marketing for Samsung’s Audio and Video Products Group.”
Reference sites: Blu-ray.com and HD-DVD’s TheLookAndSoundOfPerfect.com.
Technical Differences
According to the Blu-ray team: “Because Blu-ray utilizes a lens with a greater numerical aperture than HD-DVD, the laser spot can be focused with greater precision to fit more data on the same size disc. This allows Blu-ray to hold 25GB per layer (50GB on a dual-layer disc), whereas HD-DVD can only hold 15GB per layer (30GB on a dual-layer disc). Blu-ray has also adopted a higher data transfer rate for video and audio (54Mbps vs 36.55Mbps).”
Remember, though, that according to the technical specs, Beta was a better video format than VHS too… More importantly, the 15GB of HD DVD is claimed to be “just enough to fit a high-def movie”, except if you’re a movie fan, you already know that movies can vary in length from 80 minutes to over three hours. Having a movie split onto two disks is a terrible solution, and this is one of the reasons I prefer Blu-ray, personally.
The Cost of a Player
Price-wise, however, there’s also a big difference. HD DVD players are in the $500 range, while Blu-ray pictures are $1000 or more coming out of the gate. The disks themselves should be a roughly similar price but, needless to say, if you buy a movie in one format and put it into a player for the other it’s not going to work (however regular DVD movies will play fine in either high-def player).
Picking the Winner
So which format should you buy at the end of the day? A lot of pundits believe that the lower-cost and first mover advantage of HD DVD will make it unbeatable, but I believe that the wider support and additional capabilities of Blu-ray will cause it to emerge as the winner. It just might take a few years, and when the “losing” format is clear, there are going to be a lot of unhappy consumers, sorry to say.
Take your pick, but you might just consider it a short-term purchase with the possibility that in two or three years you might have to purchase your favorite movies again, in the other format…
xbox 360 hd is more better than ps3 blu-ray
that’s an epic review about dvd and blu-ray, but I think to really appreciate blu-ray and to real see the difference between the two. You should buy the blu-ray and dvd by your own and test it. For me both are better, it just depends on what TV you will use.
i like xbox360 and hddvd better than the ps3s blueray.
Heh, Blu-ray won.
I personally like HD DVD AND UPSCALING MORE THAN BLURAY AT THIS POINT. I HAVE RECENTLY DECIDED TO GET BOTH FORMAT PLAYERS AND HAVE THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS.
THANKS
i just bought a insignia ns-brdvd how and where can i get firmware for this product?
I have a 42″ 720p Sanyo HDTV. Will I see a difference if I watch a Blue-ray disks, played on a Blue-ray DVD Player on this television?
I feel real bad for the people who bought a HD-DVD Players to this point, because today Toshiba just said they will no longer make HD-DVD Players, so in that, Sony has won the battle. You were right on target Dave when you said that Blu-Ray will win, because now the whole world knows that Sony with the Blu-Ray won the HD battle.
CJ
Dave
I believe that an update of this question needs to be put out to all.
First, Blu-Ray or HD-DVD both offer get reproduction of video. Blu-Ray has a higher storage and scan then HD-DVD. Who cares…both exceed the 19.1 Mbps required. With that higher scan, Blu-ray is already being downed due to it’s inability to reproduce the background with the same clarity and definition. In the “old days” of recording, running tape faster was only cheaper..not better. Of course, HD-DVD has better sound ability because it lends itself more easily to sound filtering and enhancement.
Remember, you may have to re-buy a Blu-ray player ever few months? It seems that Sony has 3 profiles people need to know. Profile 1.0, 1.1, 2.0. (Remember…Sony came out with Beta.) The new profiles are not inter-changeable. That means that if your old player is profile 1.0 and your new Blu-ray is Profile 2.0, there is the possibilty that it won’t play. November 2007 was the first cutoff for the differance between 1.0 and 1.1. Since then… just 3 months later, you now have 2.0. How many profiles will Blu-ray go through before they hit the right one. How many machines will the consumer have to buy before they have one that will play all formats? There are no plans right now to correct this problem.
I’m not down on Blu-Ray and I’m not pro HD-DVD…these are just some of the things that people need to consider or better yet questions that need to be asked before good money is spent on players.
It’s better to wait it out. The competition is too close. The companies creating this stuff need to have more consideration for the public. If Blu-ray becomes the choice and HD-DVD disappears, obviously everyone that has an HD player will be furious and vice versa. The only huge difference I’ve learned so far is that the HD player is currently the only player that plays region free DVDs. That means you can watch collectible movies from overseas. I’m not sure about Pal format though, just the region numbers. Blu-ray holds more information, but they also cost a considerable amount more. Try to be patient and wait and see. I know it’s hard! I’m about to try the HD because it’s cheaper, but I don’t want it to be obsolete or have these horrible tug-of-war advertisements. Mac or PC, Blu-ray or HD? Unreal.
What a dilemma. I’ve been wrestling with nuances of home theater for over 10 years now, and I think I’ve been well served by a limited budget, as it has forced me to make cautious puchases.
The problem right now is that high definition video is superior, and this is creating conflict. My household just bought a great TV, and we really enjoy the picture. Yet, we’re using our old multidisc DVD player for viewing and a JVC receiver. We have a 7-disc DVD carousel, that allows great flexibilty for playing music. Simplification of overall devices is an issue for me. It would seem that a great player would allow for the playing of high definition movie playback, full upscaling of old DVDs to 1080p, and multiple CD/music DVD playback.
My dilemma is not only the concern of what player will be the formal media in the future, but what to do with the discs I currently own. As I am sure the purveyors of media will not choose to immediately make all the flicks I love into High-def., I’m interested in having upscaling capacity for those movies. Inasmuch, I also don’t want to buy any more standard DVDs, and actually would rather burn them as they will soon become a lesser, and near-obsolete format (within 10 years).
In terms of audio however, we’re only reinventing the wheel. HDMI is a great means of bundling data, but it’s not necessarily more important data in terms of audio. HDMI will be important beyond 7.1, but right now, not so much. It’s funny, but you don’t hear much about that. In this, we still are at the mercy of mixing engineers, as forward sound is often inappropriately balanced with surround effects.
For 3 years now, I’ve been working on a personal center channel , as the key to experiencing great home theater usually lies in making poor quality movies good, not merely making blockbusters a slight margin better.
Main points:
1. HD DVD has a problem with long movies. The whole movie has to go on one disc, or there has to be a carousel. (This governed my choice of current player).
2. Upscaling of old DVDs to full 1080p (albeit there has to be matching native 1080p res. on the TV), must be included.
3. In terms of space, a carousel music player aspect is needed anyway.
Neither Blu-Ray or HD DVD are simultaneously meeting 1. and 2. right now, and I think one player must to meet them both in the acid test. I think in only a short matter of time one will.
Food for thought: How long are we going to keep using discs anyway? Boo to Sony for their proprietorship, but Sony MiniDisc (remember those) afforded a great means to protect recorded media. Something of that nature will replace this the media-disc era in the not too-distant future, and that in of itself gives one pause.
I’m going to read a book.
I have to say that I have done numerous extensive research and indeed it is comical how similar the technologies are. There are a couple of things that concern me. Indeed, Blu Ray is hyped. Hyped so much that in essence they are really just using throwing their money around to get people to notice it. But I swear that even with a higher data transfer rate, when I look at a Blu Ray picture compared to a HD-DVD picture, the HD-DVD always looks better to me, and the reason I think is because the HD-DVD uses VC1 Compression whereas the Blu Ray technology is still using 10 year old MPEG 2. More notably, HD-DVD is cheaper and it can play all of your old DVDs and upscale them (even though we all know upscaling doesnt do much for the picture). I love my HD-DVD player and everyone I know has one loves theirs too and never have problems. Seems to me I always read WAYYYYY more bad reviews for blu ray than I do for HD-DVD and not to mention, MICROSOFT has backed HD-DVD for God’s sakes. I think if you have one of the biggest technological monopolies on the planet backing you, that REALLY says a lot about your product. Maybe I just like to go against the crowd, but I say that the only reason Blu Ray is winning the battle is because of the “over hype” it’s getting and it is really making a lot of people mad who don’t have really nice $3000 TV’s to really see the advantage of Blu Ray. That’s just my thought though. 🙂
I once thought Blueray was the way to go but now i think HD has more to offer . Currenty you can buy the Hd add on for the xbox 360 for $238. You do not need a xbox 360 to work the hd player all you need is vista os on you pc and the program power dvd that support HD and blue ray for playing. If you got a tv that has dvi then plug you pc in. The xbox 360 Hd player plays DVDs and DVD- disks. Hd movies are region free
Blu-ray will win because of the ps3. $1000 blu-ray player you can get for the cheaper (600-700) ps3.
I think that the capabilitie of being able to play Blu-ray on the PS3 & so many companies having links with sony will make the blu-ray win
I’m not sure.. a lot of people also think that HD DVD will be the winnder for the simple fact that the technology is so similar to the existing DVD technology that most of the production equipment stays the same.
You really have to factor that into the equation.. Blu Ray has to be THAT much superior, to make it worth replacing ALL of the production equipment in order for the company to produce Blu Ray discs.
I’m still not sure myself.. i’ll probably hold off on buying either one for quite some time. Only time will tell, and it’s way too early to be certain.
My guess is that someone will come out with a dual-format player, and then a recorder, before one format drives out the other. It may be harder than making multi-format CD/DVD+/-R(W)(DL) drives — which can be had today for under $100 — but it *has* already been talked about.
One of the main reasons VHS and the superior BetaMax couldn’t consolidate was that the cassettes were different sizes. (However, Sony made expensive, professional Beta*Cam* VCRs that handled two sizes of cassettes.)