Thread: Warner to go Blu-Ray Exclusive

Originally Posted by Unfiltered

Oh, no, I wasn't implying you made a comment about a payout. That was just a fault of me posting that info while replying to you.

And there was a payout, regardless of what WB states.

Gottcha. I figured that was the case. I agree with your other points though. Video and audio quality is the #1 factor here. All the other things that come with the next generation formats are icing on the cake. People saying that space isn't an issue on a disc aren't aware that these movies are being compressed but don't need to be as compressed with larger capacity discs which means better quality (hence the issue with the audio for Transformers).

At work, when we digitize a film in full HD quality, the file size can be anywhere between 700gb to 1tb. Clearly these movies need to be compressed to fit on a disc. But with a BD disc you don't need as much compression. And like you said, films released on both formats will look identical because they are encoded the same way. There are so many people who claim that both versions are the same. While that's true, they aren't realizing that they are coming from the same master, encoded to fit on an HD disc, and then thrown onto a BD disc rather than a seprate encode. Of course, noticing the difference is something very few people can do, but this is mainly directed at Go to point out that space on a disc does matter.

I'm so lost with this blu-ray business. Does this mean we'll need a new DVD blu-ray player?

Originally Posted by NastiMarvasti

Gottcha. I figured that was the case. I agree with your other points though. Video and audio quality is the #1 factor here. All the other things that come with the next generation formats are icing on the cake. People saying that space isn't an issue on a disc aren't aware that these movies are being compressed but don't need to be as compressed with larger capacity discs which means better quality (hence the issue with the audio for Transformers).

At work, when we digitize a film in full HD quality, the file size can be anywhere between 700gb to 1tb. Clearly these movies need to be compressed to fit on a disc. But with a BD disc you don't need as much compression. And like you said, films released on both formats will look identical because they are encoded the same way. There are so many people who claim that both versions are the same. While that's true, they aren't realizing that they are coming from the same master, encoded to fit on an HD disc, and then thrown onto a BD disc rather than a seprate encode. Of course, noticing the difference is something very few people can do, but this is mainly directed at Go to point out that space on a disc does matter.

I knew we's was on da' sames page.

Originally Posted by aerogirl

I'm so lost with this blu-ray business. Does this mean we'll need a new DVD blu-ray player?

You'll need a Blu-ray player (either standalone or PS3 which is the better deal). On the bright side, you won't have to re-buy any of your movies. You can still watch DVD's on these players and they'll look better than on a standard player. All of this is useless though if you don't have an HDTV to display it on.

If the vast majority cannot see or hear the difference... Is there really a difference?

The cheaper more complete tech lost... oh well.

Originally Posted by aerogirl

I'm so lost with this blu-ray business. Does this mean we'll need a new DVD blu-ray player?

Go to Best Buy and see if there is a difference to you. You may think there is no need to buy a BR player.

If BR replaces DVD (which I don't think it will, at least not in the next 5 years), then you can buy a cheaper player at that time. But for now, go check it for yourself. Don't go by what anyone else has to say.

Another problem with bluray is that it is essentially a PS3 only format. If they had cheaper reliable up to spec standalone versions, bluray would get my money.

$400 is too much to pay especially being a 360 owner.

But they don't and now that the war is over the incentive for cheaper hardware is taken away.

PS - there goes the BOGOs.

Sorry it took so long to get in this thread . . . thanks for the call-out Unfiltered. With all this rain it was difficult to see the dgrycan-signal in the sky. (Which, if it were an actual movie coming out, would now be Blu-ray exclusive!)

This is a banner day for High-Def Media - not because the Blu side has dealt a near decisive blow, but that the studios are seeing the writing on the wall that people are NOT going to accept dual formats in the world of home video - and this was the more direct path for Warner to take to ensure the most rapid acceptance of another hard media to sell to the public.

Am I bitter that I just dropped $300 on what will no doubt be a paperweight in a year? Not really . . . I did get some use out of it with the limited HD DVD titles I've been able to buy and rent, and eventually I may use it as a stand-alone upconverting player over the PS3. I'll have to do a comparison.

Did Warner get something out of this? Of course they did. But it doesn't invalidate the point that they stated about needed to solve the problem and potentially skipping mass adoption completely. In fact, the fact that HD DVD seems to be contractually obliged to release on HD DVD until May 2008 as it is seems to indicate that they've been getting incentives from Toshiba since the get-go. Toshiba even seemed to refer to this agreement in their press release.

Quite honestly, I don't know how people didn't see this coming. Toshiba took a handbook right out of the Sony-Beta playbook. They tried to do it alone, they tried to undercut their competitors at every step, and they're #1 ally all along has been working the angles behind the scenes to ensure that the next adopted home video format was delivered directly into homes at premium prices and pay-per-view formulas. But everyone knew that the infrastructure isn't able to support it right now.

I look forward to discs being authored in the highest denominator instead of dual formats and 30 GB caps. I want uncompressed audio on EVERY disc, not just because I DO have the hardware to hear the difference, but the fact that eventually many people may have the ability in the future. HD DVD really reached it's cap right from the start. I have many friends in the industry, and they all agreed that when it came to some titles (and LOTR extended cuts always seemed to be the talking point), they all agreed that there was no way that New Line could get top-of-the-line VC-1 transfers with next-gen audio without sacrificing SOMETHING. Perhaps the TL-51 could solve those problems - but it appears to be nothing but vaporware at this point, and there is still no word on whether it's even compatible with current hardware. And releasing it would be the PR death drop for Toshiba - bashing Sony for Profile 1.1 vs. 1.0, and then having a disc that won't play AT ALL on current players?

I would expect to hear an annoucement from Universal within the next three months about supporting both platforms, and then we'll have to see what out-clauses Paramount had in their agreement. Right or wrong, Paramount/DW might have been the smartest mother****ers in this whole thing. They might have gotten $150 million in cash for what amounts to less than half a year loss of BD sales.

BTW . . . one thing that was never mentioned between the two formats (and something that HAS limited titles in regards to lossless audio) is bitrate. A high quality encode and a high-rate uncompressed soundtrack go beyond the limited of what HD DVD can output within it's technical specs. No increase in disc size can ever change this. The pipe was designed too small.

Originally Posted by go

Another problem with bluray is that it is essentially a PS3 only format. If they had cheaper reliable up to spec standalone versions, bluray would get my money.

Huh? I just counted on Amazon and there are 8 different Blu-Ray players on the market not including the PS3 consoles. Many of them are down in the $300's , one of which is listed at $309. Prices will drop just as they do with everything else.