Blu-ray vs. HD - Aren’t You Glad You Waited?
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I guess the big news is that Warner Brothers decision to back Blu-ray may spell a death sentence to HD. Some are suggesting that the decision to back the Blu-ray format was because of poor HD sales which Warner is blaming on high gas prices. OK. Whatever makes your boat float. Seems that the folks at Warner fear that we may be entering into a era where impulse buying may wane as gas prices climb higher.
If that is the case, than why would people buy Blu-ray DVDs anymore than they would buy HD DVDs? Warner also has claimed that this would also eliminate some of the confusion in the market place between the two dueling formats. This it may do. Whatever. I know I am just glad that I decided to wait, like many of you have, to see who would win the battle.
On the flip side of this is the fact that this may all be a moot point down the road. With companies such as Netflix and others making available movies on demand via a download, the days of the DVD disk may be coming to an end. Or will it? Not everyone here in the US has broadband access.
What do you think? Does the battle between HD and Blu-ray matter? Or will the future be movies on demand?
Comments welcome.
PS In a previous article I did on the format wars I like one readers comment about why Blu-ray would win. Blu-ray was a cooler name! LOL

9 Comments
dabrace1984
January 10th, 2008
at 5:25pm
I thought that Blu-ray would win a couple of months ago. Not because I bought it, which I didn’t, but because it is a form of technology is is being adapted as we speak. Blu-ray, movie studios and, manufacturers are updating the features that are and that will be available to consumers. HD-DVD is an updated format that is good, what the new features itself are minimal.
When it comes to movies, I am some that normally hates all of the extra fluff that movies studios but on a disc; why not just put a movie on it like VHS used to be. But the new features and capabilities of Blu-ray will encourage me to actually get the most out of each disc.
GranitW
January 10th, 2008
at 5:55pm
I’m glad I waited ^_^
Ron Schenone
January 10th, 2008
at 6:27pm
Thanks for the comments.
Denny
January 11th, 2008
at 9:42am
_________FOR–SALE………..
2 . . HD. . . DVD—PLAYERS
Trance lord Dred
January 11th, 2008
at 10:16am
I,m glad but the war just is’t over yet. will it make a difference if hddvd or blu-ray is cheaper, Supproted by industry, stores more gigabytes time will tell for movie players it`s a wait and see, for hard drives on computers its what holds more data, faster cheaper and works better. In the caribbean states the public will be dvd and dual layer until the new formats get cheaper, techies already adopted blu-ray disc down here it started out HD-DVD and quickly are adopting BLU-RAY. i’m going BLU-RAY but i still like HD DVD.
GOOSE
January 11th, 2008
at 8:02pm
But how do it know?
Griff
January 11th, 2008
at 11:02pm
Blu-Ray was aided by the fact that it not only was part of the PS3, but it had more space. VHS wasnt as good as betamax, but because it had more space it won. history is repeating itslef!
Ron Schenone
January 12th, 2008
at 7:29am
Thanks for all of the comments.
Griff- good point. This could be a replay.
Maybe Sony learned something from their last mistake.
mike
January 19th, 2008
at 11:26am
I’ve researched both, though I haven’t made a full decision yet. To be honest, I like the features of HD-DVD best. It’s HDi backend is far superior to Blu-Ray’s Java back end. However, Blu-Ray’s additional space is very nice too.
It’s too bad “the best of both worlds” approach wasn’t used. Originally it was suggested to use the HD disc format, on Blu-Ray media. This would have give both sides equal royalties. It would have given the best of both to consumers. I’m truely sad that it didn’t play out that way.
Sadly, one of the biggest issues I’ve had since the beginning was Name Recognition. It sounds funny, but an older generation is going to identify with “HD-DVD” as “oh, it’s DVD’s but in HD” much better than they will with “Blu-Ray” — probably quickly followed up with a “what is that?” I hear people say “blu-ray” sounds neater — that may be true, but sounding neat isn’t usually as effective as sounding instinctive.
Both formats have good quality. I’ve watched the same movies on both, the quality of both is remarkable. I don’t think you can even try to use that as a comparison feature.
HD-DVD has the ability to be produced cheaper, faster, easier. Which if HD-DVD was to became the single format would have probably meant cheaper HiDef movies in the long run. However, movie studios are greedy, so it would probably just mean bigger profits for movie studios.
Blu-Ray has “Region Coding” — movie studios love that. Most consumers hate it. I was enticed at the ability to purchase movies online from another country and be able to easily watch them in an HD player. If Blu-Ray wins, it will remain how standard definition DVD’s are, and I will only be able to watch Region 1 DVD’s.
In the end, both formats have their up’s and down’s. Blu-Ray plays more towards the suppliers, and HD-DVD plays more towards the consumers. Unfortunately for consumers, the suppliers make the products.