More on HD vs Blu-ray DVD's

About ten days ago, I wrote an in-depth story about the forthcoming war over the new High Definition DVD's that are about to come out. Today I have an interesting followup on that story.

CNet has done an excellent in-depth study on the two competing formats, how they work, which might or might not be the better choice, plus a whole list of not-so-well-know facts about the two formats that may surprise you. If this subject is of interest to you, I suggest you take a few minutes to read the article.

If you don't want to take the time, here is some bottom-line information for you. Like me, CNet recommends that you don't buy either format for a while. That is the only obvious conclusion you can come to. Right now regular DVD players are extremely low priced (I saw one for $19.95 in a store the other day) and offer the best resolution of any pre-recorded media player available. Every movie maker supports it (not so in HD-DVD and Blue-ray) so you can watch any movie or TV show that has ever been put on DVD.

Another shocking revelation in the article is the fact that if you were an early purchaser of a high definition television, either of the new systems may not work very well for you. To quote directly from the article: "Anyone with an older HDTV--one without an HDMI or HDCP-compliant DVI input--will be unable to watch HD-DVD or Blu-ray movies at full high-definition. The content providers (studios) have the option to "down-res" or "image constrain" the output over the component video jacks to 960x540--better than DVD but only 25 percent of the full HD capability of 1,920x1,080. In other words, early HDTV adopters get screwed because of Hollywood's fear of potential high-def piracy."

Do you ever get the feeling that the entertainment industry wants complete control over our lives?

Other important information from the article:

1. The initial batch of high definition players won't take full advantage of High Definition TV. They can only show 960 lines of resolution compared to the TV's ability to show 1080 lines of resolution.
2. Prices for high resolution DVD's will be $29.95 for older films and $34.95 for newer films, quite a jump over current DVD prices.
3. Many high-res DVD's will have a regular DVD version of a film on it as well as a High Definition version.
4. As I pointed out in my earlier blog, prices for Blu-ray players are going to be very expensive, initially in the $1,000 range.
5. Also, as was pointed out in that same blog, different studios support a different format so not all films will be available in either format.
6. Blue-ray supporters were counting heavily on the release of a new Sony Playstation gaming console with a Blu-ray player to jumpstart their format, but its release has now been delayed until at least November.
7. Microsoft will release an HD-DVD player later this year that can be plugged in to their current Xbox 360 gaming console.
8. There are already several video-on-demand companies (with more coming) that offer HD movies, so maybe buying a high-def DVD may be silly as the content will already be available without an expensive equipment purchase.
   

As I said, it is an easy decision not to buy either player for a while, if ever. And frankly, having watched two regular DVD movies yesterday (Susan is in California right now so I have no one to talk to), I am very happy with the current quality of regular DVD's. I can wait them out with no inconvenience to myself.