Format heaven: 10 other failures HD DVD will meet
Filed under: Industry, HD DVD, Other formats, Toshiba
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
hmurchison @ Mar 21st 2008 5:43PM
Don't be morons
The HD DVD player I own right now plays back MPEG2, AVC and VC-1 in HD. There are no less than 30 HD camcorders out there of which my Canon SD camera will eventually get replaced (most likely by a flash based model). To assume that my investment in HD DVD suddenly became worthless because I cannot buy "pre-recorded" media totally ignores my ability to repurpose HD content on DVD-R from other sources. I'm not Hollywood's bytch.
JimC @ Mar 21st 2008 5:55PM
I knew reading comprehension was terrible amongst HDDVD fans....the format, FORMAT is dead, your hardware may support other FORMATS and will still play the DEAD FORMAT for as long as it works but the HDDVD *FORMAT* IS DEAD, euthanized by Toshiba some time ago...
HD4ME @ Mar 21st 2008 7:12PM
JimC, your the goose without comprehension, this article CLEARLY says "suggestions for what to do with your HD DVD player now that the format war is over"
Like the others I will use mine for what it was intended, that is to play the now many cheap HD movies i have purchased and the hundreds of DVD's I own.
On my XA2 they look damn near HD so DVD is good enough for me, especially new releases filmed digitally, it's hard to tell the difference on a quality DVD transfer.
This article is yet another condescending slap from the blu bigots who call themselves journalists.
So you go back to you jar of Vaseline and your BR player and have a nice day!
Sam Winter @ Mar 22nd 2008 2:34AM
@HD4ME
Is your HD-DVD player worthless? No, not really. Go ahead and play all those cheap HD-DVD discs.
upscaled DVD content looking as good as HD-DVD? That is complete bullshit. Your format lost, but you can at least maintain your dignity.
Secret Squirrel @ Mar 22nd 2008 1:32PM
I have a cookie for anyone still using a DIVX player in their house. Extra brownie points for anyone still having it plugged into a land line! ;)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIVX
JimC @ Mar 22nd 2008 2:01PM
HD4ME,
The first sentence, the one you reference, was a back reference to an already discussed topic. This article is about the FORMAT!!! Again, reading comprehension is failing you...
the_boo @ Mar 21st 2008 6:24PM
I totally have a selectavision player and like 10 movies for it. The quality surpasses some of my VHS from the same time, however I would assume these disks were watched far less.
James @ Mar 21st 2008 6:35PM
It's only a matter of time before Blu-ray joins HD DVD in the graveyard.
SAMe @ Mar 21st 2008 7:24PM
And whatever replaces Blu-ray as well....
HD4ME @ Mar 21st 2008 7:40PM
Also, this entire article is just plain nasty BS, the bricks this article lumps HD DVD with are not in the same basket.
My HD DVD player is also a quality DVD player and a CD player so even without HD discs it still has function and purpose, unlike the other dead formats listed, and also, I knew the risks when I purchased my XA2, I bought it first and foremost as an upscaling DVD player that also plays HD DVDs.
kcmurphy88 @ Mar 21st 2008 8:01PM
You would think these fanboy writers would be less nasty winners.
CharlieX @ Mar 21st 2008 8:06PM
No you didn't. You bought it because it could play HD-DVDs.
HD4ME @ Mar 21st 2008 8:12PM
@CarlieX
How the @**! would you know !
I bought my XA2 "AFTER" HD DVD died as the best DVD upscaler on the market, I got it new for $290 with 10 HD movies and bought it as a DVD upscaler first and foremost!
Why, because i will not support blu, my choice, and i want the best i can get out of DVDs, so GFY.
CharlieX @ Mar 21st 2008 9:20PM
You're obviously still taking it hard about HD-DVD. And that's cool. But let me postulate: you are into HD enough to post on EngadgetHD - I mean, this makes all of us fairly high in geekdom. You also probably have a decent HDTV. You bought HD-DVD because like all gadgetheads you love seeing your favorite films in full 1080. Yes good upscaling justifies our existing (and expensive) library of 4:2:0 MPEG-2 DVD's with their ringing reds and macroblocking. But really we want 1080 VC-1/AVC remasters that blow our minds - that's why were here. An upscaled DVD is smoke and mirrors - good enough for a stopgap, but not for the full experience.
I find it hard that anyone would have so much hate for the other format that they'd "never" buy it. At some point one of your all time favorite movies will come out on Blu - won't it be worth it to enjoy that movie in the best possible format? It's not like you're buying drugs on the street that cause columbian villagers to get gunned down in a drug war. It's just gadget tech... either way your money would be going overseas to an asian manufacturer.
Blu may not have been on par with HDDVD from many aspects, but it's not like VHS versus Beta. VC-1 on Blu looks identical to Blu.
I'm not trying to be an asshole. But it seems trite when HD-DVD fanboys start claiming they'll never buy Blu.
HD4ME @ Mar 21st 2008 10:19PM
@CharlieX
The wars over, I don't care any more, blu ray won, good luck to them.
Me personally, I wont support them, I'm not bitter, it's just my opinion and I will live without blu.
I just wont support anything sony, and please don't tell me BR is not sony, it is, the others are just along for the ride. I cant/wont support a company hell bent on root kits, draconian DRM, a company that treats me like a criminal, and whatever else they dream up to infect their customers machines with.
It's just my opinion, thats all, so I will not support blu.
What i have learnt however, and your right about picture quality, is that "quality" upscaled DVDs are so good, many are better than some HD DVDs I own, and there in lies the answer for ME.
I have learned that recently made DVDs in particular look brilliant on my XA2 and I am happy with that, another poster recently said about "Apocalypto" on DVD, a new digitally mastered DVD. I tried it , it is better than many of my HD DVDs, not as good as all, but better than many, but good enough that it looks HD to me. Many HD movies have poor transfers as do DVDs and you get the corresponding results.
I will stick with DVD's on my XA2 and be very happy with that,if they have a quality transfer they are brilliant, I don't need blu, I am very satisfied.
Ryan @ Mar 21st 2008 7:44PM
Hey HD4me, since your reading skills are so good, please explain why you think that this article is about "what to do with your HD DVD player"?
I hate these pointless arguments. Would I rather HD DVD win, yes! But they didn't. Deal with it.
kcmurphy88 @ Mar 21st 2008 8:00PM
Those of us who had long experience with both formats in a standalone version can tell you those dead HD DVD players were far better from a user point-of-view than any standalone player blu-ray has as yet brought out.
Yes, the war is over and blu-ray won. PS3 owners rejoice. Certainly no one who owned both standalones would.
And maybe before the year is out there will be a decent standalone BD player. The Panny BD30 might qualify if it could upconvert worth a darn, which it can't. Maybe the BD50. Then maybe the price will come down to earth before NEXT year is out. Sigh.
BD 2009 = HD 2006. Maybe.
Except of course, that BD is now the only game in town. Resignation is a bi*ch.
Mikey @ Mar 21st 2008 8:55PM
Awesome article as I was talking to some friends about defunct formats, especially DIVX, which I owned. This article makes one blindingly obvious mistake: DIVX discs were NOT useless after the first 48 hours. You could pop it in the player again and rent it for about $3 or so for another 48 hours. Which, obviously didn't help it in any way, since it's no longer, but at least get the info right.
Iridium @ Mar 21st 2008 8:56PM
CED rocked. At the time it was much better than tape players. The first VHS decks ate more tapes than they played and CED had a much better picture. Problem was that you had to get up and switch sides on the disc to play a whole movie. Some movies came with two discs like Raiders of the Lost Ark so you had to flip sides and swap a disc.
Good old RCA SelectaVision, first time I ever saw Star Wars.
alienclays @ Mar 21st 2008 10:58PM
hey! where is VMD on that list? oh yeah, life support waiting for HD-DVD to finnish dragging its feet through the pearl gates.
Joseph R @ Mar 21st 2008 11:02PM
For clarification (not mentioned)...
DIVX discs were in Full-Screen only (NO widescreen titles) and did NOT have any special bonus features. Also, Fox was primarily releasing on DIVX (Disney too), and only occasionally released a title on regular DVD. By the way, Sony and Warner NEVER supported or released titles on DIVX.
CED (like LaserDisc) held 2 hours on a disc (two sides). Since Raiders of the Lost Ark has a running time of 115 minutes, it did NOT require a 2nd disc (see comment above) - both the CED and LaserDisc were on one disc. However, any movie over 2 hours required a 2nd disc, although a few movies that were just a few minutes beyond the two hours were often released 'time-compressed' so as to fit on one, 2-sided disc.
kcmurphy88 @ Mar 22nd 2008 3:49PM
There are lots of folks who will go out of their way -- today -- to avoid a widescreen DVD. If you're watching a DVD on a 27" TV with maybe 350 lines of resolution, a widescreen DVD looks pretty awful, as you lose another 20-30% of the resolution you have.
DIVX was aimed at people who wanted something simple that would work with their 10-year-old TV. To this day I see no reason why a parallel distribution for those folks was a bad idea. So what if it offended the technically aware? It was never intended for them.
DrXym @ Mar 22nd 2008 5:48AM
Wow, I'd never heard of Selectavision before. I can see the appeal of the format if it appeared in the 60s, but what the hell were RCA thinking to release it in the 80s?
As for some of the comments in this thread. Yes HD DVD owners are lucky that their player supports DVD & CD but that doesn't make HD DVD any less dead than it is. My CDi player could play CDs and VideoCDs that was a small consolation when CDi was dead and VideoCDs were too in Europe.
Fortunately I didn't buy my CDi (it was a prize), only owned one VideoCD and thought the video quality was terrible even at the time. So the only downside of loss was storing an obsolete machine. It lived in a carrier bag until I unloaded it on a charity. But I imagine I would be very upset if I had made some emotional investment in the format.
You shouldn't be an early adopter if you can't cope with backing the wrong format.
Jove @ Mar 22nd 2008 6:48AM
...see! hd dvd wont be alone in format heaven!
kbsig106 @ Mar 22nd 2008 9:55AM
Three in the top ten Sony... No too bad
I own both format(s) - just thought it was funny Sony had three on the list. I have to admire the innovation.
Viva la HD DVD!
Gordon Werner @ Mar 22nd 2008 1:30PM
I remember CED disks ... and the struggle to decide if we were going to get a CED player or a LaserDisc player (we went LD)
was an interesting idea ... movie on a record ...
The best thing about HD-DVD though is now I can buy lots of movies on the cheap to play in my Samsung BD-UP5000
onyxwave @ Mar 27th 2008 2:42PM
solodragon:
Yeah, you missed it.
solodragon @ Mar 25th 2008 12:34PM
A link to the article would be nice, or did I miss it?