The HD News & Technology Thread!

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 04 Jan 2008, 23:00

Boy am I glad I chose to wait instead of jumping into HD.

Warner has officially gone Blu.
This might give Blu-Ray the edge, but since Paramount are going to be HD-DVD exclusive until the end of the year, it means that the format war can't end before 2009.

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 04 Jan 2008, 23:03

tom2681 wrote:
Warner has officially gone Blu.
This might give Blu-Ray the edge, but since Paramount are going to be HD-DVD exclusive until the end of the year, it means that the format war can't end before 2009.

Paramount are hardly releasing much on HD-DVD anyway,see the other thread. if they and Universal stick it out hd-dvd will be around awhile yet.it certainly seems more popular in europe where all the hd-dvd titles usually on blu-ray seem to pop up.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 05 Jan 2008, 04:10

saltysam wrote:18 months old.i hope they fail it and give me vouchers.i'll pay the difference and go for a much better spec model,don't think i'd get another samsung after this though.

18 months, that sucks.

It's a good job you took out extended warranty. I don't usually bother. I did for my laptop (it was a good deal direct from Toshiba too) as they're hard to fix yourself but otherwise prefer to risk it. The number of items that have gone wrong for me between 13 months to 4 years is low. I find things either brake soon or last donkeys years.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 22 Jan 2008, 14:50

Interesting article from one of the top dogs at Universal:

http://www.betanews.com/article/Intervi ... 1200951636

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 27 Jan 2008, 03:03

Panasonic unveil their Profile 2.0 BD Player:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/06/spec ... -dmp-bd50/
Press release: http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/st ... mId=215165

I wish Samsung could manage this

. How hard is it to add Profile 2.0, honestly.

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 06 Feb 2008, 18:23

http://www.trustedreviews.com/home-cine ... han-DVD/p1

Not bad going since the format war has obviously put people off buying into it as of yet.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 07 Feb 2008, 01:43

The world was less aware back then, the Internet for one wasn't what it is today. I still find it surprising though.

That picture rocks

According to analysts Displaysearch, sales of DVD discs took around two years to reach the point where the high definition market is now at.

That doesn't mean much, both HD-DVD and BD are about 2 years old now. Maybe slightly less.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 08 Feb 2008, 02:10

MS/Toshiba are having a fire sale on Xbox 360 HD-DVD drives.

Microsoft is following suit and today cut the price of its Toshiba-manufactured Xbox 360 HD DVD player to $129.99. According to Microsoft's Major Nelson, the price cut is effective immediately in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
sauce

Finally the price has dropped on the bloody thing in Australasia. For that price I can't say no, I ordered one immediately. Good thing I have that copy of Vista x64 lying around, and fully HDCP compliant hardware. 8)

EDIT: Turns out XP is fine with the HD-DVD drive. Fuck Vista.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 08 Feb 2008, 05:04

But not Europe???

I hear they're not a patch on a proper Toshiba HD-DVD player. I thought it worked on XP too. Don't you need extra drivers so XP supports it though?

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 08 Feb 2008, 06:14

bradavon wrote:But not Europe???

Like I care.

I hear they're not a patch on a proper Toshiba HD-DVD player.

Not everyone is "I can afford 1000 pound players, even though I'm on welfare." like you.

I thought it worked on XP too.

It does.

Don't you need extra drivers so XP supports it though?

I've had the the XP32 drivers sitting on my HDD for months now. Hopefully I can grab the XPx64 ones off of Windows Update.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 08 Feb 2008, 06:33

EvaUnit02 wrote:Like I care.

Well I don't care New Zealand is years behind Europe in Digital TV but that wouldn't be my point if I raised it now would it.

Not everyone is "I can afford 1000 pound players, even though I'm on welfare." like you.

You need to look harder if you think Toshiba charge a grand for the Toshiba HD-DVD Players. Oh right I forgot you're on a million dollars a year

, not that I can work out how it's relevant what anyone is on in relation to what I said.

Stop being a tosser. I was making general comments nothing more. They weren't directed at you. Go buy your Xbox 360 HD-DVD "Dying Format" Add on.

Hopefully I can grab the XPx64 ones off of Windows Update.

That's cool Microsoft freely provide drivers for XP.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 08 Feb 2008, 07:03

Yes, you were coming off as a dick. Sorry. The prices have pretty much remained static down here.

I was referring to one of you combo players, not Toshiba's.

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 11 Feb 2008, 14:44

Samsung are being sued over all the disc incompatibilities in one of their players: http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/ ... ayers/1450

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 11 Feb 2008, 18:40

Netflix Goes Blu-ray Exclusive

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/ ... usive/1451

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 11 Feb 2008, 19:20

gasteropod wrote:Samsung are being sued over all the disc incompatibilities in one of their players: http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/ ... ayers/1450

Fantastic. Good on him. I hope Samsung get sued for millions!

I also hope it means they get their act together. I wish I didn't have to say it but they make some of the most buggy BD and Combo Players on the market!

Samsung have an obligation to fix these players as they're selling them as complete and final products yet we all know the spec. is far from complete. They're not being sold as Beta products so buyers shouldn't expect to get a Beta player, especially when Samsung and the like charge so much for them.

Even LG's BH200 Combo Player doesn't have many (if any) disc compatibility problems. I don't think aside from HD-DVD HDi the BH100 had many problems either, actually that wasn't great but you know what I mean.

When Samsung can get TVs generally so right it's such a shame they cannot get their BD Players or HDD/DVD Recorders right too. Their HDD/DVD Recorders are poorly made as well.

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 11 Feb 2008, 22:20

Best Buy to Recommend Blu-ray over HD DVD

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/ ... D_DVD/1455

It's just one thing after another. HD-DVD is screwed.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 11 Feb 2008, 22:36

"I prefer being screwed slowly"

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 12 Feb 2008, 16:47

gasteropod wrote:

It's just one thing after another. HD-DVD is screwed.

blu-ray-niche market-laserdisc mark 2 with added region coding

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 12 Feb 2008, 17:10

Yeah I can see HD-DVD becoming an item for collectors, much like Laser Disc before it.

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 12 Feb 2008, 17:26

Ratatouille Region B locked even though it's been released months after the usa release. Region coding will get stricter imo.thank fuck i went Region A.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 12 Feb 2008, 17:37

Are you getting old? You've already said that

I don't think it really matters when both are identical releases sans region coding. Just pick the one you need. I'd prefer if one version was region free though.

saltysam · Post by **saltysam** » 12 Feb 2008, 19:07

bradavon wrote:Are you getting old? You've already said that

I don't think it really matters when both are identical releases sans region coding. Just pick the one you need. I'd prefer if one version was region free though.

i know i'd already said it, i was making the point that region coding is getting stricter. Disney released pirates 3 last year region free in the uk even though the usa release hadn't come out yet,now they are coding stuff that's been in release months in Region A. Region coding matters if the usa release can be found much cheaper than the uk one.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 12 Feb 2008, 20:40

Region coding always matters.

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 13 Feb 2008, 02:42

It's only a matter of time before the coding is bypassed by guys who live in their grandmother's basements and have a blow-up doll for a girlfriend... If these buggers can break The Pentagon and NASA I think BD will fall eventually...

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 13 Feb 2008, 03:01

Markgway wrote:It's only a matter of time before the coding is bypassed by guys who live in their grandmother's basements and have a blow-up doll for a girlfriend... If these buggers can break The Pentagon and NASA I think BD will fall eventually...

Nah, it'll more likely be cracked by East Europeans whom live the high life with hookers and blow, because they're funded by the Russian mafia.