The HD News & Technology Thread!

Markgway · Post by **Markgway** » 22 Feb 2008, 14:40

saltysam wrote:i don't have a problem with anyone here and shall return

I do. You're all a bunch of slack-jawed faggots and I only hang here cause I've got fuck all else to do. Grrrr.... :shock:

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 22 Feb 2008, 17:36

saltysam wrote:it's called internet fatigue.i spend far too much time online imo.

Me too. It can become all too easy.

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 22 Feb 2008, 18:51

Universal: HD DVD Plans in Flux

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/ ... _Flux/1497

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 22 Feb 2008, 23:55

Thanks gasteropod. It's time to start the re-release ball rolling!

Godzooki · Post by **Godzooki** » 23 Feb 2008, 14:07

Am if daft to keep buying HD-DVD? Will they still release discs?

Picked up Beowulf, Things we lost in the fire and Into the Wild last week and i dont wanna get rid of any of them!

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 23 Feb 2008, 19:06

No not at all. I hear you can "still" buy Laser discs so I cannot see HD-DVDs going anywhere any time soon.

Both Paramount and Universal have discs still scheduled for the next few months, although at just a guess Paramount may shelve them and release the BDs. Add in the fact LG is still going to support HD-DVD hardware (maybe Samsung soo), add in the 1 million user base, add in the 500-1000 exclusive discs already on the market and HD-DVD isn't going anywhere.

It will take months/years to re-release them. Although I'm now wary about still buying HD-DVDs I will still likely continue to support both formats.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 24 Feb 2008, 15:30

I'm really interested in this player:
http://www.homemedia.fr/i/imgs/5557.png

Sigmatek SBR-1000 Blu-Ray player.
No DTS-HD decoding, but at least it's cheap.
At 250€, it's the cheapest Blu-Ray player ever made.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 24 Feb 2008, 15:48

Again Tom, without Region A playback you're fucked.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 24 Feb 2008, 16:33

Again Eva, I don't give a fuck about Region A.

Number of titles I'm interested in:
66.
Number of titles that are Region B or region-free:
59.
Number of titles that are locked (Region A only):
7.

It's a complete no-brainer.
For the few titles that are locked, there's always SD-DVD.

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 24 Feb 2008, 16:39

I'm with Tom, all this being fucked without Region A talk is a bit over exaggerated I think. If certain UK titles are cut, surely you can just import the Australian one or something. So far, my only gripe with being Region B is that I currently can't watch Lost: Season 3 on Blu-ray, but I'm anticipating that being released here in the near future hopefully.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 24 Feb 2008, 18:32

tom2681 wrote:Sigmatek SBR-1000 Blu-Ray player.
No DTS-HD decoding, but at least it's cheap.
At 250€, it's the cheapest Blu-Ray player ever made.

I don't understand why you'd spends loads on a screen then by the cheapest Player you can find to go with it.

What's to say it won't have disc playback problems? Many of the other cheap ones have. Aren't you concerned that if you get a Profile 1.0 player you'll be buying old hardware that could struggle to playback films (note not extras) in the future?

Many of Fox BDs are Profile 1.0 compatible but use BD-J menus that cause some older Players to struggle to load the disc at all.

tom2681 wrote:Number of titles I'm interested in:
66.
Number of titles that are Region B or region-free:
59.
Number of titles that are locked (Region A only):
7.

How many of these are Region B locked? Seriously I'm interested.

It's irrelevant how many are Region Free. For example if less than 7 are Region B then your point is illogical.

Aren't you completely ignoring the possibility of future releases? Region B only covers Europe, Australia and New Zealand compared with North America and Asia. Those are considerably bigger markets.

I'm surprised you buy more European/Australasian DVDs than you do DVDs from the Far East. What if all those Far East manufacturers suddenly start locking their BDs to Region A? (they'll never use Region B).

HK DVDs are often Region Free but many Japanese DVDs are Region 2 only. You keep saying "hopefully a BD is Region Free" so clearly you do actually care, if only a little. If you went Region A 9 times out of 10 you could be sure it would play.

The simple truth is when a BD is going to be region locked it's much more likely it will be the Americans than the Europeans doing it. Am I wrong?

If certain UK titles are cut, surely you can just import the Australian one or something.

Presuming it's released in Australia. The USA Home Video market is considerably bigger than Australia. The only Australian specific studio of any size is Village Roadshow compared with stacks of USA specific studios, such as Lionsgate.

So no I do not think it's exaggerated in the slightest.

Obviously you can make do with Region B and still have a healthy selection of titles but the chances of being caught out are simply that much greater, thinking not just now (like Tom, as if he'll only ever buy 59 BDs) but the future too.

You guys are simply only against Region A as you don't like the idea of importing. Fine I can understand that, the idea of losing warranty is a concern to me too but don't use that as an excuse to convince yourself and others that we're exaggerating.

And just in case anyone reads to much into my comments I'll add one of these

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 24 Feb 2008, 20:33

@Brad:
I want a cheap player because I'm interested in HD and am out of money.
So it's either "cheap player" or "no player at all". Might as well be "cheap player".

Aren't you concerned that if you get a Profile 1.0 player you'll be buying old hardware that could struggle

If all discs work, great!
If one doesn't work, I'll sell it. Unlike DVD, HD is just a hobby (not the kind of thing I'd get concerned about).

How many of these are Region B locked?

In my list, I'm counting roughly 10 locked RB titles vs. 7 locked RA titles.

What if all those Far East manufacturers suddenly start locking their BDs to Region A?

I'm more concerned about french releases. People like HK Vidéo, KubiK, Kaze and Wild Side are likely to lock their releases as well.
That's why I NEED a Region B player.

-With the current korean movie crisis, I can't see any of their titles being released on Blu anytime soon.
-As for the japanese, the prices of their discs are way beyond what I can afford.
-Hong-Kong seems to be region-free at the moment.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 24 Feb 2008, 20:37

tom2681 wrote:Ah shit.
I deleted my post to write another one.
Didn't think you'd quote it so fast.

Oh right

. I'll see if I can sort the thread out.

tom2681 wrote:It's called "being broke". One day I'm sure you'll understand.

I'm unemployed. I understand more than you realise. I wouldn't buy a HD Player if one was available today. Thankfully nothing does exist yet, but unless I'm still skint in May I will buy something.

tom2681 wrote:So it's either "cheap player" or "no player at all". Might as well be "cheap player".

Fair enough then. That is a particularly good price. I'd still be concerned buying an unknown name, especially considering BD hardware is still in it's infancy.

tom2681 wrote:If one doesn't work, I'll sell it. Unlike DVD, HD is just a hobby (not the kind of thing I'd get concerned about).

It's more than a few on some of the Samsung Players.

tom2681 wrote:In my list, I'm counting roughly 10 locked RB titles vs. 7 locked RA titles.

Which ones? There are no Region B titles I want and only EIV (UK) ship Region B exclusives that "could" interest me so I should be fine. It's far from ideal but for me Region A is the better of two evils.

I'm more concerned about french releases. People like HK Vidéo, KubiK, Kaze and Wild Side are likely to lock their releases as well. That's why I NEED a Region B player.

Fair point then. You know much more about how they operate than I do. I don't own any of their DVDs. In fact the only French DVD I do own is In the Mood for Love.

I find they're way overpriced to usually consider. There aren't enough considerably better examples to be interested (as was the case with ITMFL when it first came out) or drop English subs (i.e - Amelie).

-With the current korean movie crisis, I can't see any of their titles being released on Blu anytime soon.

What do you mean by this?

-As for the japanese, the prices of their discs are way beyond what I can afford.

True. I just picked it as an example. I tend to find both French and Japanese DVDs to be similarly priced. The big sales are always in the UK or America; Australian discs are expensive too (although not as much) but then I don't know many French e-tailors, unlike Australian ones.

-Hong-Kong seems to be region-free at the moment.

Yeah it's likely that will remain.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 24 Feb 2008, 20:50

Thanks man. Nicely done.

Re: Korea:
I'm sure you know that the korean film industry is in a deep financial crisis.
The quotas have been dropped ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_quotas ) and the studios aren't making money anymore.

Don't know if that has anything to do with it, but it seems they're not even re-releasing their films on DVD when they go OOP.
I've just done a random search for several films and all the korean DVDs are out of stock everywhere.

Whether korean cinema can recover from this, I don't know.
I just can't see any studio spending money to remaster a title for high-definition at the moment.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 24 Feb 2008, 21:50

I didn't know thanks.

Any idea why? Has the bottom fallen out of the market and appeal? I suspect so. It has to happen eventually, especially with piracy so rife in Asia.

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 25 Feb 2008, 14:50

Microsoft Ceasing Xbox HD DVD Drive Production

http://www.trustedreviews.com/home-cine ... duction/p1

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 25 Feb 2008, 15:34

Thanks. That comes as no surprise. Aren't Toshiba still selling laptops with HD-DVD? I guess those will stop too.

I hope Microsoft brings out a BD add-on but somehow I cannot see it. I've no idea if the Xbox 360 is Profile 1.1 or 2.0 compatible but I'd guess MS would only make it 1.0 anyway.

Warner: Profile 1.1 Blu-ray Titles Coming Soon:

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/ ... _Soon/1340

p.s - It's the same link I posted earlier. I've just moved it into the more appropriate thread.

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 05 Mar 2008, 02:45

I was just wondering, when extras on Blu-rays are shown in SD, is it NTSC in all regions?

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 05 Mar 2008, 02:57

I've read they are. It's something to do with the differing frame rate PAL and HD works in.

romerojpg · Post by **romerojpg** » 05 Mar 2008, 16:33

and they may look like shit if the standard part of your nice new HD player is shit at playing Standard dvd images, like mine its shit for standard dvds compared to my dedicated multiregion Oppo dvd player.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 05 Mar 2008, 17:20

Does it really matter? It's not like anyone would be viewing HD discs on a SD single format TV.

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 05 Mar 2008, 18:29

EvaUnit02 wrote:Does it really matter? It's not like anyone would be viewing HD discs on a SD single format TV.

No, I was just curious lol.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 07 Mar 2008, 02:20

Sony offers Blu-ray trade-in deal for HD DVD owners in Switzerland:

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/03/04/so ... -switzerl/

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 07 Mar 2008, 13:08

Pioneer abandoning plasma!

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/07/pion ... o-lcds-co/

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 07 Mar 2008, 16:19

Learn to read, they'll just be sourcing their panels from 3rd parties.