digg

Join DiggAbout

Discover the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.

Consumer's Cheat Sheet to HD DVD's Death, Blu-ray's Victory

gizmodo.com — HD DVD is dead. Officially. That may mean a whole bunch for the early-adopter tech geek crowd that's been wading in the kiddie pool of technological bickering and backhandedness for years, but what does it mean for the average consumer with only a cursory interest in high-def DVDs? Here's our cheat sheet Q&A for you to explain to your parents.

Bury
show profanity settings
expand all
  • Gryffydd, on 02/19/2008, -1/+24Oh...so *THIS* time it's really really honest to goodness official? Really?
    • Ganja420, on 02/19/2008, -2/+2NO just a flesh wound
    • bdbr, on 02/19/2008, -0/+2No, the article this morning meant its really honest to goodness official. This one discusses their opinion of what to do now that its official.
  • robbob, on 02/19/2008, -5/+23Buried for redundancy
    • skeen07, on 02/19/2008, -3/+6I actually thought it was a good read.
    • trogdor282, on 02/19/2008, -0/+6Obvious blog is obvious. Can I get one of these for VHS?
    • coit, on 02/19/2008, -2/+7Approved by the Department of Redundancy Department
    • NgrHader, on 02/19/2008, -3/+4The reason this article was written was for the fact that the author himself is an HD-DVD supporter. It's obvious in the first question, which sickens me.
      • skankyBacon, on 02/19/2008, -0/+7Why does it matter? He seems fully accepting of the fact that Blu-Ray won. It doesn't mean everyone has to agree that Blu-Ray is/was the superior technology.
    • Rayfound, on 02/19/2008, -2/+5On paper, HD DVD was the right decision. Cheaper players, cheaper disc production, finalized spec.

      The only stumbling block was the slight difference in capacity (which isn't really all that importatant). This format war was never about the technical aspects of each, it was about the business/political aspects of the alliances.

      My question is: did the repeated breaking of the HD DVD copy protection help cause the studios to sign-up exclusive Blu??
      • BearinG, on 02/20/2008, -0/+1I was a fan of HD-DVD.. but still think that storage capacity was an important aspect.. considering that these won't only be used for Movies, the bigger storage is always good for the futur..
      • staticneuron, on 02/21/2008, -0/+1Blu ray is cheaper per gigabyte comparing straight up cost for a 30 gig HD-DVD vs a 50 gig Blu ray isn't feesable. Blu ray not only had more storage space but also had I higher bitrate maximums. The Formats themselves were finalized but it was the players that need to be upgraded to take advantage of the formats... and that really shouldn't have a bearing on the formats to much. And HD-DVD and Blu ray shared the same DRM except 1the BDA made for Fox..... and they hardley used it.

        The sheer fact that blu ray movies were outselling HD-DVD movies worldwide for a year is without a doubt the reason. With heavies like the Matrix, transformers and tv shows like BSG and heroes people still did not flock to HD-DVD to get their HD fix.

        Anymore excuses you would like to create for HD-DVD failing?
  • plizard, on 02/19/2008, -7/+34these articles are getting annoying. we know hd-dvd is dead. stfu already
    • onlyclave, on 02/19/2008, -9/+6A little bitter, are we?
      • dyzlexiK, on 02/19/2008, -2/+6No, its the fact that Gawker has posted "HD-DVD IS DEAD" like 10 times in the past 2 days. They really do need to STFU.

        I didnt buy either one, dont plan on buying HD anytime soon either.
        • coldfusion1970, on 02/19/2008, -1/+2I read digg.com, not Gawker (whatever the hell it is).
    • airwalkery2k, on 02/19/2008, -3/+3Let them flaunt the size of their e-peens. You know the HD DVD crowd would do it too.

      Honestly, I find it funny watching those two camps fling at each other. I hope soon they realize how meaningless choosing sides and debating against the other on the Internet really is.
    • humperdeath, on 02/19/2008, -2/+3Q.But what if I already have a gigantic HD DVD library?
      A: ... You might want to just shoot yourself in the face now and be done with it.
      • BearinG, on 02/20/2008, -0/+1You wait for Blu-ray burners to be reasonably priced and backup your HD-DVDs on Bluray.
    • postalblowfish7, on 02/19/2008, -1/+1well... it's kind of a big deal :x
  • CrudeDarkness, on 02/19/2008, -1/+9Dugg for Gundams.
  • RevJonathan, on 02/19/2008, -2/+13Wait wait wait..... HD-DVD is dead?
    • prophetpimp, on 02/19/2008, -0/+6I give you HD DVD. For you my friend, Special Price.
  • jkoski, on 02/19/2008, -12/+39"Q: I chose sides early in the HD DVD/Blu-ray shenanigans and unfortunately, made the right decision and supported HD DVD. What do I do now?"

    Wow... I didn't realize that Gizmodo liked sucking HD-DVD ***** so much...
    • zedebsky, on 02/19/2008, -6/+21They gotta suck something and Steve Jobs isn't always in the mood!
      • DupontNumber24, on 02/19/2008, -1/+3No they have to get in line behind Engadget for that.
    • hipnerd, on 02/19/2008, -9/+4Read it again with your sarcasm detector turned on. You may be surprised at the result.
    • Gryffydd, on 02/19/2008, -1/+7And if they can't suck Jobs, they just go back to sucking at journalism :)
    • merreborn, on 02/19/2008, -1/+8All the tech sites (including digg and slashdot) were pro-HD-DVD early on.

      Sony sucks, remember?
      • hexydes, on 02/19/2008, -3/+4Price
        DRM
        Rootkits

        What's not to love? GO BLU-RAY!
      • staticneuron, on 02/21/2008, -0/+1FUD!


        Hurray for fanboys!
  • keiths, on 02/19/2008, -2/+21I don't see what the big deal is. If you have HD-DVDs you can still play them in your HD-DVD player. Why sell your HD-DVD player and movies?
    • ralphie81, on 02/19/2008, -2/+8My sentiments exactly. As far as I'm concerned, I have a nice, cheap, upconverting DVD player that also plays the 15 or so HD DVDs I have (which I all got for free, oddly enough).
      • floridiot2, on 02/19/2008, -4/+1I thought the Xbox360 will only output DVDs in 480i..
        • ralphie81, on 02/20/2008, -1/+2I'm talking about the HD DVD add-on that plays in 1080p (or 1080i if you don't have an HDMI cable).
        • wheelsee, on 02/20/2008, -0/+1wrong...VGA cable will output 1080p
    • steelclash84, on 02/19/2008, -2/+6If something happens to your hd-dvd player and they don't produce them anymore (ie a year down the road the player dies), you can't replace the player, and therefore all of your movies on hd-dvd are useless. If you can sell the player and movies off, you can at least get some money back from your investment.
      • sealbeater, on 02/19/2008, -0/+1Just make sure you rip them first so that you can watch them later.
        • prophetpimp, on 02/19/2008, -0/+3what part of ***** DRM don't you understand?
      • dvdchris, on 02/19/2008, -0/+2Then buy another one from eBay or Amazon. There will be players around for years.
    • skeen07, on 02/19/2008, -7/+2You say that now, but people once thought VHS looked great. In about 5 years, anything less than hi-def is gonna look crap. I know that I've re-bought movies I owned on VHS on DVD...I don't see why Blu-Ray will be any exception to this rule, as hard as it is to contemplate just now.
      • keiths, on 02/19/2008, -2/+5What are you talking about
      • humperdeath, on 02/19/2008, -0/+1Some movies I already bought twice, now I gotta buy a third copy? (VHS + DVD + Bluray)
        So, what about the 300+ movies I have on regular DVD? Will there always be DVD players to buy? Can the Blu-ray machine play regular DVD?
        • krische, on 02/19/2008, -0/+3Yes, I would assume all blu-ray players play and even upconvert DVDs. I know for a fact the PS3 does.
    • krische, on 02/19/2008, -4/+2Cause you might be able to get some of your money back and perhaps use it towards a blu-ray player or blu-ray movies if you don't them.
    • postalblowfish7, on 02/19/2008, -2/+310 years from now are you still going to want to have your HD-DVD player plugged into your set up to play 7 movies?
      • Cwo655321, on 02/20/2008, -0/+2some people still use film, so maybe.
  • silon, on 02/19/2008, -5/+7I'll wait for DRM/region cracks
    • krische, on 02/19/2008, -2/+5Uh, I thought this was already done months ago.
      http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvdhd.html
      • Ganja420, on 02/19/2008, -0/+1yea and was replaced with new and improved copyright protection http://www.sony.net/Products/clefia/
      • bdbr, on 02/19/2008, -0/+1Engadget reported in early January that it wasn't in fact true. BD+ isn't a static DRM like AACS, so there could be all sorts of BD+ DRM. It isn't a matter of just cracking one thing and then its done...not like it was with HD-DVD.
    • hipnerd, on 02/19/2008, -1/+5Well, HD-DVD didn't have any region coding to start with. My friend Pat got the entire "Band of Brothers" miniseries on HD-DVD imported from Japan and it plays just fine. And HD-DVD had about a third of the DRM crap that Blu-ray did.

      From a consumer-friendliness standpoint, HD-DVD was a much better choice. Maybe that's why the studios picked the other horse.
      • staticneuron, on 02/21/2008, -0/+1Well now, japan and the US is in the same region on blu ray. And HD-DVD only had 1 less. Fox didn't really use their special protection that much and no other studio really bothered with it.
  • zedebsky, on 02/19/2008, -1/+10The outlook for hd-dvd owners (including myself) actually isn't that bad. We already have the players and soon they will be selling off the movies nice and cheap. You'll be able to build a pretty good collection for a great price since there's plenty of titles on hd-dvd.
    • MacSuxWindozSux, on 02/19/2008, -2/+1No new movies will be put on HD-DVD and no additional older titles will be.
      Only the stuff that was in the pipe now.
  • emehrkay, on 02/19/2008, -7/+24Is it me or has HD-DVD just seemed like the better format from the beginning? There were the defined standards that each player had allowing get 1a adopters to have the same functionality as 2c people. The manf processes only needed to be slightly upgraded saving money on that end. Reviews & reports always seemed to say that he HD DVD version was better than the Bluray one.

    WTF happened?
    • DiggLive, on 02/19/2008, -3/+13American business as usual. Money settles everything.
    • digjam, on 02/19/2008, -5/+9Sony gave a blo-job to all the studios!
    • hipnerd, on 02/19/2008, -1/+8The studios made a choice on behalf of the consumer. The early lead provided by the PS3 helped a whole lot, too, even though it would pretty meaningless in the long run.
      • jpop, on 02/19/2008, -0/+9The studios went with the system with more DRM, hoping that it won't be cracked as easily as DVD. Blu-Ray has options for 2 layer DRM.
        • zdiggler, on 02/19/2008, -0/+5and 8 layers of rootkits and 64 layers for undocumented super root kits built right in to the system.
      • bdbr, on 02/19/2008, -0/+1Actually, the studios made a choice on behalf of the studios.
    • krische, on 02/19/2008, -8/+9Oh don't give us all that Sony paid everyone off crap. The fact of the matter is that with millions more blu-ray players on the market (PS3 mostly) people bought/rented more Blu-ray than HD DVD. Warner Bros. even said this that their customers were buying the blu-ray versions more than the HD DVD versions.
      • hexydes, on 02/19/2008, -2/+10How gullible can you possibly be? Blu-Ray won for two reasons:

        1. Paid more money to the studios.
        2. Ridiculous amounts of DRM.

        The quality is the same, the price is more, there are shifting standards making parts of movies not function on older players...there is not one compelling reason for people to go with Blu-Ray, and that's just it. Sony got the studios to side with them before the consumer market could collectively make an intelligent decision, effectively removing the option for the consumer.

        You'll have Blu-Ray because Sony paid for a win, and they paid for it with not only money, but your rights and convenience as a customer.
        • krische, on 02/20/2008, -4/+21. Paid more money to the studios.

          Do you have any proof of this? Else you are just as gullible for believing that. The last major studio, Warner Bros. said in their announcement that they were not paid to switch to Blu-ray. They were switching because of they were releasing movies in both formats, and blu-ray was outselling significantly.

          2. Blu-ray has already been cracked for months. Check out AnyDVD HD http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvdhd.html And its not like HD DVD didn't have DRM. Yes I know Blu ray has more, but DRM will always exist just like it will always be cracked. Thats just the way of the world so get used to it.

          I think blu-ray won for many reasons, and Sony paying off studios isn't one of them. Many people purchased PS3s so there were many more players on the market, thus many more blu-ray movies being sold/rented. Also, blu-ray is the much better storage medium. There are already blank media and burners on the market, so that is also a large selling point for blu-ray.

          Also, do some research, blu-rays don't really cost more to manufacture.
          http://wesleytech.com/blu-ray-vs-hd-dvd-replicatio ...
      • staticneuron, on 02/21/2008, -0/+1Sony paid for blu ray to win. Is it fun to remain ignorant? Research hurt the brain to much?
    • kingmanic, on 02/19/2008, -5/+6It's you. Audio visually they are virtually identical. DRM they both have a nasty DRM that takes some effort to circumvent. Region wise, is a win for the HDDVD which was region free. Capacity wise BD won.

      So you have two formats where the only real difference was you can't play EU movie on your BD player, and you can't go as high on the bit rate for HDDVD players.
      • hipnerd, on 02/19/2008, -0/+9There are more differences, most of which broke in favor of HD-DVD.

        Link: http://www.badmouth.net/hd-dvd-vs-blu-ray-the-fina ...
        • kingmanic, on 02/19/2008, -4/+2Summary of your article:
          Cost: only capital costs in retooling the presses otherwise the same. Toshiba just subsidized their players, notice how the media wasn't any cheaper.
          Capacity: BD
          Picture Quality: tie, but higher capacity means higher bit rates => eventually better quality.
          Audio Quality: same as above.
          Region Coding: HD DVD had none so win for HD DVD.
          DRM: BD has more, but the main layer were nasty on both sides. To most consumers they get a disk, they can play the disk, copying is hard. They score it as a win but for most it's a tie with DVD. even though one touch DVD copying exists it's still fringe.
          Interactive Features: HD DVD, can't dneyt his although 2.0 will even it up.

          many ties, 2 real wins for HD DVD, 1 real win for BD which may break 2 of the ties later depending on how the studios implement it and one of the wins will be a tie very soon.

          I think it's closer then you think.
          • hipnerd, on 02/19/2008, -1/+5The cost advantage was for the players. And subsidized or not, HD-DVD players were always far cheaper than comparable Blu-ray. You could even argue that Sony subsidized far more heavily with the Blu-ray player in the PS3.

            I disagree you on the PQ and audio quality issue. Both formats had more than enough space to deliver 1080p content. There is notheing to suggest that extra bandwidth was needed or useful. Warner Bros. actually used the exact same encodings for both formats. Both formats could provide a digital, lossless audio soundtrack. Lossless=perfect. Extra bandwidth is not going to improve "perfect."

            As for features, you skipped the fact that all current Blu-ray players except for the PS3 can't upgrade to Profile 1.1 or Profile 2.0. If you want picture in picture or Internet content, you'll need to buy a new player later this year.

            Ah well, we all put emphasis in different areas. For my HD-DVD was ready now. I'll wait for Blu-ray to drop in price and get Profile 2.0 out the door before I even consider buying one. (Unless I pick up a PS3 for gaming.)
          • kingmanic, on 02/19/2008, -3/+1@hipnerd: For PQ/ Aduio more capacity only means more space so that less compression is required. Audio can be lossless for both but if the movie is filled with busy action sequences and they need to choose between lossless audio and more video compression, the audio is less noticeable. Thus with more capacity you don't need to make the same choices. For PQ, the extra bitrate would help busy action scenes. In DVD's of many movies, busy scenes looks terrible.

            The Future proofing section is amusing is hindsight. The PS3 can upgrade I think there exists a few other BD players that can upgrade too. I'm not certain.

            Buy a PS3, great player, great upscales, some good games, and pixeljunk monsters is highly addictive GF friendly fun. I spent all of yesterday finishing levels with my GF.
          • TBobes, on 02/19/2008, -3/+1@hipnerd

            You bought an HD DVD player didn't you...
          • hipnerd, on 02/19/2008, -1/+4@kingmanic: I understand the theory, but from what I've seen, there is no appreciable difference in picture quality between HD-DVD and Blu-ray. It's a theoretical advantage that appears meaningless when it comes to displaying movies -- especially since the studios don't even seem to care about using any of the extra bandwidth Blu-ray provides.

            PS3s can upgrade. No other player on the market can upgrade to Profile 2.0. I may be buying a PS3 soon if I can talk my wife into another toy. Maybe she'll buy it to play Rock Band. She loves Guitar Hero III.

            @TBobes. Yep, for $100 with five free movies. I'm too not upset considering the cost. I plan on raiding the clearance bin and getting more movies as they are discontinued. Eventually, I'll pick up a dual-format player when the cost comes down, and I'll enjoy my existing library and start buying Blu-ray titles.
    • postalblowfish7, on 02/19/2008, -3/+1***** - this war wasn't won via payoffs. blu-ray was destined to be the data standard as it held so much more data (with rumored 100gb discs in the works). whatever the computer manufacturers sided with was the future of high capacity media, and most of them backed blu-ray from the beginning.
    • bdbr, on 02/19/2008, -1/+2The payoffs, if any, were so small that they don't amount to much of the market. The capacity of Blu-Ray shouldn't mean much to studios, since HD-DVD could hold 5 hours of HD video. The only things left as motivating factors are the region coding and dynamic DRM (that hasn't been cracked). All the anti-consumer stuff, that's what turned the studios to Blu-Ray.
  • erad222, on 02/19/2008, -0/+40Where did all the HD DVD hate come from? I seriously haven't seen such a bloodcurdling hate since the PS3 came out.
    • coit, on 02/19/2008, -7/+14From those folks who feel the need to justify spending $600 for their PS3.
    • Gryffydd, on 02/19/2008, -0/+19Who knows? I think it's pretty funny how the digg mob was trashing the PS3 and BluRay just a few months ago.
      • itsthebrod, on 02/19/2008, -5/+5HD DVD dying has no effect on the PS3 still being an extremely crappy gaming system.
        • sekhui, on 02/19/2008, -4/+3oh shut the ***** up already about the ps3.
      • MacSuxWindozSux, on 02/19/2008, -0/+1"To the victor go the spoils."
    • fplouffe, on 02/19/2008, -7/+4Maybe it's because HDDVD camp created this format war in the first place. The first prototype BluRay player where presented end of 2000 and the DVD forum decided to go along and decided to build a blue laser based format in 2002. They had many opporunities to join with the BluRay Association but it never materialized (for whatever reason).
      Many believed that HDDVD should never have existed in the first place or that Toshiba should have pulled the plug last year since it was pretty clear at that time that BluRay had the lead. HDDVD camp prolonged that stupid war and the ***** off consumers have nobody else to blame than Toshiba.
      To those that will undoubtedly retort that competition is good and help to drive price down, I would refer you to how DVD reached dirt cheap price all by itself with internal competition between manufacturers and studios, not format competition.
      • jpop, on 02/19/2008, -1/+8Actually, the HD DVD camp forced the early release of Blu Ray. Which is why 99.999% of the Blu Ray players don't have the same capabilities as HD DVD on release (thus the whole Profile mess). They released early to compete with HD DVD.
      • hexydes, on 02/19/2008, -1/+3Wow, talk about revisionist-history.
        • fplouffe, on 02/20/2008, -0/+1HDDVD beat BluRay to the market, I know that, but that wasn't my point
          I am sorry, but the first Sony blue laser prototype was shown in 2000, In February 2002, The the technology was officially name BluRay and the DB Association was founded. In march 2002, the DVD forum was approving the proposal from Warner to compress HD on regular DVD-9. In April of 2002, the DVD forum decided to develop it's own blue laser technology. They had the opportunity to side with the BD Association and help develop the technology, but choose to compete it.
      • staticneuron, on 02/21/2008, -0/+1What are you talking about dude? Blu ray was never submitted to the DVD forum.
    • bdbr, on 02/19/2008, -0/+2The mob is fickle. And many of them just wanted somebody, anybody, to win and get the format war over with. They consider anyone who complains about DRM or whatever to be "just a whiner".
  • SuspicionVandit, on 02/19/2008, -9/+1With his perfect pacing, elegant narrative design, and depth of characterization, Richard Lester has made as good a matinee movie as could be imagined: it's a big, generous, beautifully crafted piece of entertainment, with the distinctive Lester touch in the busy backgrounds and the throwaway dialogue.
    Read Full Review
  • reuscel, on 02/19/2008, -2/+3I guess I'll pack away my HD-DVD drive next to my Atari Jaguar, Betamax player, Minidisc recorder, Divx player..............

    (I was an HD-DVD early adopter, and I'm just trying not to get mad about it)
    • bdbr, on 02/19/2008, -0/+1Did it stop working this morning?
    • Gryffydd, on 02/19/2008, -0/+1Ahhh Minidisc. People always trash it, but I had a tiny portable minidisc recorder when everybody else had tape walkmans and ginormous portable CD players. For their time they were freaking awesome.
  • digjam, on 02/19/2008, -9/+5BLURAY killed HD DVD in the same way it killed a fellow digger's fav Animal Planet host!
  • skeen07, on 02/19/2008, -9/+2I hope we'll get an external player for the Mac. Will Blu Ray movies look good on my 20" ACD? I watch all my shows/movies on it.
    • skeen07, on 02/19/2008, -1/+1Oops, I forgot about the anti-Mac fad.
    • hexydes, on 02/19/2008, -0/+1But I thought you could already play Blu-Ray movies on Apple computers. After all, isn't Apple part of the Blu-Ray alliance? That's what everyone keeps telling me anyway, that Blu-Ray isn't just Sony, it is lots of other companies.
  • hasslinthehoff, on 02/19/2008, -7/+11Oh my God this is so unimportant... the only people who keep bringing this up are PS3 fanboys. The rest of us could care less b/c we're already downloading HD movies on Xbox Live.
    • krische, on 02/19/2008, -3/+7Kind of like how all of the 360 fanboys kept bringing up their thoughts that the PS3 was going to fail cause it was expensive and had blu-ray in it?

      Guess they were wrong on that one.
      • hasslinthehoff, on 02/19/2008, -1/+2And the fanboy-ism continues unprovoked and unabated...
      • hipnerd, on 02/19/2008, -1/+3Well, as a Wii owner who doesn't care about PS3 v. Xbox 360, I do think the PS3 helped Sony win a format war but didn't do much for PS3 owners who were forced to pay for an unneeded Blu-ray drive. The extra cost drove the price of the PS3 into the stratosphere and dropped Sony from first place to third in the console wars.

        That was then. At this point, the price has come down to the point that a PS3 looks like a decent value. (Plus, some decent games came out for it. That helps a lot.) I'll probably get a second system at some point. I'm leaning towards a PS3 because of the Blu-ray player. Plus I want to avoid the Red Ring of Death. But if MS offers a redesigned/cheaper box that solves the overheating issue, I might go that way.

        It's nice to have three decent consoles on the market to choose from, at any rate.
    • web2pointYo, on 02/19/2008, -1/+1correct, except your the xbox live part.
  • slimjim5811, on 02/19/2008, -2/+7Does this mean I won't get my 5 free HD DVD movies that I sent away for?
  • BigPapi, on 02/19/2008, -1/+4H-O-L-Y *****. Enough already! I don't give a ***** about HD DVD or Bluray. Stop posting all these articles. There's like 10 every single day!
  • MenoUnderwater, on 02/19/2008, -1/+1Dugg for the Teen Girl Squad reference in the photo. :D
  • rogerbly, on 02/19/2008, -0/+3Waiting for the calls tonight from older reletives asking "will my DVD player still work".

    yikes, the "HD DVD is dead" story was on the 2 TV channels and 2 radio stations I listed to this morning... and that was less than 1hr total viewing/listening time. I think the word is out.

    • bdbr, on 02/19/2008, -0/+1I wonder how many people heard of HD-DVD for the first time today.
  • AndreiOttawa, on 02/19/2008, -0/+2Lame
  • RobN, on 02/19/2008, -1/+2Q&A from the article:
    Q: Can you sum up what I, the average consumer, should do at this point in one sentence?
    A: Wait one more year for the Blu-ray format to mature, for more titles to be released, and player prices to drop before jumping in.

    My response:
    WRONG ANSWER. Wait until the Christmas season (in about nine months), when Blu-ray manufacturers start trying to outsell each other, and stores try to drag you in at four in the morning with ridiculous deals. THEN buy.

    They were wrong about rentals, too -- Netflix is already stocking Blu-ray, and will probably have every movie available on the format in their catalog sooner, rather than later. They've played this game before, they know how it works. And Blu-ray discs *should* fare better through the mail than standard DVD, too.
    • lukemann, on 02/19/2008, -0/+4You're hilarious, there is still tons of stuff that never made it from VHS to DVD. You think everything is going to make it to blu-ray? Also plenty of movies that made it to dvd aren't even good transfers. It's doubful the blu-ray transfer will look any better then the already botched dvd transfer.
  • bobbknight, on 02/19/2008, -1/+6Sony blows for it's root kit, boycott and pirate Blue-Ray.
    • bdbr, on 02/19/2008, -0/+2How are they supposed to pirate Blu-Ray when the DRM still hasn't been cracked?
      • mykalimba, on 02/20/2008, -1/+11. Crack the DRM
        2. Pirate Blu-ray
        3. ?????
        4. Profit
  • lolinyerface, on 02/19/2008, -2/+1"Q: I chose sides early in the HD DVD/Blu-ray shenanigans and chose Blu-ray. What do I do now?
    A: Besides calling up your grandmother to rub it in her face, there's not much you need to do. Just sit and wait for your favorite movies to come out on Blu-ray."
    What kind of perverse advice is this?! ;)
  • hankpoppa, on 02/19/2008, -3/+0Blu-Ray has far superior storage capacity. And not to mention comes with the PS3. Im sick of format wars. They leave a lot of consumers (like me) with products that are dead int the water. I actually owned a laser disc and a beta-max and that P.O.S. HD-DVD player. Stoopid Me!!!
  • mikhial66, on 02/19/2008, -1/+2I seriously doubt that Sony would let Microsoft come out with a Blu Ray add on. They were one of the companies that started Blue Ray, after all.
    • Spon, on 02/19/2008, -1/+1Interesting thought. We'll have to see.

      But I think M$ is already thinking about Blu-Ray.
  • mavranos, on 02/19/2008, -2/+7F Sony!
  • bjs3171, on 02/19/2008, -4/+3cheat sheet:
    1. buy blu-ray
    2. don't buy hd dvd
  • Ganja420, on 02/19/2008, -1/+10***** $ony
  • fauxXenophanes, on 02/19/2008, -0/+2What about ROM revision 3.0 (or whatever)?

    Just what kind of friggin' cheat sheet is this ??
  • PlasticMonki, on 02/19/2008, -0/+2I'm sure I'll get flamed, but I'm actually sad that HD-DVD is gone, because I sure as Hell like the idea of region-free media...but I'm happy when I remember that I have a PS3 and can get Transformers in High Def =P
  • web2pointYo, on 02/19/2008, -0/+110 years from now:
    "This is just like when there was a war between those HighDef disc makers. Remember that? BlueRay had some competitor...Hidef discs or something like that..."
  • Medisha, on 02/19/2008, -1/+1
    "Q: I chose sides early in the HD DVD/Blu-ray shenanigans and unfortunately, made the right decision and supported HD DVD. What do I do now?"
    Wow... I didn't realize that Gizmodo liked sucking HD-DVD ***** so much...
    • mahlerfan999, on 02/22/2008, -0/+0Except in the quote they italicized right, thus indicating that it was the hypothetical person voicing his/her opinion, and not representing the opinion of Gizmodo. Duh.
  • wankelrotary, on 02/19/2008, -0/+1Our long national nightmare is over.

    *goes back to sleep*
  • daschupa, on 02/19/2008, -0/+1I don't get it, why can't I just hold onto my cheap HD player, buy a lot of discounted HDs and watch upconverted DVD's on the HD player? It's like throwing away a perfectly good PS2 after the PS3 came out (well, after they took out the emotion chip). Sit back and enjoy the firesale.
  • JDym00, on 02/20/2008, -0/+0joke i made up the other morning:
    what did the high definition whore do at a party?


    she bluray!

    i'll be here all week : )
  • solid12345, on 02/20/2008, -0/+1Perfect image using Gundam

    HD-DVD was alot like Zeon, labeled the bad guy but really it was just fighting against the evil Sony empire that is the Earth Federation which will eventually evolve into the fascist Titans that they really are.
  • Boofster, on 02/20/2008, -0/+1I had more faith in BR since the beginning but I picked up both. Only got 3 movies in HD so no big deal. The only one that hurts was the $90 box set of The Ultimate Matrix. I want that one in BR now. ASAP you heard!
  • Banshie, on 02/20/2008, -0/+1Long Live HD-DVD, sad the optical format is dead. yes it is dead if I say its dead.
  • XStatic, on 02/20/2008, -0/+1: So you're saying that I'm going to be paying more for these movies on Blu-ray? When will the prices drop to DVD levels?
    A: That's tough to say. For example, Superman Returns is only $14.98 for the DVD version but $23.95 for the Blu-ray version. It's going to take a few years yet for that 23 to drop to 14. If you had to force us to guess, we're going to say about three years. That's 2011

    Good luck with that, BluRay with no competition is an opportunity for a uncontested price hike. I am betting they don't ever go down.
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.