Stalemate seen in high-definition DVD war

[Gizmo]

The battle between two hyped formats for high-definition DVD will confuse shoppers and turn many of them off the whole technology, a London-based research firm predicted on Friday.

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http://www.aoaforums.com/frontpage/content/view/1028/2/

[raphael2040]

The way I see it, this battle shouldn't cause much confusion. It's like ATI and NVidia. Just because they're rival companies and both aim to take the graphics market, doesn't mean that people get turned off the graphics technology.

[Gizmo]

Not quite.

If I want to play my game on an nVidia card instead of an ATI card, I can, even though the game may be 'optimized' for ATI. I may lose some display quality, but I can still play the game.

If I take my HD movie and put it in a Blu-Ray player, guess what happens? Nothing. Same goes for sticking a Blu-Ray disk into an HD player, or sticking either into a DVD player, or trying to play a DVD in either of the other players.

In other words, the consumer gets screwed, and royally, if they pick the wrong format.

[Toro]

betamax ftw!

[QSDT]

I'm thinking it's true at the moment I'm not even looking at any of the ''HD,Blue ray'' stuff.

[kellamne]

Theres only one scientifically accepted way to settle this............ Paper Rock Scissors.







My mistake I thought this was picture fight

[aghastpumpkin]

I have no intention of buying either. Don't see a problem with DVD myself.

[Kaitain]

Originally Posted by gizmo

If I take my HD movie and put it in a Blu-Ray player, guess what happens? Nothing. Same goes for sticking a Blu-Ray disk into an HD player, or sticking either into a DVD player, or trying to play a DVD in either of the other players.

If you stick a DVD into either an HD-DVD or a Blu-Ray player, it will play. Various devices released so far support everything from CD audio through VCD, DVD and the chosen HD format. So at the very least, your existing collection won't get written off by the change to a new format. (The Samsung BD-P1000 claims to "up-scale" your DVD movie to display at an HD resolution, which is nice).

Various manufacturers have announced dual-format players - often to have to mothball them again while the holders of the patents for each format get their lawyers out. A dual format player is what's needed though.

[fearless joe]

Originally Posted by aghastpumpkin

I have no intention of buying either.

i have to agree, its not like theres been no format wars before, i wouldnt buy either till there was a winner, the ps3 might play a role here,

but is this all besides the point, we are, geeks, hard to take but true. and ill bet not many of us have a HD tv anyhoo, i dont even have a tv

someone, make a pole, (i dont know how)got hd, want hd, dont want hd kinda thing

[madcatmk3]

I have an HD plasma. So I'm looking into a player. I think HD-DVD is the best bet, cheaper disks and player. Also about the upconvert you can get an a/v amp to do the same thing.

[dsio]

You can buy a 1080p movie from Microsoft's WMVHD lineup and it fits on a standard DVD. High definition, minus the BS.

Dual layer disks are really quite enough as it is.