Blu-Ray Best Of The Best - for discussing releases only

[krispyk]

Which Pirates did you get? I was going to pick up Dead Mans Chest on Monday.

Slightly off topic but Virgin are selling Hellboy for ?10 instore at the moment. Considering the prices of their pricing of other Blu-Rays and HD-DVD its an absolute steal!
Havent watched it yet so cant comment on the PQ.

[Lyris]

I got the first one (Black Pearl).

[Kotatsu Neko]

An interesting article indeed and one that I kind of hope goes the way the article describes:

"HD-DVD buyers beware!"

This article caused a huge storm on various AV forums, as it's so full of incredibly one sided cherry picked facts to support Bill Hunt's agenda. The guy is a Sony shill, and should not be taken seriously.

[dcmk]

This article caused a huge storm on various AV forums, as it's so full of incredibly one sided cherry picked facts to support Bill Hunt's agenda. The guy is a Sony shill, and should not be taken seriously.

Hardly bud.
He just wants it to end, everyone who has been saying anything remotely anti-hddvd is a shill. It's frankly pathetic attitude.

That if anything is an informative article stating the dangers of HDDVD that people aren't aware of. Also corrects some myths about Fox pulling BluRay releases etc.

[Kotatsu Neko]

Hardly bud.
He just wants it to end, everyone who has been saying anything remotely anti-hddvd is a shill. It's frankly pathetic attitude.

That if anything is an informative article stating the dangers of HDDVD that people aren't aware of. Also corrects some myths about Fox pulling BluRay releases etc.

Not in the slightest. Bill Hunt has gone beyond just wanting this to end, his pro Sony bias in very carefully omitting any news and facts which damage the impression of Sony he wants to create have completely destroyed any credibility he may once of had. He's not a journalist, he's a marketing man, simple as that.

If he had taken a balanced view of the two formats then things would be different, but his steadfast refusal to acknowledge any of blu-ray's failings and HD DVD's advantages show he is incapable or unwilling to ever do that.

If if isn't on the Sony payroll he certainly should be, but many in the AV community are pretty sure he receives regular money/freebies from Sony.

[saif]

KN, have you got a blu-ray player? if not, and seeing as you are so against the format I doubt it, what interest is this thread to you?

If anyone is interested, lovefilm have now started offering blu-rays and, for any posters in here who don't have a blu-ray but still come here anyway, HD-DVDs too. The range isn't great (not a huge fan of most films on the BDs) but its a start and cheaper than buying eh?

[Lyris]

I have both players and still agree with KN that HD DVD should be the winning format. I think if we're going to discuss this to any great length we should perhaps do it in another thread, but so far, both HD DVD and BD have had their fair share of deliciously underwhelming, mediocre video transfers. Video competency on the part of the studios is one of the most important factors when it comes to quality, and most of them seem to lack it, meaning that all the extra space and new technology can't help the fact that what they're feeding the encoding machines is, often, pretty naff.

[Ajay1986]

Errrrr im not really to fussed about this arguement but which Studios are still exclusive to one format or the other? It seems to me that Blu Ray must have more studios on side or something becuase the selection is so much bigger, and becuase shops in town still stock next to no HD-DVD's.

[Oh_Mutants]

Universal is the only major studio exclusive to HD DVD now i believe. Unfortuantely it's the one with the most interesting line up of films for me

[Kotatsu Neko]

Errrrr im not really to fussed about this arguement but which Studios are still exclusive to one format or the other? It seems to me that Blu Ray must have more studios on side or something becuase the selection is so much bigger, and becuase shops in town still stock next to no HD-DVD's.

At the moment the exclusive HD DVD studios are Universal, Weinstein, and Studio Canal, plus a few small independents.

Sony exclusives are Sony, Disney, and Fox. Although Fox have stopped supporting blu-ray for the time being as they are waiting for 'BD+' to be released at the end of the year. (basically an even more extreme level of DRM)

Of the neutral studios - Warner, Paramount, Dreamworks, and New Line (who will release their first discs later this year) Warner favour HD DVD, and so have many HD DVD exclusive releases (such as The Matrix and Batman Begin) as well as better extras on HD DVD versions.

[Kotatsu Neko]

KN, have you got a blu-ray player? if not, and seeing as you are so against the format I doubt it, what interest is this thread to you?

I was merely pointing out that the Bill Hunt article linked has been very widely criticized and should not be taken seriously. Correcting an error, basically.

And this is an open forum, may I remind you.

[saif]

You may, which means that your actions are open to criticism. As are mine.

Saying that an opinion piece has been criticised and agreeing with that criticism is not "correcting an error", its called disagreeing.
It is only slightly ironic that you mention he must be in the pay of Sony to have written this isn't it? Presumably because he has an opinion on the matter that chooses one direction. Would it be fair for me to assume you are on the MS and/or Nintendo payroll? No, it wouldn't.
The thread has/had little to do with any format war and if a post appears that seems to start one, is it really worth fanning the flames? Your (and others) constant carping about Sony is not even relevant here - this is about film studios and the rights of the blu-ray holders which, uness I am mistaken (and I may be cos I don't base my opinions on whether one faceless conglomerate has pioneered it or not) is not just Sony.

[Ajay1986]

At the moment the exclusive HD DVD studios are Universal, Weinstein, and Studio Canal, plus a few small independents.

Sony exclusives are Sony, Disney, and Fox. Although Fox have stopped supporting blu-ray for the time being as they are waiting for 'BD+' to be released at the end of the year. (basically an even more extreme level of DRM)

Of the neutral studios - Warner, Paramount, Dreamworks, and New Line (who will release their first discs later this year) Warner favour HD DVD, and so have many HD DVD exclusive releases (such as The Matrix and Batman Begin) as well as better extras on HD DVD versions.

The Matrix box set is coming out on Blu Ray later in the year isnt it. Tho i agree about the extras, apart from the Pirates Blu Rays which have had excellent extras and menus all my other Blu-Rays are very disappointing in that respect.

Neither format is gonna be a DVD style hit so in the end if there isnt a unified standard for hi-def discs, i guess hoping that all studios go neutral is the best thing we can hope for.

Or buy a ?1000 LG dual format player

[dcmk]

At the moment the exclusive HD DVD studios are Universal, Weinstein, and Studio Canal, plus a few small independents.

Sony exclusives are Sony, Disney, and Fox. Although Fox have stopped supporting blu-ray for the time being as they are waiting for 'BD+' to be released at the end of the year. (basically an even more extreme level of DRM)

Of the neutral studios - Warner, Paramount, Dreamworks, and New Line (who will release their first discs later this year) Warner favour HD DVD, and so have many HD DVD exclusive releases (such as The Matrix and Batman Begin) as well as better extras on HD DVD versions.

They certainly dont favour HDDVD if anything they favour Bluray since the superior sales are coming from that side of the fence.

Those 'exclusive' titles you mentioned are merely a holding back of Bluray versions as some of Bluray specs haven't still been finalized and ironed out. So instead of Warner waiting, they wisely pushed those films out. Naturally, this has been spun for HDDVD to be somewhat more appealing.

[Kotatsu Neko]

They certainly dont favour HDDVD if anything they favour Bluray since the superior sales are coming from that side of the fence.

Those 'exclusive' titles you mentioned are merely a holding back of Bluray versions as some of Bluray specs haven't still been finalized and ironed out. So instead of Warner waiting, they wisely pushed those films out. Naturally, this has been spun for HDDVD to be somewhat more appealing.

I'm not sure how you could have come to that conclusion as the evidence to the contrary is pretty overwhelming.

First off, Warner were originally an HD DVD exclusive studio, but were persuaded to go neutral because of Sony promising the PS3 would be a huge success and a trojan horse for blu-ray. However Warner have always favoured HD as you can see from such things as:

- Their exclusive HD DVD releases, like The Matrix, Batman Returns, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory etc.

- Warner developed 'IME' (In Movie Experience) to use the dual video decoders of HD DVD. As Sony didn't bother to mandate dual decoders in blu-ray, all IME discs will have these features stripped before blu-ray release, if they are released at all. If Sony can ever decide on their second version of Java for blu-ray then such features might start showing up, but they will never run on any current blu-ray stand alone players as the required hardware isn't present.

- Warner are now starting to branch their releases into two distinct versions. The blu-ray disc will be a pretty standard DVD type release, but the HD version can have exclusive IME extras, and online content. (again, Sony didn't mandate online connectivity for blu-ray) Blood Diamond will be the first release to branch in this way.

So it's not so much spin as facts... which are a bit embarassing for Sony as they no doubt expected the PS3 to have won them this war already. Bit of a shame for them that the system is trailing badly in third place.