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The adult movie arena has not determined which format they want to go with. Once they do, that format will dominate. Its Panasonic versus Sony. LG makes a player that does both formats. THats your best bet until the decision is made.
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2004 Pure Silver Cooper S
License Plate: LAASER
I refuse to buy into either format until there is a clear winner or reasonably priced dual-format players are widely available. Even then, I am leery of either format because of the highly restrictive copy proofing that is part of the deal. Already several brands of Blu-ray players refused to play the latest releases due to changes in the continuously evolving antipiracy mechanisms. The early players needed to have new firmware installed to be able to play the latest and future releases. Problem was, there was no new firmware released for those players yet except for the PS3, so those poor sots were stuck watching just a banner screen saying they are SOL.
Since the player specs, the copyguarding specs, the HDCP specs in the players and in the monitoring gear are still in flux and appear to remain so, I feel that despite all the pretty, high-detail images are not worth the hassle of one day finding out that I have a bunch of gear that the movie companies decide to not be worthy, or I have to constantly deal with their feeble attempts at preventing 'piracy'. The new formats are much more about treating the paying customers as potential thieves than about delivering a sharp picture.
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JCW Intake|15% Alta|Milltek Catback|17x7.5 SSR Comps|215/45-17 GS-D3s|Much More
MMC #28|Motoring ID RAGE666
GB could not have said it better. BTW, Standard Def DVD still looks pretty damn good to me - even on a Hi-Def display.
GCM brings up a good point too with the VHS and Betamax comparison.
The kicker, though, is mbot's point about the Adult Film Indrustry. That probably will drive the format dominance! Just always remember the SAFE word...
Well I took the HDDVD side, simply because it came with the new computer I've gota few HDDVDs but I try to stick with the combo discs that have the standard DVD on the reverse side.
HDDVD had a firmware update formovies released after sept 7th which made me wait all of 5 more min to download and install it.
I'm waiting for the cost to come down on a dual (HDDVD and Blue-Ray) external drive so I can be burning my HD home videos into the formats (already have the editing/finishing/burning software for both and can make HDDVDs with the cirrent setup).
I refuse to buy into a format you cannot make a backup of. I went through that with Laser Disc (half my collection has problems now due to age and they cannot be replaced) and will never buy into another digital media that cannot be backed-up.
__________________ Meet Romi!: Ordered: March 10, 2007: Arrival date: May 16, 2007 In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice, there is.
My new PS3 is scheduled for delivery as of tomorrow! I have a few Blu-ray discs purchased already, and will slowly swap out my standard DVD's as new titles come out.
And we are in the annoying situation of needing to buy a DVD player now that mine has broken.
I'm kind of bummed because that broken player had the ability to play SACD (Super Audio CD's) which I have a small collection of. Another basically dead format that nobody cares about.
and another +1 for my dear GB. . .
__________________ Disclaimer: No claim is made that the quality of the MINI-related advice offered by Yucca Patrol
is greater than the quality of MINI-related advice offered by other NAM members.
Its Panasonic versus Sony. LG makes a player that does both formats.
How did you get Sony versus Panasonic? They both make Blu-Ray players.
It's actually Sony, Apple, Pioneer, Panasonic, Sharp, LG, Samsung versus Toshiba, RCA, Microsoft, Onkyo. With the major studios about evenly split between the two formats. Both LG and Samsung have taken the safe approach to come out with dual players. Samsung has just released their first gen unit and LG will be releasing their second gen unit by the end of November. This is the one that I am telling most of my customers to wait for as it will be a fully functional dual format player with interactivity activated for both formats.
I get the great pleasure of selling this stuff and dealing with first gen product issues all the time for a living. At present I am taking a wait and see approach for both myself and my customers. If you had asked me over month ago I would have said Blu-Ray was winning. Unfortunately Microsoft has a lot of money and basically bribed Paramount to go exclusively with HD-DVD, which dragged Dreamworks and Viacom with them as they do distribution for them.
I still think Blu-Ray will win out in the end, mainly because there is more hardware out there for playback in the Blu-Ray format. In stand alone players you have Sony, Pioneer, Panasonic, Sharp with Denon, JVC, Mitsubishi set to release some as well. In addition you have LG and Samsung who both started out in Blu-Ray and added HD-DVD functionality to their players. In HD-DVD you only have Toshiba and RCA with Onkyo coming to market this fall but saying it will make a Blu-Ray player as well.
That said up until the most urrent models that have just started releasing none of these players have unlocked to true potential of either of these format as they didn't output the video with the broader x.v color spectrum or the Dolby HD and DTS HD audio formats properly over the HDMI cable. All of this really requires people to upgrade their conected equipment to gt the full potential of what is on those discs.
So for now it's wait and see and stay in the holding pattern.
I don't see how all the Sony movies will ever make it to HD-DVD, even though PS3's are losing to XBOX's at the moment. PS3's just got a lot cheaper though, right now if you buy with a sony card at sonystyle.com you can get a 40gb ps3 for $300, with spiderman 3 and 5 free blu-ray movies. Doesn't play ps2 games though, or super audio cd's, if that's every gonna take off.
HD-DVD players just went beneath $200, and they have seemed to gain licenses for a lot of movies, Transformers and the like. Sony tried to counter this with the buy 1 get 1 free blu ray deals.
It's actually Sony, Apple, Pioneer, Panasonic, Sharp, LG, Samsung versus Toshiba, RCA, Microsoft, Onkyo. With the major studios about evenly split between the two formats.
This is a recipe for disaster. Or at least, mindless thinking. In it's current state, one has a couple choices to make. Either buy into two standards, meaning two individual players or hopefully a combo unit, or fix into one camp and only their offerings. If one format eventually wins out, those who bought into the losing format will have an orphaned player and media. With the Byzantine copy restrictions constantly being shoveled into the formats, a combo unit runs the risk of being 'bricked' by updated new media and in constant need of firmware updates. I can live (barely) with the constant updating of computer equipment. But having to update standalone, unconnected devices is foolish.
The other dark cloud over both formats is the 'Image Constraint Token' nonsense that lies in wait on these players. The thinking here is that Big Content has the option of eventually flipping a switch that will cause those setups of incompatible/nonconforming equipment to display a low resolution picture (or none at all). Of course, it's up to content providers to determing what's 'conforming'. For the time being, they have so kindly decided not to enforce the ICT. A few years down the road, when adoption rates of whatever equipment is higher, once the new movies come out with ICT enabled, there's going to be huge outcries from people with substantial investments in gear that suddenly does not play nice with one another.
The studios will simply say that you need to upgrade.
Good ol' DVD was designed with some potentially heinous features that were not enabled at first, or not known of. Of course, there is the CSS copyguarding system, that was on at the outset. There's the region coding, which exists solely to assert market control and 'cash extraction' from consumers. Then there is the Function Inhibit, that joyous little feature that allows the disk that is playing to disable certain features of the player. That began to show up in later years as unskippable ads at the beginnings of movies. Disney was one of the biggest offenders, subjecting viewers to previews and commercials when impatient kids were clamoring for the actual show. The ads connected with the kids though, and they blasted parents with requests to go to Disney World and the latest movies. Some such disks wont even allow the freakin' STOP button to stave off the commercial onslaught.
These new formats, which were never really requested by most consumers save for the real technogeeks are chock full of such hidden agendas. I dont trust and have little use for hardware that has ulterior motives.
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JCW Intake|15% Alta|Milltek Catback|17x7.5 SSR Comps|215/45-17 GS-D3s|Much More
MMC #28|Motoring ID RAGE666
It's black. It's badass. It's Samuel L.
I've gota few HDDVDs but I try to stick with the combo discs that have the standard DVD on the reverse side. 
