DVD battle heads for showdown
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programme...ne/4770774.stm

Which one do you think will win out

Ugh, it's Betamax and VHS all over again.

I think Blu Ray will come out on top. Someone should start a poll... :hmm:

BTW - It's hard to believe, but I know people who haven't switched over from VHS and audio cassettes yet. :nope:

I know one poor wretch who jumped on the bandwagon a little too quickly and purchased a laserdisc player. Talk about a short-lived video technology. :doh:

Laserdisc was a break through but was short lived more to do with not catching on.

Laserdisc was doomed from the beginning, VHS was relatively new at that time, yet old enough for the prices of the machine and cassettes to be low, and of course, you can record.
On the other hand, the laserdisc machine was expensive, the disc where pricey and relatively unwelcome by the rental stores because of the size at display, and no recording potential…:nope:

As for the question of this thread, I support the Blu-ray format, however I think HD DVD will win because of the ignorance of the public. HD DVD is a catchy name and is already widely used in the TV terms, and people will have tendencies to think that HD DVD is better because of the HD letters, "High definition". Blue-ray seems good for people that know things and understand the underlying of each type, but for a naïve buyer the blue-ray is somewhat technically sparse and negative in the sounding. However, Sony and its entire movie empire surely can back up the blu-ray format, so let us wait and see… me I am not buying a machine until I know which DVD format wins. :hmm:

Isn’t HD-DVD the first one to go on sale some six months ahead of Blu-ray?

@STEED
You mean HDDVD is six months late… but if everything would have went well for HDDVD, it would have brought the lunch of the HDDVD to 1 year ahead of blu-ray, which it did not. Now, let us see if blu-ray delays as well? :hmm:

I know this is video related, but my dad swears by 8-track as the best quality there ever was. :rotfl:

He's wrong. Quadrophonic reel to reel was better.

Huh? Laser discs were around in the early 80's. Until DVD came out, they were the only quality video machine. VHS had the advantage to record though, but for just watching movies, I always would purchase a Laserdisc over VHS any day of the week.

-S

PS. I do beleive you can still get movies on laser disc if you want them. The only drawback - sound. You won't get all your neat dts sound out of it, but the actual sound that does come out is superior to AC3 - it is not compressed - it is RAW.

Reel to Reel is superior to the digital method they have been using through the 90's. It is analog, but it has tremendous more dynamic range than the limiting 48 khz / 24 bit that eveything was recorded on since 1985 (Dire Straights - Brothers in Arms was the first pure digital recording). Of course Digital is easier to work with so it survived as a recording method for almost 20 years.

Now they are finially getting their act together and recording in 192 khz / 24 bit which is in my book is finially superior to the reel to reel.

-S

Whatcha bet someone will come out with a DVD player that can play both?

I own a DVD/VCR combo- best of both worlds!

Heck I saw a Beta to VHS adaptor once but never purchased it. :damn:

Trouble with combo’s if one part packs up the whole thing goes into repair.

After ten years my VCR never broke it only got warn out and couldn't record well anymore. But even after sitting in the closet for 4 years it still worked! So I don't know how you guys treat you electronics but I beat the heck out of some of mine and they never brake down sufficenty to warrent it being take to the shop (only needed to take a screwdriver to it).

Sounds like a case of the record head having a bunch of gook on it - probably from rented vid tapes. Buy yourself a tape head cleaner and that should fix your problem! Assuming you still have use for a VCR in the days of video capture cards!

-S

We ran through at least three head cleaners and it never got clean, oh and we never rented tapes (we're weird like that). Oh well we gave it away a few weeks ago so its not a problem.

Blu-ray's probably going to win...greater studio support. It will, however, only be successful if prices drop to near-DVD levels, IMHO.

If I had to choose, I'd go with the HD DVD camp. They allow for Fair Use where the Blue Ray is all DRM with no managed copy.

-S

Just had a bit of a read on this one and I am going for HD DVD one of the reasons price looks to be cheaper.