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Blu-Ray Vs. HD-DVD


The Kernel Loaf

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Is it just me, or has Sony failed at creating their own format loads of times before?

  • Betamax videos
  • MiniDisc
  • UMDs (You only need to look at the extinsive amount of titles that are never being bought in HMV etc.)

I wonder what makes them think that they will prevail this time?

Thing is, all those types of media were superior to their equivalents. The thing that made them lose out was poor marketing and higher production costs.

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Yeah that is true. Blu-Ray I think is 60GB capacity, whereas HD-DVD is 20GB. I am not sure though.

I thought it was 40GB over 20GB, but you could be right. If Sony get their finger out their ass and launch the PS3 over here and in the states and it sells well Blu-Ray will win out. The only problem i can forsee is that Microsoft are backing HD-DVD which might help swing it through computer sales. I hope not though.

Having said that and also having seen and fiddled around with a few of the early Blu-Ray players i would not recommend buying one just yet as they were pretty poor response time-wise and the menu controls were sluggish. I'd give it 6 months to a year before buying one.

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Guest onlynik
I thought it was 40GB over 20GB, but you could be right. If Sony get their finger out their ass and launch the PS3 over here and in the states and it sells well Blu-Ray will win out. The only problem i can forsee is that Microsoft are backing HD-DVD which might help swing it through computer sales. I hope not though.

Having said that and also having seen and fiddled around with a few of the early Blu-Ray players i would not recommend buying one just yet as they were pretty poor response time-wise and the menu controls were sluggish. I'd give it 6 months to a year before buying one.

The sizes for blu-ray are 25 gig single layer, and 50 gig dual layer

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The idea with UMD was Sony were going to use the PSP to kick-start sales of it, then start selling more devices which support it. At one time the PS3 was supposed to havw both Blu-Ray and UMD drives. Unfortunately for them, UMD-Video sales have been a shambolic disaster at best so it's never taken off. People are just copying video files to Memory Sticks instead.

By the time Sony gets the PS3 released over here, and there's enough films available to buy (at a semi decent price), HD DVD equipment will have been out for ages and will have started to corner the market. The Xbox 360's HD DVD drive's already out over here, isn't it? Sonys on to another loser, methinks.

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The idea with UMD was Sony were going to use the PSP to kick-start sales of it, then start selling more devices which support it. At one time the PS3 was supposed to havw both Blu-Ray and UMD drives. Unfortunately for them, UMD-Video sales have been a shambolic disaster at best so it's never taken off. People are just copying video files to Memory Sticks instead.

That is pretty wierd though, huh? UMDs are clearly inferior to DVDs, and Sony seem to be obsessed with the future of next-gen technology and the features of the PS3. Why would they want to endorse a format that is considerably dated in terms of storage and practicality?

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Maybe in the home. But about 90% of all TV filmed outwith a studio is done on sony betamax cams, and has been for many years, so i imagine its a nice little earner for sony. And the other 10% is probably done on DV, which i think sony may have invented also.

Way to pluck statistics right out of nowhere. Betamax is NOT used in television production, they use Betacam SP or DigiBeta tapes, which are successors to Betamax, although have a much higher tape speed which allows greater audio/visual quality.

A fair bit of tv production - Soaps, game shows, chat shows, news broadcasts are shot on Beta SP, however higher end dramas are mostly shot in super16 Mil film.

As For Blue-Ray, who really wants to go to the expense of buying their DVD collection again, there was a valid reason for DVD outselling VHS, mostly because of the fact that a VHS degrades every time it is watched, whereas DVDs if you take care of them dont degrade in such a manner.

As for Minidisk, in television terms it is not a trusted format, very temperamental as I'm sure most people are aware, tracks go all over the place, some are randomly overwritten. In TV most sound engineers are still using DAT, even though it is almost completelly obsolete as no new DAT recorders have been produced in years as bigger productions have moved onto using Hard Disc storage, Although I have known some sound mixers to use Minidisk as a back up.

DAT was also developed by Sony (And Philips, whos DVD predecessor, the CDi bombed without a trace. I still have one somewhere. Actually the controls of the Nintendo Wii remind me of the control for my CD-i. The CD-i was released in 1991, and had dual purposes of playing VCDs and Games, years before the PS2, although admittedly it was pretty gash)

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As For Blue-Ray, who really wants to go to the expense of buying their DVD collection again, there was a valid reason for DVD outselling VHS, mostly because of the fact that a VHS degrades every time it is watched, whereas DVDs if you take care of them dont degrade in such a manner.

Well, good news Blu-Ray is backwards compatible so you won't need to buy all your DVDs again.

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Guest onlynik

As for Minidisk, in television terms it is not a trusted format, very temperamental as I'm sure most people are aware, tracks go all over the place, some are randomly overwritten. In TV most sound engineers are still using DAT, even though it is almost completelly obsolete as no new DAT recorders have been produced in years as bigger productions have moved onto using Hard Disc storage, Although I have known some sound mixers to use Minidisk as a back up.

DAT was also developed by Sony (And Philips, whos DVD predecessor, the CDi bombed without a trace. I still have one somewhere. Actually the controls of the Nintendo Wii remind me of the control for my CD-i. The CD-i was released in 1991, and had dual purposes of playing VCDs and Games, years before the PS2, although admittedly it was pretty gash)

DAT is still used in the computer field. Its called DDS there and it is still be widely used and recently has been upgraded to dds-5 gives something like 36 gig storage.

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Betamax is NOT used in television production, they use Betacam SP or DigiBeta tapes, which are successors to Betamax, although have a much higher tape speed which allows greater audio/visual quality.

Aye, but the invention of Betamax was hardly a failed product, when digibeta is just the playstation 2 version of betamax tapes. And yes i did make those stats up....because i can.

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