Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD 413
Michael S writes
sent in a good story which sumarizes the current status of the
battle between Blu-Ray & HD-DVD. There still isn't really a clear victor... or is there? I for one can't wait for this crap to get settled out so we can just enjoy having huge discs.
Still no word from the pr0n industry (Score:5, Interesting)
And, as peculiar it may sound, both competitors are holding their breath to see what the pornographic industry will decide.
That pretty much sums up the whole situation, now doesn't it?
one problem.. (Score:4, Interesting)
Ah yes (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Ah yes (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Still no word from the pr0n industry (Score:4, Interesting)
I'd rather go for this tech [wired.com] though. Non moving parts would be great for power saving and have less chance of failure.
Blu-ray durability? (Score:2, Interesting)
And better access to scratches, ball point pens, ink chemistry, label adhesive chemistry.
And the infuriating nuisance of buying marking supplies specifically labelled for use with the media and vice versa, and finding out three years later that everybody who used them is experiencing data loss.
So much for using these things for backup.
new shiny hardware (Score:3, Interesting)
I think not.
bettamax and VHS? nah! I think these will be going the way of Minidisks, 8Tracks and Zip drives.
forget media (Score:3, Interesting)
A huge help for Blu-Ray... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Why people don't RTFA (Score:3, Interesting)
Aside from that, what do you bet that HD-DVD wins despite its low bandwidth and storage space, just so that the movie studios can have their precious control locking so I can't skip through the 20 3 minute long previews before the movie starts?
Good for Consumers (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:I'm sticking with 5 1/4 inch floppies (Score:2, Interesting)
As a parent, I can't begin to count the number of kids' movies I've lost due to damage. Blue-Laser sounds amazing technologically, but when it comes to the standard DVD user (that is to say, everyone), I'll take the extra scratch protection any day.
Re:Still no word from the pr0n industry (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:one problem.. - Allsop Strongbox (Score:3, Interesting)
Allsop Strongbox [allsop.com]
I totally agree (Score:3, Interesting)
A disk should allow for the regular HD-content, all the bonus materials, every language and dubbing tracks, previews, etc., all with room to spare. Alternatively, it should also allow for at least seven hours of normal-quality content. That way you can get a whole TV season on only 1-4 disks. Because there's a lot of non-HD content out there.
Here's what I hope they change with the next format, besides the obvious:
1) No regions. The ones they have never made any sense anyway - why on earth are Japan and Europe in the same group but Australia by itself? Language regions I could have understood. I understand the economics behind regions, but really. One world, one price.
2) Sophisticated sprite, text, and video control options. Did you know that DVD subtitles are limited to four colors to save space? Talk about a bad solution. And there's no way to control the sequence in video. There should be total control over what goes on screen, equivalent to what you could do with burnt-in material, but not burnt in. The ability to overlay sprites or auxilliary video to overlay signs or add censorship bars. Bleeping or replacing bad words. Skipping naughty bits. Or rehashing what you have into a director's cut. Actual text subtitles with PDF-style rendering to allow embedded fonts, and standard UTF options.
3) Built in, fully functional scripting language - python or perhaps a real-time language. Would allow for far greater interactivity. Also games, interactive data browsing, simple programs, and so forth. Also, if used intelligently would make controlling the many options much easier. For instance, to switch between english dub and native language+english subtitles, I wouldn't have to navigate menus to select the correct audio and subtitle options, guessing which was which because they only say "english 1" and so forth - I would press a button to toggle through the logical options.
4) The ability for outside files to wrap and modify DVD content. Particularly with the enhancements above, this would allow anyone to enhance a DVD for others. Specifically, by subtitling it in a language no one bothered to translate it into. Or editing it to suit parent's demands for kid-friendliness. Or, most attractively to the distributors, the ability to go back and fix errors AFTER the disks have shipped. A sane directory structure and system on the disk would make this a lot easier. As would a secondary region for writing in extra or per-disk data after they've been pressed.