Blah Blah Cafe, the Jean-Michel Jarre forum

[SHARPBLUE]

For me I think BluRay - I have followed the development of BluRay right from the start and it looks like the better format:

Although both Blu-ray and HD-DVD are similar in many aspects, there are some important differences between them.

The first is capacity. Because Blu-ray utilizes a lens with a greater numerical aperture (NA) than HD-DVD, the laser spot can be focused with greater precision to fit more data on the same size disc. This allows Blu-ray to hold 25GB per layer (50GB on a dual-layer disc), whereas HD-DVD can only hold 15GB per layer (30GB on a dual-layer disc). Blu-ray has also adopted a higher data transfer rate for video and audio (54Mbps vs 36.55Mbps). The greater capacity and data transfer rates for Blu-ray will allow the movie studios to release their movies with higher quality video and audio than the HD-DVD format.

The second is content. The Blu-ray format has received broad support from the major movie studios as a successor to today's DVD format. Seven of the eight major movie studios (Warner, Paramount, Fox, Disney, Sony, MGM and Lionsgate) have already announced titles for Blu-ray, whereas HD-DVD only has support from three major movie studios (Warner, Paramount and Universal). This is an important difference because some of the studios might only support one of the formats, so you won't be able to get your favorite movies in the other format. Choosing the format with the most content support minimizes this risk.

The third is hardware support. The Blu-ray format has broad support from the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers, including Sony, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Pioneer, Sharp, JVC, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, TDK, Thomson, LG, Apple, HP and Dell. The Blu-ray format will also be supported in the next-generation PlayStation 3 (PS3) video game console. This means that you will have a lot of choice when it comes to players and hardware. The HD-DVD format has far less supporters, so the amount of players and hardware will be very limited. So far, Toshiba is the only company to officially announce a HD-DVD player and it will only support 1080i output, while the announced Blu-ray players will support 1080p

[GeeJee]

Blu-ray for me, mainly for the same reasons, but most importantly its capacity

[Finaero]

At least when it comes to storage I prefer Bluray, but to be honest, both of them annoy the shit out of me. DVD's not even that old yet

[Nico_Noyau]

It took a lot of time before I bought DVDs, because of the price of firsts burners and DVDs.
But now, they are cheap, that's why I buy 50 DVDs per year at least (20€ for 50 DVDs with s&h)

Now, I'm @ 100% with Bluray, but I want to see prices of an empty disk and a burner, 1000€ for a burner, it is not my cup of tea...
And if the disk is to sell @ 50€, not my cup of tea neither...

So I think I'll buy a burner in 5 years :mrgreen: (if they have not found something other before...)

[Velodynamic]

In sweden a Blu-Ray burner(LG) costs about 750 Euro and emty 25 GB discs(TDK) are @ between 23 (R) and 30 (RE) Euro.
I remember when DVD was in this price range some 8 years ago.
The year after it was half that price. I hoping for a repeat this time.

A good thing about the players so far is that they are compatible with DVD's and can even scale them to a higher resolution for a more "HD like" image with amazing results. Good to know that your DVD collection don't have to become a sudden death with these new formats.
In theory Blu-Ray is the better choice but still in practice HD-DVD players has been working much better in various tests...so I'm not to sure yet.
Only time will tell.

[AnDrOiD]

HD-DVD! Less problems and backwards compatible!

[E-vert]

I say HD-DVD. Compatibility is important i think.

[GeeJee]

Compatability with what?

[Jarp2600]

Ordinary DVD's

[SHARPBLUE]

Both formats are to support original DVD I am led to believe, anyway, Apple to support both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD

http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0610brieflyhddvd.html

[E-vert]

Okay

[E-vert]

I say HD-DVD. Compatibility is important i think.

Sorry to inform you, HD-DVD is not compatible with standard DVD.