Disney/Buena Vista Throws Support Behind Blu-ray

Buena Vista Home Entertainment has announced that it will begin releasing Blu-ray movie titles in September. "The Blu-ray Disc represents a major technological breakthrough in our industry, and just as DVD revolutionised home entertainment, the Blu-ray Disc promises to deliver a new and unparalleled consumer experience," said BVHE president Bob Chapek. "We are confident that the Blu-ray Disc will be the high-definition choice for the home entertainment future."

[THELANDSOFSAND]

I thought disney have been supporting blu ray since it was announced by sony?

[bernie]

In 6 months time they'll also back HD DVD, I hope so anyway it's the far better format. It'll be a shame not to buy Disney, oh well they'll see the light eventually.

[shoota33]

Blu ray is the superior format PERIOD are you an idiot or something blu ray has all the support and hd dvd doesnt.the only reason you like hd dvd is becasue your head is up MS @ss.if MS had blu you would be praising it.

[BIadestarX]

Don’t forget Sony also had all the support for UMD and that didn't stop it from going from "The future of portable multimedia" to a piece of crap no body wants. So I wouldn't be so prompt to use this as a sign of success.

[shoota33]

thats different you stupid @sswipe.umd was just for psp.blu ray is for everything.billy is calling you xbot

[johnrichardandrew]

You know adding You know adding words like "@sswipe" doesn't help your case in presenting your thoughts as logical or sensible.

Bluray is not the superior format, it's worse for cost and features- last time I checked that was something that mattered.

I'll tell you what, you list every advantage of Bluray and I guarantee that I can disprove, nullify or flat out beat it with the HDDVD specs- Microsoft had no financial reason to choose HDDVD over Bluray it came down to what was best.

[omansteveo]

listen to major nelsons podcast

[Karibu]

When it's major nelson, it's more like potcast.

[THELANDSOFSAND]

*blows the chronic at karibu*

[Asuka]

yes its old news that Disney is supporting Blu-ray, but that's not what this news post is about. Its about Buena Vista now supporting Blu-ray, that's what's new.

[omansteveo]

Im not taking sides on either but you have to admit that blu-ray has been gettin alot of bad reviews and HD-DVD has been gettin alot of praise...im a movie freak and just from what ive heard up til now HD-DVD has an advantage in picture quality and special features...i might get flamed for sayin this but you guys cant deny that no matter how loyal you are to a brand

[THELANDSOFSAND]

its simple:

Blu ray uses MPEG 2 compression which is worse quality than HD-DVD. I looked at a blu-ray and hd-dvd set up at circuit city before i bought a HD-DVD player- the blu-rays image quality was noticeably less defined than the HD-DVD image.

Blu-ray is UMD2.0

[johnrichardandrew]

They don't have to use MPEG-II they can use VC1 as well, it's in the spec.

Image quality is not better for either format technically they're a dead match, the main thing that will determine that is the errors and speed of reading which HDDVD has a slight advantage for but nothing considerable assuming the person buys a decent unit and takes care of their discs correctly.

[THELANDSOFSAND]

i am just speaking from experiance, and in my opinion, from what i saw, HD-DVD has the edge in picture quality.

[AuburnTiger]

they also use mpeg 4 and h.264 codecs, which i believe are more efficient in terms of quality than the ancient mpeg2

[Watapata]

HD-DVD and Blu-Ray have access to the same codecs. The only thing hurting Blu-Ray right now is that the dual layer discs have not hit the market yet. Theoretically once they do, even using mpeg 2, their picture quality should exceed that of HD-DVD. Also, no where have I seen it suggested that HD-DVD has a better special feature set than Blu-Ray. In addition Cnet reported that they had more issues with the Toshiba players as far as errors go than with the Samsung player, especially considering the flaky HDMI support of the Toshiba machines...

[johnrichardandrew]

Whilst I agree Toshiba do not make the best HDMI products (that truly is one of Sony's great talents) that doesn't mean the format is poor, just one machine, other manufacturers are available and who knows- with Ricohs new tech it may be even better for movie enthusiasts in the near future.

I must point out though that a detailed look at the HDDVD specs shows that more features are STANDARD in the players, e.g. the ethernet jack, dual tuners etc which means that the features can be used, nobody can deny this surely. It's like how many Xbox fans disliked the idea of 2 SKUs- features that aren't standard are poorly utilised so whilst Bluray may be capable of as much that doesn't mean it will happen sadly, if it did then I'd be happy.

Look at DVD players, they had features like Multi-Angle camera options, but IIRC many players were too low spec to achieve this well enough for it to be utilised and the public lost out.

Anyway, people can be here and bicker all they like, it's the porn industry that drives changes like this, and they are going towards digital distribution- so seeing as companies like Apple and Microsoft are looking into Digital Distribution for Movies this entire debate may be a complete waste of time and effort.

[Watapata]

Ah, my mistake, I was under the impression that by special features, the bonus content on disc was being referred to. I'll have to agree then, the standard feature set is slightly more expansive than that of Blu-Ray, though I'd still hesitate to say significantly. In addition, I think it likely fairly safe to assume that beyond the first generation of players, Blu-Ray players will likely include essentially identical feature sets to the HD-DVD players in an attempt to remain competitive.

[Liverpool4ever]

who cares?

[AuburnTiger]

apparently 6.4, 6.5 and 6.6
BTW how's the english classes coming along?

[JIN KAZAMA]

Are you serious man, ofcourse they did, if they supported Blu-Ray, they would ahve been supporting their competitors you fool. Blu-Ray is going to win out.

[johnrichardandrew]

Microsoft and Sony are not competitors, Sony and Microsoft partner on many many things you ignorant fool. Jesus.

They even partnered on some of the technologies behind Bluray (copy-protection for example). If Sony and Microsoft are competitors why does Bluray use the VC1 codec in it's spec? Why does Sony manufacture Windows based PCs? Why does Sony back new technologies from Microsoft e.g. Media Center OS?

Each company has a couple of small division which rival each other but the decision to go with HDDVD was nothing to do with that, Microsoft would make money either way. The decision to use HDDVD was one made by the entire corparation, not just the Xbox team. Even if the 360 had Bluray Microsoft would be no better off and neither would the PS3 teams.

Your argument is flawed, your intellect small.

[achira]

blue ray wins !!!!!!!!! toshiba makes lost on every hd-dvd player, they cant sell them any longer. at the end of the year when blue ray comes, hd - dvd will be dead.

[Cyclonus]

Sony will lose $$$ on every PS3 sold.

360 wins!!!!

[Marty8370]

PS3/Bluray are the future.

[Cyclonus]

So was Betamax. And SACD. And UMD.

HD-DVD looks twice as good at half the price. It's a FACT. I predict DEATH this Fall, but it isn't HD-DVD's....

[AuburnTiger]

Now you’re just exaggerating

[Liverpool4ever]

exaggerating? HUH?

[AuburnTiger]

Yes exaggeration, the act of making something more noticeable than usual.

http://www.googleityoumoron...

[shoota33]

yes it is xbox 360's death you are predicting xbot.And you are very right xbox 1.5 will die this fall along with hd dvd crap.

[johnrichardandrew]

Oh my god I can't believe there are people still in existence spurting this "XBox 1.5" cr@p- the 360 is just as powerful for games as the PS3, want me to prove it to you? Give any part of the PS3 you think is superior and I can show you why that's not the case. It was a poorly designed console, sure the Xbox 360 isn't without its flaws BUT it shouldn't be laughed at by some idiot like you.

You're one of these people who recycles the hype that Sony allow, why don't you use a decent argument such as the games coming out for the console you desire rather than being a complete fanboy- for your benefit, not anybody elses, you may end up having a better experience rather than deliberately making yourself appear ignorant.

[Watapata]

Gametime...
Give it a rest PLEASE? You give PS3 fans a bad name. I'll readily admit to being a PS3 "fanboy." I'll defend the PS3 to anyone, but I try to remain as objective about it as possible. Something that seems beyond impossible for you to do. The PS3 is not the be all end all you claim it to be. In addition, it is perfectly possible for someone to be in support of HD-DVD over Blu-Ray without being a "xbot"

Johnricharandrew...
Now, I'm not saying I know everything about computer architecture by any means, and I'm not saying I necessarally have real world experience, but speaking as a senior in Computer Engineering (not to be confused with Computer Science) at University of Illinois - Champaign, my understanding is that while not the magnitude of difference some, including Sony, might claim, the PS3 is in fact a more powerful console than the 360. The architecture is quite media-centric and, given proper programming is capable of an order of magnitude greater performance in virtually all applications over the 360. This can already be seen in a comparison of first generation titles across both platforms. Almost universally the in-game footage from PS3 games are significantly more impressive than that of the first 360 games. This is not just limited to textures, polygons, and detail, but includes the number of objects on screen and the myriad of ways in which the user can interact with said objects. The criticism of early 360 games that they were "just prettied up XBox games" was fairly accurate.Gameplay really hadn't changed at all, with the PS3 some, not many, but some elements of gameplay have been added that really weren't possible in previous generations and also were not present by and large in the first generation 360 games.

[johnrichardandrew]

I agree the Xbox360 titles have been a little underwhelming but only select screens from what I have seen have justified a claim that the PS3 is more powerful, I am sure some developer will get a lot of good out of it, but costs and effort would be greatly increased with the Cell.

The visual quality of PS2 titles was pretty poor at the start and saw a boost once the other consoles launched, it always seems to be the case that in these wars you don't get an answer till the end.
So I would say the Xbox360 titles we've seen so far have been a case of lazy development (well, no lazy but comprimising).

Gameplay has changed with the 360, only in slight ways generally however, e.g. Online compatibility for all titles, Custom Soundtracks for All titles.

If the 360 was used to it's full practical capabilties it would just slightly edge infront of Sony due to the design taking procedural synthesis into consideration which could make some amazing games, developers just haven't really used it yet sadly.

I honestly think it'll be neck and neck in terms of quality simply due to development costs not allowing developers to make games that utilise every last drop of power.

[Watapata]

You may very well be right, only time will tell. Regardless, each console is sure to have its hits and misses, overall it should be a win-win for any true gamer.

[JIN KAZAMA]

You are the fool who thinks that MS and Sony are not rivals, you ahve to be a complete moron to think they are not rivals and that MS chose HDDVD over the Blu-ray just because they think its a better format. Yes, some companies share technoliges when its good for both of them, when they will both make money off of it, but to tell me that they are not rivals just shows everybody how ignorant you are. Ofcourse they are rivals, MS put out the xbox to directly rival the playstation. Ms is is supporting HD-DVD to directly rival the blu-ray so shut the hell up. MS wants to completely dominate sony, and sony wants to completely dominate MS, when they "work" together, thats by necessaty you fool.

[Watapata]

That was beyond unnecessary. In the greater scheme of things Sony and Microsoft are not rivals. They compete in one small sector of each other's business. The original Xbox was not designed just so that Microsoft could compete with Sony, but instead to allow them to break into a profitable industry. Yes it would be naive to assume that Microsoft and Sony don't compete, but they definitely do not compete in the majority of their day to day business. Neither company competes with the other within their core business. Only if that were the case could you adequately call them rivals.

[Islandkiwi]

If you put a Sony exec and an MS exec in the same room and left them in there for two hours, both would still be alive at the end of two hours. In truth they'd probably have signed contracts for stuff.

Throw Jin in a room with a guy he's been told likes MS products...I think we'd see a different result.

You need to calm down, take a deep breath, and get some perspective in your life.

[zypher]

360's Game Clan opens, new features for NHL2k7 are announced, there's an interview with the developers of the Darkness, NCAA ships to stores, and Microsoft makes a ton of Live/Arcade announcements (including demos for Test Drive, Saints Row and apparently Table Tennis), and all of those articles are nearly barren of feedback. why? because every Tom, Richard (can't use the name i wanna use, since its apparently forbidden) and Harry who calls himself a gamer...ahem, fanboy decides its best to spread their idioms under a news article about a format they don't even want to succeed, let alone want for themselves. where's the logic in this? oh wait: why am i asking this question here, since this article is full of the same fanboys who are probably too dense to get the gist of what i'm saying.

[EnforcerOfTheTruth]

Xrats do you really mean it when saying HD-DVD is superior to Blu-ray? Daaaaaaam you girls are just too funny

[THELANDSOFSAND]

yeah, i've seen it with my own two eyes.

HD-DVD looks better.

sorry.

[EnforcerOfTheTruth]

Sure, you probably have seen it through your green glasses ROFLMFAO

[THELANDSOFSAND]

um no, circuit city.

[johnrichardandrew]

You could go look for yourself before making such remarks you may regret. At present the picture on HDDVDs should be better than Bluray so his statement was stable.

[Dragonopolis]

HD-DVD was using VC1 and Blu-ray Movies were encoded in MPEG-2 and ancient codec. Blu-ray supports VC-1, MPEG-4/h.264 video codecs. Here's faq 1.8 from Blu-ray.com

1.8 What video codecs will Blu-ray support?

MPEG-2 - enhanced for HD, also used for playback of DVDs and HDTV recordings.
MPEG-4 AVC - part of the MPEG-4 standard also known as H.264 (High Profile and Main Profile).
SMPTE VC-1 - standard based on Microsoft's Windows Media Video (WMV) technology.

Please note that this simply means that all Blu-ray players and recorders will have to support playback of these video codecs, it will still be up to the movie studios to decide which video codec(s) they use for their releases.

Whoa plays WMV so who says Sony and MS are Enemies. That's because Windows people don't necessarily Know that VC-1 is based on WMV. However, MPEG4/h.264 is not to bad either. It could be the reason that the first blu-ray movies went with MPEG-2 over the others is that the other codecs sort of play favorites to OSes. Apple/Linux favor MPEG4/h.264 while of course VC-1 favors MS. MPEG2 however is not favor by any operating system as is playable on all operating systems. The reason for this could be the fact that blu-ray PC drives were shiping as well as Players. I'm sure we will be seeing companies using blu-ray use the newer codecs. The interesting thing will be which codec VC-1 or MPEG4/h.264 is better and is more utilize. HD_DVD I think will side with MS on VC-1 and Blu-ray Camp with Companies who are supporting both will probably go with VC-1. This really won't affect the War between Blu-ray and HD-DVD but it should have an interesting impact on Apple/Itunes Video downloads verse MS who undoubtably use VC-1.

Will be interesting to see how the Recording to the new next-gen players will play out although I feel Blu-ray is more Flexible which is why they are getting more backup from the Movie Industry. Another reason not really advertised as to why such wide spread support by the movie industry is the interactive menu for the Blu-ray which uses BDjava.

Should be cheap for companies to hire java programmers to learn to code in BDJava and provides a very dynamic and interactive menu system with the possibility of java base games as well. This will allow companies Like Disney who really spice up their menu systems with fancy graphics and interactive features. Gives them much more creative freedom than what is possible on the HD-DVD system.

Sony really did their job this time. They really learned their lessons from the VCR/BETAMAX war. Just because the format is better if a company doesn't suck up to the right people it isn't going to happen. Sony/Blu-ray Camp just kissed the right arses this time.

Now its time for us consumers to realize that its not the best picture or format but what the Movie industry is siding with and its Blu-ray. Don't make the mistake my father did years ago who was tech savvy to know betamax was better (as well as 8 track tapes at the time) and got burned on both formats.

Sorry HD-DVD People no matter how good your format may be (which still remains to be seen) it will lose out. Better to invest into the future and thats Blu-ray.

[THELANDSOFSAND]

yes, they learned so much from betamax and minidisc that UMD then TOOK OVER THE WORLD!

lol

sony have learned nothing. codecs and java aren't going to save it...

[AuburnTiger]

Honestly sand instead of being so one sided why not open your mind and see what the competitor has to offer. I'm sure you have 1 or 2 good things to say about this "inferior" blu ray right? BTW, how's the repair going with the XBOX?

[johnrichardandrew]

They both support high enough resolutions and have high enough storage capability to do what they're designed for- the comparison of iHD and BDJava is a null point IMO- iHD has almost exactly the same potential, Hollywood just seems to like backing Bluray for it's anti-consmer protection schemes. I agree though, they have kissed plenty of ass and it will definitely pay off giving this format a real chance, however it always comes down to the consumer decision, UMD did have decent support too.

I've seen iHD and read about where it could go, that coupled with the higher standard specs and better disc structure means there's a very good case for HDDVD being superior.

BTW: Running Linux myself I can tell you that the anti-MS lot will love MPEGII but will hate the BD+copy protection which is just like what cripples our multimedia today.

[Aflac]

I'm just gonna get a hybrid wen it goes down in price (the 360 wll probly get one for an even lower price in a yr or so). still, y did any1 even bother with bringing hd-dvd and bluray out anyway wen theres now a dvd disc that holds a friggin TB?! I mean rlly, that would hold whole collections of dvds with highest resolutions...

[EnforcerOfTheTruth]

You are totaly forgetting that you didn't see the true potential of Blu-ray:

"First and foremost, Blu-Ray is currently saddled with space limitations on the media. They are having a difficult time mass producing dual-layered media and are not expected to deliver dual-layered films until after the holiday season. Because of this, the Blu-Ray titles are being presented in near ancient MPEG-2 conversion."

"The HD-DVD films utilize Microsoft’s VC-1 compression. The films are being released in Dual-Layer."

Besides that only Blu-ray is capable of 1080p and don't come up with this unofficial firmware update crap. I have red enough about it and it isn't possible with just a firmware update. And BTW Toshiba ain't dumb, if this would be so easy, they would officialy support it.
It's not without a reason that Blu-ray has more support, it's not without a reason that Toshiba doesn't want a war and is begging for a unified format.
Blu-ray is the superior, more advanced format and the future will show it.

[johnrichardandrew]

Size of disc in this case won't be changing much of the ability, it's a poor decision on which codec to use mainly. Although thats subjective.

What magical thing would the Bluray machine achieve with the extra space- better quality perhaps but they don't need it, they could use VC1 too and get a better colour range (so the extra space is pretty useless for films, games etc)

Bluray isn't the only one capable of 1080p that's just showing your ignorance, in fact if you look on the back of a HDDVD box most likely you'll see 1080p as a supported resolution- bravo on showing how little you know and how willing you are to believe what the Bluray camp gives you. 1080p isn't supported yet to keep costs down, the format is completely capable of that resolution.

You haven't backed up your claim o Bluray being superior other than space which isn't that important for the applications these disks are designed for. I believe Bluray will win, but I do not think it is the superior format for a second, look into how they cripple your rights with BD+ for instance.

Toshiba doesn't want a format war because it's cheaper and also means more sales- consumers would hole back until a victor appears.

Bluray doesn't have a lot of extra support, the biggest movies are coming out on HDDVD (Superman Returns, Batman Begins etc) and the biggest Software company in the world supports HDDVD- BTW the porn industry is leaning towards HDDVD too last I heard, and they're a huge player.

Go research, then come back, having researched properly perhaps you can give a better reply (HINT: Justify your BS claims)

[EnforcerOfTheTruth]

LOL maybe you should go reasearch and then come back. Last time I checked Blu-ray has a lot more support and porn industry is also supporting Blu-ray and not HD-DVD ;-)

BTW the quotes were from a researched article ;-)