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?