I'm just sticking to DVD. I don't see the point of switching unless you have a HD TV.

I expect it to take quite a while until we know what we get so i stock dvdr media and wait

Not true at the moment.Keep in mind the following.
HD-DVD likes to list different devisions of the same parent companny as different compannies.
Also if you compare HD-DVD-R support list vs Blu Ray support list then blu ray still lists more compannies even if you don't pick out the different devisions.



Untrue again.

Maybe we should start a FAQ on HD-DVD and BLu RAY and all known errors and rumours that are out there.!

* * One unproductive argument of six posts deleted * *

Let's keep a mutually respectful tone in here, please!

Am I mistaken? I thought that HD-DVD was alot further ahead of Blu-ray in terms of ready to go. I have seen Blu-ray been pushed out ahead of time. It is trying, in my opinion, to beat HD-DVD to market. I think that this might cause problems if they have rushed it. Blu-ray is great technology but it leaves less room for error that HD-DVD.

well, that depends on what you mean by 'ready'.
Blu-ray burners and media available, HD DVD not so.

I had thought, and probably hoped, that Blu-Ray would take the crown, probably because I have a Playstation 2 and figure maybe someday I might try a PS3.

But frankly, I don't know what is up. Just like with DVD+/-R, and BetaMax/VHS, this "war" is getting annoying as heck.

I guess having an integrated chip like I read about that can at least read and play back both formats would be good, but I'm just too baffled about the media and the copy protection limitations to make a solid choice at this point.

I'm kind of hoping someone comes along and brings a new format that is Ultra compatible and has like 200 gig per disk.

That depends on how you want to see things.

HD-DVD was earlier on the market. But keep in mind that Toshiba used a sollution to rush it to the market. The first drives are not the standard components but are just pc's. First drives had quite some problems but with newer firmware these were solved.
The first blu ray writer did use specific components however that didn't mean that there were no needed firmwares.
ALso quite some blu ray compannies delayed over and over again there drives.
Now 2nd generation HD-DVD does use specificcomponents.


Blu Ray has the writers there and the recordable+rewitrable media penetration is to much beter as I expected. However pre-recorded media seems to be more rare as HD-DVD media. Also the current situations shows huge price differences. On the price situation for pre-recorded media I will not comment because it depends to much on the situation.
HD-DVD on the other hand has a recorder out in japan and recordable media out in europe and america. Yes at this moment no writers/recorders have launched.
About the media it seems easier to make HD-DVD. (specially multilayered media). However withouth the drives quite some compannies are not going to put products on the market. However other compannies like Ritek, Imation, Bestmedia have just put there HD-DVD media on the market.

So how is the market penetration.
Well statics from both camps have been there.
HD-DVD claimse to have more pre-recorded media sold at the moment.
While Blu Ray has claimed to have more drives sold at the moment.

Bestmedia? Eww.
I guess it will eventually become a situation like HD-DVD for movies, BD for data.

Kind of says everything when the leader of a poll is 'i don't know', especially when the people posting are probably some of the best informed in the business.

What are you talking about?

I'm kind of surprised that there are as many pro-Blu-Ray posters in here.

I was originally psyched about Blu-Ray and it's data backup potential but we'll really need to see real world usage before we can know what will be a more viable format.

HD-DVD specs have a physical disc format that is comparable to DVD. Blu-Ray on the other hand has the data layer so close to the surface on the player side that they have to use a special coating to insure that scratches, smudges and the like aren't a serious problem.

I'd rather backup less data on a more reliable disc then more data on a less reliable disc. I'm looking forward to tests comparing the reliability/quality.

Also, does anyone know the real world space for data on these two formats? I've heard 13 gigs for HD-DVD vs. 22 gigs for Blu-Ray.

Now I'm not an optical disc techie like most people here but I don't think we shouldn't underestimate the Playstation 3 (and to some extent the Xbox 360) factor. Both consoles cover huge markets and I believe that they'll both play an integral part in the next generation DVD format war.

Let's not forget that the popularity of the PS2 (and the Xbox with the DVD Video Playback kit) was one of the reasons as to why the DVD format is so popular today. I seem to remember just a few years back, every DVD title had a "Compatible with Playstation 2" logo on the back cover.

I believe that Sony have built up a loyal customer base - there are lots of people around the world that are eagerly anticipating the release of the Playstation 3. When the price becomes reasonable, people will go out and buy one. And before you know it, there's a Blu-Ray player in thousands of homes.

I know that Microsoft have backed the HD-DVD but they haven't really made the effort to really market the format. I've heard that Microsoft are planning on bringing out an add-on USB HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360 later on this year. The only problem I can see here is that it looks as though this "add-on" could retail at £150 plus the price of buying the console in the first place (around £280 for the full system). I just have a feeling that this move could end up biting Microsoft in the arse.

Consumers don't want to be paying extra money for something that may end up being redundant in a couple of years time, believe me. It's an understatement when I say that it's a risk in buying a HD-DVD only or Blu-Ray only player. The built-in Blu-Ray player in the PS3 will probably be seen as less of a risk due to the popularity of the Playstation brand as a games machine. I think that this may be one of the reasons as to why Blu-Ray has got quite a lot of votes in this poll (coupled with the fact that Blu-Ray media can hold a higher capacity of data than a HD-DVD).

Of course, this is all subject to how reliable both formats are. Like I said earlier, I'm not an optical disc techie so there may be lots of technical inadequacies in one format compared to the other that we have yet to discover. Some of you may not agree with anything that I've said but I'm just posting my thoughts on how I think this format war will progress from a marketing potential point of view.

Personally, I don't think either format will really start to penetrate the market until 2010 at the earliest. And I'm saying this based on the popularity of the DVD and the compatability of DVDs with current optical disc hardware.

I'm going to wait as long as possible and see how thing shake out...

I'd hate to heavily invest time and effort into one or the other and then find out it lost like beta-max did... I'll keep burning DVDs for now...

Yeah, same here.

I'm quite happy with my DVDs at the moment and am not looking at changing to another format anytime soon.

Only problem is that BLU RAY standards are more strict.
ANd that so far the Blu Ray media out there has been made by manufacturers with a good reputation.
While most of the current HD-DVD media on the market is made by ritek. And I think ritek is infamous on this board for it's stability (Did anyone say G04,G05 ,G01 or cyanine cd-r's ???)
Also so far Blu Ray uses inorganic dye's while HD-DVD uses organic dye's when it comes to reputation inorganic dye's are most times more stable. How this translates in the end will be a question. Because even with a good dye you can still create terrible disc's.

Both formats have there advantages and disadavantages. It will depend on the customer. There is no way to predict the outcome at this moment.

Ever since I got my new HDTV, I have been finding more and more that I want to move away from DVD into Hi-Def (most likely BluRay). For data storage this is also a no brainer. Aside from the fact that HDDVD-R currently has no burners, the media is smaller, and is manufactured based on DVD technology, which has been proven to be FAR inferior in terms of lifespan to that of CD-R. BluRay media on the other hand was engineered taking some of those issues into consideration, and built effectively from the ground up (I mean, it's still based on plastic and 12cm disc diameter, but mostly from the ground up).

And as Dakhaas says, HDDVD-R is mostly made by Ritek right now... also Toshiba is trying to get all drive production done out of China as much as possible. BluRay is more expensive yes, but only manufactured in reliable plants (Verbatim Singapore/Japan, TDK Japan, Philips Netherlands, Imation USA, Panasonic Japan/USA, Sony Japan).

Most informative posting yet!

I decided for blue ray some time ago, when i heard the dye will be inorganic. That's a big plus on the reliability scale for me, as long as the other factors like bonding, surface-coating etc are OK. I heard BD will be more expensive, so what? If it's more reliable i'll pay the money. In fact, i always stopped byuing media at the time it got very cheap, because of quality concerns (have a small pile of good 4x DVD+R, should suffice till Blue-Ray)

So for storage i vote for Blue-Ray. For video i'll stay with DVD as long as possible

jj

Uhm, BTW, it says: "You have already voted on this poll" - no, i have not yet! That's not fair, i cannot vote!
jj

"Which DVD format will you upgrade to when the price is reasonable?" .... i voted for...

"I don't know or haven't decided yet"

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but as of right now i dont think ill be switching from DVD anytime soon, cause as far as the blu-ray/hd-dvd crap is conserned it's still to hard to tell as to which will win... but either way i dont think them beating out the standard format of DVD anytime in the next 3-5years (DVD if u ask me is there biggest competitor) .... cause there just aint a huge boost going from dvd to something like bluray like there was from VHS to DVD... thats the main reason i dont think people are gonna care much about a "new format" like hd-dvd or bluray.... and another thing, im sure "most" people dont have a HDTV yet so without one of those that makes the new formats even more pointless (atleast in terms of movies etc) which i dont see HDTV's being common like dvd player are for probably atleast another 4-5+ years (mostly price needs to come down on them) ... but storage wise, it's obvious blu-ray would be a pretty big boost from the standard dvd format... but storage alone obviously aint going to make people want to upgrade especially if the price aint similar to what dvd drive/media prices are now give or take a little.... and it's like some people been saying above, i want "reliable" media cause without reliable storage it's like whats the point in having it at all if it aint atleast resonably reliable.

bottom line for me is ill be sticking with DVD media for probably a good 3-5years from now... cause i aint gonna buy either a hd-dvd drive or bluray drive until theres pretty much a clear winner and ill probably have to have a decent hdtv which im guessing i wont have anytime soon myself (we do have a 1080i HDTV in the main room, but "my room" i only have a standard 27", aint nothing fancy but overall im happy with it)

plus it seems those 50+" projection type HDTV's like the one we got generally speaking look more "blurry" than the average tv does so if i buy a tv i would rather have a smaller tv but clearer one that a bigger/more blurry tv.... and i have seen a xbox360 in action using the HD on the big tv we got and overall the "main" thing i notice is u get more viewable area more than anything else which unless HDTV's are cheap just aint worth getting.... cause graphics wise between standard stuff and HDTV on that HDTV we got u dont notice "that much" of a differance in the actual image quality... theres some im sure as i never really throughly inspected it but it seems minimal overall.... but then again on a smaller/clearer tv it might be MUCH better i dont know as i never really seen it for myself.