But an encode that takes up something like 40% more space will look better. Its just science. And the reason, as I said, that HD-DVD and Blu-Ray releases look identical is because Blu-Ray gets the HD-DVD encode--so your not seeing its actual capability; your just seeing it play an HD-DVD encode, so of course it looks identical. The demise of HD-DVD will be beneficial because then companies can start making the Blu-ray encodes 50 GB instead of 30 GB.
I'm not sure what your issue is 30 GB versus 50 GB--theres going to be an improvement in picture. I can't see how you can dispute this.
I'm not sure what your issue is 30 GB versus 50 GB--theres going to be an improvement in picture. I can't see how you can dispute this.
I'm not disputing it - I'm just questioning the practicality of it. Again, if the difference were that noticeable, don'tcha think think BR would ask or pay for a newer encode? How much trouble do you really think that is? Don't you think that would be an important enough benefit for Blu-Ray to show off?
Think about it - while in competition with HD-DVD, what you are getting from BR is the same encode/quality with a more expensive player ! WHAT A BARGAIN! What, then, is the value of Blu-Ray? Even the list given by dumb_kid doesn't break 40Gbs. I'm wondering how many of those discs are breaking 30Gnbs due to extra features such as extra commentaries (which would benefit from a higher bitrate) or extra material. That being said, I'm all for the extra material, but I don't think you are going to see video encodes with higher bitrates when HD-DVD is gone. There's no point at that point.
It's all about diminishing returns. It's one thing to say BR has more storage capacity and a higher bitrate, but until these are shown to provide a significant improvement over HD-DVD, then you are simply paying a premium BR price for something you could get cheaper with HD-DVD.
This isn't a fan-boy plea for HD-DVD as a product, or even as a technology - I'm just pointing out that BR isn't making much of an issue about this with competition, so what makes you think things are going to be much different without competition. Do you think the costs of BR players would have dropped so quickly without HD-DVD as a competition format?
Not to mention the fact that, with HD-DVD out of the picture, BR is more likely to start using region-coding and BD+, which have been part of the spec from day one, and yet gone curiously unused up until now.