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need opinions on which new system to get?

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no its not video game systems,because i get them all,but was wondering,should i get a HD-DVD player or a Blu-Ray,and why would you pick the one over the other,I hear from the sales people at various stores,that Blu-Ray is the way to go,but this one is about $400 to $500 more expensive,but both will play standard DVD's and upconvert,so I need help.
thanks in advance
DJ
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My advice personally would be to wait a little while and see who wins the format war. In addition, Blu-ray isn't out yet, and HD-DVD only has a bare handful of titles. So at this point, IMHO, they are both a waste of money.
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also, just in time for the holiday season (hopefully), a combo hd-dvd/bluray player will be released to solve the hd-disc war. that's what i'll be waiting on.

EDIT: added link.

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that is actually what i was thinking,not jumping on any band wagon yet LOL.
DJ
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I would also say to wait. Why jump in. You don't want to be stuck with a "betamax". Although beta is far surperior to VHS, It didn't stay in the mainstream very long.

My prediction is that HD will prevail. Simply because of the words "high definition". The average joe will see blu-ray and say, "WTF?"

But, I may be wrong. Time will tell.
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at this time which format is backed more?and by which big companies?
DJ
ps a multi player would be friggin AWESOME!
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Unless you're an enthusiast with money to burn and you simply can't wait for the whole format war to shake out, I'd hold off for a while.

That said, I'll probably be picking up the Sony BluRay deck in August. Most titles announced for HD-DVD have also been announced for BluRay, and there are many titles that are BluRay exclusive thanks to its superior studio support.
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MTFBWY…A

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Another thing. If you are really thinking of getting a HD-DVD player in the near future, it might be a good idea to wait for a few different models to appear. Supposedly, various people have had problems with their Toshiba HD-DVD players (which is kinda scary considering it's THEIR platform).
40,000 million notches away
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Originally posted by: Windexed
Another thing. If you are really thinking of getting a HD-DVD player in the near future, it might be a good idea to wait for a few different models to appear. Supposedly, various people have had problems with their Toshiba HD-DVD players (which is kinda scary considering it's THEIR platform).


I'm fully prepared for bugs on the BluRay side also. No new format launches without issues these days. However, the particularly stupid thing about Toshiba's players is that they only support 1080i output even though HD-DVD natively supports 1080p. They decided it was more important to hit the market first than to get it right apparently.
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MTFBWY…A

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If the PS3 ends up being a decent Blu-ray player (unlike the PS2 and it's DVD player) then you won't need to buy any additional hardware anyway.

As for most supported, that would be Blu-ray in both movie studios and tech manufacturers. Here's a list of the studios, those currently exclusive to one format have been emboldened. I don't think this list is entirely correct, but it gives you an idea.

HD-DVD - Universal, Warner Brothers, HBO, New Line, Paramount and Dreamworks.
Blu-ray - Sony Pictures (Columbia-Tristar), MGM, Fox, Disney, Lionsgate, Paramount, Dreamworks, Warner Brothers, HBO and New Line.

Both systems use all the same video and audio format, but Blu-ray has a higher capacity so there is a potential for less compression or more video. I'm gonna guess that most studios will use the same compressed source for both though as I doubt many will fill the disc space with their feature movie even on the smaller HD-DVD. So I doubt a difference in video quality would be noticable, but you might have more bonuses or less discs in special edition packs with Blu-ray. HD-DVD dual layer is 30GB, Blu-ray dual layer is 50GB. The HD-DVD camp have got a triple layer 45GB disc working, whereas the Blu-ray camp have a six layer 200GB disc working.

Currently Blu-ray discs will be more expensive to produce than HD-DVD, but if this generation lasts as long as DVD (unlikely) I think it is highly likely Blu-ray discs will end up the cheaper of the two.

One thing I'm excited about (after hiring so many unwatchable DVDs) is Blu-ray's new hard coating (TDK's Durabis) on the disc. Again more expense, but it is a lot better protection than previous optical discs. The media hype is 100 times the scratch resistence of DVD. It is also smudge and dust resistant and can be cleaned with a tissue (which of course scratched DVDs). When they announced the coating they gave each journalist a marker and steel wool and asked them to try damage the discs. The only guy that succeeded was one who pulled out his pocket knife! HD-DVD is essentially the same as DVD, uncoated Blu-ray is a lot worse than both (before Durabis was introduced Blu-ray discs were going to have to go in caddies like DVD-RAM).

http://www.kineticpast.com/starwars/thecheatlaserdisc.gif
Ooh, a laserdisc. The Cheat's playin' something on a laserdisc.
Everything is better on a laserdisc. Whatever happened to the laserdisc? Laserdisc!

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i donno personally i think blue ray is going to win out in the long run. IMO its all about the distributars, for blue ray not to have universal is a big hit and vicversa for HD-DVD to not have sony pictures. the fact that the PS3 will be blue ray will also have a big effect on the market, and as for the ps3 having back compatiblity to ps2 and ps1 games will help sell it over Xbox 360. i still think that PS3 will win over xbox 360 onces its released. the other big factor is the fact that companies will want something that has good longevity. since blue ray has more space i.e. 200 gb disks it is likely that in an attempt to predict the market they will go with blue ray. 15 years ago who would have thought whether the quality on a VHS was bad and that they would get clearer. thats much the same idea is going on with dvd. 20 years ago people thought that 16 mb of RAM was HUGE it was OVERKILL wwho needs more then that. now the average computer has 512 mb or even over a gig. same with Hard Drive, 5 years ago 30 gigs thats pretty big, now my 40 gig hard drive is considered small.