
Toshiba and Microsoft no longer support the HD DVD format, so we'd feel guilty and a bit dirty to continue our own support of a format that deserves to simply rest in peace. You will be missed HD DVD. That's a fact. You were strong and wise, but you were unable to gather support by the masses and as a result, you passed at a young age. This is it, the final curtain call. Goodbye HD DVD and goodbye to This Week in HD DVD. We promised we wouldn't cry ...
- HD DVD Movie Releases: February 26th
- The Assassination of Jesse James
- Beowulf
- The Brave One
- Cecilia & Bryn At Glyndebourne
- Dragon Tiger Gate
- Freedom: 1-3 Gift Set
- Freedom: 4
- Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 2 Resurrection
- Rain in the Mountains
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
2-25-2008 @ 6:05PM
Daniel said...
so are these the final releases of HD-DVD or are more coming?
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2-25-2008 @ 6:30PM
Brian Arnold said...
There are releases scheduled all the way through May at this point, and those should most likely happen.
2-25-2008 @ 7:06PM
bonzai said...
There are more coming but the bloggers here are sure that our HD players are going to stop working now that the "war" is over.
I am Legend, Sweeney Todd, No Country for Old Men, and in the Valley of Elah are just a few of the big titles that are still coming out on HD-DVD.
2-26-2008 @ 4:20PM
refinedsugar said...
It's not over til it's over. No one should be forgetting about the German 2 disc HD DVD import release of Terminator 2: Judgment Day coming March 20th. Its shaping up to be beyond awesome.
I know, I know, T2, seen it a million times, been released in every format from here to the moon, blah blah blah, but this might be the last real "new" hoo-rah for HD DVD.
2-25-2008 @ 6:11PM
larrydoomhammer said...
go to the hi def digest for information about upcoming movies.
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2-25-2008 @ 7:03PM
Daniel said...
Well I don't have an HD-DVD player, I was just curious as to how long before it's 100% done as in nothing HD-DVD is any longer being produced.
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2-25-2008 @ 7:06PM
bigd7387 said...
I've got a PS3 so I'm covered with Blu-ray but I still believe that the HD-DVD is the better media in both extra content and picture quality. If only MS would have made the 360 with a built-in HD-DVD drive then Blu-ray would have been in a bad shape by now. Oh, well.
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2-25-2008 @ 8:41PM
WTangoFoxtrot said...
true mate. MS sadly seems to be lacking vision in these sort of things though, they just wanted to make a gaming console. still you have to realize not going with either formats is why they made it into the next gen console ace a year earlier.
2-25-2008 @ 8:43PM
ymmv said...
HD-DVD has better picture quality than Blu-Ray? How is this possible when both formats share the same codecs and Blu-Ray has more disk capacity?
In my view both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray had the same audio/video quality. Where HD-DVD definitely lost was industry support. They didn't have any support from other hw companies and not enough support from Hollywood. And they didn't have the PS3 factor. If MS had launched the 360 with an HD-DVD drive, the current console war might have had a different outcome.
2-26-2008 @ 2:15AM
JW said...
Actually, that is false. Much like much of the information behind HD DVD and BluRay, Blu-Ray initially used MPEG2 as their Codec while HD DVD used VC-1. If you take an HD DVD version of The Italian Job and a Blu-ray version of the same title, you'll notice how horrible the picture quality is on the blu-ray version.
That is because MPEG2, being a 20 year old codec, is inferior to VC-1 in all respects. In fact, some would same that anything encoded in MPEG2 is about DVD Quality. Unfortunately, these initial releases count in the hundreds and have yet to be remastered. Why do you think the original blu-ray version of The Fifth Element was re-mastered?
This is the perfect example of how the consumers did not decide this war, the deep pockets of the BDA did. Blu-ray was shoved down the throats of the public and since they don't know any better, thats what they believed. The movie studios only care about $$$ so thats why Warner went Blu. Don't kid yourselves people, we had no say in this war at all. The marketing machine and big money buyouts issued by the BDA ended the war in what I think to be the most distasteful way possible.
Also remember Blu-ray had to copy the ideas from HD DVD for both a good codec AND an interactive online experience (BDi). Makes you wonder what else the BDA forgot in their haste to make money....
2-26-2008 @ 6:35AM
ymmv said...
JW, your spouting nonsense and FUD. There aren't hundreds of those initial substandard MPEG2 movies on Blu-Ray. There have been just a handful of those, namely the first couple of titles. Like The Fifth Element which was published as a launch title when the first Blu-Ray players were released. (The movie was reviewed on June 15 2006 on highdefdigest.com, according to Wikipedia Blu-Ray launched in the US on June 20)
Sony got a lot of deserved criticism that the PQ of this movie wasn't reference quality and only got average or below average ratings. So they worked on it. The vast majority of Blu-Ray movies use VC1 and H.264 these days, MPEG2 isn't used that much but still looks *really* excellent.
There's no real problem with MPEG2 in terms of picture quality - if you've got enough disk space. That's where VC1 and H.264 shine, because these codecs can compress so much better while retaining superb image quality. That's why MPEG2 didn't work out on HD-DVD, there just wasn't enough room for a MPEG2 transfer.
If you want to know what codecs current Blu-Ray movies use, check out the reviews on highdefdigest.com. If you still harbor an irrational hate for MPEG2, you'll be pleasantly surprised.
2-26-2008 @ 9:21AM
Tony said...
ymmv, you're the one spreading the FUD. MPEG 2 encoding does suck. And there are 100's of blu ray movies out there that are encoded in it.
Not only did 5th element get re-done, I also remember Robocop having the same thing done because of bad picture quality. Let me give you a small list of MPEG2 encoded bluray's
Black Hawk Down
Click
Enemy of the State
Fantastic Four
Four Brothers
Hitch
Mission: Impossible 1,2,& 3
Pearl Harbor
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Saw 1,2,& 3
The Transporter 1 & 2
Plus about 100 other movies. Dont believe me? here's the link straight from blu ray's own site http://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=3338
You are correct with the space issues with mpeg2. But the bitrates must be MUCH higher to make up for the difference and bluray does not. That site lists the bitrates as well. 17 fps with mpeg2??? Not gonna cut it
2-26-2008 @ 10:01AM
Eric H said...
MS would have put an HD-DVD player in it if Toshiba would have given them a big enough price break, instead Toshiba decided against it. In retrospect I am sure they wish they would have.
2-27-2008 @ 10:04AM
Kizzle said...
Tony, you're bending the truth to try to make your flimsy point seem stronger.
I'll take HD DVD over Blu-Ray 110 times out of 100, but saying that HD DVD "looks better than Blu-Ray" thanks to the MPEG-2 factor is total nonsense at this point.
Many, many of the new Blu-Ray releases have moved on to more efficient codecs. Those that are/were on MPEG2 at this point aren't really hurt due to the higher storage space/bitrate, aside from some of the early (ie first 6 months or so) releases, ie The Fifth Element which you mentioned.
The two formats are nearly identical in picture quality, and it has been like that for quite a while now.
Christ, look at you. I can't stand Blu-Ray and you've got me defending them.
---------------
No idea why this is the "final edition" of the This Week in HD DVD entry, there are still several weeks of releases to go. Seems pretty arbitrary to me, why not forego it last week if it was going to be when Toshiba bails out?
highdefdigest.com has news and release dates, and avsforum.com has a fairly strong HD DVD forum, and there's a decent non-uberenthusiast thread over on the cheapassgamer.com forums in the XBox 360 section.
2-25-2008 @ 7:10PM
Erlend said...
Although I love my 360, I couldn`t care less about this. I rather watched my movies on a standalone DVD player than one of my PS2`s (yes you heard me, PS2`s).
Same thing now, 360 for gaming, a Pioneer DVD player for movies.
But I do feel sorry for all of you fellow 360 owners that bought the HD DVD addon. I am proud of your bravery, friends. I am very proud.
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2-25-2008 @ 7:32PM
AnOffday said...
I agree. I don't give a crap about this. This is why video game systems should just play games. The best years of gaming were in the NES/SNES days, and I don't remember popping any VHS tapes into those. They had it right back then.
2-25-2008 @ 7:34PM
bonzai said...
why do you feel sorry?
I know, its surprising, but i just went and tested it and my HD player still played all my movies.
I feel sorry for you that you cant experience the HD glory.
2-25-2008 @ 8:33PM
skrilla said...
dont feel sorry i just bought mine for 50 bucks, and ima get 5 free movies plus king kong..gonna get planet earth next, there are plenty of good titles already out, i guess there goes my tax refund
2-25-2008 @ 7:54PM
Erlend said...
I can fully enjoy the HD experience of movies. It`s just that I haven`t bought them on a disc as of yet.
Reply
2-25-2008 @ 8:03PM
AoE said...
NOOOOOOOOOOOO! Please don't tell me the last episodes of Freedom are not getting the HD treatment :(
The fact that series is on HD-DVD and the addon's now $50 was gonna get me to actually pick one of these up...
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