51 Gig HD DVD approved

[avaserfi]

So it seems as if BD will no longer have the size advantage over HD DVDs. Recently the DVD Forum, an International Organization involved with DVD standards, approved the 51 gig HD DVD recently. This is a single sided triple layer unit. No set date for release, but this is more fuel for the fires.

I just can't wait until the holidays when I can get a cheap HD DVD player and use my netflix to enjoy all the formats .


Source.

 

[Dolby CP-200]

Triple layer wow. I wonder if they’ll produce a duel Triple layer two sided disc if that’s possible at all.

Well that’s news I didn’t expect to read about 51Giger Bite a giant leap forwards for HD-DVD, now they have a weapon to really fight back with.

 

[mtrycrafts]

So it seems as if BD will no longer have the size advantage over HD DVDs. Recently the DVD Forum, an International Organization involved with DVD standards, approved the 51 gig HD DVD recently. This is a single sided triple layer unit. No set date for release, but this is more fuel for the fires.

I just can't wait until the holidays when I can get a cheap HD DVD player and use my netflix to enjoy all the formats .


Source.

Will that need a special player or just codes in the disc to refocus?

 

[Seth=L]

Will that need a special player or just codes in the disc to refocus?

This is a good question, can't wait to find out.

It would seem stupid to release triple layer discs if the player could not focus to the layers. Thinking on how refocusing works it would seem like it would have no trouble, it certainly wouldn't be a mechanically limited problem if there was such a problem I would figure there to be a firmware upgrade to fix it.

 

[jonnythan]

In my non-engineer opinion, it seems like the challenge in triple layer is more in making the discs than reading the discs... so it should be possible to "upgrade" older players to read triple layer discs.

I guess we'll see, though.

 

[sholling]

So it seems as if BD will no longer have the size advantage over HD DVDs.

I'm sure Sony will be rushing to announce a quadruple layer BD format with turbo magic pixie dust that achieves 52GB on days with full moons. After all they have a proprietary format to protect.

 

[Adam]

...with turbo magic pixie dust...

 

[Gasman]

Hmm, I had read on this months ago.
Glad to see it is still in the news (although, I am sure it won't be reality for years)

I am still waiting on the 300Gb Holographic discs I read about many months ago.
Uhm, these - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile_Disc

With a 300Gb+ disc, there would be no war on what format is better (Holographic would win hands down)

 

[jonnythan]

Hmm, I had read on this months ago.
Glad to see it is still in the news (although, I am sure it won't be reality for years)

I am still waiting on the 300Gb Holographic discs I read about many months ago.
Uhm, these - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Versatile_Disc

With a 300Gb+ disc, there would be no war on what format is better (Holographic would win hands down)

Well holographic is just a technical method, just like optical (laser) is for us right now.

You can bet your butt that Sony would use the technology to create their own incompatible format

 

[Alamar]

The physical sizes of the disks are now closer [once the triple layer HD-DVDs reach market]. However I don't care as much about disk size as I do average & max bitrates allowed. IIRC BluRay has a technical spec advantage on their side where bitrate is concerned.

[Theoretically, with a higher bitrate allowed, you should be able to get some quality improvements as long as everyone supports the same codecs.]

 

[Gasman]

Heh, still waiting for Holographic.

But here,
"Also behind closed doors at CES 2007, Ritek has revealed that they had successfully developed a High Definition optical disc process that extends the disc capacity of both competing formats to 10 layers. That increases the capacity of the discs to 250 GB for Blu-ray compared to 150 GB for HD DVD using the same process. However, they noted that the major obstacle is that current reader and writer technology does not support the additional layers."
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5656
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc#_note-4

 

[mtrycrafts]

With a 300Gb+ disc, there would be no war on what format is better (Holographic would win hands down)

Sure there will be a format war with them too Will it be blu-ray or hd?
The current hi def has 1080p on the discs, yet we have a format war. Each is enough for a movie and great audio, yet we have a format war.

 

[Duffinator]

The physical sizes of the disks are now closer [once the triple layer HD-DVDs reach market]. However I don't care as much about disk size as I do average & max bitrates allowed. IIRC BluRay has a technical spec advantage on their side where bitrate is concerned.

[Theoretically, with a higher bitrate allowed, you should be able to get some quality improvements as long as everyone supports the same codecs.]

Theoretically. But can you see the difference? They both use MPEG4. This is just a pissing contest. All I care about is the quality of the picture and they are both the same. So who cares which has better technology??? With the same quality video I move to price and HD has the edge there.

 

[Gasman]

With the same quality video I move to price and HD has the edge there.

Agree with what you say, but any TRUE Videoholic will just say "I WANT ALL THE HD MATERIAL I CAN GET"

There is no way I was passing up having a BD & HD DVD player.
(granted, I could pay the heavy fees to import some titles, but then you are back to the $ issue)

Currently the only one I will import is Equilibrium < hope that is spelled correct)
Because all the other titles will make it here.
That happened to be a low budget movie, that was great. The Island, The Prestige, etc.. will be big enough titles that they will be brought to the states.

 

[j_garcia]

HD-DVD likely has the edge on price most likely because I'd bet Toshiba is taking a bigger loss than Sony and the BD group on a per unit basis (not including the PS3). The technology isn't going to decide it, the available titles will, because in terms of video and audio they are essentially identical for all intents and purposes. Price will be a factor as well, but DVD player cost was higher than comparable DIVX players and DVD won...

 

[mtrycrafts]

Price will be a factor as well, but DVD player cost was higher than comparable DIVX players and DVD won...

Yes, to most consumers, but DIVX had a huge downside to it no matter its cost advantage, that consumers just didn't buy into.
The high def formats don't have that huge downside for one so the other will be an outright winner. But, my psychic powers are just not working up to the task to see

 

[j_garcia]

DIVX didn't have to have "pay to play" though, they chose to, and that was definitely one reason why I wasn't interested in it.

 

[Alamar]

Theoretically. But can you see the difference? They both use MPEG4. This is just a pissing contest. All I care about is the quality of the picture and they are both the same. So who cares which has better technology??? With the same quality video I move to price and HD has the edge there.

That's why I said "theoretically" Blu-Ray has an advantage over HD-DVD.

Both systems can use the same video codec but Blu-Ray can output more than 36% more video bits / second compared to HD-DVD.

If the people doing the encoding are VERY talented and have the resources to do the job right you probably won't see glaring differences between the two formats. However if the people doing the encoding are sloppy then you are likely see the difference that an extra 36% Mb/s will give you.