DVDTown: Say NO to Blu-Ray

[Ruined]

http://www.dvdtown.com/news/dontgett...toblu-ray/4407

snippet:

Originally Posted by DVDTown

Toshiba has been good in issuing firmware updates for their players to make sure they are compatible with future HD-DVD releases. You might believe this is the case with Blu-ray as well, but no. Recent comments from the Blu-ray camp indicate that they have yet to complete final specifications for the interactive component called Blu-ray Disc JAVA (BD JAVA). What this means is that when the specifications are finally decided upon in late October, 2007, one's Blu-ray player bought before that date may not play parts of future Blu-ray releases. Imagine the confusion in a store trying to figure out if one's machine will play a specific extra.

HD-DVD knew the importance of a strong set of features from the get-go, and they had their mandatory features ready from the start. They made sure that every HD-DVD player had an Internet connection (which is not required by Blu-ray), allowing easy updates of the player and opening up exciting on-line features that we will see on HD-DVD releases this fall. Their interactive layer, called HDi, has also been in place from day one, and we have already seen it in various releases. "Batman Begins" and "Miami Vice," for example, showcase picture-in-picture and the possibility to make one's own scene-selection menus. Warner Bros. recognized the current limitation in Blu-ray technology and decided not to release titles with interactive features on Blu-ray before they knew what to develop for. These titles include things like "Batman Begins," "Poseidon," "Troy," and the upcoming "Matrix" box sets, which are HD-DVD exclusive for now.

I must draw a conclusion from all this: Don't buy Blu-ray. Not before the Blu-ray camp have finalized the format's specifications. Not before the manufacturer will GUARANTEE 100% compatibility with future Blu-ray releases. If you don't want to buy HD-DVD, either, that's fine. Wait. Enjoy regular, standard-definition DVDs. For now, however, the only safe and sensible HD choice is HD-DVD.

A nice writeup on the lack of standards on Blu-Ray, which I agree with. Perhaps DVDTOWN will emerge as an editorial counterpart to the Blu-Ray centric DigitalBits?

[evilchris]

October, 2007? LOL! WTF is so hard about finalizing BD-J?

The sad thing is the sheep don't care that it's a half baked, feature lacking format. pEE eSS thREE!!!

[AthlonXP1800]

Dont worry about BD-J, it just a software that will update with firmwares for all Blu-ray players, software players and Playstation 3.

Before Digital Leisure developed Dragon's Lair for Blu-ray, they did not have experience how to programming Java code for BD-J a year ago. They had first Panasonic Blu-ray player, Cyberlink PowerDVD BD player and Blu-ray BD-RE burner for testing running Java code that both did not have fully BD-J compliant but it did worked perfect but also Playstation 3 wasnt available last summer, they were worried it may not worked with it. Then when they bought one last November and tested Dragon's Lair with Playstation 3 and they were relieved it ran and worked perfect.

Digital Leisure found Java very easy to programming than C and C++.

[OWA]

Baaa, Baaa, Baaa

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by AthlonXP1800

Dont worry about BD-J, it just a software that will update with firmwares for all Blu-ray players, software players and Playstation 3.

Firmware updates can't magically add secondary video decoder hardware for true PIP to standalone Blu-Ray players. The fact is, many will be shut out of the features of future BD discs. All those IME discs that Warner puts out on HD DVD make use of secondard video decoder hardware, and when they are made available on Blu-Ray you simply will be shut out of the feature entirely if you have a BD player without the proper hardware & software.

[evilchris]

50 jiggabytes!

[superklye]

Hmm...I think I'll wait until the end of the year before buying a format that can't get its **** together.

I can't believe it...they're doing it AGAIN. Players that are way too expensive, inital titles with terrible PQ and now the possibility of rendering movies unplayable on older hardware after the spec is "finalized" a year after it's been out, when it should've been done a year BEFORE it came out.

What a complete joke. HD DVD ftw.

[OWA]

I guess I don't understand why people are so willing to put up with issues on HD DVD as it goes through it's growing pains but have a cow over every little thing on the blu-ray side. For example, see the below quote that came from a review on the newer HD DVD players. It's from a review on the new one but it addressed the first one that so many here *rave* about. Similiar reviews on the new unit revealed the same sort of info (glad they're finally getting it right). But, you'd never know any of that reading anything here. With Children of Men and The Good Shepard having playback problems on HD DVD hardware, it's obvious that things aren't perfect on the HD DVD side either. Note, I'm not trying to say that blu-ray doesn't have issues. I can't even play the Chronos blu-ray disc that I recently purchased. It's just that people seem to gloss over any HD DVD issues and pretend they're not there while blu-ray gets criticized for every little thing.

You'd think that the goal of both is to provide a good experience for the user so I don't it's any stretch to think the blu-ray side will eventually get things sorted out as well.

Toshiba seemed to invest significant time and resources into delivering top-notch picture and sound from HD DVD, but the first generation players were awkward and user-unfriendly even at their best, and absolute glitchy nightmares at their worst. More computer-in-a-box than traditional DVD player, the HD-A1 and HD-XA1 were clunky and slow, taking anywhere from 1 to 3 minutes to load certain discs, and frequently suffering frustrating freeze-ups, skipping, and audio sync problems. Some of these issues were reduced after firmware updates, but none ever completely went away. Just about every HD DVD owner has experienced that worst of all possible scenarios -- sitting down with friends or family, getting invested in watching some beautiful HD imagery, only to have the player crap out mid-movie and require a lengthy shutdown and reboot session. That's no way to sell people on the product.

http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/hreview_hdxa2030207.html

[superklye]

The A2 and XA2 fixed nearly all of the problems of the first generation, more than halved load times. Are there still bugs? Sure.

But you're missing the point. I'm not complaining about load times or glitches with playback on certain discs. I'm complaining about the fact that the complete lack of a standard that all players must conform to, along with incomplete software specs means that in 6 months when these specs are “finalized” (most likely not for the last time), current players may not be able to play new discs conforming to the finalized specs.

Rendering old hardware unusable is unacceptable. Why would anyone invest in a new BD player right now if they may not even be able to use it in the future?

HD DVD specs were finalized before the players were out and each stand-alone player must conform to strict guidelines in order to get approval (i.e. TrueHD and DD+ decoding on the player) which, for BD, does not apply.

How do they expect anyone to take their format seriously when they keep changing it up and offer products that don’t have a standard set of features ensuring that any disc can be played back with 100% features possible?

[OWA]

Okay, point taken and I did miss it initially. Sorry about that.

[evilchris]

OWA is comparing buggy end user devices to a format that isn't even finalized yet. Wow, same thing right? lol

[OWA]

Hmm, I thought I already posted that I missed his point in the post above yours. Guess you missed that, huh.