Welcome to the world of High Definition DVD!

December 10th 2007

Here is why so many feel that HD DVD is the best choice for consumers !

Before we continue, a word about us.

The HD NOW petition effort has helped to coordinate the efforts of thousands of HD DVD supporters world-wide, to contact movie studios and CE manufacturers to adopt the HD DVD format. We speak to the industry and journalists to press the case for over 750,000 HD DVD owners worldwide.

Please join the thousands of other High Def fans who have signed this petition, to help get more movies released on HD DVD! OK, on with the format comparison...

I want more movies on HD DVD! Email (always remains private):

There has been lots of talk back and forth in the industry and in online forums about which of the new High Def Media (HDM) formats, is truly superior. Lots of misinformation is spread to and fro, with a simplistic focus in many cases. Allow us to simplify this and help clear it up for you - our opinions are shared by various people in the industry.

HD DVD is the official next-gen format approved by the DVD Forum as the successor to the DVD. it offers 6 times the resolution of DVD and is based on a blue laser. It offers next gen encoding of both video and audio using new codecs such as VC1, AVC Mpeg4, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio. Movies are encoded to the discs in progressive (as opposed to interlaced) at the original 24 frames per second.

Bluray is a competing format by Sony which launched after HD DVD, it is also based on a blue/violet laser at the same "wavelength" and is able to use the same codecs (though Bluray players are not required to decode all of them, see below).

The Bluray camp takes great pains to highlight what they consider advantages of the Bluray format, but in truth, Bluray really only has two main advantages over HD DVD: more space on disc, and a higher bandwidth limit for data.

However, HD DVD has a great many advantages over Bluray that are actually more important in the "real world".

Here is a brief listing of these, followed by a short discussion:

1) Both HD DVD and Bluray offer equivalent Picture and Audio Quality
2) HD DVD mandated that all players must decode next-gen audio codecs, TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus - Bluray didn't, and those codecs are hampered on BD releases due to this choice.
3) All HD DVD players meet the "Complete" specification of the format, meaning that ALL studios can use the full array of next-gen features for all releases and know that all users will benefit. On Bluray, players to date cannot perform many of the features "touted" for the format, and studios have had to avoid using them to date. Also, there may be less incentive for studios to use these features on future releases.
4) All HD DVD players were mandated to include network ports for internet connectivity, bonus content and extra functionality through future updates. Most bluray player models do not include this, because it was never mandated.
5) HD DVD players are "region free", which means you can buy your desired HD DVD releases from any other part of the world that you choose. Bluray has created new "regions" than what DVD used to have.
6) Bluray has more "digital rights management" (DRM) than HD DVD, which can get in the way.
7) Bluray was arguably more based on unproven technology, which can interfere with the user experience.
8) HD DVD players offer all of this for 1/2 to 1/3 the price of Bluray players - truly the consumers choice, and a much more consumer-friendly option than Bluray.
9) HD DVD has about the same number of movie releases as Bluray, despite commentary by the Bluray camp that would seem to say the opposite.
10) Despite Bluray claims of "dominance" over HD DVD, HD DVD software sales have gained on Bluray consistently, and seem set to match it shortly. In fact, for the last 14 weeks, since the start of September, the Nielsen First Alert results have shown HD DVD to be almost 40% of HDM movie sales.

Bluray is not a finished format.

They had some great ideas, many of them borrowed from HD DVD in our view, but could not execute them in time for their official launch last year. So while you may see lots of Bluray ads and promotions "touting" the advanced "interactive capabilities" of the Bluray format, they are totally stillborn in almost all Bluray player models today.

In fact, almost all dedicated Bluray players in homes today will NEVER be able to perform some of the features that Bluray have promised for the format, such as dual-video-stream Picture-in-Picture (PiP) for commentary and special features, nor internet connectivity, etc, because they do not have the needed hardware. Most of these Bluray owners probably do not even know that they have been sort-changed.

In contrast, ALL HD DVD players, from the first, to the last, are ALL capable (and required) to be able to perform dual-stream video decoding, to enact PiP presentations and other special effects. Furthermore, all HD DVD players have Ethernet ports and can be connected to the internet for easy downloading of additional content and live interaction, as well as easy updating of the players to add new features or functionality.

Bluray made some questionable decisions, in our view, when designing the minimum specs.

For instance, HD DVD decided that all HD DVD players must, with no exceptions, be able to decode the next-gen audio codecs from Dolby - Dolby Digital Plus (their next gen "lossy" format), and Dolby TrueHD (their next gen "lossless" format). For this reason, studios can confidently place DD+ or TrueHD soundtracks on their HD DVD releases without the least concern as to whether everyone would be able to enjoy them.

However, Bluray chose to make these two codecs optional on their players, not mandatory. And, possibly as a result of that decision, inadvertently crippled the way those codecs are implemented on the Bluray format. This is because it forced any DD+ or TrueHD releases on Bluray to include a "legacy core" in the older DD format. This not only makes them less efficient on Bluray, but also ruins the experience and defeats the purpose of these new codecs.

For instance, a 1.5 mbps 5.1 channel soundtrack encoded to HD DVD as DD+ is just that, and sounds fantastic. However, a 5.1 soundtrack to Bluray, even if it is called DD+, is really only a 5.1 DD (regular Dolby) soundtrack, limited to 640 K. This is because the additional data beyond 640K can only be used for the DD+ for any additional channels past 5.1. We contend that they crippled the DD+ codec completely on Bluray with this decision.

Similarly, with TrueHD soundtracks on HD DVD, there is no "legacy core" since all players must decode it - however, on Bluray, on again needs to include a regular old DD core for those Bluray players that cannot decode TrueHD, making it inefficient.

Bluray players are much more expensive.

It's tough to understand exactly why, but Bluray players generally cost 2 or 3 times what HD DVD players cost. Here are some of our theories why.

Bluray hardware developers seem to be involved in a lot more work to get new players out that meet the full specifications of the format, because they launched as an unfinished format. Therefore, there may be a lot more costs to recoup. HD DVD, however, had a finished spec, and has focused on creating "reference designs" that can be used by various manufacturers to more cheaply produce HD DVD players. HD DVD players will all give a uniform and consistent user experience, due to their single player specification, as opposed to Bluray, where most player models introduced to date are now essentially obsolete, due to the "interim" specification being phased out.

More manufacturing CE companies were signed on exclusively by Bluray in the beginning, most likely to help give the appearance of dominance. But this decision has seemed to have limited their ability or desire to compete on price, for fear of undercutting other partners. This is perhaps another reason why the Bluray association has been compared to a "cartel" by some industry insiders.

Bluray discs use a different physical structure than DVDs or HD DVD, which places the data right near the surface of the disc. Not only has this complicated the disc replication, by requiring a protective layer, but it complicated the design of the laser "pickup" assembly, by forcing it to have a shorter focus and made it more expensive to manufacture than HD DVD pickup.

Bluray was more based on unproven technology.

It is said by insiders that the same HDi interactive platform used by HD DVD was originally chosen by the members of the Bluray Disc Association (BDA), but that a closed-door meeting by "powers-that-be" reversed that decision, whereupon a derivative of the Java programming language was chosen instead.

This Bluray Java, or BD-J, programming language was then developed and implemented into various platforms being developed for Bluray players by various manufacturers. Unfortunately, all has not appeared to have gone smoothly, as it appears that the "virtual machines" (VM) created for these various hardware platforms have not always performed or acted consistently with the same BD-J code.

An example of where this has gone wrong is the "Liar's Dice" game on Pirates of the Caribbean on Bluray, which would crash or hang for several minutes on some Bluray players. Other Bluray titles have taken a very long time to load or navigate on various Bluray players. Some of this is likely down to problems with the code, and some of this has been due to the players just not having enough processing power to properly run the BD-J platform that was apparently chosen late in the day.

On nasty side-effect of the continued changes to this unfinished platform is that almost all Bluray player models shipped to date were essentially obsolete before they even got home... something that Bluray manufacturers seem to have been rather "coy" about letting the public and consumers know about.

Another example would be the BD-Plus copy protection system chosen by Bluray for their releases. Most titles released to the format did not have this protection, because it was not ready yet. But when it became ready, and the first titles with BD-Plus were released by Fox, there were various reported problems with players that refused to play these new titles, or took a severely long time to load them. And all for nothing, as the BD+ DRM has now been cracked already. So it seems that only legitimate buyers suffer.

Bluray is not a completed format yet, and this continues to affect the end-user consumers.

Copyright 2006, 2007 Edward Downer. The opinions expressed on this site are those of its creators. We hope that you'll enjoy these pages! - Edward.