I don't know why Sony is risking so much with Blu-Ray. The PS3 would be a great machine w/o Blu-Ray. If Blu-Ray fails, PS3 fails...it's the only reason it's so expensive.

Until Sony and his player goes out to the market, a do a fair comparision, the sony player will suport mpg4 and v1
http://www.sonystyle.com/is...

"The result: a night and day difference. The HD-DVD image was much higher in contrast and showed beautiful detail in high resolution that was completely lost in the DVD. It was smoother, cleaner, and much more three-dimensional. The standard DVD looked surprisingly dull and grainy in comparison. This was true despite the fact that the U-571 DVD is actually a much better than average video transfer.

This dramatic improvement in image quality was apparent across all HD-DVDs we have seen thus far. From the outset we were happily surprised by the substantial improvement in image quality being delivered by the $500 Toshiba HD-DVD player. And after investing $1000 for the Samsung BD-P1000, we were expecting to see at least comparable results. After all, the player is twice the money, and the discs are encoded in the same 1080p resolution format. How different could it be?

Quite different, as it turns out. The Blu-ray launch delivered a rude surprise—picture quality that is moderately better than that available on standard DVD, but not rising to the level of anything one could call high definition. We viewed The Fifth Element, Terminator, and The House of Flying Daggers side by side in their DVD and Blu-ray versions, deriving the same results from each test: the Blu-ray discs showed somewhat better contrast and detail over their DVD counterparts. But the difference was not nearly as dramatic as the comparisons between DVD and HD-DVD. Moreover, none of the Blu-ray discs matched the higher quality of the HD-DVDs."

BetaBluRay is lost. PSZero = BetaBR Player = doomed also

http://www.pioneerelectroni...

For me, It's not a Blu Ray vs HD DVD comparision, it's about Samsung Blue Ray player vs Toshiba HD DVD player comparision

Guys...DON'T READ THIS ARTICLE!

Go to your local Best Buy and watch Blu-ray...then, go somewhere like...walmart maybe (best buy has dropped hd-dvd because it KNOWS how superior blu-ray is) and watch hd-dvd. How can you even compare them? Blu-ray looks a HECK of a lot better! Why's everyone lying?

Go Blur-Ray!

I think that this time around, Blu-ray is gonna win. Why? Because of PS3. People who buy PS3 for gaming are also buying a BD player and people who dont want to play games are still gonna buy a PS3 because its 400-500$ cheaper. Back in the day, all Sony had were beta-max players, now they have a game console and BD players to play the HD movies on.

Both formats support the same codecs MPEG-4's H.264/AVC; and VC-1, a codec based on Microsoft's Windows Media 9 plus Blu-ray MPEG2. At some point picture quality will be the same on both formats.It looks like Blu-ray was rushed to the market. Either they have problems with dual-layer disk production or they have to use MPEG2 because at the time when current BD titles went to production(March or April) Final Specs have not been yet finalized

Also for movies to be in HD quality they have to be shot on HD equipment or they have to undergo frame by frame digital restoration while being transfer from the film. It took between 9 and 22 months (I don't remember which know number is correct so if anybody knows please post) Mr Coppola to transfer "Goodfellows" to digital format. Goodfellows is consider to the best HD quality title as of now.It is picture perfect.
For example if you would transfer VHS home movies to DVD just because is on DVD it doesn't mean that it is DVD quality.

So for now Toshiba has done better job price wise and was smart enough to make sure their their first releases are actually HD quality. Though Toshiba's HD-A1 is subsidized by them. If it comes to hardware production cost of both format HD-DVD is about 10 to 20% cheaper.

Very good article and its good to hear the truth. So Hd-dvd is kicking blu-ray's ass and microsoft will have a 10-12 million unit lead by the end of the year. Damn sony. Just damn

lol people here who mention beta ray in ps3 this and that lol ARE YOU PEOPLE STUPID?....

DO YOU THINK ITS GONA BE A GOOD QUALITY DRIVE + LASER ? .....

NO ITS NOT GONA BE GOOD QUALITY COS THEY CANT AFORD TO PUT AN EXPENSIVE DRIVE IN THERE LOL ...

YOU SONY DROIDS ARE FUNNY .... KEEP DREAMING!!!!!

This really could spell disaster for Sony because their drive is built in. Sure sony could still use the drive for games but so many PS3 fans defenses for the price was for the ability to play blu ray movies. Well if the movie companies see it getting far less support than HD-DVD then they will switch to the more supported format for money gains and then the entire reason for the higher priced console has gone out the window. Sony will have to make a new one with a different drive if they want to also play the HD movies. That was very smart on Microsoft's part because either way the format war goes they can switch without revamping the console itself, just bring out another add on.

I can say you have Pro logic too, the "DVD" is well known and people are comfortable with DVD, the name of the new formate will win it alone. Toshiba makes a hell of a product(EVERTHING THEY MAKE) and they're getting very popular.

One thing I've never seen mentioned here (it may have been and I missed it) is that HD-DVDs can be produced on the same equipment as DVDs with only realativly inexpensive modifications; whereas Blu-Ray is sufficiently different from the original DVDs that a complete replacement of production equipment is required, equipment mods simply won't do. This is one of the reasons that HD-DVDs can be and appearently are cheaper. Their price does not have to recapture a massive capital investment.

I recall the big news was how well betamax peformed over VHS. However, we all know betamax got shut out by the industry. HD-DVD is not an open standard it is someone elses propriety standard so what's the difference? VHS had the backing of the market and I'm sorry folks so does Blu-ray.

HD-DVD may or may not be the better format (you really have to give both formats a year to work out the kinks) - it doesn't matter.

What matters is; who is kissing Hollywood's/Movie Industry arses.

One answer.......... Blu-ray

I would wait til more Blu-ray players hit the market before tossing it out as a viable format.

Also, to HD-DVD lovers, its not the picture its the industry standard that gets adopted...

Don't get burned like all the Betamax lovers did; follow Hollywood/Movie Industry Tech News and watch what format they prefer before making any rash buying decisions.

My best advice would be to not buy a Stand Alone HD Movie player this year/holiday season until the dust settles.

As for PS3 owners......... if for some reason HD-DVD wins don't worry. PS3 games will benefit from the huge amount of storage available (PS3 will read dual layer blu-ray disc if needed).

I like the PS3 concept but I grew up in a Commodore/Amiga generation of cheap computing.

I applaud Sony for trying to bring back Poor man Computing and I hope they fully support Linux. After all, everybody dismiss the Commodore as nothing more than an expensive video game machine so I'm sure if Sony gets its way the industry will just blow it off as a cheap Poorman's PC. (How many $400-$600 dollar PCs do you know that can play games as beautifully and (key word) "smoothly" as an Xbox 360 or upcoming PS3. None! Most negative news isn't coming from gamers its the PC industry. Microsoft and Sony got them running scared.

What would happen if a $500 dollar console could run our games nearly as good as a PC and fulfill all our other computing needs as well ( but cost up to a $1000 less). PCs are still business machines they are not consumer machines. PCs are built to satisfy what Businesses want not consumers. Everybody laughs at Sony but don't think for a second that Microsoft isn't thinking the same thing.

I wouldn't be the programmer today if I hadn't started played around on my Commodore....

Oh! I almost forgot, the PS3 appears to play and display video games almost as well as my PC and a heck of a lot cheaper - got to love it.

Got to go. Need to get back to my Xbox 360 (wink!)

Can that Poorman PC display and play games as good as an Xbox 360 or PS3. No! When push comes to shove I'll place my bet on better gaming experience for cheap over better (or is it any better?) Word/Data Processing any day.

My, how fast things have changed! I remember when Blu-ray was suppose to be the superior HD format, now HD DVD is reportedly suppose to be better looking right now. Everyone should go to Best Buy like I did a few weeks ago and see for themselves, I still say that they look almost identical, but seeing is believing, right? Dragonopolis still seems to think that Blu-ray will be the winner because it has more Hollywood studio support or in his words: "VHS had the backing of the market and I'm sorry folks so does Blu-ray." It was the same theory you stated in a post about a week ago on the "Sony is in a better position than M$" news article.....but again I have to disagree with that logic for the same reasons I disagreed before, I'll just cut and paste it from that old post so I don't have to type it all over again: "Also I disagree with your statements about Blu-ray vs HD DVD, because while betamax might have been a little better than VHS it still didn't offer any significant quality advantage over the VHS format but it was alot more expensive...thats the main reason it failed, not that consumers won't pay more for a quality product but there has to be a significant quality=cost ratio, in other words the higher quality/benefits has to warrant the higher cost. Im old enough so I remember that initialy
vhs and betamax had about the same amount of studio support you could get most movies on either format, but VHS took off because the consumers decided very quickly that a VCR was just as good as a betamax player but only more affordable so they bought VCR's and VHS movies....it wasnt even a war, it was over before it started, and of course Hollywood just went with the winner. Now my point to all this is it doesn't matter if Blu-ray has the majority support, if consumers go to their local electronics store and see that the picture quality is basicly identical (I have perfect 20/20 vision and I've watch them both on the same TV, same hookup and guess what they look identical) and despite storage capacity the quality/benefits are relatively the same, but Blu-ray is almost double the price.....so we'll just have to wait and see....either way I dont think this will have a clear winner anytime soon like VHS and Betamax because DVD's are still very popular and by comparison the movie quality doesn't blow you away, its more like cool that looks good, oh wait it costs how much?, OK maybe later, wheres the DVD section?" //

Im not saying that Dragonopolis in particular would rather see Blu-ray win, but I do know some want it to win because of PS3. Its funny that this article has some of the same reasoning that I stated a week ago, not that I'm a rocket scientist or something but it actually just makes more sense that the consumer will decide the winner and not Hollywood, so unless all the studios completely dump HD DVD, its clear they have a more balanced quality=cost ratio....so its possible more studios will give more support if consumers by HD DVD players in large numbers. Thats definitely bad, bad news for Sony/PS3.

Reasons that Betamax failed were
-Sony did not licensed any other manufacturer(they want it be the only one make it) and JVC licensed averybody including Sony(more choices better prices). That's not case this time. Actually Toshiba is still the only player manufacturer, BD- Samsung ,Sony, Philips, Panasonic, Pionier, Sharp.
-you could not put more that 1hr on Betamax and who would bother with one movie on 2 tapes.VHS offered bigger "storage" -1 movie 1 tape.

Blu-ray and HD-DVD are storage medium (both optical based on blue-violet laser 405nm). Quality of the movie depends mostly on transfer, post transfer digital corrections , codecs used and than on the hardware plays it. Since both format support identical codecs if you would put current HD-DVD titles on BD they would look NO better and NO worse. Just like when you copy movie from DVD to hard drive, same movie different storage (as long it is in digital format).

As for now BD movies look worse than HD-DVD but not because they are on BD disk but just because the studios awful job with transfers, decision of using MPEG2 or just simply BD technically is not ready yet. Though they kind of already pushing hard in PC market (Sony 50gb burrner $750).

HD-DVD as storage medium is a evolved, improved current DVD format.
Blu-ray is a new format, method of reading and streaming data is differnt, bigger storage(begging of 2007 TDK or JVC will release 100gb burrner with disks) So BD as storage medium is superior. If it comes to the content(namely movies) they store/hold now, they are NOT.

Quick list of posters activity last 14 day
1. The Real Deal 701
2. THELANDOFSAND 319
3. JIN KAZAMA 309
4. TheMART 284
5. DJ 161
6. jay da xbox baller 143
7. pRo loGic II 135
8. achira 130
9. DC rider 360 106

Now tell me - how does one make 701 posts on one site in 14 days? I mean - this guy must be permanently - 24 hours a day be sitting and typing messages. Except for - if this is not just someone typing away - killing time. This seems to be a full time occupation. I wonder if M$ has a special PS3 bashing division - just typing away, pretending to be gamers being "negative" about the PS3. You know - good old fashioned FUD tactics. You - that tactic you use when you are not quite so sure that your product will be competitive enough on its own - that you need to create FUD to keep the customers from buying the competition's console. And these posts are this site only.

I think it is time to get the moderators of PS3 sites to start banning this bs. You want to read an article and post a comment or read a comment - and all you see is this "negative" posts from a couple of pretenders who on a bad day make 50 "negative posts" minimum. This seems to be a clear misdirection and FUD tactic by someone who have a vested interest to ensure that any news re the PS3 is regarded as negative.

Yes those are some good points, and I think it makes a lot of sense, but either way I still believe the major reason Betamax failed was the quality did not match the price as far as value goes.....anytime the consumer is given a choice of 2 similiar products, the best value always wins the majority.

I definitely don't have that kind of time....and neither do most people, but just because theRealDeal is a "postjunkie" doesn't make him a M$ rep or something. I mean this sounds like a classic conspiracy theory that fanboys for both sides are always throwing around....I actually think I spend too much time on this site and I only check the news 4 or 5 times a week and make a few comments here and there, but thats just me....I love videogame news and if I had the time I would probably read/post more but I got to actually play the damm games sometime, oh and I have this thing called a job too. BTW, Im not defending theRealDeal but he has alot of post because he likes to debate (argue) with Sony fans over and over again (useless)....and besides that I like to read peoples opinion that have something to say other than "360 Rocks PS3 sucks" and vice versa. I like comments from all perspectives including PS3 fanboys and 360 too, as long as its intelligent with just a hint, of truth. I think theRealDeal has alot of good posts and some I disagree with too and no disrespect but he definitely doesn't work for M$! lol Theres no need for making up Conspiracy Theories just because you dont agree with him.

HD-DVD FTW!!! lmao blu-ray killed this format even though HDDVD was more accepted

HD-DVD LOST PEOPLE!!! PS3 FOR THE EPIC WIN

Tell me again how the multiplatform strategy was supposed to fix everything. Look at your results and compare them to Nintendo, which keeps thriving with exclusives. Your loyal fans are gone. And let’s not forget the pile of IPs you purchased only to let them rot.

The worst thing is this is down from last years numbers/expectations which was down from the previous years numbers/expectations. You think about how long “down” has been a consistent part of the communication and you realize those subscriptions are what’s holding that boat together. The price cut of gamespass is still a price raise in a string of price raises. They are trying to use players to offset the missing revenue. Now call of duty is out of gamespass, which is literally WHY they bought the company. To draw people to the subscription. They realized they missed a boatload of money and that wasn’t sustainable. Now you pay for it like you would have if they never bought the company… so why buy the company? Mind you those billions still need to be paid back. Yeah it gives you a chance to say we make the biggest FPS… but the internal conversations must be brutal at high level on topics that really matter. Like revenue. Profitability. And ROI for the shopping spree.

Is this like the 10th quarter in a row they're down 33% on hardware how is that even mathematically possible. You would think their mediocrity would Plateau