Dolby Digital Plus & HD DVD

[drseid]

One of the things that has me sold on bluray, is that they support ALL of the video codecs, and ALL of the audio codecs as well. HD DVD supports one video codec(VC-1) and essentially DD+, and to a lesser extent DTHD. Out of my 140 or so HD DVD titles, only 25 have DTHD tracks. Out of my 230 BR, I have 180 with uncompressed PCM, 20 or so more with Dts MA lossless, and about 30 more with DTHD tracks and uncompressed PCM both included.

This is the format for today and tomorrow.

I am pretty sure I have seen a few HD DVDs with the AVC/MPEG-4 encodes as well...

As for BR being the format for today and tomorrow... I would argue it may only be the format for tomorrow as the specs seem to still be evolving. The interactivity aspect is a huge letdown right now and HD DVD runs rings around it it that area IMO. I never was a huge fan of interactivity anyway, so I guess it is not a big deal to me, but some of the things HD DVD can do in that area have actually made me take some interest in it. I also am a big fan of the online abilities of the HD DVD format... BR will eventually get there, but for now HD DVD is where it is at for interactive features IMO.

I concur that HD DVD's audio side is extremely disappointing to folks like us who care about it (this is an audio board after all). I certainly hope that HD DVD can get more lossless tracks on their discs as that is important to me and it does make a difference to the movie watching experience for those who have the equipment to realize it. I am beginning to suspect that they wont, as Joe6pack most likely could not tell the difference on their Bose system anyway (no demand from the general public, to my chagrin). Too bad, really. :-(

---Dave

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

I am pretty sure I have seen a few HD DVDs with the AVC/MPEG-4 encodes as well...

Dave, its a handful, and for MPEG-2 its about the same.

As for BR being the format for today and tomorrow... I would argue it may only be the format for tomorrow as the specs seem to still be evolving. The interactivity aspect is a huge letdown right now and HD DVD runs rings around it it that area IMO.

Warner, Universal and Sony did a huge survey(I think I have mentioned this before) on interactivity, and they found that there is alot less interest in interactivity than one would think. On that same survey, they found that people who look at the extras never do more than one time, and they are a small percentage of overall viewers. When asked what the most important thing to them concerning the next generation formats, picture and sound were the top two. It was clear that interactivity is not a selling point, and is not an advantage to either format.

I never was a huge fan of interactivity anyway, so I guess it is not a big deal to me, but some of the things HD DVD can do in that area have actually made me take some interest in it. I also am a big fan of the online abilities of the HD DVD format... BR will eventually get there, but for now HD DVD is where it is at for interactive features IMO.

You are actually the majority in the interactivity camp. At the end of December a whole bunch of BR players will get an update that will make them as interactive as any HD DVD player. I am not sure this really will mean anything because it seems the majority of bluray owners(at least polled on Bluray.com) have no real interest in it. But this will official end any advantage in interactivity that HD DVD players have.

I concur that HD DVD's audio side is extremely disappointing to folks like us who care about it (this is an audio board after all). I certainly hope that HD DVD can get more lossless tracks on their discs as that is important to me and it does make a difference to the movie watching experience for those who have the equipment to realize it. I am beginning to suspect that they wont, as Joe6pack most likely could not tell the difference on their Bose system anyway (no demand from the general public, to my chagrin). Too bad, really. :-(

---Dave

It seems that the HD DVD exclusive studios have taken a good enough attitude rather than taking the best and superior one. This is part of the reason that I only buy HD DVD disc if I really want the title, as opposed to replacing my DVD's with HD DVD disc. The prices for the each formats disc are about the same, but I always feel like I am getting more for my buck from a Bluray title. Universal IMO is killing this format with a bunch of mediocre releases, alot of them, but mediocre PQ and lossy audio. When I bought my player, I had high hopes for this format. However I have been very disappointed with HD DVD because I just do not think I am getting all that the format can deliver.