Video Asylum

Posted by 4season (A) on May 13, 2007 at 22:00:36

In Reply to: Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD posted by John Kercheval on May 13, 2007 at 15:59:14:

They are competing and incompatible standards, both of which are capable of 1080p output. Of the two, HD DVD has been on the market longer.

At the moment, Blu-Ray is supported by more manufacturers and movie studios. However, prices for Blu-Ray players are also somewhat higher, and if lists of top-selling products on Circuit City and Amazon websites are to be believed, it looks to me that HD DVD players are currently outselling Blu-Ray, and when movies are available in both formats, that HD DVD may have a slight numerical edge. Note that those lists don't include sales of Sony's Playstation 3 console, however.

I had originally planned to sit out this war of the competing formats, but things changed when I got a spiffy new 1080p TV set, wanted a player that could upscale my regular DVDs, and decided that paying a bit extra (~$415 + 5 bonus movies) for a Toshiba HD DVD player seemed like an okay risk. Had originally thought I'd be getting a Playstation 3 and hence, joining he Blu-Ray camp by default, and this may happen in the future, but for now, there's no games I really want to play on it and it doesn't upscale regular DVDs yet, so that's on indefinite hold.