Well, Blu-ray sounds nice and all on paper, but the reality is that HD DVD is the much better, feature-complete high def format. Here are some things that HD DVD has that Blu-ray does not have yet (and some it will never have):

* Mandatory TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus decoding
* Mandatory Picture-in-Picture (real PinP, not fake like The Descent with two encodes)
* Mandatory persistent storage (for web-enabled content)
* Mandatory networking
* HD DVD is region free so you can import virtually any HD DVD in the world

Contrary to what some believe, HD DVD is also 1080p. Virtually all HD DVD movies are encoded in 1080p, and players such as the Toshiba HD-A20, HD-XA2 and even the XBox 360 HD DVD add-on will output in full 1080p. The Toshiba HD-A2 outputs 1080i, but if you have a 1080p HDTV that does inverse telecine properly it deinterlaces and displays the full 1080p anyway.

One thing I like about HD DVD is that it champions next-gen codecs such as VC1 and TrueHD/DD+. Because of this the 30GB is more than enough (just look at King Kong, which is over 3 hours long and gets top quality reviews for video and picture quality). But if you use the age-old MPEG2 codec and lossless PCM (like Blu-ray often does) then you NEED 50GB just to fit it all on the disc. Not very efficient.

Also, I've noticed that there are SO many titles that are released on both HD DVD and Blu-ray, but the HD DVD version seems to get the better audio track much of the time. For example, Flags of our Fathers, The Fountain, Dreamgirls, Mission Impossible I, Mission Impossible II, Mission Impossible III, Payback: Straight Up The Director's Cut, Happy Feet, Superman Returns, Babel, Lady in the Water, The Ant Bully, Phantom of the Opera, and others have the better soundtrack on the HD DVD version with either the lossless TrueHD or DD+ 1.5mbps track, compared to Blu-ray's lowly DD 640 kbps tracks. Blu-ray has managed to pretty much match HD DVD with picture quality for the most part, but I want the best audio too, and HD DVD delivers.

At any rate, the only thing that seems to be keeping Blu-ray alive is the PS3, which is trailing behind the Wii and XBox 360. It doesn't look like it's going to do as well as Sony had hoped, and consequently neither will Blu-ray. This past week Toshiba HD DVD players have seen a ten-fold increase in sales at some retail outlets because of the $100 instant rebate being offered right now (you can get the HD-A2 or Costco's HD-D2 for as low as $249 right now, plus the 5 free movies from Toshiba) and people are really being drawn towards HD DVD. Blu-ray players continue to stagnate, though Sony is said to be releasing a $499 or $599 player this summer. I just don't think that it'll be much competition though for HD DVD, since it's looking like we're going to be seeing $199 HD DVD players sooner rather than later.

By the way, some titles such as Batman Begins and The Matrix Trilogy aren't even out on Blu-ray because the BDA (Blu-ray disc association) didn't get its act together with Blu-ray specs. They've now mandated new specs for all Blu-ray players sold after October 31, which means that practically all current Blu-ray players will be defunct and unable to play any interactive extras on future Blu-ray movies. The PS3 might be able to with an update, but Sony still hasn't confirmed it for some reason. You can read more about it on DVDTown (they wrote an article called "Don't Get The Blues - Say No To Blu-ray). Even some future titles, like "300" and "Blood Diamond" will contain a ton more extras than the Blu-ray version (web enabled features, added game, mobile downloads, picture-in-picture extras, etc).

For me, HD DVD is the way to go.

Don't Get the Blues - Say No to Blu-ray - DVDTOWN.com
Study: Consumers Prefer HD DVD Over Blu-Ray

WOW - thanks for all the information, I must admit that I haven't ventured into a HD-DVD purchase yet, so its great to get some additional information. From my casual browsing I have got the impression that Blu-Ray was the technically superior format, and would only fail due to lack of support due to policical reasons, failures in marketing, or possibly most importantly over pricing.

However I must admit that there has been a lot of press moving in favour of the HD-DVD. Maybe the end of this battle will come sooner than we thought. The information you provide about the compression formats is very interesting, however surely larger capacity retains an advantage because the compression can always be updated? At the end of the day if HD-DVD imtroduces a better compression system surely Blu-ray can follow suit?

Thanks for the grerat post, and interesting links also.

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Well, the fight still goes on - Sony is fighting hard on price with the sub-$500 BDP-S300...

Sony price cut for Blu-ray player

Unfortunately, even this new Sony player is already defunct. It does not adhere to the new BD-J 1.1 spec mandated for October 31, so this player will not work with future Blu-ray titles that contain extras that require Picture-in-Picture and persistent storage.

Well to be honest I'll have to take your word on the technical side of things if that’s what the issue comes down to.

However, there is a skeptic in me that says there is no way they would be releasing players now that will not conform to yet-to-be-announced standards. That’s just commercial suicide, either 1) nobody will buy your product or 2) you will have an extremely irate bunch of customers once they discover that their players are now (as you say) "defunct".

Why would Sony even contemplate a strategy that would result in such consequences? Until I see hard evidence I’m holding back making an opinion on this one.

Also, even if it were true it simply adds more weight to the argument that the best strategy for the time being is to hold back until this crazy “format war” draws to some conclusion.

On a slight tangent I’m really being put off this whole HD issue, I really hope that new online streaming services come available soon. The added convenience is so much more appealing to me than the added resolution.

I hear what you're saying atomic, but we are some way off nice big high-res widescreen full Dolby streaming just yet. If you want to stick with streaming I think you'll have to wait 4 or 5 years even for something approaching DVD quality. And even then you're going to be paying high speed, high bandwidth connection charges + I should imagine that any provider of this service will operate on a subscription basis...

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Engadget are reporting that Blockbuster has made the decision to stock Blu-Ray only in most of its stores, which is leading Engadget to ask if the war is over!

Blockbuster chooses Blu-ray: is the war over? - Engadget

Apparently the decision comes from an overwhelming customer preference for those titles in the test markets, accounting for over 70% of all HD discs rented. Content it seems has been more important than price and Blu-Ray only titles such as Spiderman and Pirates of the Caribbean helped swing the decision.

Indeed this story in confirmed today by the BBC: Blockbuster to focus on Blu-ray

"Blockbuster said that consumers have chosen Blu-ray over HD DVD" reports the BBC.

It seems that Michael Bay, the director of Transformers, is not happy with Paramount's decision to release the hi-def version of the film only on HD DVD.

Transformers HD-DVD only

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Here is some interesting comment about SONY's CEO Howard Stringer, who it seems is beginning to regret this pointless and costly format war.

Sony CEO wants to go back in time, avert high-def format war

So it seems that predictions about a long drawn our battle for supremacy will go on well into 2009. I certainly won't be splashing out until then...

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