The Mysterious Blue Laser DVD

[Common Sense Man]

Hey what do you guys think about the future of DVD and the onset of the Blue Laser systems.

Will this render your old DVD collection useless? Will you have to have two machines? one for your old Infra Red Laser DVD's and one for the new Blue Laser DVD's.

Lucas actually said he was holding the release of Star Wars until the Blue Laser was out for consumers. But personally I think that was just an excuse as it was in Laser Disc release overseas already.

Imagine DVD's with four times the space and increased quality.

I am looking forward to the leap in technology but I am leery that the old DVD standard will become obsolete overnight.

I do not think it will be here anytime soon though as the Blue Lasers burn out very quickly and they have yet to solve that problem.

But they are on the way, what do you think?

Out.......

[Cyclonus]

Not another format! When will the madness end?!?!!?

[Common Sense Man]

Not as long as there is money to be made of us poor Schmoes.

Out.....

[This message has been edited by Common Sense Man (edited 12-02-2001).]

[stefanb]

This has been shrouded in mystique for at least a few years now. First up, let's call it HDDVD as opposed to blue-laser DVD. You have DVD players puttin out 525 lines of resolution, and HD-TV's that will accept as high as 1080. So, HDDVD, is simply making DVD's that are meant for HDTV. Voila...

That said, if it ever comes into existance, new DVD players would most certainly come with a down-converter to play old-style (non HD) DVDs. Unfortunalty, old players probably wouldn't play new discs.

Personally, it's been hyped for long enough that I don't suspect it will ever exist. If it does, I'm assuming sometime after 2006 when the FCC forces all broatcasts into HDTV. By then, who cares... or if you think about it - GOOD!

-S

[John Q. Public]

Now I know what it felt like for all the people who bought beta VCRs.

[Common Sense Man]

I doubt it would be backwards compatible as the laser is physically different but you would still have your old player.

You would just be forced to buy a new one of you wanted the high quality DVD's with more info on them, and if they discontinue the standard DVD after it is released you will not have much choice.

Out......

[LordKaruku]

I think stefanb's right in that a new format isn't going to come out for some time. DVD is still in the process of taking over VHS as the mainstream consumer video format, a title I'm guessing it will hold for some time. I also don't think the quality difference between DVD and HDDVD will be as noticeable as that between VHS and DVD. You'll double the lines of resolution, but it will be a more subtle effect. Standard DVDs look better on HDTV in the first place, so I think when HDDVD rolls out some 5-10 years from now, it will be somewhat akin to laserdisc-- an exclusive, higher-priced format for cinephiles.

[[SD] Bob Plisskin]

there's a lot more important things to how successful a format is other than simply how good it is, there where a lot better things out then VHS and CDs in their lifespans and yet both are still going strongly, the reason is that people own them and so there's a high demand for them. DVDs have a huge following and it is still growing (my grandad bought a player at the weekend) so whatever comes along will need to be backwards compatible or offer something radically new.

<OB>

[stefanb]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Common Sense Man:
I doubt it would be backwards compatible as the laser is physically different but you would still have your old player.

You would just be forced to buy a new one of you wanted the high quality DVD's with more info on them, and if they discontinue the standard DVD after it is released you will not have much choice.

Out......</font>

It's called a dual-laser pickup my friend. It wouldn't matter if the laser is physically different, because you just chuck in a second one. It's not even a new concept. Sony's players ALL had dual-laser pickups at one time (albeit, for a different reason unrealated to this topic). Due to stiff competition in the DVD market, unnecessary frills have all been yanked in order to keep the price down. However, let's just say that the HDDVD did come along... AS IF they'd expect people to have two DVD players. come on... that's silly. how many fuckin' inputs would they need to start putting on TV sets? Mine has 3 and it's not enough. One company would make a dual-laser player that ran either type of DVD, and all the rest would have to follow suit or go out of business.

The whole world runs on backwards compatibility. HDTV's still need some way of playing a non-HDTV signal, or it would piss people off. Of course it would be easier to make an HDTV that played ONLY HDTV signals, but like anyone is going to make it while 95% of the broadcasts are still basic NTSC.

Same thing if HDDVD does come along. the players will NEED to play both, or it won't catch on. What would you do if your "old-style" DVD player broke, and you owned 400 "old-style" movies, and nobody sold "old-style" players anymore? So, did you think they'd manufacture BOTH types of DVD players forever? hardly. Uhhmm... oh yea... consider it common sense, common sense man. http://www.joblo.com/ubb/wink.gif

-S

[This message has been edited by stefanb (edited 12-06-2001).]

[Common Sense Man]

I do agree with your point but have you ever heard of 8 track tapes, beta VTR's, vinyl LP's, Jarts! Okay I don't know what Jarts has to do with this but hey it was a fun and deadly game.

I agree that it would be stupid to have two DVD players, I must have been standing next to some idiotitte, it interferes with my powers of common sense and reasoning.

But as in the past we always think we have hit the technological barrier and found the perfect format only to find 10 years down the road that it will change completely.

Who knows what the future holds for home movie viewing but I seriously doubt that in even 15 years DVD's if they still exist will resemble what they are today.

We shall see. But I do think whatever happens we will end up with a better home viewing experience.

Out......

[stefanb]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Common Sense Man:
I do agree with your point but have you ever heard of 8 track tapes, beta VTR's, vinyl LP's, Jarts! Okay I don't know what Jarts has to do with this but hey it was a fun and deadly game.</font>

Yea, I know the 8-tracks, et al.... but if they could have made a cassette player that played 8-tracks also, they would have. In this case (with DVD/HDDVD), they CAN do that, and will.

The more I think about it, the more I wonder how much it would require 2 laser pickups. Compare CDs to DVDs. The info track on a DVD is WAAY smaller (that's how they fit so much more on a DVD). However, the DVD laser can still be used to read CDs. Well, with HDDVD, the data track will be way smaller than it is on a regular DVD. I'm not sure that that means it won't be able to read a regular DVD... That I'm just guessing at... who knows what's for "real" (unless you've read something you can point me at - I always love learning more http://www.joblo.com/ubb/smile.gif) But, even if it's not possible, the dual-laser machine is almost a given.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Common Sense Man:
But as in the past we always think we have hit the technological barrier and found the perfect format only to find 10 years down the road that it will change completely.</font>

Well.... it seems a lot quicker then it really is. CD's are circa 1984, so that's 17 years of the digital disc, and it's not looking to leave the lime-light anytime soon. But, yea, I agree that it will eventually change again sometime down the road. For now, they're just too popular.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Common Sense Man:
Who knows what the future holds for home movie viewing but I seriously doubt that in even 15 years DVD's if they still exist will resemble what they are today.</font>

I agree. Movies like Pearl Harbor are re-inventing the stupidity of "one movie on two discs", and the future certainly looks like it'll need bigger and bigger and bigger storage yet. Especially, with how extras-crazy the studios are going lately. Shrek has 11 hours of extras! geeze.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Common Sense Man:
We shall see. But I do think whatever happens we will end up with a better home viewing experience.</font>

Yes. Resistance is futile. http://www.joblo.com/ubb/wink.gif

-S

[This message has been edited by stefanb (edited 12-08-2001).]