Blu-ray appears to have the DVD lead

[Ilya]

Monday November 28, 03:41 PM
By John Borland, CNET News.com

The battle for the future of DVD manufacturing is by no means over, but the more costly runner has the backing

Because Sony's Blu-ray disc technology appears to be the front-runner in the nasty fight to determine how the DVDs of the future are produced, movie studios and disc manufacturers are beginning to come to terms with the financial realities of the new format as well as some troubling uncertainties.

For more than a year now, a bitter public relations war has been waged between supporters of Blu-ray and a rival Toshiba-backed technology known as HD DVD. Both are high-capacity discs that will support the distribution of high-definition versions of movies, with much better picture quality than what's possible with today's technology.

Blu-ray appears to have the lead, with most major movie studios saying they'll release films in the format next year. That's led to new concerns about mass production of DVDs in the new format. Since it represents a major break with past DVD and CD techniques, some worry Blu-ray will be expensive to support at least in the short term and could jack up prices for consumers...

Read the entire article here.

 

[ScottChez]

We know for sure the PS3 due this spring/summer and probably shown at the Jan CES will for sure have blue ray.

The big question is will the new MAC DVR killer have it built in due to be shown this Jan, the MAC rumor sites say the new MAC mini will be in a new case with a DVR killer app. Not sure when it will be in stores, maybe the same time the PS3 is?

 

[T2k]

We know for sure the PS3 due this spring/summer and probably shown at the Jan CES will for sure have blue ray.

"Sure"? Since when?

The big question is will the new MAC DVR killer have it built in due to be shown this Jan, the MAC rumor sites say the new MAC mini will be in a new case with a DVR killer app. Not sure when it will be in stores, maybe the same time the PS3 is?

Mac mini is waaaaaaaaay underpowered to even just play higher-rez h.264 HD, let alone record and play at the same time. I think you're confusing few things...

 

[Bunkhouse]

Who needs h.264 HD? BLU-RAY is only doing Mpeg-2 I though.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/80953/last-century-codecs-for-nextgen-bluray.html

This will for sure make the players cheaper to make, but if HD-DVD sticks with H.264, then HD-DVD will have more hours of content compared to Blu-Ray.

 

[ScottChez]

The new Mac Mini is an Intel 3 Ghz though.

 

[Bunkhouse]

Even AMD FX-57 can't decode H.264 . You need an ATI (AVIVO) videocard to do all the decoding/encoding.

 

[T2k]

Even AMD FX-57 can't decode H.264 .

C'mon... that's just not true at all. Of course it can. The problem is you have to deal with very high CPU load and perhaps occasional framerate problems (depending on machine).

You need an ATI (AVIVO) videocard to do all the decoding/encoding.

No, you don't, you can still do it by software - just like everybody does it today.

The ATI one simply helps by doing the heavy lifting, so your CPU won't go up to 80% load. According to some tests, Avivo Xcode reduces the encoding time to 1/5th-1/6th of the pure software decoding time.

 

[Stargazer]

Sounds like the Mac Mini has a lot of promise.

 

[David_Levin]

Who needs h.264 HD? BLU-RAY is only doing Mpeg-2 I though.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/80953/last-century-codecs-for-nextgen-bluray.html
This will for sure make the players cheaper to make, but if HD-DVD sticks with H.264, then HD-DVD will have more hours of content compared to Blu-Ray.

There's no effect on the cost of players. While the first movies aren't using mpeg4, the format (and players) still support it (unless someone has herd something different). So, the capacity is there if it's needed.

 

[T2k]

Sounds like the Mac Mini has a lot of promise.

Not the current one - that's a piece of ***. An actual scam from Apple, I think.

Or do you mean the upcoming, Intel-based one? Hardly.
Intel current desktop lineup IS the worst ever - and it won't change before 2007. Intel just postponed a year or canned its promising new cores.
It's not an accident AMD, first in history, oversold Intel last two consecutive months and now it's expected to be the long-time trend on the desktop market.