HD DVD

[JayAgostino]

Just for some background context, HD DVD was Blu-ray's main competitor during the late 2000s. It was an optical disc format that struggled to receive backing by the major film studios. By early 2008, the HD DVD format had been discontinued.

I was one of the unfortunate souls who picked HD DVD over Blu-ray. The latter was much more expensive.

 

[SuperMatt]

Just for some background context, HD DVD was Blu-ray's main competitor during the late 2000s. It was an optical disc format that struggled to receive backing by the major film studios. By early 2008, the HD DVD format had been discontinued.

I was one of the unfortunate souls who picked HD DVD over Blu-ray. The latter was much more expensive.

I remember those huge laser discs from the 80s. My dad rented a player and disc one time and we watched Star Wars on it. The quality was definitely better than VHS, although there was no HD so it wasn’t an earth-shattering difference.

 

[Cmaier]

I also was an HD-DVD guy. I ended up buying the xbox HD-DVD reader and interfacing it to my Mac so I could backup my small collection until bluray versions became available.

The issue back then for me was that the movies I actually wanted were almost entirely on HD-DVD and not on Blu-ray.

 

[JayAgostino]

I ended up buying the xbox HD-DVD reader

Microsoft missed the opportunity to build it right into the Xbox 360. That could've completely changed the fate of the HD DVD format.

I ended up purchasing one of those disc players that could read both HD DVD discs and Blu-ray discs. I still use it to this day.

The issue back then for me was that the movies I actually wanted were almost entirely on HD-DVD and not on Blu-ray.

Really? For the most part, Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures were the only major film studios to exclusively adopt the HD DVD format.

 

[Cmaier]

Microsoft missed the opportunity to build it right into the Xbox 360. That could've completely changed the fate of the HD DVD format.

I ended up purchasing one of those disc players that could read both HD DVD discs and Blu-ray discs. I still use it to this day.

Really? For the most part, Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures were the only major film studios to exclusively adopt the HD DVD format.
View attachment 15940

Absolutely. And those were the movies I wanted! I mean, Star Trek alone ….

 

[Herdfan]

Still have my original Toshiba HD-DVD and about 30 movies.

While I couldn't tell much difference between the two formats when watching a movie, I think BR won out because the Sony and the Playstation. All of a sudden you have millions of BR players in people's homes where with the HD-DVD you either needed a player or as @Cmaier and @JayAgostino noted, it wasn't native and you had to buy the add-on. A native player in the X-Box could have made it a battle.

 

[JayAgostino]

Still have my original Toshiba HD-DVD and about 30 movies.

Have any of your movies been affected by disc rot (and does that disc player still work)?

Disc rot - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I couldn't tell much difference between the two formats when watching a movie

Yeah, the main difference was in the price.

I also found this quote in an article from Fast Company.

"Technically speaking, the two formats were actually quite similar. While Blu-ray had more disc capacity, HD-DVD had an edge in interactive features. “HD-DVD’s tech specs were actually better for the consumer than Blu-ray’s,” says Jason Chen, Senior Associate Editor at gadget blog Gizmodo. The real difference between the formats came in their physical specs. The HD-DVD format closely resembled its predecessor, the DVD. The switch from DVD to HD-DVD would be easier for both manufacturers and consumers."

I think BR won out because the Sony and the Playstation. All of a sudden you have millions of BR players in people's homes where with the HD-DVD you either needed a player or as @Cmaier and @JayAgostino noted, it wasn't native and you had to buy the add-on.

Disc players that could read the Blu-ray format (such as the PlayStation 3) were egregiously expensive back then. In the end, it was a gamble that ended up going extremely well in Sony's favor...

...sort of.

Sony's in a 'bag of hurt' because of Blu-ray

Sony is warning shareholders to expect poor financial results for its fiscal year ending March 31, 2014. The electronics giant previously expected to pull in an operating income of 80 billion yen...

www.theverge.com

A native player in the X-Box could have made it a battle.

What could've been...

 

[DT]

Yeah, I went in on HD-DVD first, had a couple of dozen movies, I believe my player was a Toshiba too. When the Playstation hit, the BD shift, etc., I quickly got out of my gear and discs, though funny enough, I still have two that I never sold, never threw away, umm, I guess they'll just sit in the gear closet until we move. I believe the two are Miami Vice (the Michael Mann movie from 2006) and the first Transformers

I should send them to @Herdfan

 

[Herdfan]

Yeah, I went in on HD-DVD first, had a couple of dozen movies, I believe my player was a Toshiba too. When the Playstation hit, the BD shift, etc., I quickly got out of my gear and discs, though funny enough, I still have two that I never sold, never threw away, umm, I guess they'll just sit in the gear closet until we move. I believe the two are Miami Vice (the Michael Mann movie from 2006) and the first Transformers

I should send them to @Herdfan

Depending on the disc, it may have a regular DVD on the other side. That was the nice thing about that format.

 

[DT]

I think these may be "convertibles" too, I'll dig them out later and check (maybe post a pic for fun ... or "fun" )

 

[Herdfan]

It also can't be dismissed that one "category" of movies chose BR over HD-DVD.

So was that a determining factor? Maybe.

 

[DT]

It also can't be dismissed that one "category" of movies chose BR over HD-DVD.

So was that a determining factor? Maybe.

That was certainly the case with Beta vs. VHS, uh, or so I've heard ...

 

[Herdfan]

That was certainly the case with Beta vs. VHS, uh, or so I've heard ...

Guess Sony learned huh?

 

[JayAgostino]

Depending on the disc, it may have a regular DVD on the other side. That was the nice thing about that format.

Didn't some of them also have a Blu-ray on the other side?

 

[DT]

Didn't some of them also have a Blu-ray on the other side?

Yeah, some had HD-DVD one side, DVD on another, and BD on the third side ...

 

[Herdfan]

Didn't some of them also have a Blu-ray on the other side?

Not that I remember. Different pressing technology.

And something makes me want to think original BR's were only 25G per side, so on some movies you had to flip it over.

 

[cloudflare420]

I have the XBOX HD-DVD drive somewhere. Playstation was the reason why BD won. Microsoft fumbled hard with HD DVD

 

[JayAgostino]

Microsoft fumbled hard with HD DVD

And to a much bigger extent, Toshiba.

Toshiba

Toshiba has fallen so far from grace. They used to be one of the largest manufacturers of electronics in the world, but nowadays, they really only manufacture hard drives and such. Just a few years ago, they used to sell all kinds of stuff (personal computers, televisions, etc). One of their big...

talkedabout.com

Not building an HD DVD drive into the Xbox 360 was a terrible move though. Like its predecessor, the Xbox 360 only allowed for games to be run on traditional DVDs. Many game developers had to put their games on multiple discs. That wouldn't have been an issue if Microsoft hadn't been so hesitant to embrace HD DVD.

 

[Nycturne]

Not that I remember. Different pressing technology.

And something makes me want to think original BR's were only 25G per side, so on some movies you had to flip it over.

No flippers on BD. A lot of early BDs were mastered with the same content as the HD-DVD, so you had some 15GB BDs because the HD-DVD was single layer, or 25GB HD-DVDs (out of 30GB) to match the single-layer BD.

Guess Sony learned huh?

It may have also helped that BD-RW was being used in DVRs in Japan prior to commercial movies showing up in either format. So it was already primed for more kinds of use in PCs and the like to get manufacturers behind the tech. Even if it turned out PC use didn’t really materialize like hoped.

Keep in mind Beta and VHS started out as storage for VCRs, commercial films came along later. And VHS had a clear advantage of being able to record more per tape. It wasn’t until the two were fighting in the mainstream after bringing the price down that they started getting studios to put films on tape in the late 70s.

I have the XBOX HD-DVD drive somewhere. Playstation was the reason why BD won. Microsoft fumbled hard with HD DVD

I think MS’ problem is more that they didn’t have a specific desire to really push HD-DVD. Their money was from being part of the patent pool. They also had patents in the BD pool. They favored one over the other because of the larger windfall, but otherwise acted like they were waiting to see how it played out.

But with Toshiba effectively leaning on MS to help entrench the format, they were reliant on a fairly indifferent party, which isn’t good for them.

 

[MEJHarrison]

I still have a working player and a bunch of movies somewhere. At least they were working last time I tried years ago.