Hgh Defifinition disc player - HD-dvd VS blu-ray?

What are High Definition Disc Players?

The next and most current development in HDTV resolutions is the introduction of HD-DVD players both Blu-Ray by Sony and High Definition DVD by Toshiba. These DVD players will display a significantly improved HDTV resolution of 1920 X 1080 lines or 1080p.

These machines will accomplish this through the use of a blue-violet laser, which will read DVDs with much larger storage capacity. Video gaming will also enjoy the benefits of the super high-resolution displays that take advantage of the increased resolution. There are many DLP, Plasma and LCD TVs already available with 1920 X 1080 resolution from manufacturers, such as Sony, Pioneer, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Toshiba among others.

It costs manufacturers more money to produce plasma or LCD panels with higher resolution. The actual plasma display element or LCD display element (i.e. glass) are by far the most costly component in the display. Adding pixels (or resolution) lengthens the time it takes to produce a panel – thus increasing costs. Due to the difference in the two technologies plasma televisions are costlier to produce at the higher pixel counts than are LCDs or DLPs.

How much of an advantage will a person get from a 1080p display? It depends partially on the persons viewing habits. If HDTV programming from cable or satellite is most important to the individual then a 1080p display may not be worth the extra cost. If HD DVDs and/or HD video gaming are the most important piece of an individuals viewing pleasure, it may be time to pay up.

Will an HDTV with 720p resolution show HD DVDs or HD video gaming? Yes, but they will down-convert the 1080p signal to 720p to show it.

What is HD-DVD?

An HD-DVD looks very much like a standard DVD disc. it adopts the same mechanism for recording data although the 'bumps' and 'pits' are much smaller enabling about 15 Gigabits of storage space against the 4.7 Gigabits of space offered by standard discs.

A blue laser can read such compressed data and is utilised to read the discs.

What is Blu-Ray?

Blu-Ray follows the same principles as the HD-DVD format but with more compact data, offering 25 Gigabits of storage on a single layer and 50 Gigabits on a dual-layer disc.

Are They Compatible?

Sadly, the two technologies are not compatible, leaving potential buyers with a dilemma similar to the 1980's VHS/Betamax saga that some of you might remember! The two formats have been predominant championed by Sony promoting Blu-Ray and Toshiba backing the HD-DVD battle.

Most major movie studios are generally selecting one of the formats to back, which means that neither format will immediately come through as a clear winner, although companies like Warner Brothers are releasing both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray versions of selected titles.

What about the sound quality?

Both formats 'can' support higher definition sound by using Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD and Dolby Digital Plus, but current titles are not all encoded with advanced sound features.

Will they play normal DVDs?

Both players can play and up-convert the images of standard DVDs. This is not same quality as true High Definition but certainly is an improvement.

Which one is best?

So far there have only been a few Blu-Ray modules release in the UK and not many HD-DVD. However, the feedback on both the Blu-Ray systems from Samsung and Phillips is simply save your money! The images are by no means impressive and the machines are extremely over priced. Hopefully this is purely a glitch, especially as the up-and-coming PS3 has Blu-Ray facilities for playing high definition Blu-Ray movies and other material.

HD-DVD and Blu-Ray movies

Coming Soon!