HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray: Film Studio Backing

[peetee]

BBC HD is a HD broadcast is it not? Wouldnt that generally mean it should be the same quality as a HD-DVD or blue-ray???
Compare them to DVDs, thats a more logical comparison

 

[sunama]

BBC HD is a HD broadcast is it not? Wouldnt that generally mean it should be the same quality as a HD-DVD or blue-ray???
Compare them to DVDs, thats a more logical comparison

Yes. Although HD-DVD/Blu-ray might use a higher bit rate, hence better image quality.

Also, are the BBC using a comparable (H264 based) codec?

 

[Goatboy]

BBC HD is a HD broadcast is it not? Wouldnt that generally mean it should be the same quality as a HD-DVD or blue-ray???

That would be like saying itv2 is the same quality as a DVD because they're the same resolution.

 

[Goatboy]

I was under the impression that films were all the same shape/size and were streched out from the normal size to fill the correct aspect so if it was 2.35 then it would be streched from 1:1 as an example? i.e. they dont do the black boarders

Are you talking about actual filming or the process of re-encoding? I was talking about the latter.

 

[peetee]

That would be like saying itv2 is the same quality as a DVD because they're the same resolution.

ahh, good point. I thought itd all get normalised with HD though =/ either way atleast its better than the poor quality broadcasts we're used to.

 

[Rava Benitez]

Personally i dont see either winning, they'll co exist and eventually each studio will support both until they are both erased by a new format or medium (hard disk)

 

[Energize]

BBC HD is a HD broadcast is it not? Wouldnt that generally mean it should be the same quality as a HD-DVD or blue-ray???
Compare them to DVDs, thats a more logical comparison

BBC is interlaced and uses nowhere near the 36Mb/s min bitrate for blu-ray disks.

 

[Goatboy]

the 36Mb/s min bitrate for blu-ray disks.

Bit-rate figures have been published, there was only one with a bit-rate that high, most were around 18/19.

 

[peetee]

whats the bbc/sky hd etc bitrate? should be getting it within a few weeks, want to know what to expect. to be honest all i want to watch is the footy and battlestar galactica in HD and maybes the odd decent movie when its on. thats the thing with sky though, theres only the odd decent movie that is on the movie channels ... =/

 

[Goatboy]

18-19mbps for BBCHD, bear in mind they're using the superior H.264 codec

 

[peetee]

so the broadcasts at the moment are around the same bitrate as the blu-ray & HD-DVD movies, but use a superior codec? well thats quite impressive its good to see our broadcasts are finally becoming the quality they should be

 

[Goatboy]

Not exactly, BBC HD is 1440x1080i not 1920x1080p, BD was using MPEG-2 but now that and HD-DVD both use VC1 in the main.

Numbers aren't everything though, HD-DVD and BD should be a fair bit better than BBC but I wasn't wowed by either.

 

[peetee]

iv got a 720p anyway. So itll get scaled down anyway, so the 1440 isnt a big deal for me, since its higher res than the tele anyway.
Either way, its all progression and its a vast improvement over what we have. The disc content quality will improve im sure.

 

[Slam62]

Personally i dont see either winning, they'll co exist and eventually each studio will support both until they are both erased by a new format or medium (hard disk)

Well I think they're both dead in the water, it takes years for even major improvements to become mass market, it sounds like neither will be much of an improvement over dvd for most people. They may never get a large enough uptake to become cheap enough

 

[peetee]

the ps3 and xbox360 will probably be a heavy decider in the war against the formats, hopefully bringing the prices down. We need to move beyond dvd to be honest.. Im not v keen on dvd at the moment, although iv just ordered a dvd-recorded that upscales the picture to HD when plugged into a HD tv, so maybes ill change my mind within a week

 

[sunama]

the ps3 and xbox360 will probably be a heavy decider in the war against the formats, hopefully bringing the prices down. We need to move beyond dvd to be honest.. Im not v keen on dvd at the moment, although iv just ordered a dvd-recorded that upscales the picture to HD when plugged into a HD tv, so maybes ill change my mind within a week

If the dvd player you are getting has a poor quality scalar and associated post processing system, then you may find that the resulting upscaled image isnt too good.

Generally, if you buy a cheapo upscaling dvd player and use it with a top quality HDTV, then you should get better image quality without allowing the dvd player to upscale the image (ie. the HDTV will do the scaling, using its superior scalar).

Personally, I think most upscaling DVD players are huge marketing scam. Some of the more expensive ones, like the Toshiba HD-DVD players are pretty good at upscaling SD->HD.

 

[peetee]

hah, i was gettin worried till i read the toshiba part, lucky its one of the decent toshibas then ey? won some 5star award or something in what hi-fi bla bla magazine must be half decent

 

[sunama]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=AV-000-TS

This will upscale very nicely. All the hd-dvd players released by Toshiba around the world are highly regarded for the hd-dvd playing cababilitlies as well as their sd-dvd upscaling abilities.

 

[peetee]

**** , i didnt read that it was hd-dvd player someone said, its a toshiba dvd-rw lol :x o well, its better than the crap one i already have, just something for the mother to record things onto to take into school, should be getting skyhd installed soon. Besides, it plays dixv so im happy

 

[matty]

So will the above films never be available on HD-DVD?

if its a sony or fox film, then dont expect to see it anytime soon unless you buy from foreign lands...