Disney Votes for 51GB HD-DVD Media Approval

[Sonnie]

Is Disney having second thoughts now? Disney stepped outside of their Blu-ray boundaries and voted in September for the 1.9 revision as well as last week for the approval of the 2.0 revisions of the triple-layer disc HD-DVD specs.

At a recent shareholders' meeting Disney CEO Robert Iger talked up Blu-ray, but then went on to say that the company would "probably publish in both formats."

While I understand that this doesn't automatically mean Disney is moving their backing and full support to HD-DVD... it does make for an interesting situation which may be another indication of things to come since the 51GB triple-layer disc will help HD-DVD compete with the 50GB Blu-Ray discs.

[avaserfi]

Its "small" things like this that could possibly end this stupid format 'war'. If the recent surge in HD DVD player sales causes a few or even one big studio to actually go neutral or HD DVD exclusive perhaps we will see an end to this hyperbole referred to as a war. I think Disney doing something like this would be a big step as they were one of the early supporters for BD and have consistently backed the format until this possible second guess.

[wbassett]

This is big news if they do this. It doesn't have to be a total switch to HD DVD, something I think pride (and a bit of arrogance) will prevent unless HD DVD ends up winning, but if they go format neutral that is huge.

I'm not so sure though that the 51GB discs are really that big of a deal other than marketing reasons. HD DVD doesn't need the room that BD does to get the same or better quality. 300 is a perfect example of not needing 50GB. The features on the 300 HD DVD disc are more interactive and better in my opinion and they even have a little SIM type game you can play. Granted the game is horrible, but it's a start.

I'm a bit leery on triple layer too. As the mechanics of the player starts getting old and wears, I have had problems with SDVD players skipping or even stopping at the layer switch. Granted that was after extensive player usage (gotta remember we were DVD exclusive for over three years and dumped satellite/cable TV, so our players got a workout). The more layers, the tighter the hardware specs and alignments need to be. If it works, great, I'm not trying to knock the news... I just don't think it's a super big deal. It's the same type of propoganda I heard from Sony about 1080p vs 1080i and the perception that all HD DVD players were 1080i. Those of us that are educated in HD know the truth, but I have talked to may that think there is a serious difference between the two and were surprised to hear Toshiba has 1080p players. They thought they all were 1080i. Same applies to disc size... I've heard people argue BD was better because it has more space, but when the discussion turned to codecs and compression they had blank stares.

Again, I think this is great news, at least the Disney part is. 51GB HD DVD discs are just icing though to me and not a super big deal. It will though mean much more room for even better audio tracks!

[khellandros66]

I really wish Transformers was released on TL51 that way the could have put in a monsterous TrueHD tack and a bit better video transfer, I hate to say it but my BD of Fantastic 4: Rise of The Silver Surfer is better looking, granted we are talking a 27mbps AVC transfer vs the 15-18mbps VBR of Transformers.

This is good news in general and I truly feel that higher capacity of both would allow more room for better transfers.

~Bobby

[Captain Crunch]

This would be a big step in the right direction for us consumers....
While I have no great love for Disney, the Pixar films are very good.
This could go a long way to ending the format war.
Disney is very big and this could have a domino effect with the other studios if we are lucky. I wish every one would go format neutral. That would be the best thing for us consumers.
As far as the True HD and what not if they would lighten up on some of the extras which most of us don't watch very much any way and get rid if all the extra languages there would probably be sufficient room on the disks we have now.

[wbassett]

I have said this a long time ago, and that is that even studios like Disney will eventually go dual format if they see enough people buying HD DVD players. Ultimately it's a money thing for them. For Sony it's pride and dominance issue. Sony has lost a lot of format wars and desperately wants to win one.

Now... this is my opinion on Sony...

I like some of their products and have never boycotted them or anything like that, but I don't like the way they sometimes want to control the market and technology. From a business perspective it makes sense to want that, but in the end they aren't necessarily looking at what the consumers want and do try pushing things on people. People being people, they generally don't like being forced into any one thing. Some will argue that Toshiba is just as bad with their monetary deal with Paramount, but that is also business just like Sony paying stores to be Bluray exclusive, or for premium end cap displays and things like that.

Again I'll say I have both players so I am trying to be objective and state both sides of things. Both formats will be around for a long time and in reality, if all studios released in both formats it would be a non-issue for us consumers, but that is not very realistic cost wise. HD DVD production has a slight upper hand when it comes to making the discs, and a company doesn't want to have to spend extra money on anything if they don't have to. For Disney to go dual format they will have to spend money, so I am sure right now they are analyzing things to see if it is worth it, but even if it is, I'm sure they aren't happy about the prospect of spending money to make money- even though that is the nature of things. If they could start producing discs right now in both formats for no extra cost, I'm sure we'd see some Disney releases out there.

I really do want to see one format win out, but I don't care which one it is as long as I can get the movies I want and players are reasonably priced. Right now I don't see Video on Demand as being anywhere close to ready to displace either format, and a new HD format player is the last thing consumers will stand for.

If HD DVD player sales continue to drop in price and sales keep going up, yes I would expect some companies to cross the line and go format neutral.

One note though, I have yet to see the $199 HD DVD players in Walmart. The price I saw was $289, and that's still too much for mass adoption.

[conchyjoe7]

I dont think WalMart sells them every day for that price, but I can assure you they did as I have 2 of them (Toshiba HD-A2) in my home. BTW, they weren't $199 either; they were $98.87...and I love both of them...Best under $100.00 purchase (each) I ever made for my systems.
Cheers,
Konky.

[MatrixDweller]

It will really tick me off, and others I'm sure, if we need a new player to read the 51GB discs. I'm hoping that a firmware upgrade will enable it, but I'm not holding my breath.

The new capacity does overcome one of the disadvantages of HD-DVD. One of my coworkers, an early BD adopter, likes to throw that one in my face...until now.

[toecheese]

Well, I'll vote in the conspiracy theory side- no current player will be able to do triple-layer. If they're not releasing them on HD already, what is the purpose of their vote?

[avaserfi]

MatrixDweller wrote:

It will really tick me off, and others I'm sure, if we need a new player to read the 51GB discs. I'm hoping that a firmware upgrade will enable it, but I'm not holding my breath.

The new capacity does overcome one of the disadvantages of HD-DVD. One of my coworkers, an early BD adopter, likes to throw that one in my face...until now.

I have heard mixed comments about the third layer accessibility and it being a hardware or software issue. I know with BD is had been said that the 200GB multilayer discs only require a firmware update to access in all (maybe most) players. Hopefully HD DVD is the same.