Man of the house

Man of the house movie

Instead, it seems that HD DVD content is, in many cases, barely squeezing onto 30GB discs today-and the tight space leaves little breathing room for the interactive-video future that Hollywoods creative minds will dream up down the road. All of the titles I saw are first-generation; not surprisingly, their menus and level of interactivity are basic and do not reflect the complexity I expect to see from both formats in the near future. Plus, the existing extras dont take full advantage of the formats, nor were they created natively in high-definition, with high-def, wide-screen presentation in mind. And the soundtracks are more limited, typically only todays 1-channel sound, with just one audio commentary instead of multiple commentaries and elaborate features. Imagine what an innovative director like Peter Jackson man of the house movie have done with the on-set documentaries and featurettes for his The Lord of the Rings trilogy, had everything been filmed with HD DVD or Blu-ray Disc in mind. Something tells me that a 30GB disc wouldnt come close to being enough, and that a 45GB disc assuming one does come to market might get a bit snug-even if one accounts for future improvements and efficiencies in compression and disc authoring techniques. How much space Blu-ray content will consume remains to be seen; the first titles from Sony are beginning to ship this week, and although none of them will be on 50GB dual-layer discs, other titles will ship on 50GB discs later this summer, according to Sony. But I cant help but think that this formats greater capacity will serve it well over time. That said, Im not convinced the PlayStation 3 will be Blu-rays trump card. Sony said nothing at the E3 Expo in May that makes me think it is truly positioning the PS3 for home-theater buffs who want a Blu-ray Disc player thats cheaper than a stand-alone box. And for those consumers who do invest 599 in the premium PlayStation 3 with HDMI output, the machines primary purpose will likely be for playing Gran Turismo HD and other launch game titles, not for watching Hitch in high-def. The advantage in recording is, for now, clearly with Blu-ray: Vendors in this camp are first to market with disc burners for PCs, as well as first to release mobile burners for notebooks-and the format has the higher maximum capacity. PC Blu-ray burners are shipping from Pioneer and I-O Data, with others soon to come; this month Sony is shipping its aforementioned AR Premium Blu-ray laptop, as well as its VAIO RC series of burner-equipped desktops starting at just 2150-not overly outrageous considering that a stand-alone PC burner is priced at 10 Officially, the HD DVD camp remains mum on the status of PC burners. Since media was introduced at Computex in Taiwan last week, and since RiData just announced that its HD DVD-R media will ship in July, one might think a burner isnt far behind. The only news from the show, however, consisted of Toshibas display of a slimline burner for notebooks, the SD-L902A; the company offered little there in the way of specs, pricing, or timing, let alone a demonstration of the drives readiness and it hasnt revealed anything since. From the get-go, the HD DVD camps stated focus has been on the home theater playback experience with PC movie playback coming in second, and recording not even on the road map. The lack of recording capabilities restricts HD DVD to prepackaged Hollywood content; no aspiring Spielbergs can edit their own high-def films and burn them to disc. It also limits HD DVDs viability as a data storage medium. No question: HD DVD has man of the house movie edge in price. RCAs and Toshibas players start at a highly accessible 499-if you can find them. The cheapest stand-alone Blu-ray Disc player will be Samsungs 1000 BD-P1000, due out this month. Sonys BDP-S1 will also be 1000 when it ships in August, and Pioneers Elite BDP-HD1 will be 1500 when it debuts in September. Sonys 499 Sony PlayStation 3, due in November, will be the least expensive player of them all; however, that model wont have an HDMI output, so you wont be able to display all-digital 1080p content. The 599 version will have HDMI, at least. Nonetheless, PlayStation 3s impact as a Blu-ray Disc player may not be as far-reaching as some observers might think; I found it curious that at E3 Sony made no mention of what kind of remote control it will offer with the PS3, and Im not fully sold on how well the PS3 will serve as a multipurpose entertainment device. Of course, in this nascent market, one might argue that the early adopters shopping for high-def players wont be dissuaded by a 1000 price tag. But I think that Blu-ray Discs higher cost could hurt it, unless Blu-ray player manufacturers can adequately convey to consumers that their devices deliver enough value to justify being at least twice as much as HD DVD players. Forget that Blu-ray has PlayStation 3 on its side, and that Intel and Microsoft have thrown their collective weight behind HD DVD. Forget that high-definition televisions are still gaining traction, albeit with increasing speed, among consumers. Forget that HD DVD and Blu-ray are both, really, formats in their infancy, both trying to claw their way to dominance to succeed DVD-and to avoid the sad fate of their digital audio format cousins, SACD and DVD-Audio. For now, both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD are hampered by the fact that AACS has yet to finalize its managed copy component, the most critical aspect of the spec that remains unfinished. Without a final AACS spec, living-room high-def recorders cant proceed to market, and neither can devices that are designed to take advantage of legally copying and moving content from one disc to another-or to another device, for that matter. Original estimates put AACSs final spec as coming out in May; were already well into June, and still there are no updates. Until players can be manufactured to take advantage of everything from media servers to copying content, the first high-def video players from either camp should have limited appeal. I have no doubt that these players, be they Blu-ray or HD DVD, will deliver enticing high-def images. If all they do is play back content, however, theyre man of the house movie a core part of the innovation that Blu-ray and HD DVD have the potential to deliver. My response to the author. This is a well researched and written article. I myself will own both Blu-Ray and HD DVD. I champion HD DVD though because I believe it offers the best legacy support and meets the needs of consumers and producers alike. One interesting thing about the article. While I normally would be concerned with the 30GB capacity of HD DVD I dont worry about that and thats because HD DVD uses the newer high efficienty codecs I expect that the size of movies will decrease and their quality will increase.