Latest News About the Blu-ray and HD DVD Formats

I'm a big movie buff and when I watch movies in my home theatre, I like to do it right. I microwave some popcorn, turn the lights down low, crank the volume and kick my feet up on the ottoman. Only then I'm able to fully enjoy the big picture and immersive surround sound.

The standard DVD is a wonderful format. Its picture quality, surround sound and ease-of-use are hard to ignore. Movies on DVD pushed many of us to get rid of the junk in our basements and set up home theatres instead. For over 10 years, the DVD format thrived in the home video market all by itself. But today, there are two new high definition disc formats in town - Blu-ray led by Sony and HD DVD led by Toshiba - each fighting for dominance in the home video market. For many consumers this brings back the memories of VHS versus Beta back in the 70s.

So why do we need a new format anyway? The simple answer is because TVs continue to grow in size. That once big screen 27-inch Sony you bought in the '90s has evolved into a mere piece of furniture. Arguably, for a TV to be considered to have a big screen these days, it has to be 42-inches or larger. Standard DVDs look great on smaller TVs but their picture begins to appear soft when played on 42-inch or larger TVs. The 480p resolution (720 by 480 pixels) of standard DVDs can only be blown up to a certain size screen before the picture starts to loose its sharpness. Both the Blu-ray and HD DVD formats offer a 1080p resolution (1920 by 1080 pixels), which contains nearly six times the number of pixels to define the picture. This higher number of pixels translates to a much sharper picture that contains an unprecedented amount of detail. Kate Beckinsale has never looked more beautiful freeing the world from vampires in 1080p.

Will the average viewer be able to see the improvement that high definition discs offer? You bet! Most noticeable is the additional amount of picture detail. A high definition picture can contain details as fine as the wrinkles on an actor's face, the texture of a fabric and even the individual hairs on a person's head. The picture quality of a high definition disc is also noticeably better than HD satellite and HD digital cable. Many picture artifacts or imperfections, such as "boxing" in fast motion scenes, appear in satellite and digital cable HD programming because of data compression required to send the signal over these mediums. Both Blu-ray and HD DVD virtually eliminate these artifacts, producing a crystal clear HD picture. After watching many movies in both formats on a number of different players I can confidently say that there is virtually no difference in picture and audio quality between the Blu-ray and HD DVD formats.

The development of the new Blu-ray and HD DVD formats also paved the road for higher quality audio. Four new high resolution audio formats are available on Blu-ray and HD DVD titles: Dolby Digital Plus, DTS HD, Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio. The latter two formats are lossless, which means they produce sound that is bit-for-bit identical to the studio master. These new audio formats are capable of producing fuller, more immersive sound that is much closer to the original performance; the upgrade from previous audio formats is easy to notice.

New advanced navigation and interactive features are available in both disc formats. Advanced navigation, for example, allows fully graphical movie menus to be superimposed over a movie while it's still running, rather than having to pause the movie to display menus as standard DVDs currently do. Most high definition disc players come equipped with an Ethernet port which allows them to connect to the internet and download firmware (software) updates for the player. In the future high definition discs may allow the user to download extra audio and video content, movie trailers, game demos and other similar add-ons.

Now that players and movies from both formats have been out for a while, let me bring you up to speed on how the format battle has progressed so far.

The high definition disc era began in April of 2006 when Toshiba released two HD DVD players. Roughly two months later, the first Blu-ray player produced by Samsung appeared in stores. These first generation players in both formats received mixed first reviews from owners due to long disc load times and buggy interfacing with A/V receivers and TV sets. Fortunately the picture and audio quality seemed quite promising.

But a lot of progress has been made since the launch of each format. Toshiba recently introduced their third generation HD DVD players. The new player models include the HD-A3, HD-A30 and HD-A35, priced between $349 and $549. An HD DVD add-on drive for the Xbox 360, priced at $199 is currently the least expensive solution for 360 owners. As you read this, the Onkyo DV-HD805 HD DVD player should be shipping (exact release date and Canadian pricing could not be confirmed at press time, although the US pricing was confirmed at $899). Earlier this year, Toshiba announced that we can soon expect to see HD DVD players from other hardware manufacturers including Meridian, Shinco, Venturer and ED Digital.

On the Blu-ray side of the coin, several players are currently available in the Canadian market: Panasonic DMP-BD30 ($599, first Profile 1.1 player), Pioneer BDP-HD50-K ($999), Pioneer Elite BDP-95HD ($1199), Sony BDPS300 ($599), Sony BDPS500 ($799), Sony BDPS2000ES ($1499), Samsung BD-P1400 ($599) and Sharp BD-HP20U ($549). The PlayStation 3, aside from being a powerful video gaming system, also plays Blu-ray discs. Sony recently substantially lowered the price of both PS3 models - the 40 GB version now retails for $399 and the 80 GB goes for $499. A couple of Blu-ray machines will also be introduced by Denon in late December/early January: the $1299 DVD2500BTCI Blu-ray transport and the $2199 DVD3800BDCI Blu-ray player (Profile 1.1).

Two true dual-format HD DVD/Blu-ray players are also on the way. The second generation LG BH200 (a replacement for the SMB-007) is expected to cost approximately $999 and should arrive in Canada in early 2008. The Samsung BD-UP5000 is set to retail for $999 and scheduled to ship in January 2008.

With no picture or sound quality between the two competing formats, the problem for potential buyers comes down to the choice of movies - some titles are released only in Blu-ray, others only in HD DVD. Currently both formats appear to have just as many movies on the store shelves.

What's my take on all of this? It appears that both formats are here to stay, at least for a few years. With further price reductions of the players before the holidays, I suggest you give one of the formats a try or if a dual-format player sounds attractive to you, wait it out until early next year. Believe me, the picture quality will definitely put a smile on your face.

Blu-ray Player Profiles Explained

As if two new high definition disc formats weren't confusing enough for consumers, Blu-ray players are also defined by different "profiles". The profiles, specified by the Blu-ray Disc Association, dictate the minimum specifications and capabilities that must be met by Blu-ray players. Three different profiles exist: 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0.

Profile 1.0 - All Blu-ray players introduced before November 1, 2007 were mandated to meet profile 1.0 specifications. This initial profile indicates the inclusion of the Blu-ray version of the Java programming language, BD-J for short. BD-J allows Blu-ray titles to contain advanced features such as menus to be displayed on top of a playing movie or games that can be played while watching a movie.

Profile 1.1 - This profile is also commonly referred to as Full Profile or Final Standard Profile. All Blu-ray players introduced after November 1, 2007 must adhere to the additional hardware requirements and functional capabilities specified by this profile. A profile 1.1 Blu-ray player must include at least 256 MB of persistent memory (which retains its contents even if the power is turned off) and a sound generator that produces sound effects when on-screen menu selections are made. But the most significant upgrade in profile 1.1 players is picture-in-picture (PIP) support, which requires additional hardware. Hence profile 1.0 players cannot be firmware upgraded to profile 1.1 (with the exception of the PlayStation 3). Panasonic's DMP-BD30 is the first profile 1.1 Blu-ray player.

Profile 2.0 - This profile also known as BD-Live, requires Blu-ray players to contain an Ethernet port to connect to the Internet. This will allow players to download new content such as movie trailers, additional info and bonus materials for certain titles, online games, and online shopping. Profile 2.0 players must have at least 1GB of persistent memory.

Blu-ray, HD DVD and Standard DVD Comparison Chart