I almost posted this same link, but I'm not sure it'll stay :)

zeitgeist | February 20, 00:25 CET

It is a bit of a stretch! Sure some people would like to know that they're potentially going to get to buy yet another copy of Serenity though!

Ghost Spike | February 20, 00:54 CET

I was hoping this would happen as I have a Blu-Ray player. I don't mind buying another copy of Serenity if it's going to look glorious on my HD-TV! Anyone else surprised how fast Universal switched? I mean, I know HD-DVD was on the downward spiral after Wal-Mart said they were going to phase out HD-DVD players and movies, but Toshiba only made the offical announcement this morning!

El Diablo Robotico | February 20, 02:15 CET

It's OK, z. Nothing is for sure, but I'm sure of your word. I'm happy with it.

Madhatter | February 20, 02:33 CET

To paraphrase MIB, "Looks like I'll have to buy the White Album again... "

11thHour | February 20, 02:51 CET

Not that I'll ever have enough to afford any of this, but what is the difference in terms of quality between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray? Is Blu-Ray a higher quality, or is it just more expensive?

deepgirl187 | February 20, 03:31 CET

Blu and HD use the same encoding methods, but Blu has more space so they could theoretically get away with better quality video/audio.

zeitgeist | February 20, 03:45 CET

Even though it really doesn't. I have both formats and the quality is identical 99% of the time.

The Dark Shape | February 20, 04:47 CET

Yeah, they generally only tweak the audio higher at this time. You may see more done with higher bitrate down the line a little.

zeitgeist | February 20, 06:02 CET

So...you need a special player for either one of these? So folks who just recently (Couple years ago) got their first DVD player are soon to be SOL when it comes to buying new movies on DVD because everyone's jumping on the "home theater" bandwagon?

Sometimes, technological advances really suck.

ShadowQuest | February 20, 07:12 CET

Not really. You do need a new player to take advantage of the extra resolution but dvds still look reasonable good on an HDTV. The option is their if you are looking for an even better picture. With one clear choice now, it will help bring the prices down and the selection up as far as content in HD.

Also, I would expect more studios to take advantage of Blu-ray's 50 GB capacity now that they don't have to create content for two seperate formats.

In my book, the PS3 is still one of the best options out there for a Blu-ray player. You can upgrade the firmware when they go to profile 2.0 and it plays some good games. Also, I think the price will continue to come down. Especially in light of this format war news.

Now please bring out Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Veronica Mars and 24 in HD please.

[ edited by munn75 on 2008-02-20 04:32 ]

munn75 | February 20, 07:31 CET

DVD's been available for 11 years. It's hardly a new format.

The Dark Shape | February 20, 08:20 CET

Whenever I decide to a) buy an HDTV b) buy a Blu-Ray player and c) buy Blu-Ray discs, I'll buy Serenity. But for now, this recent graduate cannot afford to spend $1000 + on an HDTV. And that's the first hurdle! Blu-Ray discs cost $23 + now, imagine what an entire seven YEARS of television will cost!!

CaffeinatedSquint | February 20, 08:21 CET

The Dark Shape Uh...duh. I know they've been available for years. However, believe it or not, there are those of us who cannot afford to buy the newest gadgets as soon as they come out.

And what I meant was - now that Blu-Ray (Which no one has really explained to me just what it is) is "all the rage," trying to provide people with an "in-home theater experience," those of us living in the "Stone Age" of DVDs are going to have to buy yet another expensive gadget in order to be able to view new movies (or rereleases of older ones) because that's all stores are going to be carrying.

My DVD player is still fairly new - I'm not about to chuck it just to buy the "latest greatest" device. Likewise my TV still works - not gonna pitch it to get an HDTV. I put in for the coupons for the TV converter boxes that will soon become available - that's good enough for me. (My folks only just recently got an HDTV, and that only because their television of 20 years finally kicked it.)

Guess I'm just a technological troglodyte. Shrug. I still have a VCR (Separate from my DVD player) and still tape shows. And I have a tapedeck in my car.

Hmm. I'm much like Giles in that regard. Although I do use computers.

ShadowQuest | February 20, 08:49 CET

Blu-Ray discs cost $23 + now, imagine what an entire seven YEARS of television will cost!!

You could get every episode of Buffy, plus extras, on one Blu Ray disc so it should be cheaper, though they will want to charge as much as they can for it.

(I can now imagine sitting down and hitting "Play All" on the remote. 96 hours of solid Buffy...)

ShadowQuest, BluRay is just a better way of recording data on a disc, it works exactly like DVD and CD do but you can get 50Gb on a dual layer disc instead of 8.5Gb on a dual layer DVD so you can either have a movie at far better quality or many more hours at DVD quality.

[ edited by zz9 on 2008-02-20 05:55 ]

zz9 | February 20, 08:51 CET

Well, maybe not in some objective sense. But compare to CDs vs. LPs (LPs had been around for 35 years before CDs appeared) or video v. DVDs (video had almost 20 years before DVDs were introduced), and one can be forgiven for developing a slight case of format fatigue and wallet crunch. 'Course, more hours at DVD quality should be a great deal. But I'm not particularly concerned about picture definition - and won't be putting a 50 inch screen on my wall anytime soon ever. And, yes, I'm very much Giles in that respect. :-)

SoddingNancyTribe | February 20, 09:10 CET

El Diablo, this isn't really a big surprise that Universal has switched. Toshiba has announced that they will no longer be making Hd-dvd players so it makes perfect sense that Universal (and Paramount) will now be making blu-ray discs.

Shadowquest, I'm sure dvds will still be around for quite some time. A lot has been made of this Hd-dvd/blu-ray battle but the reality is that both formats combined only sold a small fraction of dvds compared to regular dvds. Most people don't even have high def tvs yet.

I made the wrong choice and bought an hd-dvd player and will now be using it as an upscaled dvd player because I won't be buying anymore hd-dvds. Fortunately, it does a great job of making regular dvds look almost as good as the high def ones I've watched! I'll probably get a blu-ray player (most likely a PS3 because I'd be interested in using it for gaming as well) and will most likely buy Serenity again! I'll be waiting for the prices to go down first.

Serenity has been one of Hd-dvds biggest successes and continued to be in their top ten list even though it was one of the first movies they released. So, I'm betting it will be one of their first released on Blu-ray too!

Firefly Flanatic | February 20, 09:44 CET

This works for me. I just bought my ps3 2 weeks ago. I waited until I was sure which format would win. I had been waiting for the last year or so for it to be over with.

My ps3 came with an extra controller, a movie and a game and it only cost me about $500. For me its not that bad because when I bought my first DVD player it cost $500 and all it did was play DVD's. And already I have about ten times more movie choices in the format (the early dvd selection was slow growing) and the ability to play games too.

ssick | February 20, 10:32 CET

So what do you have to be worried about? It'll be years, probably over a decade, before studios stop releasing DVDs and solely focus on high-def.



VHS had been the home movie standard -- I mean in terms of the mainstream -- for eight or nine years before DVD hit. DVD has been 'mainstream' for five years, and won't be replaced for several more.

[ edited by The Dark Shape on 2008-02-20 08:12 ]

The Dark Shape | February 20, 11:11 CET

I hope you're right The Dark Shape.

After having the Btvs VHS Boxsets for years I finally invested in getting the Btvs Chosen Collection a few months back.. and then heard this news.

vampmogs | February 20, 16:05 CET

In truth, I don't think Blu-ray will ever supplant DVD completely. I think it'll get popular, but it'll be kind of a niche geek format -- more Laserdisc on steroids than 'New DVD.' The next big thing that completely takes over the industry and re-defines it will probably be digital downloads.

The Dark Shape | February 20, 20:14 CET

vampmogs, I don't think that Blu-Ray is going to usurp DVDs for a long time. Like The Dark Shape said, it'll be more like a niche market. I purchased the BTVS DVD Chosen Collection a few months back as well (well, I got it for Christmas) and I don't anticipate Blu-Ray (if they decide to release a set in Blu-Ray) making me feel bad about it, given all the prerequisites to being able to play Blu-Ray in the first place, like the HDTV and the player.

The most cost-efficient way to play HD is actually to buy a small HDTV (more to use as a computer monitor, I guess) and watch HD online. "House" is already streaming in HD on Fox.com, and other shows will follow.

CaffeinatedSquint | February 20, 21:21 CET

Also, Xbox Live also has hd movies and tv shows that you can stream right to your tv. I'm most likely going to use that and only purchase dvds or blu-ray dvds (when I get a player) if it's a television show that I like. I love all the special content that comes with a dvd set that you can't get from a movie download.

Firefly Flanatic | February 20, 22:41 CET

I wonder if they release a new version of Serenity on Blu-ray if it will be the special edition version, since as far as I know that was never released on HD DVD.

I also think that the DVD format won't die out for quite some time. Not everyone cares about having a higher definition video and audio and would rather pay the cheaper price for hardware and DVD's.

As for HD downloads, Adobe, Apple and Microsoft have all been pushing HD video through Flash, Quicktime and Silverlight plugins. However, despite that HD downloads still have a long way to go, as while there's capable software and hardware out there it will still be quite a number of years before there's the bandwidth for the average user to download gigs of high-def video that is comparable to what's on a Blu-ray disk.

Matt_Fabb | February 21, 06:45 CET

It's not that they invent new hardware, it's that they maintain the amorals of copyright.

Pumps | February 22, 17:50 CET