Blue-Ray or HD DVD

[hairlesswookiee]

Here's a link:

BUY ONE GET ONE FREE AT AMAZON

thanks man, but what do you usually type in when you search for this stuff??? blu ray deals or specials?? im probably gonna buy a used PS3 soon and just use the money i saved to buy some extra movies.

 

[tomandshell]

I found this through a direct link from another site. It's not very easy to navigate and find it if you just go to Amazon and look.

 

[hairlesswookiee]

yeah thats why i keep getting frustrated when you guys find these deals, and when i go to search for them nothing comes up. what site do you visit??

 

[tomandshell]

I visit these on a regular basis:

https://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/

https://thedigitalbits.com/

https://www.avsforum.com/

If there's a good deal going on, you will usually find a mention of it on the boards at the AVS Forum.

 

[King Darkness]

Sweet, picked up The Prestige and Ladder 29 for $24 shipped. Thanks Tom.

 

[hairlesswookiee]

ok im trying out the pirates and the prestige, but it still has the price set at $49. does it subtract the price for one of them before you submit the order or what??

 

[King Darkness]

ok im trying out the pirates and the prestige, but it still has the price set at $49. does it subtract the price for one of them before you submit the order or what??

yeah, once you get to the final check out it subtracts the lowest priced dvd.

 

[darthviper107]

They should do this for HD-DVD so I can get new movies...

 

[Reinhardt]

They should do this for HD-DVD so I can get new movies...

i agree completely!

 

[Radagaster]

Actually, the deal that Natrix mentioned at Circuit City was the best deal. It was basically half-off any HD movie $29.99 and under. So, I bought the following for $15 or $12 before taxes:

1) FF: Silver Surfer BD
2) Transformers HD
3) Casino Royale BD
4) Enter the Dragon HD
5) Road Warrior HD
6) Polar Express HD
7) Troy: Director's Cut BD
8) Flags of our Fathers HD
9) Chicago BD
10) Swordfish HD
11) King Kong HD
12) Sky Captain HD
13) Tomb Raider BD

It turned out it was a system glitch on Circuit City's part and they marked all their BD/HD discs as half-off. They finally caught up with the glitch today. But still . . . Transformers HD for $15 can't be beat.

 

[Natrix]

Actually, the deal that Natrix mentioned at Circuit City was the best deal. It was basically half-off any HD movie $29.99 and under. So, I bought the following for $15 or $12 before taxes:

1) FF: Silver Surfer BD
2) Transformers HD
3) Casino Royale BD
4) Enter the Dragon HD
5) Road Warrior HD
6) Polar Express HD
7) Troy: Director's Cut BD
8) Flags of our Fathers HD
9) Chicago BD
10) Swordfish HD
11) King Kong HD
12) Sky Captain HD
13) Tomb Raider BD

It turned out it was a system glitch on Circuit City's part and they marked all their BD/HD discs as half-off. They finally caught up with the glitch today. But still . . . Transformers HD for $15 can't be beat.

Yep, I was just going to mention that it sounds like CC caught up with the glitch and don't have the deal anymore. I did pick up a lot of movies yesterday but was going to go back tonight for one last trip, oh well.

 

[hairlesswookiee]

They should do this for HD-DVD so I can get new movies...

yes this is true... but now that i have Transformers everything else seems inadequate.

 

[Bullseye]

yes this is true... but now that i have Transformers everything else seems inadequate.

Including the audio track nodoubt.

 

[Natrix]

Including the audio track nodoubt.

Audio track is great. Maybe you need to read the article I linked to earlier to know more about the audio specs...

 

[hairlesswookiee]

oh yeah.. i have a basic 5.1 surround, but even that still rocks!!! i cant imagine what you guys with the super systems are experiencing. whats another great HD movie to pick up that will show off my new HDTV?? click my link to see what i currently have, and tell whats new that i should pick up.

 

[Bullseye]

Lack of space for quality audio will be the downfall of HD-DVD. The review form highfidigest is incredible as he asked Paramount why there was no TrueHD or PCM and they responded due to lack of space.

BTW I was neutral and have about 40 HD-DVD titles. The picture transfer is fantastic but there is more to home cinema than pictures. Sound is also extremely important. I have now gone exclusively Blu Ray.

 

[Natrix]

Lack of space for quality audio will be the downfall of HD-DVD. The review form highfidigest is incredible as he asked Paramount why there was no TrueHD or PCM and they responded due to lack of space.

BTW I was neutral and have about 40 HD-DVD titles. The picture transfer is fantastic but there is more to home cinema than pictures. Sound is also extremely important. I have now gone exclusively Blu Ray.

Bulls I know how biased you are from other boards. You make is sound like there is no sound improvement over DVD. I guarantee that you haven't seen or heard Transformers on HD-DVD yet you continue to bash it. All the review praise the sound quality for Transformers. Read what I have highlighted in the paragraph below. If a studio feels that the sound is excellent and transparent to the original master, why not use the extra space for the video instead. I agree that a lossless track might be a little more impressive but most people with home systems wouldn't be able to tell a difference anyway. It still kick @$$ regardless. I love how all Blu Ray backers go back to the numbers game...(I support both formats and both are huge improvements so I have no bias on way or the other)

Would you tell me that one of Blu Ray's vaunted audio codecs DTS HD (which all most people can get right now is the 1.5 M core unless they buy a new player or receiver) at 1.5M is crappy? That would be a pretty realistic comparison to DD+ at 1.5M (which Transformers is), which is better than a DTS 1.5 M core. Granted if they want to drop several thousand they can play the master at full bitrate, but how many people outside of the HT enthusiasts would know the difference or will drop that much just for increased audio which is already better than what they have previously heard?

From the article I previously linked to...

Dolby Digital Plus
What it is: DD+ is the base standard audio format for HD DVD. Unlike its application on Blu-ray, DD+ on HD DVD does not utilize a core+extension configuration. The format can be encoded at bit rates of 640 kb/s (considered equivalent to Blu-ray's use of standard Dolby Digital at that same rate) or 1509 kb/s. However, note that although the latter version of DD+ shares the same bit rate as standard DTS, this does not mean that these two are equivalent to one another. DD+ uses better encoding and more efficient compression to provide improved quality at the same rate. At least one professional Hollywood sound mixer has described Dolby Digital Plus at 1509 kb/s as audibly transparent to the studio master.
Level of support: All players are required to support Dolby Digital Plus.
Examples of discs that use it: Almost all domestic HD DVD releases. Discs from Warner Bros. default to the lower 640 kb/s rate, while those from Universal and Paramount tend to favor the higher 1509 kb/s (with some exceptions).
How to get it:

* Toslink or Coaxial SPDIF - SPDIF cannot transmit DD+ in full quality. When using this connection method, the player will decode the DD+ and then transcode it to either standard Dolby Digital AC-3 or sometimes even DTS (depending on player model).
* HDMI - Almost all HD DVD players decode the DD+ track internally to PCM for transmission over HDMI. Some may transmit the DD+ bitstream to a receiver instead (HDMI 1.3 required).
* Multi-channel analog - In this case, the player decodes the DD+ track and converts it to analog. The quality of the DACs in the player will determine the resulting sound quality.

 

[Bullseye]

I have no doubt its better than standard DVD audio but its still not "The Standard" PCM and i have not made it sound like there was no improvement as i never even mentioned SDDVD. I know not all BDs do not have PCM but that is down to the lazyiness of the studio and not because there is a lack of space. I am certainly not happy with WB releasing substandard audio on their BD releases and Sony have alot to answer for the Spidey 1 and 2 audios (no doubt a double dip is in order) but the BD technology allows for PCM which HD-DVD cannot (why do you think HD-DVD are trying to develop a 51Gig disc). There is no arguing that point. Why waste a perfectly good speaker system on an audio track which could have been better.

I am unashamed to say I am a BD supporter because:
1). They can provide HiDef picture
and
2) Because they can provide PCM.

As an audio and visual fan these are the most important aspects for me. I accept that this is not everyones opinion. I have no interest in extras which are not even hi-def to start with. In saying that i did enjoy the interview with Stan Lee on the Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer BD.

The studio did not leave out PCM so that they could put the extras on. They left it out because they did not have the space.

BTW Natrix i am hardly any more biased towards on format than the other than you. I posted a BD BOGO thread and you posted a HD-DVD deal in that thread lol.

Bulls I know how biased you are from other boards. You make is sound like there is no sound improvement over DVD. I guarantee that you haven't seen or heard Transformers on HD-DVD yet you continue to bash it. All the review praise the sound quality for Transformers. Read what I have highlighted in the paragraph below. If a studio feels that the sound is excellent and transparent to the original master, why not use the extra space for the video instead. I agree that a lossless track might be a little more impressive but most people with home systems wouldn't be able to tell a difference anyway. It still kick @$$ regardless. I love how all Blu Ray backers go back to the numbers game...(I support both formats and both are huge improvements so I have no bias on way or the other)

Would you tell me that one of Blu Ray's vaunted audio codecs DTS HD (which all most people can get right now is the 1.5 M core unless they buy a new player or receiver) at 1.5M is crappy? That would be a pretty realistic comparison to DD+ at 1.5M (which Transformers is), which is better than a DTS 1.5 M core. Granted if they want to drop several thousand they can play the master at full bitrate, but how many people outside of the HT enthusiasts would know the difference or will drop that much just for increased audio which is already better than what they have previously heard?

From the article I previously linked to...

Dolby Digital Plus
What it is: DD+ is the base standard audio format for HD DVD. Unlike its application on Blu-ray, DD+ on HD DVD does not utilize a core+extension configuration. The format can be encoded at bit rates of 640 kb/s (considered equivalent to Blu-ray's use of standard Dolby Digital at that same rate) or 1509 kb/s. However, note that although the latter version of DD+ shares the same bit rate as standard DTS, this does not mean that these two are equivalent to one another. DD+ uses better encoding and more efficient compression to provide improved quality at the same rate. At least one professional Hollywood sound mixer has described Dolby Digital Plus at 1509 kb/s as audibly transparent to the studio master.
Level of support: All players are required to support Dolby Digital Plus.
Examples of discs that use it: Almost all domestic HD DVD releases. Discs from Warner Bros. default to the lower 640 kb/s rate, while those from Universal and Paramount tend to favor the higher 1509 kb/s (with some exceptions).
How to get it:

* Toslink or Coaxial SPDIF - SPDIF cannot transmit DD+ in full quality. When using this connection method, the player will decode the DD+ and then transcode it to either standard Dolby Digital AC-3 or sometimes even DTS (depending on player model).
* HDMI - Almost all HD DVD players decode the DD+ track internally to PCM for transmission over HDMI. Some may transmit the DD+ bitstream to a receiver instead (HDMI 1.3 required).
* Multi-channel analog - In this case, the player decodes the DD+ track and converts it to analog. The quality of the DACs in the player will determine the resulting sound quality.

 

[hairlesswookiee]

umm.. i doubt HD DVD has space issues to worry about. last i heard they can put 45gb on a dual layer disc which isn't that much less than the blu ray disc which i thought could put out 50

 

[Bullseye]

umm.. i doubt HD DVD has space issues to worry about. last i heard they can put 45gb on a dual layer disc which isn't that much less than the blu ray disc which i thought could put out 50

Well Paramount did say there was not enough space for TrueHD or PCM.

You may have read but its still not fact. Also Toshiba hinted that the 51gig disc may also need new hardware, ie a new HD_DVD player to play that disc. Its unclear as to whether they will be employed for movies or as hard drives.