The format war is over: BluRay wins...

You can run the web page through BabelFish to translate it from Japnese to English.

BabelFish is here:
http://babelfish.altavista.com

Copy and paste the web link into the "Translate a web page" text field and then select "Japanese to English" from the comboBox next to the translate button and a translated page will pop up. Even the links from subsequent pages will be run through the translator.

BabelFish is a very handy Web Resource.

I am a little disappointed, because I was rooting for HD-DVD...

Hey Cub. I'm with you here. I was rooting for HD-DVD, too. Although, I have to admit that BluRay is a sexier name.

I was severely bummed to hear that Blu-Ray was the new standard. It's been going in that direction for a few months now. I too was rooting for HD-DVD as well. It's not that I don't like Blu-Ray (dumb name though) it's just that I hate the blue cases. I thought the burgundy HD-DVD cases looked a lot cooler and more classy than the bright blue eyesore that was Blu-Ray. Sure Blu-Ray is slightly technically superior but I never really gave a damn about either format as neither really had that fantastic a difference anyway. To not have those burgundy cases though . . . just heart breaking.

Blu Ray fails simply because my PS3's Blu Ray drive killed itself just the other day.

DVD FTW! fork these HD formats, their drives are cheap ass Chinese crap that breaks easily.

The only reason why anyone would want/need a HD format would be because they have a 50" screen. Anything less and it looks just like a DVD. For video games I don't really see a point since most games these days still only rarely ever come on 2 DVDs at a time. Unless we started using Textures at a size of say 1000000x1000000 then maybe HD media would have its usage for games.. But as it stands it is heavy overkill.. As its been stated majority of the PS3 games barely fill 5% of the discs they are on.

I have no idea why Playstation made their games Blu Ray.. its a bit excessive really when you consider Xbox 360 uses DVD and looks just as good. But then the CDs are the same price so I don't feel so bad.

I just want to see them bring Bluray prices down, bring the quality up and fix a lot of the issues we've been having up to this point. Its bullshit.

I have BluRay.

Blue my favorite color.
I was rooting for BluRay.

DrPaul wrote:You can run the web page through BabelFish to translate it from Japnese to English.

BabelFish is here:
http://babelfish.altavista.com

Copy and paste the web link into the "Translate a web page" text field and then select "Japanese to English" from the comboBox next to the translate button and a translated page will pop up. Even the links from subsequent pages will be run through the translator.

BabelFish is a very handy Web Resource.

Thanks for the tip Doc... I was able to read a lot of it in Japanese anyway, hence why I did not bother running BabelFish... I got the gist of it.

Back on topic though, the reason why I was going for HD-DVD is becuase Sony have never had a good track record when it comes to managing media formats, and if they were to win this format war I only imagined they would let it get to their heads and make more bad descisions for the consumers. Only time will tel now that they have actually won.

Also, the fact that it costs almost 3x as much to produce a BluRay disk in the production stage compared to DVD, it will hurt the film industry a bit... especially when it comes to piracy, seeing as many people have already come up with 3rd party formats which can be used to rip content off a BluRay disc and upload to the web at the size of a single layer DVD, yet still maintain the quality (pirates are getting good, I must admit). So basically, film companies spend so much more than they do on DVD producing their titles on BluRay only to have piracy find a more efficient way of getting HD content to the dishonest consumer.

It is a shame, but we can only hope Sony will manage it well (god help us) and that they don't raise prices on players now there is no competition. But the good news is HD-DVD player will plummit in price along with the titles so buy up now!!

-Cub. =o)

You can READ Japanese? Yikes, that's good.

Demonlawyer wrote:You can READ Japanese? Yikes, that's good.

I can only recognise the Hiragana and some Katakana characters... Kanji though (the chinese based symbols) are a pain, and I won't bother with those, but you can usually get the gist of what they represent when mixed with the other characters.

That reminds me, I need to do my homework (since xmas!) or my tutor will kill me!

-Cub. =o)

WOO-HOO!!!! I kind of saw all this coming anyway, but the "nail in the coffin" news is nice too This trend has been heavily hinted at in the months leading up to these reports. A trip to my local JB HI-FI is evidence of this. The Blu-ray stand is double the size of the HD-DVD. I've had PS3 from day one, so my loyalty to blu-ray has been a concrete one, especially with my 42 inch 1080i/p TV

So far I have:

Mission Impossible 1/2/3
Airforce 1
Casino Royale
Enemy of the state
Die Hard 4.0


Aiming to get Black Hawk Down, Stagate Atlantis S1, Blade Runner, Independence Day...that's it for now.

I've been more of a fan of Blu-ray simply because it can potentially hold much more data then HD-DVD. That might not matter all the time but the idea of having say all of Star Trek TNG Season 1 or 2 or 3 etc. on one disc is awesome.

I was kind of hoping that Blu-Ray was gonna be kind of like Lazer Discs and just die off quietly without a sound...
Everything else is HD, why shouldn't our DVDs be too... HD TV, HD this, HD that HD over there, Blu-Ray... Just doesn't quite go together does it???

im just glad i didnt bother at all yet with upgrading my home cinema set things change so fast now adays anyways.

Yeah, but you have to Upgrade at some point and I'll be willing to bet you that something will be Incompatible... lol