Digital Home Thoughts: Blu-ray vs. HD DVD: Round Two

"This past Tuesday, Warner Home Video released their second wave of Blu-ray titles. Led by 'Firewall,' 'Lethal Weapon,' 'Blazing Saddles' and 'Full Metal Jacket,' it was yet another diverse batch from the studio -- disparate in age, genre and style. And like Warner's first Blu-ray wave in early August, all four titles had already made their HD DVD debuts, so that meant we here at High Def Digest could partake yet again in one of our favorite sports in the high-def format war, the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD comparison. What made us even more eager this time around to assess Warner's latest Blu-ray batch is that in only the few short weeks since our first head-to-head test drive, the stakes have been raised even higher for both formats, and not a week seems to go by without a major new development that ups the ante. The developing controversy over VC-1 and MPEG-2 has now turned into full-on battle of the dueling codecs, one few saw coming just a few months ago. "



There has been a lot of activity recently in the Blu-ray and HD DVD arena, for example: the new audio options coming to Blu-ray and HD DVD, including the much-anticipated Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio lossless formats. This article talks about a number of the new technologies that have just been announced or are on the horizon and one thing is clear - the coming few months should give us great leaps forward in video and audio quality, interactivity, supplemental features and overall value for dollar. Overall, the article seems to conclude that the high-def format will be farther along than DVD was in a comparable timeframe after its launch, if all predictions hold true.