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I only have a HDDVD concert that is Eagles' Farewell Tour 1 that never made it to Bluray.
I bought it off used and made a copy into m2ts file and playback using my media player...which looks and sounded really good in fullHD

Ummmmm what?

No offense but how was HD DVD better? It had less space, that alone is enough reason for its death. Have you seen the Avatar Blu Ray just the movie takes a whole 50 GBs. And with the advent of 3D your are most likely going to have to split that in 2 discs. BTW do you know who ended the Blu Vs HD war? Warner Bros, Did you know Warner basically owned HD DVD? They got money off every single player and disc sold period. And they choose Blu Ray in the end because they knew HD DVD was a failure because of its size limits. Blu Ray still might fail because of its size limit

Sorry if it sounds like I am trying to fight. But it just makes me crazy when people still complain about red Vs blu Blu won because it was better. Vhs won because it was cheaper, downloads will win because they are easier

I think there were some really good HD DVD transfers and some mediocre blu ray transfers. Many people were making judgement on the picture quality they were observing.

I remember the Thanksgiving before the format war was finished, there was a $100 HDDVD player at Walmart that I almost bought. When I heard in March the next year that Blu-ray won, I was glad that I didn't get that player. But, now I almost wish that I did. I don't know how many times I've seen sales for new HDDVD's, where you can pick them up for $2 or $3 per title. You can't even get the DVD for that price. Oh well.

Griffith, As I understood it HD-DVD died because Sony paid off the studios to go with their format, with Paramount being the last to jump onboard, plain and simple. HD-DVD was owned and developed by Toshiba, I was unaware of any royalties WB received from that format.

Hey Jake any thing you heard about Blu Ray paying anyone off is kinda true. But hugely exaggerated by Toshiba or someone else mad about Blu winning. First of all Microsoft paid Paramount 50 million to drop Blu Ray Toshiba matched that. And I don't mean eventually I had received stuff to review. Finished product and it never made on the shelves. Because Paramount had to pull all its releases to get the first half of its money. And do you know why Paramount got paid off? Because they was about to go Blu exclusive which would of ended the format war. But Microsoft wanted to keep it alive so rather than just buy support, they bought exclusivity. And do you know why Microsoft did all of that? So that Blu Ray and HD DVD would both die. There are interviews with the top executives were they admit it. You see Microsoft made hardly anything with HD DVD they knew keeping the war alive would make downloading movies a easier choice for people.

Now why did Fox and Warner go Blu simple the PS3, the PS3 was already in twice has many homes as HD DVD. Plus stand alone Blu Ray players were at a 2 to 1 ratio against HD DVD. Did Fox get some loving from Sony for going Blu only, sure but Fox called them. And Warner got nothing they lost billions in potential sales if HD DVD won

And the reason why some HD DVDs looked better than the Blu Ray is because Microsoft was paying for new hi def transfers on HD DVD. But studios had to use 5+ year old DVD transfers for the Blu Ray. Heck it makes sense, why spend your own money just double dip later. Screw the customer


Just wanted to add that Fox choose Really early on. My post made it seem like they came late, but they was on the wagon pretty early.

Isn't that what is all about for the studios anyways?

Yes it is but it's not working anymore, people will not be double dipped with Blu Ray. Its too expensive and offers nothing like what they did with DVDs. Most DVD double dips was for a better transfer and a shit load of extras. Today's double dips for Blu Ray is to give us Iphone apps and shitty live chat

I still have my Toshiba A1 that I purchased in August of 2006, and I have about 30 movies or so. I didn't really care who won to be honest, at the time I liked HD DVD because it was actually out and movies looked good. They were the first in the lossless audio and all that, and that was cool. I have it hooked up along with my BD player and other components and if it dies tomorrow I would try to find an Ebay deal to replace it.

The only complaint I had with HD DVD was the discs are very easy to scratch. I have a Planet Earth episode that 1/2 of it will not play and I have never had this problem with any DVD (or BD) before, in fact if I look at a lot of my HD DVD's they are really in iffy shape even though I am pretty easy on things generally. I can remember people always complaining of NetFlix HD DVD's that wouldn't play for this reason. A lot of the Combo discs that came out in the beginning were defective as well.

I still have my HD-A35 Toshiba player, it still plays great and i've got a stack of movies that i still watch. even when the player dies, i'll keep it as a reminder of the great format war. i also never saw any real logical reason to sell it. folks were carrying on like the players were gonna stop working once blu-ray won, of course that wasn't true. another truth, is i almost never had a problem with movies working, i'd probably tell you it was about 90%+ with that. i have had 4 blu-ray players including the two i have now, Oppo 83 & 80 and all together it's been about 80% and the biggest problem i have had has been with bd-live. i haven't really used bd-live for anything, but it keeps giving my hell. even with the oppo's with i believe are the best blu machines for the money, bd-live still gives them hell. bottom line for me 1080p is 1080p and lossless is lossless, didn't make a difference what format it's on as long as i have those two components. yes i'm aware that hd-dvd was a little slow in getting "heavy" with the lossless but DD+ wasn't too bad, but, nothing is better than lossless!