DVDGuy’s Blog @ Digital Digest

So by now you all must have heard about Warner Brother’s decision to go Blu-ray exclusive from May 2008. Make no mistake about it, this is a huge blow for HD DVD. Almost a third of all HD DVD releases come from Warner, and without their releases, the  number of HD DVD releases will look quite poor compared to Blu-ray. HD DVD still has a chance though, but it depends on Paramount and Universal sticking with the format and on one of the Blu-ray exclusive studios to go red (or at least neutral). But what does this all mean for the HD consumer?

The good news is that, if HD DVD decides to throw in the towel, the HD format war will effectively end and HD format confusion will be a thing of the past. This is good for the type of consumers that don’t really know or care about formats, and simply want to stick a disc in the player and press play. It will also help retail outlets as their floor space is limited and having two formats makes things a lot more difficult. Even for HD DVD owners, the short term might be good in that Warner HD DVD prices might drop in order to clear stock (and if Paramount/Universal follows, their movies will be discounted too), so there’s some bargains to be picked up soon.

The bad new for consumers is that a victory for Blu-ray is a victory for region-control and DRM. Reading the forums, even some Blu-ray supporters are not entirely happy if this leads to Warner adding region control to their discs. For those not lucky enough to live in a Blu-ray Region A zone (US, Canada), we are stuck with poor selections, high prices and late releases (the release date for Ratatouille has been pushed back yet again to March, even though the DVD version will be released locally next week and people in Region A has been able to enjoy the movie for months now). Without the format war, there will also be less Buy One Get One Free sales, and the Blu-ray people have already hinted at stopping the hardware price drops, even before the Warner announcement. And what about Profile 2.0? There is no Blu-ray player on the market that can match the feature set of a $99 HD DVD player, and with HD DVD possibly fading away, there won’t be any pressure for the Blu-ray people to release cheap 2.0 players anytime soon or even make 2.0 mandatory. And when 2.0 players are eventually released, will we see them at $99, or will it be closer to $999? So higher hardware and movie prices might be something we may have to accept, and that’s not really good for consumers at all.

And the ugly? Blu-ray also supports more DRM, including BD+. This will mean that people wanting to backup their movies or to convert them to a more portable format will find things very difficult indeed. The AACS has promised the managed copy function, but only at the insistence of the HD DVD supporters (since Blu-ray also uses AACS, they went along reluctantly as well). With managed copy, you are allowed to make a limited number of copies of the movie, including for portable devices – it’s the only part of the AACS DRM that is slightly consumer friendly. Microsoft and HP specifically forced managed copy to be implemented as a mandatory feature because their vision of the home computer is all about networking and home servers – managed copy allows this to become a reality. But with the HD DVD supporters out of the picture, will be ever see managed copy or will it be scrapped in favour or more hard-line DRM that will prevent server based movie playback? Nobody knows.

It’s probably a bit premature to eulogise the HD DVD format, because I feel there are still some twist and turns in the coming months. But for what it’s worth, having HD DVD has forced movie and player prices to drop much faster than expected. It has also forced managed copy to be accepted by Blu-ray (whether they implement it or not, is another question). The majority of HD DVD releases being 30 GB has meant that Blu-ray, initially favouring 25 GB releases, has ramped up their support for BD-50 discs. HD DVD’s use of next-gen video codecs has also forced Blu-ray to implement MPEG-4 AVC support faster than they would have liked, since they originally preferred the inferior MPEG-2 format. And even today, HD DVD’s interactive features lead the way, forcing Blu-ray to speed up their profile 1.1 and 2.0 release schedules. My opinion is that HD DVD has had a far more positive effect on the HD market than Blu-ray with their Profile, region and DRM confusion, so it’s a shame to see Warner abandon a format that wanted to do the right thing by the consumer.

So having one HD format is great, but that one format being the region control and DRM loving Blu-ray format might not be so great. One can only hope that Warner continues their region-free approach to releases, and that it forces other Blu-ray studios to consider doing the same. If HD DVD will truly end as a format, then I hope the current HD DVD backers will get on-board Blu-ray and force the BDA to implement some of the best things about HD DVD, like one single profile, region-free movies, less DRM, managed copy and cheaper hardware prices.

The next few months will be very interesting indeed…

So here we are, the very last blog entry of 2007. Not much in the news recently (not that I’ve been paying any attention), so I’ve supplemented this otherwise short blog with a brief look back at 2007, should be interesting.

But to get the news stuff out of the way first.

In copyright news, Antigua has won a fight against the US which will now allow it to (once again) become a pirate and gambling haven. Or something like that. While this decision has a lot to do with online gambling, it also has copyright implications. While I can’t talk about it directly on this website, many people are aware that Antigua is home to a particular software that does certain things to protected video content. It now seem that this software, and software like it, might have found a safe place to reside without being subject to copyright laws of other countries. But a safe home might not be needed for much longer, as DRM in music at least appears to be dying a quick death. Warner, the last major holdout, has just agreed to release all their music DRM-free on Amazon. The next obvious step will be to get rid of DRM on movies, although it probably won’t happen as quickly since the movie DRMs usually reside on discs, rather than online formats. It’s not like music where DRM obstructs portability, which is the whole point of digital music downloads. DRM does not, at the moment, interfere with the normal operation of movie discs, other than being not able to backup your movies (which you’d be hard pressed to do with Blu-ray and HD DVDs, what with them being so large in size).

Moving quickly onto HD movies, apparently The Bourne Ultimatum and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix HD DVDs are outselling all Blu-ray titles this week, including the Blu-ray version of OOTP. This is not too surprising because Bourne is a format exclusive hit movie, and that the Blu-ray version of OOTP has had several production and distribution problems. In the end though, Blu-ray still won the week by nearly a 2:1 margin again. All those PS3s are really helping Blu-ray’s movie sales – even if every PS3 owner just buys only one movie, that will still give Blu-ray a huge advantage even if HD DVD owners buy 3 or 4 movies per player. What I think will happen eventually is that the HD DVD movie sales number will go up due to the people who purchased the cheap $99 HD DVD players (and subsequent sales) finally starting to purchase some movies. Remember that all the HD DVD players came with up to 12 free movies, so there is no immediate reason for people to buy titles until they’ve finished watching the free ones. And once Universal and Paramount start releasing their catalogue titles (older classics, such as Back to the Future or The Godfather), then the numbers will be more even. That’s my prediction for 2008 by the way, and it’s the only prediction I’m going to make since I suck at them. Speaking of sales, don’t forget to keep looking at our special online sales page for high def bargains. The current HD DVD BOGOF sale is going very well, with more than 20 HD DVD titles in the Amazon top 100 movies at times (the top 100 includes DVD, Blu-ray as well as HD DVD sales). Amazon has even released a statement saying they they sold so many high-def players that it could have filled seven (American) football fields. If you’re still confused about Blu-ray and HD DVD, don’t forget to read my new Buyer’s Guide, which even if I’m saying so myself, is pretty useful if you still need more information to make up your mind as to whether to get into HD or not (or which one of Blu-ray/HD DVD/both).

And that’s pretty much it in terms of news.

So onto the yearly review. 2007 has been an interesting year for myself and Digital Digest. The biggest even happened in March. I still cannot legally say much about what went on, except to say that it was a legal matter and that, for a while at least, it appeared that Digital Digest might not have survived to its 8th birthday (which was celebrated in July this year). But survive I/we did, and I think the website is a better one for it – there’s no longer any confusion toward its legal status, and it has forced me to concentrate on some other parts of the website which has been neglected (such as the Blu-ray and HD DVD stuff).

But apart from that, I think 2007 is when Blu-ray and HD DVD finally entered into people’s thoughts, if not their homes (I think this will happen in 2008). This time last year, nobody really gave a damn about the format war or sales figures. Paramount was still format neutral, and you wouldn’t even think possible that a HD player’s price would fall under $100. But from what I have seen, people are starting to think about getting into HD, and while it may still take a year for most people to start caring, I think the trend is there.

Another war that has been brewing is the next-gen games console war, a three way fight between the Nintendo Wii, the Xbox 360 and the PS3. You might say that there are really no losers in this war, at least not for 2007, since in their own way all three consoles have made significant gains. The Wii has become a fad, attracting people who have never played games before. The Xbox 360 has held firm despite RROD problems, while the PS3 looks less like the whipping boy that it was at the start of the year. 2008 should probably see the PS3 make more gains, while we might yet see some new innovations coming the Wii’s way.

2007 is also the year music DRM finally died. To be fair, it was a short and bitter life for music DRM – it never really had any chance because it’s hated by the most important demographics – the actual consumers. Hopefully, 2008 will be the year video DRM dies too, with CSS, AACS and BD+ being hacked beyond all recognition, I don’t think DRM will be missed at all, not even by the studios.

So that’s it for 2007. I hope you’ve had an eventful and pleasant 2007, and if not, I hope that 2008 will be much kinder. Happy New Year from me and everyone here at Digital Digest. See you in 2008.

Not too long to go until 2008. For some reason, I keep on thinking it’s already 2008. Whenever a new year is reached, I usually feel quite strange writing out the new year in dates, but for some reason, I just don’t feel that way with 2008. Strange.

I’ve previously blogged about the GeForce 8800 GT, calling it the card that everyone has been waiting for (a bit of an exaggeration, I know). In the last month, both ATI and NVIDIA have released new/updated cards that I think is worth blogging about, because these cards now give serious competition to he 8800 GT.

First from ATI is the Radeon HD 3870 (3850 also available). I remember a time when ATI meant the fastest GPU that you can buy. But recently, NVIDIA has managed to keep ATI at arm’s length when it comes to performance, with the Radeon HD 2xxx series being rather disappointing. The 3870 aims to correct this. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really come close, and the low recommended price of the unit suggests even ATI knows this. 3D performance wise, you will be better off with any of the 8800 series – the performance of the 3870 is certainly better than that of the 2xxx series, but that’s not really saying much. But in video performance, especially HD acceleration, the 3870 is probably the best card available on the market, as it features ATI’s AVIVO HD and UVD acceleration. Both H.264, and possibly more importantly, VC-1, receive full hardware accleration, which will be much appreciated when people start to watch Blu-ray or HD DVD movies on your computer. You certainly can’t beat the price, so it would be a good card to built a home theatre PC around, a system that will give you excellent HD playback, as well as fairly decent gaming (which past HTPCs were mostly incapable of). The card comes with HDMI output, so ATI’s thinking behind the card is also HTPC oriented. You can read a full review of the 3870 and 3850 here.

The other new GPU is actually just a refresh of an existing range, the 8800 GTS. The original 8800 GTS came in 320 and 640 MB varieties. Some will remember that I recommended this GPU for the first “If I were to buy a computer today” feature back in September. It now uses a version of the G92 chip first introduced in the 8800 GT, and scales back the RAM from 640 MB to 512 MB. The new chip uses the 65 nm process, as compared to the 90 nm process in previous chips, so clock speed can now be ramped up to levels exceeding the GTX version and closer to the Ultra. In other words, it’s just a more efficient chip and the reason why the 8800 GT performs so well. The reduced process means more power efficiency and a cooler chip, which allowed the 8800 GT to be a single height card (but the 8800 GTS is a double height card like the Radeon HD 3870). But what does this all mean? Well, it simply means the 8800 GTS 512 MB is a kick-ass card 3D wise that will often outperform the more expensive 8800 GTX. In video/HD wise, it gives you the same acceleration as the 8800 GT, which in itself was a big improvement over the acceleration offered by all the other 8800 GPUs. Pricing wise, it should be closer to the 320 MB version of the GTS, rather than the 640 MB version – it’s about $100 more than the 3870, and about $50 more than the GT. You can read a full review of the 8800 GTS 512 MB here.

So how does the new 8800 GTS compare to the Radeon HD 3870? NVIDIA’s PureVideo HD does not support full VC-1 hardware accleration (it only supports partial acceleration), so the video performance is not as good as the 3870. So instead of close to zero percent CPU utilization, you might be seeing something like 10 to 15% on say mid-range Intel CPU. For those with slower CPUs, the 3870 might be a good choice to prevent CPU spikes that cause break-ups in playback. Otherwise, the 8800 GT/GTS will offer more than enough acceleration power to give you smooth playback.

But if gaming is a concern, than both the 8800 GT and GTS 512 MB are simply better choices. The latest games, like Crysis or Call of Duty 4, all require massive amounts of power and the 3870 is just not able to give you that. You feel that the 3870, had it been released about a year ago, would have been the card to have, but it really feels like too little too late from ATI at this time. For about $50 or $100 more, you can get the GT or GTS which will provide 15 to 25% better performance – the GT is even more suitable for a HTPC environment since it is a single height card and even a passive cooling version is available. The inferior HD acceleration found on the NVIDIA range is something I hope NVIDIA will address soon, but it’s not a huge deal considering the low price of mid to high range CPUs these days.

As for whether you should get the GT or GTS, it really depends on how much you are willing to pay for the extra 3D performance. For $50 more, it’s probably not a huge risk to go with the GTS.

Welcome to the penultimate WNR of 2007. I love the word penultimate, I once thought that it was just a short way of saying the phrase “the pen is mightier than the sword”. I think I know what the word means now. It’s been a relatively quiet week, mainly because I haven’t been paying much attention as I’ve been writing my penultimate buyer’s guide for Blu-ray and HD DVD.

First up in copyright news is a legal analysis of the Sony BMG rootkit scandal, a look at why a company would try and do something so stupid and harmful to themselves. Speaking of doing harm to yourselves, TorrentSpy has lost their case against the MPAA because they were found to have destroyed evidence. If only they had been upfront about it, it might have made a more interesting and penultimately more successful legal battle. As someone who has personally being involved in a legal battle, I can honestly say that being truthful is your best weapon, especially if you truly believe you were correct in doing whatever you did to get you into trouble. Once you start destroying evidence and being evasive, it becomes a reflection of your guilt and the lawyers on the other side, as well as judges, can see it as clear as day.

Next up is HD  news. Digital Playground is releasing their first ever Blu-ray adult title after having released about a dozen ones on HD DVD. Ironically (or not), the movie “Pirates” is a spoof the popular Blu-ray hit “Pirates of the Caribbean”. Digital Playground was initial format neutral before giving up Blu-ray due to resistance within the US to adult Blu-ray disc pressing. They have now gone back to Blu-ray due to user demand, and Sony’s less harsh views towards pornography. The PS3 has been upgraded to Profile 1.1 as expected (so all those who took my advice about buying the PS3 for profile upgradability will be happy to read this news). The same update, also as I had predicted (in a forum post somewhere), also included DivX/XviD support, although initial tests show that it’s a bit disappointing compared to the 360’s support (no GMC/QPel support, which makes it equivalent to a standalone player from about 2 years ago). Meanwhile, hackers have redirected the Blu-ray website to point to the HD DVD one. Will Blu-ray supporting hackers retaliate? Are there any Blu-ray supporting hackers? I would think not many due to Blu-ray’s love for DRM, but you never know. And it’s been a bad week or two for Warner Brothers, as no less than three of their new Blu-ray releases contain glitches that will require disc replacement. I wonder how they managed to produce Blu-ray discs that were actually HD DVDs (don’t they use different manufacturing presses?), and how duplicated discs managed to get past quality assurance. Putting my Michael Bay Tin Foil Hat® on for a second, could this be a signal of Warner’s decision to go format exclusive early in the new year? Perhaps they just don’t care for Blu-ray as much as they do for HD DVD. Maybe the extra manufacturing cost and lower yields for Blu-ray discs means less money and time for QA? Or perhaps the Blu-ray manufacturing plant has had one hell of a Christmas party a few weeks ago that people are still being affected by it. Who knows. It is curious that they have not managed to stuff up any HD DVD discs, which have had the same number of releases as Blu-ray ones from Warner. HD DVD had glitches with the first batch of combo discs, but that was understandable since it was a new type of disc. Blu-ray’s recent glitches also include Disney’s “Pirates: Curse of the Black Pearl”, which had framing problems, and a replacement program is available for the disc.

In gaming news, most gaming sites now have results up for their “games of the year”. Halo 3 is on almost everybody’s list, as is Bioshock. Super Mario Galaxy is a sure thing as well. Mass Effect has received lots of awards and critical acclaim, and I’m not surprised at all after discovering the developer’s previous effort, Knights of the Old Republic II, a year or two ago. You can submit your vote for the game of the year on Digital Digest here. And having just tried the Call of Duty 4 demo on my 3 year old PC, I was surprised to find that it ran quite smoothly even though I was barely able to get Call of Duty 2 running in 640×480 on the same computer a year ago. And it looked quite good too, unlike most new games that I play on my aging system. And in something I will talk about more next week, there are a few new GPUs from ATI and NVIDIA that improves 3D performance and HD video acceleration – will they take the crown away from the 8800 GT, my currently recommended GPU? Find out next week.

See you next week.

Lately, I’ve received more and more questions regarding either HD formats. It seems more and more “average Joe” types are starting to get interested in HD movies, which is not that surprising considering the amount of public attention (on the Internet, anyway) that the format war has been gathering, as well as the price war that is going on (I’m sure a lot of people heard about the $99 HD DVD player sale from a month or two ago).

Now normally, I would just refer people to my High Definition DVD FAQ – my goal in behind writing this FAQ was so that I didn’t have to answer the same old questions again and again. But as the FAQ was written a long time ago, before you could even buy into Blu-ray or HD DVD, it does not cover a lot on buying tips and such. And I don’t think this kind of FAQ should cover shopping tips anyway.

So with this in mind, I’ve decided to write a Blu-ray/HD DVD Buyer’s Guide. This short guide will cover these points:

• Why you should want to buy into Blu-ray/HD DVD
• Blu-ray vs HD DVD
• Blu-ray buying tips
• HD DVD buying tips
• HD sound systems
• Buying accessories
• And more …

Update (26th December): I have now finished the guide, which you can read by clicking on the link below:

The Blu-ray and HD DVD Buyer’s Guide