Blu-Ray specification completed
By Kevin C. Tofel 
posted Jan 8th 2006 3:08PM
posted Jan 8th 2006 3:08PM
In our "it's about time" category, the Blu-Ray Disc Association finally completed the
the Blu-Ray spec. The press release wasn't all that informative on the spec, so we're awaiting further deets on any
last minute changes. Both the 25 and 50GB discs specs were approved which is kind of bummer for the quad-layer (100GB)
Blu-Ray TDK discs we caught a glimpse of at Digital Experience. The good news is that with HD-DVD out of the gate within the next month
or two, Blu-Ray can start catching up; the BDA expects Blu-Ray discs in our hot little hands in the next few
months.
BluRay is the ownage.
Fuck HD-DVD.
50GB phor teh win.
If they included the managed copy feature as announced before, the battle with HD-DVD may continue, otherwise, Blu-Ray is dead. But did thy include iHD, and if not, will it slow down Blu-Ray adoption among content providers?
So wait, there isn't going to be quad-layered Blu-Ray disks? Or are they just not 'approved' yet?
Colossal Storage working on a FIXED HEAD drive version having 000 ms seek and 0 ms latency times with Terabits/sec tranfers rates possible with 10 terabytes on a 3.5 in disk having infinite read/writes.
http://colossalstorage.net
Yeah, it seems like anyone outside of either disc consortium who is willing to predict a winner (rather than suggesting one wait for dual-format drives) predicts Blu-Ray will win the format war. It /is/ too bad though that greater technology "happens" to be coupled with more powerful DRM. At least DRM that lets you access the content at all can never be perfect.
DRM FTL.
i'll keep my DVD's thanks.
Sam, you do realize that without a dollar figure per GB,your statement if quite flawed.
look at DL media today. "omfg+++11!!!!oneone it stores twice as much as a regular dvd" yet how many people buy it? Very few since it is quite a lot more expensive per GB.
Here's a big "Yawn."
Approximately .5% of us can actually get any benefit from the image, and a verified 100% of us will be shooting ourselves in the foot by adopting either of the HD DRM-infected standards.
I went to CES and the BR as well as HD content was sad. If they want us to get excited about one or the other, they'll have to cut the planned obsolescence crap and release 1080p content with DTS HD and Dolby Digital plus right off the bat. I don't think any of us our anxious to double dip on new technology over and over again.
100gb is not approved yet, until the future with faster speeds, become available.
t10 makes an excellent point. Not only does Blu-Ray have heavier royalties, to my understanding, the discs also require some special materials that, last I've heard, are only available from Sony. I wouldn't be surprized if Blu-Ray movies came out at $45 a pop. And I wonder how Sony's partners are going to feel about having to front these royalties in order to produce blu-ray drives only to be severely undercut by the PS3...
Up to this day, the most difficult issue I have with getting people to pick up HDTVs is getting them to care. The average person thinks "Why do I need these digital things? My TV looks fine." You add the extra complexity to just getting an HDTV that wont downconvert everything to begin with, making HDTV look bad. You throw this format war in the mix, both sides adding all sorts of restrictions (and never explaining what the "managed" part of managed copy actually means) and it's entirely possible that both of these formats may sit dead in the water.
We all may just be better off with HDPCs running HD Divx content from ordinary DVDs if it's going to be simpler...
I'd love to see "deets" go the way of "bling" in the Engadget stylebook.
Is there anyway to remove the profanity? It is inappropriate.
Hey Gandingah,
The only way Sony can destroy nintendo is by copying them and using Ninrentdo's ideas.Sony and other video game companies have been doing it from the beggining. The current controller is based off of the NES controller, the rumble feature from the rumble pack on the 64 etc. In my opinion that makes Sony suck. The only way they can compete with Nintendo is to copy them. I am sure that eventually Sony will copy the Revolution controller to be used for first person shooters. A 3rd party has already attempted to do that. If Sony did not copy Nintendo, they would be no match for Nintendo in the video game market. Nintendo is by far the largest video game producer in the world. As far as I know, Sony doesn't make a single game themselves, that is pretty sucky.
There should be a age restriction in this place. I understand the crap i get off of joystiq because its aimed at the videogame crown (I happen to be one) and in that crowd there are some serious fan boys that say mine is bigger than yours all the time, but in here it is intirely inappropriate.
Now I have 2 hdtvs but only the small one in my bedroom has hdmi and dvi. Since neither HDDVD or BlueRay support componnet hd out I will either be forced to upgrade my 2 year old samsung tv or just keep using my dvr and ondemand for hdmovies.. humm wonder how many people will do as I am and skip it until there is a need. Now if the add on for the Xbox 360 works on my pc and via the 360s componnet out then ill be on board with hddvd. I like their controlled back ups better anyway.
Jaswon W: You brought up an interesting point... do yo ureally think HD-DVD sharing via Windows Media Center will allow you to output it via components? That would be a HUGE loophole in their protection. I think they will force you to use HDCP via HDMI or DVI for sure.
Also, I wonder if they will eventually require HDCP for non-broadcast high-def channels.
Does that mean that the rootkit is included in there already?
#12
sorry to say this you suck and you make sony fans look realy stupid.
-DS is outselling the PSP 2:1
-IPOD's are out selling the walkman 5:1
-And the Sony clie-TH55 is getting creamd by the palmOne T3.
atleast look some of this stuff up beffor you talk
#15 and #16
great job, could not have sayd it better
lol i consider myself a technerd and i half understand all this HDMI HDCP stuff...im scared for the avg consumer...who...has absoultely NO idea wat any of this stuff means...and someone brought up a good point..for people who just dropped a few G's on an HDTV...are they really gonna want to BUY a new HDTV just for HDMI or 1080p when they mroe than likely dont know wat that is and when they probably just upgraded thier DVD library..???..i think not...both these formats seem so pointless right now...
Chris G:
"As far as I know, Sony doesn't make a single game themselves, that is pretty sucky."
Then unfortunately, you do not know alot. Sony has created some of the most artistic games ever, which includes both ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, both 'cult classics' and reviewed very well. God of War is also another Sony developed title which has been placed in many gaming website's Top 10 of the year (2005), also including Shadow of the Colossus.
Sony may not make as much games as Nintendo, but the quality of their titles certainly outshine most of Nintendo's (Primarily the infinite Mario titles).
Im sure drm will matter when i download the bluray disc off bittorrent and burn it to a bluray disc. Drm is a failed effort and always will be.
I disagree about Nintendo vs Sony quality #22.
While there are too many Mario variations for my taste, Nintendo's game quality and creativity is the best in the industry. Eight of the top ten titles in Japan right now are Nintendo titles, and it's for a reason.
Sony and MS may understand "cool," but they don't understand "fun."
Did you guys know that sont have allready been selling both blue ray discs and players/bd-rom's for the professional broadcast community for years allready?
http://images.google.com/images?q=xdcam
the discs are very cool-blue and boost a nifty 23gb..
fred
It's Blu-ray, with a little r (for 'rip-off', presumably).
why is it that no one has mentioned the monstrocity of these players as a factor in their purchases, i for one wont be buying these huge machines to put in my living room. they look like there about "2 shoe boxes next to each other" big and i have no need for that right now as my entertainment center is already full of crap, only thing i would accept that size on is a really good, expensive receiver. its the future, we want smaller, not bigger, these players should be about the size of an external cdrom drive enclosure... same with DVD. what the hell has happened to technology and progress...
It seems that DRM is going to hold back the adoption rate of both HD-DVD and Blu-ray. Most HDTV owners, like myself, do not have the correct digital inputs and thus won't be able to play protected high definition movies on our HDTVs. I'm not going to go out and buy a new player just because Sony tells me only 1080P (with their DRM) is the only true HD standard.
Two questions though...
A HD-DVD player is scheduled to be an add-on to the Xbox 360. Since the 360 currently uses analog cables for high def, will there be new digital cables or is there a chance that they will allow the signal to go through the unprotected analog cables?
Will the PS3 require you to play all high definition content through a digital connection? Or are they going to have two different cables, one digital version that allows all games and DRM protected movies, and a analog version that allows high def games, but down-converts DRM'ed movies?
There just isn't enough info out there to make an informed decision on how this war will go. Either way, it's looking like the consumer is the one who is going to lose.
hehe no. 22 Zero_ guy, Sony did NOT make ICO or Shadow, they merely published them. Sony do own some developers but most of their 'stable' are independant companies that Sony publishes, not owns. Nintendo's ownership of key developers is one of the reasons they are a much much more profitable company than Sony. People tend to forget that Nintendo have been the biggest games company in terms of earnings every year since about 1986 :)
Why are we doing this again tell sony to fuck off with
thier blu-ray shit because I am sick and tired of these companies that want to rip us off. I don't care that it hold 56gb or whatever. Do you really think that you need all of that space for a game that will only be 9gb this is complete bullshit shut them down NOW!! before it's to late. Otherwise it's going to be very expensive for us the people who have to buy this over priced garbage.
so my question is will standard dvds still exist? becuase am not buying a new dvd player my dvd player has HDMI thats hi-def enough for me. also what about the people who dont have hi-def tvs