Ouch! Current gpu's with linear scaling? This can only hurt larrabee which was hedging its bets that its near linear performance scaling would give it an edge.

I scratched my car today while parking, this makes me feel a whole lot better!

Whoa, slow down. I just read the article where does it say its 50% faster than a 9800GX2! All I can find is this passage: "Delivers 50% more gaming performance over the Company’s previous NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra GPU". Tut tut tut Engadget =)

Laugh all you want... perhaps i'm in the minority here but many of my friends and family can't even tell the difference between upscaled regular dvd's and hd content. If the results of this "super-resolution" is anything close to this: http://compression.ru/video/super_resolution/super_resolution_en.html than color me impressed. If the price is right, I could see this selling very well.

Adam

I'll have all three thanks.

Err, no offence but the installed base is EVERYTHING. If your a game developer all you care about is how many people have the console to run your game. NOT how many people might in the future have a console to play your game... See my point? It doesn't matter that the 360 had a year headstart it still has more consoles sold! The numbers speak for themselves.

Very well, seeing as you felt the need to resort to nit-picking at the minor technical differences it is only fair I point out the flaws in your argument.

You mention that Blu-ray has a larger capacity and is better for high definition media (by this I presume films). Well as cited by Wikipedia “as of September 2007, 40% of Blu-ray titles use the 50 GB disc and 60% use the 25 GB disc while most HD DVD movies are in the 30 GB dual layer format”. This in effect means that the MAJORITY of HD-DVD disks have MORE space than Blu-ray disks.

You then go on to mention that Blu-ray has SLIGHT enhancements over HD-DVD on the maximum audio bitrates. I stress slight as virtually all the reviews I have seen find it very difficult to discern any difference. I highly doubt you will dispute this and have not even bothered to find references to back this up.

Regarding audio, HD-DVD also has a MANDATORY Dolby TrueHD track and higher bitrate Dolby Digital Plus track (refer to wiki again for references of this). This once again stems from the point that HD-DVD has a more complete specification.

You mention that “the format supports a better level of interactivity with BD Java”. Could you please tell me what the basis for this statement is – it’s sure looking slightly biased from here =)

Your arguments then seem to revolve around the point that Blu-ray has more “potential” than HD-DVD. Well this only strengths my point that the Blu-ray specification isn’t truly finalized! Unless you mean the current specification in which like I said HD-DVD has its advantages as well.

This post has already far exceeded the length I intended and I apologise for not addressing more of your points. If there are any in specific I have left out please do say.

To summarise, I hope I have left you with the impression that my views are more than just ill formed.

Argh! It really irritates me that the only reason people seem to be so fond of blu-ray solely because it's included in the PS3. Really its the only way I can justify that the less consumer friendly format is doing so well. Face the facts:

HD-DVD was region free, Blu-ray isn't
HD-DVD had a finalised spec (i.e. every disc works on every player), Blu-ray still doesn't
HD-DVD was cheaper than Blu-ray(not reflected in prices of discs/players but smaller studios will be affected by large liscencing fees)

NOBODY MENTIONS:
HD-DVD's don't need copy protection so I can create HD-DVD's to watch on my player whereas YOU CANNOT DO THIS WITH BLU-RAY!!!

Thanks for supporting the format that hates your guts.

I'll believe it when I see it. These technologies always have a way of dimming the screen/reducing contrast or such like.

Side note: Roll this tech out into book sleeves so I can get my dust free sports almanac!

Adam ftw! (Oh yeah, engadget too!)