Happy Holidays Santa Clarita! There are many things you should be thinking about as you go through December. Where will we go for the Holiday dinner? Where will I do my last – minute shopping? Why am I reading this article when I should be out buying that new High Definition player that the family has been asking for?
This article is for you, so read it before you hit the local big box retailer and are forced to ask some overworked kid “Hey, what should I buy for my family, Blu-Ray or HD DVD?
The High Definition DVD story started many years ago when Sony and Toshiba developed two different and incompatible formats to let us regular folk enjoy great looking and awesome sounding movies in our living rooms. Both companies had a chance to combine their research early on, but they chose the Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s route, leaving others like the movie studios, movie retailers (i.e. Blockbuster) and us, the innocent public to take sides.
As formats go, Blu-Ray has more capacity (25GB versus 15GB) on their discs and a little faster transfer rate which could allow movie studios to release movies with better audio and video than HD DVD.
Some movie studios fluctuate on what format to support but right now it seems Blu-Ray has the backing of more major movie studios including Sony, Disney, Fox, Lions Gate, Spielberg and MGM with Warner Bros doing both and HD DVD being supported by Universal, DreamWorks and Paramount.
Blockbuster supports Blu-Ray, but will carry an HD DVD movie if it is not made in the Blu-Ray format.
HD DVD players are much less expensive to purchase because the format is based on the original DVD design and can be produced in those same DVD facilities. Blu-Ray is an original design and all production facilities had to be built from the ground up. Blu-Ray discs are thicker with a hard coating and should be more durable than an HD DVD disc. The HD DVD has the same scratch factor as the DVDs you are using now.
Is one format better than the other? More hardware manufacturers and movie studios support Blu-Ray and many feel it is more forward – thinking. HD DVD also has strong backing and will be able to do things like putting a regular DVD movie on one side of the disc with the HD version on the other, so they aren’t going away soon. The good news is that LG, Pioneer and others are now producing units that will play either Blu-Ray or HD DVD!
The bottom line is to make the most out of what these formats can do you need some top of the line audio and video equipment. Your television should have an HDMI connector and be able to display at least a 720p picture. 1080p would be your top choice. Also, you should have an audio system that supports 5.1 channel surround sound. If your system doesn’t have those basic features, then your high tech player won’t look or sound much better than the DVD player that you have been using all along.
My name is Chris Oleszkowicz and I am the General Manager of Wilshire Home Entertainment in Valencia. Please stop in to see all the possibilities. We will help you “Do It Right!”
For more information, please call 661-291-1900.