Are we ready for HD animations?

[Vince Paske]

HD-DVD has been around since at least 2003, but anyway, nobody's going to buy the Xbox addon and bugs won't stop PS3 - they'll have them worked out by the time they ship enough units to move beyond the crazy customer market.

 

I guess I'm a nobody

I picked up the xbox360 HD-DVD drive and am loving the heck out of it. I changed my netflicks to send me HD-DVD's of the titles available and its really quite wonderful watching them on my 56" 1080p set. The sound is richer too.

 

The established base of 360 users, tied in with the soon to be released Halo and the past "PS-only" titles being developed for the 360 as well (game developers look at numbers and how to get back their $20 million development costs, and selling to PS3 owners only won't cut it), things aren't looking too rosey for the PS3. But really, I still like PC games better anyway and can't claim myself as a fan-boy of any console. I think the Wii is pretty cool too.

 

The integration that Windows Vista has, combined with 360's marketplace and downloadable content.....I don't know, I'm betting that Microsoft will have a monopoly on your home entertainment soon as PC's and home entertainment continue to merge.

 

To be honest, I just want a player that can play both formats....and all those poorly produced Blue-Ray titles that were rushed out the door using Mpeg-2 to be replaced with the new H.264/Mpeg-4 compression.

 

and here's yet another link, but more from a PC vantage:

 

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2886

 

ps..great topic Brian!

[John Dollus]

I was referring to a turnkey HD DVD package deal for your client's sales centers. That might help justify the extra cost. Since Toshiba is the lone playback manufacturer for HD DVD right now, you could become a reseller for them and bundle the playback and display units together with the shiny new higher resolution animations.

[Jeff Mottle]

Here are a few polls based on this thread and Brian Smith's previous request:

 

POLLS

 

Will you animate in HD in 2007?

http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/20963-will-you-animate-hd-2007-a.html

 

Who will win the DVD format war

http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/20961-blu-ray-vs-hd-dvd.html

[Brian Smith]

Sweet! HD-DVD back on top

http://www.dvdtown.com/news/hddvdgoesbeyond50gbwithnewdisc/4260

[AJLynn]

Does that mean Toshiba just fragmented their own format? So first-generation HD-DVD players and drives won't be able to use second-generation discs? I don't think that's necessarily a good thing.

[John Dollus]

That's why they call it the 'bleeding edge' of technology. The early adopters end up bleeding cash....

[Peterhus]

One year on, blu-ray wins. I bet sony is laughing all the way to the bank.

[Adrian Bold]

Yes. Our studio has been rendering animations at a minimum of HD720p since 2002, and HD1080 since end of 2006. Imagery is another story again, but generally 10 megapixel.

 

Thankgod we'll now have a standardised format (bluray) to show the films at their full capacity!

[AJLynn]

I saw one firm where they've put all their stuff in AppleTV format and have a couple HD sets with AppleTV boxes in the client-impressing area. Very nice.