Manic Mouse
Aug 19, 07:08 AM
Apple should take a leaf out of Sony's book and make the new iPod a mini palm-Mac like the MYLO. A slide out QWERTY keyboard in the style of the Macbook and a large touch screen would make it capable of running anything: Safari, Mail, iCal, iChat etc. It would make the iPod revolutionary (to an extent) again, and more than a mere music device: You could surf the net, write emails, watch movies and listen to music on it. Were it to run a mini-OSX the possibilities would be endless. It would also make people more interested in buying Macs because they can see how good the OS is.
Imagine, on your couch (or in starbucks) reading your email, IMing while listening to your tunes. Bliss. It would also make the WiFi functionality actually useful rather than a gimmick if it's merely a music/video player.
If Apple merely release a new media player they will have missed out on revolutionising the market again like they did when they first released the ipod. Sony have already gone half way there with the MYLO, if Apple go the rest of the way they will blow away the competition!
Imagine, on your couch (or in starbucks) reading your email, IMing while listening to your tunes. Bliss. It would also make the WiFi functionality actually useful rather than a gimmick if it's merely a music/video player.
If Apple merely release a new media player they will have missed out on revolutionising the market again like they did when they first released the ipod. Sony have already gone half way there with the MYLO, if Apple go the rest of the way they will blow away the competition!
Stridder44
Sep 7, 04:17 AM
Holy eff. What if they changed iMovie's purpose? For managing content (music & movies): iTunes and iMovie. For creating/editing content: Garageband and "Showtime" (or whatever speculated new name that was).
It makes so much more sense, even if it would be confusing at first.
It makes so much more sense, even if it would be confusing at first.
lorductape
Jan 12, 10:19 AM
if you look at the codenames for many products, and I'm talking about way back to the apple II days, air seems more like a codename for a product than the product name itself. Maybe they will announce something like they did with the "iTV" and refer to it by its codename, because they don't have a name yet and it's not even out for official release yet.
regandarcy
Apr 19, 11:22 AM
13" maybe, but the 11" doesn't look to be refreshed for a while. AFAIK Intel has as yet not announced a new CPU that is as low power as the Core2Duo in the 11" MBA.
Along with a new iMac, I'd love to get a new MacBook air too. As much as I LOVE my iPad as the BEST way to surf the web...it's not as versatile a tool when on the road as I had hoped. Even tho the iPad 2 has iMovie now, you can only edit movies shot on apple iOS devices with it. Imovie on the ipad won't let you import And edit HD movies directly from your camera...which sucks.
Anyway...if the new MacBook airs get sandy bridge, thunderbolt and BIGGER flash drives I will pick one up in a...um....FLASH! Seriously. I love the fact that Apple is phasing out the CD/DVD drives. Don't need em, don't want em. BUT the biggest thing stopping me from getting a MacBook air has been the HD size. Even the 256gb drive is pushing it for my needs. A 320gb flash drive or better yet, a 500gb flash drive in one of these babies would have me drooling. If they can get the prices down is the big question. Might need another couple years for that to happen.
Lastly, come on Apple...4gigs of ram should be standard. :-) heh heh heh.
Along with a new iMac, I'd love to get a new MacBook air too. As much as I LOVE my iPad as the BEST way to surf the web...it's not as versatile a tool when on the road as I had hoped. Even tho the iPad 2 has iMovie now, you can only edit movies shot on apple iOS devices with it. Imovie on the ipad won't let you import And edit HD movies directly from your camera...which sucks.
Anyway...if the new MacBook airs get sandy bridge, thunderbolt and BIGGER flash drives I will pick one up in a...um....FLASH! Seriously. I love the fact that Apple is phasing out the CD/DVD drives. Don't need em, don't want em. BUT the biggest thing stopping me from getting a MacBook air has been the HD size. Even the 256gb drive is pushing it for my needs. A 320gb flash drive or better yet, a 500gb flash drive in one of these babies would have me drooling. If they can get the prices down is the big question. Might need another couple years for that to happen.
Lastly, come on Apple...4gigs of ram should be standard. :-) heh heh heh.
wal9000
Oct 23, 08:43 AM
MacGadget.de (German) (http://www.macgadget.de/) reports that MacBook Pro upgrades could take place as early as this week. Expected updates include Core 2 Duo upgrades as has long been expected as well as larger drives, FW800, and upgraded DVD drives.
Starting to feel about as likely as flying saucers...
http://www.wal9000.aonservers.com/hostedpics/mbp_wanttobelieve.jpg
Starting to feel about as likely as flying saucers...
http://www.wal9000.aonservers.com/hostedpics/mbp_wanttobelieve.jpg
jettredmont
Aug 16, 09:15 PM
Here is a map of the Sirius satellite orbits. You can get a signal pretty far south, at least as far as southern Mexico. But to conserve power, Sirius shuts the power down once the bird goes "below" the equator. XM does have a owership in WorldSpace which does broadcast around the globe through a network of various satellites.
http://www.mts.net/~jwt/sirius-xmorbitanim.gif
Very interesting. Wonder why they did a "wobbly" geo-synch, and how their receivers cope with it. I'd guess it's a cost-related thing, but maybe there's an engineering reason for it (certainly does keep at least one bird near-vertical within the US at all times ...) Note that XM is depicted there as a "true" stationary orbit above the equator.
In any case, still, you're not going to see those satellites from Bombay, no matter how long and hard you look, without a really big mirror ...
http://www.mts.net/~jwt/sirius-xmorbitanim.gif
Very interesting. Wonder why they did a "wobbly" geo-synch, and how their receivers cope with it. I'd guess it's a cost-related thing, but maybe there's an engineering reason for it (certainly does keep at least one bird near-vertical within the US at all times ...) Note that XM is depicted there as a "true" stationary orbit above the equator.
In any case, still, you're not going to see those satellites from Bombay, no matter how long and hard you look, without a really big mirror ...
Squonk
Oct 23, 07:02 AM
... and here we go again!
I hope they come out soon. And then I really, really hope that whatever it is, that people do not start moaning about that one too! I cannot guarantee that I won't be sharing my opinion....
Steve - pull the trigger, but only when it's ready for primetime!
I hope they come out soon. And then I really, really hope that whatever it is, that people do not start moaning about that one too! I cannot guarantee that I won't be sharing my opinion....
Steve - pull the trigger, but only when it's ready for primetime!
Josias
Aug 7, 03:32 AM
Anyone got any ideas of when the keynote starts in the good ol UK?, i'm guessing 6pm ish?
It's starting 7 pm in Denmark, but I can tell you, the minute I post this, there is 8 hours and 27 minutes till the Keynote...:D
It's starting 7 pm in Denmark, but I can tell you, the minute I post this, there is 8 hours and 27 minutes till the Keynote...:D
uv23
Sep 5, 09:11 AM
Lame.
TerryJ
Jul 14, 10:45 AM
Because this is MacRumors which has more Sony fans that Mac fans
Heck, I have a Sony RP television. I love Sony TVs. And I'm no MS fan.
But HD DVD just plain looks better than BD at this point, and for much less money. (And I can actually get some decent movies for it!)
-Terry
Heck, I have a Sony RP television. I love Sony TVs. And I'm no MS fan.
But HD DVD just plain looks better than BD at this point, and for much less money. (And I can actually get some decent movies for it!)
-Terry
TerryJ
Jul 14, 08:25 AM
As purely a data storage format, obviously Blu-ray has the potential to store more data than HD DVD.
However, as someone who has been following the whole BD vs. HD DVD consumer video format war, and as someone who has bought an HD DVD player (and, until recently, had a BD video player on order), at this (albeit early) stage of the game, HD DVD is the superior video format.
HD DVD has 30gb dual layer discs available (almost all the latest video releases on HD DVD are 30gb dual layer.) There are many more titles available for HD DVD right now (probably because it's been out longer and the discs themselves are easier to manufacture.) HD DVD uses a more efficient codec (Microsoft's VC-1, which is akin to H.264, in that it's much much more efficient than MPEG-2.) HD DVD titles have either Dolby Digital Plus (a higher bit-rate multichannel audio codec) and Dolby TruHD (a lossless multichannel audio codec).
BD only has 25gb single layer discs available now. Apparently the 50gb dual layer discs are hard to manufacture and the yields are not ready for prime time. No BD retail video discs are above 25gb single layer. No timetable for 50gb discs has been announced. The video is MPEG-2, meaning it takes up more space on the disc. And, the most recent BD releases all suffer from more MPEG artifacts than any HD DVD releases. BD audio is either standard Dolby Digital or space consuming uncompressed PCM audio (which sucks up even more disc space, leaving even less for video.)
The current Samsung BD player actually has the same (Broadcom) chip that the current Toshiba HD DVD player has in terms of outputing video... and it only outputs 1080i. The Samsung player tacks on another (Faroudja) chip to deinterlace it, so it outputs 1080p (so BD can say "we output 1080p!"), except, that chip apparently stinks and makes the picture somewhat soft. In reality, any HDTV worth its salt can easily deinterlace 1080i signals, so the whole "we output 1080p" is a false advantage anyway. Both BD and HD DVD discs store the video as 1080p, by the way.
So, what you have, on the video front, BD has a smaller capacity disk with less efficient video and audio codecs (that look and sound worse). And it is TWICE the price ($500 vs. $1000). And has less titles. And is late.
If you read any reports on BD video quality vs. HD DVD video quality on boards like AVSforum.com, HD DVD beats BD hands down.
Who knows how this video format war will shake out, but Blu-ray is way behind right now.
-Terry
However, as someone who has been following the whole BD vs. HD DVD consumer video format war, and as someone who has bought an HD DVD player (and, until recently, had a BD video player on order), at this (albeit early) stage of the game, HD DVD is the superior video format.
HD DVD has 30gb dual layer discs available (almost all the latest video releases on HD DVD are 30gb dual layer.) There are many more titles available for HD DVD right now (probably because it's been out longer and the discs themselves are easier to manufacture.) HD DVD uses a more efficient codec (Microsoft's VC-1, which is akin to H.264, in that it's much much more efficient than MPEG-2.) HD DVD titles have either Dolby Digital Plus (a higher bit-rate multichannel audio codec) and Dolby TruHD (a lossless multichannel audio codec).
BD only has 25gb single layer discs available now. Apparently the 50gb dual layer discs are hard to manufacture and the yields are not ready for prime time. No BD retail video discs are above 25gb single layer. No timetable for 50gb discs has been announced. The video is MPEG-2, meaning it takes up more space on the disc. And, the most recent BD releases all suffer from more MPEG artifacts than any HD DVD releases. BD audio is either standard Dolby Digital or space consuming uncompressed PCM audio (which sucks up even more disc space, leaving even less for video.)
The current Samsung BD player actually has the same (Broadcom) chip that the current Toshiba HD DVD player has in terms of outputing video... and it only outputs 1080i. The Samsung player tacks on another (Faroudja) chip to deinterlace it, so it outputs 1080p (so BD can say "we output 1080p!"), except, that chip apparently stinks and makes the picture somewhat soft. In reality, any HDTV worth its salt can easily deinterlace 1080i signals, so the whole "we output 1080p" is a false advantage anyway. Both BD and HD DVD discs store the video as 1080p, by the way.
So, what you have, on the video front, BD has a smaller capacity disk with less efficient video and audio codecs (that look and sound worse). And it is TWICE the price ($500 vs. $1000). And has less titles. And is late.
If you read any reports on BD video quality vs. HD DVD video quality on boards like AVSforum.com, HD DVD beats BD hands down.
Who knows how this video format war will shake out, but Blu-ray is way behind right now.
-Terry
.jpg "Priya Rai Sizzling Hot Photos")
Brianstorm91
Jan 11, 04:54 PM
But the current MacBook is 13.3" and not a Pro model :confused:
I call fake.
I call fake.
dime21
Apr 20, 10:54 AM
Yep - I'm not sure that I have ever even been in an automatic!
Agreed, I've never owned an automatic car in my life. And I've owned more than a dozen cars. 4 speed, 5 speed, 6 speed, all manuals. Automatic? No thanks, not interested.
Manuals are cheaper to buy, cheaper to maintain, more reliable, longer lasting, more powerful, more fuel efficient, and offer better driver control. Automatics are for the elderly and the handicapped.
The only exception to this is the very newest DSG from VW/Audi, PDK from Porsche, and SMG from BMW. Mechanically, they are manual transmissions, but with computer-controlled shifers and no clutch pedal. Sounds complicated, but from the driver's perspective, it isn't. Put it in Drive, and go, no clutch pedal, no manual shifting - same driver controls as a traditional automatic. But with the power and fuel efficiency of a manual. Win-win.
Agreed, I've never owned an automatic car in my life. And I've owned more than a dozen cars. 4 speed, 5 speed, 6 speed, all manuals. Automatic? No thanks, not interested.
Manuals are cheaper to buy, cheaper to maintain, more reliable, longer lasting, more powerful, more fuel efficient, and offer better driver control. Automatics are for the elderly and the handicapped.
The only exception to this is the very newest DSG from VW/Audi, PDK from Porsche, and SMG from BMW. Mechanically, they are manual transmissions, but with computer-controlled shifers and no clutch pedal. Sounds complicated, but from the driver's perspective, it isn't. Put it in Drive, and go, no clutch pedal, no manual shifting - same driver controls as a traditional automatic. But with the power and fuel efficiency of a manual. Win-win.
kalisphoenix
Jul 20, 01:42 AM
You are probably nursing those MS shares you bought at $90, hoping for a better day. It is not coming anytime soon sorry to say. Buying is about momentum. Apple has it and MS does not. Vista already has a great deal of bad press and it has not even hit the street. eWeek and other journals are already writing about Vista security vulnerabilities. That is not a good sign. Vista features and functionality has been scaled back numerous times. That too is not a good sign.
Vista will sell more copies in its first two weeks than Leopard in its first year. As several hundred thousand years of humanity have demonstrated, rhyme and reason matters little.
Who would have imagined that the common view. amongst the informed computer community, was MS was trying desperately to draw close to even-up with Apple? About the time MS established Windows 2000, they were at the top of the computer world in just about every SW market there was.
....and they still are. The anti-Apple and anti-Linux advertising games are defense, not offense.
They finally had a very stable desktop, server platform, mail server, yellow pages, browser, office suite, SQL engine, and so on. But once they reached this pinnacle, two things happened (or at least two I want to talk about). One, they became way too greedy with their predatory licensing. It just went through the roof. If you have never purchased SW at the enterprise level, you do not understand how expensive this has become. SW can cost (at least) as much HW at the enterprise level.
No doubt, but I don't see businesses exactly fleeing in droves.
The second thing that happened at MS is best described in a quote "When Alexander looked at his empire, he wept for there was nothing more to conquer." Instead of continuing on the path of R&D, they tried to find "new worlds to conquer", secure in the knowledge they had indeed subdued all competitors who could challenge them. Sun had tried to mount a charge in the early-mid 90's. Fortunately for MS, Sun's CEO lacked the wherewithal to do more than file lawsuits. Linux suffers from the exact problems that have plagued the Unix community; they cannot unify because they have no leadership.
Sun's ailments are a lot more complicated than that, as are SGI's. Most of their problem is that their workstation prices make Apple's seem like bargain-bin deals.
Gah. The Linux community doesn't want to unify. In fact, not unifying is the core of their philosophy. The vast majority of Linux users (ie, non-n00bs) don't really give a crap about mass adoption of Linux. Many even view such a possibility with horror and disgust. The only priority is choice. It's why there are 415 distributions (none of which are compatible with each other), 9,843 window managers (none of which have remotely similar configuration options), and 3.43x10^15 terminal emulators (none of which actually emulate terminals any better or worse than any other one).
Waving the "king of the OS hill" prize in front of a bunch of Linux users/developers will only result in them staring at you like a dog that's been shown a card trick. With very few exceptions, only n00bs (and uncomprehending businessmen who think they can somehow profit) want mass adoption of Linux.
Vista will sell more copies in its first two weeks than Leopard in its first year. As several hundred thousand years of humanity have demonstrated, rhyme and reason matters little.
Who would have imagined that the common view. amongst the informed computer community, was MS was trying desperately to draw close to even-up with Apple? About the time MS established Windows 2000, they were at the top of the computer world in just about every SW market there was.
....and they still are. The anti-Apple and anti-Linux advertising games are defense, not offense.
They finally had a very stable desktop, server platform, mail server, yellow pages, browser, office suite, SQL engine, and so on. But once they reached this pinnacle, two things happened (or at least two I want to talk about). One, they became way too greedy with their predatory licensing. It just went through the roof. If you have never purchased SW at the enterprise level, you do not understand how expensive this has become. SW can cost (at least) as much HW at the enterprise level.
No doubt, but I don't see businesses exactly fleeing in droves.
The second thing that happened at MS is best described in a quote "When Alexander looked at his empire, he wept for there was nothing more to conquer." Instead of continuing on the path of R&D, they tried to find "new worlds to conquer", secure in the knowledge they had indeed subdued all competitors who could challenge them. Sun had tried to mount a charge in the early-mid 90's. Fortunately for MS, Sun's CEO lacked the wherewithal to do more than file lawsuits. Linux suffers from the exact problems that have plagued the Unix community; they cannot unify because they have no leadership.
Sun's ailments are a lot more complicated than that, as are SGI's. Most of their problem is that their workstation prices make Apple's seem like bargain-bin deals.
Gah. The Linux community doesn't want to unify. In fact, not unifying is the core of their philosophy. The vast majority of Linux users (ie, non-n00bs) don't really give a crap about mass adoption of Linux. Many even view such a possibility with horror and disgust. The only priority is choice. It's why there are 415 distributions (none of which are compatible with each other), 9,843 window managers (none of which have remotely similar configuration options), and 3.43x10^15 terminal emulators (none of which actually emulate terminals any better or worse than any other one).
Waving the "king of the OS hill" prize in front of a bunch of Linux users/developers will only result in them staring at you like a dog that's been shown a card trick. With very few exceptions, only n00bs (and uncomprehending businessmen who think they can somehow profit) want mass adoption of Linux.
J the Ninja
Apr 12, 09:04 PM
Tonight is the FCP8 unveiling, they've just said it.
vincenz
Apr 9, 11:34 PM
I can't drive stick, but I really want to learn one day. They look like fun when not in traffic.
CrimeS
Apr 2, 10:47 PM
A really good representation of what Apple is striving to do in the "post PC" era. It's not about tech specs anymore (although those are still important things). Rather, Apple is leading in the innovation of consumer experience, which perhaps, is more essential to a product's success than simply its size, memory, screen resolution, etc. The future leaders of technology will be the ones that entice their customers through the brilliance and personal connections made with their products.
Engadget wrote a great article (http://t.co/xb4JTbZ) about this a while back, in case you're interested.
And if you're not interested, maybe you'll prefer this link instead (http://t.co/rhxOLSm). :)
Thank you for your comment! You hit the nail right on the head. Most people don't understand that simple idea.
Apple is all about the "experience."
My little nephews and nieces know how to work iPad without anyone showing them how to do it and their 2, 3, and 5 year olds.
You can have the fastest, biggest cpus and cameras but what really matters is how easy the product is to use and the experience you get from it.
Engadget wrote a great article (http://t.co/xb4JTbZ) about this a while back, in case you're interested.
And if you're not interested, maybe you'll prefer this link instead (http://t.co/rhxOLSm). :)
Thank you for your comment! You hit the nail right on the head. Most people don't understand that simple idea.
Apple is all about the "experience."
My little nephews and nieces know how to work iPad without anyone showing them how to do it and their 2, 3, and 5 year olds.
You can have the fastest, biggest cpus and cameras but what really matters is how easy the product is to use and the experience you get from it.
lordonuthin
Jan 6, 10:43 PM
mc68k
i'll be at 8 digits, not too bad. but it's really just a #. things might be changing for me for the worse WU-wise temporarily
We can't keep this pace up all the time, I will probably be forced to do the same in the summer.
great news! glad we are passing some teams!
congrats! yeah my numbers might be down a lil also in the next couple of weeks it's looking like
Hopefully we can pass another team in about 30 days or so, we'll see if we can pick up some steam from new folders.
i'll be at 8 digits, not too bad. but it's really just a #. things might be changing for me for the worse WU-wise temporarily
We can't keep this pace up all the time, I will probably be forced to do the same in the summer.
great news! glad we are passing some teams!
congrats! yeah my numbers might be down a lil also in the next couple of weeks it's looking like
Hopefully we can pass another team in about 30 days or so, we'll see if we can pick up some steam from new folders.
jxyama
Mar 19, 11:11 AM
You take the low end model, subtract the cost for the monitor and you have a computer that is sitting in the $500.00 - $600.00 range. Many people already have monitors and if not, you can find a decent one for relatively low cost.
since CRT monitors cost next to nothing these days, eMac price can't be lowered that much even if it was headless. that will just eat into the profits. and why give the money for the monitor to other companies?
apparently, apple's marketing dept. has concluded that the sale of AIO units with bigger margin turns more profit than that can be expected from increased sale of headless units with smaller margin. and as long as apple's profitable, there's no reason to argue that their strategy is wrong...
eMac and iMac are for people who want to take home a box, open it up, plug in the power and start using them. they are NOT meant for people who want the absolute cheapest computers. right now, apple is not interested in making that kind of "cheapest" computers... nor has they ever been. the only time that happened was when they allowed clones and that certainly went nowhere because Macs were suddenly a commodity and apple took a major hit as "premium" hardware company.
mind you, apple could change their mind and offer such a headless machine in the future, if their dept. sees that the computer market is changing. so while you may well be 100% correct in principle, apple hasn't had to or is yet to find a reason to offer such a headless.
since CRT monitors cost next to nothing these days, eMac price can't be lowered that much even if it was headless. that will just eat into the profits. and why give the money for the monitor to other companies?
apparently, apple's marketing dept. has concluded that the sale of AIO units with bigger margin turns more profit than that can be expected from increased sale of headless units with smaller margin. and as long as apple's profitable, there's no reason to argue that their strategy is wrong...
eMac and iMac are for people who want to take home a box, open it up, plug in the power and start using them. they are NOT meant for people who want the absolute cheapest computers. right now, apple is not interested in making that kind of "cheapest" computers... nor has they ever been. the only time that happened was when they allowed clones and that certainly went nowhere because Macs were suddenly a commodity and apple took a major hit as "premium" hardware company.
mind you, apple could change their mind and offer such a headless machine in the future, if their dept. sees that the computer market is changing. so while you may well be 100% correct in principle, apple hasn't had to or is yet to find a reason to offer such a headless.
andrew.gw
Apr 1, 06:15 PM
http://cl.ly/2P0c0D1X0c242H3Q0633/Screen_Shot_2011-04-01_at_7.07.55_PM.pnghttp://cl.ly/1R0R1y2L281g0s411V0K/Screen_Shot_2011-04-01_at_7.17.29_PM.png
Mail now shows "No Message Selected", which is much nicer than the empty white area from the last version; "Mail Activity" looks nicer as well. I've also noticed that the "Noteworthy" font from iOS 4.3 is present in this version of Lion.
Mail now shows "No Message Selected", which is much nicer than the empty white area from the last version; "Mail Activity" looks nicer as well. I've also noticed that the "Noteworthy" font from iOS 4.3 is present in this version of Lion.
Aleco
Sep 15, 09:30 AM
I don't see this hurting iPhone 4 sales, not one bit. Who even listens to CR these days?
smithrh
Apr 11, 03:41 PM
IMO, if a gearbox has a setting where it will automatically shift gears for you and you don't have to touch it, it's an automatic gearbox.
Sure, some auto gearboxes (DSG) are better than others (torque converter) but they're still automatic.
What if it's not actually an automatic?
Seriously though, I do wonder if people take little things like this (being able to drive a stickshift) and pump up the importance of it, just to get some extremely minor satisfaction out of being "better" than other people.
Also, google "money shift" for the downside of having "full control."
Sure, some auto gearboxes (DSG) are better than others (torque converter) but they're still automatic.
What if it's not actually an automatic?
Seriously though, I do wonder if people take little things like this (being able to drive a stickshift) and pump up the importance of it, just to get some extremely minor satisfaction out of being "better" than other people.
Also, google "money shift" for the downside of having "full control."
TerryJ
Jul 14, 08:25 AM
As purely a data storage format, obviously Blu-ray has the potential to store more data than HD DVD.
However, as someone who has been following the whole BD vs. HD DVD consumer video format war, and as someone who has bought an HD DVD player (and, until recently, had a BD video player on order), at this (albeit early) stage of the game, HD DVD is the superior video format.
HD DVD has 30gb dual layer discs available (almost all the latest video releases on HD DVD are 30gb dual layer.) There are many more titles available for HD DVD right now (probably because it's been out longer and the discs themselves are easier to manufacture.) HD DVD uses a more efficient codec (Microsoft's VC-1, which is akin to H.264, in that it's much much more efficient than MPEG-2.) HD DVD titles have either Dolby Digital Plus (a higher bit-rate multichannel audio codec) and Dolby TruHD (a lossless multichannel audio codec).
BD only has 25gb single layer discs available now. Apparently the 50gb dual layer discs are hard to manufacture and the yields are not ready for prime time. No BD retail video discs are above 25gb single layer. No timetable for 50gb discs has been announced. The video is MPEG-2, meaning it takes up more space on the disc. And, the most recent BD releases all suffer from more MPEG artifacts than any HD DVD releases. BD audio is either standard Dolby Digital or space consuming uncompressed PCM audio (which sucks up even more disc space, leaving even less for video.)
The current Samsung BD player actually has the same (Broadcom) chip that the current Toshiba HD DVD player has in terms of outputing video... and it only outputs 1080i. The Samsung player tacks on another (Faroudja) chip to deinterlace it, so it outputs 1080p (so BD can say "we output 1080p!"), except, that chip apparently stinks and makes the picture somewhat soft. In reality, any HDTV worth its salt can easily deinterlace 1080i signals, so the whole "we output 1080p" is a false advantage anyway. Both BD and HD DVD discs store the video as 1080p, by the way.
So, what you have, on the video front, BD has a smaller capacity disk with less efficient video and audio codecs (that look and sound worse). And it is TWICE the price ($500 vs. $1000). And has less titles. And is late.
If you read any reports on BD video quality vs. HD DVD video quality on boards like AVSforum.com, HD DVD beats BD hands down.
Who knows how this video format war will shake out, but Blu-ray is way behind right now.
-Terry
However, as someone who has been following the whole BD vs. HD DVD consumer video format war, and as someone who has bought an HD DVD player (and, until recently, had a BD video player on order), at this (albeit early) stage of the game, HD DVD is the superior video format.
HD DVD has 30gb dual layer discs available (almost all the latest video releases on HD DVD are 30gb dual layer.) There are many more titles available for HD DVD right now (probably because it's been out longer and the discs themselves are easier to manufacture.) HD DVD uses a more efficient codec (Microsoft's VC-1, which is akin to H.264, in that it's much much more efficient than MPEG-2.) HD DVD titles have either Dolby Digital Plus (a higher bit-rate multichannel audio codec) and Dolby TruHD (a lossless multichannel audio codec).
BD only has 25gb single layer discs available now. Apparently the 50gb dual layer discs are hard to manufacture and the yields are not ready for prime time. No BD retail video discs are above 25gb single layer. No timetable for 50gb discs has been announced. The video is MPEG-2, meaning it takes up more space on the disc. And, the most recent BD releases all suffer from more MPEG artifacts than any HD DVD releases. BD audio is either standard Dolby Digital or space consuming uncompressed PCM audio (which sucks up even more disc space, leaving even less for video.)
The current Samsung BD player actually has the same (Broadcom) chip that the current Toshiba HD DVD player has in terms of outputing video... and it only outputs 1080i. The Samsung player tacks on another (Faroudja) chip to deinterlace it, so it outputs 1080p (so BD can say "we output 1080p!"), except, that chip apparently stinks and makes the picture somewhat soft. In reality, any HDTV worth its salt can easily deinterlace 1080i signals, so the whole "we output 1080p" is a false advantage anyway. Both BD and HD DVD discs store the video as 1080p, by the way.
So, what you have, on the video front, BD has a smaller capacity disk with less efficient video and audio codecs (that look and sound worse). And it is TWICE the price ($500 vs. $1000). And has less titles. And is late.
If you read any reports on BD video quality vs. HD DVD video quality on boards like AVSforum.com, HD DVD beats BD hands down.
Who knows how this video format war will shake out, but Blu-ray is way behind right now.
-Terry
skunk
Mar 27, 08:21 PM
Why is he a douche? Because he uses metaphoric language? He seems like a qualified high level guest. And he didn't say "US European Command". YOU are the one who introduced those "2 letters". I'm just quoting what he said.There is no such thing as a European Command run by Europeans, any more than there is an African Command run by an African. They are both branches of the US military command. Your comment that "even" the European Command was run by an American was foolish in the extreme.