Blu-ray and HD DVD: Fighting for the small screen

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You really needed another component in your stack, didn’t you? The Audio/Video Receiver, the cable/satellite box, the DVD player and the CD changer were just not enough, were they?

The satellite radio tuner and the phonograph (surely you have one of those?), along with the USB turntable for creating CDs from your vinyl, left a few openings in the back of that A/V receiver that you just HAD to fill, right?

And even if the answer is no, “they” - the ominous “they” that are always thinking of new ways to get into your wallet - did it again. They created something so cool that you knew you had to have it: The high-definition DVD player. HD discs can do all sorts of magical digital things while the movie is playing. You can see special effects before the effects are added; watch the storyboard version in time with the movie; hear pop-up factoids from the director; create your own version of stunt cars, etc., etc., ad infinitum.

But “they” didn’t stop there. They made two of them based on inventor Shuji Nakamura’s breakthrough blue laser beam. Two competing formats that don’t play the same DVDs, which are different from the hundreds of DVDs you already own.

The battle is on between Blu-ray Disc, or BD, and HD DVD. Blu-ray is currently outselling HD DVD two to one, but an announcement last month by Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation SKG that they won’t support the format slowed down the victory celebration, because Paramount had previously been dining from both sides of the high-def buffet. Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema are still rooting for both formats, but other studios are making one-system alliances.

To complicate matters further, this summer, Blockbuster put its stock in Blu-ray, announcing it would stop carrying HD DVD discs in 1,200 of its 1,450 stores. Target also said it would stop carrying HD DVD players.

So, which one should you invest in? And how much will it cost you? Here’s what you need to know.

As editor-in-chief of Video Business magazine, a sister publication to Variety, Marcy Magiera spends a lot of time pondering the high-definition DVD format war. We thought whichever Magiera went with - Blu-ray or HD DVD - would certainly point to the winner.

“I don’t know which one I’d buy,” she says. “I just don’t know.”

Well, when might she know? “I don’t think this will be over for a while,” she says. “Not at least until 2009.”

It all comes down to how much of a “home video consumer you are,” she says. “The average consumer does not care if a movie is from Universal or Fox. They care about the movie. In that sense, Blu-ray has more content because there are more studios behind it, and this year Blu-ray happens to have the hot product, `Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer,’ `Spider-Man 3,’ `Pirates of the Caribbean 3.’ But it could all be different next year and HD DVD studios could have all the hot product.”

Despite the heavy-hitting titles coming to market in time for the holidays, sales of HD discs are a drop in the overall DVD-market bucket.

“It’s a couple of percentage points of the overall market,” Magiera says, adding for comparison, “it’s a little bigger now than VHS and UMD put together.”

VHS, to rewind for newcomers, was the predecessor to DVD; UMDs are tiny movie discs made for watching on hand-held PlayStation Portables. Neither sell very many.

But Richard Glikes, executive director of Home Theater Specialists of America - which represents those who install components, typically for high-end clients - told Video Business: “Personally, I think the die has been cast. I surveyed our membership and 93.95 percent of the high definition players sold (are) Blu-ray. Six percent are HD DVD, and a lot of those are the LG combo unit.”

“I don’t think it will be too long before Blu-ray is pronounced the winner.”

Of course, that was before the Paramount/DreamWorks announcement.

We understand your reluctance to spend hundreds of dollars on a component and thousands more on updating your video library until a victory has been declared. Once the loser is vanquished, their format won’t be supported in the future, and we still get steamed every time we walk by that Betamax player in the basement.

If you want to hedge your bets, South Korean electronics maker LG has the LG BH100 High Definition Blu-ray-HD DVD Combo player, which does what it says. It has a few limitations - it doesn’t play CDs; it can’t accommodate 1080p output - and it’s about $1,000. But if you like to hunt for DVD bargains and want to watch either/or high-def format, this machine is for you.

On the other hand, if all the razzle-dazzle special features added to high-definition discs don’t impress you, you might consider an “upconverting” DVD player. Upconverters use special circuitry to repeat information on a DVD, making the image and sound richer and more detailed. While the quality isn’t quite high-definition, it’s vastly superior to “normal” DVD playback.

Upconverters, such as Pioneer’s DV-400V at $99, sell for hundreds less than an HD player. One of the most impressive on the market is Oppo’s DV-981HD, selling for about $230; their DV-971HD can be had for less than $200.

Next-generation gaming systems are responsible for more high-definition DVD player sales than the stand-alone components themselves. Xbox 360 is, in effect, an HD DVD player; PlayStation 3 is a Blu-ray player. But only one or the other.

So in addition to playing Activision’s Call of Duty 2 on Xbox 360, it also plays DreamWorks Animation’s “Shrek the Third” (coming Nov. 13). Meanwhile, your PlayStation3 will make Sony’s Lair game look as great as it does Fox’s “28 Weeks Later” (arriving Oct. 9).

PS3s retail for $499.99; Xbox 360s go for $349.99.

Naturally, the prices of HD discs in either Blu-ray or HD DVD are higher than those of normal DVDs. The cost of manufacturing them - Sony had to build factories from scratch to accommodate the technology - is higher and, for now, the market is small.

Let’s look at pricing for Zack Snyder’s “300,” so far the best-selling high-definition disc.

$28.98: The single-disc, non-HD widescreen edition.

$34.98: The non-HD two-disc special edition.

$39.99: The HD DVD “combo” edition (the standard DVD version is on the flip side).

$34.99: The Blu-ray edition (not a combo).

Of course, once these discs hit retailer shelves, those prices drop, sometimes by $10 - but not for the high-definition versions. Those manage to hold firm. Look for used ones online.

So you have your new Blu-ray or HD DVD player ready to hook up to the component stack. You didn’t really think that was all you needed to watch high-definition DVDs, did you? Better keep the credit card handy.

In order to watch high-def playback, you need a high-def screen. Simple as that. Plasma, LCD, rear-projection, anything with a resolution of 720p, 1080i or higher is required. Your old picture tube, no matter how good it looks to you, is not going to cut it. If you need an idea, the new Sony 52-inch Bravia KDL-52XBR5 is killer, and should be, at $5,100.

You’ll also need an HDMI cable. High Definition Multimedia Interface cables are digital cables that do the work of those RCA plugs (color-coded, three-headed wires) with just one strand of wire. The 19-pin connectors are kind of flat, and once plugged into the inputs of your TV, audio-visual receiver or high-def DVD player, they gulp down and spit out 1440p video (and better, when it arrives) and 7.1 surround sound. Prices vary from the extreme - $150 for six feet - to the scary-cheap - less than $10. I’ve had great success with mid-priced cables in the $20-$30 range.

Or do you wait for the next new format?

Just to complicate things even more, now comes word of the Holographic Versatile Disc, or HVD. They’re still working on it - even the engineers don’t know what it’s capable of - but when it’s ready it will require all-new movies, and, yes, another component for your stack.

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MOVIES THAT LOOK GREAT IN HD

Blu-ray:
“300”
“Casino Royale”
“Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”
“Black Hawk Down”
“Bullitt”

HD DVD:
“300”
“Transformers” (coming Oct. 16; picture-in-picture commentary with director Michael Bay and executive producer Steven Spielberg)
“Heroes: Season 1”
“The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift”
“Star Trek: The Original Series” (landing Nov. 20 for $217.99)

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PEOPLE WHO LOOK GREAT IN HD
Scarlett Johansson
Ashley Judd
Tilda Swinton
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Cate Blanchett
George Clooney
Ashton Kutcher
Leonardo DiCaprio
Bruce Willis (it’s true!)
Josh Hartnett

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PEOPLE WHO YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE TO SEE IN HD
Cameron Diaz
Teri Hatcher
Cindy Crawford
Madonna
Rosie O’Donnell
Brad Pitt
Dennis Hopper
Ray Liotta
Robert Redford
George W. Bush

(For more HD best and worsts, see Phillip Swann’s snarky TVpredictions.com Web site.)

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Sources: Buzz McClain, tvpredictions.com, Video Business Magazine