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Ok, I know this topic is getting old, REALLY fast. But, it just amazes me about how biased and ignorant some people can be.

Last Friday, I was at a friends party. Now, before I start, for those of you that haven't heard or forgot me mentioning, pretty much all my friends are Sony bashing Nintendo(Microsoft too, but Nintendo is first priority) fans. So they bash and hate anything Sony. I'm pretty much the only one that likes Sony products in my group.

Anyway, the subject of HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray came up. And of course, since anything Sony is evil, in a chorus all my friends go "Blu-ray sucks!". So I just kind of politely and quietly go "Technology-wise, Blu-ray is better"

Now, what came next completely blew me away, I'm really surprised they said this. One of them goes "HD-DVD does HD" and they all just nod. And of course I'm very confused. I'm thinking "What do they think Blu-ray is? A more expensive DVD?". So I just go "So does Blu-ray" and out of ignorance one of them just goes "No it doesn't" and of course I sit there explaining it until I get it through their heads and they eventually know when to shut up since they know I know more than them when it comes to stuff Sony makes or supports.

As soon as the whole what does HD was covered they just respond with "HD-DVD is cheaper" and I'm wondering whether they all have been under a rock or something and explain that they're around the same price. The Blu-ray version of 300 I believe is even cheaper than the HD-DVD version, isn't it?

Then one of my friends that hates Sony with a passion chose to go on a bash-fest knowing absolutely nothing about Blu-ray. This guy was simply against it because of Sony. By this time I just kind of shut up since I can't ever win with them, Sony will always be evil and I'm a retard for liking anything from them. I didn't bother going through the technical stuff like Blu-ray having more storage and faster transfer-rate, etc, they wouldn't have listened anyway. We moved on to something else.

Now, on to the point. I think this is one reason why the "war" is still dragging on. People are misinformed or ignorant. If people were given facts, if they were advertised more where most of everybody knew them, do you think the "war" would have been over by now?

Yeah, I know, I even mentioned that Blu-ray is outselling HD-DVD 4 to 1(probably more, but still a lot more). But you know how ignorant some people can be once they already have a certain view point...it just kind of annoys me because I always want to correct people of their misinformation but I'm always outnumbered by my friends.

Pretty much just always overwhelmed...I really just can't defend anything I like when it comes to them.

We're talking about just them against each other specifically. When talking technology, it's really hard to vouch for HD-DVD. Blu-ray is just better with that, more storage, faster transfer rate. I'm not sure about HD-DVD's durability but Blu-ray's durability is pretty good.

They're also around the same price, so that makes Blu-ray look really good if people get the facts. But people don't know the facts, like my friends. I'm really surprised they didn't know Blu-ray did HD. That just kind of seems like they just assumed Blu-ray was worse because it was from Sony and didn't bother looking up details.

The HD-DVD group has also refused to release their sources on that:
http://ps3.qj.net/Blu-ray-accuses-HD-DVD-of-gross-manipulation-of-numbers-/pg/49/aid/107610

One thing that also factors into that is like I said, Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs are around the same price for movies. If there are two things around the same price that do the same thing, but one does it better, which one would you go with?

In the long-run, I believe Blu-ray will be a lot more practical than HD-DVD. Single layer discs will probably eventually be used up all the time like most double-layer DVD's are now.

This is purely technology. So advantages technology-wise will make it more practical.

Just because it's the Sony name might have part to do with it, but you know the main thing is the companies know the technology behind each and are hopping on board because they see more potential in Blu-ray because of it's advantages.

That beside the point, the purpose of my posting this thread is people don't know the details behind each. That's what confuses me because there are actually people that think Blu-ray is just a more expensive DVD. That they think that it doesn't do HD. I swear, they went out and said that Blu-ray didn't do HD. It really surprised me.

I think this is a big part in why this is still going on. I think if the facts were more publicly advertised, I don't think this would be lasting as long.

I'm not sure what you mean about a special player being needed but my guess is those HDCDs that you like are still CDs, but the format used for play is different. The files are smaller yet lossless in audio allowing that much music. I dunno, I'll have to search into that.

Also, I don't think the prices are the exact same, but they're around the same price point, the discs themselves anyway. Not sure about the actual players.

As for your questions:

1. I haven't looked into every aspect of HD-DVD but I believe it still uses the same base technology as DVD, in other words a red-ray, a more compact one at that. Kind of like CD from DVD. CD and DVD both use red but DVDss is more compact. But they can make a blue ray much more compact which is what gives Blu-ray it's storage advantage over HD-DVD I think.

To answer your question, for would they be able to make it more practical without the higher storage, my guess is probably not because HD can take up a lot of space and DVD can't fulfill that need.

2. Yes, the public definitely needs to know about this new technology and in what they are investing in so they can make sure they think they'll benefit from the purchase in the long-run as opposed to another product.

If they were to make it just as practical like how HDCD is, I think that would probably be a good idea considering what I've heard from you. HD-DVD and Blu-ray have been huge so far, so that would just be a huge advantage to be practical in a manner like that.

If HDCD would have come out as much as Blu-ray and HD-DVD have and timed when it came out well, I think it would have had a good chance of surviving like the HD market is starting to come out. Quality is starting to become more and more apart of the entertainment industry, and maybe with a little work, a high quality audio format/distributer(for portable audio players) could make it into the market.

I heard iTunes is moving as far away from DRM(encrypted and protected, really limits you) music as they can, which this actually will make the quality of the music better from what I heard from RedShadow, he'd probably be able to give you a better opinion than me 3nodding