New video formats - what's your take?

[skinnyfat]

PS: What's a "crak"?


-F_D

This is www.crak.za.net my gaming clan

[kay]

HDD space is at too much of a premium, and download speeds too slow, to make online delivery of HD content a reality anytime soon. You are looking at up to 50 Gigs per movie!! That's only 10 movies on a 500 GB hard drive.

New codecs like H.264 should take care of the problem - file sizes will be far smaller than 50GB/movie. As for Microsoft - I'm not sure who I want to lose more, them or Sony MS in particular doesn't seem to be pushing HD that much at all.

[jamster]

Depending on implementation of the codec there will then be quality loss - won't there?

Even at 10 GB per movie the sheer cost of downloading the data would make this an impossibility in SA.

I was talking about the HD DVD add-on for the XBox 360. Low cost HD is the best kind of HD for me!!! 

[kay]

Ahh, the issue of cost It's at the root of it - the whole HD saga is because of companies trying to milk the market for all its worth, if they were purely interested in getting the hardware out there, it would have happened a long time ago.

[skinnyfat]

if they were purely interested in getting the hardware out there, it would have happened a long time ago.

This would be a definition of 'Hitting the nail on the head'

[joel]

My view on the whole HD saga is that I dont really see too much of a future for either HD DVD or Blu-Ray..

Download on demand will happen as will streaming.

Another contender I believe will be flash memory.

I believe that ultimately flash memory will become cheap enough to be considered as a rival to DB or HD discs. When this happens all you'll need to watch High def movies will be a card reader either built into or connected to an A/V processor. This way there would be no need for any lazer based player that uses motors or lazers (control circuits) that generate noise and can fail.

Personally if despite the above, i was to consider buying a HD player, I'de wait at least another year or untill such time as there was enough software to warant the purchase.

[Andrew]

My view on the whole HD saga is that I dont really see too much of a future for either HD DVD or Blu-Ray..

Download on demand will happen as will streaming.

Another contender I believe will be flash memory.

I believe that ultimately flash memory will become cheap enough to be considered as a rival to DB or HD discs. When this happens all you'll need to watch High def movies will be a card reader either built into or connected to an A/V processor. This way there would be no need for any lazer based player that uses motors or lazers (control circuits) that generate noise and can fail.

Personally if despite the above, i was to consider buying a HD player, I'de wait at least another year or untill such time as there was enough software to warant the purchase.

Interestingly enough, as Joel will recall, I was actually sent the movie 'The Da Vinci Code' on a cellphone memory card - complete with Dolby 5.1 soundtrack, it claimed. Never had the chance to try it, as it had been designed as a promo for one of the Nokia phones none of us had at that stage. Spoke to the Sony chappie in the UK, and he said such movies were actually pretty popular overseas. Would never consider watching a movie on my cellphone, but it does open up an interesting possibility for a memory card player attached to your normal AV system - rent or buy the movie on the card, slot it in and watch. No need to worry about scratching, the bane of the video stores thanks to customers who use the DVDs as coffee coasters and frisbees.

[skinnyfat]

Interestingly enough, as Joel will recall, I was actually sent the movie 'The Da Vinci Code' on a cellphone memory card - complete with Dolby 5.1 soundtrack, it claimed. Never had the chance to try it, as it had been designed as a promo for one of the Nokia phones none of us had at that stage. Spoke to the Sony chappie in the UK, and he said such movies were actually pretty popular overseas. Would never consider watching a movie on my cellphone, but it does open up an interesting possibility for a memory card player attached to your normal AV system - rent or buy the movie on the card, slot it in and watch. No need to worry about scratching, the bane of the video stores thanks to customers who use the DVDs as coffee coasters and frisbees.

Have you ever watched a movie on a PSP ? (Abe - Quiet !!!) I'm a bit of a PSP junkie and was pleasantly surprised by the perfomance. and the new PSP lite has 420p video output - not too shabby

[Andrew]

Nope. I have no doubt that the quality would be astounding, but I think I'd eventually go blind from looking at something so small!

[skinnyfat]

Nope. I have no doubt that the quality would be astounding, but I think I'd eventually go blind from looking at something so small!

Heh heh read my edit in the last post. Got TV out now

[kay]

I think the iPod Touch will also be a great mobile video device, based on my short iPhone experience. They reckon 7h of video playback per battery charge - that's quite impressive.

[skinnyfat]

Indeed and as far I can see the future of video content delivery.

[Andrew]

Heh heh read my edit in the last post. Got TV out now

Ah, okay. Personally, I'd assume that going the card route would have numerous benefits over a disc format, that due to the amount of info stored on it, is extremely vulnerable to scratches. I know a guy who runs a well-known video store, and before be bought and imported a special machine from the UK to help polish his DVDs, he was complaining that he was losing money because after a few customers had hired the DVDs, they were unusable.