HDDVD is dead

There's a lot of apprehension about BluRay profiles so I've decided to see for myself.

I have a Profile 1.0 Panasonic DMP-BD10 and a Profile 1.1 PS3. That being said I also have a Toshiba HD-XA2 HD DVD player.

There are no 2.0 discs to test so far so I got 2 Profile 1.1 discs - Resident Evil Extinction and War.

On my 1.0 Panasonic these two discs play without a problem. I'm able to watch both movies through without any playback problems. The BD-J Virtual Machine "knows" my player is 1.0 so the menu option for the PiP 1.1 features are not accessible. A colleague who has a Profile 1.0 Sony BDP-S1 also reports no playback problems with these 2 discs.

On my Profile 1.1 PS3 the movies and the 1.1 PiP features work fine. Sony has promised a future software update for the PS3 that will make it 2.0 compliant.

The XA2 HD DVD player on the other hand also works well with secondary stream PiP features such as that in Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix. The problem with the XA2 comes when you use bitstream transmission to your advanced decoding receiver. As some afterdawn users have reported - and corroborated in other forums - the sound from the PiP is lost when you use bitstream. No solution for this has been found yet.

As you see any new technology will have its problems. For now I can play 1.1 movies on my 1.0 Panasonic BD10. I have seen statements from BD insiders saying that any problems arising from BD-J profiles and implementation can be resolved with firmware/software updates. In addition, the hardware in the upcoming 1.1 and 2.0 players announced at CES 2008 will be robust enough to handle compatibility issues.

 

The new sales figures following the Warner move is helping to nail the HDDVD coffin closed.

 

its hard for me to believe either format can win, when wally world has 1080p upconvert players for $34.88 and a free hdmi cable to boot. all we need now is 5 free movies...hehehe.