Saturday, April 11, 2009

DVD Vs Blu-ray: The Facts

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a tech junkie. I am always looking for the next best thing. I remember being a freshman in university writing about VHS vs. DVD. Whoever won that battle I cannot say but DVD has certainly won the war hands down. VHS should only be used now as a sentimental thing. One of the most enjoyable experiences I have ever had was making my very first DVD way back in 2002. It seems like such a long time ago. It was Fell Endgame and I was ecstatic.

Now Blu-Ray is making the rounds and I know some people are asking: Is it worth the jump? Its not like going from analog to digital or the removal of having to rewind your tapes or them aging on you after repeating viewing. Those days are long gone. When most people hear that Blu Ray can support 1080p full high definition video they might say “So what”? I mean is shelling out more money for a new system really worth it. What does Blu Ray have to offer that DVD does not? Well just take a look at the current specs of a new Blu Ray I just made. Keep in mind now it’s all on one disc:

Demeter Pictures Collection

Volume 1

Contents:

Shades of Time
-Deleted Scenes
-Outtakes
-Commentary
-Stills
-Trailers

Fell Endgame
-Deleted Scenes
-Making of Documentarys
-Stills
-Commentary
-Outtakes
-Trailers

Fell Evil Never Dies
-Deleted Scenes
-Stills
-Commentary
-Trailers

Fell: the Motion Pictures
-Stills
-commentary
-Original version

GBR2
-Trailers
-Deleted Shots
-Scene Disects
-Commentary

GBR
-commentary
-Stills

Additional Features, The Demeter Pictures Vault
-Vampire Repellent Commercial
-A Caledonia Christmas Carol trailer
-the Neighbours
-A Sharp Knife
-Robots Audition
-the sound
-the fell witch project
-Links to Demeterpictures.com

And I still had space left over. That’s one thing Blu Ray has over DVD. It’s the space and yes the great picture quality. That’s if you shot your video on High definition. For me all those videos were shot with digital cameras or even the old VHS camcorders and some were even edited on analog systems. Anyone remember those?

That’s why I made the jump to Blu-ray. It’s the space and the archiving of data. However what bothers me is the fact that HVD, a technology vastly superior to blu-ray, is already made and ready to be released. That’s in 5 years though. Holographic Versatile discs can hold up to 3.5 Terabytes of data. Ill let you do a Google search on how much space that is.

If the private companies who manufacture this technology were to release the HVDs it would be great. Not only would we be able to finally own full working prints of 35 millimetre films in their 3000x5000 pixels per square inch (that beats 1080p doesn’t it?) original form in digital format but the archiving of material would be easier and more efficient. The only down side is that the computing power would have to triple in the next 5 years to match this. I don’t see this being a problem with the way computers are going these days.

My whole argument is that the Blu Ray, as nice as it is, as nice as the HD picture is and the space for video and film is quadruple that of DVD, it just wasn’t necessary. We could have skipped the High-definition craze and went straight into full working digitized prints. No more scaling down of video and film for the masses. Hell they could even release working prints of IMAX movies on a HVD, can you imagine the picture quality of that?! You think a 1080p HD picture is good, that’s nothing to what would be a full working IMAX print on a HVD. The resolution of that video would be at least 8 times that of 1080p.

What I am talking about may seem like science fiction but it isn’t. HVDs are very real and are ready to go. In fact there is even a HVD player already available to purchase by the average consumer right here: http://www.global-b2b-network.com/b2b/93/94/503/page23/337327/hvd_player.html

It will just set you back about 15,000$ and you won’t be able to play any HVD movies for at least 5 years. HVD technology is so impressive you could fit an entire years worth of DVD video on a single disc and half a year’s worth of straight HD video on one disc.

Blu ray is great, I have a blu ray writer and I make blu rays but I am well aware this wasn’t needed. It was not as big a leap from DVD as DVD was from VHS. To the average consumer I recommend hold onto your money and save it for HVD. That’s when things will get really interesting...

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