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Maybe you already know all the things I’ve written above, but I think it’s necessary to show just how insignificant the new formats actually are. Blu-ray and HD-DVD are as much a revolution as Video-CD was compared to VHS. They’re an evolution at most but of course that’s not something the companies pushing the formats want you to realise.
In effect, the only thing Blu-ray disc and HD-DVD offer more at first glimpse is additional storage space. So, in theory publishers could use the additional storage to deliver better image and sound quality (less compression, different encoding) as well as more extras. Very nice, but what about the reality?
Instead of filling a DVD to the very last bit (which would suggest we need a new format with more storage capacity), we often see that publishers just don’t seem to care much. Low budget releases often have high compression ratios and no extras, leaving hundreds of MB’s on the DVD unused. So if a DVD isn’t already used to its full potential, why in hell would we need a new format that has even more storage space? The answer: we don’t. Not for movies at least.
Instead of filling a DVD to the very last bit (which would suggest we need a new format with more storage capacity), we often see that publishers just don’t seem to care much. Low budget releases often have high compression ratios and no extras, leaving hundreds of MB’s on the DVD unused. So if a DVD isn’t already used to its full potential, why in hell would we need a new format that has even more storage space? The answer: we don’t. Not for movies at least.