BD's instead of DVD's-The future?

[Gopha]

Right well lads today I was browsing the internet in IT and was having a good nose on howstuffworks.com when I came across Blu-Ray discs, They hold 27 GB on each disc which is far better than the noirmal DVD which Hold 4.7. These have been introduced because of the new HD technology in TV's etc and now well Films are being produced for HD technology, so they are using double sided Blu-Ray discs which hold 54Gb. The first enhanced film will be coming out on the 20th of June

Info- www.blu-ray.com

 

[Tetsuo_Shima]

Sony told us they were releasing PS3 games on Blu-Ray when it comes out. Im quite excited, its gonna hold a helluva lot of game data. Although, bigger capacity isnt a prerequisite for better games. Most PS2 games were on DVDs, but there were a few games on CDRom like Timesplitters and Gradius V (look for the trademark blue glint on the underside of the disc) that were outstanding.

 

[thatbloke]

With games, the only reason more space is needed is to allow for Higher resolution textures and graphics and sounds, which, tbh, takes up about 90% of all space that a game uses up on your hard drive. A poor game is still a poor game.

Take examples such as any of Introversion's 3 games (even though one is still in development...). They were available as full downloads and were not very large at all. IIRC, elDiablo told me that due to how the graphics are generated in Darwinia, the actual stuff that creates the scene is only about 1MB or something. I'm sure he will correct me.

 

[Tetsuo_Shima]

Yeah, but is there any denying that the increase in available data storage is a definite advantage to the development of a game? It could mean better graphics, but it could mean bigger levels, more cars, more maps, more complicated AI, better engines...

It would be silly to scrutinise the use of more space before we even see what can be done.

 

[Gopha]

True, I hope they add more levels to games rather than add Brilliant graphics.

 

[T-Bone]

[mod]Moved thread to soap box to accomidate the nature of the discussion.[/mod]

 

[Pestcontrol]

Blueray is nice but atm there's a standards war going on between blueray and it's competitor, HD-DVD, i don't think either have the upper hand atm. It makes a lot of news on the tech sites i visit.

IIRC blueray discs with capacities up to 200GB have been announced or demonstrated. It's definitely more technologically advanced than it's competitors, but also more expensive.

As for games, the storage medium barely influences games anymore, as harddrive capacities have grown so much nobody plays games from the CD anymore, of if you have to, people use programs like Alcohol to save you the hassle of swapping cd's in and out.

I think plain old DVD will suit most games fine for some time to come.

 

[Gopha]

It's definitely more technologically advanced than it's competitors, but also more expensive.

.

It says that they will not cost more than your average DVD

 

[Pestcontrol]

It says that they will not cost more than your average DVD

One very important word needs to be appended to that line: Eventually, also bear in mind that that's straight from the public relations manager's mouth, hardly a credible source.

Like DVD and CD before it, it will bear a significant premium at introduction. Regardless, compared to Blueray HD-DVD is simpler, easier to manufacture and thus it can be cheaper if it has to be simply because it costs less to make.

Time will tell.

 

[Tetsuo_Shima]

As for games, the storage medium barely influences games anymore, as harddrive capacities have grown so much nobody plays games from the CD anymore

Down here in console land, we still need to leave the disk in to play the game

 

[Pestcontrol]

7.4GB is still a lot though, no game fills that up without long dvd quality movies on it, the PC games that do manage a few gigabytes are quite bloated and could easily be reduced in size with the right compression.

After all, everything still has to fit in the console's internal memory, it's the ram that limits how much megabytes of detailedness you can create and display, and the ratio of storage medium to ram that decides how many environments (levels) you can have.

One thing Blueray and HD-dvd would offer is shorter loading times due to higher transfer rate, but games are certainly not limited by disc size atm as far as i'm aware, or you'd see more games spanning multiple discs without having an excessive amount of movies.

 

[[THN]Buffalo_Hunter]

Blu-Ray is a bit like Freeview - more space to fill with more rubbish. I want quality, not quantity!!!!

 

[Pestcontrol]

The size of blueray disks is needed for storing high-definition content, thats what it's developed for. 1080i content is over four times larger than ordinary DVD, part of this is alleviated by using newer compression standards, but it's still a lot more data and a HD movie would never fit a DVD. It's also much better suited to recording as one simple single sided disk would have more capacity than a VHS tape, something DVD recording systems never managed to surpass.

It's made to offer higher quality, but offers more quantity also.

 

[Gizmo-5]

both of these discs (HD AND BD) work using smaller lasers and smaller bumps.

Now BD has a much smaller layer of bumps than hd, it can manage more info because it removes some of the protective layers a cd has.

if you havent figured it out yet then i will spell it out for you.

If anyone that ever owned a PSX will know, if you scratch a CD that videoclip is toast, so HD offers less space, but BD will need to be rapped up in bubblerap to keep the thing from jumping back to main menu every 5 minutes

 

[Pestcontrol]

Not quite. HD-DVD will have a 0.6mm layer of polycarbonate at its underside (same as DVD), Blu-ray 0.1mm, but this won't be necissarily be polycarbonate but a much harder material developed by TDK. Also most scratches are less than 0.1mm deep. In terms of error correction both disks are able to bridge about 7mm of unreadable disk surface, more than DVD.

Also i just read that's HD-DVD's rewritable standard will be different and incompatible with ordinary HD-DVD equipment!

Blu-ray is basically superior at every front and innovatively designed where HD-dvd is more of an evolution of DVD. It's only weakness is cost.

 

[Gopha]

Arent you just glad I told you all about this (someof you already knew tho )
Well I personally believe that BD is good and we need to keep updating our technology otherwise we become stuck in our ways

 

[[THN]Buffalo_Hunter]

So it's Betamax vs VHS all over again? Betamax had better quality but was more expensive and guess what? It lost to the inferior but cheaper VHS.

Given that a high-definition movie will fit on a HD-DVD disc, why do you need the extra space that Blu-Ray offers? If past experience is anything to go by they'll either leave it empty or fill it with junk that the puinter will end up paying for.

Sony, like a few other companies I could mention, make you pay extra for having their name slapped on the outside of the box, and it'll be the same with Blu-Ray - it may be technically better but you'll pay for the privilege?