HD DVD: A Decaying Format (XBOX 360 HD DVD Player)

[@LaneWynn]

Another banger. HD DVD always seemed like a novelty to me growing up since I got into the 360/PS3 generation around 2010. I was so excited to play FFXIII on my 360! All three disks of it. Which I thought was normal after years of emulating the PS1 FFs. Imagine my surprise when I found out the PS3 (Blu-Ray) print could hold ALL three disks in a single one. That was my favorite impression of Blu-Ray growing up.

[@PhoneDawg]

Thanks for the great comment! The leap in storage from DVD to Blu-ray was insane. I didn't have a PS3 until years after its run, and I remember those 3 discs back when I played XIII and didn't think anything of it neither. My first real understanding of how much of an upgrade Blu-ray was from DVD was with special features for movies. I was always about scouring all the bonus content whenever I bought a new movie and it was nuts how content that would've been allocated to a separate disc with DVD or just not included at all was all on one disc, movie included!

[@califaern3sto]

Xbox 360 games max out at 8.5 gigs while blu-ray maxes out at 50 gigs

[@jamescampbell8482]

I was an HD DVD early adopter. When the Xbox 360 was first announced, Microsoft had initially floated the idea of having HD DVD built into the 360 and I think that would have helped the format last a lot longer if not win. I still have my copies of King Kong The Aviator Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory The Matrix trilogy The Mummy and Mummy Returns. The format was cheaper than Blu-ray by like a lot, and compared to the earlier blu-ray releases HD DVD had cleaner picture quality because early Blu-ray discs were still using the mpeg2 codec. The Toshiba HD A1 HD DVD player also had the best DVD upscaling available at the time. I only wish I had had an HD CRT instead of a rear projection LED back when I first got high definition.

[@danmann861]

I don’t think MS really wanted to commit. They’ve been pushing all digital for too long. They wanted the Xbox to be the media server of the living room. And when they say that, it means were pushing all digital.

[@youuuuuuuuuuutube]

Not sure it would have helped the format because it would have resulted in a 100 to 200 extra cost for each 360 AND delay. Combine those 2 things and you get an overpriced console, just like the PS3, but without the PlayStation branding which saved Sony. Yeah VC1 is better than MPEG2, but once companies started using AVC on Blu-ray, it destroyed HD DVD video quality. It's just a superior format, I mean 25 vs 15GB per layer, and that's why HD DVD is limited to max 29Mbps video whereas Blu-ray gets to 40Mbps.

[@thierrydelage1681]

I owned the entire HD-DVD collection at some point (that's 867 individual titles) and ALL of the Warner discs ended up being totally unreadable (or with heavy video/audio skips) within 10 years. Some of the Combo discs (double sided with one side DVD and one side HD-DVD) from other studios like Universal also had the same problem and after several years the HD-DVD side started to have problem while the regular DVD side of the disc remained trouble free. Anyway this problem is not isolated to HD-DVD and some blu-ray discs also show the same type of problem depending on the place they have been manufactured and the quality of the solvents and glue used to seal the aluminium layer of the disc containing data (although nothing so dramatic with bluray as it was with Warner HD-DVDs). I'm a heavy HD movie collector since 2006 and among the +10000 blurays in my collection, less than 1% of the discs have shown rot or reading problems though years which is not too bad as far as most of the time when a disc has a problem i manage to get it exchanged (on the condition it's still produced) contacting manufacturers customer service 😉

[@Cloud121D]

Hell yeah man. I was a proud HD DVD early adopter as well. Hell, I bought my 360 Player before I even owned a 360. At one point I had thought about going for a complete set as you did, and went with Blu-Ray reluctantly in mid 2008, but have since gone back to almost exclusively DVD, and I only buy Blu-Rays if the DVD is included. If not, I buy the standard def disc. If not for the PS3 (standalone HD DVD players outsold standalone Blu-Ray players outside the PS3), and Sony offering more money to Warner than Toshiba, HD DVD would have won the format war. I still collect and buy HD DVDs, I am on my third player (HD-A35), and I will stick with the format as long as I can buy a working player.

[@vineract731]

When I started noticing hddvd in stores bluray was already a thing but I do remember thinking the red cases were cooler

[@PhoneDawg]

The red cases are super slick. My favorite standard Blu-rays are the varient colors (Hulk w/ the green case, Avengers w/ the bright red).

[@ENNEN420]

I still remember that I always knew Blu-Ray would win because of the PS3. Actually kinda nuts that there was a time where (understandably) for others that wasn't very clear that HD-DVD wasn't long for this world..

[@davidstring8301]

WB disc rot isn't just an HD-DVD problem. The problems with the WB discs is because of a production problem at the Cinram plant. DVDs and blu-rays from the same factory have the same disc rot problems.

[@PhoneDawg]

That's insane! Really defeats the idea of building a collection if these particular discs have such a short shelf life. Sucks to see so many releases fall victim to this.

[@Loophole23742]

My Warner bros movies are fine on Blu-ray and dvd. Seems like the issue is specific to hd dvd, mate😉Nice try😂😂😂

[@bubba842]

​@@Loophole23742They have to be from the same time period. The Cineram plant closed shortly after 2008. There is even a code on the affected discs that you can check. If your discs have that code they came from that plant.

[@staringcorgi6475]

@@Loophole23742it’s probably referring to wb discs in the late 2000s. Any 2010s disc are made to last

[@jltrack]

Commenting in 2024. Still have HD DVD's and the 360 Drive and just finished viewing Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind in the "decaying format". I find the image and sound quality of HD DVD equal or to Blu-Ray whether viewed on my 1080p Plasma or Epson 1080p projector. I own 25 HD DVD's and the only one that skips at some points is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Otherwise every other disc still works. Also I bought the Player and HD DVD's in 2011 when the 360 HD DVD player was $35 brand new and brand new discs were going for $2-5 a pop!

[@hakopa_nt]

Got recomended this video and im a fan of how you present the information like an actual presentation.

[@PhoneDawg]

Thanks for watching and for the compliment!

[@hammerheadms]

Those 1st generation Blu-ray discs had very poor black levels. One thing you will notice is when a screen goes black in a movie on HD DVD is the screen is legitimately dark. The same could not be said about those first Blu-rays. A black screen always gave off a tremendous amount of light.

[@Superdimensional]

I don’t know if I’d say “first generation” I’d refer to it as the first wave of titles…. But that was more due to codec choices, once Blu-ray went to AVC MPEG 4, it was game over for HD-DVD, as it looked much better than the softish looking low bit rate VC-1 that was highly prevalent in HD-DVD.

[@basurerodej8501]

Thanks KZbin Recommendations, hope you guys get more subs, this was a great video!

[@PhoneDawg]

Thanks for watching!

[@Spikenector]

I still have some adult HD-DVDs, those are great !!!

[@Scifi4life]

Any films starring Sara jay?

[@Exole]

Nice video as always guys!

[@CarsandCats]

I'm on my second drive now. The first one lasted 15 years. I only had one disc fail so far and it looks perfect but will not play: Chronicles of Riddick.

[@scotthallgv]

Disc rot was something that happened within a few years of them coming out in some cases, I had several hddvd disc begin rotting as soon as two years after purchase. It seems like WB started this entire fiasco with one foot already out the door and intentionally produced cheaper disc cuz they didnt really believe in the format and didnt want to spend too much on it. This was also common among regular WB dvds that were produced in the same time period.

[@AhmetAtalayOfficial]

No surprise the rotting was happening as soon as the discs were released. People have been reporting playback issues right away. The format was never dependable. Not to mention, early paramount blu ray flicks like mission impossible series etc not having true HD audio is due to them simultaneously being released on HD DVD and the format not having enough disc space for hd audio

[@RyneMcKinney]

This doubles as one of the last ramnants of the blades dashboard. Nice video

[@ThaDudePat]

just bought the xbox hd dvd player for 25 bucks i just need an hd dvd to try it out!

[@MrOnyxWolf]

I see HD-DVDs once in awhile. But mostly you'll more likely to see them at thrift stores or Goodwill. As I did see the Transformers (2007) HD-DVD 4 days ago. I hope you guys do a video on Betamax tapes. I remember seeing Godzilla 1985 on Betamamx long time ago in 1996.

[@PhoneDawg]

Betamax is super interesting to us, we'll def consider covering it eventually. A lot of these HD-DVDs we actually found at places like thrift stores and used video stores! Always cool to find a red case in the wild.

[@MrOnyxWolf]

@@PhoneDawg I look forward to it when that happens. I'll be honest to say that HD-DVD & Betamax are the underdogs of media formats. Their history & importance are more interesting than anything. I hope to find a Betamax tape in the wild one day.

[@Fingerling2012]

Yea picked up chronicles of riddick and beowulf for hd dvd a couple years ago at a goodwill, was hoping to find a player but they didn’t have any so I picked one up on eBay for $15, I work for a trash company and someone threw out a bunch of hd dvds was able to get transformers 12 monkeys and King Kong the others were ruined, hoping to find a cheap 360 and a hd dvd player one of these days

[@Dash120z]

I always thought HD DVD was far more interesting than Blu Ray..

[@PhoneDawg]

It definitely has a very interesting history! Do/have you owned any HD DVDs?

[@Dash120z]

no, but I own an Xbox 360 and I always wondered what would've happened if this format was included built on the 360 instead.

[@bizzybee3021]

Pulls out a holy grail ps3 4 usb . nice low-key flex.

[@youuuuuuuuuuutube]

Disc rotting is absolutely unacceptable. Problem with HD DVD is that they only upgraded the laser from red to blue, which allowed them to pack 3x as much data per layer, compared to a DVD, meaning 5GB => 15GB, but they didn't improve anything else, physically I mean (the codecs were improved too). Blu-ray on the other hand pushed optical disc technology to its limits for the time, not only the laser was improved but also the data was stored at 0.1mm from the surface instead of 0.6mm (for DVD and HD DVD), which allows to pack even more data because there's less optical distorsion, and in turn required specific coating to prevent scratches, but ultimately that resulted in Blu-ray being more scratch proof than DVD and HD DVD. The error correction was also improved. Overall that's an additional 1.667 multiplier with all that technology meaning 3 x 1.667 = 5x multiplier over DVD, per layer.

[@Superdimensional]

Blu-ray had a 20gb advantage over HD-DVD (not 10) as well as a higher maximum bit rate. That’s why it was “better”

[@halo3odst]

Oh it’s not just warner brothers discs you need to worry about. I recently discovered that my clean copies of aeon flux, chronicles of riddick, and jarheads dont work and i believe that they are all universal studios discs. Some have even been resurfaced.

[@Coolman13355]

It's definitely my understanding that the format as a whole is prone. WB discs are just the worst offenders.

[@Supermanjonny96]

This is like an ancient artifact that a lot of people forget about. If you were there and saw these things in stores. You were part of a format war. lol I never ever watched a HD- DVD. I wanted to see if it was crystal clear like blu ray.

[@sourhayes1]

What’s the song in the first minute

[@GenX_in_the_wild]

Can you just ripp and save them with Make MKV?

[@saitamasouls4366]

good video! idk if you know but Netflix is actually ending the dvd mail service this year

[@PhoneDawg]

I saw that on Twitter the other day. Didn't even know they were still doing it fr, I would've still been getting discs in the mail!

[@letstalkcriterion]

Hd dvd was 1080i mainly which was interlaced as opposed to 1080p progressive bluray beat them slightly on resolution also on sound a lot of them were Dolby digital plus but some were Dolby true hd a higher bit rate. I’ve still got my Toshiba ep35 player and about 50 discs.

[@rjfailarcade]

Was just about to ask if we were ever getting new vids

[@PhoneDawg]

More on the way soon!

[@kelly806]

Can I play my 8 Track collection on one of these?

[@PhoneDawg]

It's worth a shot!

[@Mythical6255]

It’s been 3,000 years…

[@PhoneDawg]

Happy to be back in the dawg pen

[@nonsuch]

Funny, In the early 2000's I used to be the "next slide" guy at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. I would always ask the presenter if they wanted a remote to switch the slides themselves and the majority took it. So about 75% of the time I literally did nothing and got paid for it. I was basically a glorified babysitter. 😂

[@tezcanaslan2877]

Good to know that Americans tax money was going towards an important thing

[@nonsuch]

@@tezcanaslan2877 I wasn't a government worker. I was a contractor paid by another company. You can blame them.

[@ozmond]

I’ve always said I prefer the name of HD DVD, but blu ray is only two syllables

[@AutisticFloppa]

loved this video alot

[@ops7917]

Always preferred HD DVD over blu ray. Never had these issues with my discs and I still have some since 2006.

[@TheAugustus24]

Everything in that thumbnail i had when it came out.

[@bjorntorsten8241]

Great great video! Love it

[@8BitNaptime]

Aw man I just started collecting these from thrift stores.

[@jonjonrods5776]

Sony dumped ridiculous amounts of money to get exclusive deals and HdDvd could not compete

[@Loophole23742]

Yeah and hd dvd were shit😂 some if I recall we’re only 1080i🤷 Not bad if your playing them on a small monitor or tv though. The only reason I wanted one back in the day was because that format had exclusive rights to the Matrix and I wanted that movie. I waited till Matrix eventually came to Blu-ray. Back then that was a big deal.

[@bubba842]

​@@Loophole23742All HD DVDs were 1080p. Some early players were 1080i.

[@Superdimensional]

Both sides had their allies, but it’s commonly misrepresented as “Sony vs Toshiba” when it was really the HD-DVD promotion group vs the Blu-ray Disc Association. It’s said Panasonic had more invested than Sony did.

[@ThaDudePat]

great video guys

[@marcellachine5718]

Zero seconds in, technically all recorded formats are decaying.

[@MissMTurner]

A friend of mine was convinced ipods were going to fail and HD DVD was going to win the format war. 0/2 😂

[@cleverobinson446]

Enjoying that banana Mr. Dawg?

[@PhoneDawg]

The look and sound of perfect :)

[@soluzaroi]

I left a like but I disliked the heat gun for reflowing nooooooooooooo!

[@ozmond]

It’s the Sega CD of the Xbox 360 lol

[@TheRomanTribune]

I honestly wish hddvd won this battle. Blu-ray just sounds stupid and its still just a high definition dvd at the end of the day anyway.

[@khalilmoss1315]

Comment!

[@PhoneDawg]

I'm honored.

[@popmedia2887]

Smiling Friends shirt 👀 Based

[@PhoneDawg]

I heard the renaissance men are coming to town.

[@maples328]

😂 of course Sony was losing over $100 for every PS3 they sold which caused them to pay big retailers Millions of dollars 💵 If they would stop 🛑 giving HDdvd 📀 shelf space (Walmart, cough).

[@gamagama69]

4:58 ethernet tho

[@pukalo]

Bananas should not crunch like that.

[@vdochev]

I though you just play your HDDVDs in the XBOX's drive like, you know, the OTHER console you can watch movies on.

[@stachumalygnojek6248]

😊 😊😊😊 😊😊😊

[@aarraa9671]

Sorry, but why the fuck do you use hot air gun all over the console? :D That's not a great idea, and doesn't have any benefit and could just make some components come off and warp the motherboard. Otherwise great video!