The Failed Blu-ray: HD DVD - Retrospective Review

[@91Tech]

HD DVD >>>>> Blu-ray, don't @ me To potentially win $20,000 for a Gaming Rig and support a great cause go to omaze.com/91Tech​ - thanks to Omaze for sponsoring today's video!

[@Khloya69]

Digital download >>>>> blu ray

[@bradtoddler3765]

Dude, the sponsor on this video kinda bit suspicious though. A lot of KZbinrs covered that Omaze is scam.

[@stormyday849]

Let's hope the HD DVD player is more reliable than the original Xbox 360

[@bradtoddler3765]

@Ean Elijah De Guzman Yeah, I recently watched some KZbinrs talk about Omaze after watching this video.

[@babyboomertwerkteam5662]

I know us tech nerds sometimes love to be hipsters, but HD-DVD really is not better than Blu-ray. Of course, none of this actually matters because HD-DVD failed, but nevertheless HD-DVD discs can only store 15GB (or 30GB dual-layer) compared to Blu-ray's 25GB (or 50GB dual layer, 100GB triple-layer, 128GB quadruple-layer; HD-DVD never supported triple or quadruple layers) meaning HD-DVD either has less playtime or theoretically more compression (i.e. worse video and audio quality) than Blu-ray. HD-DVD only supports a maximum bitrate of 30.2Mbit/s while Blu-ray supports up to 48Mbit/s (in practice both use compressed video, usually AVCHD at 13Mbit/s, so these maximums are never hit), and Blu-ray data is stored with error-correcting code (ECC) whereas HD-DVD data is not. Blu-ray is better physically as all Blu-ray discs are hardcoated to help protect against scratches, HD-DVD hardcoating was optional. The only real thing HD-DVD did better than Blu-ray is that HD-DVD never had region codes whereas Blu-ray has 3, although I've noticed many Blu-rays tend to be region-free these days anyway, and HD-DVD only ever supported AACS for encryption which was cracked very early on, making HD-DVD movies easier to, uh, "legally back up" ;)

[@leelanzini]

Here’s something to think about... Toy Story 1 - VHS Toy Story 2 - DVD Toy Story 3 - Blu-Ray Toy Story 4 - 4K Blu-Ray & Digital

[@sillyslayer_]

toy story 1 also came out on laserdisc!

[@Banom7a]

Toy Story 5 - Disney+ lol

[@112188Francisco]

@@Banom7a 4*

[@Banom7a]

@@112188Francisco that was the joke, if toy story 5 ever came out

[@RobertK1993]

@@Banom7a Nah😂

[@FlintG]

The ps2 ended up being my first dvd player it was awesome being able to watch movies and play games in my bedroom tv.

[@bluecollarwarrior2184]

That were the days

[@Chuked]

That’s awesome I remember my friend lying to his parents it played dvds 📀

[@stevec5465]

That's why I purchased the PS2. I figured, Why just buy a standalone DVD player, when I can buy a gaming system that plays DVDs too? That was my "reasoning" for buying the PS2.

[@yaboidustin2447]

My first dvd player was my 360 e

[@Clay3613]

The DVD player on my PS2s never worked correctly, constantly dropping dark scenes...even on a Sony TV!

[@raikiri23]

Oh man, I absolutely loved HD DVD back in the day as a teenager. Ironically, this was because it failed so hard. See, I wanted to watch HD content, but Blu-ray was way out of my price range, but when HD DVD flopped it became SUPER cheap. I got a boxed 360 HD DVD add on plus 6 movies for $50 (the boxed player also came with the 360 media remote which was $20 by itself). Then after that the actual movies were dirt cheap. They were going for literally one cent on Amazon, retailers couldn't wait to get rid of them, so even with my nonexistent teenage money I was able to put together a small collection. Another creature comfort was that if I was spending an afternoon binging a TV show I had on regular DVD, I could put a disc in the regular drive and the HD drive and switch discs without getting up. Truly, I was living the high life in 2010. It was kind of sad though to watch it fall into irrelevancy though, every dash board update would see the app get pushed down into more menus and off the main screen.

[@tadpolegaming4510]

Take your victories where you can. I assumed their prices would shoot up again, but it hasn't happened yet

[@raikiri23]

@@tadpolegaming4510 They're not a penny anymore, but yeah, they aren't super expensive collector's items either

[@CatLover7112]

👍

[@BB-ed4om]

This is great

[@Coolman13355]

I wonder if there was a similar phenomenon in the Betamax vs VHS war.

[@jamesieadams]

This hurt. I was team HD DVD. I bought all the titles. I’m not over it 😂

[@hggfhh4449]

You can still use it as a dvd player? I think

[@CustardCream22]

Same

[@bubba842]

I still collect HD DVDs. I have over 40 of them now. Picked Babel up last Sunday.

[@PeloDoRato]

@@bubba842 that’s dope!

[@rhaib]

@@bubba842 cool

[@forrestp33]

I had the very first HD DVD player from Toshiba rushed to market in 2006. It was really slow and took forever to play movies. It also looked like a 1980's VCR. I signed up for the firmware update program, and they had to mail discs directly to me to update the player. Once support was pulled for HD DVD and Blu Ray won, Toshiba sent out one final firmware disc that, unbeknownst to me, would brick the upscaling capabilities of the player. Every time I put in a DVD, a message would pop up alerting me that the disc was would be shown in 480i. I bent the remote into a slight U shape out of frustration and took the player to my local Goodwill.

[@aaronlane8276]

There was a firmware update just to remove the HD capabilities? That's sounds harsh.

[@forrestp33]

@@aaronlane8276 It just took away the upscaling for standard DVD. It would still play HD DVDs like it was supposed to.

[@forrestp33]

​@@comput3r Thanks for the information. You have to remember that this was way back in 2007, and I wasn't smart enough to do something like that, plus, the Toshiba firmware wasn't widely available at the time. We still had to update the devices via a mail-in disc. The players had ethernet connections, but the firmware never got advanced enough in the time they existed to even make those work. I doubt the thing is even in use, today, having become ewaste years ago, before ewaste was even a consideration to the general public.

[@ericcanadiangoldboygray4111]

Screw Job

[@9852323]

I bet the person that found that at goodwill scored lol

[@AtariBorn]

Microsoft never planned a built in HD-DVD drive because they were banking on digital media licensing. They were just a generation too soon on that one.

[@bobbysworldrox]

How ironic

[@SparkzEnt]

I mean...... Michael Bay did state literally this when he was venting how the first Transformers was going to skip Blu-Ray for HD-DVD as a result of Paramount going exclusively red (a move that was seen as mind-boggling, and how its theorized that Microsoft paid Paramount to switch)

[@BDreGaming]

@@AtariBorn a couple generations later, Xbox is in the toilet.

[@AtariBorn]

@@BDreGaming This is true. My prediction is that everything Xbox will soon be integrated within Windows. One more link in the chain and all of the OG, 360, X1, XS games will be on PC.

[@domymbd]

@@BDreGaming Xbox manged to get Activision Blizzard.... cope harder

[@MudkipOnYT]

If we still had HD-DVD, I can only imagine what he'd have now, UHD-DVD would be a horrible name.

[@aidanhelfrich4887]

I dont know for sure but that's a actual thing right

[@moonlightw6]

LMAO

[@buckfiden6227]

4K DVD

[@jorge3997]

At least it would make more sense than “4K HIGH DEFINITION BLUERAY ULTRA + HDR 10 DOLBY VISION”

[@popeyejones9256]

@@moonlightw6 wrong!! you should say HDLMAO!!

[@bubba842]

CDs were very popular by 1995. I was a kid and got my first Sony Discman in 1994. Sony did not advance CDs in the 90s with the PlayStation. The Sony Discman was the thing that did.

[@pokepress]

Now, if the PlayStation had used MiniDisc, that would be a different story. Imagine that alternate universe.

[@BilisNegra]

That's it.

[@markboomgaarden4679]

Yeah I think I played a music cd like once in my ps1 just to try it. But that was it

[@mepm]

Yeah very weird thing to say, I don't remember anyone that didn't already have a cd player before they had a PlayStation, but i doubt he would of been old enough to know lol

[@pauls4522]

my dad was a relatively early adopter of CD. While not buying them when they were over 500$ for a cd player, he did get one either in late 80s or early 1990s and joined one of those scammer CD clubs. The funny thing is he legitimately bought enough from the CD club to make being a member worth it.

[@BDreGaming]

I remember going to Best Buy multiple times during this era, there were Blu-ray and HD DVD sections right beside each other. What a time to be alive

[@mikeg2491]

Foolish me bought a HD DVD addon for Xbox when they announced the war was over thinking I’d be able to pick up tons of discounted movies, instead they packed all the stock up and sent them back to the factories for destruction.

[@AJayZy]

@@mikeg2491Another commenter said the opposite. He was getting the player plus six HD DVDs for fifty dollars in 2010

[@9852323]

@@mikeg2491they are wasteful idiots....people could have bought and used those and they could made money.

[@Klynch111]

​@@mikeg2491one thing about dead tech is, at some stage interest and demand for a format that can't be got, it will never be worthless. I'm currently keeping my eye open for a VCR player mainly just to be able to watch all the home movies my parents recorded way back in the 80s/90s. And the price of those players now is crazy, when they were phasing them out you could have got one for 20-30 quid. Now I'm seeing prices of 420 etc. Although hd DVD hasn't got that boom and it prob won't, but it's still good to at least have that still there just to look back on and for what could have been

[@segaprophet]

HD DVD content looks as good as it ever did on HDTVs, and many people purchased their HD DVD collections on the cheap when it was being phased out. There are upsides despite it being a defunct format with no new releases.

[@markpugh6808]

Is there most of the WB releases had disc rot because of cheapskate discs

[@arthurdurham]

It's pretty fascinating what Sony learned from the failure of the Betamax, they implemented into Blu Ray and the Playstation line in general. Convinient and plentiful features and eventually pricing. I was a PS3 guy so I didn't even realize how much Microsoft expected you to buy seperately. The PS3 had WiFi, wireless controllers, HDMi, and a snazzy new video player format out of the box. Playing into the general western idea of "I already have a device that does this, so that's what I'll use" (which is a concept they refused to pander to with Betamax) instead of buying a new one. There's no way I would have been able to convince my parents to get me an additional hundred box to play movies and have wifi when we had a perfectly good DVD player and a computer already, but the PS3 I eventually got played them already and also could stream video. I think all of these consumer friendly actions was part of what smade PlayStation and Blu Ray dominate over Microsoft in the gaming console sales for generations (even the PS3 eventually outsold the 360). EDIT: Well, this aged like milk with the PS5 pro announcement.

[@ITZCHELSEA2244]

360 is still the superior console

[@MichaelJamesonofgoogle]

Hot take: the PS3 was better value at launch than the Xbox 360. Most people bought the $399 360 model because they wanted the 20GB hard drive, adding on the $200 HD-DVD player and $100 wi-fi adaptor made that console come out to... $700. Whereas for $500 on PlayStation 3, you got the same sized hard drive along with a built-in blu-ray drive, wi-fi, and HDMI which Xbox didn't get until June of 2007. Additionally, you could spend $600 and get the 60GB model, 40GB more than the Xbox 360 and still $100 less if you wanted all the same features. Not to mention, blu-ray ended up winning the format wars at the end of the day. To this day, if I wanted to, I could pop in a brand new blu-ray into my PS3 and watch movies at a crisp 1080p. You can't do that with a 360. And, while it was sadly removed less than 2 years after launch, the PS3 was initially backwards compatible with 100% of PS1 and PS2 games, giving it a library totaling over 10,000 games right out of the box.

[@ITZCHELSEA2244]

Your just being a Sony Pony shill ley me guess you also think the PS5 Pro is a great value console

[@My_Old_YT_Account]

You also have to remember that in that generation the number of players that never played online was much larger than today, they wouldn't care even if there wasn't an Ethernet port on the back let alone WiFi Also the cheapest launch PS3 didn't have WiFi either, it was only released in North America and Japan however

[@dotto87]

You’re not wrong, but if you’re just looking for something to play a new game on the Xbox was cheaper. That’s how it gained popularity and won out until Sony cut the price. I might also add that Bluray/HD-DVD weren’t the huge sellers that original DVD was (this is alluded to in the video but not explicitly said). The average consumer didn’t see the benefit and had only just gotten used to DVDs.

[@thepurrfectionist365]

PS3's main problem at launch was the lack of good games. Built-in Wifi and Blu Ray was dope at the time, but 360 released earlier with better multiplats and online experience. It wasn't until the Slim revision where the power of the PS3 shined.

[@Hail-Marīyami]

​@thepurrfectionist365 Playstation tends to have bad or less games after the ps3 launches 😅

[@jasonschlierman412]

At the time, I stayed out of the Blu-ray/HD DVD format war and bought exclusively DVDs. I did keep up with it however and secretly hoped HD DVD would win. It just made the most sense to me going from DVD to HD DVD, and the “Blu-ray” name kind of sounds like a fish.

[@protoretro1290]

The first Blu Ray player was $1000 The first HD-DVD player was $259 The HD-DVD player was launched 2 months before the first Blu Ray player.

[@MichaelJamesonofgoogle]

Yeah, but I'd argue the majority of people who watched either HD-DVD or blu-ray movies did so on consoles. On PS3, it was built right in, while on 360, you had to spend an extra $200 for it. Not to mention, the original 360 models didn't have wi-fi or HDMI whereas PS3 did.

[@johnhyatt4905]

If you bought a Toshiba A1 at release and paid MSRP (Like me) you would have paid $499.99 (plus tax)

[@PatrickDKing]

The toshiba hd dvd player also had an ethernet cable port which theoretically would have gotten updates online. Our first gen sony blu ray player wouldn't play the latest blu rays because they needed the decrypt keys updated so you had to go to a pc to download files, make a data disc iso and burn it and put that in the bluray player to do a firmware update to play the blurays. I would say the toshiba was a much more pleasant experience.

[@LennyQUMFIF]

@@PatrickDKing but the PS3 even tho its a console from 2006, it still receives updates to this day for the encryption keys. Hell the PS3 pre-dates Blu Ray 3D, yet it supports it via a firmware update

[@ComradePoop]

​@@LennyQUMFIFprobs as old people still use it as a bluray, dvd player, and a console when their grandson comes

[@mymangodfrey]

Music CDs and CD players were as common and inescapable as microwave ovens in 1995. CD had been the dominant music format for years (it accounted for 80% of physical media sales) and was near its all-time crest, with global sales of about 700 million in 1995 alone. The PlayStation was released at a time when used music stores were starting to have $1 CD bins near the front door for lightly scratched discs. Best Buy had become a goliath in part by selling CDs below cost. I had my first CD player when I was a kid (cheap, and bought at Target, where CD longboxes had already replaced cassettes). When the PlayStation came out, I was in college. CD was a total nonfactor for PS1, and I’m not sure I’ve ever even heard of someone using the system as a music player.

[@buckroger6456]

I checked out of the video when he tried saying PS1 made CDs a thing.

[@RobertK1993]

CD players where big even before PS1 in 1994/1995.

[@AronBezzina]

When I was a kid my family was not into technology, a huge plus to me was when my first pc (in 1998) had a CD drive. It was our 2nd CD player and was a very big value add for me. If I had a ps1 back then it would have been a very big deal to me to have a CD player in the living room.

[@dplakosh]

PS3 being thought of as expensive or not, Blu-ray players that were being released at the same time as the system retailed for $500 as well making the purchase of a PS3 a no brainer if you wanted to watch HD movies on your new HD TV.

[@r.j.dunnill1465]

I believe that was Sony's strategy: subsidize the PS3 with an eye to recouping the losses through later sales and royalties. It proved a winning strategy.

[@SirBilliam96]

This instantly reminded everyone alive back then of the VHS and Betamax war. When I was a kid, my family had a VHS player, and I didn't know about Betamax until I saw my Grandpa's unused Betamax player in his movie closet. He still kept it, even after switching to VHS in the 90's. Unfortunately, he got rid of all his Betamax cassettes, so we could never try it out.

[@brandonreina5461]

Universal Studios definitely made the move to Blu-ray Disc after seeing HD DVD in the media graveyard

[@elphive42]

91: While the market has moved on to digital Me, who buys a Blu-ray every week: 😢

[@matthewgaines10]

I still buy DVDs, Blu-ray, 3D Blu-ray, and UHD discs too. I stream and still buy discs.

[@chrisgreig98]

Keep buying blu rays my friend, we'll be the ones enjoying ourselves when the zombie apocalypse happens. Everyone else will have nothing because they think streaming is the way forward.

[@danielponder690]

it's true ownership versus a studio allowing the rights to stream on the various platforms, shows/movies come and go on Netflix etc

[@xmartinv1xvideogamingtv69]

And me who buys 4K Blu-rays now. 4K rocks. The next big thing

[@Gorilla_Jones]

Digital distribution is a suckers game. I have hundreds of Blu-ray and HD-DVD in my collection and have tangible assets I can watch anytime I want with lossless quality.

[@pauls4522]

One thing to note. Bluray could fit up 25 and 50gb per disc respectively. HDDVD only 15 and 30gb. So Size definitely mattered too (pun not intended)

[@absolutium]

Considering that current Bluray box ironically comes with 2-3 Discs.. that was irrelevant.

[@RobertK1993]

@@absolutium How do you mean only for TV shows and odd long movie like Braveheart or Lord of the Rings😂

[@absolutium]

@@RobertK1993 half of my movies include "extra material" in one or two more discs.

[@wright96d]

@@absolutium You still get better image quality from the increased storage space. Whether the release comes with 1 disc, or 3, you're still getting more space per disc. And thus better quality.

[@remav123]

Quite a few errors & some big omissions in this video. DVD is 480p The Xbox add-on is only 1080i Blu-ray's Laser isn't blue. ...to name a few

[@will_hargreaves]

Definitely the PS3 was the single biggest reason that Blu-ray won the format war with HD-DVD. But it’s also worth noting that Blu-ray also a more technically advanced technology. For example, it could store data more densely which have it a higher capacity. It also offered faster bitrates than HD-DVD.

[@FriendlyNeighborhoodNerd]

“Technology is a lot like time, it stops for no one” that’s not going to stop me from going back to cassettes and cartridges!

[@keithbrown7685]

Stay away from 8tracks. They are the devil's own format. Go with cassette and vinyl. But remember that 8tracks are plague in plastic form.

[@stefanlundal5557]

PS2 was my first dvd player. PS3 was my first and only blu-ray player. Fun fact we are still using the PS3 as our one and only DVD/Blu-ray player.

[@RuruFIN]

I remember seen those drives being sold for like 20-30EUR when the format was discontinued. Kinda sad that I didn't get one as a collectible.

[@DAngelProductions]

The 90s-00s had some crazy obscure video formats. Anyone remember VCDs?

[@AtariBorn]

Lay the HD-DVD player on its concave side with the convex side up, orienting the drive tray like the 360 DVD drive tray would be in its vertical orientation. You butt the rubber feet of the HD-DVD against the 360, on the right side. With the 360s that have the chrome DVD tray, it's a perfect match. You had it right when you had the player on the top of the 360, just rotate both 90° clockwise.

[@JeffreyDeCristofaro]

I remember seeing HD DVD back in the video aisles in the mid-to-late 2000's and reading a CONSUMER REPORTS article about it, but at the time, I didn't know what to make of it. As it was, I was still building up my DVD collection, and I read that some of the HD DVD titles still didn't play as well with uneven color quality on certain players. Now, already having made the transition to Blu-ray, I'm finding it hard enough to keep up with the transition to 4K!

[@Gorilla_Jones]

A little known fact as to the demise of HD-DVD. Sony paid millions of dollars to major retailers including Best Buy to make sure two things happened. 1. They buried any and all HD-DVD movies and hardware in more obscure parts of the store and HD-DVD could never have an end cap, EVER. 2. Sony mandated that Best Buy employees could not acknowledge that HD-DVD was high definition. They were told to tell customers that HD-DVD was “fake” HD and that there was a “new” technology called Blu-ray that was much better. The fact is that at launch HD-DVD was the far better viewing experience as the features, menu system and overall experience was more refined. Most Blu-ray at the time had zero features or menu options, just the movie. 🤦‍♂️ I know all this as I used to be a journalist and distributor in the video game industry in the 90s and good friends were in executive management at Best Buy, Circuit city, Frys, etc. Sony are ruthless and masters of corporate fuckery. Ask Sega.

[@woodchucker23]

Blu-ray also supports 24fps progressive scan natively for films, where as HD DVD supported 60fps interlaced and was then pulled down to 24fps potentially causing some conversion artifacts.

[@Cakebattered]

Later HD DVD models (Toshiba XA2) would output 24fps

[@ajrhodes3262]

Oh boy, oh boy... HD DVD and it's hopeful success was melted into pure nothingness by the end this format war!!

[@Ruffles811]

The HD DVD add-on was actually pretty good. On a 32 inch TV, which was my first HD Ready TV in 2006, movies like King Kong looked really good. I then got Toshiba's HD-EP30. I still have it plugged in to my modern 4K TV. The only major drawback today, after all this years, is that it boots up very, very slow.

[@AronBezzina]

I think it’s actually faster to plug in my Xbox 360 & HDDVD drive, then boot it up and play a disc rather than pop a disc in my Toshiba player 😂

[@JimboShogun0686]

People do forget that yes the PS3 was expensive but for the time it was cheaper than Blu-ray DVD players which costed over 1000 dollars

[@OkieOtaku]

Let's not forget, Blu-ray was marketed as having a scratch resistant layer on the disks. After dealing with how easily DVD's could get scratched, this was very attractive to consumers. Plus the shiny blue color of the disks was just cool

[@KenjiRyuma90]

I won a HD DVD player at a community raffle with Transformers and 300; I sold it and bought a used PS3 and never looked back. 🤣

[@harveybarvey5080]

I just checked and there have no HD DVD player raffles so I you are telling lies on the internet

[@csdarlington86]

I just bought 75 HD DVD's on ebay for $35. Not a bad way to watch some good movies on the cheap.

[@bubba842]

Watch out for Warner Bros releases. They probably won't work.

[@csdarlington86]

@@bubba842 yeah I learned those releases have disc rot. I collect them cause they're so cheap and it's a weird format. So it's ok if those don't work. But to my surprise some of them still work!

[@bubba842]

@@csdarlington86 it's not actually disc rot. It's a shitty pressing technique and faulty equipment at one of Warner's subsidiaries plants that caused this issue. There is way to see if your WB discs are affected. If you look on the inner clear plastic part of the disc, there will be small writing stamped into it. If you see 01FF stamped on it, it came from the Cinemax plant in Olyphant Pennsylvania. The source of the problem. Warner used two other plants, one in Toronto and one in Mexico, that didn't suffer these issues. If your discs say something different than 01FF on them, then they were probably pressed in one of the other plants and will probably work. You will probably need a magnifying glass to read it as the stamp is tiny. You should check your WB releases to see if you have any non 01FF discs.

[@csdarlington86]

@@bubba842 That's very interesting! Thanks for the tip and the info!

[@bubba842]

@@csdarlington86 no worries.

[@MasticinaAkicta]

At least it was a short battle... VHS vs Beta vs Video 2000 wasn't helping anyone.

[@Loukoumakias]

I love my PS3! Sometimes I talk to him with his older brother saying how much of an amazing system they were.

[@Jmeon4eva]

Interestingly not the first HD formats. Japan had High Definition Laserdisc called "MUSE LD" in the early-mid 90's. Meanwhile here in the US we had an HD format from 2002-2004/5, called D Theater, based on Digital VHS, up to 1080i with DTS and Dolby tracks on a VHS tape.

[@jadedheartsz]

Yeah Techmoan did an awesome video on that format.

[@Cakebattered]

Studios and broadcasters actually used a digital version of Betamax.

[@MrPete1985]

I remember buying my dad a Toshiba Blu Ray player for Christmas one year and had a little chuckle because they were backing HD DVD at the start of the generation

[@Gorilla_Jones]

I have an immense collection of HD-DVD and a Toshiba player. I run it on a Sony 4K projector to a 140” CinemaScope screen and it looks great. A little known fact as to the demise of HD-DVD. Sony paid millions of dollars to major retailers including Best Buy to make sure two things happened. 1. They buried any and all HD-DVD movies and hardware in more obscure parts of the store and HD-DVD could never have an end cap, EVER. 2. Sony mandated that Best Buy employees could not acknowledge that HD-DVD was high definition. They were told to tell customers that HD-DVD was “fake” HD and that there was a “new” technology called Blu-ray that was much better. The fact is that at launch HD-DVD was the far better viewing experience as the features, menu system and overall experience was more refined. Most Blu-ray at the time had zero features or menu options, just the movie. 🤦‍♂️ I know all this as I used to be a journalist and distributor in the video game industry in the 90s and good friends were in executive management at Best Buy, Circuit city, Frys, etc. Sony are ruthless and masters of corporate fuckery. Ask Sega.

[@enzmondo]

Coincidentally, Universal, Warner Bros, and Paramount are essentially the studios running and licensing to the Universal Studios parks with IPs such as the Jurassic Park, Harry Potter, and Nickelodeon Studios. While Walt Disney Studios, 20th Century Fox, and Sony Pictures have e locus ice IPs in the Disney Parks. Disney also later acquires Fox and Sony and Disney eventually venture into a close partnership due to the Spider-Man franchise. The buyout and Spider-Man partnership just cemented their relationships. Funny how the Universal side invested in HD DVD while the Disney side invested in Blu-ray.

[@billsandrew]

Team Blu-ray starting with the original 60GB PS3. Now I'm buying 4k Blu-rays!

[@rac1equalsbestgame853]

The PS3 still makes a great Blu-ray player

[@yaboidustin2447]

@@rac1equalsbestgame853 even if it's never been a great console

[@rac1equalsbestgame853]

@@yaboidustin2447 It IS a great console. R&C Uncharted Infamous MGS So much more. It just wasn't that great as a console untill 2009

[@I_was_a_Bullfrog]

I've bought plenty of blu-rays but can't be bothered jumping into 4K Blu-Ray, 4K Players are still too expensive and I can't see them adding much over digital 4K

[@IslandBoy-808]

@@rac1equalsbestgame853 The PS3 is a shitty Blu-Ray player

[@Mimikyu_Lov3r]

I KNEW THIS WAS A THING! For the longest time tho I thought it was just something my imagination made up! 😂😅

[@xcell5215]

So basically a Mandela Effect 😅

[@Cooe.]

Holy crap you gotta be young... O_o

[@SirKenchalot]

Are you for real? The PlayStation was brought out when 'CD players were super commonplace yet...' CDs were introduced 15 years earlier in 1980 and 'annual global sales surpassed 1bn in 1992 and 2bn in 1996.' Yeah, we all went out and bought 2bn CDs the following year just to look a how shiny they were because 'CD players weren't super commonplace yet.'

[@patrickwagner98]

I read that Microsoft said they only supported HD DVD to try to split the market because they always wanted the future to be ditigal download.

[@siloPIRATE]

10:25 wasn’t that WiFi adapter shown plugged in the back in literally every official picture it was in?

[@EastsideBodega_]

Finally someone recognizing the Dreamcast 5:06

[@BilisNegra]

1:33 I really have to disagree with the point made with the Playstation (1st gen). While the console being a DVD or Blu-Ray player in the case of the PS2 and PS3 respectively was a very strong selling point, since such devices were still expensive at launch time, CDs and CD players were so extremely common in 1994-95 that it was, in fact, the preferred medium for music playback, for original albums at least. As a matter of fact, CD sales were not far from their peak, which took place at the end of the '90s.

[@lenm2857]

I remember watching the TV series "Chuck" 3 or 4 years after the HD DVD was discontinued and they had a large stack of Toshiba HD DVD players in their fictional store. I wondered if they were empty boxes from a promotion before the fall or if the prop department got a real good deal on actual units after they were discontinued.

[@hitmangfx7162]

Great video and overview. Subbed. I've heard this story multiple times (I lived through the era!), but you managed to nail all the key points on it. People forget how technology was just finding its footing in the mid 2000's. A system with no HDMI or Wifi built in was...wild, man.

[@cesaralvarado8913]

I bought an HD-DVD player for $7 a year after it lost. Still one of the best purchases I’ve ever made!!!

[@marcusmalone]

The craziest side aspect of all this is that dvd is STILL a common retail format lol.

[@pauls4522]

this is actually true. During the yearly walmart black friday sales the bigger sellers are still dvds. Most people do not care enough about image quality and still think dvd is "good enough". The last dvd I bought were probably anime dvds are salvation army. I really want 4k hdr blu-ray to get with my LG C9 Oled, but convincing the wife is a different story. She has no idea that the reason why the C9 doesnt impress her for what we paid for the tv is because 4k streaming is WORSE than 1080P blu-ray in regards to bitrate and and just overall quality.

[@marcusmalone]

@@pauls4522 yeah totally, the principal remaining market for physical discs are old people basically!

[@Gorilla_Jones]

@@marcusmalone correction, smart people. Digital distribution…..LOL

[@CmaverickD]

I wonder how different it would have turned out if the HD DVD was built into the 360

[@theformer1337agent]

now im curious

[@RobertK1993]

Still would have lost to Blu ray disc.

[@gregor3145]

It would’ve definitely lasted a lot longer but I still believe Blu-ray would eventually still win

[@9852323]

I mean the consoles only play a small role in HD-DVD vs BluRay. Most people into this kind of thing probably bought standalone players.

[@wickedninja8599]

It's so funny that Blockbuster was big enough to help kill HD DVD, and now Blockbuster is gone.

[@T3Daioh2003Azumanga]

12:10 FMJ! Love it! (You will not laugh, you will not cry! You will learn by the numbers I will teach you!)

[@Thunderflare99]

I clearly remember the DVD/DIVX format competition. I guessed correctly and bought a DVD player for &400(!). I waited Blu-Ray and HD DVD out, but guessed correctly Blu-Ray would win. I'm also old enough to remember when the VHS and Betamax competition was a thing.

[@VernonDraws]

OMG... i remeber my friend having one of these back in the day and i remember us watching movies on it! right after we played Halo3

[@Supersayainpikmin]

My dad bought an HD DVD player in 2006 or 2007, but I don't remember us actually having any HD DVD discs. He told me he went with it over Blu-Ray because Warner Bros. was really backing it at the time.

[@matthewgaines10]

One minor complaint. DVD still outsells Blu-ray in 2021 so Blu-ray isn't what people buy the majority of the time if they are still buying physical media.

[@PaperBanjo64]

I think it's weird how DVD a format from 1997 and 480i is still going strong...I mean look it up SpongeBob except for the movies isn't even available on Blu-ray just DVD.

[@RobertK1993]

More stuff released on DVD they should discontinued DVD fucking obsolete by 2015/16

[@venom121584]

Still outlasted hd dvd

[@thinkingscottish]

It's really interesting to learn more about the history of this brief format war which has almost been totally forgotten now. I was 11 in 2006 and after getting a PS3 the following year my family started buying a few Blu Rays, although they felt very expensive at the time compared to DVDs. We would usually shop in my nearest ASDA supermarket for them, there was also a HD DVD section, noticeably a lot smaller than the Blu Ray one. I vaguely remember picking up and looking over the red cases out of curiosity and then them totally disappearing from the shelves not long after that. Technology moved so fast in the 2000s and I'm glad I lived my young years through them.

[@LILGHETTI]

4k blu-ray is now the best way to watch movies 100 GB discs with 3840x2160p Warner brothers HD DVDs have pressing issues now

[@Nickwilde2295]

Nah bluray cause ps3 so beat it

[@yanijuarez2118]

In a second earth, HD DVD reigned supreme in peace until 6K video players and movies began to emerge. It be nice to see what that would have looked like.

[@Terminal_Apotos]

Hopefully josh wins the big fight and gets to keep his name 🤞

[@RPKGameVids]

I think the red cases look a lot nicer than the blue ones.

[@JustAnyone]

on xbox 360, component cables do support 1080p output too, it was a limitation by old dashboards which was removed later

[@NostalgicPixel]

Here is a way of looking at it. Every Hardware manufacture was making Blu-ray players and only 1 Toshiba manufacturing HD-DVD. Also Every Studio but 1 was making movies for Blur)ray. Until you mentioned Paramount went HD-DVD Exclusive. Timing of that discussion resulting in Transformers releasing Exclusively in HD on HD-DVD. You nailed it when WB picked Blu-ray the war was over.

[@3DJapan]

I had a laptop with an HDDVD drive and had one movie in that format. Actually someone gave me a second one. Unfortunately one of the updates removed the HDDVD function. I was pretty mad that the hardware I bought was just disabled.

[@r.j.dunnill1465]

LG was selling 5.25 internal combo drives well into 2009 IIRC. I bought more than one; the other day, I set one up in an external USB 3.0 5.25 enclosure, and it worked! I used AnyDVD-HD to decrypt the content, and MakeMKV to create MKV files from it. The only software players that supported the format were PowerDVD 7 and TotalMedia Theater. An update to PowerDVD removed playback functionality, but there was the option of reinstalling and refusing updates.

[@rickyrichreacts9667]

I still remember the first time my parents brought home a dvd player back in 98 or 99. It was a vhs/dvd player. First movie I popped in was Rush Hour 😂

[@wright96d]

"If you do want to buy a physical copy of a movie, Blu-Ray is what you'll be getting." DVD still overwhelmingly outsells both Blu-Ray and 4K combined.

[@lucasnn2008]

DVDs are way cheaper to make and they are way more stablished and popular in the market

[@anthonyanderson77]

That erroneous comment jumped out at me also.

[@solo1014]

Sony wasnt going to lose this format war. It wasnt going to be VHS v Betamax again.

[@Maxxeine]

Love that original trilogy star wars VHS collection. It's the definitive version along with Laserdisc.

[@hggfhh4449]

Transfer your laser discs to HD dvd 👍

[@Danbo22987]

I know people hate the specials editions but if you can look past that, the 4K discs are stunning and what I consider close enough to definitive

[@daegan_ftw]

@@Danbo22987 The real best way to watch is buying an original theatrical 35mm print. Barring that, Harmy's Despecialised Editions are a close second.

[@Danbo22987]

@@daegan_ftw Well 4k Blu ray is the best legal way to watch them that isn't expensive as hell.

[@daegan_ftw]

​@@Danbo22987 LEGAL? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *pauses to gasp* HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[@dsimpson530]

I bought it when it was dropped to $50 at GameStop at the time. There was a promotion for 5 free hd-dvds (via mail) on top of King Kong packed in that lasted for a short time.

[@tvaccount2253]

Still use hd dvd alongside my vhs, blue rays and DVD’s

[@bubba842]

So do I. I still actively look for them too.

[@TriangIe]

I used to use HD-DVDs for storing Hi-Fi music, because I could store lossless audio with a higher sample rate than CD quality, without having to break the bank for Blu Rays.

[@jgregoryj1]

I still have my phone toshiba HD-A2 and about 70+ hddvds. I even have my hddvd player for my 360 still. I use it still to this day despite having some of the hddvds being bought later on blu-ray. Oddly enough a lot of hddvds that came in the 2006-early 2008 were 1080p while a lot of blursys at that time we're 1080i. Planet earth being one example

[@bubba842]

All HD DVDs were 1080p. Unfortunately the first generation of HD DVD players were 1080i. This changed with the second generation of players when they all supported 1080p. Although I'm not sure if there was any Blu Ray players that didn't support 1080p.

[@colebundy5197]

While it’s not the reason Blu-ray “won” the format war, it is worth noting that Blu-ray was better than HD-DVD. Standard Blu-rays can hold up to 50GB while HD-DVD’s max storage was 30GB.

[@Psych0technic]

7:40 actually, for people who just paid a couple of grand for a new hdtv and who happened to have the xbox, paying 200 bucks for add on player doesn't sound too bad, considering that both standalone bluray and hddvd players costed much higher back then. And also, bear in mind that 1080p tvs back then were very rare and expensive, the vast majority of hdtvs sold before 2010 were hd ready.

[@siloPIRATE]

Our first DVD player was a DVD/VHS player (or was the PS2 bought first? Not sure). Actually it was probably the family computer. It played DVDs. Then we had the PS2 which also played DVDs. The. The 360. First Blu Ray player was either the Blu Ray player I bought or my gaming PC

[@Joel-ew1zm]

I have said it before and will say it again. The 360 really had a leg up on the PS3 in: 1) Launched a year earlier 2) Significantly more affordable 3) Better lifetime backwards compatibility support If they had managed to do any or all of the following, history of the BD vs HDDVD format war may have been very different: 1) HD DVD integrated into the console from the start and games shipped in that format (even if it pushed the price to 399) 2) HDMI integrated into the console from the start 3) WiFi integrated into the console from the start Honorable mention: factory rechargeable wireless controllers (that was not an oversight, rather a deal with Duracell I believe)

[@bezoekers]

But the entire reason that the Xbox 360 could release earlier and cheaper was because Microsoft cut corners by maintaining DVD and leaving out HDMI and Wifi.

[@lennywright5655]

You forgot to mention the big swinging elephant trunk in the room, the “Corn” industry sided with Blu-ray 😉

[@Clay3613]

I wish there was more footage of the interface of HDDVD. It's pretty different than Blu-Ray.

[@Cakebattered]

The interface was more consistent between titles. For example, every title allowed you to access the disc menu without leaving the movie.

[@Gorilla_Jones]

It was flat out better.

[@wright96d]

@@Cakebattered Blu-Ray does that as well.

[@CharlesBluTheXPicturesInc]

Fun Fact: Setra (Currently Largest Bus Brand) Released Their First Coach Bus With Blu-ray PlayBack!

[@Tyler_Wildman]

Y'know you can use the player vertically with the disc tray facing forward?

[@perfectpasta3155]

The fact that the consumer would have to buy an add on to watch their movies vs having it built into the system killed it on arrival if you ask me

[@Malinkadink]

Xbox 360 actually launched at $400, the PS3 was $600, its possible the 360 dropped to 360 a year later by the time the PS3 launched just to really push consumers to the 360s since it was 1/2 the price. If you think about Microsoft adding the HD DVD player to the console and charging $600 at launch I think the gap between PS3 and 360 at the end in sales numbers would be even more in favor of PS3.

[@Cakebattered]

Xbox 360 launched with 2 models in North America. One was $299 and the other $399. The difference was the inclusion of a 20gb HDD.

[@babyboomertwerkteam5662]

It can be somewhat argued that Apple helped to kill both HD-DVD and Blu-ray since Apple decided to keep using standard DVD drives (due to HD-DVD and BD drives being too expensive), then by the time BD drives were cheaper, Apple had already started to phase out disc drives on their computers. Many people were expecting Blu-ray to appear on Mac computers due to Apple's reputation at the time of adopting new technologies quickly, but Apple simply never cared about it. Apple never released Blu-ray player software, never released Blu-ray authoring software, and never properly supported the format in Final Cut Pro 6 or 7 (aaand then they released Final Cut Pro X and everyone jumped ship to Media Composer or Premiere Pro).

[@Cakebattered]

Nope. Apple's personal computing marketshare was small even at its peak.

[@maxroman2010]

At the time I was hoping HD-DVD would win

[@Gorilla_Jones]

I have an immense collection of HD-DVD and a Toshiba player. I run it on a Sony 4K projector to a 140” CinemaScope screen and it looks great. A little known fact as to the demise of HD-DVD. Sony paid millions of dollars to major retailers including Best Buy to make sure two things happened. 1. They buried any and all HD-DVD movies and hardware in more obscure parts of the store and HD-DVD could never have an end cap, EVER. 2. Sony mandated that Best Buy employees could not acknowledge that HD-DVD was high definition. They were told to tell customers that HD-DVD was “fake” HD and that there was a “new” technology called Blu-ray that was much better. The fact is that at launch HD-DVD was the far better viewing experience as the features, menu system and overall experience was more refined. Most Blu-ray at the time had zero features or menu options, just the movie. 🤦‍♂️ I know all this as I used to be a journalist and distributor in the video game industry in the 90s and good friends were in executive management at Best Buy, Circuit city, Frys, etc. Sony are ruthless and masters of corporate fuckery. Ask Sega.

[@maxroman2010]

@@Gorilla_Jones yea. Makes sense. We can see it happening again and again with any tech really… 😏 that’s why I’m so annoyed when sales managers promote one brand over others by using obscure words and false claims.. like “this phone is the fastest, because it’s an octa core” 🤦‍♀️

[@RobertK1993]

@@maxroman2010 Gorilla Jones is Microsoft fanboy spounting anti Sony nonsense.

[@pukalo]

I'm 90% sure DVD supported 480p as well as 480i.

[@MylesMusic94]

I love HD DVD, I collect them. Something that has plagued the collecting scene is that a good percentage of Warner Brother films were made very cheaply and have experienced The phenomenon of disc rot. I’ve had several Warner bros movies crap out on me. A lot of the time you can look at the disc and see the damage. It’s a bummer since there’s a lot of really good movies on HD DVD by then. Oh well

[@andrewharris9302]

I found my hd-dvd player at goodwill for $8 and it came with a season of smallvile 😁

[@rbriggs89]

Score

[@TheBudgie29]

I started with the 360, but quickly moved on to the Top of the range stand alone player. Another thing to note Is HD-DVD Up-Scaled your old DVD's to High Def. Also some of the Titles are only available on HD-DVD. And some like Unleashed come with a Huge 5.1 sound, where It Is only In stereo on DVD and Blu-Ray. Still have the 480 Titles released on UK pal and play them all the time. The Music Video collections and Live performances are amazing to watch, and listen to, Like You are really there. Thanks for Sharing.

[@xDeath35]

Maybe if 360 games used the hd dvd disc things would have been different

[@Cakebattered]

Way too much revisionist history. From the downplaying of the significance of DVD and pumping up the significance of PS3 and Xbox 360, it shows the video creator needs to do a lot more research on the subject. 1. Phillips/Sony expiring CD patent before the creation of Blu-ray 2. HD DVD copy protection crack and its influence on studios 3. HD DVD as extension of the DVD standard 4. DVD was the fastest selling consumer electronic medium ever, during its day. 5. By the time Toshiba killed HD DVD, the average consumer was still watching on 4:3 TV screens with a resolution equal to or less than 1080i.

[@Gorilla_Jones]

. A little known fact as to the demise of HD-DVD. Sony paid millions of dollars to major retailers including Best Buy to make sure two things happened. 1. They buried any and all HD-DVD movies and hardware in more obscure parts of the store and HD-DVD could never have an end cap, EVER. 2. Sony mandated that Best Buy employees could not acknowledge that HD-DVD was high definition. They were told to tell customers that HD-DVD was “fake” HD and that there was a “new” technology called Blu-ray that was much better. The fact is that at launch HD-DVD was the far better viewing experience as the features, menu system and overall experience was more refined. Most Blu-ray at the time had zero features or menu options, just the movie. 🤦‍♂️ I know all this as I used to be a journalist and distributor in the video game industry in the 90s and good friends were in executive management at Best Buy, Circuit city, Frys, etc. Sony are ruthless and masters of corporate fuckery. Ask Sega.

[@ganthc]

Not mentioned was one reason studios backed Sony and Blu-ray was because it had BD+, which was a DRM meant to prevent piracy. Studios wanted that, or even the semblance of anti-piracy protection. Of course, it never took long for hackers to thwart the protections, but it was still a selling point. Another big difference was disc space, as the Blu-ray Disc had a larger size, which allowed for uncompressed lossless audio to be included. HDDVD used Dolby Digital +, which was high bit rate, but not lossless. That was later resolved when Dolby created a compressed lossless codec called Dolby TrueHD. This helped HDDVD to compete on the audio front. That did set up a slight audio codec war in addition to the format war, as movie fans debated if DTS-HDMA was a better lossless sound than Dolby TrueHD. Blu-ray used both TrueHd and DTS-HDMA, while HDDVD used Dolby Digital + and TrueHD. It added another layer to the war. That plus Blu-rays had an anti scratch coating, while HDDVD did not. I was in the Blu-ray camp, but as the format war kept going, I did cave and buy a HDDVD player, plus their exclusive titles. HDDVD was fine. But it was limited by hardware manufacturers and limited studios. Universal, Weinstein, and Paramount were not going to carry it across the finish line.

[@moonlightw6]

bruh josh been on a roll lately. Like it!

[@GodsBurden]

HD DVD was superior to the industry and for consumers and manufacturers. Why Sony decided to murder the home video format, we will never know.

[@Gorilla_Jones]

A little known fact as to the demise of HD-DVD. Sony paid millions of dollars to major retailers including Best Buy to make sure two things happened. 1. They buried any and all HD-DVD movies and hardware in more obscure parts of the store and HD-DVD could never have an end cap, EVER. 2. Sony mandated that Best Buy employees could not acknowledge that HD-DVD was high definition. They were told to tell customers that HD-DVD was “fake” HD and that there was a “new” technology called Blu-ray that was much better. The fact is that at launch HD-DVD was the far better viewing experience as the features, menu system and overall experience was more refined. Most Blu-ray at the time had zero features or menu options, just the movie. 🤦‍♂️ I know all this as I used to be a journalist and distributor in the video game industry in the 90s and good friends were in executive management at Best Buy, Circuit city, Frys, etc. Sony are ruthless and masters of corporate fuckery. Ask Sega.

[@GodsBurden]

@@Gorilla_Jones I used to work for a home video distributor and retailer. Another thing about HD-DVD was that for manufacturers it was easier to transition to because the pressing platters were 100% backwards compatibility. You could just swap plates out and press an hd-dvd just as fast as you could a regular dvd without needing to get another pressing system. Blu-ray was unable to do that.

[@RobertK1993]

​@@Gorilla_Jones Nonsense they allegedly pay Warner Bros Pictures to dump HD DVD and WB going to dump HD DVD anyway in 2008.

[@Tactics00]

That hat is poppin’ bro #goCanucks

[@bluetarantulaproductions6179]

I remember when I got my PS3 in late 2009 I was super excited to start collecting blu ray movies along my dvd collection.

[@BB-ed4om]

I hate when people use the term dvd now when referencing blu ray or 4K blu ray 😂 it is technically a digital video disc but dvd just sounds like a 25 years ago term.

[@mattyian1208]

Yes because DVD was introduced in 1997 and the term DVD or HD DVD is so 1997 or 2006.

[@slamjackson2137]

I hate when people call a VCR a “VHS player” lol

[@creeper5051]

And it's a "Digital Versatile Disc" not a "Digital Video Disc" that's why on DVD cases you see the DVD logo and you see the word "Video" right underneath it. If it was the latter, the word "Video" would be redundant.