The War for High Definition: Blu-ray vs HD DVD

[@JeffRauseo]

Get $15 in free credit to buy Blu-rays on WhatNot with my link! whatnot.com/invite/filmsathome

[@jackrosati1438]

I wrote a paper for school about this when I was in middle school in 2008 😂

[@MovieAddict512]

That is awesome! 😂

[@eternalfly6323]

You’re goated 🫡

[@hilderbrandco]

Same. I had to get in front of my classmates and explain how blu-ray was the new frontier of physical media. I rambled. 😂

[@jackrosati1438]

@@hilderbrandco I made a case for HD-DVD 😬

[@reginaldforthright805]

Well you were both wrong. The future is streaming and disc rot

[@SkulShurtugalTCG]

I love collecting HD DVDs. They're still a perfectly valid way to watch movies in high definition, and usually only cost pennies. The only real downside is that some companies, especially Warner Bros, cheapened out on the manufacturing process, so disc rot is a real problem for some films.

[@filmfan-8934]

Yes, you pretty much have to avoid Warner HD DVD titles when hunting today. Sad…

[@cwhitchblu]

Toshiba should have compromised on the disc structure. Big reason why HD DVD was limited to 30GB and BD tech is capable of 100GB triple layer discs today.

[@V3ntilator]

@@filmfan-8934 Why?

[@damonappel]

Disc scratches are also a big problem for used HD DVDs.

[@LilannB]

I have a Samsung combination Blu Ray/HD DVD player that I still use today. I still have few HD DVD titles. I had two go bad The Adventures of Robin Hood and Superman. I think those are 2 titles knows for rot.

[@LSOreal]

I still own over 300 HD DVDs almost all sealed. Still have a couple of new Toshiba HD-XA2. I was all in on HD DVD. The early transfers in particular were noticeably better than the Blu-rays. Ultimately it came down to studio support and WB leaving HD DVD was the nail in the coffin. #TheLookAndSoundOfPerfect

[@richardbrockwell3919]

I agree 💯

[@johnpajestka5022]

Might as well throw that in your setup if you have 300 movies.

[@LSOreal]

@@johnpajestka5022 It is in my set up lol

[@JesterEric]

If they are Warner Bros films they likely have disc rot now

[@LSOreal]

@@JesterEric Luckily all my titles are still good as new. I never had any issues with any of my titles, regardless of format.

[@TorontoJon]

As someone who remembers the Beta-VHS War in the 1980's and lived to tell the tale (although my dad had to buy a VHS VCR after his Beta VCR became obsolete), I stayed far away from HD DVD and Blu-ray collecting until that war was over. I didn't want to get burned again with having a format that would not survive. I still have my original Beta tapes to remind me of those past days (as well as VHS tapes, some laserdiscs, and plenty of DVD's, Blu-rays, some 4K titles, etc.). Haha!

[@derekboone7889]

I know its been a while since this comment, but did you have a side you were kinda rooting for back in the day? Just more curiosity than anything

[@JacobNeff77]

Thanks for bringing the history to light for your audience. Sony giving the PS3 Blu-ray capabilities was a brilliant move. It was the first full-fledged entertainment console, not just gaming. I and countless others bought it primarily for its ability to play Blu-ray movies with gaming on the side. In fact, it was my first Blu-ray player. On a side note, I can't help but chuckle at the resolution for most of the clips in this video about the war for high definition being anything but.

[@RobertK1993]

Lost money PlayStation 3 20GB and 60GB models 40GB models

[@Finfection]

It is funny to look back on. The average person and even the average tech person wasn't really taking part in the format wars unless it was indirectly through whichever game console they supported. Television was still analog in SD at the time and most people didn't even start upgrading to HD capable displays until 5+ years later. And even after all that I still feel like the average person continued to buy just regular DVDs. lol.

[@Homedepotorange]

It's how the Playstation 2 became the best selling console. In 2000 getting a game system and a DVD player in one was a deal few could pass up

[@UFCMania155]

The PS2 had in built in dvd player...so the PS3 wasn't the first console to do something like that

[@johnf198207]

I am one of the few people who can honestly say that they were in on the ground floor of both formats. Around the latter part of 2007, I was divided on whether or not I wanted to choose a new format other than DVD. Both high definition products had their merits, but I decided to sit on the sidelines until a victor was crowned. I eventually adopted Blu-ray into my collection, and because I was able to get in on the ground floor of the format when the war ended, I was able to get a lot of titles in my collection that have since fallen out of print. Granted, there were a few movies I purchased that eventually got lowered in price, but for the titles I ended up attaining, it was all worth it in the end.

[@garrypeak4277]

I still love my HD-DVDs. Have about 150 I think. Still have a stand alone Toshiba player, and the HD-DVD add-on for the 360. Both are hooked into my home theatre. Still enjoy collecting them, get 1 or 2 every few weeks.

[@olegnacim]

Great video Jeff! I was heavily invested in this format war, as I worked at Sears electronics in 2006. I remember trying to convince people to buy HDTV’s over CRT’s, it wasn’t easy lol. Also to note, although the PS3 with its internal Blu-ray player was insanely expensive at $600, that was still far cheaper than $999 price tag of basically every other Blu-ray player available. Sony banked on the success they had of packaging their PS2 with an internal DVD player, and despite the cost of Blu-ray, the PS3 benefited huge, and definitely helped the format war. Now at that time, I owned an Xbox 360. And as someone that wanted in on a high definition format I could afford, the HD-DVD was perfect for me. $199 for the add-on versus $499 for a standalone Toshiba player was a no brainer. The add-on shipped with King Kong (2005) and it blew my mind. I went on to collect several more titles, until eventually I bought a PlayStation 3. The rest as they say was history. I’m glad we aren’t dealing with a format war now, but the HDR wars are a different story lol.

[@israelrice]

Seeing Batman Begins on an HDTV via HD DVD at a Sears is why I went with HD DVD. That and owning an Xbox 360. lol

[@richellebrittain2127]

In the early years of Blu-ray, the PS3 proved to be the best player on the market -- especially since it was much easier to upgrade with new features via software updates than standalone players. DTS-HD MA & TrueHD were not ready for Blu-ray when it launched; most of the first standalone players couldn't handle them (that's why both still have fallbacks to DD/DTS -- DTS-HD MA "won" that "war" because its fallback mode was inherent to the format while TrueHD's originally wasn't), but the PS3 was upgraded to handle them (though the very first models could only decode, not bitstream). A far cry from today, where the gaming consoles' 4K Blu-ray capabilities lag behind those of standalone players.

[@DP12321]

The Xbox 360 was the perfect example of a cheaply manufactured POS rushed to market. No wifi, no HDMI port, no hi-def optical drive, plus the infamous red ring of death. I'm glad Microsoft and Toshiba lost the war. I went through 3 of those stupid Xbox 360s before giving up and going all in on PS3 and Blu-ray. Planet Earth was mind-blowing at the time.

[@Finfection]

@@DP12321 To be fair, none of those things were important when the console launched in 2005. Extremely very few people had a display that used HDMI in 2005. Even less people had wifi. Most didn't even have a high speed internet connection. I got a ps3 at launch and I never used the HDMI port until like 5 or 6 years later when my household finally got an HDTV. Those things listed would have been for luxuries that wouldn't become standard until at least half a decade later.

[@CrashCarson14]

@@richellebrittain2127yeah it's interesting how initially, HD Master was actually more complex to decode and many of the early blu ray players couldn't even decode that format at all. And the HDDVD didn't even support DTS. So without Blu winning, DTS couldn't have either. And yet now with UHD, Dolby is generally the winner with Atmos.

[@morenol1990]

I remember this. When I went to FYE, they had a huge HD promotion for Blu Ray and how it compared to DVD. I also saw so much promotion on what was better, HD DVD or Blu Ray, even at my local Hollywood video. I preferred blu ray due to the fact that you could play on PS3 which I eventually got, had more support from studios and had more data. I learned so much from this format war and is what got me into home theater tech.

[@rob7661]

The end of HD-DVD started when Warner announced to exclusively back Blu-ray at CES 2008. This was skipped in the otherwise great video! Luckily I was team Blu from the start and I'm still a proud collector. It's still a great format.

[@ryans413]

Paramount was loyal to the end they were the last company to make the switch. Disney backing Blu Ray kinda makes sense at the time they are Disney and Blu Ray sounds like something magical. WB was big for HDDVD when they lost them it was over.

[@TheMediaHoarder]

This was the tipping point. Warner supported both formats but when they announced they were going Blu-ray only Toshiba threw in the towel a few days later. Paramount supported both formats at first also but went HD-DVD only for a while, many say that was a bribe from Toshiba. Universal was the loyalest company to HD-DVD and didn’t put out Blu-rays til it was completely dead.

[@ArrivalEntertainment]

By the time I got into collecting physical media Blu-ray had already taken over this was back in 2013 and I remember wanting to use my high school graduation money to buy a Blu-ray player and some Blu-ray movies. And a lot of people told me that they couldn’t tell a difference between Blu-ray and DVD and said don’t waste your money on one. I did anyway and didn’t understand what everyone was talking about, I saw a huge difference between Blu-ray and DVD and even got my parents and sister convinced that Blu-ray was the superior format at that time. Even with 4k Blu-Rays I still love collecting regular Blu-ray’s from time to time

[@CAPCOM784]

I don't understand even today people who still like DVD will tell others it's on par with Blu-ray? I'm like when watching video from both it's like a day and night difference especially on HDTVs. Now if you play DVDs on a good CRT it does look really nice.

[@canonblackwell1]

Another big part was the durable nature of the Blu-ray. Having discs that resisted scratching and didn’t freeze was a big draw for me, especially when it came to ps3 vs 360 games.

[@bradnoyes7955]

Yes, the hardened coating in the Blu-ray spec is fantastic. I've accidently scratched my HD-DVD's while cleaning them with a soft cloth, they scratch so easily it's ridiculous.

[@Tidbitkid]

The hard coating is scratch resistant not scratch proof. If it ever gets to bad then the disc is toast. HD DVD and DVD both allow for the disc to be resurfaced after deep cuts. Which is kind of a big difference I've had a few blu-rays that have had major cuts that will not play and can't be resurfaced. The other difference is the data that's on DVD and HD-DVD are deeper in the disc so scratches don't effect much vs Blu-ray which is closer on the surface thus requires the coating to keep it protected which makes any dents or large scratches in that coating damaging enough rendering all portions effected u readable.

[@SushiCombo]

@@Tidbitkid Never had 1 bluray ever facing this issue. This is probably in very extreme cases of abuse.

[@Tidbitkid]

@@SushiCombo Yes but no resurfacing only buffing can be done on them so kind of a mixed bag. I have a resurfacer which has brought even the most rough of disc (DVD, CD) playable except a minor few were it has gone all the way to the data layer.

[@simonrockstream]

never knew about this

[@incinduis]

Amazing video, Jeff. I was a little too young to remember this war when it was happening, but being able to go back and research this with videos like yours is really interesting to see.

[@slickshewz]

Do some independent research. He got quite a bit wrong in this video.

[@johnpajestka5022]

Well this video was a nice treat. Still have a Toshiba A35 player packed away. Half my HD-DVDs don't work anymore. Disk rot from what I've read.

[@ddarko08]

I picked a side when I bought my 60gb PS3 a couple weeks after it launched. Started watching Blu-ray’s on my Sony 30” widescreen HD CRT (man, that thing was heavy). I was blown away by the improvement in quality over DVDs, I was instantly hooked.

[@damonappel]

The PS3 really was a landmark piece of electronics in a very special period of time. Not sure if we'll ever see anything like it again. Sony bet the farm, the road, the street signs, and the city on that machine and on Blu-ray. It was an amazing risk, and Toshiba grossly underestimated what Sony would do to win, because...really...they could not afford to lose.

[@ryans413]

Oh god I can’t remember what my first Blu Ray experience was. I want to say Pirates Of The Caribbean. I think that’s right. I was blown away it was so clear.

[@CymruWizard]

I remember when DVDs came out and how much the quality of them impressed me compared to VHS. When the Blu-ray vs HD-DVD format war started, i was fully behind Blu-ray because of the higher capacity although it took me a few years to be able to afford to upgrade my set-up.

[@24thisismyusername]

Amazing video🙌 You answered so many questions I always had!! I’m sure it took a lot of time putting this video together but you nailed it. Would love more “history of” type videos! 😁

[@cjplay2]

Thank you for covering this. I was a compressionist for WB at the time and lead the encoding efforts (I did not choose VC-1, lead the charge to replace it with AVC). I heard from multiple authors who did not (do not) like authoring for BluRay. Like Playstation titles at the time, they were just straight difficult to author and iHD/HDi was much easier to author onto the UDF2.0 images. And think about now, what language do people use in Player tech? Java or Javascript (basis of iHD)? Yeah, not Java. So at least Javascript had the last laugh. Yes I compressed the 2005 Phantom of the Opera and Million Dollar Baby discs. I also did Batman Begins and worked on the amazing 300 HD-DVD and ultimate version of the BluRay. So, thank you for this overview (wish you had mentioned those first titles). Yes I also worked on the Harry Potter 8 Maximum Movie Mode. For a "hidden" gem, look for CopOut's Maximum Comedy Mode, especially if you're a Kevin Smith fan. Only reason to watch that disc.

[@markcolvin6041]

Great video Jeff. I was in the physical media business at the time of this format war. I went with HD-DVD for my personal home setup because of the feedback that I was getting from a major disc replication plant. During the early days of HD-DVD and Blu-ray "pressing," the Blu-ray "yield" was only about 5% (95% did not pass QC and were scrapped) so it was incredibly expensive to manufacture BDs. The HD-DVD yields were a more promising 15-20% (still sucky). As you pointed out, the data capacity was an overwhelming advantage for BD and I am certain that was what kept that format's backers pouring money into development.

[@CrashCarson14]

Yep. If you look really early on, hDDVD almost won overall.

[@dperreno]

Having lived through the VCR vs. Betamax war, I held off on upgrading from DVD until this war was settled. I do remember thinking that HD-DVD seemed like a better technical solution, but BluRay ended up as the better marketing solution (much like in the tape wars). I then bought an LG Plasma TV and BluRay player which I still use today in my study!

[@brianlawton8172]

I was employed at the ad company that worked on the Toshiba HD account during that war. We actually did the commercial with the young couple hanging from a helicopter, letting go and falling into thier living room to show "the power of HD dvds" and a spot by Michael imporioli from "the sopranos" but alas the tide had already shifted to blueray format as we saw Company after company jumping ship to the superior blueray.

[@MrMark1]

I don't know anyone that was into HD dvd's. But crazy to think that an old blu ray still looks so good now, especially when upscaled on a 4k player.

[@vico7482]

Great video. Remember those days, had a 360 but held off on the HD DVD drive until I knew which format won. Would love to see you do one on 4K. And how that format came about.

[@DangerousDevilOfficial]

I still own one Toshiba HD DVD player in my bedroom. It is slow, clunky and noisy. I can’t bring myself to get rid of it, because I own a handful of pretty awesome movies for it (Four Brothers, The Big Hit, Training Day, Backdraft and Black Rain). One of these days, I may finally get rid of it. But for now, it doesn’t bother me hanging around. 🤷‍♂️ What finalized the battle for me, was me picking up my 60GB PS3. I still have it to this day and in near mint condition. I consider it to be the most beautiful console ever created. That Blu Ray player at the time was simply awesome being included in the console.

[@damonappel]

The original PS3 Phat is one incredible, bold machine to have been released.

[@cwhitchblu]

Good summary on the war. As someone that has been collecting physical media since the late 80s starting with laserdisc I had never seen a fiercely fought format war. Yes there was VHS vs Beta when in my adolescence but this war took place in the age of the internet with two large corporations that were also engaged in a console war. Wait Toshiba wasn’t marketing the Xbox 360, but they were building a lot of Microsoft’s hardware. Prior to DVD’s launch both Toshiba and Sony were developing their own high capacity optical discs designed for multimedia with Toshiba’s SD disc and Sony’s MMCD. Thankfully cooler head prevailed in 1995 and they compromised on a unified format under the DVD Alliance which was formed. But Sony was smart in the fact they knew that standard definition television days were coming to an end in the next few years. They began working on what would become Blu-Ray. As the new millennium was beginning the DVD Alliance came to realize as well that HD was the future and they tried to start working on their own solution but with Sony being part of the DVD Alliance Sony was rumored to throw wrenches into the working by not taking part in voting on some of the items that would move DVD into the HD age. Eventually I believe the bylaws of the Alliance were modified so they didn’t need Sony’s vote. The problem the DVD group had is they wanted to stay with the same physical disc structure meaning 9GB dual layer discs to keep the cost down while continuing to use red lasers with newer more efficient codecs to fit HD on low capacity discs. I remember there was a DVD set of T2 that came with a DVD ROM of T2 that was in high definition (I think 720p) but you needed a PC that could meet the hardware requirements. I remember my Pentium 4 struggled with stuttering video. It was only when the DVD Alliance realized that red laser with new codecs wasn’t going to cut it that they moved to a blue laser as well. As you pointed out BD-Java and iHD (eventually renamed HDI) was a big sticking point when trying to compromise but the other issue was the physical disc structure (a big part of the DVD patents). The DVD Alliance wanted the physical design of the discs to remain the same which meant they could continue to control the patent with the new format generating revenue and also retool existing disc pressing machines at a lower cost than creating new hardware. This was the Alliance’s biggest mistake IMHO. The DVD spec put the data depth at 0.6mm compared to BD’s 0.1mm. Why does this matter? It’s because of this difference why the data capacity is so different. Reading the finer smaller pits at that depth was more unreliable and it cost them disc capacity(HD DVD were single layer 15GB and dual layer 30GB; BD was 25 and 50). Another thing that the competition did was it forced Sony to move on from MPEG2 since their original plan was to use the older codec on the new disc. But this decision I believe also caused HD DVD to get a faster lead not only being first to market but the blundered launch of Blu-ray. HD DVD hit the market in April 2006 with Blu following it in June of that year, but many of the early Sony titles were poorly mastered titles in MPEG2 on single layer 25GB discs that caused many early adopters to dismiss Blu-ray entirely since the early HD DVDs were visually better. Sony had added support for newer codecs prior to launch but the early titles were rushed to market. Thankfully Sony realized that 25GB MPEG2 discs weren’t going to cut it especially on films that were approaching 2-hour run times and few MPEG2 were released after this debacle with only a few but mostly on BD50 discs with more data room. The early days of the format war were bleak for Blu-Ray since Toshiba’s entry player was only $500 compared to $1000 BD players from Samsung and Sony. But then the PS3 launched and HD DVD realized they had a real fight on their hands. Microsoft was fighting the war indirectly once Blu-Ray decided to go with BD-Java Microsoft threw their support behind HD DVD which was already behind the 8-ball considering it had far less studio support initially with only Universal being solely in HD DVD’s camp initially with the rest of the players either being format agnostic or like Disney and Sony being firmly in Blu’s camp. Paramount was supporting both initially until late summer 2007 when Paramount struck a deal to be exclusively HD DVD with a lot of incentives thrown their way. Why did the HD DVD do this? A little movie was released by Paramount earlier in the summer called Transformers that became the biggest movie of the summer. So in order to procure an exclusive they gave Paramount about $150M in incentives. This deal also involved Dreamworks Animation so they got Shrek the Third as well 😂. Funnily enough Blu-ray Discs of Blades of Glory were already pressed for its upcoming release. When the war was over and the title was released it had a copyright year of 2007. So basically Paramount kept it locked up in a warehouse for the $150M 6-months of exclusivity😂. I know a lot of diehard HD DVD fans want to believe Sony played dirty but reality is like you said it was two large conglomerates having a war of standards. In the end it all came down to the Holiday season of 2007 with Warner keeping a close watch on the format split on their titles available on both formats. It was obvious that Toshiba couldn’t dismiss the PS3 effect. On the eve of CES2008 Warner Brothers effectively ended the war by announcing they were dropping HD DVD disc releases. HD DVD’s only hope was coexistence in the market with Blu-ray. Once they only had two major studios it was over. Paramount reversed its HD DVD exclusivity course once Toshiba threw up the white flag with Universal (the only studio to have never released a Blu-ray during the format war) endorsing Blu-ray around the same time. It was funny during the war that when Toshiba would release stats that broke down HD DVD vs Blu that they would include PS3 data when it made them look better like title attach rate (fewer BD per PS3 compared to HD DVD per HD DVD players) and eliminate it when it didn’t (PS3 sales were left out when comparing player sales even though Toshiba included laptop sales with HD DVD drives). In the end the more capable format won but it did do significant damage to the home theater enthusiast community. Some sites saw members leveling death threats at one another. Again we were all just minions in a corporate war.

[@damonappel]

I remember this battle fondly, too (I've another couple of lengthy comments elsewhere in this thread, of my recollections). I'd forgotten the rumored insane dollar figures each side was throwing at the studios to gain exclusives. 😅 That final deal with WB was rumored to be a big multi-million dollar payoff from Sony, to overcome the years of profit participation with Toshiba on the HD DVD licensing that they would have continued to benefit from. In the end, I ascribe Toshiba as really greedy corporate schemers. They knew their format was inferior from the start, but did not want to lose the comfortable licensing superiority that they'd had for years with DVD. (Granted, Sony & Philips have enjoyed decades of licensing returns for CDs.) My favorite cry from the HD DVD supporters was that if the format died, "Think of how many people would lose jobs" in manufacturing plants. HD DVD was a modification to existing DVD facilities and, while I'm sure HD DVD resulted in some job losses, it would have in no way been like what would've happened if BD lost. The BD format required new facilities to manufacture the very unique discs. New technicians and specs for the hard-coating and mastering. When HD DVD died, they simply were able to refactor them back to regular DVDs. Ironically, to this day, both Toshiba and Sony can profit, with the formats having remained co-existing in the marketplace. In some cases, DVD has even outsold BD, due to Walmart's incessant penny-pinching pushing of that tired old format.

[@Superdimensional]

Great recap, it reminded me of a lot of The shenanigans at the time, I remember one HD-DVD employee named “Amir” was a very active and aggressive shill in the forums in those days…. And terms like “Great news for HD-DVD” were thrown around sarcastically because the writing was on the wall. I also remember after the format war the term “Bitter Dudder” was labeled to “HD-DUD” format enthusiasts who were, well, “bitter” their format of choice lost. And for years after some vowed nEvEr To BuY a bLu-RaY eVaR!!1 🥴 some even went back to collecting standard DVD’s 🤣🤦‍♂️🙄 not sure why anyone who is just a consumer would get that worked up over something like that, that they would deprive themselves of the best available media because of some strange “principle” 🤷‍♂️ anyways, it was a find time to be in the hobby and I’m still in it to this day collecting mainly 4K BD steelbooks

[@Superdimensional]

@@damonappel he also forgot to mention FOX was a major studio at the time (Pre-Disney) and EVERYONE was anticipating Star Wars in 1080P Blu-ray

[@cwhitchblu]

@@damonappel though after the format war ended I could see why DVD still existed but in 2023 there’s no reason to be releasing content on such an antiquated format. Even if the source is only standard definition BD has so much space you could fit a whole tv season on one or two disc. What got me were the fans that were trying to portray Toshiba as a David against Goliath in Sony. Reality check: both were large electronics conglomerates in the CE space at the time. I mean the original DVD was partially developed by Toshiba. They weren’t a little underdog by any means. Both companies made payouts for support but many HD DVD fans acted like Toshiba was a virtuous company with consumers’ interest at the heart of why they fought so hard. Toshiba exec Jodi Sally was pushing this hard in Toshiba’s concession while trying to save face for the company’s failure. For all the talk about HD DVD being cheaper to produce they never passed much savings onto consumers other than the lower priced players. Let’s be real though, by the end price was the only trick Toshiba had up it’s sleeve.

[@cwhitchblu]

@@Superdimensional yeah don’t get me started on the HD DVD Evangelist. He was a big part of the problem with the enthusiast community breaking down. It all started when AVSForum gave him administrative rights on threads related to the format war. Comments that were pro-BD or constructive criticism of HD DVD failings would disappear or Amir and the HD DVD group would keep moving the goal posts. He’s runs a site today called Audio Science Review that seems fairly balanced but I still have a hard time believing anything he posts there with all the lies and half truths he spewed. Anyone remember the fabled triple layer 51GB HD DVD he claimed was coming after the Blu-ray Disc pressers proved they could manufacture 50GB Blu-rays reliably. Before that 50GB Blu’s were just a technical pipe dream that even if they could make them the yields wouldn’t be worth it according to Amir. He would conveniently ignore questions regards how the already manufactured and purchased HD DVD players would handle the mythical 51GB disc. In the end HD DVD was like Spinal Tap… we can go 1GB bigger.

[@JosephASobora]

When the format wars was going on, I was just getting more DVDs as I wasn't ready with HD yet. After Blu-ray won, I suddently got my first HD TV as a birthday gift. By the time I was at "Circuit City" and I saw the transfer and sound of "Sleeping Beauty" (1959) on Blu-ray from one of the High Defintion TV displays. It was the moment when I pitch in and bought my very first Sony Blu-ray player along with my first two Blu-ray purchases. One of course was "Sleeping Beauty" and the other was "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (2008) and bought several titles and plenty later on . I was stunned and impress on the results! To me, Blu-rays were up-gradable to DVDs and was a lot better than HD DVDs came to be. That was before I got a better HD TV and later, 4K TV along another Blu-ray player and 4K UHD player and bought some 4K UHDs!

[@johnwalko1483]

A very good Documentary explaining both formats. Very informative when explaining the differences between the 2 formats. Thanks

[@DelaTube69]

hi jeff, just came across and watched your feature here... it's great and informative! PS3 was my first blu-ray player and i'm not even a gamer, because at that time circa 2007/8, PS3 being the cheapest blu-ray player in the market in my country so that is the only blu-ray player I could afford. So i bought most of my blu-ray discs from Amazon when they regularly offered BOGO or Buy 2 Free 1 deals and during Black Friday. This one time I ordered Will Smith's I Am Legend on blu-ray but Amazon mistakenly sent me a HD-DVD format instead. After a few words with its customer service, they finally sent me a fresh copy of blu-ray without having to return the HD-DVD. I still kept a copy of that HD-DVD unwrapped!

[@coreyklima8929]

Man I feel old now remembering this one. I have been collecting movies for about 30 years now and while I was just born when vhs and beta where duking it out I fully remember this format war. As a collector around this time I just stuck to dvds. I was a college student and couldn't afford to be wrong and buy the obsolete format so as soon as a clear winner emerged I bought a ps3 and started collecting blurays and never looked back. I currently have about 2,000 and counting.

[@jacobsilguero6169]

Well this is a great video! I was more of an HD DVD fan at the time. If i recall as far as the format war. Yes Blu-ray had a bigger storage capacity for more content. However, I remember it being that the HD DVD format was putting out full 1080p picture quality, but for the early days of the bluray movies were really only being mastered at 720p-1080i on the disc. They did manage to get better at 1080p later in the life of blu ray but because Blu-ray did have better selection of titles and studio’s getting behind the Blu-ray format. It definitely helped the Blu-ray format to pull off that victory. Watching the HD DVD and the blu-ray side by side was hard to tell and the average consumer was surprised by the picture quality. And Sony had great TV’s to make the early Blu-ray’s look very good. I remember walking into the stores and most of the time a blu-ray player was usually hooked up to a Sony tv. That’s just the way I remember it.

[@RobertK1993]

That a lie Blu ray disc where all mastered in 1080p HD DVD was only mastered in 1080i broadcast quality 😂

[@Cakebattered]

@@RobertK1993 You too are lying. HD-DVD was a 1080p format. The early Blu-ray movies were encoded using Mpeg 2 which was lossy resulting in poor picture quality. The original release of The Fifth Element in Blue-ray was a great example. Sony had to rerelease it in AVC. By the end, movies that were released in both formats had the same picture quality.

[@KimDahl77]

I remember it well. I owned a HD DVD player from Toshiba and had around 30 titles. It was a big step up from DVD quality. I sold it off when Blu-ray won the 'war'.

[@Hicks-g1m]

Great video Jeff I remember this I never had any HD DVD discs but I do remember that there was a player that played both blu-rays and HD DVD's

[@Cakebattered]

There were multiple dual format players. LG released the BH100 and BH200. Samsung released the BD-UP5000

[@SeanTube2099]

I just bought my first Blu-ray player last month (a Xbox Series X), I look forward to getting into the films.

[@NoMoneyG]

I fully went in on HD DVD. Main reasons were I wasn't a gamer at all & HD DVD was way cheaper for the player & movies. Player was $100 plus it came with 1 or 2 movies in the box & you could order up to 5 free movies to be shipped to you. Then it hit the fan & Blu-ray won out. I still have my player & movies! I also bought many HD DVD's on eBay over the years. But I have & use all 3 formats, but I prefer 4K UHD's & buy those as they come out.

[@michaelchenault3774]

I worked at Circuit City while in college at the time of this format war. I was and still am a fan of Blu-Ray. Your video perfectly encapsulates the HD format war.

[@james4flix925]

Hi Jeff, As i remember Warner Home Video made a big announcement in CES 2008 that they were going blu-ray only, i think WHV had about 40% of the home video market back then so that move tipped the balance and killed off HD-DVD. DVD was a soft launch in autumn (fall) 1996 prices of the players were high at £599 GBP after a slow start two big things happened, a chip manufacturer in the far east came up with cheaper one chip circuit board and Samsung was able to bring out a much cheaper player in 1999 for about £250 GBP also the region code was hackable using the remote control, the internet was becoming big so word spread. the other thing was of course the DVD of The Matrix with all the extra content which could also be accessed in a PC CD-ROM drive. For me DVD was a big jump in quality from VHS, and blu--ray was also a big jump from DVD, I have 4K but the real difference is the HDR it brings out the extra definition, i have compared non-HDR 4K films to the same blu-ray film and the difference is only marginal so i only buy a 4K disc if i think it's 'worth the upgrade' and i find your reviews helpful in this.

[@u77750]

I really enjoy these programs Jeff. Thank you. I missed the war. I got my first Blu-ray player in 2009.

[@billleary5779]

Very informative video Jeff! I didn’t get a hi def player until 2010 when the “war” was over but I did have an experience which led me to HD. At some point my Blu-ray Discs were stolen and a co worker informed me that many of the discs that I was replacing were being sold for next to nothing on Amazon but were in HD format. I found a almost new HD player on eBay and purchased about 20 HD discs for about $25 back in 2011 so I had both formats and the quality was very similar. Eventually I put away my HD player for good a couple of years ago but that was my HD experience. Thanks for sharing

[@patricklindsay72]

Thanks for this video! I'm old, was in my 30s when the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD war was going on. I owned a Toshiba HD DVD player along with a PS3 at the time. Not being limited in funds, I was a happy camper.

[@cavemanbling3153]

Thank you for another informative video! Yes I was an early adopter of HD-DVD so was in the red camp of the red vs blue battle, mainly because I was a Xbox gamer at the time and this was an affordable way into HD movies. It was an exciting time for movie, TV and gaming arena. I don’t regret the purchase and still have the HD-DVD drive (somewhere in the loft) and a few movies. Maybe time to go down memory lane, yep I still have a 360 😊

[@sebastianshook6771]

I Was 3-5 During The Format War, So I Was A Little Too Young To Remember It. I Still Remember Seeing The Blu-Ray Promos On Disney And Sony DVDs As Well As The Blu-Ray Promo On The Incredible Hulk DVD (That Promoted The Aforementioned Movie As Well As Wanted, The Mummy 3 And Hellboy 2). I Wouldn't Even Know That HD DVD Existed Until I Saw A Promo For It On My DVD Of I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry Back In 2017.

[@rwilifeandtravel]

Great video. It brought back a lot of memories of that time. After I bought my first HDTV I started looking at the new video formats. My colleagues and friends were saying that HD DVD was the format to go for but I couldn't see a picture quality advantage. I decided to just stick with DVDs until one format became dominant. It was 2014 when I eventually got my first bluray player and that was because I wanted to watch 3D movies on my (then new) 3D HDTV. I've only recently started thinking about getting a 4K bluray player as I've only recently upgraded to a 4K TV.

[@kissandmakeup7439]

I worked in the industry back then and bought the Toshiba's top of the line HD DVD player. I always felt the picture was better, especially against those early BD releases. Still have over 70 discs in my collection.

[@markw208]

Several reviews state the graphics chips in the higher end Toshiba players had clearly better color and clarity (less jaggies on edges). I still use my Toshibas because they have great pictures, but they are slow loading and responding to the remote

[@cwfutureboy]

I was working in the Home Theater dept at Best Buy at the time and was SURE that just on name strength alone, HD-DVD would win out. It made too much sense that people who have a new HDTV are going to walk in and ask for "high definition dvds" after seeing their 480i DVD picture. Literally no one would think to walk in and ask for a "blu-ray".

[@bhusar1]

Great video Jeff. I waited and waited until I knew which way it was going to go. DVD’s were still being the event that laserdiscs were with booklets and THX certification etc. As soon as Blu Ray won, I wanted one and for Christmas of 2008, my Mother, bless her heart, got me my first player. I did miss the cool menus and packaging from DVD, but picture quality made up for it.

[@damonappel]

I miss DVD booklets. It's such a shame that we have such a superior video format with BD and UHD, but don't have the awesome booklets that came with the lowly DVDs (unless it's a really special edition BD or UHD release costing much more money). Not long ago, I repurchased an old DVD Bond collection to get those extensive and informative booklets back, and replaced the DVDs with BDs. 😊

[@bhusar1]

@@damonappel I agree. I did a video on my channel in 2020 on how the artwork and packaging on blu rays and 4K discs seem like an afterthought compared to laserdiscs and DVD. I showed the DVD of Fight Club and the blu ray of Fight Club.

[@paulj5336]

I graduated from University '06 just as this was kicking off and it was at least 2008 when I purchased a ps3. The format war was effectively over by then. Before Uni though I was collecting vhs and Laserdisc when dvd was born. That was a really exciting time. I still pick up Laserdiscs now and then on ebay.

[@RPO808]

This was a fun video. I remember I was able to get a huge boost in my physical media due to HDDVD losing the format war. I supported HDDVD from the beginning, so when they started to sell them dirt cheap I took advantage. I also took advantage of the red 2 blu campaign that Warner offered, which was pretty awesome at the time. I haven’t bought a blu ray since I got a 4k player. All the movies I buy now are all UHD 4k physical releases.

[@ryans413]

I still buy movies on Blu Ray but the older movies anything new I get them on 4K. Did you know the 4K discs are still Blu Rays just with 4 layers of data instead of 2 so those discs are 100gb not 50gb and it requires a special laser to read them. That’s why they don’t work in a normal Blu Ray player.

[@cwhitchblu]

@@ryans413actually 100GB discs are triple layer. It wasn’t publicized highly but when BD adopted the newer profile to support frame packed 3D it also included a new 33GB/layer disc type that at the time could go dual layer up to 66GB. With UHD Blu-ray they pushed pressed discs to having triple layers. I believe writable BDXL can go to 4 layers with a 128GB maximum.

[@RPO808]

@@ryans413 i figured they were kinda the same, but I still view them as a separate option. I love that they chose a black boarder on the disc cases.

[@RPO808]

@@cwhitchblu whoah! That’s insane!

[@devonbrooks246]

Very informative video Jeff. What converted me was the fact Sony Playstations included that BD player. Before I bought one, a guy working at the game store told me this was a huge addition. Honestly I never knew anyone who owned a HD DVD. To me it was over in a blink of an eye, BD was always superior. I can go into Goodwill stores and see a HD DVD once in a while. Anyway, very cool. I wonder if this format war was as big as VHS vs. Beta?

[@damonappel]

Having been there for both (I was a teen in the 80's), I can relate it best this way: The death of Beta was far more impactful, because there was perceptively greater mindshare for Beta than HD DVD ever had. Technically, the war between Beta and VHS was proportionately silly, compared to the differences between the HD formats. We're talking a 5 or 10% size difference in cartridge, and 50 or 60 vertical lines of resolution "superiority" for Beta over VHS. Blu-ray had the scratch-coat imperviousness, 50gb vs 30gb, more studio support, better anti-theft measures (at the time) and lossless audio as near-standard once 50gb discs became commonplace. From a community perspective, however: There's NO WAY you can compare the VHS/Beta war to Blu-ray/HD DVD. The latter existed in the age of online chats and discussion boards and when computer tech let people actually analyze the size difference of the data for the same movie on a BD vs an HD DVD. In comparison, the videocassette wars amounted to a funny colloquialism: "Yeah, all the movies you could want are on VHS....but Beta IS better!" It was kind of accepted factually that Beta was marginally better than VHS, but somewhat irrelevant... especially once Laserdisc added digital and surround sound soundtracks, with almost 100 vertical lines of resolution superiority over either VHS or Beta. The HD format war was a flash in the pan of home media, compared to the length of time VHS and Beta co-existed.

[@devonbrooks246]

Is it true that the adult film industry helped the VHS boom? @@damonappel

[@tim3172]

@@damonappel HD-DVD and Blu Ray had the same anti-theft measures, namely a magnetic strip which was demagnetized at checkout. I'm *assuming* you didn't mean piracy when you talk about theft? *Surely* you're not that stupid... are you? If I steal your car, I'm depriving you of your car. If I make a copy of your car without paying you, that's not *quite* the same thing.

[@ThornTheaterReviews]

I just saw my first HD DVD about 23 months ago. I was shocked to find a combo Blu-ray/HD DVD player at my local thrift store.... I bought the remote and some HD DVDs on eBay and I'm shocked at how similar to Blu-ray it looked, its audio was lacking though. Great video!

[@cwhitchblu]

During the format war it was comical on how the HD DVD group tried to push the narrative that a 30GB disc was just the right size whereas a 25GB wasn’t quite enough but anything more than 30GB was overkill… to them I would say ‘ok sure thing Goldilocks’

[@skillstacker]

I've been hoping you would do a video like this. Thank you.

[@popculture3394]

Oh I was just married when this all went down. I bought into HD-DVD cause of the Black Friday sales. I loved that format. I remember Blu-ray loading problems and some players not reading the disc and waiting weeks for a firmware update.

[@tim.mooney]

Hey Jeff, really good video. It definitely brought back memories about the early high-def days. There are a couple of things that you didn't touch on that I think are important to consider. 1. Having a superior format often counts for very little. There are many, many cases in the general technology world where the superior format or standard loses out because of some other factors (cost, commitment by opposing business or consortium, etc.). It's really great when the best format or standard "wins", but its technical merits often have very little to do with which competitor wins. 2. Sony had already been on the losing side of a format battle in the 70s & early 80s, with Betamax. Betamax was widely regarded as the superior format, but it (and Sony) lost that format war for other reasons (point #1 in action). Memory of that loss probably factored into what Sony was willing to do to make sure that Blu-ray (even being superior) repeat that loss. 3. Warner agreeing to Blu-ray exclusivity was the stake in the heart of HD-DVD. With studios (and content) divided between HD-DVD and Blu-ray, the format war may have gone on a lot longer, but Warner committing to Blu-ray instantly tipped the scales decisively in favor of Blu-ray. It was very shortly after Warner committed that other HD-DVD studios followed suit. 4. There was widespread reporting at the time that Sony had paid Warner between 400 and 500 billion (with a b) dollars for business exclusivity for blu-ray. If that's true, it's probably some of the best money Sony has ever spent, because securing Warner really did win the format war. 5. RaggyLodz already commented elsewhere about HD-DVD often having better audio early on. For my part, I still have 2 HD-DVD players, including the better Toshiba player, and probably about 40-50 HD-DVD movies. The "Red2Blu" program really helped lessen the sting of being an early adopter for the losing format. I still have probably a dozen movies that I only own on HD-DVD, though, mainly because these days I'm waiting for them on UHD! Thanks for all the great content you produce!

[@onlyzach1]

Really good video. Yup, I was a collector then and had a Xbox 360 with the HD-DVD add-on. I ended up buying one of the dual format players and started buying Blu-ray's too at the time. Still have that, the Toshiba, and Xbox add-on player as well. Ended up doing some of those promotions when it finally died. Still have some of my HD-DVD's on my shelf, all ripped to my Plex Server. Def think the Xbox not having it built in did them in, also the 50GB disc size was a huge factor too.

[@r.steele2749]

Great video, i remember this war . I knew Blu-ray was the clear winner when i read the adult entertainment industry would back blu-ray.

[@andrewb3541]

Good stuff, Jeff. Keep it up!

[@JeffRauseo]

Thanks, will do!

[@stevenlewis7749]

I had both (Xbox add-on + PS3) but preferred HD DVD at the time. The picture quality of the early HD DVD releases seemed better and the menus were always more advanced too (lots of overlays while the movie was playing instead of having to go back to the "front-end" menu). Plus, being in the UK, HD DVDs were region-free so I could import them from the States. Blu-rays were often still region-locked. Disc rot is a big problem with HD DVDs now. Particularly Warner releases.

[@skywalkerranch]

Excellent video Jeff thanks once again for all your efforts. Top man.

[@pieterbalk-ht7kq]

Great video, @FilmsAtHome ! I remember being really annoyed by these two formats as it was the Betamax/VHS/Video2000 war all over again which I guessed well with VHS in the early 80’s. So now I decided to simply wait and went blu ray in the Summer of 2007 seeing Casino Royale on Blu Ray on a then all new Sony HD TV.

[@rodrigogonzalezbetancourt978]

Love thiiiiiiis, Jeff you're killing it with these type of videos

[@alim998097]

Yes, I was part of the format war and initially chose HD-DVDs since they were a cheaper alternative, in both hardware and discs towards the back half of the war. Hi-resolution audio was just beginning to enter the market and at the time my setup couldn't maximize its effects as I was using a HTIB so I didn't focus too much on it but even if HD-DVDs persisted, Dolby TrueHD would've began to make its way onto more discs. In the end, the Blu-ray is the better format in my opinion as the discs were more durable (HD-DVDs notoriously scratched quite easily) and more capacity. HD-DVDs were region free so that was nice. I still have an HD-DVD player and a small collection for nostalgia but as others have stated, Warner Brothers manufacturers made poor quality discs and a vast majority are experiencing rot now making it unplayable.

[@dunderhead]

I was in college when the PS3 was released; my friend and I spent a full day at Meijer waiting, and we ultimately each secured a 60GB PS3, which included my first blu-ray disc. I've never owned an xbox system, so I've always been a BD guy and have been collecting ever since!

[@chrisgorton4577]

As a 60 year old I remember the war between VHS and Betamax, and then the Philip's V2000 system. When it came to the HD disc system battle, I waited for the dominant technology to be established. I didn't want to get burned again by the previous video tape war. I bought my first Blu-ray machine at the end of 2009.

[@bobobods]

I definitly wanted bluray to win since I had a brand new PS3! The one thing that was missed in this vid is when Blockbuster backed bluray. I remember thinking of that as the final nail in HD-DVD's coffin. It's amazing what kind of pull blockbuster had at the time!

[@FFROM5726]

The interactive content on HD DVD was a GAME CHANGER

[@jasonswartzbaugh3925]

Definitely remembered this format war! I wasn’t a gamer but the PS3 was the console to get at that time. Faster load times, way more onboard storage, and constant updates. Which made it the clear pick. I didn’t get my first Blu-ray player until tax time. Then I lacked the lossless audio support. So to get around that. I utilized the 5.1 channel output. Then you could choose the PCM track to obtain that audio nirvana. Great times and I absolutely miss them. Not even sure if 4K was necessary? Outside say archival purposes of the celluloid film.

[@nickwest932]

I own and love both the 360 and PS3, I still think the Xbox had the better games. Halo, Lost Odyssey, Mass Effect, Gears of War, Fable, and Forza were in my top. On the flip side the PS3 had Ratchet and Clank, inFamous, Grand Turismo, Folk Lore, and Uncharted that I really enjoyed. I did play more Xbox than PS3. The blu-ray player was a big selling point for me though.

[@timpage9424]

I remember the giant Blu-ray and HDDVD sections at Borders books growing up.

[@Mr.FrodoBaggins]

I frequently see HDDVDs at Goodwill. Every time, I just have the slightest tinge of nostalgia!

[@shanedarby6501]

Great video as always Jeff! That brought me back! I remember this format war however I was still collecting DVD's at the time but by 2009 I bought myself a nice slim PS3 and moved instantly to Blu-Ray!

[@edwardx4979]

I still remember when Blu-Ray and HD DVD came out and all the displays they had at Best Buy and Circuit City back then. I was also undecided - like many because they were new - as to which format to get, but I went with Blu-Ray simply because I liked the sound of saying its two syllables better than the longer pronunciation of HD DVD... I also remember reading about the discontinuation of HD DVD and it was in a way sad but good that Toshiba didn't have to waste itself any longer with that format.

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

I still vividly remember the second half of the format war, when the disc formats were actually going to the market and i followed every report for new Disc totles. It was really turbulent and a really hard time to jump on as an early adopter. It sucked how much Movie studios sacrificed the quality for Blu-ray encodes because they just used ONE that was optimized for the low capacity of HD-DVDs with just 15GB singlelayer and 30GB duallayer, while Blu-ray could store 25GB on single layer and 50GB on duallayer, which allowed for higher bitrates and better Picture & Audio quality. But because of the cost saving measures of Movie studios, most Blu-rays were basically just singlelayer discs, using the HD-DVD master. Especially early Warner titles suffered from that. AND the excessive filtering of the early HD masters that made the picture look all flat, dull and completely free of any grain...(Paramount was one of the absolute WORST offenders in this regard...) just so they could compress the video even more. And Universal even sometimes sacrificed the Extras of the HD DVD and made them only "Picture in Picture" extras on the Blu-ray.

[@shanes481]

I remember choosing hd dvd over blu ray. That was a costly mistake.

[@Lama-Su]

My memory, collecting at the time, I mistakenly went HDdvd first only because when the first Michael Bay Transformers movie came to Disc it was exclusive HDdvd only at the time. I quickly switched when i heard PS3 was Blu ray.

[@Pokemonashgreen2]

I was born in 96, so I had more memory for VSH and dvds growing up. My family didn't jump to Blue-ray till 2010, but I remember seeing the HD DVD format at the stores growing up. I started 4k blueray in 2018, since I had a Xbox one X as my 4k blue-ray player.

[@Lanosrep]

We all thought the battle was HD DVD vs Blu Ray, but in the end DVD still won as it outsells blu ray and 4k still to this day. I wouldn't be surprised if bigger studios discontinue the more expensive formats for some niche titles

[@MattRockman5077]

I definitely wasn't paying as much attention back then, but I know I was already a frequent Digital Bits reader at that point, which could have contributed to my decision to stick with DVD until a winner emerged. That tracks with the fact that my first Blu-ray purchases occurred in 2008-09.

[@Moriarity99]

Love this style of video, great work!

[@LilannB]

There was a format war with DVD. It was DVD vs DIVX. WB was the major backer of DVD. While DIVX was backed by Disney. DIVX was a sort of rental type disc format. Where you could purchase the DIVX discs and activate them for a limited time for a fee using a telephone line. For a larger fee you could permanently activate the disc. DIVX was more of a rental model which was probably why Disney backed that format. Spielberg was also promoting DIVX. In contrast DVD allowed you to purchase the movie outright and allowed for special features. DIVX died in about 18 months. Then DVD was the primary disc format. I own a Samsung combination BluRay/HD DVD player that I purchased used in 2008 that I still use today. I still have a few HD DVD titles.

[@danielprice6184]

It was blu ray for me. I always wanted a hd dvd add on for the 360 but couldn’t justify it as I had a ps3. I almost got one towards the end of the format war as they were going dirt cheap and had a bundle of discs included if I remember right. These days it’s 4k blu ray for me, which look amazing compared to streaming. Great video, thanks 🙏

[@Roykirk]

I went with HD-DVD at the time. Players were cheaper and it was easier to get into the format. Once HD-DVD died, I got a Blu-ray player (prices had dropped quite a bit by then), and I took advantage of the Warner Red2Blu promotion when that was offered; I had many Warner titles that I swapped out with that promo, and one of them, the 5-disc Bladerunner set, I still have to this day even with a 4K I bought later due to it having all the cuts of the film.

[@santiagorodriguez9849]

I support HD DVD for two reasons. 1- Because it was the format that I knew and here in Mexico we have a saying that in english goes more or less like this... Better bad for being known than good for getting to know 2- My console was an Xbox 360 and it was cheaper to buy Ad On than a Blu Ray player. And in fact I still have my player with several titles. Great video!

[@wright96d]

5:12 The notion that a group of grown adults could ever uncontrollably bust out laughing at SHREK THE THIRD is one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

[@justinfain1752]

I remember waiting to determine which console to buy based on which format they supported. When it was announced, I went with the PS3. Glad I made the right call and have been a PlayStation guy ever since.

[@FadriqueFM]

I remember I presented a report for Computer class about this format war back in 2006. I was cheering for Blu-Ray, although I had an Xbox 360 in that moment but it was clear the better format was the Blu. Later when HD-DVD died my parents bought an standalone Blu-Ray player along with our first HD movies, which were Lucky Number Slevin and Angels & Demons. What a time.

[@LSOreal]

I vividly remember walking into Virgin Megastore in Times Square and they had two TVs side by side. One with HD DVD and the other with Blu ray. I still have all the pamphlets they had put out lol. As a collector, I was consumed with this format war. Sounds silly to think of it now, but I remember walking into stores and purchasing both HD DVDs and Blu-rays at the same time. It would absolutely confuse the cashier every time lol. Blu-ray did not make good use of the extra capacity at the time. Meaning they did not include additional features and it did not translate to a better picture and sound. I still have my Sound & Vision magazines reviewing both versions and HD DVD won more often than not in the early stages. It was also able to download firmware updates via Ethernet which Blu-rays did not. It was also Region Free which Blu-rays were not. I have tons of foreign HD DVD releases as a result. Good times!

[@djthunderfunk2090]

Not only did I refuse to embrace EITHER format until the war was over, I also installed home theaters at the time and recommended to all my customers that they wait as well lest they risk being stuck with an expensive dead on arrival technology.

[@TheIgnoredGender]

I lucked out. During the format war, I kept my DVDs thinking they were good enough. At the time, blu-rays were very pricey and I didn't want to have to rebuy my entire collection. But then over time, I got used to watching HD videos on KZbin and I could see the obvious difference. DVD started looking like garbage to me. I got into replacing my DVDs with blu-rays during the summer of 2017 when blu-rays were dirt cheap. I basically just sold a whole bunch of my old DVDs for store credit at a video game store and used that credit to buy some blu-rays and 4Ks.

[@ChrisRoth1972]

I was saving money to buy either a Blu Ray or HD DVD Player & by 2009 we had the money saved up & by then the HD DVD was discontinued so it was a blessing that I bought my player in 2009 because I could have ended up with a HD DVD Player had I had the money before 2009. This intriguing story u told Jeff kind of harkens back to the VHS & Betamax War when I was a Kid in the 80’s. Thank You 🙏 for this video 😊

[@bloodydominations992]

Not just a better bitrate, blu ray was 1080p vs 1080i for HD DVD. This is why blu ray was advertised as “full HD” in the early days. Nice series Jeff, hope we get more!

[@markw208]

You might want to double check that. I’m holding an HD-DVD in my hand and it clearly states 1080p. Also the manual for my Toshiba HD-A35 lists the settings, including 1080p. Progressive and Interlaced is a function of the TV

[@tim3172]

@@markw208 I have a DVD player with a 1080P setting. That doesn't mean it can read and produce a 1080P-quality picture. For almost 2 years, HD-DVD was stuck at 1080i. Precious few discs supported 1080P and only so-called "third-gen" HD-DVD players supported 1080P, all others output 1080i. So: does BR support 1080P: yes. Does HD DVD support 1080P: yes with several asterisks. "Progressive and interfaced is a function of the TV."

[@weust2672]

In 2008 I was buying a new AV setup. I remember waiting for which would win, and eventually buying the Denon 2808 receiver and DVD-2500BT. That player was, together with the PS3, the reference transport (not player, that was the 3800BT iirc). Excellent transport and loved it.

[@CraigCatapano]

One of your vest videos Jeff, thank you

[@Gondarth]

I didn't get into HD movies until 2015. I was very late to the party. I had no idea there was an HD format war, just like how I didn't know about VHS versus Betamax, so naturally I completely missed HD DVD, and unless I'm collecting, there's no reason to pick them up if I have Blu-Ray.

[@EricTheBroBean]

I remember the first DVD i bought, Mission Impossible 2, the resolution was mindblowing on a 32" widescreen monitor, which was pretty big at the time.

[@robertvick6671]

I picked HD-DVD back in the day. Still have about 100 of them in my collection and a player in my system. I honestly choose it at the time because Blu Ray was a strange name for a format. HD-DVD was simple and made sense. I would have loved to see it evolve: UHD-DVD could have been next!

[@RaggyLodz]

Great video Jeff on a very interesting topic. One thing though is that, HD DVD did in fact have better sound for a lot of movies in the beginning of the format war. Even now, some discs have Dobly Tru HD soundtrack while the Blu Ray only has Dobly Digital 5.1.

[@tim.mooney]

@RaggyLodz is right. Initially, HD-DVD was considered superior for audio. The HD-DVD standard mandated support in players for certain lossy and especially lossless formats that were optional for Blu-ray. As a result, more of the early HD-DVD movies included a lossless audio option.

[@michaeldietz2648]

I went with Blu-ray right away because it was just a better format!!! It’s still actually really good by today’s standards better than any streaming service.

[@garrypeak4277]

I’d still rather watch a HD-DVD than any streaming service to be honest. I avoid streaming like the plague!

[@michaeldietz2648]

@@GamezGuru1 all I care about is the picture and sound quality of the movie I never cared about any extras or any interactivity to me it’s all pointless. I just wanna watch the movie, and Hooray had better picture and sound quality

[@damonappel]

​@@GamezGuru1Except objectively it WAS. 😅 I see that you're an HD DVD Die Hard to this day. While yes, *initially* the early BDs in the first year (2006) were mostly 25gb, and a lot of HD DVDs were 30gb, it was only really evident where WB put a title out in both formats. Even in 2007 when 50gb BD discs became commonplace, WB continued to put out their cheap "fits under 25gb" releases out on both formats to maximize profit. Meanwhile, other studios without as much skin in the game started putting out movies with lossy audio tracks on 30gb HD DVD, and the same movie on 50gb BD with lossless audio. People today who weren't old enough at the time of "the format war" don't know how fortunate they are that Blu-ray won. Otherwise, there'd be tons of titles in the market today with Dolby Digital Plus audio (no better than streaming) and bit-starved video squeezed into 30gb (also easily bested by streaming). And had the format war continued any longer, it would've been even worse for collectors who like WB's catalog. To this date, there are some movies WB has never upgraded the BD audio to lossless from those original "dual format cheap-outs". Only on UHD releases have they added lossless audio for movies like Mission Impossible 1, 2 and 3, Tomb Raider (Angelina Jolie), and many more.

[@garrypeak4277]

@@GamezGuru1 Yup, the PS3 did win it for Sony. Pretty much right at the end of the generation. It took almost the whole generation for them to catch up. We all remember the giant crabs and $600 launch. The only thing worse than the PS3 launch, was the Xbox One launch, the next generation.

[@tim3172]

"Had began" English is hard for some people. "Standard add-on" Those are diametrically-opposed concepts. I wanted an HD-DVD player and was just about to pull the trigger when the bottom fell out. Ultimately, we got the Sharp HP-20U, an *abysmal* player I'd describe as "barely functional". Sears took it back after the tray failed on it after, maybe, 20 uses. We got the Sony S370 as a warranty replacement replacement. That still works perfectly to this day.

[@ville82]

I was just planning on purchasing my first HDTV back in 2007. Was definitely on the side of HD-DVD at first since it was region free and early Blu-Ray releases had worse picture quality, because those were using MPEG-2 instead of VC-1 and also the first Blu-Ray players were a bit sketchy. However waited for the result of the format war and eventually bought Panasonic Plasma TV and Blu-ray player. Now got a collection of over 500 Blu-rays.

[@RobertK1993]

Some early Blu ray discs used AVC and MPEG-2 is good if high bit rates are used.

[@Just_a_good_old_boy]

I remember this well being a college gamer. When the PS3 came out, it was almost a given bluray would win the format war. However, i continued to buy dvds for a long time because they were the cheaper option. Good video

[@SeViLionCollectibles]

I was aware of the format war at the time, but never directly participated in it. I was in my early 20s at the time, and was an avid DVD collector, so the new formats definitely peaked my interest. I’m a gamer on the PlayStation side, and the consoles have always been my first player for the disc format of the time. I didn’t own a PS3 until April of 2008, but I did pay attention to the formats in stores research what was happening on the tech sides. I remember seeing that the Xbox 360 needed the additional drive, and immediately thought that was a terrible idea vs the PS3 having the blu ray player automatically. I’m a big WB/DC fan, so I remember being disappointed while they were exclusive to HDDVD because I was afraid they would never make the jump. I had been planning on getting a PS3 in April, so I was glad to see Blu-Ray when the war. I got my PS3, bought the Resident Evil movies the same day, and was thrilled to finally be living in the world of HD!

[@ryans413]

I was 17 in 2008 when Blu Ray officially won the war. I knew HDDVD would lose once I learned every PS3 could play Blu Rays.