360 HD DVD v PS3 Blu-Ray. Mail on Sunday roadtest.

The Mail on Sunday have compared a variety of next-gen DVD players and directly pitted the Xbox HD-DVD drive against the PlayStation 3 Blu-ray player.

Players were graded on Output, with HDMI 1.3 connection being better regarded than the older 1.2 because the 'greater bandwidths allow Deep Colour, which allows for a far bigger colour palette.' Players were also graded on whether they displayed in True 1080p and whether the sound was lossless Dolby TrueHD/DTS-HD.

Look at the included scans for marks out of 5

[MrSwede]

Anyone surprised of the outcome? Good news for MS? Good news for Sony? I don´t know really.

[Also Known As]

lets see here, this article
"New Code-Name'Falcon' Xbox360 to cut costs for MS" has more important news and more comments posted on it and yet is only as "hot" as this one. Which one will be moved up to the headlines first? I bet this one will only because it makes the 360 look bad and the other makes it look attractive.

Lets hope this wont be what happens now that ive made this post.

[xbox360elitegamer]

To tell you the truth, I find that HD DVD and Blue-ray are the same. I don't really find a difference, because I have the HD DVD, with my 360 Elite, I use a HDMI cable to play my DVDs at 1080i, and the resolution is about the same just like my friends Blu-ray, on his PS3. So personally, I don't believe what this article is true what there saying.

[funkysolo]

blu ray movies are 1080p, so it's going to look better on a 1080p TV than the 1080i you get from your HDDVD add on. Also TrueHD audio sounds alot better. HD addon is not even the same league to compare to the PS3 blu ray. Well I'm getting the curse of the black pearl and deadman's chest on blu ray and it's in 1080p to go with my 1080p samsung.

[crazyman]

What are you on about, HD-DVD is 1080p

[MaximusPrime]

welldone to PS3. Best Bluray player on the market.

[popup]

it must be its superior rendering capabilities :P

[Antan]

The biggest difference is the PS3`s ability to play lossless (uncompressed) audio.

EDIT-: To the gobsh!te (fanyboy) below.

The 360 HD does not support lossless audio, get over it.

"ehmm you know HD DVD's sound runs twice as fast as blu-ray,
blu ray=36khz"

LMFAO!!!!!!!

So my collection of "48khz" Blu Ray discs are all wrong and technically breaking the law under the sales descriptions act??

Dipstick do your research and dont talk $hit about things you dont know!!

Hey kid, if you can read........

http://www.highdefdigest.co...
http://www.avforums.com/

Plenty to get your teeth into, if you have any at such a young age?

Im no fanboy btw, so please make another excuse.

[ENNO]

ehmm you know HD DVD's sound runs twice as fast as blu-ray,
blu ray=36khz
HD DVD=96khz
HD DVD is all around better,but sony has a huge install base wich come with free fanboys!so dont talk $hit about things you dont know!!

[VaeVictus]

Speed equals quality?

[cdzie1]

Both my PS3 & Toshiba HD DVD player are plugged into my receiver via HDMI. I noticed that when I play a Blu-ray movie on my PS3, the receiver says “Multi-channel – 48 kHz” (consistent with the specs on the back of the movie’s box). But, when I play any HD DVD movie, it says “Multi-channel – 96 kHz.” I’m not sure what this means in terms of sound, they both sound great, but I am getting a higher frequency on HD DVD.

[achira]

not new that the ps3 beats the xbox360, at least in this aspect.

[ericbs]

Whats the point of making these posts? Do you like trying to get fanboys fighting each other or what? Im sure if it was the PS3 that got 3 stars and the 360 add on got 5 stars, you would act like its not important or true wouldn't you. Well i guess you can't reply since you only have 1 bubble.

[cdzie1]

What else would we expect on this site? Yet another positive Blu-ray review and a negative HD DVD review. Unless you have a HDMI capable receiver, the xbox drive & PS3 have the exact same video and audio capabilities (lossless audio can only be passed via HDMI, it cannot be passed on optical). If you do have an HDMI receiver, you’re better off getting the Toshiba A2 (which does have lossless audio), which is only $250 on Amazon right now (all three Toshiba HD DVD models are selling better than the first standalone Blu-ray player).

I have an Xbox HD DVD drive, a PS3 and I recently bought a Toshiba HD DVD player. Don’t believe this story, PS3 is a good Blu-ray player, but HD DVD is a better value in almost every way.

[THAMMER1]

But SONY fans and PS3 fan boys do not want to hear that type of stuff right now.

The stand alone HD DVD players are selling circles around Blu ray players. Just go not all the movie sites on the web, people love HD DVD. Blu Ray is cool but it lacks the features. I'm not bashing I'm just stating the obvious.

See what I mean.

[xfrgtr]

BLURAY RULES!!!!!!!!HDDVD IS DEAD and cdzie1 stop lying the xbox drive doesn't have the same audio capability than the ps3(hdmi 1.3,dolby tru hd),it sucks

[aiphanes]

The price of the blurays and HD-DVD disc are about the same. On the internet you can get bluray movies for around $20. Bluray has better over all specs...but HD-DVD has the better interface as of now but bluray will be at profile 2.0 this october...

Bluray has the most movie studio support....its only a matter of time before HD-DVD is dead... Why are HD-DVD supporters still trying to fight the fight?

[cdzie1]

Plain and simple: You get 5 free movies with both a HD DVD or Blu-ray player purchase. The picture & sound quality is the same. But, you can get an HD DVD player for $250 on Amazon (with free shipping) or you can get Blu-ray for $500.

You save $250 and you get the better versions of '300' & Blood Diamond (interactive features are on HD DVD, but not the Blu-ray version). That, my friend, is a better value!

[THC PRITCHARD]

blu ray will win till next gen

[sak500]

i agree, this gen it will be HD DVD.

Edit: @ the stupid article

Wow so Ps3 is a better movie player, well that's what it was designed for, 360 is far better games console. Good to hv 2 360s at home. ONe as a backup if i need to send it for free repairs (now take ur shot fonybois)

[Kenshin]

Talking about HD-DVD being a better buy because of cheaper price is pointless when seeing Blu-ray a likely winner in the HD space.

[Tapioca Cold]

What a S#!t article. They are comparing Blu-ray and HD DVD and the guy complains about the price of the PS3. Gimme a break! It's the cheapest Blu-Ray player on the market by hundreds of dollars. This website is garbage. They post uneducated articles based on rumours and jibberish.

All you guys go ahead and argue about what console is better now. What a garbage, phony article! Gimme a F#%$% break.

[aiphanes]

Core Xbox 360 is $299.99
HD-DVD addon is $199.99

total price is $499.99 and you have NO harddrive!!! and no wifi!!!

You have to spend another $100 for just a 20GB harddrive or $179 for a 120 GB harddrive. We all know a 20 Gb harddrive is crap...there is less than 10 GB space on it. You gots to speed at least $100 for the microsoft wifi adapter or go and get a thirdparty for around $50.

All this is more than the price of a totally intergrated Playstation 3 60 GB model at $499...you get the best bluray player, HDMI 1.3, Better upscalling of DVDs to 1080p than Xbox 360, PS3/PS2/PS1 game playing, bluetooth 2.0, 4 usb ports, flash memory card reader for all formats, PSP support and connections but wireless and wired, the XMB interface, internet browsing, wifi 802.11b/g, 1000base-T ethernet.

IPTV compatibility is support through software on the PS3 so...all models could potentially get this feature.

On and the PS3 has a failure rate of less than 1 percent compared to the Xbox 360s failure rate of around 33 percent!

People have left their PS3s on for over 4 months straight with no issues, if it was gonna fail..it would have failed during that time.

[pts]

I agree that the xbox 360 HD DVD drive needs a price cut, and it should get one soon.

Here's the billion dollar question: Is it better to force everyone to buy a Blu-ray player and sell a machine for $500, or is it better to let gamers buy just a game system for much cheaper, and give them the option for high def movies with an accessory?

I think PS3 is losing a lot of market because they are forcing you to buy a Blu-ray player even if you don't have a high-def TV! And don't forget, PS3 doesn't include high-def cables.

So, we'll see in the end, it should be an interesting 4th quarter, that's for sure.

[JasonXE]

the xbox 360 hd dvd player on the pc? So why do you need the xbox 360 to begin with?

[Jen5en]

Guys! GUYS! Stop it.

The fate of both formats is in the hands of Hugh Hefner & Co. Whatever the porn industry chooses to focus on will determine the future, since there are a lot more horny losers out there than there are moviegoers.

Besides, who the hell wants to see porn in 1080p? I mean, does it really add to the experience that the male "actor's" asshair are scanned progressively with super crisp, Active Glitter, XD Engine quality? In that case, the feature of higher resolution clearly backfires IMO. Furthermore, a cheesy porn scene in 7.1 surround sound won't do anything for me personally... whatever gets people going...

[jlytle1234]

Whatever disc you use to burn the porn you just downloaded wont matter to them.

"Here's the billion dollar question: Is it better to force everyone to buy a Blu-ray player and sell a machine for $500, or is it better to let gamers buy just a game system for much cheaper, and give them the option for high def movies with an accessory?"

Blue-ray is part of the next gen of game systems. You need more space to contain the hd quality graphics and to give devs the space to make huge expansive games.

[ericbs]

Bubble for you.

[the worst]

Rumor xbox720 is coming with 50% less red rings
50% overheating bluray player hdmi ports
and wait here big thing....... microsoft vista

[BIadestarX]

You must really hate those bubbles... is that a new thing for Sony fanboys? You feel cool when you only have one bubble?
Comments like that bring no value to any article post but just flame bait! Down with your bubbles! for making stupid comments and wasting my bandwidth!

[DirtyRat]

I was expecting a balanced review of the different players, but what we go is the usual mass media gibberish.

I think the PS3 obviously has a superior movie player compared with the 360s HD add on, but I would still rater have a 360, I'll buy a standalone HD player when I see which way most of the movie studios are swinging.

[THAMMER1]

1up.

It is good to have members who are more realistic around here. Thanks

[Xeoset]

Pretty fair.

If you want a cheap soultion: £180 + £110
If you want a good picture £425
£290 vs. £425

Though, if you're willing to pay for the 360 Premium and HD-DVD instead, which pretty much equals the basics between the 360 and PS3, bar HDMI: £220 (it's had a price drop) + £110
£330 vs. £425

There shouldn't be much arguing over this. It wasn't an in-depth review, he just mentioned one was cheaper and you get what you pay for. The best way about it I think.

[Figboy]

i'm probably going to regret this, but the Fry's near my house has Blu Ray movies for $12.50.

some good stuff too (ie, Kung Fu Hustle). come payday, i'll be making a nice trip to Fry's and picking up a few movies for sure.

[NextGen24Gamer]

I went out and purchased Blood Diamond on HD-DVD. I already had the Blu ray version from a few weeks earlier. I was curious which would look better. HD DVD via my add on for my Elite...or Blu ray via my Ps3.

It was clear to me and a few of my friends I had over that the HD dvd version via my HD dvd add on looked sharper and the colors looked better. Every time I switched back and forth viewing the same scenes it was clear to everyone.

Was it a major difference? Absolutely not. But it was clear enough to notice even when I did a blind test.

Now this is using HDMI for both and Full 1080p for both. I have the latest greatest Samsung True 1080p 61 inch DLP Televsion to do the comparisson. I was a bit surprised due to all the hoopla about hdmi 1.3 supposively better than 1.2. Its suppose to have more colors. I guess going from 2 billion colors to 2.5 billion colors isn't something your eyes can see. lol.....

All I know is on my TV and with my set up...The HD DVD add on gets the slight edge in regards to picture quality. The sound difference was something we couldn't hear. Both sounded equally stunning.

The biggest difference which gives HD dvd the edge by default...is the "IN Movie Experience" and "U COntorl". That is what makes HD dvd more Next Gen than BLu ray. Even with Blood Diamond it was a big advantage on the HD dvd version.

[Antan]

http://hddvd.highdefdigest....

This is a review for the HD version

http://bluray.highdefdigest...

And this is the Blu Ray review from the same site.

Just to tie in somewhat with what Elite is saying, here is a review of Blood Diamond on both Blu Ray and HD DVD. Picture on both look to be the same (both use the VC-1 codec) but the HD DVD version gaining the plaudits for the additional features.

Its a great film btw! hehe

[The General]

And nobody should listen to him because he wants to see Blu-ray and Ps3 fail by all means. Check his comment history and you will all see the realdeal, although he's been trying to cover it up lately, he is still nothing but one of the most hardcore xbox fanboys. Here is one of his past comments:

EliteGamer - 15 Sep 2006 13:01

PM
Track
Ignore
5 - UMD....Blu ray.....Same Fate
Same things apply to blu ray. You have to have an HD TV...Preferrably 1080p...to enjoy a blu ray movie....which is priced 10 to 20 dollars over the price of Standard DVD's. Thats not going to fly well with your "Walmart Generation Consumer". I see the same thing happening with Blu ray. Millions will buy the ps3. And if you were to take a poll on how many of those millions buy blu ray movies to watch on their standard televisions or 720p televisions....it would be such a small amount it won't even show up on the radar. And Sony is way off base to assume it will help boost blu ray movies sales. They thought the same thing about all there other Failed formats. And I'm not bashing the ps3's choice of format...I'm just being honest and realistic about it. We live in the real world. Where people really don't have 1080p tvs by an large and where people really don't have extra money to blow on the average. Think about it. http://n4g.com/NewsCom-9023...

Now why in the world would he buy a format, 'Blu-ray', if he believes it's going to fail? This dude is full of it and i don't know why he has so many bubbles. He is not a neutral gamer and once again, he will say anything to keep people from buying a ps3 or blu-ray. He was wrong about many things and is still wrong. I'm pretty sure he gave himself those bubbles because if you knew his true intentions, you would be taking his bubbles away as well.

O well, besides those facts, both Hd dvd and Blu-ray look great but the winner may or may not be determined this winter. It all depends on so many things. I'd say just get the one that has the movies you want.

[ericbs]

Bubble for you. I don't know how more people disagreed then agreed with you. It was your opinion and it was well written. If it was like "L0L HD-D\/D 15 7h3 1337357 3\/3R" but since it was a great read, why so many disagrees? If so many people disagree, lets hear why in a well written explaination.

P.S. I didn't bother reading the general's comment after the first paragraph

[Antan]

http://www.highdefdigest.co...

Heres a good technical review of both the 360 addon and the PS3 Blu Ray quality. Being a musician and general audiophile Im going with PS3 purely on superior Audio, but each to their own.

This review is correct apart from the below 1080p 24 fps output comment which we all know has now been fixed/added with firmware 1.80.

"The PS3 offers video playback at 1080p and 60 frames per second (fps) only, which is less desirable than 1080p 24 fps output"

[Shaka2K6]

The x360 add-on is the worst h-dvdead player out there but for $200 what do you expect right?

on the other hand PS3 is one of the finest Blu-ray players out there.

PS3 > x360.

[IPlayGames]

But every where i read there saying that ps3 blu-ray is better than 360 HD DVD add on.

So HD-DVD might be = or better but u would have to buy a stand alone player to find that out and seeing that my ps3 is = to the stand alone blu-ray players im happy with my purchase.

[ReconHope]

in the hd era. can u guys hear it? i saw the difference clear on my ps3 but never heard it?

[Bloodmask]

I buy a game system to play games. I really could care less about HD movies on my game system.

HDDVD and Blu ray are roughly equal in picture quality. The only difference being that HDDVD has more features when you boot up the movie.

And for all you drones that think the PS3 is the best Blu ray player on the market you are wrong.

The Samsung BD-P1200 is far superior. It uses HQV video processing that upscales old dvd9s to near hi def. Not the crappy upscaling that the PS3 does.

http://www.circuitcity.com/...

[paracardium]

BlueRay wins hands down. Keep the crappy extra features on HD DVD. I watch movies for movies only not extra features and crap.

[ReBurn]

But they are so expensive. It's silly to argue over which format is the best. As a consumer I want to be able to play any movie I want and not worry about having to have seperate players for each. I wish that these two camps could come together somehow and introduce a common format. Either that or one of them needs to go away. This is one instance where competition is not good for the consumer.

[btkadams]

im not really surprised about the ps3's blu-ray drive being good, its built into the system and sony is a hardware manufacturer so you know they're not gonna use crappy design. whereas microsoft is a software company and theirs is not built directly into the 360. im sure though, that if the hd dvd drive for 360 was built into the 360, it would be a good competitor for the ps3's blu-ray though.

[shamon]

ps3 bu -ray is way better then ms because i have both and did compare the two and it just looks way better on that system

[shamon]

blu -ray just needs to release more movies that what hd-dvd have going for it what happen to batman begins or the harry potter movies maybe even godfather ,and i know for sure that star wars will come out this november or sometime next year .i think some company's are holding out until atrue winner comes but will there every be a true winner?

[tk]

They have digital files. Exactly the same. Cannot be different. The BR can not be better than the HD-DVD and vice versa. Get over it. It is a container or digital files. Only difference will be with the playback equipment. I favor Sony and Blu-Ray - but the quality cannot be higher on the same digital file. If you copy the file on BR, HD-DVD or HD - it will be the same. Enough with this comparisons. It just prove the reviewers stupidity if they find the one better that the other. All you can test is the playback equipment - and then HDMI will win over analogue - and then it should be a HDMI vs analogue test.

[shamon]

give me postive feed back and i will do the same for you guys