Extra 10$ worth it for HD movie?

[Terzo]

Before I start, I really don't know anything about HD or Blu Ray except they're relatively expensive, and have better quality.



I was looking at purchasing a dvd when I noticed it had a HD version for 10 dollars more. Under the HD features, it was noted that "This is a HD-DVD/DVD hybrid, playable on HD-DVD and standard DVD players."
This leads to two questions.

1. That means I can still play the movie off my computers dvd drive, right? I wont need a special HD drive (except for actually playing the movie in HD)?

2. If i can play it off my normal dvd drive, is it worth the extra 10 dollars? Right now I don't have any blu ray or HD players, but I'm thinking it might be worth the extra 10 if I happen to get one or the other (or both) in the future. That probably wouldn't be for a year though, and I'm not sure what other formats there are to watch out for.

What do you guys think?

 

[A5]

Not worth it. Blu-ray seems to have the momentum at this point, so I'd certainly hesitate on getting anything on HD-DVD if I didn't already have a player.

 

[Shawn]

If you play it on a standard DVD player it will only be in standard definition. They only make those for backwards compatibility.

 

[Terzo]

Originally posted by: A5
Not worth it. Blu-ray seems to have the momentum at this point, so I'd certainly hesitate on getting anything on HD-DVD if I didn't already have a player.

I heard recently (word of mouth) that there is a new type of recording coming out, that is "three dimensional". I was told it basically uses the entire CD, instead of just the surface. Is this what Blu-ray is? Or is it something separate entirely?

Originally posted by: Shawn
If you play it on a standard DVD player it will only be in standard definition. They only make those for backwards compatibility.

Right, I was just wondering if it was worth having "foward compatibility", like how you can buy a ps2 game and it will still work in a ps3. Not the best analogy, but that's my line of thought.

 

[Wreckage]

Originally posted by: Terzo
I heard recently (word of mouth) that there is a new type of recording coming out, that is "three dimensional". I was told it basically uses the entire CD, instead of just the surface. Is this what Blu-ray is? Or is it something separate entirely?

You are probably thinking of Holographic Recording. It's way different from Blu-ray and it's a looooong way off.

Right, I was just wondering if it was worth having "foward compatibility", like how you can buy a ps2 game and it will still work in a ps3. Not the best analogy, but that's my line of thought.

All HD-DVD & Blu-ray players (including the PS3) will play DVDs. Most of them will "upscale" the DVDs to make them look better. It costs very little to add this to a player.