Basically the same, only not quite as good because HD DVD had a number of (mostly minor) technical disadvantages. We likely would have seen really long movies like Watchmen Ultimate Edition split onto two discs or their AV quality would have suffered.

The license fees weren't any less for HD DVD. The only difference was the mandatory AACS, and those fees are roughly a quarter of what they were a few years ago.

Quoting hal9g:

Quote:
I'd still be buying only SD DVDs.

Same here

The scenario is so highly hypothetical and near impossible to have happen it's just not even worth pondering on.

So rather than dignifying it with any real articulate thinking i will just say it would have been total poo.

What i will focus on is why HD-DVD had no chance in hell and how even asking this question is LMAO. HD-DVD never had the industry support and never even with Microsoft backing them could have bought the industry over to there side.

HD-DVD was a selfish cheap attempt by Toshiba to preserve the DVD forum, and fly straight in the face of the rest of the will of the industry. There argument was the blu laser was to expensive and cheaper alternative would be preferable.

In August 2002 Toshiba announced it's plans to developing it's own competitor which would come to be known within a year as HD-DVD and be adopted by the forum. Despite being voted down twice by the Blu-ray forum and an investigation by the US department of justice. HD-DVD got through the door because the rules on abstentions had been changed before the format had been approved.

So in this stupid confusing mess the split was set and HD-DVD was a go.

This was not how ever Toshiba's first attempt for world domination. They sided with Warner offering a different DVD technology back in 1994. Thankfully these specification failed to get any licensing and the industry was at consensus on the future of it's media.

Fast forward March 31st 2006 HD-DVD lunches gaining a 3 month head start on Blu-ray. This would result in Blu-ray rushing there format to compete with HD-DVD which resulted in 2 and half years of  ridiculous firmware updates and some very poor early transfers. But despite that the quality of content on Blu-ray remained of considerably better quality especially in audio.

HD-DVD only had one studio solely (Universal). As such they had to pick up the slack for lack of studio support bringing out many back catalogue titles which had been properly mastered for HD. Today many ppl pick up these titles thinking there getting a good deal on cheap HD.

The majority of the time there getting something which is not much better than an upscaled DVD. So eventually Toshiba recognised they needed to get more industry support on August 20th 2007 if my memory severs me correctly Toshiba after going cap in hand to Microsoft cut a $150 million dollar deal.

In what they thought would be great plan to gain the rights to Transformers and win consumers over. Not surprisingly it failed and consumer support for the format faded. And old ally Warner decided finally to put the in nail in the coffin to this pants on head retarded Toshiba against the world nonsense.

HD-DVD ceased in March 2008 but Senator Films released Death Proof in Germany on December 15th which was the last title bless.

Almost 2 years on now we can just be grateful that Blu-ray has matured and starting to move towards market dominance. Transfers are getting better all the time and the list of great back catalogue titles  reaping the benefits from the format is growing by the month.

The one lesson from HD-DVD is never again should the minority undermine the majority in the future of media distribution.

Quoting Astrakan:

Quote:
I'm thinking things would be roughly where they are now, except I wouldn't have had to spring for a region mod to get my player region free, since HD DVD was region free by default. Still pisses me off that Blu-ray isn't, even though for all intents and purposes it is for me.

KM

Yeah the one thing i can give credit to it for. Although i think the studios have become less OCD about region code on there Blu-ray content.

Criterion due to rights restriction are forced to use it.

For any one interested there is petition to save HD-DVD. Only 93 more signatures to 35,000 

Wonder if Sam has singed this   

http://www.petitiononline.com/SAVEHDD/petition.html

Quoting xocbc:

Quote:
Me too, I've no desire to move to Bluray yet, I'd be back to where I was when I bought a DVD player 10 years ago - starting going through my existing collection and replacing them.

I think I'll only bother with a bluray player when my existing player dies, and even then, buying DVDs cheap in the local supermarket £3 a time, loads of good titles, is far more appealing than paying £15 for a Bluray release, especially on older movies where the original print doesn't have the resolution to justify a Bluray release.

I felt similarly to you.

However, when BD players dropped below £100 I decided to take the plunge...especially as, by then, a lot of older films had begun to be reduced in price (£6-£8 instead of £15+).

Also, while some of the earlier released BDs were not sufficiently remastered to BD standard, most newer films are.

In just under a year I have acquired 132 blu-rays and of those only ONE has been a big disappointment (Ghostbusters), one more was no real improvement (28 Days Later) and some have had no extras resulting in me keeping my DVD version (Fantastic Four, Alien vs. Predator).
But...the majority have been absolutely outstanding improvements (most notably BBCs Pride & Prejudice, Goonies, Gone With the Wind, Close Encounters, Labyrinth).

I, now, cannot imagine ever going back to DVD alone. I only buy DVDs now if they are for a film where I think there won't be much difference (Frost/Nixon for example). But, even then, I have sometimes regretted not getting the blu version (My Bloody Valentine springs to mind).

So, I personally do not regret going blu; especially as it will not stop me buying films that are not intended for a blu-ray release.

Quoting Pantheon:

Quote:
Quoting xocbc:

Quote:
Me too, I've no desire to move to Bluray yet, I'd be back to where I was when I bought a DVD player 10 years ago - starting going through my existing collection and replacing them.

I think I'll only bother with a bluray player when my existing player dies, and even then, buying DVDs cheap in the local supermarket £3 a time, loads of good titles, is far more appealing than paying £15 for a Bluray release, especially on older movies where the original print doesn't have the resolution to justify a Bluray release.

I felt similarly to you.

However, when BD players dropped below £100 I decided to take the plunge...especially as, by then, a lot of older films had begun to be reduced in price (£6-£8 instead of £15+).

Also, while some of the earlier released BDs were not sufficiently remastered to BD standard, most newer films are.

In just under a year I have acquired 132 blu-rays and of those only ONE has been a big disappointment (Ghostbusters), one more was no real improvement (28 Days Later) and some have had no extras resulting in me keeping my DVD version (Fantastic Four, Alien vs. Predator).
But...the majority have been absolutely outstanding improvements (most notably BBCs Pride & Prejudice, Goonies, Gone With the Wind, Close Encounters, Labyrinth).

I, now, cannot imagine ever going back to DVD alone. I only buy DVDs now if they are for a film where I think there won't be much difference (Frost/Nixon for example). But, even then, I have sometimes regretted not getting the blu version (My Bloody Valentine springs to mind).

So, I personally do not regret going blu; especially as it will not stop me buying films that are not intended for a blu-ray release.

You should consider importing from America. Not only are the cases more aesthetically pleasing but the wealth of content is greater. And i think everything is worth buying on Blu-ray.

And as for Frost/Nixon

It's a vast improvement over it's DVD counterpart

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Frost-Nixon-Blu-ray-Review/4308/