Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD: The Hands-on Experience, Part 2

This is the second part of a three-part hand-on about Blu-ray and HD-DVD. To read the first part, click here.

Sound: Here' s where it gets really complicated and frustrating. I had for the most part no problem getting splendid 5.1 sound using the HDMI connection via the A/V receiver. Again, this was just standard 51. Dolby and DTS surround that current-generation DVDs use. Though you'll see Dolby TrueHD and/or DTS HD Master Audio emblazoned on next-gen disc boxes, you should know that no current-generation A/V receiver, and certainly no HTIB system, is capable of processing this supposedly-as-good-as-the-cineplex sound mix, which requires the aforementioned HDMI 1.3, for starters. The player can do it, but the rest of your equipment won't (another example of not-ready-for-prime-time status). So again, if you're thinking of buying a lot of new audio equipment to go with that new 1080p plasma, hold off until this time next year, when a few new options are due to be available.

Problems: But these issues are all for those lucky enough to have A/V receivers equipped HDMI pass-through, which lets you run high-end HDMI sound and video through A/V receivers to a TV. Most people have (or may well have just bought) HTIB systems or A/V receivers that only let put audio through to the speakers via optical cable.

Theoretically, this optical connection should work without a problem, but I have had nothing but headaches getting sound off of Blu-ray discs to work on the KEF KIT200, despite fiddling with the PCM versus bitstream settings on both the Panasonic and the PS3 (as it suggests in the directions). At times, I get no sound with this type of connection, and often I've had to settle for a bastardized 2.1 mix. And this is only because I had the patience to fiddle with different settings and mixes on the disc. I'm not going to get into any more specifics, because it would bore people (including myself!), but this is inexcusable on the part of the Blu-ray camp—it just needs to be easier. Imagine paying $40 for a disc only to have it not work. My advice? As above, hold off on buying either Blu-ray or HD-DVD and certainly hold off on buying new audio equipment until next year (and by then, make sure it's got at least HDMI 1.3 pass-through or some such HDMI capability).

Mo' problems: Okay, so I feel like I've been complaining mostly about Blu-ray, but HD-DVD is not much better in the mysterious glitch department. Why, for example, does the King Kong HD-DVD not play in the Toshiba HD-DVD player? It plays fine on the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive. Why? And why do the interactive features of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift not work at all with the Toshiba remote control, as well as that of the RCA HDV5000 that I tested over at my friend-and-colleague Sean Captain's place? (Sean, by the way, wrote a great piece on both formats in last week's New York Times.) Again, I had no problem using these features on the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive, which after a rocky start (namely, it crashed my Xbox 360), is working beautifully with a mere component video connection.

Laptop experience: Both HD-DVD and Blu-ray looked great on the 17-inch screens of the laptops I tested. But at that screen size, even a regular DVD will look great, so there's no added value or difference with HD-resolution discs. I will say that The Bourne Supremacy looked a little bit grainier in 1080i on the Mitsubishi TV I plugged in using the Qosmio, and getting it to play took a few tries, even for my Windows-PC-immersed brother.

Next: Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD: The Hands-on Experience, Part 3

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