In a highly mathematical exercise, Gizmodo has trawled the high definition disc reviews over at High-Def Digest - about 300 in all) and averaged all the ratings they've given out. They then put it in a pretty graph that concluded - statistically - that Blu-ray wins slightly on audio quality, but loses out on video quality, standard definition extras, and high definition extras.
"But how could this be? Spec sheets claim the same audio codecs are supported on Blu-ray and HD DVD. Why would one format sound better? And why is HD DVD kicking major Blu-ray bonus content ass? ISN'T IT ALL IDENTICAL EXCEPT FOR THE BOX COLOR??"
Reasons that High-Def Digest give for these findings include:
* Blu-ray audio is winning because high-res audio formats are better supported on Blu-ray (DTS-HD and uncompressed PCM)
* The HD DVD group made the HDi (interactive) authoring environment mandatory on its players, whereas Blu-ray is still getting BD-Java worked out. Hence, more features appearing on HD DVD.
Gizmodo concludes:
The two issues could be feeding off one another while playing to each format's strengths. Blu-ray may easily accommodate uncompressed audio with its larger disc capacity, compensating for its lack of special features. Meanwhile, HD DVD may exploit special features at the expense of audio
Whether it will matter to the 'average consumer' is another matter. The best specs alone rarely create a format winner.
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