Cubalaya Blog US

HD-DVD or Blu-Ray?

For those of you who are confused by the terms HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, let's try to sort out the mess and see what the future of home entertainment holds for us.

Right now the digital media world is in the midst of a format war. In the red corner, supported by Toshiba, HP, Microsoft and Kenwood, storing up to 30GB of high-definition video, stands the HD-DVD format. And in  the Blu corner, supported by Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and Philips, and with a capacity of 50GB, stands the Blu-Ray.

Honestly, it is too early to tell who will win this one. VHS beat Beta, PC beat Macintosh (although the Mac came back), yet there is almost no difference between these two formats, making it impossible to predict the outcome. The quality of high-definition video and sound is equally fantastic on each of them, and so far the larger capacity of the Blu-Ray hasn't really given it a big lead.

This competition has been closely linked with the Xbox 360-Playstation 3 one, as Microsoft's Xbox has an optional HD-DVD external drive, while the Sony Playstation's built-in drive uses Blu-Ray. And both of them play their respective high-definition formats quite well, doubling as complete DVD players.

In fact, the only thing that does separate them is the amount of titles released on each format. So far, Blu-Ray has a head-start, with more than 330 titles released, as compared to HD's 130. And if anything might be the deciding factor in this war- the race to release more titles just might be it.

If HD-DVD is what you want, I'd recommend the Toshiba HD-XA2, which is also very strong on playing regular-format DVDs. But if you'd rather go for a Blu-Ray model, the Panasonic DMP-BD10A won't disappoint you.

For now, though, you might want to consider a sort of compromise that will let you benefit from both worlds. The LG BH100 does this well, and will let you wait out the war knowing you'll have invested in a win-win proposition.

A Little Summer Fun

With the slow-pitch softball season in full swing, it's high time I got my game into shape.  As hitting was never my strong thing (otherwise my path to the big leagues was a sure thing, I tell you), I decided to turn the bat into my friend.

Step 1- Buy a really good lightweight softball bat.  There is a big difference in price between a bat and a good bat, but alas, this year I shall "go the distance…". 
Step 2- Step 1 made me think of "Field of Dreams" and James Earl Jones' deep, resonating baritone.  So I bought the movie.                                                                                              

 

Step 3- While searching for the bat I stumbled across the Jugs Soft Toss Pitching Machine, and seeing it was so cheap (a regular pitching machine costs around $1900), decided to splurge for it. 
Step 4- Take said machine and bat with balls to local field.  Have fun.

What I forgot was that somebody's gotta go out and pick up all the balls after I hit them.  So, quite inadvertently, I got a cardio-vascular workout too.  I guess it won't hurt my game too much, but I better hit into the backstop next time, and I should have gotten the full Jugs Baseball Toss Package in the first place.

Well, I hope everyone has as much fun this summer as I'm going to have when I'm swinging for the fences.  I just have to try to make contact along the way too.