Blue Ray

[rdtx2005]

LOL... The war is far from over.


Sony will figure out a way to alienate as many buyers as they can, they always do...

Sony is just one part of the BDA.. if you didn't know that already

[rdtx2005]

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It is BluRay. And wait for the price to drop. Do you have an HDDVD player? The format war is hardly over. BluRay has an edge now, but it is hardly over.

- Rich

Warner and New Line are BluRay Exclusive.. Paramount thought maybe HDDVD exclusive at the moment has a clause in their contract to switch back.. the only piece HD-DUD has left is Universal.. can't see them staying much longer.

Warner wanted to end this format war.. and I guess they went to the highest bidder.

and you still call it 'hardly' over?

[Flaming Mo]

Am I a loser for still buying and watching normal DVDs?!??

[rdtx2005]

Am I a loser for still buying and watching normal DVDs?!??

you were probably one of the smarter ones waiting for the format wars to settle itself out.

Early adopters are the ones that are 'losers'

[Flaming Mo]

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you were probably one of the smarter ones waiting for the format wars to settle itself out.

Early adopters are the ones that are 'losers'

Yeah it's crazy with these formats today, you just can't keep up...

I amassed a pretty nice DVD collection over the last few years and I'm completely fine with watching them in the future... I got all I want, solid quality, movie in numerous languages and some bonus stuff.

[Perdido/BR]

Of course you go Blu-Ray. But you're not the typical consumer. The typical consumer doesn't know Dolby 7.1 (christ, how many people even have 5.1 surround sound?) from the blue sky.

This "war" will be deterimed by the middling class of American consumers. If HD-DVD can meet the demands of the "wal mart shopper" they will win.

I'd pick Blu-Ray too just for the tech of it -- but if HD-DVD meets the needs (read: price) of most consumers than they will win.

The thing is: the price is not that different (specially if you take advantage of the Amazon promotions), so another relevant thing could be, I don't know, which movies are available in one format and the other?

If both had exactly the same movies out, but the hd-dvd was cheaper, then yes, you'd be right, but that's not the case.

So, having the "same" quality (bd is already on profile 1.1 w/java) meaning, the differences are not relevant/known outside "geeky" circles, having more players (ps3 DOES count), having MORE MOVIES and MORE STUDIOS behind it...

I'd say the war is not over yet, but it will be in 2008.

M$ gambled: they didn't include the HD-DVD as an internal drive so that they could get the 360 out cheaper and sooner. Sony waited, got the blu ray, which made the ps3 come out later, and more expensive.

Now, what happens? The DVD is starting to show its limitations game-wise, hd-dvd didn't get the boost they would have gotten had it been included in the 360, developers can't make the 360 games in hd-dvd, since not many people have the add-on.

That left the way open for blu-ray. which in turn helps the ps3. factor that, and the fact that good games are coming out for it (my god, what was Uncharted?), I'm thinking things are looking up, despite what people said six months ago, that the ps3 was dead.

[Perdido/BR]

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Yeah it's crazy with these formats today, you just can't keep up...

I amassed a pretty nice DVD collection over the last few years and I'm completely fine with watching them in the future... I got all I want, solid quality, movie in numerous languages and some bonus stuff.

You're not wrong. But, that's what people said when DVD came out, about VHS.

I think it's only natural, this evolution of quality of video, audio, media, etc.

Is an HD display, with 7.1 audio necessary? no it isn't.. but, try going back to CRT and stereo after sampling the other.

IT's just a matter of the technology evolving, becoming a part of our life, and THEN starting to seem so important that we can't live without it... I had this debate with a few friends about the cell phone... before it, people would call your house, and leave a message, and that was ok. Now, If I call a friend's cell, and the doesn't pick up, I get pissed off, even if the thing I wanna tell him is no urgent at all..

It's just a matter of getting used to something that, even if not necessary, is definitely better.

ps. you can keep your dvds... the ps3 (and a lot of players) upscales them. on an hdmi connection, and a good tv, the difference is significant.

[J9Starks3]

[quote="Perdido/BR"][/quote]

To add to that... M$ could have easily ended the war early by putting the HD-DVD standard in the XBox. That would have counted for about 15 million HD-DVD players early and would have ended everything right there. Now with BluRay looking like the clear cut winner and DVD-9 looking insufficient for future gaming... how is M$ going to feel about paying royalties to Sony for every XBox720 that comes out with a built in BluRay drive?!

Not to mention that Sony can pretty much write off all the loses it took on development and the slow adoption of the PS3, because it was the PS3 that kept BluRay alive. Walmart was selling HD-DVD players at 99 bucks during one pre-xmas promotion. Without the PS3 having BluRay the format would most likely be either dead or wed still be in a horrible stale mate in the format war...plus I belive the PS3 in general would be dead...

For all the heat that PS3 took early for late delivery, high price, an "unnecessary" bluray drive. They obviously had their sights set long term. Where as M$, took the cheapest way possible to try to get a jump start and ended up with a 35% failure rate in their systems, a format that is not going to withstand much longer (DVD-9) in the gaming world, they destroyed their partner Toshiba's HD Format and will now have to pay royalties to their rival Sony for their future development. Way to go Bill!

[madvillian]

I think that some of you guys are over-estimating how tech savvy (and how much disposable income) most Americans have. A famous survey a couple of months ago asked HDTV owners if they were watching HDTV feeds more -- over 20% thought they were watching HDTV when really they were just watching regular 480i broadcasts on their HDTV.

And these are the 1/3 of American households that actually have an HDTV! What about the other 2/3? (It's probably closers to about 1/2 after this Xmas.)

...

So to fully enjoy that new Blu-Ray 1080p 7.1 disc your typical consumer needs to spend:

At least $1200 for a 1080p set.
At least $500 for a 7.1 system
At least $300 for a Blu-Ray
At least $50 on cables

And that's not even factoring in professional installation (which I'm sure 90% of people need), disc cost and other fees.

So over $2000 for a technology that may or not catch on. That's a huge outlay of resources for most families and consumers.

I'm not saying that either format will win or that I'm some huge HD-DVD fanboy -- I'm just saying that tech has a lot of selling to do to the typical American consumers -- and it's not there yet.

[Howling Mad]

They really want you to think its a war, but in the end there will be another format better than both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.

Flash Drives of over 200GB will be available and soon enough we'll be buying different players.

For example, Sony claims to have movies and games available for downlaod over their PS3 online network. How do you guys think that media will be had? Its not like you'll download one game or one movie on your 30/60/80 GB hardrive and keep it there forever. You'll need a way to transfer that and/or store it somewhere else.

The real winners are the manufacturers and the real losers are the consumers. Doesn't really matter what format just as long as consumer continue to buy the newest technology.

[richardhutnik]

Several other comments here:
1. Sony executive said in a Wired interview that the next generation Playstation could very possibly have NO disk storage at all, and just download everything off the Internet. Gee, they go that way, what happens to the dedication to BluRay?
2. There are other formats. How about red laser VMD?
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/three_way/bl ... 297900.php

You get nearly the same amount of storage as you do in BluRay and HD-DVD but the system will come out in Asia and be around $200.

3. Guess what system is the top seller? Try Wii. And it isn't even high def.

4. Anyone here know what percentage of the population has high def TVs? Well, until you do, it is hard to pronounce things as over.

5. Based on sales figures, if you say that the High def movie format wars is over, then the videogame wars are over. Sony is as behind, if not more behind with the PS3, than HD-DVD is behind Blu-Ray now. There are more 360s sold than the are BluRay players.

Be careful when you state something is "over".

- Rich

[CrazyEyes]

I think that some of you guys are over-estimating how tech savvy (and how much disposable income) most Americans have.

This is true. We've most likely got a big recession coming here in the US which is going to really limit the amount of money people can spend on luxury items like BR players/disks. I think BR will be a niche for a long time -- just like LaserDisc was in the late 80's and early 90's. People will continue to buy DVD's for a very long time.

[mjhp911]

So, any suggestions for a DVD recorder? The cheapest one available, or one with more bells and whistles? Any feature I HAVE to have in particular?

[DE FENSE]

Disney exclusivity will put Bluray over the top IMO.

[holdupstop23]

Both of them will not win. Downloading straight to the HDTV will win. Netflix is already getting a cable channel to start it off

Whoever buys a ps3 or bluray player loses.

[rdtx2005]

Both of them will not win. Downloading straight to the HDTV will win. Netflix is already getting a cable channel to start it off

Whoever buys a ps3 or bluray player loses.

don't even know why you threw that sentence in there without including HDDVD in that sentence..

xbot?

[Jitpal]

Both of them will not win. Downloading straight to the HDTV will win. Netflix is already getting a cable channel to start it off

Whoever buys a ps3 or bluray player loses.

I hate this argument. It is too far away. The average consumer just doesn't have internet fast enough to make this possible. We are talking about downloading 30GB+ per movie for a rental. It would take well over a day for most people with Broadband. It just isn't possible right now. Maybe 5+ years from now when internet speeds are significantly faster. Part of the reason YouTube is successful has to do with the way Video is encoded and shown that it just starts playing or maybe a second or two of delay, no one would sit around and wait for 15-20 minutes to watch a youtube clip. Just like no one will wait around for 24-48 hours to rent a movie. Right now, download a highly compressed HD movie from the Xbox Live Marketplace takes 2-6 hours depending on the day and size. When I have friends over, I can't sit around and wait for it to download and then watch. I would rather go to Blockbuster which is less than a mile away and pick something up. Once the internet gets faster, to the point where the HD movie rental can start streaming within 10 minutes is when HD movie rental over a set top box becomes a viable alternative. Not to mention the incredible annoyances people will have because there is no standardization. For example, you download a movie to the box in your family room but then you want to watch it upstairs, you can't do that. You want to take it with you, you can't do that. Until things like the iPod, Zune, Tivo, Media Center, Xbox 360, PS3 etc. all start reading the same format and communicating with each other natively it just isn't a viable format. It is absolutely the future and nothing would please me more than to have a fully connected media experience but in the world today, it just isn't possible. -Jitpal

[I_Love_NYK]

I do not really see much of a difference on HD DVD but I see a difference on Blu-Ray.