A U.K.-based analyst firm, Screen Digest, has issued a report saying that the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray war is destined to not have a winner--it's going to end in a stalemate. But that's not necessarily the end of the world, the report suggests.
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China itself, and not doubt soon its companies, will try and beat its industry into submission with CH-DVD (if that project ever gets off the ground).
Frankly I've refused to touch either format, the quality is superior but it's not something I feel a pressing need for right now. Maybe in a few years when something's decided or dual-format players reach reasonable (under $300) levels.
The big difference, though between *that* war and the Video war, though, is that the consumer desire is, or will be, there for HD movies. We're not seeing it yet, but it will exist. So while dual-format players and interoperability didn't save the audio formats, coexistance for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD is far more likely to work. Even if they're still fighting. SACD/DVD-Audio, MP3 won the battle. I'm not sure people will be happy with SD video forever.
Eventually the hardware and media for the winner will be cheap, like DVDs are today. If the inferior format (HD-DVD) wins, we will lose.
However, dual-media players and computer drives will be cheap eventually, so if both media survive, we'll still be OK. I just hate the idea of HD-DVD winning and dooming us to 30 gig.
funds and resources. In the end, one thing is definite. This will screw the
consumer in some way or another. And that's the only thing that really counts.
1)PORN.
2) THE CHEAPER ONE ALWAYS WINS!!!!!! See, if you're a highly technological person, you're not going to understand this concept. You'll go "well, HD-DVD won't be able to fully support 1080p in 5 years and also it's less space and...."
GIVE IT UP! Look, do you think your grandpa cares if one can hold more space then the other? Or if one has something that he probably won't use in his lifetime??? NO. He'll care about the price! People weren't buying DVDs until the price dropped. The average person can't tell a difference between HD-DVD and Bluray - probably just you and select others.
3) Hrm...."HD-DVD" or "Bluray". HRM.....which one sounds less confusing? Ask simple folk if they know what bluray is. Then ask if they know what HD-DVD is. I bet they can describe what one is before the other.
The consumer is going to decide this, not anything else. The moment HD-DVD players (or combo players) go on cheap, it's over. Sorry.
The reason that Toshiba, er, I mean Microsoft, ponied up $150 million to make Paramount HD-DVD exclusive for 18 months is precisely this -- the first format to attract all studios, at this point, is the winner. While Universal might not have gone immediately to Blu-Ray support, the fact of everyone BUT NBC/Universal on Blu-Ray, plus the higher Blu-Ray disc sales, was already starting to cast HD-DVD as the loser.
And that's all it would take... if the pundits and bloggers start to all proclaim one format the winner, there's a good chance that format will win. NBC/Universal might forego some revnues to support their format of choice, but they're in no way as vested in HD-DVD as Microsoft and Toshiba are. And that was also telling, given that on the hardware side, it's largely been stacking up as "everyone" vs. Microsoft and Toshiba.
So that was probably money well spent, for Toshiba and MS anyway. Today that's the most consumer hostile move anyone could have made, but as we've seen with CD, DVD, DVD+/-R, etc... the hardware costs are eventually integrated away. In 18 months, if there's a $200 dual-mode player (or even one on the horizon), no one's going to lose that much sleep over the winner or loser.
It has to get to the point, however, that dual format support is cheap for the hardware vendors, in order to make the dual format world safe for consumers. Today, I wouldn't buy a blue laser DVD player.. and I AM the target market; I already have a red-laser player that can play HD video (DivX or WMV9). That's not even because the players cost $500, but because I don't want to spend $2000 or $4000 on little shiny discs over the next few years, but guess wrong. I don't want to buy the player that isn't supported by the local Blockbuster, etc.
I was just a young lad at that time and didn't care. But didn't the prices drop only after VHS was deemed the winner? If that
I pondered and racked my brains before getting a DVD+RW drive, wondering whether DVD+R or DVD-R would be "The One" to survive the format war between them. Then, Sony came out with a dual format drive that reads and writes to both disc formats, and soon after everyone else followed. Today, both types of recordable and rewritable DVDs are readily available, coexisting peacefully side-by-side at your regular retail electronics outlet, both selling by the spindle at less than a buck a disc. My old DVD+R discs are good, but I would have been just as fine if I had chosen DVD-R discs instead.
Given that Sony will not put out HD-DVDs, and given that for the next 18 months, Paramount won't be putting out any Blu-Ray, and given that LG has already bestowed upon us the first console that reads both, it looks like we might not see a "winner" and "loser" so much as an unneccessary delay in adoption of high def movies in general because of the assumption that a format war could kill the discs.
I'm planning on going Blu-Ray myself in a few months. My main worry isn't HD-DVD taking over. Instead, my main concern is that both formats will eventually be obsolete when 4096p televisions broadcast in Even Higher Definition and movies are released on UV-Ray, and by then Blu-Ray's built-in DRM gets in the way of my transferring content into the next format so I don't have to continue lugging around obsolete players to play back movies that are long out of print by then. (Will Underworld: Evolution still be available in 2032 on UV-Ray? Probably not.)
I also remember the day I carried my stacks of beta tapes down to the dumpster when my old Betamax finally died. I won't put myself in that position again!
It's the greed of large corporations that put out competing standards rather than agreeing on one format, but in the end it's the consumers who lose.
I, personally, am not planning to jump into this battle. I have an up-converting DVD player that makes standard DVD's look great on my 50" plasma. I don't plan on buying EITHER a blu ray or an HD DVD until there is a clear winner... or until someone comes up with an affordable player that will play both formats.
If consumers would boycott both formats, perhaps the corporations would be motivated to avoid this kind of battle in the future.
That player isn't an ideal solution, I want a standalone. But I will not buy another standalone player until it plays both formats in their final specs. If that means I have to wait a little longer, so be it. I think like most consumers, I just want to push play. I've talked to a lot of people with HDTV's, and all same the same thing: just want to push play and not worry about this war.
The war will end in a tie as even Sony and Toshiba will have to make universal players. Sony bribing Target (confirmed) and Blockbuster (unconfirmed) and Toshiba bribing Paramount (unconfirmed, and denied by all parties) will be a gesture in futility. Sony can keep their accursed DRM and region coding, HD DVD can the DVD name alive, everybody wins.
I think like consumers. And I want Samsung's universal player. Then all I have to do is push play.
- Studio support is irrelevant
- by natejohnstone September 21, 2007 7:40 PM PDT
- Everyone talks about BR's "Overwhelming studio support." But BR's studio support is only THEORETICAL. The truth is that as of October, there will be more HD-DVD titles available than Blue Ray titles...so much for the "overwhelming studio support." If those studios were actually releasing their content on BR, then sure they would have more titles, but they are not nor are there any stated plans to do so.
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- dude what you talking about
- by lil-yankee September 22, 2007 11:59 PM PDT
- The Studio support is definitively a plus here. Or why is it that you want a High-End Player? isn't it to see movies?
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (48 Comments)The fact of the matter is, studios follow the money. If HD DVD starts massively outselling BR, the other studios will jump from Sony like rats off the Titanic. Sony will keep making BR...but they also still make UMD movies.
With roughly the same amount of movies to choose from (and most available in either format) then the average consumer will make their choice based upon ONE THING and one thing only--price. Tosh has a $299 player (that sells for about $240 on Amazon, etc.). Sony and other BR manufacturers can't even manage to get something down to even double that price. Most people don't care about longevity, etc., etc., they just care about price.
For me, I'm trying to decide between the cheap Toshiba for $240 and a $400 PS3 that I'm hoping will be out for Christmas. For $160 I get a cool gaming rig...but that's a lot of money to me. If the PS3 doesn't go down to $400, then i'll be getting an HD DVD player for HALF the price. So we'll see what happens. I'm a HUGE HUGE HD nut, though, so i hope things do become more affordable soon.
so if thats the case then you need something good to watch and the studios play a big role there.
If you aint' have no movies to show on your players then what good is it for. THe more studios you have, the more movies there is to offer and when you have more movies than your competiton it really helps. I dont' think the suppor they have is theorical because they actually own lots of the studios and they are kind a forced to support the team.
We would have to expectate about this see what happends..