Next generation console victor to be decided by Hollywood?
by David Hinkle 
{ May 2nd 2006 at 6:00PM }
Wedbush
Morgan Securities is of the mind that the battle between Toshiba's HD-DVD and Sony's Blu-ray disc format could very
well dictate the conclusion of the next generation console wars. The report suggests that the film studios could be the
ones responsible for deciding the victor in the next generation console war by choosing which format to support in
distributing their movies to retail, whether it be on HD-DVD or Sony's Blu-ray technology. Considering that the gaming
industry is pulling in as much revenue as the film industry, whichever format Hollywood favors could heavily tip the
scales, without a doubt.
Who do you think is going to come out on top of this conflict, HD-DVD or Blu-ray?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brian @ May 2nd 2006 6:17PM
Blu-Ray. Sony has more clout in Hollywood than Toshiba, with owning Columbia Tri-Star they automatically have a devoted film library. I mean, Sony has put out UMDs despite a lack in consumer interest and consumers seem interested in a next-gen dvd.
What might hurt it, however, is the name. Blu-Ray is much more awkward than the more explanatory HD-DVD. Also, If the BetaMax-VHS fight is any indication, the porn industry will decide which format will win out.
Jonathan Worrel @ May 2nd 2006 6:26PM
Blu Ray all the way baby!
Scapegoat @ May 2nd 2006 6:40PM
Hmm, I really don't care which wins. I just hope the competition between the two forces them to bring down movie prices to decent levels (ie at least what DVDs are at now).
Murphy @ May 2nd 2006 6:52PM
I would love Blu-Ray to win it all, not only from a fanboy standpoint, but from a logistical view. Blu-Ray is the next generation of media, and far surpasses HD-DVD in improvements for the future. BRDs are an advancement, but HD-DVDs are more of the same, just bigger.
It's not just Hollywood that will decide this war (because studios are taking sides and so we won't have all movies on the same format for a while), but the general consumer will be a tough nut to crack for Blu-Rays. You see, while Blu-Rays are better than HD-DVDs in all respects, but they are more expensive (because it is new technology) and it is a completely new name to the world.
The average consumer knows what High Definition is, its the new craze, its a household name. The average consumer knows what a DVD is, we all have them, every movie comes out for them.
"Blu-Ray? OK, so the disc is blue, so what? Screw that, I'm going with the reliable choice!" says the average consumer.
This is not an issue of Beta v. VHS, because the conflict with that could have gone both ways, but it is equal when it comes to a new format that people don't know about. Blu-Ray is gonna have a tough time getting started, but if it gets enough support and the consumer actually does some research into their next purchase, then we should come out victorious.
Paul @ May 2nd 2006 6:56PM
unfortunately that is exactly why blu-ray will lose. Hd is already about the same price as a regular DVD, it doesnt look like blu-ray will be able to pull it off. But I doubt it will have little effect on the consoles
Fear @ May 2nd 2006 8:26PM
I hope Blu-ray flops, I already have a huge collection of DVD's, etc.
OyoyoY123 @ May 2nd 2006 8:36PM
well, u can still play ur DVDs on a Blu-ray player~
ye cant play HDDVD on ur DVD player.
so~.......why do u wish the Blu-ray to flop?
Cage @ May 2nd 2006 8:41PM
So OyoyoY123...you can magically play your Blu-ray disc on a DVD player? Uh..huh...youve been listening to Sony for waaaaaaaay too long.
lionzub @ May 2nd 2006 8:49PM
As long as I can buy a Blu-Ray burner for my computer I will be happy (backing up MAME with CHDs). I don't give a fuck about buying movies, not worth the over-price they charge for the package you get most of the time. I stopped buying DVDs long long ago because they are worth nothing from a collector's standpoint.
I'm glad Sony is sticking with Blu-Ray though because it is definitely a highly quality disc. I still proudly show off my Hi-MD player in front of those iPod geeks. :D
grenn6 @ May 2nd 2006 10:32PM
If you have an HD-DVD player, you will not be able to play your DVDs on it... but if you have a Blu-Ray player, it supports all formats expect HD-DVD, and pretty much they said it can play HD-DVD, but it probably won't, because of the format war. DVD movies are on DVD9 disc now, and the movies that are coming out right now are almost feeling that DVD9 disc up without any extras, and running at 480p/480i. Just imagine a movie running at 720p, 1080i, or 1080p, you will need double or triple the space. HD-DVD can only hold about 32 gigs, and Blu-Ray is starting off at about 50-60gig disc, and later on 200+ gigs Blu-Ray disc will be out in the future. That’s why I think Blu-Ray will win, because of space. Space is everything now, it equals to less limitation. Imagine watching Band of Brother Series running at 720p/1080p, with all the extras, and all the commentaries, and 7.1 Surround Sound… and having that all on one disc, now that will be awesome.
Long live Blu-Ray …. Whoo Raaay
SfGanjaMan @ May 2nd 2006 11:28PM
Green6 stop being a dumb beezy and stop manipulating others with your dumb ideology.
First of all your and idiot...Ok done.
Second of all"DVD's" will be able to run on HD DVD."There are many advantages to the fact that HD DVD discs will be the same size as current DVD discs. Backward compatibility will be available with all HD DVD players allowing consumers to only require a single player in their homes to play both HD DVD and DVD discs. DVD disc replication companies can continue using their current production equipment with only minor alterations when changing over to the format of HD DVD replication." So green6 what did we learn? All wait for a reply...
Third of all I would like to show you why programers have made processes that compress data. They do that so information can be stored in the smallest way possible, leading to my point. "This is because of new compression technologies, such as MPEG-4 AVC, which makes it possible to produce high quality content at lower bit rates without a visible loss of quality. With this advanced codec technology, it is possible to store 8 hours of high definition video on a 30GB HD-DVD." By the way every HD DvD comes in 1080P, while some players at this time might not support 1080P their is a big push to have future generations running this format.
I dont know which format will win. But I have a guess..HD DVD
boots (former bd) @ May 3rd 2006 3:22AM
Grenn6, you are totally right. "SfGanja", it seems that "Ganja" is really affecting you. Oh, and Cage, have you been living under a rock? Too many FPS and zero Kingdom Hearts? All Blu-ray players can read DVD discs. Why is it that all Xbox fanboys want Blu-ray to flop? It's not like Xbox 360 depends on it flopping...
Anyway, the more storage, the better... Blu-ray is even more future proof than HD-DVD, just in case. With the H-264 Codec and the 8-layered Blu-ray in development, we might see some niceties that would be impossible on HD-DVD in the not so distant future. The "higher cost" of Blu-ray will only be in the beginning, and that will only be for manufacturers, not for us. PS3 will help Blu-ray become the format of choice, if content on demand is far away. Since High Definition will become the official broadcasted format in 3 years, and broadband speed doesn't seem to grow at a fast rate, let alone media centers are expensive, and content on demand will still be heavily DRMed, people will at least think of next-generation discs as a way of actually "owning" the movies instead of simply watching them.
Porn won't determine the winner this time around (even if it helps) since porn file sharing is rampant, as opposed to back then when the net wasn't a public service. Just for the record, Blu-ray is being backed by an important part of the porn industry as of now.
And don't even mention Holographic Storage... a format with no hollywood/porn support is useless for the mainstream. It might have a future though, if compression reaches important levels for it to store movies in the already invented format "4320p" (32 Megapixels), which has around 32.5 audio channels (it's sick), and we might see really high frame rates, like twice or even four times what is possible as of now. Maybe even true 64-bit color (natively on screens). Alright, one can dream.
adam @ May 3rd 2006 3:34AM
wow, asking which format will win on a site called "ps3fanboy.com" I WONDER WHICH ONE PEOPLE ARE GOING TO VOTE FOR????
eCom @ May 3rd 2006 4:55AM
In the upcoming cycle, we expect the playing field between Sony and Microsoft to be more level, and think that Nintendo will have the largest library of exclusives
Hamilton @ May 3rd 2006 7:24AM
Look, the size of HD-DVD doesn't really matter as far as movies are concerned, why? because HD-DVD actuallys uses modern compression techniques like H264.AVC as a standard Sonys Blu-ray format will have most of the movies comming out in same old MPEG-2 which isn't even optimized for HD encoding. But as with most if not all Sony products they try to pull the wool over the eyes of consumers by talking up numbers which have no real world implications.
DIEGO @ May 3rd 2006 8:18AM
i've seen demos of both formats and they're really not that impressive and i couldn't tell the diffrence between the two. personaly i'm happy with my upconverting dvd and i will not buy either (unless the ps3 is or less than $399.99) until they make me buy one. i don't feel like i should pay $30 (Blue-ray or hd-dvd) for a movie that cost $15 (dvd) just to watch it in hd.
Fear @ May 3rd 2006 8:34AM
You think Nintendo's gonna win? Thats funny. They have zelda, which, hopefully, won't suck like the cell-shaded gamecube one. They have afew other games that are fun, but the main thing they're doing is the whole compatible thing, which I don't see as a big thing. I could go out and buy a NES, SNES, N64 and Gamecube and everyother Nintendo system for less than the Wii's gonna be priced, its dumb.
Duscrom @ May 3rd 2006 9:01AM
My vote is for...
DVD 9!
What have we all learned from past experince?
Music.
Cassets won out over 8 track
CD won out over Cassete
MD did Not beat CD
MP3 players beat MD, and co-exsist with CD
Super CD Audio did not win out over CD
DVD Audio did not win out over CD
You need more then quality to move a consumer base. You need to fundimentally shift the paradigm of how things are used. When going from VHS to DVD, it wasn't Just about video and audio quality.. It was about Not needing to rewind tapes, not havint the tapes wear out, smaller boxes for more shelf space, extras, and TV box sets.
Smae with Audio, when going from Tapes to CDs, you changed the way the music experince worked. Going right to your song, les chance of wear. and in some cases, you get longer discs, and bonus tracks. But SACD/DVD Audio, was just the same fundimentally as a CD. Just more expensive.
DVD 9 is going nowhere as far as movies are concerned.
Silverfrog @ May 3rd 2006 9:49AM
Great that you guys mentioned that there are compression technologies out there that enable high definition video to be compressed and stored on an HD-DVD disc. But, Blu-Ray benefits from this too, folks. If you could store 8 hrs of HD video onto an HD-DVD, how much could you get onto a blu-ray disc? Hmmm.
My opinion is that Blu-Ray will win the format war. This being a PS3 fanboy site notwithstanding, the Blu-Ray has more hollywood studios supporting it and will eventually have them all. Meanwhile, HD-DVD struggles to get as many hollywood players as Blu-Ray. If you google it, you can see what I'm talking about.
Plus, I believe this article to be wrong in a sense. Hollywood does have its role in determining the outcome of the HD medium wars, yes, but the next-gen consoles also have a role to play in determining the medium. When hollywood executives (who also produce games) know that a next-gen system supports a standard, they will be more inclined to support that standard themselves. And, which next-gen system currently supports an HD-DVD spec? None. Even though Microsoft announced they would support HD-DVD, I don't believe enough people will buy the add-on because it won't support HD-DVD games, just movies. But, on the flip side, Sony's PS3 has mass appeal, lots of hype, and will support Blu-Ray out of the box, all before the holiday season.
Plus, I agree with the poster above who mentioned that there will soon be a 200 GB spec version of Blu-Ray. I just read that it's spec was recently finalized and ready for testing. It should be available soon. If it becomes available this year or even early 2007, Blu-Ray will be the hands down winner without a doubt.
So, let's recap. I believe Blu-Ray will win for the following reasons:
1. Higher capacity discs
2. More hollywood studios supporting the format
3. Weak support for HD-DVD by next-gen video game consoles
4. Strong support for Blu-Ray by next-gen video game consoles
5. Blu-Ray has upcoming 200 GB spec. Always wanted to have the whole series of "24" in HD...on one disc? Done.
Grenn6 @ May 3rd 2006 12:20PM
Like I said previously blu-Ray will win … you’re the idiot that thinks compress data is better then uncompressed data, no matter what technology there is for compression, uncompress data will be better for movies, for games that’s another story. Like I said the previously again that blu-ray will support all format expect HD-DVD, so people can have a single player in their home, also with a Blu-Ray player you can hook it up to a normal TV to, unlike the HD-DVD player, you can only use it on a HDTV or HD Ready TV. That’s another good thing about the blu-ray players, so go buy your HD-DVD player, and we’ll see who the idiot is later on, YOU !!!! .
PS3 + Blu-Ray = enough said!!!
DIEGO @ May 3rd 2006 1:50PM
"Blu-Ray player you can hook it up to a normal TV to"
do you research, you can hook up a hd-dvd player to an normal tv too but if you want to watch your movies in 1080p you need hdmi for both players.
"blu-ray will support all format expect HD-DVD"
once again do your reseach the first sony standalone player cannot play cd/cd-r/cd-rw's i don't know if this is going to bet ture for all first gen players though and like i said before i will not support either format until i have too.
DIEGO @ May 3rd 2006 1:55PM
sorry i thought when you said normal you ment throught component.
boots (former bd) @ May 3rd 2006 2:08PM
"21. "Blu-Ray player you can hook it up to a normal TV to"
do you research, you can hook up a hd-dvd player to an normal tv too but if you want to watch your movies in 1080p you need hdmi for both players.
"blu-ray will support all format expect HD-DVD"
once again do your reseach the first sony standalone player cannot play cd/cd-r/cd-rw's i don't know if this is going to bet ture for all first gen players though and like i said before i will not support either format until i have too. "
DIEps.., I mean "DIEGO", you won't need HDMI for the first rounds of movies. Oh, and "i don't know if this is going to be ture for all first gen players", most if not all first gen players will support all formats except HD-DVD. "Do your research" lol
SfGanjaMan @ May 3rd 2006 2:32PM
Silver I Do belief that the list you compiled can easily be dismissed as false fact.
2)"the key to acceptance is content, the HD-DVD supporting movie studios represent more than 40 percent of Hollywood’s films. The Blu-ray backing entertainment companies are, Sony, 20th Century Fox (which includes MGM) and Disney-Buena Vista, which amounts to about 35 percent. " Your knowledge seems to heavily favor on your fan boyism which is ok since were on a fan boy site.
3) I dont know what you mean by weak support of Hd Dvd for next gen.. The 360 will have an Hd DVD add on that could be $150-200(guess) If it is true wont it be cheaper than buying a PS3 solely on the purpose of playing games and movies. I understand that you have to have a 360 to use the add on. But atleast you have
the chance to pick your format than rather having it picked for u.
4)Strong support for blue ray by next gen- I can understand that ps3 is gambling everything on its blue ray technology. But lets say if HD-dvd wins the war much like vhs won the war over betamax. Wont that make the ps3 inferior to the 360?Hmm only the future will decide.
5)200Gb would be awesome but lets think how much the technology would cost to produce it. And by the way it is still in development not because it cant be done but because the price of producing these discs out weight what the consumer will pay for it. THE "average" consumer will not be using 200gb."The production of Blu-ray disc will involve more cost, because the companies will have to add equipment for the cover layer portion and it’s not that easy to adapt current lines for BD production. Further, it will take about 4-5 seconds to manufacture one media. This is just slightly slower than for a HD-DVD, but multiply this difference by the millions of discs that will be produced and you can see that this becomes an important issue in the cost per unit."
Honestly Storage space is not the key ingredient for a format to win, the ingredient is who can manufactor the product at the lowest cost while having the greatest array of support. Which is why I believe Hd DvD will win, it will take a lil bit longer due to Vista being delayed, but it will win and Blue ray will see the fate of the Damm Beta MAx
SuicideNinja @ May 3rd 2006 3:17PM
Like Duscrom said, DVD9 is the way to go.
Read comments from those who went to CES and the like. Many of them say that even on a fancy big plasma television, a movie on Bluray or HD-DVD doesn't look that much better than an upscaled DVD. There's no reason to move to a new format for movies.
As for PC backup and storage, that is different. I don't really care which format gets accepted for that.
As for the PS3, we'll see how many publishers support spending more money on a game just because of bluray.
grenn @ May 3rd 2006 3:19PM
Everyone is talking about how developers will never be able to utilize the potential of Blu-ray at launch.
That makes no sense. What needs to be utilized? The point of having more space is not so that they can fill it, it is to erase boundaries and roadblocks set up by old standards.
The movie industry is already having trouble fitting movies on DVDs. Go look at the extended Lord of the Rings movies. Even regular cut movies have to have their resolution lowered for fit on a DVD. It's all about room on the disc.
When it comes to games, it's not about filling; it's about having more room to work with. Games could have the texture resolution lowered to fit the game on the disc, same with sound quality, FMV quality.. etc.
With more room, people have more to work with.
Why get an add-on for the 360 just by the player, Microsoft should of thought about that when they rushed the xbox360, the days of add-on is over, SEGA and Sony learned there lesson with the SEGA CD and Sony’s hard drive add-on.
Nobody knows the price of the Ps3 so how do you know that if you buy an 360 + HD-DVD add-on it will be less then the ps3, make that clam after E3 please. I also said 200+gigs in the future; I didn’t mean it was going to happen over night. They’re probably going to gradually go up from year to year, but there starting at 50 gigs Blu- ray as of now.
For one there are more companies supporting blu-ray then HD-DVD, Warner is supporting Blu-ray, so that makes 5 out of the 6 major studios that are supporting blu-ray. Paramount, Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Walt Disney Company, and Warner, so that makes 80% of the market no 35%, oh and don’t forget about the addition ESPN, Miramax, MGM , Lions Gate Entertainment, and Touchstone; Electronic Arts; and music powerhouses Sony BMG and Universal Music Group. In short, quite a spate of content providers have lined up now behind Blu-ray Disc--far more than HD-DVD has gathered at this juncture. So I hope I made my point across
PS3 + Blu-Ray = Enough Said!!!
SfGanjaMan @ May 3rd 2006 4:23PM
Im sorry Grenn but here is the actual information that needs to be said. "HD-DVD is endorsed and approved by the DVD Forum, the international association of over 230 consumer electronics, entertainment, software, IT and other related companies around the world. DVD Forum even includes member companies of the Blu-ray association and companies that are backing both of the formats. The format is promoted by the HD-DVD Promotion Group, which currently counts 63 member companies. Some of the most important are: Toshiba, Sanyo, NEC, Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures, New Line Cinema and the Warner Bros Studios." I would also like to mention how Microsoft and INtel are supporting HD DVD which are two of the biggest companies in the world. I wanted to show that their is more single support for HD Dvd than Blue ray since most companies will be supporting both formats. Thus the double sided Disk. One side Hd dvd other blue ray. The format war will be won by the"average" consumer, not the techi or ubernerd. By just adding the HD to the DVD, the consumer will become attached to the HD rather than blue ray due to the name similarity. In the END HD DVD will win I mean honestly Blue Ray - the name is almost as bad as Wii. Capacity is not an issue until developers can actually harnest it. that wont be until roughly 2008 and then we will start getting into halographic storage. Blue ray does not stand a chance
Silverfrog @ May 3rd 2006 4:59PM
Actually, SfGanjaMan, you need to understand what you're talking about before you post. You claiming that Blu-Ray only has 35% of Hollywood studio support is just plain wrong. Where do you get your numbers from? Disney-Buena Vista by itself, which is larger than multiple companies supported by HD-DVD put together, is one of the largest distributions in the world for movies, both DVD & VHS. You might wanna do your research before you call people fanboys. I don't appreciate your argumentative banter, and I'm sure other people don't either.
I'm not sure what you are dismissing as false fact, except to generalize me as a fanboy, but you are wrong in the fact that the "average" consumer would prefer HD-DVD. Do you know how much HD-DVD players cost? I'm just talking about movie players, not game machines. At least with PS3, you get a game machine and a movie player for one price, which will probably be near the price of just the HD-DVD player.
I knew you were just being argumentative when you brought up cost of disc production and the speed at which they were produced. How much a disc costs to make and how fast it is made will have little consequence years from now when production methods and speeds have become more efficient. How much did CD Burners cost when they were brand new? Lots. How long did it take to burn a CD when burners were brand new? Long time. With time, it will improve.
Dismissing my comment about disc density was foolish because high capacities benefit both games and movies. If you don't believe it, you are either naive or just in denial. Either way, disc capacity makes a huge difference for the content in which you spoke of.
Betamax vs VHS arguement has nothing to do with Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD, so why bring it up? As was mentioned before, VHS won the format war because of the porn industry. Now, porn is mostly on the internet, so it won't be a factor. What will make the difference in this generation of media? I believe it will be the video game and hollywood studios and executives that will ultimately determine the outcome, since video games are the #1 pasttime in the home right now. To deny that PS3 support for Blu-Ray will not likely have an impact is pointless. It does, and you're just plain wrong.
Nice try though.
SfGanjaMan @ May 3rd 2006 6:07PM
I understand that disk density of Blue ray is used as the main backing point for blue ray supporters. But it is not relevant at this time since their is no movies being made or games that will be using 200gb disks with in the next 3 years. We can spend all day predicting the outcome of who will win the format war. (Which I have been doing) I get my information from these sources (http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_and_Intel_to_Support_HDDVD/1127787846) An extremely good article on the pros and cons of both formats (http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/186/) And a independent website (http://www.digital-digest.com/highdefdvd/faq.html) All my information is quoted from these sources -- So do not say that I am making up these facts. I am not one to make up facts but to make predictions with the knowledge of the history and the present. Ok so I cant use the Betamax theory, then all use the umd. Was UMD used as a selling point for PSP. The answer is yes and look where the PSP is in sales. I THINK that the PS3 might follow in its footsteps if Blue Ray turns out NOT to be a selling point of PS3. I am open minded towards the format war, its just the selling points of HD DVD seem a more reasonable choice rather. Toshiba HD DVD player $499 t0 $799 while the Blue ray player will be starting at $1000.00 by Samsung and going up to $1500.00. The format war is won by the average consumer. Will the average consumer buy a PS3 to just play Blue ray, I BELIEVE NO. But hey, people buy Sony products becasue of the name, I bought my cell Sony Erickson cell phone casue of the SOny on the front cover. I made a terrible mistake.
Silverfrog @ May 3rd 2006 6:38PM
SfGanjaMan, I have to give you credit for being persistent, but really you should give it up. I appreciate you posting links that quote other peoples opinions and facts, but it doesn't help your case at all, since you refuted none of my facts and opinions with any of those examples.
I will add salt to the wound by saying that blu-ray players are not $1000. They will cost $399 in the form of the PS3. You don't think people will buy PS3 to play movies on? Wow, you must not've owned PS2 when it was winning over the hearts and minds of DVD owners. I know several people who bought PS2 for watching movies and it's no different here.
You wanted to bring up UMD for PSP right? Last I checked, the UMD format is not dead. Movie support is waning on UMD because of the current price point. The FORMAT is not dead because games will continue to be made on it regardless of its movie appeal. Maybe, after they lower UMD prices down to around $10, people will start to pick them up more. For now, DVDs are a better bargain and offer more for the buck. But even that bit of a downside for the UMD does not even come close to the huge, underwhelming disappointment that was Betamax.
Any more non-related analogies you wish to talk about?
boots (former bd) @ May 3rd 2006 6:49PM
SfGanja, you don't know what you are talking about. Citing old news, or better yet, useless facts eh? It's retarded to compare UMD with Blu-ray. UMD is only playable on PSP, and there are no recordable UMDs on the market.
On the other hand, Blu-ray will be out on more PCs than HD-DVD (Dell, Alienware, HP, Compaq, Sony and Apple versus just HP, Compaq and Toshiba). People that want to replace their data want more storage, so guess who will win. Don't come back with the "Price will decide", because it's obvious that the Blu-ray camp knows that. Also, people that get PCs with either format will choose the one they consider *best*, not *cheapest*, as both are cutting edge and the first adopters are not as price sensitive as the latest adopters.
There are a lot more manufacturers for Blu-ray than for HD-DVD. An early adopter won't care much for the price, as both are expensive. They will care for which movie studios back each format, and Blu-ray has the most backing on that; only Universal Studios is missing; but seriously, who would buy "Doom" on HD-DVD anyway?
Some say the Porn industry will determine this, and while this is false thanks to the net, Porn is backing Blu-ray anyway; at least one of the biggest porn studios will do it very soon, and porn users are usually the first tech adopters.
"Read comments from those who went to CES and the like. Many of them say that even on a fancy big plasma television, a movie on Bluray or HD-DVD doesn't look that much better than an upscaled DVD. There's no reason to move to a new format for movies. "
For videophiles, and pornophiles there are many reasons. These guys will help bring the prices down (and PS3 will do the same too), and frankly, if I had to choose between Standard Definition video, and High Definition video for the same price (which will eventually happen, just as it did with VHS and DVD), I choose High Def, just like anyone else. Why else would a lot of HDTV products, High Def cable, among a bunch of other high def things are out already on the market? If they weren't selling, it would be stupid to launch next-gen discs, let alone have governments make official statements that HDTV broadcasts will become the official format in but they are. Just ask any consumer electronics salesman which are the hottest selling items they have, and they'll tell you it's HDTVs. HDTV users are demanding content, otherwise why would they be so stupid to buy one in the first place?
Oh, and even if HDMI was an obstacle (which won't be, as it's not required anymore), early adopters bought HDTVs at a point when they were *really expensive*, so not only do they have the money to buy a new set, but they should understand the implications of being early adopters/beta testers. The first Blu-ray players/recorders first came out in 2003 in Japan, and it would be stupid if you'd be complaining if your Blu-ray player can't do everything all other new players do or should do, precisely because you bought it when it was out for testers and enthusiasts (with no content whatsoever), and not otherwise.
lionzub @ May 4th 2006 10:39AM
Quote:
"Music.
Cassets won out over 8 track
CD won out over Cassete
MD did Not beat CD
MP3 players beat MD, and co-exsist with CD
Super CD Audio did not win out over CD
DVD Audio did not win out over CD"
Woah woah woah... nice research you did there tard. SA-CD did not compete with CD it competed with DVD-Audio as the next standard, but because neither of them could be the victor so both flopped.
MD was never meant to compete with CD but originally to compete with MP3 players. It has been extremely successful in Japan and Europe in that department. However more so for the fact that MD is the best way to record sound. A lot of tech saavy journalist us it as their number 1 choice.
Alok @ May 4th 2006 7:48PM
Why blue ray wins:
PS3: No matter what, the ps3 will sell millions in the first year. Nothing close to that can be said for any HD-DVD player. We've all seen what the introduction of DVDs was like, it was really slow to take hold to the mainstream. Reasons for this involved resistance to change formats and the expensive dvd players that came out at first. But there's an important factor, the ps3 will be fully capable of playing blue ray movies, and the release will be much bigger than any blue ray or hd dvd player on the current market. What this means is that it's automatic leverage for the blue ray. Whether people bought the ps3 with consideration to the blue ray or not, the fact is that they will own a blue ray player to purchase movies for. MS decided against using a HD DVD as its main drive, with possible addons later on. This means that there will be only a fraction of xbox360 owners that buy this add-on, and because of this the games won't even be put on it.
Sony: They own 3 major movie studios, and have the backing of many more than Toshiba because of this. If Hollywood is going to be a deciding factor, Sony has a clear advantage.
Neither technology is really better than the other. And just like VHS won over Beta, it all comes down to marketing it properly. Even though the blue ray machine on the market currently is horribly overpriced, the ps3 will more than sell enough to cover the market with blue ray players to push the war in their favor.
CC @ May 7th 2006 1:07PM
H-264? AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!
Just a guess, but won't that require expensive hardware to decompress and view? I mean, my AMD64 nearly shits itself trying to play those movies in full screen.
boots (former bd) @ May 7th 2006 1:32PM
"H-264? AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!
Just a guess, but won't that require expensive hardware to decompress and view? I mean, my AMD64 nearly shits itself trying to play those movies in full screen."
That's weird because I thought UMD discs used that, and I don't think a PSP is more powerful than an AMD64.
CC @ May 7th 2006 1:36PM
"That's weird because I thought UMD discs used that, and I don't think a PSP is more powerful than an AMD64."
True, but 480p is quite a bit smaller than 1080p =/
CC @ May 7th 2006 1:45PM
Yeah
PSP = 480 x 272 = 130,560 pixels
1080p = 1920 x 1080 = 2,073,600 pixels
That's nearly 16x the size =(
SfGanjaman @ May 7th 2006 10:09PM
Blu-Ray delayed till Gasp June. Marketing is the key to sucess in the history of the format wars. Honestly it seems to me that Sony is a bit scared, they are not staying on tract with their deadlines that PROFESSIONALS at SONY have made. I mean I would be too if I was putting all of my money into reviving the electronic industry through the sales of PS3 and Blu Ray. Is it me or does the sucess of Sony as a whole industry seem to be relying much on these two products. If I were a Sony Fanboy, I would be heavily rooting for the success and adaption of these products since it could be the making or breaking of the company.
jon @ May 7th 2006 10:33PM
The Facts and Fiction of 1080p
http://editorials.teamxbox.com/xbox/1544/The-Facts-and-Fiction-of-1080p/p1/
boots @ May 8th 2006 1:38PM
"Blu-Ray delayed till Gasp June."
A three month difference won't be that much considering that HDTV owners are better informed than non-HDTV owners. It won't matter because more movies will be released for Blu-ray anyway, and the sales will be slow for standalone players.
"Marketing is the key to sucess in the history of the format wars."
Uh... what else do you want besides PS3 having a blu-ray player? Anyway, the reason Beta lost wasn't marketing, it was because it was inferior to VHS in certain aspects, and some studios or manufacturers got so alienated by it that they supported VHS. Also, porn, when it was more important than it is now, supported VHS. This particular time, Blu-ray is supported by Porn, Hollywood - Universal, and Hardware manufacturers, let alone Ps3.
"Honestly it seems to me that Sony is a bit scared, they are not staying on tract with their deadlines that PROFESSIONALS at SONY have made."
LOL, writing "PROFESSIONALS" so emphatically makes you sound like a political whiner. Anyway, Microsoft looks a bit more scared since they are already releasing DVD 360 for 360 if you know what I mean.
"I mean I would be too if I was putting all of my money into reviving the electronic industry through the sales of PS3 and Blu Ray."
That's one of the stupidest arguments I've ever read. Just because you would act like a wuss on something you barely know about it doesn't mean Sony will. They are hitting the market, and doing it hard. If they were such wusses like you, they would have dropped the format already.
"Is it me or does the sucess of Sony as a whole industry seem to be relying much on these two products."
It is relying on PS3, which will almost certainly be a success, driven in most part by Japan. The Japanese will buy it, therefore pushing Japanese developers to make games for it. The brand name PlayStation is bigger than Xbox almost everywhere.
"If I were a Sony Fanboy, I would be heavily rooting for the success and adaption of these products since it could be the making or breaking of the company."
Uh, I would only do that if I had invested in Sony. If they go bankrupt, no biggie. I enjoyed the great products they took to the world. But of course, that's the worst case scenario.
Goobers @ May 20th 2006 7:53PM
"8. So OyoyoY123...you can magically play your Blu-ray disc on a DVD player? Uh..huh...youve been listening to Sony for waaaaaaaay too long"
is in response to
"7. well, u can still play ur DVDs on a Blu-ray player~
ye cant play HDDVD on ur DVD player.
so~.......why do u wish the Blu-ray to flop?
which is then in response to:
"6. I hope Blu-ray flops, I already have a huge collection of DVD's, etc."
okay... CAGE... we all know that you can't put a blu-ray disc to play in a DVD player, that wasn't what the person was saying... that person SPECIFICALLY said you couldn't play HD-DVD in a DVD player... could you?
he also said that you could play DVDs in a Blu-Ray player... is he wrong?
and "Fear" what does YOUR collection have to do with Blu-ray flopping, if your collection will play in either player? so what?