PS3 to put bigger focus on Blu-ray

by Nick Doerr { Nov 13th 2006 at 12:30PM }

We've all debated the HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray topic to death, so we'll try our best to keep this post, this blog as it were, this entry, journal, whatever you want to call it, away from any sort of comparisons or snide comments. No promises, but we'll try. We'll just present the material as presented by one of the top execs at News Corp, Peter Chernin. He believes that the PS3 will provide the market with a nice push towards the Blu-ray format, but at the same time, admits that "I don't think there's likely to be a quick resolution, I think the resolution, if it comes, is likely to be driven by the marketplace." Which makes incredibly intuitive, logical sense. If the PS3 sells, Blu-ray will probably sell. And the PS3 will sell. They just need the damn supply.

But you've also got to keep in mind, News Corp. is 20th Century Fox -- a company that has only been releasing on the Blu-ray format anyway. There aren't many players for either the HD-DVD or Blu-ray format and "most of the HD-DVD players are at the US$1,000 range and you're going to see a huge number of Blu-ray players entering the marketplace through PlayStation 3." So what we've got to look out for, at long last, is the market's move towards or away from Blu-ray. If market demands the PS3, it will give incentive for companies to demand Blu-ray support. I think that was fairly unbiased... just presenting the info. Leave your thoughts, predictions, etc. Cookies for the best argument!

Tags: 20th century fox, 20thCenturyFox, News Corp., NewsCorp., Playstation 3, Playstation3, PS3, Sony

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

what? @ Nov 13th 2006 1:18PM

"most of the HD-DVD players are at the US$1,000 range"

I'm not sure if that was a slip up, ignorance, wishful thinking, or blatant marketing lies. Most HD-DVD players are in the $500 range while most Blu Ray players are in the $1000 range (talking stand alone players here, not consoles).

neonDog @ Nov 13th 2006 1:28PM

common sense, he should tell us something we don't know

TheGuyNextDoor @ Nov 13th 2006 2:16PM

@1

Perhaps even more accurately than that, is there is no "most" of either. Toshiba are the only manufacturer of HD-DVD that actually have a player out there, the basic model at $500 and the specced up version costing a fair bit more.

Samsung have their c. $1000 player out, with plenty more manufacaturers poised to launch, but the $500 PS3 - rumoured to offer better picture quality than the Samsung player, looks very appealing, and should make a significant inroad to the BluRay cause.

Kspraydad @ Nov 13th 2006 2:33PM

"I don't think there's likely to be a quick resolution, I think the resolution, if it comes, is likely to be driven by the marketplace."

And the market place will dictate downloadable content instead of having to choose a disc format. Still...the PS3 will be better positioned than the X360 given the ease of upgrade to larger drives and what seems to be an easy to launch 'alternate OS'

stumpie @ Nov 13th 2006 2:38PM

Duh...of course they would. That much is obvious by Blu-Ray drive included with each PS3.

I just bought a HD-DVD add on for my 360 and signed up for Netflix as I'm not going to be purchasing Disc this round.

Adam @ Nov 13th 2006 4:22PM

The HD DVD add-on for 360 is $200, and so with the core system, it would be $500.

doglet @ Nov 13th 2006 4:43PM

blue ray is perfect for 2 years from now when DVDs will have run their life cycle but its a bit of a technological stretch right now.

i had a chance to play a PS3 at a kiosk. the sixaxis controller is nice. the joysticks are much more sensative than dualshock2. its still no replacement for a mouse but it gets the job done for most games. the little clear logo in the middle is a button. im not sure if everyone knew that already. it does weigh noticable less than a dualshock2.

the only game that actually had a demo was some basketball game. good graphics, i didnt have nearly enough time to be able to tell you weither it was a good game or not. the graphics for all the previews were good but i wasnt blow away, for $600 i expect to be blown away.

by far the most impressive aspect is the full 1080p. if you dont have a badass tv, i think a PS3 is kinda a waste of money.

looking forward to the price drop so i can justify going out and getting one.

kdM @ Nov 13th 2006 7:12PM

What a douche. 1000 Dollar range? Try 5 bills jackass. And if youre like me and you already have an HD display, and an Xbox 360, and the urge to feel adequate by having one of these formats in your home, I'd go with the 200 dollar 360 add on. Im a hardcore gamer, but I'm not sure if there are going to be enough ps3 exclusives for me to buy one in the near future. On top of that, I'm sure since movies are being released multi-format (like MI:3) that soon enough there will be a player that is BD/HD dvd/DVD capable. If not, one must fail. With sony's track record of "higher quality formats" I would say BD may go down. Good yes, economic enough to boom in 3-5 years? Nope. Same as BETAmax..or UMD. My psp has been collecting dust since the day DS Lite came out. Wait, no...I use it to put documents from IGN onto, like FAQs?walkthroughs while I play my 360. I think Sony should rethink a lot of their next-gen ideers.

Carl @ Nov 13th 2006 7:13PM

they wont lose this one, im sure a few ppl at sony still remember betamax and arent willing to lose again. plus, theyre is absolutely no chance the ps3 will fail

Chronos_777 @ Nov 14th 2006 5:03AM

Personally, my main problem with this is pricing. With UMD, Sony wanted us to pay more for a format that couldn't hold very many extras and could only be played on the PSP. Blu-ray can hold more, but once again, it costs more,(up to twice as much) than regular DVDs. I don't want to pay $30 for a movie, especially if these companies want me to spend thousands on an HDTV. Also, if you don't have an HDTV, you can't even take advantage of the only benefit that BD has over DVD. I can hardly afford a PS3 let alone an HDTV. IMO DVD will last a lot longer than 2 more years, especially when you consider that your average movie watcher(not you avid movie watcher) isn't going to have or care about the highest definition that a movie can be in. My sister is already upset that companies are trying to make this push, she is happy to watch movies on VHS or DVD, and unless someone gives her a gift of a High-def player, she will never get one. Also, people talk about digital distribution of films, this will take years, probably decades before it ever fully replaces physical distribution for much the same reasons. Look at iTunes. Do you think that people are going to stop buying CDs completely? Not gonna happen. At least not for a generation or two. When today's kids are having kids, maybe it will be common place enough, but not for us. I don't mind the ideas, but these canges won't happen overnight, so don't expect an end to DVD this decade.

I do wonder though, will this be like SACD and DVD-Audio? Both are superior to CD, yet neither have really taken off. Will the visual make that much of a difference with Blu-ray and HD-DVD? Ironically, the PS3 should be able to play both these formats since DVD-Audio will play in a regular DVD player and the PS3 does specifically have SACD support. Interesting.

what? @ Nov 14th 2006 12:18PM

@3

"Samsung have their c. $1000 player out, with plenty more manufacaturers poised to launch, but the $500 PS3 - rumoured to offer better picture quality than the Samsung player, looks very appealing, and should make a significant inroad to the BluRay cause."

Certainly, the point is that that inroad is simply allowing them to play catch-up to HD-DVD. The 360 and PS3 will definitely help their respective formats, but the format war is not going to be decided based on game consoles.

But that's another animal, I'm just saying that price quote is way off. It's ignorance on the part of the source and sloppy reporting on the part of the poster, since anyone who at least casually pays attention to the HD-DVD vs BluRay format war has known about the price disparity for a long time.