Warner goes BluRay only, HD-DVD lost the HD format war

SquareIris · Post by **SquareIris** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 12:46 am

Well, that's not a counter-strike. It's more like "The ship's sinking, get all women and children in the rescue boats!"

The first local media stores have already put all the HD DVDs away.

pdwyer · Post by **pdwyer** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 1:00 am

I don't want blu-ray to win, bloody Sony and the return of region codes!

HD-DVD doesn't have region codes.

<sigh>

SquareIris · Post by **SquareIris** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 11:27 am

60% of the BluRay films are code-free as well

Dare · Post by **Dare** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 11:30 am

Anything Sony should be avoided where possible.

pdwyer · Post by **pdwyer** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 11:35 am

ditto!

Tipperton · Post by **Tipperton** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 1:46 pm

My opinion on whether one format has won over another format.

There will be no winner until one of the formats is completely abandoned or has so little support that it may as well be abandoned.

Just as what happened with the two video tape formats.

What would be interesting is to see what Sony does if the industry decides to go HD-DVD to the point that the only one using Blue-ray is Sony themselves.

pdwyer · Post by **pdwyer** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:34 pm

I remember those days. We didn't have a VCR but our friends did (common story of those days) so we went together to rent movies. Being in my early teens then I'd scratch my head wondering why the video store was split in two and there were "beta" videos in other isles. As time wore on the beta sections got smaller a little like the smoking sections of resturants and the writing was on the wall.

In my opinion, once people start to perceive a difference the momentum will pick up. People did it also with IBM vs Mac (back then it wasn't MS vs Mac I guess) and the mac had less software so people without the background knowledge would see this and it would influence their decisions.

I very much doubt whether this war will be won by slight differences in speed or disk capacity. The background deals will influence products and momentum will go one way or the other slowly at first then with more speed. Once it starts to pick up speed rather than just swing a little then I think the war will be pretty much over but there will be a fairly long lingering effect (3-5 years) while people who went the wrong way start to see there's less titles and blank media is more expenisve and can justify purchasing again.

All we need is a good privacy scare (like the root kit thing) in the blu ray format and we'll be on our way

dracflamloc · Post by **dracflamloc** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 3:34 pm

Its really not in the best interests of the studios for one format to COMPLETELY die. The reason is that they must pay sony/toshiba in order to use their technology. As long as theres a competing format (that doesn't cause poor sales) they can negotiate tougher and make more profit on each movie sold.

Unfortunately they think that consumer confusion/indecision is causing poor sales of HD movies and so they are basically shooting themselves in the foot a little. The real problem is the penetration of hd-tv's and *people who care about HD movies* is much lower than they thought it would be by now.

Tipperton · Post by **Tipperton** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 2:15 pm

I think that eventually it will be the consumers and not the studios that will decide if one format wins over the other.

Most people will not want to buy two different DVD players just so they can watch a movie regardless of the format it is in. So they'll just hold off buying an HD capable DVD player until one format is shown to have much wider support than the other. Once that happens then people will start buying DVD players that use that format and the other format will die off due to lack of interest/sales. It may take time, but it will eventually happen.

And if the studios want to sell movies, they'll have no choice but to follow the consumers.

pdwyer · Post by **pdwyer** » Wed Jan 16, 2008 3:01 pm

The amusing thing is that people seem to be putting of purchasing normal DVD's too as they some movies they want to buy they do want HV but want to the format war to end first.

So DVD sales are dropping too, upping the pressure on them to win

Serves the greedy bastards right!

Tipperton · Post by **Tipperton** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 2:21 am

pdwyer wrote:Serves the greedy bastards right!

Yeah.

off topic wrote:I often wonder how long before the writers will end up "shooting themselves in the foot" with this strike. I would think that eventually the studios will get fed up and tell them to "get lost" and start hiring non-union writers.

Greed = A game that nobody wins.

Dare · Post by **Dare** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 7:22 am

Tipperton wrote:Greed = A game that nobody wins.

But you can get rich playing it ...

And when you play, play to win, otherwise you are insulting the other guy(s).

But I agree. Greed is bad. Good healthy acquisitive instincts and desires are okay though.

BriceManuel · Post by **BriceManuel** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 8:43 am

Dare wrote:Anything Sony should be avoided where possible.

I agree. After the mess with their last format, MINIDISC, that was supposed to replace CDs, I will never buy any proprietary Sony formats again.

If everything moves to Blu-ray, I guess I just won't be buying new movies anymore, or will have to start downloading them illegally.

Sony's product quality is pretty bad, too. Certainly not what it used to be.

Since Toshiba invented the DVD format, that would be my choice for the new and improved format.

pdwyer · Post by **pdwyer** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 10:38 am

minidiscs really took off here though. You can still buy them anywhere (convenience stores) and very cheap. A friend of mine from the UK was here and saw the prices and bought a big stack.

But I agree and I'd be happy to join a sony hate club

pdwyer · Post by **pdwyer** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:21 pm

Interesting news story, puts BluRay way ahead.

Read on and it covers a lot more than just Australia.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/story ... 39,00.html

Interesting points from Disney

Despite intense competition for DVD format loyalty, Disney worldwide brand marketing executive Gordon Ho says the studio's decision to support Blu-ray was simple.

"For our movies to look really good in high-definition we knew we needed more than a 30GB disc, which is what HD-DVD offers," he says. "Guess what? Today pretty much every one of Disney's movies is released on a 50GB disc. Paramount recently had issues trying to get all of their content on a 30GB HD-DVD disc, and so their packaging listed some features that weren't on the disc. Ultimately we needed that space for the best pictures, the best sound and the interactive features you want to add to a high-definition DVD."

Mr Ho admits other considerations also played a part in Disney's decision, including the added durability of Blu-ray DVDs, its large support base and the lack of Blu-ray DVD piracy (new equipment is needed to produce the discs).

But Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment president Bob Chapek says it is Blu-ray's extra storage and speed that will ultimately transform home movies.

"Blu-ray enables us to break the line between the movie and the movie extra," he says. "Because of the capacity of the disc, plus its processing speed, the world of movies and bonus features becomes one. It becomes one seamless experience where you can make choices on the fly because they're now all on one disc."