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HD format war not over as Paramount dumps Blu-ray
By Stevie Smith Aug 21, 2007, 13:25 GMT
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Older Talkback
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Let me just drop Paramount then....don't buy from them anymore.
If Sony really wants to win this battle of formats, they should get rid of the AACS license fee per title. The cost is upwards of $3000 to $4000 for a serial number. If they did away with this cost a lot of business would come back to Blu-Ray. One thing they might want to remember is the fact that small to medium size businesses will be using this technology and right now the most affordable format is HD DVD hands down.
So listen up Sony before you lose this battle and Blu-Ray goes the way of the MD. BTW not a lot of albums were produced on Mini-Disc.
People are tired of Sony. Their monopolistic business practices will never win, people are smart enough to see that.
Both formats are very short-term anyhow - because holographic media (300GB on a non-spinning disk) are just around the corner!!
HD is NOT caparable in every way to Blu-Ray. Blu-Ray has more storage and better Audio options, for instance.
Go HD-dvd! Sony and blue-ray suck. Sony hasn't backed a winner in years. Stick to making 'Walkmen', Sony. I've got some old mix tapes I still like to listen to.
Once again, the comsumer is stabbed in the back.
The reasoning behind this decision is unfettered by the history of content formats in general.
The claim that Blue-Ray is too expensive to support masks the fact that content and hardware always come down in price.
Blue-Ray discs WILL drop in price. Blue-Ray players WILL drop in price. But this decision simply retards the inevitable selection of the technically superior format, confuses the public, and delays EITHER format from becoming the standard.
I do not believe that we have been given the real reason for this decision.
So I guess the biggest blockbuster this summer is only on HD-DVD.
Spider man 3, and Fantastic 4 don't even come close.
I predict that this war will go on for too long, which will result in both Blu-Ray AND HD-DVD being replaced by Downloadable media.
With digital storage space becoming less and less expensive, and broadband speeds faster and faster, it will only take about 2 more years for downloadable content be more convenient, and less expensive then buying your favorite movie in Blu-Ray or HD-DVD.
Just look at what is happening to the music industry, and they don’t even have a format war going on. Its just CDs VS, Online distribution. (Piracy is not factored in since both the movie and music industry are already trying to battle rampant piracy)
Most importantly with down loadable content you wont have to worry about having to buy your movies again if and when the format you bought goes obsolete.
Paramount should reconsider its decision. For those of us who did extensive research and selected BluRay,Paramounts decision will hurt them in the long run. They must either chose to support BluRay or lose our business. Granted, you can buy a less expensive HD player, but you get what you pay for. Sony has been slow, but did respond to the market needs by developing and now selling a less expensive player.
The industry must find a way to unite and stop punishing the consumer for buying technology that is too quickly obsolete due to industry battles.
Shame!
The delay in a decisive winner will spell the end of both formats, as the next format comes along.
Streaming HD content is the new media.
I think it's disgraceful there's a format war at all. The true winner shouldn't be decided by monoply.
Sony is a corporate beast that over the last few years has been caught with its pants down so many times, who would still buy Sony?
They have long since lost their dominance in both the home television and portable music player markets... They have laptop batteries burning up across the globe... DRM software with rootkit issues... hell, they couldn't even get the launch of PS3 right, since it is lagging far behind the Wii (not to mention the 360) after being the dominant gaming system for 2 generations prior... (this after they made much noise on how the Wii was a joke and a write off of a system)
Consumers are getting smarter, and realizing that they can decide what they want out of their purchases now, instead of listening to companys like Sony who tell them what it is they want!
Good job Paramount!
And to David Ray - 'They must either chose to support BluRay or lose our business.' - For each of you saying that, there is one of us on the other side saying the exact opposite, if these other studios don't start to support HD, they will be riding the train to nowhere with Sony execs...
Gapotter - 'Both formats are very short-term anyhow - because holographic media (300GB on a non-spinning disk) are just around the corner!!' - this new tech is basically at a point where they could start preping to roll it out for public consumption, and it will blow the rest of these formats out of the water...
The smart man is the one who avoids either format and waits for the successor to come along in a couple of years - enjoy your 1st gen DVD's you have only had for 5 or 6 years, they still work just fine, for now...
Halo the movie comming out next year, by Fox
Bluray only!
Hahahahahah Sorry Microsoft..
Lol
I agree with dorkARMY!
I cancelled my Blockbuster Total Access subscription, because of their decision to go with Blu-Ray. Blockbuster said they didn't make their final decision, but they wanted to try out Blu-Ray first. I told them, me too, I haven't made my final decision, I just don't want to give them my money, while they try to tell me which format to use.
Paramount didn't lose my business, they just gained it! Blu-Ray interactive capabilities blow, its more expensive,....and the all important point....the adult video market has backed HD-DVD, they were the tipping point for the VHS/BetaMax wars. My money is with them. I don't think that industry makes the wrong decision when it comes to production. The quality difference is negligible, so then the decision comes down to ease of use and costs. umm,....HD-DVD
This war isn't over, but my early pick is bye-bye Blu-Ray!
OK, I'll just have to buy a pirated copy of their movies that someone converts to BluRay. Nice jobs execs you have created a fricken black market for your movies!
Seems like this war boils down to:
What do you want, more user features or more storage capacity for content.
With 10 extra gig's on a single layer Blueray do I really need a network feature that will let me download (more then likely after purchasing) additional content?
Do I really need all of the cool Menu features HD-DVD touts.. like viewing scene creation picture in picture with the movie? Usually when I want to watch a movie I watch the movie, if it was really good I may go look at additional content and extra features, but if I have the time I would much rather watch another movie so this once again does not seem like something I would get much use out of and definately not worth giving up 10 gigs for.
The only feature of HD DVD that is superior in my opinion is the DVD layer making it playable on a standard DVD player. I can't say however that I am a fan of double sided disks (too much opportunity for scratches). I would rather see blueray pack a standard dvd into each box alongside the blueray version..(yeah I know it will never happen).
A big chunk of the movie industry is for kids/family movies. Disney should do the same as Paramount...The low price point is attractive to families and that's who they market to.. I'm sure that was part of Paramounts decision, particularly concerning Dreamworks.
My comments refer to the UK....
Personally, I'll always prefer the one that gets me most of the benefits (read: features), at the lower cost, particularly when there's such a difference in price. I believe that's what the majority of consumers are going to want too. Most consumers do not understand 720p/1080i/1080p, so they won't care about the formats as long as they play in HD on their new telly, which both formats will. For them, they'll mostly understand 'higher resolution picture' and 'multi-channel sound' (or 5.1 etc). There isn't much else that they will be bothered about. HD-DVD seems to tout it's extra features, but that's mostly irrelevant, as are the other spec. differences between the 2 formats, for the average family/consumer.
The PS3 is far too dear for most families to buy for their kids so I think that Sony will loose potential BD sales because of that.
Torrents - those in the know are sourcing their films in other ways, granted - not in HD - but they are doing this and it's affecting all video formats. Most normal families (excluding tech savvy parents) wouldn't have a clue about torrents and are likely to actually BUY discs.....ergo, families are probably still buying 'movies' on discs at a similar rate as they always have, but others may not be.
I'm still using my VHS HiFi. Go VHS!!!!!
The consumer response is simple: Don't buy a player for either product until there is one format that wins. Save your money. Let the industry suffer until then.
Here's something all you clowns might not be aware of.
The most recent big seller in the home DVD market was the movie 300. At 3 different Best Buy stores in my area the Blu-Ray version was sold out after only 3 days of release. There were ample stocks of the HD-DVD version sitting around that nobody appeared to want.
The movie has been out now for about 1 month and the third party sales numbers have the Blu-Ray version outselling the HD-DVD version by at least 2 - 1.
When you actually compare apples to apples, Blu-Ray is clearly winning and any studio that chooses to support only the losing format is either wanting to keep to 'war' going for some financial reason that we may never truly know or just can't accept defeat.
HD-DVD format makes from a consumer sales point is going to win out.
HD is the new coined phrase for 'up and coming video technology'....
HD TV's
HD camcorders
HD computer monitors
even TV stations are coining terms like ESPNHD DiscoveryHD etc....
High Def is a industry word that stands for 'future' in the public mind of America. The people creating the technically infereior HD-DVD format obviously took this fact into consideration on their name. Combining HD and another obviously known term DVD into it's format means consumers already know what it means..... High Definition Video on a Disk that is similar to DVD.
Just like with Laser Disk, Betamax and MiniDisk the audio/video philes pick up the devices early giving them a 'virual' lead. Unfortunately cost is the driving factor for the market and too many past examples are shown to ignore. Funny that Sony always seems to be on the losing side.
The real question here is why these companies would pick a side so early? Disney for example should realize that their movies are targeted at kids and families. Since when are *they* the target market for quick adoption of expensive technology?
For me it comes down to the history of Sony... They have shown consistent disrespect for the consumer. What sort of company knowingly releases copy protected CDs that infect any computer they are played on with virus-like files? I used to be a big Sony fan, but am now replacing my Sony products with non-Sony alternatives as soon as possible.
If Blu-Ray wins... just wait to see how consumer friendly Blu-Ray 2 will be. However, the more likely outcome will be that neither format wins. The next new thing will render both obsolete before a decision is final.
Whos cares anyway, apart from fitting more detail on console games I cant see the point of the formats for films anyway, I mean you watch a film thats a hour and a half long then thats that, unless your really geeky and get excited at how many pixels per square inch or how it sounded on your 5.1, its just marketing to get people to spend cash that could be spent elsewhere, DVD is fine, well its better than a Cinema film with all the grainy pictures from reels and yet we spend a small fortune that way but nothings really said, so keep DVD but complain about Cinema release quality and let the fat cats argue about the formats whilst us peasants carry on watching DVD films or torrents of DVDs.
Soooo...which tv should I buy?
Blu-Ray makes no sense. It's just another format trying to get a piece of the market. In fact, neither HDDVD or Blu-Ray make much sense. Unless you are using these disc's to project a picture the size of a football field, they have little advantage over a DVD played in a HDDVD capable player. Even the fact that DVD's are compatible with HDDVD players should totally negate the the need for any new format from Sony.
'This too shall pass'
First, anyone that says that you can't see the difference between between high definition format and standard DVD is either blind or has not seen 1080P on a good TV screen.
The difference between the picture quality for a BluRay disk at 1080P on a good screen and a standard DVD on the same screen is almost as great as the difference between VHS and DVD.
Also, uncompressed audio on a decent sound system adds an additional dimension to the movie experience.
The reason why Disney would chose BD is pretty clear, there are a lot of Playstation 3 consoles out there, they all support the BD format. The picture quality of the Playstation 3 is superior to the dedicated BluRay and hdDVD players and are more likely to be updated.
The reason Paramont announced they were going to stop support for BD has more to do with the $150,000,000 that Toshiba is giving them than any alturistic concern for the cost of the players.
Screw Sony! Quality of their products is awful, prices are high. They have to think hard to make further steps. And first of all - QUALITY!!! If they can not make their toys in Japan or other normal country, they HAVE to control their Chineese screwed-hand workers!
I love watching HD downloadable movies from XBox Live. The movie selection is currently pretty meager (and geared towards teenage boys mostly). The player software is a little feature limited too (comparable to a $49 DVD player).
BluRay and HD-DVD should just go away as our downloadable selection increases.
I read Paramount's CTO's explanation from dumping Blu-Ray. The man's a techno-geek and the reasons given are idiotic and have little to do with the consumer's needs and more to do with his and Paramount's ego. As usual it is the consumer that is the loser. With Blu-Ray outselling HD-DVD 2 to 1. How can this be a sound business decision? HD-DVD is going to endup being Paramount's 'BetaMax'. (The irony is NOT lost.)
Early adopters always role the dice on technology. We are willing to pay a higher price for the benefit of a superior user experience prior to volume pricing kicking in. I did my homework, saw 1080p video on prototype monitors prior to mass production, and came to the undeniable conclusion that Blu-Ray was the only way to go. I do not regret my decision in the least, even though it took nearly a year after my Blu-Ray purchase for a big screen 1080p monitor to be produced that did the player justice.
And yes, the picture on a 63' Samsung 1080p Plasma from a Sony Blu-Ray player just reaches out and grabs you, especially with a seven channel DTS or Dolby Digital soundtrack -- it's film quality. There is no way you would mistake this resolution for a standard DVD, LaserDisc, or heaven forbid, VHS tape.
When it comes to marketing, Sony has a tin ear, as do many Japanese manufacturers. But this is not like VHS, BetaMax. Betamax capacity was only one hour, while most movies are 2 plus hours -- that was the fatal flaw. I see the HD-DVD limitation vis a vis Blu-ray in the same vein.
Sony's biggest error to date has been its reluctance until just recently to work with the porn film industry, while HD-DVD jumped right in, so to speak. Blue movies helped jump spark the DVD revolution -- Sony was missing a bonanza marketing opprotunity -- Real Blu-Ray (LOL);-). Time will tell.
As for obsolescence, I don't really care. That's life and progress. Does the computer you bought 6 or 7 years ago capable of running Microsoft Vista? Do you use the same razor you used a decade ago when you shave?
I know that the HDTV I am watching will be obolete in a year, and its price will drop by close to 50%. So what? Football season and the World Series are coming and I can't wait. Not to mention some great new Blu-ray film releases. And you can bet that someone is working on an ATSC standard modification that will make 1080p broadcasts possible via OTA (Over the Air) transmission. Once again, so what? Things change -- I still have some of my favorite LaserDiscs that will be upgraded when the time comes. Likewise there are still some 33 rpm audiphile LP's in my library that still sound great. Hey - you have to have hardware to connect to all those inputs on your AV receiver.
But Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD is just stupid. The old DVD manufacturing facilities are amortized and obsolete. So what if HD-DVD is interchangeable with DVD. The content suppliers (i.e the studios) will find a way to fill up the Blu-Ray disc as will the computer and software manufacturers who will realize manufacturing cost reductions by being able to squeeze more content on fewer Blu-Ray discs.
Seriously, from a business standpoint, Blu-Ray should win this battle.
I love my hd-dvd player and i love the movies i get to watch. I am happy with this player atleast two years by then online hd movies will be perfected. I mean they almost are, the other day i rented 300 off of my xbox 360 and it was great, but not as great as it is on an hd-dvd disk
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