RIP HD-DVD

[Tenebrae]

It's just a shame it didn't happen sooner.

 

It would be easy to hail this as a Sony victory but really, the fact there was a "format war" at all was rather pointless. The fact that Sony whacked a Bluray player in the PS3 - even though globally that has come something of a distant second to the Wii and 360 - was always going to be a big edge... but in the market place - just as on the battlefield - there aren't any winners.

[msg4real]

hay just think tv stations might still use hd dvd's as they STILL use batamax

[Chiggy]

I dont see what the fuss is about this. HD players can still play regular DVD's so its not as if the players are scrap. The media is certainly portraying these players in that fashion.

 

If Sony think I`m going to throw away my DVD collection and replace it all with Blue Ray they go to hell.

 

I cannot afford a fancy TV, I`m still using the regular cathod Ray tube because I`m on the PC most of the time, I dont need a new TV. It would be pretty useless in me buying a Blue Ray player because I`m not going to able to take advantage of superior image quality on a CRT.

[Amnot Borg]

Chiggy, poor guys like us are not the market they are going for.... Sony wants daddy warbucks and the teenage kid with eyes bigger than his bankbook balance to stock up on bluray. ie. people that can swap formats because its the new thing or don't have the collection yet anyway so can start now.

[Tenebrae]

Oh, yes... this isn't like the switch from cassette tape to CD (CD being notable for the industry co-operation) or VHS to DVD (hahaha, laserdisc! Well, there needed to be something other than betamax to make minidisc look less of a failure)... I think format changes are a different animal when you aren't saying "yeah, sorry your collection of 100+ DVDs is now worth the same as a pint of sea water." Because, beyond quality... bluray doesn't offer the vast improvements over DVD that DVD did to videos.

 

So, I don't think Sony is expecting people to toss their existing collections in the bin... or even rush right out and buy a bluray. They're probably banking on bumper sales this Christmas though. With HD-DVD probably nowhere to be seen by November/December... consumers will finally have the confidence to actually go out there and spend some money on them. All in all, it's good news.

 

Although, I'm sure I can't be the only person who raises an eyebrow at the idea of an entire show on a single disk. Unless prices are going to drop considerably... well, it's usually £16 for maybe 4 episodes... so, easily running into hundreds of pounds. Not exactly enticing.

 

And yes, if you're poor - no one cares what you think.

[slug]

Its interesting how the whole balanced was tipped in a few weeks, although today's news may just be the nail in the coffin, with the fate sealed by the whole Warner Bros/ then canceled HDDVD conference a few weeks back.

 

In the weeks following Christmas it looked to me like there was not going to be a winner, that most people would settle for hybrid players, with the new range of combo HD-DVD-ROM/BD-R drives for under £200, it seemed like a reflection on the DVD+/-R issue.

 

I think that piracy will be more rife with Bluray.

 

Aside from the whole HDCP thing which has pretty much failed already the issue comes down to blank media. HD-DVD needs a dual layer disc for a 25gb film that will fit on a single layer bluray, as anyone who's attempted to use dual layer writeable DVD's knows, they are expensive, slow and prone to failure and are seldom used by pirating gangs unless maybe they have industrial equipment.

 

The solution is always to rencode the media to a single layer disc. Trying to reencode several hours worth of 1080p media that's already using versatile VC-1 anyway would be unpleasant to say the least, assuming that dual layer next gen media is just as naff as it has been for DVD

 

So the issue now is whether studios will take advantage of Bluray and release massive 50gb dual layer titles, if not, piracy will be more like simply ripping a cd, a very, very big CD.

 

In fact, choosing a multi layered format is always better for the studios because it is much cheaper to create mass produced pressed dual layer copies than it is to burn them on optical drives, this may have been a missed opportunity to combat piracy on a basic economic level rather than relying on crackable copy protection.

 

Anyway, the piracy issue will take a while to take hold because even single bluray blanks cost about a tenner each for the time being.

[kyran]

which may be the death of blue ray if they keep the price up

after all who wants to pay £20 for a film?

 

[msg4real]

You should Know that the movies will go down in price it's the same with dvd they were $40 + the first years

 

which may be the death of blue ray if they keep the price up

after all who wants to pay £20 for a film?

 

 

people whould just think there are stupid people arn't there

[Tenebrae]

My guess, slug, is that Hollywood probably weren't analysing those kind of aspects of the formats. They were presumably getting heavily lobbied by both companies... and it seems fair to say that Bluray probably had more money backing it... but then, who can know what deals were done behind closed doors but I doubt this was analysed in terms of pure economics or pure technical abilities.

[bbbb]

I won't be buying blu-ray anytime soon. I have so many DVDs that it would be impractical to make the switch. I am quite happy with my DVDs anyway so I have no reason (and no money) to make the switch.