Blue Ray wins the Hi-Def DVD war

[bookworm_020]

Looks like HD DVD is dead and buried. Now will come the interesting part. What will hppen to all who bought the HD DVD and What will happen to the price of Blue Ray DVD players?:hmm:

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/...-15306,00.html

http://www.smh.com.au/news/articles/...190700636.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD_DVD

[TarJak]

Same as what happened to people who bought Betamax VCR's. They got their VHS machines at cheaper prices than the early adopters, but blew more on their original purchase.

I'm waiting until Toshiba actually makes the final announcement of the death of HD before looking to buy a Blu-Ray machine.

[antikristuseke]

For some reason neither linked opened for me so i have to ask, did porn finaly choose its format of choise ending the war?

[d@rk51d3]

Originally Posted by antikristuseke

For some reason neither linked opened for me so i have to ask, did porn finaly choose its format of choise ending the war?

Blu-Ray lends itself to that "style", if only in name.

[d@rk51d3]

Last report I read fron Toshiba is that they will be providing limited support only.

Since all major film producers have dropped it, there's little point continuing I'd say.

Now if the Xbox-360 had come out with HD-DVD as standard, just as Sony did with Blu-Ray and the PS3, maybe things would have been different, as the market would be now swamped with HD players, then again, maybe it would have just dragged things out a bit longer.......... who knows.

[Konovalov]

Originally Posted by TarJak

I'm waiting until Toshiba actually makes the final announcement of the death of HD before looking to buy a Blu-Ray machine.

Yep.

I'm glad that this is finally looking like getting sorted. I would hate for this war of formats to drag on for another couple of years.

[JSLTIGER]

Personally, I'm very happy Blu-Ray won the war. It's a significantly more advanced technology than HD-DVD, and it's nice to see the "better" format win for a change (as compared to VHS over Betamax).

[Konovalov]

Originally Posted by JSLTIGER

, and it's nice to see the "better" format win for a change (as compared to VHS over Betamax).

:rotfl: :rotfl: That just cracked me up because I remember as a kid, our Dad giving us the Beta video, better format argument. While it was true it did nothing to soften our family embarrassment and shame as all my school friends had VHS and had a wealth of title to choose from at the video stoor while we were stuck in the pitifully small Beta section of the video store with such a narrow choice of 'old' releases. We were like video lepers.

I have sworn never to put my children through what my father did in the Beta vs VHS debacle.

Long live Blu-Ray.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by TarJak

Same as what happened to people who bought Betamax VCR's. They got their VHS machines at cheaper prices than the early adopters, but blew more on their original purchase.

I'm waiting until Toshiba actually makes the final announcement of the death of HD before looking to buy a Blu-Ray machine.

Same here and believe me, I've a boat load of DVD's

@antikristuseke...LMAO

[TarJak]

An interesting article that talks about Toshiba's possible next moves.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...e-mulling.html

It will be interesting to see what route they take. If they have warehouses full of kit I'm guessing they will try to milk it for all its worth. Another interesting point raised was the nameless analysts predictions that it is a very slow moving market with comparatively small sales numbers.

What would be interesting to see is whether the latest news will drive increased sales of HD TV sets and Blu-ray players. Remember it is pointless having either HD-DVD or Blu-Ray if your set can't display the output in the way it was intended. Most plasma and LCD sets sold to date do not support full 1080p HD TV anyway so anyone who has anything less is not getting the full picture.

[SUBMAN1]

Read this thread for you Early Blu-Ray adopters.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=131241

Right now, it would be stupid to even buy a Blu-Ray players with ver 2.0 right around the corner.

-S

PS. Oh - for the future, expect $100 movies, and about $15 rentals for Blu-Ray movies. Sony subsidies that are given to manufacturers to get the price down to HD DVD levels is about to expire. Welcome to our messed up world where the stupid consumer can be swayed to purchase a crappier technology when something better and cheaper already exists.

[bookworm_020]

It always pays to wait awhile to get the latest technology, Unless you plan to be a beta tester!

I doubt that they will jack up the price of the Blue Ray DVD's and players, they are still trying to attract people to the format. If they can capture half the people as they upgrade to TV's that can view HD (even if it isn't 1080p) then they willget the mass of people to start making the players come down in price due to the amount of sales they would receive.

[d@rk51d3]

Originally Posted by SUBMAN1

Right now, it would be stupid to even buy a Blu-Ray players with ver 2.0 right around the corner.

Unless you own a PS3.

That way you have a "cheap" blu-ray player, that is possible to update via firmware releases.



-EDIT- Just actually read the link, which tells you that anyway. - sorry SUMBAN1

[Herr_Pete]

wont be long till Microsoft have blu ray in there xbox 360's.

[danlisa]

Originally Posted by Herr_Pete

wont be long till Microsoft have blu ray in there xbox 360's.

They've already started development on a external/standalone BR drive for the 360. Gonna sting 360 users though as it will cost a fair amount. With the addition of the external drive, a fully tricked out 360 will cost the same as a PS3.

MS will also have to pay Sony for the priviledge. How do them sour grapes taste Gates.:rotfl:

Also, following Toshiba's withdrawl from manufacturing HD DVD, they still maintain that BR will loose the war:

Blu-ray could still lose HD video war: Toshiba
By Matthew Henry

SYDNEY: Toshiba claims that Sony’s victory in the high definition disc format war will be short lived due to the rise of HD digital video downloads over broadband, which the company claims was one of the key reason for abandoning HD DVD.

In a press conference this morning, Toshiba Australia general manager, Mark Whittard, said that while the US film and retail industries’ recent shift to support Blu-ray sealed HD DVD’s fate, other factors played a role in Toshiba’s abandonment of its high definition video disc business.

Whittard claims the penetration of both next generation disc formats is well below expectations while uptake of digital movie download services is accelerating, and could render HD discs redundant.

“We believe technology developments will soon leapfrog high definition discs, whether it be HD DVD or Blu-ray,” he claimed.

“This step is going to be leapfrogged by the next major format – digital content, internet downloads and video on demand.”

Whittard also identified DVD as a formidable competitor to Blu-ray.

According to figures quoted by Toshiba, total sales of HD movie discs reached a paltry $300 million last year compared to sales of over $23 billion for DVD discs.

Whittard claims Blu-ray will find it difficult to replace DVD in the same way DVD comprehensively replaced VHS.

Toshiba sold less than one million HD DVD players worldwide, and while Blu-ray has achieved higher penetration with the PS3, Whittard claims DVD will be “extremely difficult” for Blu-ray to overcome.

“DVD players still sell in their tens of millions worldwide today,” he said.

“DVD upscaling technology means you get near high definition quality, and to most people there is little discernable difference.”

However, while Toshiba is now moving towards a business model which will see it place more emphasis on other HD video delivery platforms, it has not ruled out joining the Blu-ray camp.

“You never say never, but at this stage there are no plans,” he said.

Toshiba's HD DVD players also have the potential for internet connectivity which gives them the potential to accept HD video streaming over ethernet connectivity, which could be utilised by the company in the future.

http://www.current.com.au/2008/02/20...XGEAZOXNF.html

So, a full .mkv HD movie download (@ 720p or 1080p) will hit your bandwidth for about 6-8gb . Hope you all have fast & unlimited bandwidth ISPs.

I don't think we're quite there Tosh but keep dreaming if you want.

EDIT - For those worried about their extensive DVD collection, (I assume HD DVD players do this to) BR players (aka my PS3) can & do upscale SD format DVD's to near HD quality. Now, to the keen eye there is a huge difference between BR quality & upscaled DVD's but to the general user, it's very good quality. So, your DVD collections are safe.