Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD (Update)

11314161819

Comments

  • Reply 301 of 367
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,439member
    Warren hit the bullseye here.





    Why should a content company care about the format if their product is protected adequately? What's going on is a needless partisan setup that isn't benefitting the consumers in any way. It's disgusting.



    This Keiretsu way of doing things is screwing things up. Content companies should be focused on selling content to whoever has the dollar/euro/yen for it.



    Let the market decide what product they want versus trying to lead me with a bullring through the nose.
  • Reply 302 of 367
    e1618978e1618978 Posts: 6,075member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by hmurchison

    Warren hit the bullseye here.



    No he did not - Saying that Sony competes in more underhanded ways than US corporations?



    Sony just outmanouvered Microsoft, pretty cleverly IMHO. Sony has never done some of the evil things that Microsoft does regularly - Microsoft just is too stupid to win this war, and they are bitter.
  • Reply 303 of 367
    telomartelomar Posts: 1,804member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by e1618978

    Sony has never done some of the evil things that Microsoft does regularly - Microsoft just is too stupid to win this war, and they are bitter.



    Neither Microsoft or Sony are perfect. Both companies have serious flaws but one thing Microsoft isn't is stupid. There are a lot of very smart people there and like it or not they don't succeed solely based on market position. They know to do enough to get what they want.
  • Reply 304 of 367
    e1618978e1618978 Posts: 6,075member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Telomar

    Neither Microsoft or Sony are perfect. Both companies have serious flaws but one thing Microsoft isn't is stupid. There are a lot of very smart people there and like it or not they don't succeed solely based on market position. They know to do enough to get what they want.



    Name one time where they succeeded without doing one of the following things:



    1) Luck out (initial success with DOS)

    2) Steal somebody elses ideas (Windows, etc)

    3) Use monopoly position to gain unfair advantage

    4) Lose as much money as nessessary in order to drive their competetors out of business.

    5) Use bogus lawsuits that competetors can't afford to defend against



    They are stupid, at least stupider than me. It was very clear to me the mistakes they were making not putting an HD-DVD drive in the xbox360 - I called this blu-ray win long ago just based on that one mis-step.

  • Reply 305 of 367
    Quote:

    Originally posted by hmurchison

    Warren hit the bullseye here.



    What?!



    He is clearly deluded, or has Redmond paying his Xmas bill. Sony has every right to put its own HD disc technology in its PS3. His suggestion they did it to unfairly promote Blu-Ray is insane.



    And turning the HD battle into a console war when X-Box 360 doesn't have a HD-DVD drive (presumably to launch earlier than PS3) is madness.



    His rent smells odd. Like he has more riding on the success of HD-DVD than he is saying.
  • Reply 306 of 367
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,439member
    No I think his point goes a little further than that. Sony has indeed placed a lot of the burden on the Playstation 3 but the most disgusting part is the partisanship attitude by content providers.



    Both formats use AACS content protection and require HDCP. There's no logical reason why some studios have aligned with one format. Pressing costs are miniscule in comparison to actually making a movie. Supporting both formats is not difficult.



    I had dreams of building a library of movies but this industry continues to turn me off to the point were I'm ready to spend my thousands elsewhere.
  • Reply 307 of 367
    I think this is more to the point...



    http://spong.com/detail/news.asp?pri...92&cb=0.857246



    "Of course, one must ask why Lieberfarb is so impassioned, so anti-Sony. Put simply, his consultancy is a key proponent working with Microsoft on the HD-DVD format, a fact some games industry reporters completely missed."
  • Reply 308 of 367
    Quote:

    Originally posted by marzetta7

    I think this is more to the point...



    http://spong.com/detail/news.asp?pri...92&cb=0.857246



    "Of course, one must ask why Lieberfarb is so impassioned, so anti-Sony. Put simply, his consultancy is a key proponent working with Microsoft on the HD-DVD format, a fact some games industry reporters completely missed."




    As I thought. Redmond *is* paying his Christmas bill.
  • Reply 309 of 367
    elixirelixir Posts: 782member
    e1618978- i hope to see you around in the future.







    thing will get interesting.
  • Reply 311 of 367
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,439member


    Well the author tried to be a little impartial but the piece was a BDA PR advertisement. Anytime you see a bunch of Andy Parson quotes you know that impartiality is hampered.



    They go on to hype BD-Java as though it's some sort of huge thing when iHD, which is based on XML, is the more elegant solution in many ways.



    The real issues at hand always seem to be glossed over. Cost. Many industry insiders remain unconvinced that the BDA can ship massive quantities of Blu Ray parts and media for an affordable cost versus HD DVD. Neither format is really going to skyrocket for a couple of years. Thus whoever is cheaper in a couple of years is going to take the lead.



    I'm not overly concerned with Blu Ray's studio advantage. Disney and Fox were both late to DVD prefering Divx over today's DVD. My my my how history repeats with these two paranoid studios. When enough HD DVD owners begin to apply pressure to BDA only studios they will eventually capitulate. They always do.
  • Reply 312 of 367
    screedscreed Posts: 1,077member
    Gizmodo



    Quote:

    Oops, Toshiba Delays HD-DVD Player?Again

    Bad news for the HD-DVD camp today as Toshiba announced a delay of the Japan launch of its HD-DVD players. Saying there are still copy protection issues to address. The Japanese company is still hoping for a US launch this February or March. And considering we saw this product as a working model last January at CES, we certainly hope so.



    Kind of intrigued on what (and what not) we will see at CES.

  • Reply 313 of 367
    e1618978e1618978 Posts: 6,075member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by hmurchison

    The real issues at hand always seem to be glossed over. Cost. Many industry insiders remain unconvinced that the BDA can ship massive quantities of Blu Ray parts and media for an affordable cost versus HD DVD. Neither format is really going to skyrocket for a couple of years. Thus whoever is cheaper in a couple of years is going to take the lead.



    I'm not overly concerned with Blu Ray's studio advantage. Disney and Fox were both late to DVD prefering Divx over today's DVD.




    Volume brings price down - HD-DVD disks will be selling in the 10,000s (due to the very limited audience who is willing to pay $1000 for an underdog/potential "new betamax" player), Blu-ray games for playstation will be selling in the 10,000,000s.



    Also, it was obvious that Divx was going to fail, just like HD-DVD. Fox and Disney probably remember their screw up from last time (first DVD - 1996, first Disney DVD - 1999, that is a joke).
  • Reply 314 of 367
    Quote:

    Volume brings price down



    Not an absolute. Volume reduces pricing within limits. I'm curious to see if Blu Ray can sustain the volumes necessary to overcome the inherent advantages of HD DVD. Time will tell.



    Quote:

    HD-DVD disks will be selling in the 10,000s (due to the very limited audience who is willing to pay $1000 for an underdog/potential "new betamax" player), Blu-ray games for playstation will be selling in the 10,000,000s.



    No pricing has been announced on either player. Read Cake's link. While the PS3 may sell in huge numbers they are limited by the amount of Blue Laser Diodes they can purchase in quantity. I imagine other components will be almost as hard to get in quantity as well. As will anything it'll take better part of 24 months to really ramp up for both platforms.



    I'm ok with either format winning as long as it has been chosen by the people. Both formats are going to be MUCH better than DVD so really cost is the main thing that I'll be looking at and I'm not alone here. I don't really need stupendous extras on every disc. Just make the movie look great.
  • Reply 315 of 367
    jlljll Posts: 2,713member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by hmurchison

    When enough HD DVD owners begin to apply pressure to BDA only studios they will eventually capitulate. They always do.



    Enough HD DVD owners?



    Isn't Toshiba the only brand name producer of HD DVD players? And you somehow think that they alone can convince consumers to buy HD DVD players (to play a few movies from one or two studios) when they are up against Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Sony and all the other brand names? The same companies that were the pioneers in getting DVD in consumers' homes.



    I don't see how a sane consumer would even consider an HD DVD player now.
  • Reply 316 of 367
    No that's where there has been far too much obsfuscation.



    Many manf are members of both the DVD Forum and BDA(like Apple) thus they are often assumed to be supporting only one format.



    Samsung has stated they make create a universal player.

    Thomson has stated they'll have a HD DVD player and Blu Ray



    I expect others to jump in with both units.



    I think the PS3 will be huge for BR because of cost but I think the roll out will be slow for both formats for a couple of years. When I read people stating that they think the war is going to be over quickly I chuckle...they said the same thing about the US Civil War.
  • Reply 317 of 367
    kolchakkolchak Posts: 1,398member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by hmurchison

    When enough HD DVD owners begin to apply pressure to BDA only studios they will eventually capitulate. They always do.



    You're assuming there will ever be enough HD-DVD owners to apply much pressure. For all you know, HD-DVD is the new Divx. Divx was the format that previously claimed a lower-cost advantage at $4.99 for 48 hours of viewing rather than full DVD price. If I'm not mistaken, that's the solitary drum you keep beating on here: HD-DVD media will likely be cheaper and the players will be a bit cheaper since they can use common laser apertures. There are no other advantages to HD-DVD. I'm not convinced that will be enough to keep them alive for more than a year or two.
  • Reply 318 of 367
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,439member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Kolchak

    You're assuming there will ever be enough HD-DVD owners to apply much pressure. For all you know, HD-DVD is the new Divx. Divx was the format that previously claimed a lower-cost advantage at $4.99 for 48 hours of viewing rather than full DVD price. If I'm not mistaken, that's the solitary drum you keep beating on here: HD-DVD media will likely be cheaper and the players will be a bit cheaper since they can use common laser apertures. There are no other advantages to HD-DVD. I'm not convinced that will be enough to keep them alive for more than a year or two.



    Peope tend to forget that whilst Blu Ray has 6 out of 7 studios supporting their format HD-DVD still has 4. That's a lot of content.



    Quote:

    HD-DVD media will likely be cheaper and the players will be a bit cheaper since they can use common laser apertures.



    Of course it'll be cheaper.



    1. Same disc/data structure as Red Laser DVD

    2. $150k retrofit of DVD-9 pressing plants

    3. Similar numerical aperture allows for blue and red diodes in a compact enclosure

    4. .6mm protection layer allows HD DVD to forgo on any specific film or spincoat and easy dual sided hybrid discs.

    5. iHD XML based interactivity layer native to Windows Vista and lighter than loading/licensing the entire Java language.



    Now let's highlight Blu Ray format advantages



    1. Woot! 50GB discs

    \
  • Reply 319 of 367
    marzetta7marzetta7 Posts: 1,323member
    Peope tend to forget that whilst Blu Ray has 6 out of 7 studios supporting their format HD-DVD still has 4. That's a lot of content.



    Oh, I see. When Blu-Ray is mentioned to have the majority of studio support, you are "...not overly concerned with Blu Ray's studio advantage." However, when speaking of HD-DVD studio support, it is a concern or rather an assumed advantage/positive. Interesting how your mind works. It has been said before, but I'll go ahead and reiterate this, most likely the studios claiming support for both formats will be joining the Blu-Ray camp exclusively. Numerous articles have stated that the support for HD-DVD is still there on the surface for those companies to save face, but will eventually drop any support for HD-DVD--Paramount and Warner Bros to be more specific. Moreover, not only does Blu-Ray have more Hollywood studio support, but also has the backing of most gaming studios.



    Of course it'll be cheaper.



    The question you have to ask yourself is "cheaper" for who? Cheaper for manufacturers? Who gives a crap if it is cheaper for the manufacturers? I guess you do, because you are under the assumption that more cost to the manufacturer = more cost to the end consumer. We all know that that is not the case here. Blu-Ray disc production has been stated time and time again in numerous articles that the cost is equal or near the cost of current DVD disc production. However, even if it is hypothetically above the current cost of regular DVD production, those within the Blu-Ray camp will recoup their costs most assuredly with royalties, premiums from the new technology (this will be the case for HD-DVD too, but they would probably get more seeing how they went the "cheap" route, and by cheap I mean applying old technology to their proposed next generation HD format with that same .6mm protection layer that we all know scratches like hell with current DVDs), and in Sony's case, from the sale of video games. So, you maybe right, HD-DVD may be cheaper for manufacturers, but not necessarily the end consumer.





    1. Same disc/data structure as Red Laser DVD



    Yay!, we have old disc/data structure for a proposed "next-generation" format. Doesn't sound very "next-generation" to me. Moreover, this goes to show you that the data structure wasn't made to be foward-looking but rather to just save some manufacturers some bucks as if they need any more saving with the gold mine they had with DVD. This same disc/data structure is what limits HD-DVDs capacity. Sounds like a disadvantage to me.



    2. $150k retrofit of DVD-9 pressing plants



    Again, looking out for those poor manufacturers I see, they are just so in the red, I'm sure! We gotta enjoy the 1080i resolution to boot with this "next-generation" format. It's going to be "cheaper" all right.



    3. Similar numerical aperture allows for blue and red diodes in a compact enclosure



    I'm not sure why this is even here, Blu-Ray will also have blue and red diodes in a compact enclosure. Are you stating that for some reason, Blu-Ray's blue and red diodes will be more expensive than HD-DVDs? If so, do share some links with this info. Also, I also wanted to note that HD-DVD would also be, most certainly, effected with the shipment of blue diodes. The question really is, who creates those blue diodes since most consumer electronics companies are in the Blu-Ray camp, I'm thinking they would get their hands on more and sooner than those companies from HD-DVD.



    4. .6mm protection layer allows HD DVD to forgo on any specific film or spincoat and easy dual sided hybrid discs.



    Again, from a cost standpoint, this is a non-issue. Cost of making Blu-Ray discs will be the same as the cost to manufacture current DVDs. From a data protection standpoint, this is an advantage for Blu-Ray as they will be using either Durabis (which has been shown to be very resistant to scratching as there have been demos where wool pads, screw drivers, dirt, and ink have been applied to the disk without data loss) or some other coating equivalent whereas HD-DVD will be using....oh just that same old .6mm protection layer on DVDs. Way to go HD-DVD! Way to innovate! If its anything like the way current DVDs scratch, I'll pass as I'm sure most consumers will, especially when a scratch now damages more data given the discs higher data density as compared to regular DVD.



    5. iHD XML based interactivity layer native to Windows Vista and lighter than loading/licensing the entire Java language.



    Again, why would this make HD-DVD cheaper? All this would do is feed Microsoft royalties in the proposed "next-generation" HD format with the licensing of iHD. I don't know about you, but I'm not much into feeding a monopoly, especially when it is Microsoft.



    Now let's highlight Blu Ray format advantages



    1. Woot! 50GB discs

    \




    You forgot...



    2. Durability

    3. Ability to consolidate multiple movie discs on to one disc, thus freeing up you movie library clutter.

    4. Capability of the format to go to 100 GB and 200 GB discs.

    5. 1080p native resolution compared to HD-DVDs 1080i



    I don't really need stupendous extras on every disc. Just make the movie look great.



    I see a recurring theme within the HD-DVD camp and its supporters,...one that celebrates and shoots for mediocrity. It is disturbing and to me seems short-sighted. Ya know, most people back in the day didn't think they "needed" cars either, but alas here we are and we all use them. The person responsible for stating this...



    "No one will need more than 637 kb of memory for a personal computer."



    I guess shares that same short-sightedness. It comes to me as no suprise that this same person is backing HD-DVD. Thanks Bill.
  • Reply 320 of 367
    19841984 Posts: 955member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by marzetta7

    I see a recurring theme within the HD-DVD camp and its supporters,...one that celebrates and shoots for mediocrity.



    That pretty much sums up the HD-DVD format in a nutshell. We want a viable format that is as future-proof as possible and HD-DVD sure as hell isn't it. I'm tired of the do as little as possible and take the easy way out attitude of people like Lieberfarb. He was the one pushing for the red-laser BD-9 format because Warner wants to release most of their movies on it. It's all about cutting corners and providing customers with the least bang for their buck.
Sign In or Register to comment.