I really didn't know which way this thing was going to go at the beginning. Now it is crystal clear, with only 2 studios left on board HD DVD there is no way on earth it can survive. Expect Paramount to change its mind again and Universal will probably switch even sooner. I would expect major announcements this week from all involved.
BD is the winner, there can be no doubt or confusion about it any longer.
I really didn't know which way this thing was going to go at the beginning. Now it is crystal clear, with only 2 studios left on board HD DVD there is no way on earth it can survive. Expect Paramount to change its mind again and Universal will probably switch even sooner. I would expect major announcements this week from all involved.
BD is the winner, there can be no doubt or confusion about it any longer.
Agreed. I did feel the writing was on the wall for HD DVD sometime in the past few months.
With Sony + WarnerBros + Fox, then like you mention, Paramount... Game over.
I'm browsing the Blu-Ray titles, and it looks sweet.
"Sunshine" (Fox Searchlight) in Blu Ray. That should be fricking, fricking awesome.
My Blu-Ray wishlist:
Resident Evil: Extinction
Sunshine
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Paprika
The Die Hard Collection (Quadrilogy)
Pixar Short Films Collection, Vol. 1
Wall-E (Disney/Pixar, late 2008 on Blu-Ray)
2001: A Space Odyssey
Gothika
Underworld
A Few Good Men
Deliverance
Arlington Road
The Fifth Element (Remastered)
Usual Suspects (Available?)
12 Monkeys(?) (Better post-apocalypse than Legend by far)
Contact(?)
It goes on...
As you can see, I'm more into Sci-Fi, Thriller, a bit of Animated
here and there.
Each disc for me is the equivalent of USD $100+
Tragic.
I will only start my HD collection off 1080p Blu-Rays,
when I can DRM strip it and make pure lossless backup
Yeah, the war's been over ever since HD DVD failed to get half the holiday media sales that Blu-Ray did. When you're being outsold more than 2:1 in US retail, 3:1 in Europe retail, and 4:1 in rentals, you're pretty much just jockeying for better terms of surrender. And it pretty much all came down to Blu-Ray being standard on a PS3. The PS3 may be in third place for games, but it's sure a game-changer in video.
I really didn't know which way this thing was going to go at the beginning. Now it is crystal clear, with only 2 studios left on board HD DVD there is no way on earth it can survive. Expect Paramount to change its mind again and Universal will probably switch even sooner. I would expect major announcements this week from all involved.
Paramount can't switch, because they were paid a large amount of money by the HD-DVD group (meaning Microsoft) to offer their movies exclusively in HD-DVD format. I don't know what they can do about that, if there's a time limit or another way to get out of it.
It may not look like Microsoft was deeply involved in the format, but my understanding is that HD-DVD is based on Windows Media in some way. Does anyone know more about that?
Yeah, the war's been over ever since HD DVD failed to get half the holiday media sales that Blu-Ray did. When you're being outsold more than 2:1 in US retail, 3:1 in Europe retail, and 4:1 in rentals, you're pretty much just jockeying for better terms of surrender. And it pretty much all came down to Blu-Ray being standard on a PS3. The PS3 may be in third place for games, but it's sure a game-changer in video.
To be fair, the reason Blu-Ray's been outselling HD DVD in all of those markets is because by and large the only people buying high-definition movies are PS3 owners who got a player for "free" with their game console. Time will tell now if Blu-Ray can expand beyond "movies for PS3 owners" now that a winner in the format war is far more clear. A recent survey found that 75% of HDTV owners feel that DVD is "good enough for them". It's hard to sell a product that people don't want.
Paramount can't switch, because they were paid a large amount of money by the HD-DVD group (meaning Microsoft) to offer their movies exclusively in HD-DVD format. I don't know what they can do about that, if there's a time limit or another way to get out of it.
It may not look like Microsoft was deeply involved in the format, but my understanding is that HD-DVD is based on Windows Media in some way. Does anyone know more about that?
Not really. I don't think Microsoft got into the game until the summer of last year, a lot of the format was pretty settled on by then. The VC-1 video CODEC is based on WMV9. But both formats offer VC-1 if the author so chose to use it. The implementation of HD DVD HDi scripting language is done by Microsoft, but Microsoft didn't design the spec, oddly, much of that spec was done by Disney.
I think this is great news. I would really be glad to see this war over.
I also think if we had an Apple TV with a BD slot that would be an ideal machine. I would want it to also play DVDs. That way I could have my cable box plus the Apple TV and do almost anything.
I would digitize my vhs tapes and kill my dvd/vhs box.
To be fair, the reason Blu-Ray's been outselling HD DVD in all of those markets is because by and large the only people buying high-definition movies are PS3 owners who got a player for "free" with their game console. Time will tell now if Blu-Ray can expand beyond "movies for PS3 owners" now that a winner in the format war is far more clear. A recent survey found that 75% of HDTV owners feel that DVD is "good enough for them". It's hard to sell a product that people don't want.
Fair enough. However, I don't think that "new" people getting into HD movies would be still 50-50 split on Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD. People that are getting into HD movies are at this stage more likely to go Blu-Ray than HD-DVD.
That the success of Blu-Ray right now is due in a large part to the PS3 is a reasonable argument. It definitely follows though that as such there is a large "installed base" and thriving Blu-Ray ecosystem.
Can Blu-ray support (along with all pro app updates) be the big super secret thing Apple is supposed to show FCP users during Macworld? I already see an updated Mac Pro with a Blu-ray drive.
Apple and Microsoft were only ever bit-players in the BlueRay v.s. HD DVD battle. It was always going to come-down to the content/equipment suppliers and it was Sony's and the "Keiretsu" backing of BlueRay that made its eventual success a forgone conclusion.
Maybe bit players, but MS has depended on HD-DVD to drive X-Box sales, so this could be significant negative news for them, which very few are commenting on here.
Though I guess they can bring out a BR external drive, since it's (often, usually, always?) not built in (you can see how much I game, NOT).
Apple's mostly invested words and maybe a little more R&D than we know about, so now they can start to cash in on having backed a probable winner. How about a blu-ray option on the Apple TV 2 (if they're still going that direction)??
I think the big picture for Microsoft is that they hate paying royalties and licensing fees. They love collecting them. My theory is that MS does not want to have to pay a fee to Sony for every copy of every piece of hardware and software it makes that supports Blu-Ray. From what I have read, the HD-DVD was a much better business deal for manufacturers of hardware and software (manufacturers other than Sony). Wouldn't it piss MS off if Sony made more money off of each and every new PC sold than they do?! I'm thinking ahead to the day when an HD disc drive becomes standard equipment on commodity PCs like DVD is today. Come to think of it, will the next X-Box have to support Blu-Ray? That could mean a higher production cost. I'm sure they are getting a sweet deal on HD-DVD.
Here are a couple examples of MS avoiding royalty payments. Look at how screwed up DVD support is in Windows. As far as I can tell, that's all so some other company pays the DVD related royalties. I would also cite MS' decision to roll its own look-alike fonts for Windows rather than pay for the rights to fonts like Helvetica, not to mention Adobe's industry standard printing and markup system, Postscript.
But of course! Blu-ray is so superior to HD-DVD that it is weird the latter is still alive. I only hope the new Macs come with a Blu-ray SuperDrive capable of both movie playback and rewrite for backups.
Please STFU. You don't know what you're talking about.
Many of us following the war knew that after the Paramount deal the money was going to talk and the BS walk. Paramount got paid to go exclusive and now Warner has gotten paid. End of story.
Strategy won this war not superior hardware. For chrissakes we don't even have BD Profile 2.0 which would draw Blu-ray close to HD DVD of today in specs.
i think it's sad, even though BD is the better format, i don't like how sony handled BD and that's why HD DVD has been around so long. it's terrible to release an unfinished standard to consumers like sony did.
i like HD DVD better simply because of the combo disks - if i only have one hd player, then i want my movies to work on my kids' dvd players and in the car where there is no hd. it's unfair to double charge people when all you're paying for is a license.
pirating is sadly the best way to go. no DRM, no BS, and no uncertainty about which format will screw over consumers.
To be fair, the reason Blu-Ray's been outselling HD DVD in all of those markets is because by and large the only people buying high-definition movies are PS3 owners who got a player for "free" with their game console. Time will tell now if Blu-Ray can expand beyond "movies for PS3 owners" now that a winner in the format war is far more clear.
Oddly enough, the HD DVD boosters have been arguing the opposite all along. "Most PS3 owners play games only. They don't buy movies!" "HD DVD is the movie lover's format. People buy HD DVD players because they want the movies, not games." (Not direct quotes.)
Please STFU. You don't know what you're talking about.
Many of us following the war knew that after the Paramount deal the money was going to talk and the BS walk. Paramount got paid to go exclusive and now Warner has gotten paid. End of story.
Strategy won this war not superior hardware. For chrissakes we don't even have BD Profile 2.0 which would draw Blu-ray close to HD DVD of today in specs.
Maybe you should take your own advice.
I have no doubt that Warner received money or other massive incentives for their decision, but it wasn't the only reason they dropped HD DVD unlike Paramount's move. Warner's decision makes a winner pretty clear, which obviously clears up the confusion for consumers on what format to purchase. And retailers can now start clearing out their HD DVD stock. Warner's decision probably secured the survival of both HD and physical movies for the next decade.
Could you point me to an online feature that an HD DVD had that is worth mentioning? The majority were just pointers to more marketing crap (and I'm probably being generous because the vast majority of HD DVD titles didn't provide any online content). I think the only one worth mentioning is Transformers' online features. Other than that one disc, the only truly substantial thing that online abilities have provided thus far is easy access to firmware updates which both sides have consistently needed to remedy playback issues in the new formats.
You have to cut Murch some slack. His attitude for the last year or two has been, "I don't care who wins. As long as it's not Sony." Once a Toshiba employee, always a Toshiba employee. This is a big shock to his system. He just needs time to grieve.
Please STFU. You don't know what you're talking about.
Many of us following the war knew that after the Paramount deal the money was going to talk and the BS walk. Paramount got paid to go exclusive and now Warner has gotten paid. End of story.
You have proof to back up your claim? Or are you just having a tantrum at the other poster for linking to a pair of articles you didn't agree with. It's not "End of story" until you offer something more substantive than foot-stamping invective. I don't recall a single informed article written after the Paramount deal that said it was game-over in favor of HD DVD. Every single thing I read was either "Now, it's a stalemate" or "This is going to delay the final result" or "The HD-BD war is going to drag on until another alternative wins, probably downloads." (Notice that Warner appears to have found that third idea worrisome) Perhaps you can link a cogent article supporting either of the extraordinary statements of your second paragraph.
Comments
BD is the winner, there can be no doubt or confusion about it any longer.
I really didn't know which way this thing was going to go at the beginning. Now it is crystal clear, with only 2 studios left on board HD DVD there is no way on earth it can survive. Expect Paramount to change its mind again and Universal will probably switch even sooner. I would expect major announcements this week from all involved.
BD is the winner, there can be no doubt or confusion about it any longer.
Agreed. I did feel the writing was on the wall for HD DVD sometime in the past few months.
With Sony + WarnerBros + Fox, then like you mention, Paramount... Game over.
I'm browsing the Blu-Ray titles, and it looks sweet.
"Sunshine" (Fox Searchlight) in Blu Ray. That should be fricking, fricking awesome.
My Blu-Ray wishlist:
Resident Evil: Extinction
Sunshine
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Paprika
The Die Hard Collection (Quadrilogy)
Pixar Short Films Collection, Vol. 1
Wall-E (Disney/Pixar, late 2008 on Blu-Ray)
2001: A Space Odyssey
Gothika
Underworld
A Few Good Men
Deliverance
Arlington Road
The Fifth Element (Remastered)
Usual Suspects (Available?)
12 Monkeys(?) (Better post-apocalypse than Legend by far)
Contact(?)
It goes on...
As you can see, I'm more into Sci-Fi, Thriller, a bit of Animated
here and there.
Each disc for me is the equivalent of USD $100+
Tragic.
I will only start my HD collection off 1080p Blu-Rays,
when I can DRM strip it and make pure lossless backup
on duplicate hard disks.
My master 1080p collection for 2010 to 2015.
Yay! A third thread on the HDM war!
The war is over.
I really didn't know which way this thing was going to go at the beginning. Now it is crystal clear, with only 2 studios left on board HD DVD there is no way on earth it can survive. Expect Paramount to change its mind again and Universal will probably switch even sooner. I would expect major announcements this week from all involved.
Paramount can't switch, because they were paid a large amount of money by the HD-DVD group (meaning Microsoft) to offer their movies exclusively in HD-DVD format. I don't know what they can do about that, if there's a time limit or another way to get out of it.
It may not look like Microsoft was deeply involved in the format, but my understanding is that HD-DVD is based on Windows Media in some way. Does anyone know more about that?
Yeah, the war's been over ever since HD DVD failed to get half the holiday media sales that Blu-Ray did. When you're being outsold more than 2:1 in US retail, 3:1 in Europe retail, and 4:1 in rentals, you're pretty much just jockeying for better terms of surrender. And it pretty much all came down to Blu-Ray being standard on a PS3. The PS3 may be in third place for games, but it's sure a game-changer in video.
To be fair, the reason Blu-Ray's been outselling HD DVD in all of those markets is because by and large the only people buying high-definition movies are PS3 owners who got a player for "free" with their game console. Time will tell now if Blu-Ray can expand beyond "movies for PS3 owners" now that a winner in the format war is far more clear. A recent survey found that 75% of HDTV owners feel that DVD is "good enough for them". It's hard to sell a product that people don't want.
Paramount can't switch, because they were paid a large amount of money by the HD-DVD group (meaning Microsoft) to offer their movies exclusively in HD-DVD format. I don't know what they can do about that, if there's a time limit or another way to get out of it.
It may not look like Microsoft was deeply involved in the format, but my understanding is that HD-DVD is based on Windows Media in some way. Does anyone know more about that?
Not really. I don't think Microsoft got into the game until the summer of last year, a lot of the format was pretty settled on by then. The VC-1 video CODEC is based on WMV9. But both formats offer VC-1 if the author so chose to use it. The implementation of HD DVD HDi scripting language is done by Microsoft, but Microsoft didn't design the spec, oddly, much of that spec was done by Disney.
I also think if we had an Apple TV with a BD slot that would be an ideal machine. I would want it to also play DVDs. That way I could have my cable box plus the Apple TV and do almost anything.
I would digitize my vhs tapes and kill my dvd/vhs box.
To be fair, the reason Blu-Ray's been outselling HD DVD in all of those markets is because by and large the only people buying high-definition movies are PS3 owners who got a player for "free" with their game console. Time will tell now if Blu-Ray can expand beyond "movies for PS3 owners" now that a winner in the format war is far more clear. A recent survey found that 75% of HDTV owners feel that DVD is "good enough for them". It's hard to sell a product that people don't want.
Fair enough. However, I don't think that "new" people getting into HD movies would be still 50-50 split on Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD. People that are getting into HD movies are at this stage more likely to go Blu-Ray than HD-DVD.
That the success of Blu-Ray right now is due in a large part to the PS3 is a reasonable argument. It definitely follows though that as such there is a large "installed base" and thriving Blu-Ray ecosystem.
Apple and Microsoft were only ever bit-players in the BlueRay v.s. HD DVD battle. It was always going to come-down to the content/equipment suppliers and it was Sony's and the "Keiretsu" backing of BlueRay that made its eventual success a forgone conclusion.
Maybe bit players, but MS has depended on HD-DVD to drive X-Box sales, so this could be significant negative news for them, which very few are commenting on here.
Though I guess they can bring out a BR external drive, since it's (often, usually, always?) not built in (you can see how much I game, NOT).
Apple's mostly invested words and maybe a little more R&D than we know about, so now they can start to cash in on having backed a probable winner. How about a blu-ray option on the Apple TV 2 (if they're still going that direction)??
Can Blu-ray support (along with all pro app updates) be the big super secret thing Apple is supposed to show FCP users during Macworld?
No, that's Phenomenon.
Here are a couple examples of MS avoiding royalty payments. Look at how screwed up DVD support is in Windows. As far as I can tell, that's all so some other company pays the DVD related royalties. I would also cite MS' decision to roll its own look-alike fonts for Windows rather than pay for the rights to fonts like Helvetica, not to mention Adobe's industry standard printing and markup system, Postscript.
But of course! Blu-ray is so superior to HD-DVD that it is weird the latter is still alive. I only hope the new Macs come with a Blu-ray SuperDrive capable of both movie playback and rewrite for backups.
Sales comparison: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlOGSl13O1k
Market share: http://paulstamatiou.com/2007/12/28/...ray-vs-hd-dvd/
Please STFU. You don't know what you're talking about.
Many of us following the war knew that after the Paramount deal the money was going to talk and the BS walk. Paramount got paid to go exclusive and now Warner has gotten paid. End of story.
Strategy won this war not superior hardware. For chrissakes we don't even have BD Profile 2.0 which would draw Blu-ray close to HD DVD of today in specs.
i like HD DVD better simply because of the combo disks - if i only have one hd player, then i want my movies to work on my kids' dvd players and in the car where there is no hd. it's unfair to double charge people when all you're paying for is a license.
pirating is sadly the best way to go. no DRM, no BS, and no uncertainty about which format will screw over consumers.
To be fair, the reason Blu-Ray's been outselling HD DVD in all of those markets is because by and large the only people buying high-definition movies are PS3 owners who got a player for "free" with their game console. Time will tell now if Blu-Ray can expand beyond "movies for PS3 owners" now that a winner in the format war is far more clear.
Oddly enough, the HD DVD boosters have been arguing the opposite all along. "Most PS3 owners play games only. They don't buy movies!" "HD DVD is the movie lover's format. People buy HD DVD players because they want the movies, not games." (Not direct quotes.)
Please STFU. You don't know what you're talking about.
Many of us following the war knew that after the Paramount deal the money was going to talk and the BS walk. Paramount got paid to go exclusive and now Warner has gotten paid. End of story.
Strategy won this war not superior hardware. For chrissakes we don't even have BD Profile 2.0 which would draw Blu-ray close to HD DVD of today in specs.
Maybe you should take your own advice.
I have no doubt that Warner received money or other massive incentives for their decision, but it wasn't the only reason they dropped HD DVD unlike Paramount's move. Warner's decision makes a winner pretty clear, which obviously clears up the confusion for consumers on what format to purchase. And retailers can now start clearing out their HD DVD stock. Warner's decision probably secured the survival of both HD and physical movies for the next decade.
Could you point me to an online feature that an HD DVD had that is worth mentioning? The majority were just pointers to more marketing crap (and I'm probably being generous because the vast majority of HD DVD titles didn't provide any online content). I think the only one worth mentioning is Transformers' online features. Other than that one disc, the only truly substantial thing that online abilities have provided thus far is easy access to firmware updates which both sides have consistently needed to remedy playback issues in the new formats.
Please STFU. You don't know what you're talking about.
Many of us following the war knew that after the Paramount deal the money was going to talk and the BS walk. Paramount got paid to go exclusive and now Warner has gotten paid. End of story.
You have proof to back up your claim? Or are you just having a tantrum at the other poster for linking to a pair of articles you didn't agree with. It's not "End of story" until you offer something more substantive than foot-stamping invective. I don't recall a single informed article written after the Paramount deal that said it was game-over in favor of HD DVD. Every single thing I read was either "Now, it's a stalemate" or "This is going to delay the final result" or "The HD-BD war is going to drag on until another alternative wins, probably downloads." (Notice that Warner appears to have found that third idea worrisome) Perhaps you can link a cogent article supporting either of the extraordinary statements of your second paragraph.