So Blu-ray won.

[Rman]

SONY

Proprietary Formats

The trojan horse worked

Sacrificing console leadership and mass market adoption for a half-baked media format

All kidding aside, It looks like Sony will make a lot of the money they lost on PS3 r&d and poor initial sales on Blu-ray licensing fees.  I still think DVD will be king for a long time as Blu-ray software prices are too high for mass market appeal.  Paramount and the Weinsteins are the only holdovers.  That should change very soon.

For nitpicking sake, I'm not a fan of the blue cases--hopefully those will be dropped.

[ferrarimanf355]

I'm building my wish list now. 

[Phoenix Dark]

"Sony was right"

I don't remember the last time I heard that, but I guess it's true. I'll still buy a HD-DVD player over a Blu Ray one

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

so when does Universal and Paramount/Dreamworks pushing their Blu-Wares onto the market?  I've been anxious to see Zodiac as it was always intended.

[Rman]

Universal confirmed support.  Check highdefdigest.com.  There are no release schedules so far.

[Mr. Gundam]

I'll still buy a HD-DVD player over a Blu Ray one

[bud]

rip 360

[MCD]

rip 360

With HDDVD now dead, will 360 sales feel the pain?

[The Fake Shemp]

Well, I'm picking up a used PS3 this week.  My immediate Blu-Ray library will be:

Halloween
Evil Dead II
Dawn of the Dead
Layer Cake
Casino Royale
Unforgiven
300
Bullit
Dog Day Afternoon
Rocky Balboa
Hellboy
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
The Prestige
Planet Earth
Blade Runner

[bud]

rip 360

With HDDVD now dead, will 360 sales feel the pain?

(gaf lolz)

[The Fake Shemp]

I was wrong in this whole scenario.  I felt pretty confident HD-DVD would prevail due to a lot of reasons - back catalog, pricing, name, etc.  But Sony has deep pockets and used them effectively, and now for the first time ever, they have a format that's not a total dud.

[AdmiralViscen]

I heard BestBuy is going to stop stocking 360s as retaliation for their large stock of unsold HD-DVD add-ons.

Could the adoption of this policy by other stores have resulted in the 360 "shortages"?

I was wrong in this whole scenario.  I felt pretty confident HD-DVD would prevail due to a lot of reasons - back catalog, pricing, name, etc.  But Sony has deep pockets and used them effectively, and now for the first time ever, they have a format that's not a total dud.

So your victory streak is over - like Obama's in Wisconsin.

[The Fake Shemp]

Why would retailers stop stocking the console with the best software sales?  As a retailer, you make more money from 360 owners than any other customer base.  That's ridiculous.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I was wrong in this whole scenario.  I felt pretty confident HD-DVD would prevail due to a lot of reasons - back catalog, pricing, name, etc.  But Sony has deep pockets and used them effectively, and now for the first time ever, they have a format that's not a total dud.

That's really weird--it seemed obvious to me that blu-Ray was going to win from the start. Mostly because people were buying more blu-Ray discs than HD-DVD discs, and as you yourself say--software is what matters.

The PS3 trojan horse gambit also seemed to be paying off. Yes, it gimped the PS3 as a game machine, but it helped Sony get an early foothold in the HD market.

[Phoenix Dark]

"Sony was right"

I don't remember the last time I heard that, but I guess it's true. I'll still buy a HD-DVD player over a Blu Ray one

If you do, lemme know.  I have a couple of HDDVDs I can send ya.  Children of Men, King Kong (never watched it), Full Metal Jacket, and The Fountain.  I'd rather give them away (or throw them away) than get $.5 from Gamestop.

But why put money in HDDVD man? 

What can I say, I root for the underdogs

[AdmiralViscen]

Why would retailers stop stocking the console with the best software sales?  As a retailer, you make more money from 360 owners than any other customer base.  That's ridiculous.

I dunno, it's just what justjohn told me.

[Mr. Gundam]

"Sony was right"

I don't remember the last time I heard that, but I guess it's true. I'll still buy a HD-DVD player over a Blu Ray one

If you do, lemme know.  I have a couple of HDDVDs I can send ya.  Children of Men, King Kong (never watched it), Full Metal Jacket, and The Fountain.  I'd rather give them away (or throw them away) than get $.5 from Gamestop.

But why put money in HDDVD man? 

What can I say, I root for the underdogs

Then why aren't you rooting for the PS3, which is the current underdog?

[AdmiralViscen]

"Sony was right"

I don't remember the last time I heard that, but I guess it's true. I'll still buy a HD-DVD player over a Blu Ray one

If you do, lemme know.  I have a couple of HDDVDs I can send ya.  Children of Men, King Kong (never watched it), Full Metal Jacket, and The Fountain.  I'd rather give them away (or throw them away) than get $.5 from Gamestop.

But why put money in HDDVD man? 

What can I say, I root for the underdogs

Then why aren't you rooting for the PS3, which is the current underdog?

360 is the current underdog. Have you seen PS3's 2008 lineup?

[MCD]

"Sony was right"

I don't remember the last time I heard that, but I guess it's true. I'll still buy a HD-DVD player over a Blu Ray one

If you do, lemme know.  I have a couple of HDDVDs I can send ya.  Children of Men, King Kong (never watched it), Full Metal Jacket, and The Fountain.  I'd rather give them away (or throw them away) than get $.5 from Gamestop.

But why put money in HDDVD man? 

What can I say, I root for the underdogs

Then why aren't you rooting for the PS3, which is the current underdog?

360 is the current underdog. Have you seen PS3's 2008 lineup?

better yet, have you seen Jan NPD numbers?

[The Fake Shemp]

That's really weird--it seemed obvious to me that blu-Ray was going to win from the start. Mostly because people were buying more blu-Ray discs than HD-DVD discs, and as you yourself say--software is what matters.

Eh, that's difficult data to decipher, simply because I'm pretty sure most of the initial Blu-Ray purchases were PlayStation 3 owners, which is never really a good way to gauge the market place.  To become a dominant, you need to look at stand alone purchases, simply because if you're going to have adopters moving from DVD, most of them won't own a game console.  You could've looked at the disc sales in ten different ways that would give the edge either format depending on how you looked at the data.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

early adopter PS3 fans are going to have HDTVs and want HD content. this is not rocket science.

[The Fake Shemp]

Yeah, but we're not the demographic that would truly decide a format war.  Neither format really moved past PS3 owners, technophiles and early adopters.  There wasn't much mainstream penetration, for a lot of reasons, and this whole seismic shift in format preference really boils down to a lot of chips falling Sony's way and clever business strategy from a company that has been burned on media formats before.

[MCD]

How the hell was blu-ray going to lose?

hd-dvd camp having a party with warner at ces? which was well...canceled and you know why already.

full china support for hd-dvd? cheap prices? better software?

[The Fake Shemp]

How the hell was blu-ray going to lose?

We were in the middle of a format war less than a year ago - this kind of question is kind of ridiculous.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

How the hell was blu-ray going to lose?

We were in the middle of a format war less than a year ago - this kind of question is kind of ridiculous.

That's the thing--it was never a "war" to any informed observer. It was just a question of whether HD-DVD would fold sooner or later. Fortunately, it turned out to be sooner.

EDIT: The only reason this "war" went on for as long as it did was HD-DVD buying out Paramount--a move that would never enable them to "win" and only served to muddy the waters and prolong the inevitable. Fortunately, Warner took it upon themselves to re-accelerate, and I stress this word, the inevitable.

Blu-ray was never going to lose, and HD-DVD was never going to win. The best Team Red could have hoped for was a stalemate. And they didn't even get that.

[The Fake Shemp]

That seems debatable at best.  You're going to look at a small amount of data that doesn't translate whatsoever to mainstream penetration and make a claim like that?  I mean, I didn't even think it was certain that HD-DVD would succeed outside of the format war, but my guess is that it might survive through it.  I still think there's a good chance that HD media won't catch on outside of folks such as ourselves.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I'm not extrapolating shit. I just know. Don't be hatin' cause Genghis and I see the future, clearly.

[AdmiralViscen]

 

[AdmiralViscen]

With BD the winner (yay! I own exactly ZERO HDDVDs (although there are several i want - Shawn , Hotfuzz, etc) and about 60 BDs) i am happy that the format split should now end and that i "backed the right horse" on this front.

Although it does seem in hindsight that it was obvious which one was going to win , the HDDVD did seem to have a lot better content overall IMO which was somewhat annoying , but owning an all-in-one player in the PS3 - and a very good BD player at that - then the thought of adding another piece of player hardware or a HDDVD add on was a nonstarter from the get go.

I asked this over at the games end of the board, but i personally think it's now going to be interesting to see what happens on the player side. I don't think you can dismiss that the PS3 has had a huge hand in the BD victory in the US, it's definitely been a tactical move that has paid off there - but now it's going to be interesting to see how sony's strategy matures.

With BD the winner, i'd expect to see more and more players - with a lot of cheaper options coming out. Right now, BD is synonymous with the PS3 (at least in the US), but if cheaper players start hitting the market then this could well be a bad thing for the PS3. Whereas DVD playback was a bonus for the PS2 (and it was my first DVD and i'm sure many others) , once cut price DVD players hit it was largely irrelevant to Sony's gaming strategy because the games hardware war was over : PS2 was already over the hill.

For BD playback though, if the PS3 fails to maintain it's place as the cheapest player, then Sony might not be able to increase their games buying base of the back of the playback although you'd have to assume that Sony's goal was to simply win the war and it could well be that the PS3 as a gaming machine was largely sacrificed in order to achieve that goal - or at least , the risk was known that they maybe taking a much smaller chunk of the gaming market this time around.

With that said, the rumours of more aggressive cost cutting and a very early form factor change start to make more strategic sense. And of course, as we are reminded, the 2008 line up is a lot better - so for me it's going to be very interesting to watch the PS3 userbase growth over the next year to see how the PS3 strategy pans out.

Ugh xfag

[Smooth Groove]

Although it does seem in hindsight that it was obvious which one was going to win , the HDDVD did seem to have a lot better content overall IMO

HDDVD also had better transfers for awhile.  The storage constraints of HDDVD forced them to use newer codecs that not only compressed but also looked better.  HDDVD was great simply because it forced Blu-ray to start using newer codecs as well.  I hope the death of HDDVD doesn't mean that BD will go back to using crappy MPEG2. 

[DJ_Tet]

If you do, lemme know.  I have a couple of HDDVDs I can send ya.  Children of Men, King Kong (never watched it), Full Metal Jacket, and The Fountain.  I'd rather give them away (or throw them away) than get $.5 from Gamestop.

But why put money in HDDVD man? 

I'd take The Fountain and Full Metal Jacket, if you're sending out movies.  I'd even pay you $5 apiece for your trouble.  I have about 30 movies but I don't have either of these.

Edit:  I'd buy just about any hd-dvd for $5 if people are looking to get rid of some just pm me

[CurseoftheGods]

I can't wait to get Eternal Sunshine on Blu-gay. I might import it next month, though.

[Rman]

Although it does seem in hindsight that it was obvious which one was going to win , the HDDVD did seem to have a lot better content overall IMO

HDDVD also had better transfers for awhile.  The storage constraints of HDDVD forced them to use newer codecs that not only compressed but also looked better.  HDDVD was great simply because it forced Blu-ray to start using newer codecs as well.  I hope the death of HDDVD doesn't mean that BD will go back to using crappy MPEG2. 

Yeah I think the format war was essential in pushing Blu-ray as well.  They would have rested on their laurels if HD-DVD was never there to provide some competition.  It does suck for people who are losing jobs due to the death of HD-DVD, though.

[DJ_Tet]

That would be amazing and I assure you I would appreciate it.  Take your time by all means

[Error Macro]

Well, I'm picking up a used PS3 this week.  My immediate Blu-Ray library will be:

Halloween
Evil Dead II
[...]

They tried to color correct the 25th Anniv. master for Halloween; botched it up. The Dean Cundey corrected '99 DVD looks better. The BD has better resolution of course, but the color issue ruins it for me.

ED2 - used the heavily DNRed "Book of the Dead" master, not the beautiful THX version. Everyone has a plastic "Real Doll" sheen in various scenes.  Dreadful.  Stick with this version.

[The Fake Shemp]

I still have that SE of Evil Dead II (tin can!) and I'm not going to sell it, but I'm definitely going to pick up the BD for that super neat high definition picture.  I'll take a look at Halloween before I buy, maybe.

Got my PS3 today.  Updating right now.

[Mr. Gundam]

Dawn of the Dead on Blu-ray is fantastic, though.

[Mr. Gundam]

Paramount announced they're coming back to Blu-ray:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3ic60f3f2e7077b9b8dc969933f25fc601

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

So the only HD movie player I have is a blu-ray(PS3) but I just don't have much of a desire to buy many movies for it.  Anyone else in the same boat?  I mean I own about 10 blu-rays but most of them were on sale or are just some stuff to show off my TV but when push comes to shove, I'll buy a DVD over a blu-ray disc in a heartbeat because I can pretty much watch it anywhere I want....including work.....but let's keep that to ourselves.  Sure I'll probably double dip and get a HD version of a film I love, like The Godfather or The Big Lebowski, but I still don't even know if I really even give a shit about owning a bunch of HD movies.  It's not even in same hemisphere to the feeling I had when moving from VHS to DVD.  This is really just...inconsequential...and I own 4 HDTVs.

[The Fake Shemp]

Whomever told me the PS3 is a great upscaling DVD player was right - it's leagues better than the picture quality the 360 churns out.

[pilonv1]

It's much quieter too.

I'm in the same boat as HSMP, the only Blu Rays I own are Planet Earth and Superbad. The problem for me is that the average Blu Ray retails for around AUS$40, while most new release DVDs can be had for $25 or less. Back catalogue stuff goes down to $10. Also being stuck in the shitty AUS/UK region instead of Japan/US hurts the choice.

[pilonv1]

It's not really proportionate either, I got Planet Earth for AUS$75.

EB the arseholes try to charge AUS$50 for new release Blu Ray (ie The Simpsons Movie), while most places have it for $42.95.

[The Fake Shemp]

Wow, I bought Planet Earth for $54.95 - that's ridiculous.

I won't pay over $20 for a new Blu-Ray.

[pilonv1]

It's even more of a raping because our dollar is at 90c to the US$ now.