Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD

[Tecknik]

PlayStation 3 > All

And Blu-ray is winning!

http://news.aol.com/entertainment/story/_a/ps3-holiday-sales-total-12-million/n20080107152309990020

[Pirus]

PlayStation 3 > All

And Blu-ray is winning!

Yeah Blu-Ray has basically won it's a shame though seeing as how HD-DVD is the better media... But its all about advertising and getting it out there.  Putting Blu-ray on the PS3 was the best thing they could have done.

[Anonymous]

If you compare the numbers Blu-Ray "player" (PS3) owners, then yes the hardware has a better penetration versus what they compared it to (standalone HD-DVD players, i.e. not the Xbox 360 add-on, so not exactly a fair comparison).  If you compare the number of Blu-Ray "player" owners versus the number of movies actually bought by each owner notwithstanding the freebies, it's not that impressive.

And then if you compare the reaction that Asia and Europe will have to this supposed "win", Blu Ray don't look very healthy at all.  They have no penetration in Asia, since they already have CHD-DVD and it's a cheaper option (natch), and Europeans will not stand for stupid arbitrary region coding and a platform with absolutely no common base standards.

Blu-Ray might have won the hype war in the US (and to the average US consumer that's all that matters), but they most certainly don't own the market any more than Wii won the console war.

[Lithium]

Honestly this whole war is ridiculous and anti-productive. I understand the need for competition and whatnot. But has history taught Sony anything? Betamax? anyone? anyone? Basically this whole war is just pissing off the customer and hurting the entire "HD Industry." It really needs to be settled sooner before later, imo. Perhaps a compromise between the two?

[NoCry]

blurayftmfw.

[Pirus]

lol, You know I kinda like the Picture in picture function with HD-DVD.  Nocry it seems lately everything is TMFW with you...

[Da6onet]

Unlike Betamax vs VHS there are dual-capability players out there. I hope the two formats keep battling until holographic storage becomes commercialized and trumps all.

[Manic Velocity]

I use composite video cables on my HD widescreen purely out of spite.

Fucking format war pisses me off.  There's no rational reason for it being as big a deal as people are making it out to be.  It's no different from American Idol as far as I'm concerned.  I can see goddamn Ryan Seacrest standing in a goddamn Best Buy with his goddamn bullhorn:

"Is the next HD video format among us today?!"

Grrrrr, grumpy Manic is grumpy.  I need a drink.  >:(

[Tecknik]

PlayStation 3 > All

And Blu-ray is winning!

Yeah Blu-Ray has basically won it's a shame though seeing as how HD-DVD is the better media... But its all about advertising and getting it out there.  Putting Blu-ray on the PS3 was the best thing they could have done.

How is HD-DVD the better media?  Blu-ray discs hold larger amounts of data than HD-DVDs do.

If you compare the numbers Blu-Ray "player" (PS3) owners, then yes the hardware has a better penetration versus what they compared it to (standalone HD-DVD players, I.e. not the Xbox 360 add-on, so not exactly a fair comparison). If you compare the number of Blu-Ray "player" owners versus the number of movies actually bought by each owner notwithstanding the freebies, it's not that impressive.

And then if you compare the reaction that Asia and Europe will have to this supposed "win", Blu Ray don't look very healthy at all. They have no penetration in Asia, since they already have CHD-DVD and it's a cheaper option (natch), and Europeans will not stand for stupid arbitrary region coding and a platform with absolutely no common base standards.

Blu-Ray might have won the hype war in the US (and to the average US consumer that's all that matters), but they most certainly don't own the market any more than Wii won the console war.

http://www.ripten.com/2008/01/05/pie-charts-show-true-impact-of-warners-move-bluray/

When Blu-ray discs are already outselling HD-DVDs 4:1 in the US, 7:1 in Europe, and 9:1 in Japan, Toshiba only ever had cheaper HD-DVD players to support them. Even though greater sales of HD-DVD stand alone players was touted, they failed to take into account the Playstation 3.

Not received well in Europe and Asia?  Looks like Blu-ray has been received better in Japan and Europe than it has in the US.

Also, PS3 numbers were not originally included in the Blu-ray player vs. HD-DVD player counts.  That is why HD-DVD players (Players, not movies) have shown higher sales.  It has only been lately that PS3 numbers have been included after polls showed that 87% of PS3 owners also use their players to watch Blu-ray movies.  Before that, they were considering the PS3 a gaming system only.  It's not Sony's fault that Microsoft decided to get greedy and sell the HD-DVD player as an add-on instead of building one in.

Hype war?  Now I'm really confused.  What hype war?  As far as I'm concerned, Blu-ray has won the HD Media war.  Only two major movie studios are supporting HD-DVD, with one of those two (Paramount, and with them - DreamWorks) teetering very close to making the switch BACK to Blu-ray.  I hope they do because I want Transformers in HD and I'm not buying a HD-DVD player for one movie.

[Anonymous]

Size of the discs makes no difference, they use the same codecs (usually), and in fact Blu-Ray often have less superior sound tracks on them - and the extra space certainly isn't being used for extras!

If you're more interested in sales numbers rather than the supposition in the link you posted, try http://charts.highdefdigest.com/versus.aspx.  Then tell me why PS3s weren't exactly flying off the shelves in Europe - at launch they had to GIVE AWAY TVs with them.  BR priced themselves out of the market early on and forced people into using a format that was nowhere near ready.  The Japanese market certainly didn't adopt either since PS2 sales far outstripped any PS3 sales, in any case the incredibly fickle Japanese market hasn't had any impact at all on hardware adoption, which will be led by China and Taiwan.

If you're really interested to see the hype war, take a look at Sony's accounts (I know their accountants) and see how much they've spent on promotion since they booted their latest format (and why not compare to Betamax, Mini Disc, UMD...).

[Anonymous]

Following the Gowers report on intellectual property law in the UK, the government is now asking for your input on various potential changes, including the right to make copies for personal use. You can count on big content to respond very forcefully against giving you any rights whatsoever - but it's up to you to make sure that your side of the story is heard. So grab a copy of the proposals, read it carefully, and then follow the instructions on how to respond.

Meanwhile, back at CES, the Blu boys had their big press conference and I cannot resist to play with the numbers a little: Afaik, we're talking about 4 million PS3's in the US and Toshiba's own press conference yielded about parity in terms of standalones (they say they made 49.3% of all high def players made - and there's a small percentage of others which should include both HD DVD and Blu-ray makers), and with 1 million HD DVD standalones, parity should mean 1 million Blu-ray standalones (I feel the number should be lower but let's let it be until better numbers arrive). Now the Blu-ray camp expects to sell another 3 million PS3's and 2 million standalones. So that's 5 million total, which is about the same number as they had in 2007 - is anybody else wondering why that number shouldn't go up? I mean - there are some important PS3 exclusive games coming up, and starting June 1st, Warner won't release any HD DVDs anymore (it appears more and more that they're only sticking around to fulfill some contractual obligations).

BD-Live was also a big topic - and once again I cannot resist but point out how the Blu camp constantly downplayed HD DVD's interactivity features up until the point where they finally caught up. If it's them doing it, nobody should care - if it's use, it's all the rage. That's marketing in a nutshell for you.. Be careful though, a large percentage of those 2 million standalone players won't be able to handle BD-Live.

And in the first mention of this tidbit ever (anyone else wondering why it didn't come out with the $150 payoff back when Paramount/Dreamworks dumped Blu-ray), the Financial Times reports that Paramount might have an escape clause built into their HD DVD contract. I've seen this in two FT stories within 24h, and the latter one seems to imply that Paramount is about to switch back to Blu-ray. Paramount promptly denied that rumor. Of course, Warner also denied it would change from its dual format strategy for a long time. But until you see Transformers in a blue case - Paramount remains in the HD DVD camp. And I wonder why people won't sit back, enjoy a beer, and watch the show evolve rather than engage in the rumor mill that is already working overtime.

Besides all the HD commotion, CES also had an industry panel discussion on DRM. Ars has the details.

And now I'm going to sit back and watch the show myself

http://www.doom9.org/

[NoCry]

the charts high def link did not work for me. Being a PS3 owner I am sitting smug.

[Anonymous]

Yes well good luck when the films you want are being released in the US three months before we get them here.  As a HD-DVD owner I will be sitting smug.

[NoCry]

but with limited and increasing out of date content perhaps? :roll3:

[Anonymous]

I'll be happy with the ongoing releases, and the inevitable turnarounds that are going to happen when the dumbasses who think HD-DVD is dead (see above post) realise profile 1.1 players won't be able to play profile 2.0 discs... :roll3:

Oh and then there's the "technical glitches"!