Originally posted by: mugs
Originally posted by: joshsquall
Now they can compete based on price. They can upgrade tech as well. BR changed the codec they were using recently to improve image quality.
You don't need two standards to compete on price. Multiple manufacturers will compete on price. Like... DVD. The other codecs aren't new, they were part of the Blu-Ray standard when the first player was released (as well as the HD-DVD standard - they use the same codecs).
Having two competing standards is bad for a few reasons. Among them are:
- Many people are going to be left with a big paperweight eventually. Possibly a big paperweight and a bunch of coasters.
- Consumers will decide which standard "wins." That's bad. Consumers will choose based on the wrong reasons. i.e. HD-DVD has DVD in the name, so it's more familiar. People don't like Sony. People do like Sony. Movie X is only available on format Y. Etc.
Actually I don't agree with the paperweight assessment. I can't speak for the Blu-Ray players, but part of the reason I purchased my HD-DVD unit was for it's upconversion capabilities. The toshiba HD-DVD players are considered very good upconverting players for standard dvds. So even if HD-DVD fails, at least I have my current HD-DVD collection, and my regular dvd items to fall back on.
