Format War

[jodhas]

I've googled "Who's winning the format war?" and all i got were old articles.
So whats the latest in this format war?

 

[ShawnD1]

Which one?

 

[Slugbait]

If you speak of Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD, nobody is winning yet. That doesn't stop Blu-pushers from crowing "Look at all the movies sold! Look at all the PS3 boxes out there!"

Forrester Research is slightly more analytical:

"Blu-ray needs to offer a viable hardware model at the 250 dollar price point by Christmas 2007. The camp must also stave off further studio defections, and employ more aggressive promotional tactics to counter HD DVD?s recent momentum." If the camp can?t deliver on this it risks opening up the format to a "possible upset defeat at the hands of HD DVD".

Unfortunately, the cheapest Blu-ray player won't crack the $300 price point by then, much less $250. They're still hovering around $450-$500 per unit, and it would be unrealistic that they would slash prices by 50% over the next two months.

HD-DVD on the other hand cracked the $300 price point months ago. You might even be able to find some deals on BF where you could pick one up for under $250.

Dreamworks is taking advantage of HD-DVD features that can't be done with Blu-ray for the upcoming Shrek release. Numerous other camps are also falling off the exclusive Blu-ray wagon. It just adds another chapter to a so-called "format war" that will not end anytime soon...

 

[jodhas]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Which one?

Ooops, I meant the BlueRay vs HDDVD.

I was at Costco the other day and they had relatively affordable HDDVD players.
I want to take advantage of my 60" plasma. I really didn't care much for the HD stuff until I recently watched Equilibirum in HD at a friends house, (he owns the same 60" plasma as I do). I was utterly impressed with the quality.

I think watching movies in HD quality will keep my family members impressed and entertained as the holiday season rolls around.

I just wanted some feed back to see whether I should buy a HDDVD player or a PS3 (i think that is the cheapest BR player. I don't play games but i can try =) )

Thanks for your input!

 

[0roo0roo]

hddvd is looking more profitable
yields on bluray are heard to be low...meaning unprofitable for studios

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: jodhas
"Who's winning the format war?"

I think most people have standardized on NTFS, though FAT32 still remains the favorite for USB media.

 

[jkresh]

at the moment nobody is winning (blueray has a slight lead but the numbers are so small on both its way to early to tell). If I had to make a bet I would guess hybrid drives (which are out but expensive) will mean that ultimately neither format wins (though for pc usage blue-ray probably will because of the higher capacity). As for buying a player for home usage I would recommend looking at what movies are available and buying the drive that can play most of what you want, both look really good (I have an hd-dvd drive for my 360 and a ps3 and have used both on a 1080p projector and the quality is much better then even hd cable channels).