The HD Format War Thread

[Bitek]

Toshiba ran a worse campaign than Gulliani w/ HDDVD. Too bad as I really like HD and have no interest in Gayray Disks. The HD picture is nice, but not $500 player nice.

I picked up a A30 player for cheap. Between the player and the free movies its a hell of a deal. Ill have it for a few good HDDVD movies, and else I'll just upscale my reg DVDs. I'm quite fine with that. The only really crappy part is Netflix dropping HDDVD. Oh well. I won't be buying a BR player for a very very long time. I just don't care that much.

it was obvious Sony was on the ropes w/ PS3 and could not afford to have BRD fail, potentially putting the death nail into their expensive console based around a failed format. MS should have helped Toshiba buy out Warner's loyalty just to stick it to Sony. Now the PS3 looks like a much more viable option now the format war is nearly over. Their strategery sucked...

 

[SoulAssassin]

Blu-ray question for you guys...specifically with the PS3.....will it do 1080i or 720p if your tv doesn't support 1080p?

 

[spacejamz]

yes, you can set it to do either.

 

[SoulAssassin]

thx

 

[cubby1223]

The issue the PS3 had is with the old hdtvs that only did 480p/1080i (not support 720p), and most games are 720p, the PS3 would output 480p instead of upscaling to 1080i. I don't remember if they corrected this or not in a firmware upgrate.

Nearly all Blu-ray movies are 1080p, few are 1080i, I'm not aware of any 720p titles. Either way they'll all play at the resolution you specify in the setup.

 

[galperi1]

well.... it looks like Toshiba may be calling it quits sooner than expected....

Toshiba to drop HD-DVD, inside sources say

 

[Genx87]

The rumor I saw on AVS today was Toshiba will make a BluRay player and moved it upto a July release.

btw I dont buy Toshiba is selling those A3s at a several hundred dollar loss. A HD-DVD CE company is selling a similar product for 169 bucks at Walmart.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: galperi1
well.... it looks like Toshiba may be calling it quits sooner than expected....

Toshiba to drop HD-DVD, inside sources say

As long as Toshiba continues to support HD DVD by offering dual format players I will be happy.

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: galperi1
well.... it looks like Toshiba may be calling it quits sooner than expected....

Toshiba to drop HD-DVD, inside sources say

Here's the source article.

Highlights:

The format war has turned into a format death watch.

?Given the market developments in the past month,? she said, ?Toshiba will continue to study the market impact and the value proposition for consumers, particularly in light of our recent price reductions on all HD DVD players.?

But in the end, sources say, the substantial loss Toshiba is incurring with each HD DVD player sold ? a figure sources say could be as high as several hundred dollars ? coupled with a series of high-profile retail defections, have driven the company to at last concede defeat.

?An announcement is coming soon,? said one source close to the HD DVD camp. ?It would be a matter of weeks.?

The sooner the better. Paramount and Universal will be releasing Blu-Ray movies by Christmas 2008.

 

[cubby1223]

Originally posted by: Genx87
btw I dont buy Toshiba is selling those A3s at a several hundred dollar loss. A HD-DVD CE company is selling a similar product for 169 bucks at Walmart.

Welcome to 3 months ago.

The proof that Toshiba is not losing money on the HD-A3... lies with the price of a rebadged HD-A3, which Toshiba also controls the price of?

 

[lopri]

Wow.. I know it's still just a rumour from "credible source", but if that's true.. That's seems a little too fast..? I mean, wouldn't it be funny if Toshiba throw a towel before Universal and Paramount convert?

Or maybe HD-DVD Promotional Group will jointly (Toshiba, MS, Uni/Para) announce the defeat? I can't believe it's moving so fast after Waner's move. I mean, even Warner is still pressing HD-DVD titles..

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: lopri
Wow.. I know it's still just a rumour from "credible source", but if that's true.. That's seems a little too fast..? I mean, wouldn't it be funny if Toshiba throw a towel before Universal and Paramount convert?

That's actually the reason I don't think that The Hollywood Reporter is doing anything more than speculate. You generally don't toss in the towel until things are completely dead, and HD-DVD just isn't quite there when they've got two studios in the bag.

"Credible source" could mean just about anything.

 

[jpeyton]

Toshiba UK:

"We are aware of the speculation, but have no comment ? there is no information I can give you at the moment."

If Toshiba wasn't planning on killing HD DVD, they would have had a comment.

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Toshiba UK:

"We are aware of the speculation, but have no comment ? there is no information I can give you at the moment."

If Toshiba wasn't planning on killing HD DVD, they would have had a comment.

Or they simply weren't prepared to talk about it at that time. Inferring information from lack of information is a tricky business.

 

[cliftonite]

Walmart to drop HD-DVD by June. Not sure if we need to waste anymore nails on this coffin.

 

[spacejamz]

Originally posted by: erwos

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Toshiba UK:

"We are aware of the speculation, but have no comment ? there is no information I can give you at the moment."

If Toshiba wasn't planning on killing HD DVD, they would have had a comment.

Or they simply weren't prepared to talk about it at that time. Inferring information from lack of information is a tricky business.

No, but not immediately denouncing this story as false (given the signficant nature of this story) speaks volumes.

Now that every major media outlet will be running this story today with Toshiba's 'NO COMMENT' is not a strong sign of confidence in their format.

 

[Ricochet]

$10 HD DVD titles here I come.

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: ricochet
$10 HD DVD titles here I come.

Deepdiscount has a bunch for $12.50 w/ free shipping.
http://www.deepdiscount.com/HD...tId462364VVviewcat.htm

 

[Ricochet]

Originally posted by: Shawn

Originally posted by: ricochet
$10 HD DVD titles here I come.

Deepdiscount has a bunch for $12.50 w/ free shipping.
http://www.deepdiscount.com/HD...tId462364VVviewcat.htm

I saw that from the Hot Deals forum. I pretty much got all the titles I want at $12.20 a piece. Some movies I'm just not willing to pay more than $10 for.

 

[JC86]

Walmart's approach is similar to Warner though, it's slowly phasing out HD DVD and not dropping it immediately. I doubt Toshiba is goign to completely drop HD DVD until the Fall when Warner and Wal Mart and the like officially kick HD DVD to the curb.

 

[cubby1223]

Originally posted by: cliftonite
Walmart to drop HD-DVD by June. Not sure if we need to waste anymore nails on this coffin.

This is why I kept calling Rob Enderle the biggest idiot out there:

http://news.digitaltrends.com/talkback184.html

Title: Wal-Mart Names HD DVD the Winner

Content: Wal-Mart won?t be promoting Blu-Ray and, after year end, will increasingly focus their marketing on getting people to buy into HD DVD players and the related HD DVD movie from them. In short, the Blu-Ray aligned studios will now have to either support both formats or risk losing much of Wal-Mart's business

 

[Ricochet]

Originally posted by: cubby1223

Originally posted by: cliftonite
Walmart to drop HD-DVD by June. Not sure if we need to waste anymore nails on this coffin.

This is why I kept calling Rob Enderle the biggest idiot out there:

http://news.digitaltrends.com/talkback184.html

Title: Wal-Mart Names HD DVD the Winner

Content: Wal-Mart won?t be promoting Blu-Ray and, after year end, will increasingly focus their marketing on getting people to buy into HD DVD players and the related HD DVD movie from them. In short, the Blu-Ray aligned studios will now have to either support both formats or risk losing much of Wal-Mart's business

I don't know of the guy, but what makes him the biggest idiot? Just because he predicted wrong? Plenty of smart people pick wrong stocks all the time. The fact is people cannot see the future. He simply wrote an opiniated piece of his prediction.

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: ricochet

Originally posted by: cubby1223

Originally posted by: cliftonite
Walmart to drop HD-DVD by June. Not sure if we need to waste anymore nails on this coffin.

This is why I kept calling Rob Enderle the biggest idiot out there:

http://news.digitaltrends.com/talkback184.html

Title: Wal-Mart Names HD DVD the Winner

Content: Wal-Mart won?t be promoting Blu-Ray and, after year end, will increasingly focus their marketing on getting people to buy into HD DVD players and the related HD DVD movie from them. In short, the Blu-Ray aligned studios will now have to either support both formats or risk losing much of Wal-Mart's business

I don't know of the guy, but what makes him the biggest idiot? Just because he predicted wrong? Plenty of smart people pick wrong stocks all the time. The fact is people cannot see the future. He simply wrote an opiniated piece of his prediction.

and being that he wrote it ahead of Paramount's switch to HD DVD exclusive, probably made him appear to be a genius some 7 months ago

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: ricochet

Originally posted by: cubby1223

Originally posted by: cliftonite
Walmart to drop HD-DVD by June. Not sure if we need to waste anymore nails on this coffin.

This is why I kept calling Rob Enderle the biggest idiot out there:

http://news.digitaltrends.com/talkback184.html

Title: Wal-Mart Names HD DVD the Winner

Content: Wal-Mart won?t be promoting Blu-Ray and, after year end, will increasingly focus their marketing on getting people to buy into HD DVD players and the related HD DVD movie from them. In short, the Blu-Ray aligned studios will now have to either support both formats or risk losing much of Wal-Mart's business

I don't know of the guy, but what makes him the biggest idiot? Just because he predicted wrong? Plenty of smart people pick wrong stocks all the time. The fact is people cannot see the future. He simply wrote an opiniated piece of his prediction.

No, he's an idiot, read this from a related article (after he was already proven wrong)

"I simply don?t see anything to suggest, including the PS3 sales numbers, that we are going to have enough Blu-Ray players in the market before downloads go mainstream and Blu-Ray will go the way of the Laser Disk as a result. Of course Blu-Ray could live on as a kind of wicked mini-lightsaber."

I, too, believe that eventually downloading/streaming movies will eventually be the standard.

What is extremely obvious already however, is that the saturation of the necessary services for that to work just won't be there in time to prevent a huge market penetration of BD. Not to mention it's going to take a massive paradigm shift for online movie purchases to even approach physical media purchase.

Look at a much older direct-digital media segment, music, for a visible trendline. Even to this day, good old physical CDs bring in a lot more $$ than online music has, or is likely to generate for a good time yet.

People like being able to buy a tangible physical product, particularly when they're forking $20+ per film. Add to that the convenience factor of not having to deal with Cable/Satellite/Computer/Streaming/Accounts/DSL/Cable/Fios/monthly fees/etc.

Will streaming/online movies play a part? I think yes, but I'd be surprised if by Xmas '08, there was 1 movie bought from streaming for every 5 bought on BD, or every 200 bought for good old DVD.

 

[Arkaign]

Ah, forgot to mention that streaming movies won't be able to approach HD-DVD/BD quality until we have a full nationwide 100mbit internet availability. Even the best current online HD video pales in comparison to a real 1080p disc.