Video Format War is OVER!!! Blu-Ray Has Won

[videopho]

Toshiba is to pull the plug on HD and conceds to BR


I myself own two HD-DVD players, one being Toshiba A2 and XBOX is the other.
Not sure what to do with them just yet, perhaps donate them to Smithsonian.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: videopho
Toshiba is to pull the plug on HD and conceds to BR


I myself own two HD-DVD players, one being Toshiba A2 and XBOX is the other.
Not sure what to do with them just yet, perhaps donate them to Smithsonian.

Methinks you should have bought one of each. Then you would have been only half as screwed. But, hindsight is 20/20. BlueRay players are still darn expensive though.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

How about a PS3? $500 for a $900 blu-ray player and it plays games and runs linux.

 

[videopho]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: videopho
Toshiba is to pull the plug on HD and conceds to BR


I myself own two HD-DVD players, one being Toshiba A2 and XBOX is the other.
Not sure what to do with them just yet, perhaps donate them to Smithsonian.

Methinks you should have bought one of each. Then you would have been only half as screwed. But, hindsight is 20/20. BlueRay players are still darn expensive though.

"BR players are darn expensive"

You're darn right on that count!
What I paid for both HD players cost only half of what I'd have paid for a BR player at the time.

 

[lopri]

Well, people should have known at least one thing: Sony would have never given up.

Sony could not lose. (meaning that they could not afford to lose because the damage loss would be catastrophic to the company) Studios or other members of Blu-Ray Disc Association or HD-DVD Promotional Group could change their minds if there were enough reasons, but for Sony it was almost a matter of life and death.

 

[MustISO]

Blu-Ray players start at $399 (probably less if you shop around). That's not that expensive. Sure it may be more than some HD-DVD players but which would you rather own at this point?

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: MustISO
Blu-Ray players start at $399 (probably less if you shop around). That's not that expensive. Sure it may be more than some HD-DVD players but which would you rather own at this point?

Yes, it is expensive. How vast a difference is there between a conventional DVD player (which could be had for under 50 bucks) and the technology that goes into blue ray? Aside from the crammed information on a single disc, and a laser that can read such crammed data, what is so monumentally different? I'm gonna have to say not much, and this is only a means for Sony/Toshiba to make a killing. Not only are the players exponentially more expensive, but each individual movie is costly over conventional DVD's.

Clearer picture? To be sure. Very nice. But not nice enough to justify it's overall costs for a player and any subsequent movie you buy for it. Corporate rape.

P.S. I almost bought the Sharp Aquos 52" 120MHz LCD because it was offered with a free BlueRay player. Tempting. But then, I figured the "free" player was just incorporated into the TV's price. nothing is free.

 

[lopri]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
Clearer picture? To be sure. Very nice. But not nice enough to justify it's overall costs for a player and any subsequent movie you buy for it. Corporate rape.

Disagreed. The price difference of new release is usually ~$10. ($20 for DVD, $30 for Blu-Ray/HD-DVD) I'd say spending $20 on DVD is a waste of money if you have a HD capable player and display set.

To me the difference is night and day. I stopped purchasing SD-DVD long time ago, unless it's a bargain bin stuff (i.e. $4~5)

 

[apoppin]

the good news is that it happened relatively early ... unlike with the Beta vs. VHS wars

all it took was for Sony to follow my suggestions ... Slash the price of the PS3 and promote the hell out of it
:Q

of course

No one answered the phone at Toshiba's public relations office in Tokyo.

i hope you already sold your Toshiba stock

 

[s44]

You can use the standalone as an upconverting DVD player for a while... Though of course the PS3 does that quite well itself.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: apoppin
the good news is that it happened relatively early ... unlike with the Beta vs. VHS wars

all it took was for Sony to follow my suggestions ... Slash the price of the PS3 and promote the hell out of it
:Q

of course

No one answered the phone at Toshiba's public relations office in Tokyo.

i hope you already sold your Toshiba stock

I dunno, I personally wouldn't say it good news period. At Best Buy a Toshiba HD-A30 runs $199.99 and a Sony BDP-S300 or PS3 runs $399.99.

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003

Originally posted by: videopho
Toshiba is to pull the plug on HD and conceds to BR


I myself own two HD-DVD players, one being Toshiba A2 and XBOX is the other.
Not sure what to do with them just yet, perhaps donate them to Smithsonian.

Methinks you should have bought one of each. Then you would have been only half as screwed. But, hindsight is 20/20. BlueRay players are still darn expensive though.

Aint that the truth. I am counting my collection and it sits at 24 HD-DVDs. With the player I spent about 400 bucks. I cant even get a good BluRay player for that money

Ill get a BluRay player, but not until the profile 2.0 players are in the sub 150 market. Until then Ill gobble up as many HD-DVD specials as possible and enjoy them for years to come.

 

[AmdInside]

Originally posted by: apoppin
the good news is that it happened relatively early ... unlike with the Beta vs. VHS wars

all it took was for Sony to follow my suggestions ... Slash the price of the PS3 and promote the hell out of it
:Q

of course

No one answered the phone at Toshiba's public relations office in Tokyo.

i hope you already sold your Toshiba stock

Umm.....that is not what won it for Blu-ray. Stronger studio support and better features (even if they aren't yet all implimented) is what won it for Blu-ray. When a company resorts to losing money or breaking even on a technology product (Toshiba), you arent' going to get a lot of partners who want to join in with you. Yes there are exceptions like gaming consoles but that is a different business model. I think Sony learned from their failure with Betamax. Movie studios got better technology, better copy protection. Hardware manufacturers got the ability to sell their players for profit, not take a loss like Toshiba. Consumers got the best movies from Blu-ray. I am personally upset with Toshiba for making consumers go through this whole format war. I read somewhere Toshiba was going to concede before they released HD-DVD but Microsoft encouraged them to release their products (and make people hate the format war so much, they would consider adoption video downloads). Don't know how true that is but I wish they had never released HD-DVD. I've tried HD-DVD. I own two players (one because I needed a cheap DVD player for my bedroom and the other came free with my Toshiba HDTV purchase). But I've only purchased a couple of HD-DVD titles because it was obvious to me from the beginning Blu-ray was going to win.

 

[Rike]

Originally posted by: nitromullet

Originally posted by: apoppin
the good news is that it happened relatively early ... unlike with the Beta vs. VHS wars

all it took was for Sony to follow my suggestions ... Slash the price of the PS3 and promote the hell out of it
:Q

of course

No one answered the phone at Toshiba's public relations office in Tokyo.

i hope you already sold your Toshiba stock

I dunno, I personally wouldn't say it good news period. At Best Buy a Toshiba HD-A30 runs $199.99 and a Sony BDP-S300 or PS3 runs $399.99.

It my not be good news in the short term, but prices will drop as corporate resources now get dedicated to one format. I'm also guessing that demand will increase as those of us who have been waiting for the war to be over may finally get on board. Economies of scale should kick in over the next year or so.

Of course that could all get killed if someone figures out how to do downloadable content in HD, make the content owners happy, make it easy for the consumer to use, make it less expensive than discs, and make it widely popular.

 

[videopho]

My prediction Blue Ray will eventually die off just like its short-lived sibling SACD.
Granted that average Jack/Joe would never buy this type of BR or HD-DVD machine and willing to shell out $20 per movie.
Neither machines would never hit main stream, anyway.
Video-On-Demand would have killed either format sooner or later.

 

[apoppin]

i know ... what i am really saying is that Sony got off to a very bad start ... it appeared that they Assumed that the PS3 and BluRay would sell itself - it didn't
-i just pointed out in my original thread a year ago here that their laxness would cost them - like back in the Beta days when their *superior* product lost to an inferior one by JVC and friends.

and they figured out their problem and also did the insider deals and played up the advantages of their product - unlike before

HD's only real advantage wast that it was a bit cheaper ... technology 'won' this time and Sony's recent PS3 price drop coupled with the Blu-Ray advertising/promotions blitz sure didn't hurt

 

[Apocalypse23]

Thank got i bought a ps3 and thank god blu ray won it finally. its better, has more capacity atleast and I LOVE 1080P 46" BLURAY MOVIE WATCHING!! LOL!

 

[angry hampster]

Originally posted by: videopho
My prediction Blue Ray will eventually die off just like its short-lived sibling SACD.
Granted that average Jack/Joe would never buy this type of BR or HD-DVD machine and willing to shell out $20 per movie.
Neither machines would never hit main stream, anyway.
Video-On-Demand would have killed either format sooner or later.

SACD was doomed from the beginning. The average joe wouldn't ever know the difference listening to an SACD in comparison to a standard CD. Unless high-end components are at play, they sound identical. It's like listening to a 320kb/s MP3 on $9 wal-mart special headphones.

However, the average joe can tell a huge difference between the picture of a Bluray disc and a DVD. Also, new DVD releases are $20 at most stores. I've seen BR discs as low as $10. Bluray is also a very appealing name and it has a nice looking logo.

Thousands of people are upgrading to HD televisions daily. When bluray players get down below $150, sales will take off and eventually begin to phase out DVDs, as DVDs did to VHS in the late 1990s.

I think video on demand will have its place, but it won't take over the industry. People love showing off their dvd collection, and I'm one of them. Having digital copies of everything isn't always appealing.

Also, this is all without mentioning Home Theatre PC's. These are becoming practically commonplace with the release of windows media center and absurdly cheap component prices. A bluray drive for an HTPC would cost you ~$180 today. By summer it'll be down to $125, guaranteed.

 

[Apocalypse23]

now if only they will release TRANSFORMERS on BLU-RAY, i so wanna see that movie badly!!!

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: Apocalypse23
Thank got i bought a ps3 and thank god blu ray won it finally. its better, has more capacity atleast and I LOVE 1080P 46" BLURAY MOVIE WATCHING!! LOL!

There really isnt much difference between the two. They both encode movies the same. I believe BluRay may have a lossless audio option which if you have the audio setup is nice. The majority of people dont so the point is moot. And capacity means nothing, honestly.

The difference between 1080i and 1080p if you TV deinterlaces correctly is nill as well.

 

[Kromis]

If you're gonna pronounce a winner, at least spell their name right (Blu-Ray)

 

[Apocalypse23]

Originally posted by: Genx87

Originally posted by: Apocalypse23
Thank got i bought a ps3 and thank god blu ray won it finally. its better, has more capacity atleast and I LOVE 1080P 46" BLURAY MOVIE WATCHING!! LOL!

There really isnt much difference between the two. They both encode movies the same. I believe BluRay may have a lossless audio option which if you have the audio setup is nice. The majority of people dont so the point is moot. And capacity means nothing, honestly.

The difference between 1080i and 1080p if you TV deinterlaces correctly is nill as well.

there is a HUGE DIFFERENCE betwen 1080i and 1080p dude, you see the real difference in 1080p at 46" tvs and larger sizes, 1080p is so much more in depth and detail than 1080i. that's why i think hi def channels are not as good as 1080p because there isnt even enough bandwidth available to do that over satellite.

 

[adairusmc]

Originally posted by: Apocalypse23
now if only they will release TRANSFORMERS on BLU-RAY, i so wanna see that movie badly!!!

It is out on DVD you know.

 

[Apocalypse23]

Originally posted by: adairusmc

Originally posted by: Apocalypse23
now if only they will release TRANSFORMERS on BLU-RAY, i so wanna see that movie badly!!!

It is out on DVD you know.

i only watch blu-rays though once you watch blu-rays you don't wanna go back

1080p FTW!

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: keysplayr2003
P.S. I almost bought the Sharp Aquos 52" 120MHz LCD because it was offered with a free BlueRay player. Tempting. But then, I figured the "free" player was just incorporated into the TV's price. nothing is free.

I have a 46" Sharp Aquos 60Mhz LCD and it makes my Dell 2405 looked washed out and blurry. I'd reccomend one.