Wal-Mart orders 2 million HD DVD players

[jmgonzalez]

Originally posted by: b0mbrman

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: cubby1223

Originally posted by: Eug Wanker
It's interesting to note that the top 10 has Blu-ray just barely ahead of HD DVD at the moment, even with Blu-ray's so-called large player base.

Those numbers are a slanted at the moment. AVS forums got a group of people together and buy maybe 200 hd-dvds on one day, and with current sales numbers, that small number of purchases makes a huge temporary swing. But you look at the Amazon sales figures that were skewed, almost all of the purchases were *pre-orders*, so these are sales that (1) will not occur for months, (2) will reduce sales numbers later in the year, and (3) can still be canceled at any time. The PS3 forums are planning retaliation this Saturday placing a lot of pre-orders of blu-ray movies among many PS3 owners.

This is one of the lamest things I've ever heard. What a bunch of wankers.

No kidding...

Hi

We actually bought close to 1000. We have a hobby and we enjoy it.

it's the same thing like the wankers on here obsessing about the latest Intel/AMD processor or $500 video card.

- hd dvd wanker

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: yowolabi

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: yowolabi

Is he correct about the article saying that the hd dvds can be mad on the same stampling lines as regular dvds? If he is, then you're wrong about which players they're referring to.

HD-DVD can be made on the same DVD line (with some upgrades). I am from Taiwan, I can read Mandarin Chinese in traditional form...

That's why I was saying that it doesn't make sense to argue about blu-ray and blue-laser/light. Instead, if you can confirm that the article says that the hd-dvds in question can be made on the same line as regular dvds, that means they aren't talking about blu-ray.

We are agreeing very forcefully

 

[b0mbrman]

Originally posted by: jmgonzalez

Originally posted by: b0mbrman

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: cubby1223

Originally posted by: Eug Wanker
It's interesting to note that the top 10 has Blu-ray just barely ahead of HD DVD at the moment, even with Blu-ray's so-called large player base.

Those numbers are a slanted at the moment. AVS forums got a group of people together and buy maybe 200 hd-dvds on one day, and with current sales numbers, that small number of purchases makes a huge temporary swing. But you look at the Amazon sales figures that were skewed, almost all of the purchases were *pre-orders*, so these are sales that (1) will not occur for months, (2) will reduce sales numbers later in the year, and (3) can still be canceled at any time. The PS3 forums are planning retaliation this Saturday placing a lot of pre-orders of blu-ray movies among many PS3 owners.

This is one of the lamest things I've ever heard. What a bunch of wankers.

No kidding...

Hi

We actually bought close to 1000. We have a hobby and we enjoy it.

it's the same thing like the wankers on here obsessing about the latest Intel/AMD processor or $500 video card.

- hd dvd wanker

Your hobby of keeping up with the latest news in HD technology is very normal and comparable to our keeping up with the latest computer technology.

Your hobby of swinging the market to spite fans of another format is rather wank-tastic.

 

[b0mbrman]

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: yowolabi

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: yowolabi

Is he correct about the article saying that the hd dvds can be mad on the same stampling lines as regular dvds? If he is, then you're wrong about which players they're referring to.

HD-DVD can be made on the same DVD line (with some upgrades). I am from Taiwan, I can read Mandarin Chinese in traditional form...

That's why I was saying that it doesn't make sense to argue about blu-ray and blue-laser/light. Instead, if you can confirm that the article says that the hd-dvds in question can be made on the same line as regular dvds, that means they aren't talking about blu-ray.

We are agreeing very forcefully

No YOU're right too! :|

 

[Shawn]

Originally posted by: b0mbrman

Originally posted by: jmgonzalez

Originally posted by: b0mbrman

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: cubby1223

Originally posted by: Eug Wanker
It's interesting to note that the top 10 has Blu-ray just barely ahead of HD DVD at the moment, even with Blu-ray's so-called large player base.

Those numbers are a slanted at the moment. AVS forums got a group of people together and buy maybe 200 hd-dvds on one day, and with current sales numbers, that small number of purchases makes a huge temporary swing. But you look at the Amazon sales figures that were skewed, almost all of the purchases were *pre-orders*, so these are sales that (1) will not occur for months, (2) will reduce sales numbers later in the year, and (3) can still be canceled at any time. The PS3 forums are planning retaliation this Saturday placing a lot of pre-orders of blu-ray movies among many PS3 owners.

This is one of the lamest things I've ever heard. What a bunch of wankers.

No kidding...

Hi

We actually bought close to 1000. We have a hobby and we enjoy it.

it's the same thing like the wankers on here obsessing about the latest Intel/AMD processor or $500 video card.

- hd dvd wanker

Your hobby of keeping up with the latest news in HD technology is very normal and comparable to our keeping up with the latest computer technology.

Your hobby of swinging the market to spite fans of another format is rather wank-tastic.

If I had the money I would buy 1 of every HD-DVD that Amazon carried just to spite Blu-ray and Sony. But I don't so I currently only have 5 HD-DVDs.

 

[jmgonzalez]

Originally posted by: b0mbrman

Your hobby of keeping up with the latest news in HD technology is very normal and comparable to our keeping up with the latest computer technology.

Your hobby of swinging the market to spite fans of another format is rather wank-tastic.[/quote]

Come on now - who hurt you?

If you think 1,000 units of something is going to sway something, you need to get out more often.

 

[Eug Wanker]

According to these posts:

1) It's definitely HD DVD.
2) TDK is supplying the laser assembly.
3) Fuh Yuan is making the drive.
4) BroadCom is supplying the System-On-Chip.
5) Mass production begins in August, with initial shipments in 2007.

 

[cubby1223]

Dang, got my hopes up hearing it might be blu-ray. At this point, Sony, Toshiba, I don't give a flying bleep. I just want some sense of sanity so I can start enjoying technology. If it were blu-ray (and there's still no guarantee Wal-Mart won't carry blu-ray players) then format war over. But now, we're still going to be deadlocked through Christmas with no sign of relief. Probably another *two full years* of this constant weekly game of trying to predict who's winning. Maybe I should just give into the mighty corporations and buy both products.

 

[sdifox]

Walmart already carry BD and HD-DVD movies. I don't see why they would pick a side. Money is money. This just means they thing people are more likely to buy HD-DVD because it's cheaper.

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: cubby1223
Dang, got my hopes up hearing it might be blu-ray. At this point, Sony, Toshiba, I don't give a flying bleep. I just want some sense of sanity so I can start enjoying technology. If it were blu-ray (and there's still no guarantee Wal-Mart won't carry blu-ray players) then format war over. But now, we're still going to be deadlocked through Christmas with no sign of relief. Probably another *two full years* of this constant weekly game of trying to predict who's winning. Maybe I should just give into the mighty corporations and buy both products.

The Walmart near me had a couple Blue-Ray players on clearance for $673 (down from $8xx).

And your corporate overlords would certainly appreciate the thought.

 

[cubby1223]

The two Wal-Marts nearest me don't have either hd-dvd or blu-ray movies or players (except for the PS3). I guess I just live out where no one cares about us.

 

[jadinolf]

Originally posted by: KLin
Your username made me chuckle.

Huge?

 

[Shortcut]

Originally posted by: KLin
Your username made me chuckle.

lol apparently eug is a very popular guy...the bartender always gets a call asking if eug is there...

 

[cubby1223]

Huh, the lightbulb finally clicked on in my head as to why Universal Studios will not support blu-ray. Universal is in bed with NBC, who is in bed with Microsoft, who wants the PS3 to die. It's so simple, why didn't I make the connection sooner?

Who wants to wager Microsoft has some money put into this Wal-Mart deal?

After another day of thought, even with these cheap players, blu-ray will be the sole survivor. The movie studios who are not in bed with Microsoft are all supportive of blu-ray - and manufacturers will not like putting out quality hd-dvd players to compete with the cheap Chinese manufacturers.

 

[zainali]

Originally posted by: cubby1223
Huh, the lightbulb finally clicked on in my head as to why Universal Studios will not support blu-ray. Universal is in bed with NBC, who is in bed with Microsoft, who wants the PS3 to die. It's so simple, why didn't I make the connection sooner?

Who wants to wager Microsoft has some money put into this Wal-Mart deal?

After another day of thought, even with these cheap players, blu-ray will be the sole survivor. The movie studios who are not in bed with Microsoft are all supportive of blu-ray - and manufacturers will not like putting out quality hd-dvd players to compete with the cheap Chinese manufacturers.

what difference does it make who's in bed with who?

only thing i care about is how fast the prices of the hd-dvd/bluray come down.

 

[Eug Wanker]

Originally posted by: sdifox
Walmart already carry BD and HD-DVD movies. I don't see why they would pick a side. Money is money. This just means they thing people are more likely to buy HD-DVD because it's cheaper.

Well, at $199, they could move a lot of HD DVD units, along with a lot of discs and HDTVs to go along with them.

However, I fully expect them to continue selling Blu-ray players (ie. PS3, and possibly others) as well as Blu-ray movies.

Originally posted by: cubby1223
Huh, the lightbulb finally clicked on in my head as to why Universal Studios will not support blu-ray. Universal is in bed with NBC, who is in bed with Microsoft, who wants the PS3 to die. It's so simple, why didn't I make the connection sooner?

Who wants to wager Microsoft has some money put into this Wal-Mart deal?

Dunno about how much money per se, but I suspect that the OS is based off Windows CE. The rumour mill states that the SoC in the new player is a Broadcom, and Microsoft and Broadcom had already announced that they had created a reference design to make it easier for third parties (like Chinese manufacturers) to make HD DVD players.

Microsoft and Broadcom Corp. announced a joint effort to support a hardware and software reference design for more cost-efficient HD DVD playback. The new platform uses Microsoft Windows CE 6.0 and Broadcom's BCM7440 system-on-chip solution, allowing consumer electronics manufacturers, original design manufacturers and systems integrators to more easily and affordably deliver HD DVD playback. Several of the more innovative consumer electronics companies plan to use this new hardware and software platform to speed the production of HD DVD players, including Lite-On IT Corp., one of the most experienced systems integrators backing high-volume consumer electronics manufacturers, and Zhenjiang Jiangkui Group Co. Ltd./ED Digital, one of the largest, high-volume manufacturers of DVD players in China.

 

[LegendKiller]

Originally posted by: cubby1223
Huh, the lightbulb finally clicked on in my head as to why Universal Studios will not support blu-ray. Universal is in bed with NBC, who is in bed with Microsoft, who wants the PS3 to die. It's so simple, why didn't I make the connection sooner?

Who wants to wager Microsoft has some money put into this Wal-Mart deal?

After another day of thought, even with these cheap players, blu-ray will be the sole survivor. The movie studios who are not in bed with Microsoft are all supportive of blu-ray - and manufacturers will not like putting out quality hd-dvd players to compete with the cheap Chinese manufacturers.

When it comes down to it, once a player takes off, they will have no choice but to support it If the standard fails then why keep supporting it and lose out on revenues.

 

[cubby1223]

Originally posted by: zainali

Originally posted by: cubby1223
Huh, the lightbulb finally clicked on in my head as to why Universal Studios will not support blu-ray. Universal is in bed with NBC, who is in bed with Microsoft, who wants the PS3 to die. It's so simple, why didn't I make the connection sooner?

Who wants to wager Microsoft has some money put into this Wal-Mart deal?

After another day of thought, even with these cheap players, blu-ray will be the sole survivor. The movie studios who are not in bed with Microsoft are all supportive of blu-ray - and manufacturers will not like putting out quality hd-dvd players to compete with the cheap Chinese manufacturers.

what difference does it make who's in bed with who?

only thing i care about is how fast the prices of the hd-dvd/bluray come down.

Well, it just solves my own puzzlement of why Universal is the only major studio not supporting blu-ray. It just seems wrong that consumers have to be put through this mess for what continues to look like nothing more than Microsoft wanting to completely dominate the video game segment. Yeah, I'm usually a conspiracist when it comes to Microsoft - but there is no denying that MS wants their hands in most everything.

As for price, if we had one sole format (either way), I'd sure bet that many more manufacturers would be making players, and many more movie studios would be releasing titles - and far more sales by consumers - that the price would have dropped by now further than what we're seeing in this current "war".

 

[Eug Wanker]

Well, it puzzles me why Disney isn't supporting HD DVD, particularly when Disney helped design the interactive features in HD DVD's HDi.

P.S. Microsoft wants to do well yes, but then again, so does Sony. In fact, they went as far to stick a Blu-ray player in every single PS3, whether people want to pay for it or not in their console.

 

[AkumaX]

Originally posted by: KLin
Your username made me chuckle.

i didnt notice. i looked. :laugh:

 

[Eug Wanker]

I'm here to serve... I'm glad my handle can bring joy to so many.

 

[cubby1223]

Originally posted by: Eug Wanker
Well, it puzzles me why Disney isn't supporting HD DVD, particularly when Disney helped design the interactive features in HD DVD's HDi.

The other half of it is that the both Disney and FOX chose blu-ray is for the BD+ technology where someone can not download a key to copy the movie. Ever since the "pirates" were able to extract keys from movies (blu-ray & hd-dvd), both Disney & FOX have canceled nearly all of their releases. Latest word on BD+ is it's past the testing phase and will appear "soon".

I do not think there is a corresponding technology in hd-dvd.

However you want to take it, the studios are supporting the technology that is putting up the most roadblocks to copying discs. Or in particular in this situation, not supporting any technology that is not secure enough in their eyes.

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

The worst part is, this copy protection scheme isn't stopping anything and I doubt it ever will. I can understand that companies want to protect their IP, but all it takes is one ripped copy (however that happens) to make it on the net and the cat is out of the bag.

Meanwhile, paying customers have to put up with all kinds of restrictions and are prevented from using their legally purchased media without jumping through all kinds of hoops. BTW, if any of you want to read an interesting book about this, check out Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle
The worst part is, this copy protection scheme isn't stopping anything and I doubt it ever will. I can understand that companies want to protect their IP, but all it takes is one ripped copy (however that happens) to make it on the net and the cat is out of the bag.

Meanwhile, paying customers have to put up with all kinds of restrictions and are prevented from using their legally purchased media without jumping through all kinds of hoops. BTW, if any of you want to read an interesting book about this, check out Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig.

Copy protection is generally targeted at the casual pirate who shares stuff with friends and relatives and who may not even know that what they're doing is illegal.

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle
The worst part is, this copy protection scheme isn't stopping anything and I doubt it ever will. I can understand that companies want to protect their IP, but all it takes is one ripped copy (however that happens) to make it on the net and the cat is out of the bag.

Meanwhile, paying customers have to put up with all kinds of restrictions and are prevented from using their legally purchased media without jumping through all kinds of hoops. BTW, if any of you want to read an interesting book about this, check out Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig.

Copy protection is generally targeted at the casual pirate who shares stuff with friends and relatives and who may not even know that what they're doing is illegal.

HDCP requirements for digital outputs are not for preventing casual copying. The casual consumer isn't going to take a DVI cable, loop it to a DVI input, wait for the movie to play in real time and recompress the raw stream to burn for his friend.

AACS is way more than just trying to stop the casual pirate as well. Besides, as I said, once a movie is up on the web every Tom, Dick, and Harry can download it; so preventing the casual copy is useless until you can stop movies from being distributed illegally on the net.