Is the HD war over?

I heard that Disney is selling Blue-Ray (only) at the Disney Store. Talk about a big player at the poker game!

Stick a fork in 'em. They are done.

 

If Blue Ray (I believe the proper nomenclature is actually 'Blu-ray') does prevail over HD DVD, won't it be one of the few times a Sony-dedicated product has won out over its competitor?

Usually, those Sony-licensed products, although having superior capabilities, seem to eventually get hammered in the marketplace. Although I'm not a fan of Sony, I'm even less of a fan of Microsoft (one of the champions of HD DVD) so I hope its Blu-ray that eventually becomes the industry standard.

 

You can never be sure with these format wars, but Blu-ray appears to have won. I haven't bought one yet, but only because they were on the first generation. The new Sony player is out, and the price is now under $500, so I'll probably make the plunge soon.

Tom

 

Blu-Ray propaganda won't distract from the true war: DVD REPLACEMENT

Until either HD format is cheap enough to take the place of DVD, the battle will continue.

That means stand-alone players absolutely must be no more expensive than $199 and the discs themselves only a small amount more than what DVD costs now.

It's joe-average that will ultimately cast the deciding vote, not the HD enthusiasts. Otherwise, HD will just remain a niche... not truly winning.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eagle33199 @ Jul 27 2007, 10:01 AM) [snapback]486068[/snapback]</div>

I say too early to call.

For one, HD players are *much* cheaper than Blu-Ray.
Second, both blockbuster online and netFlix carry both formats
Third, most of the PC manufacturers support HD-DVD. If they start bundling the drive into computers, the player market could change really fast, with distribution and content providers following.

 

Since I own both a HD-DVD player and a PS3 (Blu-Ray) player it really makes no difference to me which format declares itself the "winner"... IMO however, Sony in its infinite wisdom chose to go at it alone and create this format "war" just like they did back in the 70's with their Betamax wiich I think is a major disservice to the consumer.

A lot of sales numbers can be manipulated in Sony's favor as they are counting the number of PS3 units sold and since they recently had a 100 dollar price drop on the PS3, it has been a strong seller for them. The fact is that the vast majority of people that buy the PS3 are gamers and probably did not purchase the gaming console for high def movies.

If you looked at the data of only stand-alone players, I think you would see that HD-DVD has a HUGE advantage over Sony's Blu-Ray but since they are including the number of PS3 units being sold and counting them as Blu-Ray players, it is distorting the reality.




<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eagle33199 @ Jul 27 2007, 03:02 PM) [snapback]486264[/snapback]</div>

 

My prediction?

Both Blu Ray and HD DVD will fade out into obsolescense as consumers buy and rent their movies online. I think it's inevitable that the movie industry will go the same way as the music industry, with digital downloads emerging as the king in the long run.

Seriously, who buys CD's anymore? Maybe my grandma, but for the younger generation, iPods win out over CD changers. In fact, I haven't ever used my 5-disc CD changer in my Prius after 3 months of driving.

Granted there are a few things that need to happen before physical movie media gets buried: a player has to arrive with wide selection at reasonable prices, they must be able to have an inexpensive rental service with the latest movies, and home NAS should get a little better for storage, but Apple TV is actually getting progressively closer to meeting these goals, I think.

That said, I think Blu Ray will be the king for the short term.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eagle33199 @ Jul 27 2007, 02:35 PM) [snapback]486243[/snapback]</div>

True, but it should be remembered that Laserdisc came out before DVD and the same thing was also said about that format. In that instance, the deficiences turned out to be accurate and Laserdisc never became a viable alternative to VHS.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Boulder Bum @ Jul 27 2007, 03:20 PM) [snapback]486281[/snapback]</div>

You missed one thing.. we're going to need a *LOT* more bandwidth. Keeping in mind that a Blu-Ray movie can be over 20GB (I think), that's going to take a long time to transfer on a typical DSL line. And yeah, home storage is going to have to improve a lot.

I do think Eagle's spot on with Blu-Ray winning the format wars tho.. if retailers are dropping support for HD, it's over for HD.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Jonnycat26 @ Jul 27 2007, 02:19 PM) [snapback]486321[/snapback]</div>

If you want true HD-quality video, maybe, but I believe most people would compromise quality for convenience for now. There are services out there today attempting to start down this path. Vongo, for example, offers a movie rental download service that works okay. You choose the movie you want to watch and it starts within a few minutes once it builds up a bit of a buffer. The problem with this service (and similar services) are that the movies are mostly old/bad and, more importantly, they don't have a good interface for getting the movies to your TVs, which is another critical component (few people actually prefer to watch movies on their computer monitor).

I said before that I think Apple is closest to starting the movie download revolution (you can download most Disney movies on iTunes for $15 or less), and I think if Apple had better selection, an up-to-date rental service, better prices (perhaps), and didn't require an HDTV, then Apple TV would fly off the shelves and establish itself as the iPod of movie downloads.

We'll see what the future brings, I guess.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eagle33199 @ Jul 27 2007, 03:44 PM) [snapback]486297[/snapback]</div>

It's not just media formats. The market has a way of shaking out any new product where more than one format is developed. Apple versus PC is a prime example. While I've never had one, I accept that Apple has always had a better OS. But PC, although not as good, was a lower-priced, more widely accepted and supported product, and now overwhelmingly commands the lion's share of the market. The keys are what price, availability, and features the majority of consumers decide are the most acceptable and will eventually purchase, en masse.

Right now, in the latest media format competition, it seems like Blu-ray is starting to win the battle on those fronts and is the leading contender to eventually replace DVDs. Although, as someone else mentioned, the point might be moot. The apparent demise of CDs would seem to signal a harbringer of downloading not only music, but also movies directly to home media storage, as the eventual replacement for the normal purchase of any recorded media.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Boulder Bum @ Jul 27 2007, 04:50 PM) [snapback]486334[/snapback]</div>

This is true for CDs also, and you have declared where you stand on that. MP3s are of considerably lower audio quality than CDs, and even CDs have their problems with phase shift, due to the high order filters needed to make up for the low bandwidth of the format. I listen to both, and both have their purpose. I suspect the same is true with video. Some people will always go with convenience, others only with quality, while most will bounce around in between depending on circumstances.

Tom

 

No thanks, standard DVDs look great to me, even on my new Toshiba 37" LCD with built-in DVD player. I won't be buying any more toys for a few years and I don't feel like I need to have more resolution than a standard DVD which looks excellent to me.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(good4you @ Jul 27 2007, 11:55 AM) [snapback]486130[/snapback]</div>

DISNEY is ONLY BLU-RAY, so yeah, that is why they only sell them at the (not owned by Disney anymore, BTW), store.

I have both players. Stupid little war was not going to stop me from enjoying movies. BD is far better then HD-DVD, in every area, but one: Menus. HD-DVD tends to make theirs more 'user' friendly, IMHO.


I think that BLU-RAY will win. Just a matter of time.