The Future Belongs to Blu-ray
Mon Jan 7, 2008 4:56PM EST
See Comments (20)
I'm not usually into calling elections early, but if you heard the buzz on the CES show floor, then you'd know the bell is tolling for HD DVD. The first death blow came the other day when Warner Brothers decided to bail on supporting both formats and declared its Blu-ray support. The scuttlebutt I hear is that Universal will be following suit shortly. Seems that the initial contracts many vendors signed with HD DVD are coming up for renewal, or not.
Here in Vegas, the HD DVD press conference was cancelled on very short notice. Toshiba issued a press release saying this was a setback but that it did not mean defeat.
Reuters covered the Toshiba statements at a press conference held on Sunday evening.
The happiest people on the show floor are probably the retailers because they finally have an inkling about which products to stock—both players and movies. The second happiest group are consumers, because not only do they know what to buy, but the prices have fallen to new lows because of the competitive arena.
If you've been sitting on the fence about Blu-ray and HD DVD, I think jumping is pretty safe now. On the other hand, if you're like me, you might just want to skip the whole thing and download your movies via the 'net. More on that later.
Top 5 Posts
More About Home Video
Comments on The Future Belongs to Blu-ray
Post a Comment
Join in the discussion. Here you'll see the comments in the order they were posted.
-
7 Posted by adrianclay81882003 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:46PM EDT Report Abuse
I'm not too suprised to hear that Blu-Ray has overtaken HD-DVD. I think that Blu-Ray's success comes from the Playstation 3 without a doubt. Every Playstation 3 that's sold is another Blu-Ray player sold. There were 1.2 millon PS3's sold from Black Friday all the way to Dec. 31st 2007 in the United States, so that's 1.2 million Blu-Ray players sold in just a little over one month. And that number of PS3's sold from Black Friday all the way to the end of 2007 doesn't even include the number of Playstation 3's sold in Europe or anywhere else in the world. If Microsoft had HD-DVD built into the Xbox 360 from the beginning, and used HD-DVD for it's games, the format war may be more in favor towards HD-DVD, but Microsoft didn't want to take the risk that Sony did with the HD formats, and the risk that Sony took paid off. And for people that think that the PS3 has nothing to do with Blu-Ray DVD's success, how many people do you really think would have purchased just a stand alone Blu-Ray player? Not that many people. Because of the Playstation 3 and it's Blu-Ray capabilities, it opened the door for Blu-Ray a lot wider than for HD-DVD. If the Playstation 3 didn't have Blu-Ray, I probably would have never purchased a stand alone Blu-Ray player unless all DVD's were released in Blu-Ray or if standard DVD technology was phased out for good. I'm just glad to see that Blu-Ray has pretty much secured victory because so many people were doubting Sony for Blu-Ray and installing it on the Playstation 3. Blu-Ray is the better format anyways because it can hold more data (50GB), and movie companies can put more content on fewer discs.
-
8 Posted by h22a_4 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:15PM EDT Report Abuse
If you dont think BluRay/HD-DVDs is not a significant leap forward visually (as well as audibly), do you even own a hi-def TV?
-
9 Posted by crunchywyte on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:31PM EDT Report Abuse
@sam52054 First off the Indiana Jones movies will never come out on HDDVD, and they are Paramount not Universal. Steven Spielberg directed them and has all authority over how they are released and he supports blu-ray, so nice try.
-
10 Posted by ssbnssnvet on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:38PM EDT Report Abuse
Now I can purchase in peace. The Beta Max war is over..VHS it is !! ohhh wait...
-
11 Posted by mark60187 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:07PM EDT Report Abuse
They screwed us with this one, wonder how many months before Christmas they knew they were going to do this. I have a Blue Ray and an HD and like the HD better. Still cant get the last Pirates to play even with the software updates as happened with the Silver Surfer and the prior Pirate release on Blue Ray. Never going to buy a PS3 when 360 kicks it.
-
12 Posted by logank1469 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:55PM EDT Report Abuse
Does anybody even realize the main reason HD/BR is being pushed is to keep people from pirating movies.
-
13 Posted by tsxnavi on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:23PM EDT Report Abuse
Not a big difference from DVD to blu-ray/hd is crazy! Blu-Ray is gorgeous especially on my 50" Sony SXRD. I have PS3 and agree would definitely not have bought a blu-ray player but own 20 movies because of PS3. I have no problem playing Pirates 3 on PS3 or Return to House on Haunted Hill which has the features where you can select which route the character will take in the movie. The movie box said only the new version blu-ray will play the movie and I had no problems. Read some magazines and the only reason X Box 360 is running better than PS3 is because they are familair with X Box. Give the game manufactors a year to learn how to program PS3 and the games are going to blow X Box out of the water. PS3 Games are barely tapping its potential.
-
14 Posted by hocketime on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:19PM EDT Report Abuse
SONY WON GET OVER IT AND BY A PS3.STOP ILLEGAL IMAGRATION
-
15 Posted by matt_luna2000 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:11PM EDT Report Abuse
SONY-FOR-LIFE!!!!
-
16 Posted by zunyo1 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 11:02PM EDT Report Abuse
I heard God endorses BluRay, that's good enuff 4 me; I also heard 1080p HDTV's throughout Heaven; I hope the Rapture comes soon....
-
17 Posted by jasonuga311 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:29PM EDT Report Abuse
Both here.... but by the same token. I don't think anyone who bought into HD-DVD is Screwed. Based on the investment it takes the Player is chump. You need a Good 7.1, Good Speakers, Good 1080p, and Good Cables to get the best out of either format. Not that I'm against bargain shopping or alternative brands.... but If you don't have $5000 invested in your Picture and Sound by the time it's done then you aren't going to get the best out of the HD technology anyway. So in the end a $500 player is a wash. And either way.... you still have the player and the movies to watch. I don't care which way it goes.... I bought both and built a movie Library with each format based on movies I'll watch over and over through the course of time. If HD-DVD fails then so what.... maybe I can bag a box full of movies for like $1 each or something. I personally like the menu and feature access of the HD-DVD format the best. Both look and sound great. Just a title/studio preference now. Like before.... if you can't afford both players and movies then you probably shouldn't be jumping into the Format war anyway.
-
18 Posted by mahler12x on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:03PM EDT Report Abuse
Thank God this is finally being put to rest. I don't have either player but I can tell you, Blu-Ray has done a phenomenal marketing job. If you go to Best Buy and look at their respective displays, HD-DVD looks pretty pathetic in comparison. Blu-Ray just seems so much more attractive.
-
19 Posted by wwicks333 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:51PM EDT Report Abuse
HighVisionVideo.com is a great souce for excellent Plasmas and flat screens...
-
20 Posted by wwicks333 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:51PM EDT Report Abuse
Well I love my new blue ray player from AVisionPro.com Nice with all the screen options too!
Sponsored Links
My Tech
Please enable your browser's cookies to activate the My Tech column.
Also on Yahoo! Tech
| Computers | Home Office | Wi-Fi & Networking | Phones & PDAs | Cameras & Camcorders | TV & Home Theater | Portable Audio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
6 Posted by mushrooomx on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:30PM EDT Report Abuse
I do not think this is good news. Sony is not exactly the most consumer friendly company in the world. If they dominate this medium you can expect to eventually pay more and more for HD feeds. For example, their take on CD rights is that when you buy one, you rent the right to use the music from the CD itself only, not copied onto an MP3 nor your own CD copies. They do not seem to think much about consumer rights either. Look at the spyware rootkit they placed on CDs that secretly loaded onto your computer so they could observe your activities. This is not good news for consumers...